Update #36: The Priestess of Blackstone
The bare, dark stone greets her as she emerges from her cell, as familiar as the daily ritual of preparation and prayer. If only it could be as comforting. The dull metal sound of her greaves on the heavy stone echo in the broken church as she strides to the crumbling altar, bowing in prayer. Daylight is faint so deep in the City of Towers, doing little to illuminate the darkness of Blackstone Church. It is the solid core of her faith that provides her with illumination, the tenants and teachings of Dol Arrah and the clear certainty of a vision never forgotten.
Footfalls and voices break the peace of her prayers. She rises and wheels, alert for danger, no stranger to her even here in her refugee amidst the suffering of Fallen. The six people who walk through the arched entry of Blackstone are an unusual sight and inwardly she glowers. Jailors, gangs, city officials and mercenaries all desire terrible things from Fallen, and this group has the look of just such n outfit. Her expression remains placid as she greets them, “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” one of them steps forward. He is dressed in an over-sized cloak and crudely applied smudges do not hide his well-manicured features. Her suspicions deepen. “Are you Sasha Larkana?”
“I am. May I ask what brings you to Blackstone?”
“We are the faithful!” The figure that answers has every look of a Raver, thoug he is betraying none of their mannerisms. His answer draws an elbow from the one who responded to her greeting, who hastily introduces the group.
“My name is Ruel Dunnanne. Piety itself here is Dox, and these are Loki, Elisa, Alexandre and Audric,” Ruel introduces the disguised Dox and the rest of the Irregulars with an encompassing gesture. “We are looking to retrieve stolen property which we have reason to believe can be found here, in Fallen.”
Sasha considers this, “What reason do you have to suspect that these stolen items may be found here?”
Ruel gestures to Dox, “We found a body at the scene of the theft, which looked exactly as Dox here does now.”
Sasha strides forward, approaching them. She looks carefully at Dox, studying his guise. “Your… impersonation is quite flawless, though you act nothing like a Raver.”
“Thanks!” Dox beams. “How should a Raver act?”
“Violent and insane, of course,” she answers sharply. She looks closely at the Irregulars once more, “Are you new to Sharn?” She reaches for Dox’s hand, lifting it to study the tattoo on his palm.
“We’ve only been here a little while,” Dox nods. “I studied that tattoo closely, does it mean anything?”
Sasha hesitates, “You are aware that Ravers do not leave Fallen? That a Raver taking interest in anything outside this district is unheard of?”
“Well, first time for everything right?” Dox replies.
Sasha releases his hand, looking between Ruel and Dox once more, “What are your true intentions here?”
“The retrieval of the stolen property, nothing more. I witnessed the scene of the theft myself; it was done without any forced entry, without disturbing any of a series of wards and alarms, as well as without alerting any of the residence’s guards. All that was left was one body. It was not even apparent what killed him. We have no other lead to follow.”
Sasha studies Ruel’s earnest expression before answering, “What was stolen, exactly?”
“A piece of a statue, a marble arm,” Elisa produces the sketch from Ermineth that details the arm. Sasha examines it momentarily. “The tattoo is that of the Stone Keepers,” she says at last. “I will admit I have seen members of the Stone Keepers gathering up bits and pieces of sculpture in Fallen. I would consider it harmless, but if they have extended this activity outside of Fallen… that is not the kind of attention I would wish drawn to this district.”
Audric clears his throat, “Can you tell us where we can find these ‘Stone Keepers?’”
Sasha folds her arms, “I will do so. Further, I will lead you to where they make their home, at least, if they have not been driven out by another gang or moved on of their own accord, if you will make me a promise.” She looks each Irregular in the eye, “I ask that you do not bring harm to any of the people here except in self-defense and that you allow me to speak to any Raver group we might encounter before engaging in violence.”
“Our singular goal is the retrieval of the arm,” Ruel smiles. “We would be happy for you to guide us and accept those terms.”
“And all of you so promise?” Sasha looks to the group of Irregulars once more.
All the Irregulars agree, though Elisa adds, “That’s fine, but if I’m attacked, I’m not holding back any.”
Sasha nods, “That is wise, those who are truly beyond reason are fearless and savage beyond any understanding.”
***
The Priestess of Blackstone leads the Irregulars into the depths of The Fallen ruins. Blackstone church itself is mostly in one piece, but the majority of the rest of the district is made up largely of piles of rubble and the bones of buildings; broken stone support columns and a few free standing walls.
Clear paths through the debris are rare, and though Sasha leads them along the best route she knows, the Irregulars are forced to scramble over debris and loose rubble several times. Their progress creates a horrible racket that seems to fill the broken place. Every ear strains for signs of Ravers, and the group halts multiple times at half-imagined sounds of crumbling stone or voices. Sasha does not endure long pauses, however, and keeps the Irregulars moving rather than indulge their paranoia. “Better we keep ourselves a moving target, keep your mind on your footing,” she coaxes.
“Wait! I’m sure I hear… look out!” Dox ducks suddenly as a rock whistles by his head. “Ambush!”
