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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2823038" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>The Final Battle: Bas</strong></p><p></p><p>If anything, the crater was even more enormous than they expected. Though they could see Bas well before they even entered it (unsurprisingly, given that she was several miles tall,) they decided to first travel the depths of the caverns underneath the crater. For one thing, they wanted to make sure Bas wouldn’t spring any surprise attacks on them during the final battle. However, the area was surprisingly unguarded, as if Bas either knew that any resistance she had left would be a waste on the Heroes or she used up everything she had in the war. Something about that last point bothered the party, but they had bigger concerns and didn’t dwell on it.</p><p></p><p> As they explored the caverns, the sheer depth of madness that Bas and her minions reached became evident. Random artifacts from the dozens of ruins of lost eras that Bas discovered were liberally scattered across the walls, floors, and even ceilings of the caverns, and the party was certain that if they had days to explore, they might actually find the sunken cities or weapons caches or whatever Bas discovered that helped unbalance power so completely. In one cavern, strange machinery similar to the monitors and keyboards the party once saw in the “dungeon” under Dragovigis filled the walls. Cultists of sorts were somehow attached to each of the consoles, and they continued to stare at the screens, seemingly unaware of the party’s presence or the battle that would soon ensue here. Another cavern was dominated by a huge pit containing nothing but corpses. Some were more cult members, as the robes suggest, leading the party to conclude that these were killed by Bas for disloyalty, failure, or just as sacrifices. Other bodies were more ambiguous, and some were not human or even remotely humanoid, suggesting that they were some more relics from the lost eras. Whether the Bas cultists simply gathered the bodies or if there were actual survivors of the eras that the cultists killed to steal their artifacts is unknown.</p><p></p><p> Finally, the party reached Bas. If she was terrifying from a distance, she was the stuff of nightmares up close. Only the upper half of her body was fully excavated, but the party couldn’t really see what exactly happed to her lower half, because the entire floor of the crater was covered with strange, organic root/tentacle protrusions that apparently have an origin at Bas herself! Most of the tentacles were somehow connected to and feeding dangling fruit/egg sacs that were partially translucent, revealing shadows of dark and unnatural creatures growing inside them. The upper half of Bas was moving slightly, as if she was suffering from a continuous and minor spasm, but whether she was even truly alive was unknown. Parts of her body were deteriorated, revealing bones and strange, alien organs, but she also seemed to be breathing slightly. Like her caverns, Bas herself was altered by the excavated relics. One of her gigantic arms was replaced with a claw-like mechanical monstrosity that was apparently cobbled together out of dozens of smaller machines from different era. Crystals of a likely psionic nature were haphazardly spread throughout her body. Some of it look like it was carefully-placed jewelry normally intended for much, much smaller, creatures. Others crystals, however, were simply imbedded in her flesh at various points, making it resemble shrapnel.</p><p></p><p> Much as they instinctively regretted it, the party began their journey to Bas. The ones who were lucky enough to fly did so, while others who couldn’t fly continuously and didn’t want to waste resources too early began a long and disgusting journey on top of the tentacles themselves. Finally, when the party came within a couple hundred feet of Bas, she finally opened her eyes and stared directly at the party.</p><p></p><p> You still insist on doing this? Bas asked them telepathically, perhaps surprisingly. It was nowhere near as formal or, well, villainous a reply as the party expected. It was almost pleading. We don’t have to.</p><p></p><p> Tal replied, with more patience then he thought he could muster, I think we have to at this point. You did attack us and threatened our civilization. Even if we left you alone, I think it would come to war again.</p><p></p><p> Bas angrily replied, I saved your civilization. Until I started, you were fighting a losing war against two empires, empires that are now dead, I might add. I deserve to rule over this world! I not only saved it, but I earned it after what my sisters put me through. They deserve being my servants. They’re the ones that should be listening to me!</p><p></p><p> Bath was the one to get angry next. They were justified in casting your out. You betrayed them and raised armies against them! You were lucky they let you live.