3.3 To Kill a God

[St.Drewcifer]

Time passes…

Thule rebuilds his Kingdom, Anna Linda gives birth to the new heir to the throne, whom they call Amon in reverent memory of Thules younger brother who was killed at the cruel hands of Dra-Goth during the Darkness.  The land slowly recovers, crops are harvested, babies are born and the sun rises anew every day. 

Things are nearly back to normal, the Gateway to Hell which was a concern some time ago, seems to have become dormant, and the party which went to confront Anshar, what did happen to them?  Though they have been thought dead the memories and stories of their heroism grow each day.

In a shimmering light and a stench of Brimstone seven prone bodies lay in front of Thule in his Palace, only the Elf, Brin, is on his feet.  He looks Thule in the eye and whispers “it is done,” before sinking to his knees and letting go of his blood caked sword and then collapses next to his fallen comrades, in a state of exhaustion.

Thule looks aghast at the state of his colleagues he had asked to help him; he quickly summons help to look after these fallen heroes.  Several of them have withered limbs; Brock is missing part of his face.  Dancing bear has the withered legs of a deer but is still alive.  The Castle healers and physicians put their every effort into restoring life and limb back to these mighty heroes.  Days pass before even Brin can wake long enough to mutter a few words.  Over the next several weeks their strength is slowly restored and they relate their events over the intervening two years in this realm.

Their tale of confronting Anshar and their guide Grimms, who turned out to be Cometheus, is valiant, but disturbing on hearing the news that Cometheus once more seemed to be the instigator of events.  This coupled with disturbing dreams the party were having and news from around the land that there were people who could not be woken from their sleep, points to more trouble afoot.

Once enough members of the party had regained sufficient strength Thule calls on them for another service, to investigate this matter and bring it to an end.  He offers us a choice, whether we are to pursue the matter, which will likely mean facing down Cometheus once and for all, or to ask others to do this.  We are unanimous in our decision to tackle the Titan and stop him from haunting our memories and cursing this land.  Brock has not recovered from his terrible facial injuries to assist us and looks strange without half a beard, likewise Dancing Bear still has the legs of a deer, although the healers have been able to reverse the withering that had occurred and are quite confident that they can get the legs back to human form.

We find that a man named Merrick has been studying dreams since the passing of the Shadowsveil.  He had been curious at the connection between man and dream.  At his cottage/infirmary, which lies to the West of Castle Caltreen, he has continued these studies and has also been looking into the new victims of the sleeping plague.  We opt to be teleported nearby and walk the remaining couple of miles to his location. 

Suddenly three Demons swoop down out of the sky as simultaneously six earth elemental type creature rise up out of the ground to attack us – it would seem that we are still on Graz’zts hit list and he has not forgotten us at all. Holes open up in the ground below us and trap Caerlith and Matrix inside as a stone slab seals them in, Brin similarly is in a hole with an elemental creature, by dodging its blow and leaping off its body, the lithe elf affects an escape. Wack starts drifting listlessly on the wind and Crow and Ditch are in the thick of the fight.  Just before the stone slab turns to mud, Matrix and Caerlith escape by using a dimensional fold, Caerliths intelligent sword warns him that something is trying to destroy it.

Several minutes pass by with the party heavily pressed, all of a sudden Ditch falls to the ground after inflicting massive damage onto one of the elemental creatures, then Caerliths sword is no longer, it just disintegrates, soon to be followed by his magic cloak and several other magic items carried by the party, not the least the wings sported by Matrix.  Wack is also knocked unconscious and the party decides it’s time to get out of there, they gather up their fallen comrades and flee through a dimensional fold.  Once safely inside Thules family crypt, which they know is warded against magic, it would seem that some creature has come through the portal with us as our magic is continuing to be drained.  Using a spell Matrix discovers a powder on some of us that moves around and devours magical energy, Caerlith volunteers to be washed in fire to try and remove it after water does not seem to work, finally electrical energy kills it off.

We restore life to Ditch and head back to Caltreen much to the surprise of Thule.  The next time we teleport just next to Merrick’s house and quickly go inside.  There are eight slumbering people inside, who Merrick has been trying unsuccessfully to rouse form their slumbers.  Wack shows an interest and tries more drastic measure which are endorsed by Merrick, alas nothing seems to work.  We settle down to a hot meal and sleep at the Doctors house.

Some time during the night Matrix is assailed by a fearful dream where he was being abducted and Cometheus’ minions waited in ambush.  As Zeus reached in to pull Matrix to safety, Cometheus cursed at Zeus telling him to leave his business alone that Matrix was one of his Time workers now, an idea man.  Without waiting though Matrix takes Zeus’ hand and flees the area.  While drifting to safety Cometheus yells to him “I will get you I will get all of you, and I have all the time in the world to do it too.”  Merrick think Cometheus may be using the sleepers to work ideas through.  Since a dreamer can be whomever he wishes, and dreams take but a moment to go through Cometheus could have an army of sleepers working on all types of different versions of the same or similar idea, to see which works best.

We warn Merrick that he should move all his patients and with our assistance get them back to Caltreen, upon reaching there we hear the terrible news that Anna Linda has succumbed to the deep sleep.  Herald tells us of a way to force time to move forward so Cometheus can’t use time against us.  He doesn’t know where this amulet is, though that is soon made clearer as Graz’tz offers it to us for a price. Plans are drawn up and we travel to Tole on the Southern peninsula to search out more help from a man named Yair for a safer way to get to Graz’zt layer on the Abyss.  Before we reach the town we are assaulted by a Githyanki war band.  Battle commences and it is not long before Crow loses his head, Matrix immediately casts a spell which reverses the actions of the creature that killed Crow and miraculously Crow stands once more….