“I need a breather!” Scomatch called out.
The group followed Kai as he rounded the cavern bend in the Elemental Plane of Air. The area was blasted clean, and the rocks were worn smooth as winds battered them mercilessly. If anything, the air current intensified with every step. Kildo shielded his eyes as tears were blown away. Their pace slowed, but not their resolve. Spells were spent, wounds unattended, and strength waned, but they were determined to ensure Aerisi Kalinoth didn’t face Thurl Merroska alone.
Rounding a bend, in the distance, a massive area opened. In the center was a rock grotto with three gigantic rock formations, like a closing, clawed hand emerging from the ground. Between the three talons, a massive grey thundercloud had formed. Its mass churned angrily. Hot bolts of lightning flashed within. A mouth-like opening formed as a tempest bellowed forth and the source of the vortex.
Guarding the entrance were two plated figures. The azure blue armor had a rounded full helm. Spiked, curved shoulders and greaves accompanied and sat perfectly around the breastplate, a single, large piece of elaborately designed metal. However, no straps or anything would indicate how it would attach to a body. As the guard turned, the answer was revealed. It was empty, except for a raging churning tornado that spun within the armor and filled the plate suit. They were armed with a long-chained flail that sprouted a wickedly spiked ball at the end. A hollow howl of rage emitted from within their helms at the party’s presence.
Near the edge of the three-talon stone monument stood a tall and well-built man in his fifties with greying-dark hair parted in the middle. He wore heavy armor with a two-handed sword sheathed at his side. It was Thurl Merroska. Turning at his guard’s alarm, he said, “Oh, you made it—horrible time as always, but no matter. The ritual is nearly complete. Myrmidons, hold them off.” The Feathergale Society leader then pulled an elaborate dagger from his belt and looked down. On the ground was a crumpled figure, and by the appearance was a winged female. It was Aerisi Kalinoth.
A chromatic orb sailed into the air. It slowed as it traveled, but it still had the desired effect. Acid exploded across the front of one of the myrmidons. The wind helped spread Scomatch’s corrosive toxins.
Kai forced his way forward, striking the sizzling-plated air creature twice with Wave.
However, Guo Gan had more trouble as he pressed forward. The winds blew his robes out to their fullest, like a parachute, and hampered him from engaging the elementals. Pulling two daggers, he flung them, but the lighter weapons path was slowed and bounced off the myrmidon’s plate armor.
“Life is death! Death is rebirth! Rebirth is life! Let’s fight!” Kildo shouted, but his words were shredded in the wind. However, Rigga, the Earthmother, heard his calling. Kai, Guo Gan, and Scomatch glowed briefly as he cast, Bless. The dwarven cleric also summoned a spiritual weapon. A spectral blue war hammer appeared next to Thurl Merroska. It smashed into the cultist leader. It knocked him forward, interrupting his ritual casting.
A molt of fire from Scomatch flew towards Merroska, but the hurricane-like winds blew the fire bolt out before reaching its target.
Kai charged, realizing they had to stop the cult leader from sacrificing Aerisi Kalinoth and summoning his being to replace the dead god Nusen, the Dark One. One of the air elementals whipped his flail at the passing paladin, but he went into a roll and was back on his feet. He thrust Wave. The three prongs smashed into the side of Merroska. The force knocked him away.
Following the triton, Guo Gan darted past the air myrmidons. The monk went into a series of precision punches and kicks, all landing on the plated cultist. His armor protected the cult leader’s pressure points. However, a well-placed roundhouse kick smashed into Merroska’s throat. His windpipe was crushed. His eyes went wide as he stumbled back and forth, trying to draw breath. Falling to his knees, he raised his arms as if saying, “Woe is me that these adventures have ruined my plans,” he gasped a final breath and fell over dead.
Behind them was a wailing howl as the two air elemental myrmidons forms unraveled and dissipated. Their now empty armor crashed to the ground.
The rest of the party converged on the clawed-shaped platform. Kildo and Scomatch moved over to the body of Merroska. The dead cultist leader’s eyes were wide open in terror. The halfling mage began turning out the cultist’s pockets.
“Found it!” Scomatch exclaimed as he held a glowing blue gem in his hands. His extra thick digits closed around it, shutting off its light.
Kildo stepped to the ritual dagger that lay nearby on part of Merroska’s cloak. It was relatively long, slim, barbed, and made of highly polished steel. The blade itself was bare, with no decorations of any sort on it. It had a grip like dragon scales with a curved horn guard. Sharp, it had a dual-edge and hollow in the middle, which gave it a fang-like appearance.