</p><p></p><p> No, I had no choice, Bas retorted with a surprising sadness in her voice. Even then, they wouldn’t let me do anything! Everyone else had their roles and gifts that they bestowed upon the world, and I had nothing! I finally give them the gift of war, and they treat it like a curse! It’s just not fair. It’s not fair…</p><p></p><p> If it was possible to sob telepathically, the party was almost certainly that she would be. They come to the horrific realization about Bas as one: As evil and murderous as she was, Bas was no great ambitious villain; no conniving schemer with endless plans and a twisted amoral view of the world. She was just a spoiled, incredibly angry little girl expanded to horrifying divine levels. But she must be stopped all the same.</p><p></p><p> The time for talking was over, and both sides knew it. The party had made their preparations shortly before they reached Bas, so they were ready immediately to attack. At this point, everyone in the party wisely gained the ability to fly, so they got as far away from the tentacle floor as possible as they closed in with Bas. However, it wasn’t enough. The tentacles had incredible range and lashed out at the entire party as they began their attack. Most of the party was merely cut by the thorny tips of the tentacles, but Danae was entangled by the tentacles and was pulled screaming into the mass. Tonaca and Robin, who always intended to stay back a bit and attack from long range, flew down to help her, while Bath and Tiana pressed on. Tal flew even higher up, in an attempt to get out of the tentacles’ range, and fired at Bas from a distance using magic.</p><p></p><p> Bas, however, had more tricks up her sleeve than her tentacles. She raised her new machine arm and fired a spiraling light beam at Tiana, which left a brutal wound but failed to slow her down. She tumbled out of the way of Bas’ grasping arms while Bath charged straight at her. She plunged her sword straight into Bas, causing wounds and fissures to grow on the body to a degree far grater than even Bath expected.</p><p></p><p> But Bas was not finished; far from it. Just as Robin and Tonaca extradited Danae, the tentacles pulled back and released several nearby egg sacs. The sacs split open when they fell to the ground, and demons, including a Balor and a Pit Fiend, emerged from them! Bath saw the fiends and sighed with disappointment that she couldn’t go back to fight her racial enemies, but she knew who the real target was in this fight. She and Tiana continued to inflict disproportionately large wounds on Bas’ massive body while Bas flailed around and struck at them with her organic arm. At the same time, the crystals on her body glowed with energy, and they somehow sent Tal telekinetically crashing to the ground!</p><p></p><p> The fight continued like this for what seemed like ages. Bas alternated firing lasers, missiles, bursts of bullets, and other weapons from her unnatural arm with psionic attacks, all the while attacking Bas and Tiana with her good arm. Meanwhile, the tentacles would periodically strikes at all the party as one and try to capture one (usually Tal or Danae,) and otherwise released even more fiends, though fortunately few were as powerful as the Balor and Pit Fiend that emerged at first. Robin, Tal, and Danae were so busy fighting off the demons and rescuing each other from the tentacles that they barely had time to even fight Bas! Tonaca, however, was the most harried of the party. He was given the unenviable task of keeping everyone healthy and alive, which proved to be very difficult.</p><p></p><p> In fact, just as things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, Bas’ body started to break apart, and then it split right down the middle! For a second or two, the Heroes thought that they had finally finished their quest, before the horrible truth literally emerged. Out of the shell of her ruined body, Bas’ true form rose up. She was much smaller than she was in her old form (only about a hundred feet or two tall!) but she looked far more complete. There were no injuries on her perfectly-shaped body, and she could fly freely despite lacking wings or any other visible means of motion. She wore a dark-blue dress identical to the one the party often saw on her statues, and as expected, she wielded twin scimitars of immense size and power.</p><p></p><p> “What happened?” Tiana asked with desperation.</p><p></p><p> “It seems what we have always feared has now come true,” Danae replied, too shocked to show even the slightest hint of emotion. “Bas has finally risen to her full power once again. And I believe it’s possible that we were responsible for it.”</p><p></p><p> But Bath stared at Bas for a few seconds more before replying. “No, I have spent most of my life basking in the strength of a goddess, and she doesn’t have that power. She might be entering that stage of divine strength, and she certainly is more powerful now than she was when she was trapped in that thing,” she indicated the massive husk of Bas’ former body as she said this, “but she is not a true goddess yet. We can still stop her if we hurry.”