Ruel looks back along the rock’s path, clearly seeing a hunched figure on a fragmented wall above them, then another near by. “Above us!” Ruel warns, as he moves in to the middle of the group of Irregulars, casting swiftly and surrounding himself in the familiar protection of Mage Armor.
A barrage of rocks falls amidst the Irregulars. One skitters across the ground at Elisa’s feet, while another smashes against Loki’s back, crumbling to pieces on his breastplate and drawing an annoyed grunt from the half-giant, “Looks like they have us surrounded.” He frees his greataxe and strides to the base of the stonework below the Raver that pelted him. A massive piece of masonry suddenly breaks off and nearly crushes the half-giant, who looks up to see a Raver gibbering unintelligibly at him. Loki grimaces and begins to clamber up the stonework.
Sasha scans the Raver group quickly, and her experienced eye quickly locates the group’s distinctive markings. “Blood Drinkers! Defend yourselves!” She along with the rest of the Irregulars free their bows and crossbows to return fire, forming a circle which Ruel happily remains in the center of.
Elisa grimaces as her arrow goes wide. “Come on down here!” she yells up at them. Behind her, Dox let’s fly with an arrow that sticks in the Raver above Loki. “Stay up there!” he shouts.
Alexandre and Audric load crossbows, but aside from Dox none of the Irregulars have any luck hitting any of the Ravers. Fortunately, the Ravers have equal bad luck and another volley of rocks patters harmlessly around the clustered Irregulars. Ruel conjures a field of Grease under a Raver, but he keeps his feet and moves higher on the stonework, out of the slippery field.
The Raver above Loki bellows, ripping out Dox’s arrow from his shoulder with a gout of blood. Reaching back to pick up a massive club he swings it two-handed down at Loki. The wild strike hits Loki in the head and there is a sickening crunch as the half-giants face is slammed into the stonework in front of him. Gritting back the pain, Loki hoists himself up and brings his great-axe to bear. His blade tears through the Raver’s unprotected flesh, but he only howls and brings his club back for another violent attack.
More rocks pelt at the Irregulars, one breaking harmlessly on Sasha’s steel armor. She looses an arrow at her attacker, who ducks behind the stonework to avoid being hit.
“Oh, this is pointless!” Elisa shoulders her bow and sprints towards a column with a group of the Ravers on top of it. She leaps up and grabs the lip of the stonework, hoisting herself up in a single smooth motion. The two Ravers kick and lash at her, but she weathers the attacks without harm and frees her greatsword as she steadies herself on the ledge.
“Good idea lass!” Alexandre charges for the base of the stonework and leaps up to grab the lip of it himself. He has a harder time pulling himself up and just barely keeps a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the column. One of the Ravers above hurls a rock at him, and he cringes as it clacks off the stonework by his head. “Give me a mast and rigging above this any day,” he mutters, struggling to find purchase in the rough stone, his feet sliding on the face of the column.
Dox nocks another arrow and looses it at a nearby Raver above them. The arrow bursts into flame in flight, striking the wild man in the gut, he hisses and stumbles but keeps his balance.
Audric and Ruel hurl bolt and magic into the melee between Loki and the Raver, but Audric’s bolt goes wide and Ruel’s Daze cantrip is shrugged off. The Raver’s greatclub arcs down but Loki meets it with the steel of his greataxe, throwing the Raver off-balance. Loki steals the momentum to bring his blade to bear on the Raver’s exposed side. The blow overcomes the wild man and he topples off the stonework, dead before he hits the ground.
A Raver lashes out at Elisa, trying to knock her off the stonework, but slips as he moves across the still active Grease spell, falling to the ground below with a mangled scream. The Raver rises to his feet quickly, screaming in rage. Elisa barely spares the fallen Raver a glance as his partner lurches forward to swing his club two-handed at her. She jerks out of its path, and then shifts forward to bring her blade down, opening a deep gash shoulder to hip. Bone and sinew is visible before blood clouds the terrible wound, yet the Raver does not go down, howling insanely at her. She snarls back and hefts her greatsword to strike again.
Below Sasha drops her bow and quickly frees her longsword, stepping from the knot of Irregulars to engage the fallen Raver. As she approaches a shadow crosses her vision and she swiftly glances upward. A Raver leaps onto Alexandre, still struggling on the stonework, and quickly wraps his arms around his neck, pulling back hard. Alexandre can’t hold on and the Raver twists him around so he is driven face-first into the loose stone and glass. On her opposite side another Raver attempts to climb down, but looses his grip and crashes to the ground, broken glass and jagged stone tearing open his arms and legs.
Dox continues to send arrows into the Ravers above the party, the shaft of his latest arrow bursting from the man’s gut in a cloud of grease. The Raver is injured, but keeps his balance in the sudden slick pool beneath his feet.
Alexandre and the Raver tousle on the ground, but Alexandre is up first, bleeding from dozens of small wounds. He draws his thinblade and skewers the Raver struggling to his feet. Audric charges across the debris and deftly delivers a swift kick to the gut of the rising Raver, drawing another grunt. The Raver lashes out from the ground, but can’t hit either of the agile Irregulars, now flanking him. Ruel casts Web, and the thick clinging tendrils cut off the other fallen Raver from the scattered Irregulars and bind another, completely entangling him. Loki clambers back down the stonework, as all the Ravers within reach have gone to ground.