“I’ll take that too,” Scomatch said as he snatched the dagger.
Returning to the rest of the group, Aerisi Kalinoth’s chest rose and fell. She was still alive but unconscious.
Guo Gan pulled a healing potion and helped the winged, elven woman sip.
Her eyes snapped open. She sat up. The constant wind continued to wail, and her words were almost lost as she bellowed, “You have to stop him!”
“What’s that!” Gua Gan asked over the gale-force winds. Pointing upwards to the massive cloud formation in the middle of the three stone talons. “It’s hard to hear you from that thing!”
“You mean the portal!”
“Can we close this portal!” Guo Gan said over the incessant howl.
“Of course! We need an intelligent and sentient weapon,” Aerisi said and scanned the area and stopped on Scomatch. “That dagger will do! Just throw it at the portal!”
Kildo asked, “Will it be destroying that weapon!”
“Yes!”
As the party discussed, Scomatch held onto the dagger. He stared at it as a voice, as if spoken over a great distance, was heard in his mind. “I sense great power in you, halfling. Together we will usher in a new god of evil. Nusen is dead, and we can become the absolute power in the cosmos. Our supremacy will be unchallenged. Our destiny is to rule over all others, and I will help you to gain that power. Attune to me, and we will rise and begin our great conquest.”
“Yes, I will be the stopper of wind, summoner of fire, giver of acid, and stomper of thunder,” Scomatch said.
Scoffing in mirth, the sentient dagger snapped, “Acid? That’s a baby spell-“
“What the F!?” The sentient dagger was cut off as Scomatch threw the weapon end-over-end straight and true toward the portal. It picked up speed with force far surpassing what the halfling could manage. The dagger flew as if being drawn by a magnet. Striking, the clouds parted and revealed a shadowy entity beyond. The blade plunged into it. The winds stopped as the portal dissipated. A voice spoke, but whether it was from the sentient dagger or the entity was unclear. Faint, its sound drifted on the wind saying, “Super weak!”
“I can’t believe he was going to sacrifice me. The audacity of that man. How gauche. Did he have the blue gem?” Aerisi asked.
“Nope,” Scomatch quickly replied.
“Odd. I wonder why he thought he could complete the ritual,” Aerisi said. “Without it, you wouldn’t be able to summon the new god of evil.”
“You don’t want to summon a new god of evil, do you?” Scomatch asked.
“Of course we do. It’s essential. If we don’t, the ramifications would tear this plane asunder, the world destroyed,” Aerisi explained. “It doesn’t matter though. We couldn’t even if we wanted to. We don’t have the blue gem.”
“So…who do you recommend,” Scomatch asked.
“A minor demon of pestilence, Sothan Tirgrac. Summoning and making him the god of evil would be preferable, as he’d be a weaker god and less likely to take over,” Aerisi replied.
Kai cleared his throat loudly. “So, you’re willing to unleash covid on the world?”
“Yes, but we’d take precautions. We’d tell everyone to stay home for two weeks and wear masks,” Aerisi said.
“That’s grand and all until his followers decide they don’t want to wear masks,” Kai explained.
Waving off the paladin, Aerisi scoffed, saying, “Oh, that’ll never happen. That would be stupid.”
“Yeah? Humans are stupid.”
Kildo asked, “So, to be clear. What we be needing to summon a new god of evil?”
“Just a few items. The blue gem, a sentient weapon that acts as the key to the portal, and you have to sacrifice someone with that weapon—the more important the person, the better. Then the weapon will be consumed in the process, inviting the god or goddess to take Nusen’s place,” Aerisi informed.
“So, you don’t be needing a physical key?” Kildo asked.
“What are these physical keys you are referring to?”
Kildo removed his hat of holding and reached in further than the hat’s physical length. Fumbling for a moment in the magical storage device, he pulled out a ring of keys. Each had a different color, brown, yellow, red, green, blue, black, and purple.
Examining them closer, Aerisi said, “This looks like the keys used when the leaders attend the council meetings.”
“What meetings?” Guo Gan questioned.
“The dark council meetings. I wonder if these keys unlock the other member’s doors,” Aerisi pondered.
“Aerisi, where be this dark council meeting chamber?” Kildo asked.
“There’s a portal on top of the sky island I teleported us to when we began our assault on the Spiral. The portals there would lead you straight into their dark council’s meeting room.”
Treasure:
· Welcome to 10th Level!
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