</p><p></p><p> Fully aware of the consequences if they failed, the party engaged Bas’ new form with even grater determination. However, as Bath warned, Bas had become even stronger now. Instead of ineffectually flailing at them with an arm too large and bulky to truly function as a weapon, she was expertly striking everyone near her repeatedly with her twin scimitars. The good news, however, was that since Bas was no longer connected to her tentacles, the party no longer had to worry about their constant attempts to grapple some of the physically weaker Heroes or spawn fiendish backup. As a result, all six of the party members could effectively attack Bas now.</p><p></p><p> However, Bas still had more surprises. After engaging Bath and Tiana in melee for a short time, she withdrew briefly and created multiple gates to what apparently was her previously sealed extraplanar pocket dimension lair. Throughout the rest of the battle, armies of fallen celestials would emerge from the gates just long enough to attack the party once and then were immediately expelled back home. The attacks ranged from a bombardment of black light by dark lantern archons ten times as large as their natural size and an unholy lightning storm by fallen avorials to an infantry charge of fallen archons and angels led by an evil Solar! </p><p></p><p> The fight went on seemingly forever, and it was not without casualties. Bath died for the first time when she felt the full force of Bas’ twin scimitars after being heavily wounded earlier. And Robin died, for the first time for him as well, after being caught in the middle of a particularly brutal press by the fallen infantry.</p><p></p><p> However, just as Tonaca, Tal, and Danae had used up the last of their magic and all hope seemed lost, Tiana took advantage of a moment of arrogant distraction by Bas and plunged her blade into the back of the goddess’ head. Bas’ smug look ended instantly, to be replaced with a complete and total awareness of what happened. Her body plummeted to the ground just as quickly, where it crashed into the remains of her former body. She could bare get out one last thought, It can’t be over…, before both the new and old bodies started to rapidly disintegrate. In a matter of seconds, not a trace remained.</p><p></p><p> It was over. The massed armies of Methosilang, who witnessed the entire battle, let up a cheer and poured into the crater. The party, meanwhile, quickly gathered the wounded and the dead of their own and descended into the crater themselves to join their army in the celebration. And yet, while they knew they should be happy, as they went about the hours of mopping up that the exploration of the crater required, the situation bothered the surviving members of the party. It wasn’t the loss of some of their own that upset them, and for good reason. After all, at this point, something as simple as death couldn’t stop them for long unless it was truly their time to be at rest. </p><p></p><p> Their concerns were more complicated than that. The first was what they witnessed among their own army as it cleared out the crater and celebrated the victory. Part of it was the same breakdown of the common cause that they first witnessed in Methosilang, but the concern was deeper than that. The main reason Bas was such a threat was her control over the relics of lost eras. As long as she used them to gain power, the balancing factor of the Quill of Destiny was compromised. Destroying Bas was supposed to end that threat, but now their own allies were celebrating as they claimed the remaining relics of the crater and the ruins connected to it for themselves! At this rate, the unbalancing cycle would continue.</p><p></p><p> Their second worry involved the remaining allies of Bas. Notably, what happened to the Strife Masters? They were Bas’ four most powerful servants, yet they were not present for the war nor were they guarding their own goddess! Bas must have had a very important mission for them to justify their absence. Their greatest concern on the subject was confirmed when the celebration came to a horrible end by a message sent from home. Apparently as a result of its empire’s destruction, the aftershocks of the war, or Bas’ death, the Eye of Nerull fell from its supports and crashed into the sea under it. Normally this would be a good thing, but when it hit the bottom of the lake, it created a fissure that flooded and destroyed the city of Rally, an art-focused city that was protected and honored by Merida and Tepedin. As soon as he heard the news, Tal gravely pulled out a scrap of paper he obtained from Phellis almost a year ago:</p><p></p><p>When they who once knew death again return…..</p><p>……never-sleeping eye finally closes…</p><p>…….finds that which it never did when open, destroys what it always sought to destroy in life…….</p><p>………the chance to change destiny…</p><p></p><p>……………….history to be re-written…..</p><p></p><p> He read it and passed it around to his allies. It soon became evident that things were not over. Far from it; one battle remained, and it would be the most important battle of them all.