The Raver before Sasha slams his club under her guard in a violent motion. Her plate armor cushions it from being a fatal blow, but she grimaces as the impact knocks her into the adjacent stone pillar. Her own blade flickers out, drawing a shallow gash in the Raver’s arm.
Elisa whirls away from another clumsy club strike from the Raver she is facing, and her blade arcs back around, separating head from body in a single swipe. She scans the melee below between the Priestess and the Raver, but the Web is preventing her from leaping down into the fight. “Damn wizards,” she mutters, switching back to her bow to pester the remaining Raver, twenty feet above and on another stone structure.
Loki moves towards the fallen Raver, writhing around wildly below Alexandre and Audric. Loki smirks, the Raver is doing more harm to himself on the churned glass than the nimble Irregulars dodging his club. Loki steps forward to deliver a killing blow…
…and the Ravers wild thrashing brings the club around straight for his head. The world explodes in bright painful light for the half-giant, then darkness as he keels over. Alexandre swiftly twists his thinblade into the Raver’s chest then brings his dagger across the man’s neck, ending his life in a quick, merciless slash. “Man down!” he calls out.
The Raver behind the Web shouts incoherently at the Irregulars, but moves around the magical obstruction. Dox looses an arrow at him, but it shatters on the stonework above his shoulder. Ruel clutches his Pearl of Power, conjuring the pool of Grease back between him and the Raver, but the agile barbarian does not falter, and licks blood from his face as he stares down the wizard.
Another rock bounces off the shoulder of her plate mail, but Sasha ignores it. The Raver before her drives his club down in another overhead attack, viciously breaking her guard and pummeling her again. She slashes back, cutting deep wounds, but she grimly realizes the man will not go down in the haze of rage that overtakes the Ravers in battle. She swiftly prays for the strength to weather another attack.
Ruel swallows as the Raver before him crosses his Grease spell with all the difficulty of walking through a puddle. His club is huge and it is all Ruel can do to raise his arms to ward off a strike to his head. The weapon slams into him; but the impact is absorbed, his Mage Armor weathering the strike. The Raver looks confused, and then snarls as an arrow from Dox snaps into his thigh. Ruel doesn’t stick around, swiftly retreating behind other Irregulars.
Alexandre scurries back to dig a potion out from Loki’s backpack while Audric moves beside him and looses a bolt that slams into the rock-tossing Raver’s gut. Despite weathering multiple Grease spells and several missiles from the Irregulars, the Raver meets his end trying to clamber down the stonework after Audric; the rock face crumbles from his grip. He falls hard and does not get up.
Sasha desperately tries to bring her shield between her and the Raver’s clubbing attacks, but he is too fast. Ribs crack and her vision contracts as she struggles with consciousness, but she keeps her feet, staggered. She stumbles back and calls on the healing of her God, casting Cure Moderate Wounds. Her call is answered and bone and flesh are made whole again.
Above Elisa whoops and grins as Sasha steps back, leaving her an opening to attack. She leaps from the edge of the stonework, freeing her greatsword as she falls. She lands carefully on two relatively flat pieces of rock, and it is almost as an afterthought that she extends her sword to balance her fall. The blade finds purchase: in the Raver assailing Sasha. Elisa smirks at Sasha and slides her blade free as the Raver slumps to the ground.
Dox strides forward to the edge of the Web. The last Raver remains tangled inside, struggling furiously in the binding strands of webbing. Carefully he sights an arrow and lets it fly. The arrow lodges through the Raver’s eye and into his brain, killing him in an instant. A moment later, the Web disappears, dismissed with a thought by Ruel.
The Irregulars take a moment to heal, Loki downing two Cure Light Wounds potions, the first administered by Alexandre, the second taken by the half-giant after he retakes his feet. Sasha moves up to Alexandre and Cures him as well. She bends by the dead Raver at his feet and lays a hand on his brow. “May he find peace now,” she whispers.
As the Irregulars spreads out to examine the bodies and retrieve spent arrows and bolts, Sasha calls them back together, “Do not stray! We must press onward, I can see that you are skilled, but we could be attacked again at any moment. It would not go well for any of you if you were caught alone.”
Needing no further encouragement, the Irregulars gather back together and press on through the ruins. Thankfully, they are not attacked again before reaching their destination, ground zero of the destruction of Fallen.
It is an old masonry structure, impaled by a massive glass spire. One half of the building is completely obliterated, nothing more than fractured glass and stone. The other holds the twisted, but mostly whole remains of the upside down glass tower cradled in between cracked stone walls. “Just as when I first laid eyes upon it, just as it was when it fell,” Sasha comments, staring at the fused structure.
“The Stone Keepers are inside?” Audric asks.
“I believe so. As I told you before, most of the Raver groups are… chaotic in the extreme,” she answers. “Yet, I do not believe we will find that this group has been displaced. Let’s go.” She strides forward, and the Irregulars follow her into the fused structure.
Keith Baker gets the credit for the Ravers. 
