The villagers fled outside the church, terrified by the horrors erupting from the portal inside, but once outside, they huddled against the church door, equally fearful of the darkness and fog encroaching on the village.
“There is smoke in the bell tower!” shouted Mayor Ivan Drago. “We’ll hold off anything here, but get up there and extinguish the fire!” This was directed at the band. “ I guess we’re also the fire brigade now,” shrugged Aldi, giving a wide, toothy grin.
Just then, several loud sharp cracks, like an axe through dry branches, were heard in the creeping mist, and a spray of bones burst from the fog and clattered against the cathedral's edifice, landing in the snow. The villagers screamed in alarm, and the band eyed the darkening fog with wild surmise.
A terrifying figure appeared slowly through the swirling mist and advanced towards the church, backlit by the snow-reflected moonlight. The villagers clutched each other in fear. However, as the figure advanced, the warm light emitting from villagers' torchlight revealed a heavily armored dwarf, armed to the teeth, advancing towards the church. The dwarf was, almost singularly for his species, beardless, and although his long, pale hair hung past his shoulders, his pate was bald, and his skin was grey pallor. As he stepped fully into the light, his icy silver eyes shone as he bellowed to all assembled, “Me name’s Nick fooking Beardless, and I’m here to drink ale, sing songs, and have a fooking fight, but there’s no ale, and I can’t fooking sing!”
None of the band had ever seen a dwarf like this, but Scomitch seemed unfazed, “You seem to be a resourceful fellow, by gum. We’re all charging up the bell tower, probably to our certain doom, what what, but you look to be a doughty fellow, so come along if you please.” Nick shrugged. The band assumed this signaled his agreement and turned to the church door.
Climbing the bell tower, the band met an acolyte on her way down. Her hair and clothes were singed, and she claimed that devils were burning the bell tower. She looked pleadingly into the eyes of the band, “It’s because I didn’t ring the bells right to call the dawn, right?” she asked. The band was confused, but Wynter said, “That’s probably not it, but get downstairs and stay with the others.” The band proceeded up the tower.
The group found the main stairway up the bell tower and began to climb. As they emerged into the tower's interior, they saw a tiny, winged creature wreathed in flame, lighting the support and cross beams of the tower on fire. Far above the band, another light shone through the smoke, likely another fire-creature near the top of the belfry.
Scomitch was the first to act and hurled his spear at the fire creature, but the tiny creature leaped away. Aldi struck the creature with a magic mote of light, causing it to yelp in pain and anger. Ary loosed an arrow from his longbow, striking the fire-thing, and Wynter fired a sling stone but missed. The horrible creature grinned at the band, gloating as it spread its flames on the beams of the tower, but its toothy grin was erased when Fortissimo the owl flew into the creature’s face, hooting to the chorus of the 1970’s American glam-metal band Kiss’ mega-hit “I Was Made For Loving You.” Nick raised his crossbow and, taking advantage of the fire-creatures’ confusion, nailed the flamer with a bolt, causing it to die in a fountain of colorful pyrotechnic sparks.
The band continued to climb the tower and soon saw another fire mephit, wreaking mayhem and starting fires. Wynter fired her sling with success. Ary’s longbow missed, as did Nick’s crossbow. The creature then unleashed a gout of flame on Nick, who managed to duck the worst of it, but Aldi caught the brunt of the flames and collapsed on the stairs. Scomitch leaped to the fallen dragonborn, healing the fire damage. Aldi rose to his feet and fired another starry whisper but missed. Once again, a screech pierced the air as Fortissimo swooped in toward the fire- creature, a terrifying mass of wings and talons and catchy metal song hooks. The distracted mephit was then hit with Wynter’s poison spray, but the creature shook off the effect protected by its flaming aura. Finally, Ary loosed an arrow into the creature, causing its fire to extinguish as it disappeared.
The band climbed to the next level of the tower to the belfry. Three cackling goblins were at work, gleefully attempting to slice through the four heavy ropes that suspended the cathedral's bells. It was clear that if the enormous bells were to drop, they would destroy the tower structure and cause massive damage to the church below. Wynter and Ary noticed that the goblins bore the same insignia as the goblin hordes from Iuz that had driven their people from their forest decades earlier: a rooster in red and black bearing an arrow.
“Oh dear, this is a rather rummy development, I must say,” said Scomitch, but even as the artificer spoke, the grinning goblin finished slicing through one of the ropes that suspended the bells, causing them to sway. The remaining supports groaned under the strain. Two of the three goblins leaped towards Wynter, who had inexplicably charged ahead of the band up the stairs, and she was struck with one of the goblin’s knives. Ary wanted to put an arrow into the goblin, still slicing the bell supports. Still, seeing that the other goblins were outnumbering Wynter, he took a couple of steps back and leaped over the railing and across the corner to the balcony behind the goblins attacking Wynter. Ary’s scimitars dispatched one of the goblins. Scomitch intoned a cantrip, raised his crossbow, and fired at the goblin, slicing support ropes, but the monster did not fall.
“I guess I have to do this meself,” sighed Nick. On the tower stairs just beneath the belfry, the dwarf leaped, grabbed the railing, hauled himself onto the catwalk next to the last goblin sabotaging the ropes, and loomed over the creature with his axe in hand. Aldi fired another starry wisp, and Wynter used her dagger to put down the goblin before her. Ary ended the last goblin with an arrow, and the creature fell over the railing with a scream.
From the top of the bell tower, the band could see the village below and beyond, but all was blanketed in a thick fog, which had inexplicably not been burned off by the new dawn. Peering to the horizon, the dawn of the twin suns appeared unnatural and distorted. Across the face of the fire sun, Scomatch bands of darkness radiated as if spidery legs of shadow were covering the fire sun. The light weakened light of Scomatch allowed a false night to persist in the town. And despite the rise of the fire-sun, the air became colder as the ice-sun, Thunderfire, became dominant. The ritual had somehow failed, and the promise of dawn and the renewal of light was replaced with a perpetual twilight of despair and fear.
Just then, screams of fear and cries of pain ring out from down below.
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