</p><p></p><p>OOC: And so the final adventure draws near. There will be one more update in between which goes over the one last revelation before the event, and then it’s all about the Quill.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 2823038, member: 9626"] [b]The Final Battle: Bas[/b] If anything, the crater was even more enormous than they expected. Though they could see Bas well before they even entered it (unsurprisingly, given that she was several miles tall,) they decided to first travel the depths of the caverns underneath the crater. For one thing, they wanted to make sure Bas wouldn’t spring any surprise attacks on them during the final battle. However, the area was surprisingly unguarded, as if Bas either knew that any resistance she had left would be a waste on the Heroes or she used up everything she had in the war. Something about that last point bothered the party, but they had bigger concerns and didn’t dwell on it. As they explored the caverns, the sheer depth of madness that Bas and her minions reached became evident. Random artifacts from the dozens of ruins of lost eras that Bas discovered were liberally scattered across the walls, floors, and even ceilings of the caverns, and the party was certain that if they had days to explore, they might actually find the sunken cities or weapons caches or whatever Bas discovered that helped unbalance power so completely. In one cavern, strange machinery similar to the monitors and keyboards the party once saw in the “dungeon” under Dragovigis filled the walls. Cultists of sorts were somehow attached to each of the consoles, and they continued to stare at the screens, seemingly unaware of the party’s presence or the battle that would soon ensue here. Another cavern was dominated by a huge pit containing nothing but corpses. Some were more cult members, as the robes suggest, leading the party to conclude that these were killed by Bas for disloyalty, failure, or just as sacrifices. Other bodies were more ambiguous, and some were not human or even remotely humanoid, suggesting that they were some more relics from the lost eras. Whether the Bas cultists simply gathered the bodies or if there were actual survivors of the eras that the cultists killed to steal their artifacts is unknown. Finally, the party reached Bas. If she was terrifying from a distance, she was the stuff of nightmares up close. Only the upper half of her body was fully excavated, but the party couldn’t really see what exactly happed to her lower half, because the entire floor of the crater was covered with strange, organic root/tentacle protrusions that apparently have an origin at Bas herself! Most of the tentacles were somehow connected to and feeding dangling fruit/egg sacs that were partially translucent, revealing shadows of dark and unnatural creatures growing inside them. The upper half of Bas was moving slightly, as if she was suffering from a continuous and minor spasm, but whether she was even truly alive was unknown. Parts of her body were deteriorated, revealing bones and strange, alien organs, but she also seemed to be breathing slightly. Like her caverns, Bas herself was altered by the excavated relics. One of her gigantic arms was replaced with a claw-like mechanical monstrosity that was apparently cobbled together out of dozens of smaller machines from different era. Crystals of a likely psionic nature were haphazardly spread throughout her body. Some of it look like it was carefully-placed jewelry normally intended for much, much smaller, creatures. Others crystals, however, were simply imbedded in her flesh at various points, making it resemble shrapnel. Much as they instinctively regretted it, the party began their journey to Bas. The ones who were lucky enough to fly did so, while others who couldn’t fly continuously and didn’t want to waste resources too early began a long and disgusting journey on top of the tentacles themselves. Finally, when the party came within a couple hundred feet of Bas, she finally opened her eyes and stared directly at the party. You still insist on doing this? Bas asked them telepathically, perhaps surprisingly. It was nowhere near as formal or, well, villainous a reply as the party expected. It was almost pleading. We don’t have to. Tal replied, with more patience then he thought he could muster, I think we have to at this point. You did attack us and threatened our civilization. Even if we left you alone, I think it would come to war again. Bas angrily replied, I saved your civilization. Until I started, you were fighting a losing war against two empires, empires that are now dead, I might add. I deserve to rule over this world! I not only saved it, but I earned it after what my sisters put me through. They deserve being my servants. They’re the ones that should be listening to me! Bath was the one to get angry next. They were justified in casting your out. You betrayed them and raised armies against them! You were lucky they let you live. No, I had no choice, Bas retorted with a surprising sadness in her voice. Even then, they wouldn’t let me do anything! Everyone else had their roles and gifts that they bestowed upon the world, and I had nothing! I finally give them the gift of war, and they treat it like a curse! It’s just not fair. It’s not fair… If it was possible to sob telepathically, the party was almost certainly that she would be. They come to the horrific realization about Bas as one: As evil and murderous as she was, Bas was no great ambitious villain; no conniving schemer with endless plans and a twisted amoral view of the world. She was just a spoiled, incredibly angry little girl expanded to horrifying divine levels. But she must be stopped all the same. The time for talking was over, and both sides knew it. The party had made their preparations shortly before they reached Bas, so they were ready immediately to attack. At this point, everyone in the party wisely gained the ability to fly, so they got as far away from the tentacle floor as possible as they closed in with Bas. However, it wasn’t enough. The tentacles had incredible range and lashed out at the entire party as they began their attack. Most of the party was merely cut by the thorny tips of the tentacles, but Danae was entangled by the tentacles and was pulled screaming into the mass. Tonaca and Robin, who always intended to stay back a bit and attack from long range, flew down to help her, while Bath and Tiana pressed on. Tal flew even higher up, in an attempt to get out of the tentacles’ range, and fired at Bas from a distance using magic. Bas, however, had more tricks up her sleeve than her tentacles. She raised her new machine arm and fired a spiraling light beam at Tiana, which left a brutal wound but failed to slow her down. She tumbled out of the way of Bas’ grasping arms while Bath charged straight at her. She plunged her sword straight into Bas, causing wounds and fissures to grow on the body to a degree far grater than even Bath expected. But Bas was not finished; far from it. Just as Robin and Tonaca extradited Danae, the tentacles pulled back and released several nearby egg sacs. The sacs split open when they fell to the ground, and demons, including a Balor and a Pit Fiend, emerged from them! Bath saw the fiends and sighed with disappointment that she couldn’t go back to fight her racial enemies, but she knew who the real target was in this fight. She and Tiana continued to inflict disproportionately large wounds on Bas’ massive body while Bas flailed around and struck at them with her organic arm. At the same time, the crystals on her body glowed with energy, and they somehow sent Tal telekinetically crashing to the ground! The fight continued like this for what seemed like ages. Bas alternated firing lasers, missiles, bursts of bullets, and other weapons from her unnatural arm with psionic attacks, all the while attacking Bas and Tiana with her good arm. Meanwhile, the tentacles would periodically strikes at all the party as one and try to capture one (usually Tal or Danae,) and otherwise released even more fiends, though fortunately few were as powerful as the Balor and Pit Fiend that emerged at first. Robin, Tal, and Danae were so busy fighting off the demons and rescuing each other from the tentacles that they barely had time to even fight Bas! Tonaca, however, was the most harried of the party. He was given the unenviable task of keeping everyone healthy and alive, which proved to be very difficult. In fact, just as things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, Bas’ body started to break apart, and then it split right down the middle! For a second or two, the Heroes thought that they had finally finished their quest, before the horrible truth literally emerged. Out of the shell of her ruined body, Bas’ true form rose up. She was much smaller than she was in her old form (only about a hundred feet or two tall!) but she looked far more complete. There were no injuries on her perfectly-shaped body, and she could fly freely despite lacking wings or any other visible means of motion. She wore a dark-blue dress identical to the one the party often saw on her statues, and as expected, she wielded twin scimitars of immense size and power. “What happened?” Tiana asked with desperation. “It seems what we have always feared has now come true,” Danae replied, too shocked to show even the slightest hint of emotion. “Bas has finally risen to her full power once again. And I believe it’s possible that we were responsible for it.” But Bath stared at Bas for a few seconds more before replying. “No, I have spent most of my life basking in the strength of a goddess, and she doesn’t have that power. She might be entering that stage of divine strength, and she certainly is more powerful now than she was when she was trapped in that thing,” she indicated the massive husk of Bas’ former body as she said this, “but she is not a true goddess yet. We can still stop her if we hurry.” Fully aware of the consequences if they failed, the party engaged Bas’ new form with even grater determination. However, as Bath warned, Bas had become even stronger now. Instead of ineffectually flailing at them with an arm too large and bulky to truly function as a weapon, she was expertly striking everyone near her repeatedly with her twin scimitars. The good news, however, was that since Bas was no longer connected to her tentacles, the party no longer had to worry about their constant attempts to grapple some of the physically weaker Heroes or spawn fiendish backup. As a result, all six of the party members could effectively attack Bas now. However, Bas still had more surprises. After engaging Bath and Tiana in melee for a short time, she withdrew briefly and created multiple gates to what apparently was her previously sealed extraplanar pocket dimension lair. Throughout the rest of the battle, armies of fallen celestials would emerge from the gates just long enough to attack the party once and then were immediately expelled back home. The attacks ranged from a bombardment of black light by dark lantern archons ten times as large as their natural size and an unholy lightning storm by fallen avorials to an infantry charge of fallen archons and angels led by an evil Solar! The fight went on seemingly forever, and it was not without casualties. Bath died for the first time when she felt the full force of Bas’ twin scimitars after being heavily wounded earlier. And Robin died, for the first time for him as well, after being caught in the middle of a particularly brutal press by the fallen infantry. However, just as Tonaca, Tal, and Danae had used up the last of their magic and all hope seemed lost, Tiana took advantage of a moment of arrogant distraction by Bas and plunged her blade into the back of the goddess’ head. Bas’ smug look ended instantly, to be replaced with a complete and total awareness of what happened. Her body plummeted to the ground just as quickly, where it crashed into the remains of her former body. She could bare get out one last thought, It can’t be over…, before both the new and old bodies started to rapidly disintegrate. In a matter of seconds, not a trace remained. It was over. The massed armies of Methosilang, who witnessed the entire battle, let up a cheer and poured into the crater. The party, meanwhile, quickly gathered the wounded and the dead of their own and descended into the crater themselves to join their army in the celebration. And yet, while they knew they should be happy, as they went about the hours of mopping up that the exploration of the crater required, the situation bothered the surviving members of the party. It wasn’t the loss of some of their own that upset them, and for good reason. After all, at this point, something as simple as death couldn’t stop them for long unless it was truly their time to be at rest. Their concerns were more complicated than that. The first was what they witnessed among their own army as it cleared out the crater and celebrated the victory. Part of it was the same breakdown of the common cause that they first witnessed in Methosilang, but the concern was deeper than that. The main reason Bas was such a threat was her control over the relics of lost eras. As long as she used them to gain power, the balancing factor of the Quill of Destiny was compromised. Destroying Bas was supposed to end that threat, but now their own allies were celebrating as they claimed the remaining relics of the crater and the ruins connected to it for themselves! At this rate, the unbalancing cycle would continue. Their second worry involved the remaining allies of Bas. Notably, what happened to the Strife Masters? They were Bas’ four most powerful servants, yet they were not present for the war nor were they guarding their own goddess! Bas must have had a very important mission for them to justify their absence. Their greatest concern on the subject was confirmed when the celebration came to a horrible end by a message sent from home. Apparently as a result of its empire’s destruction, the aftershocks of the war, or Bas’ death, the Eye of Nerull fell from its supports and crashed into the sea under it. Normally this would be a good thing, but when it hit the bottom of the lake, it created a fissure that flooded and destroyed the city of Rally, an art-focused city that was protected and honored by Merida and Tepedin. As soon as he heard the news, Tal gravely pulled out a scrap of paper he obtained from Phellis almost a year ago: When they who once knew death again return….. ……never-sleeping eye finally closes… …….finds that which it never did when open, destroys what it always sought to destroy in life……. ………the chance to change destiny… ……………….history to be re-written….. He read it and passed it around to his allies. It soon became evident that things were not over. Far from it; one battle remained, and it would be the most important battle of them all. OOC: And so the final adventure draws near. There will be one more update in between which goes over the one last revelation before the event, and then it’s all about the Quill. [/QUOTE]
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