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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 7266003" data-attributes="member: 9546">15 Desnus, 4718 - The Fall of the House of DariusAt Kat’s insistence, the companions returned to the king’s quarters on the first floor of the Adarium. Something about the locked and warded door kept nagging at her. “He that violates this shrine shall gain nothing but ashes, nothing but death,” she read the inscription above the door again. She bent close to examine the door.“Ah,” she nodded. “Just as I suspected. The trap is magical. Give me a second.”She fiddled with the locking mechanism with her picks for several moments and then stood again.“There, should be safe now,” she said.Lemmy shouldered her aside and opened the door. Instantly a thin green beam of light shot out from the lock and struck the dwarf. He screamed as a healthy chunk of flesh around his shoulder simply disintegrated. Kat grinned sheepishly and shrugged, then quickly darted into the room before the pain-enraged dwarf could start blasting her.Inside, she discovered a humble personal shrine to Iomedae. The shrine was little more than a place to kneel before a statue of the three-fold goddess. Kat quickly gave the room a good once-over and found exactly what she’d expected: a small, hidden vault behind the statue, and an equally well-hidden trapdoor in the floor. She ascertained that the vault was also trapped, but she made sure to take a bit more care with that one and managed to disarm it successfully. Inside was only a small, leather-bound book. Kelvin snatched it from her hands before she could even open the cover.“The Liber Darian,” Kelvin read from the book. “It’s an Iomedaen holy text, but this one also seems to contain a complete family history of the house of Darius. Wait a minute...,” his voice trailed off. “This can’t be true...if it is, then that means....”“What the Hells are you blathering about?” Dakota snapped. “Just spit it out already!”Kelvin glared at her for a moment before his attention was drawn back to the book.“According to this,” he explained, “Bellinda’s mother was not actually the queen.”“What?” Tardaesha exclaimed. “How could that be? Then who is her mother?”“Antharia Regina,” Kelvin said.“I’ve heard that name somewhere before,” Tardaesha wrinkled her brow.“You should remember,” Kelvin said, “we killed her son, Argossarian.”“Who?” Dakota askedThen it dawned on Tardaesha. “The dragon? The silver dragon we slew at the Horn?”“The same,” Kelvin nodded. “Wait...,” Dakota said, trying to wrap her head around the facts, “so that means that Bellinda’s mother is...a dragon?”“Exactly,” Kelvin said.________________________________________________________________The stairs descended into the earth, giving onto a large, bare chamber. In one corner of the room was a pool of bubbling magma. Standing in the midst of the pool was a beautiful woman whose flesh appeared to be made of lava. She gripped a burning sword in one hand.“I am Brigit of the Brijidine,” she spoke in a voice like a rumbling volcano, “born of earth and fire, and I have divined your wicked designs. The land itself now rises against you. How can you do anything but burn?”“We’ve heard your name,” Tardaesha smiled. “It seems you’ve pissed off some friends of ours.”Brijit did not bother to reply. Instead she raised her free hand and summoned five elementals from the magma at her feet.Tardaesha and Roger charged forward to meet the oncoming elementals. The two anti-paladins obliterated the first one with a withering barrage of steel. Behind them, Lemmy and Dakota closed in, but one of the huge elementals pummeled Dak before she could ready her bow. At that moment, Brijit raised her hand again, and a wall of solid magma rose from floor to ceiling, trapping Roger and Tardaesha on one side with her. Tardaesha barely noticed. She quickly cut down another elemental while Roger dealt with a third. On the far side of the wall Kelvin roughly shouldered aside Lemmy, who had been trying with little success to blast through the barrier. Kelvin cast a spell and instantly disintegrated a large section of the wall. When he stepped through, however, Brijit sealed it behind him again. “Just in time,” Tardaesha laughed as she dispatched another elemental. A rumbled from beneath their feet heralded the arrival of Lemmy, who had elected to burrow beneath the wall rather than bring it down. Roger dealt with the last of the elementals, and then the four companions advanced on Brijit. She began casting another spell, but Kelvin interrupted her by hurling a barrage of magic missiles at her face. As the azata recoiled, Tardaesha leaped at her and smote her with unholy fury. Liquid fire flowed like blood from Brijit as she tried to defend herself. “Stand aside!” Lemmy cried.Tardaesha instinctively ducked as a blast of metal shards sailed over her head and ripped through Brijit. Her body lost cohesion and melted back down into the magma. _________________________________________________________________A small room beyond Brijit’s chamber contained little besides eight stone columns and a circular pedestal. The eight columns each portrayed one of the eight Iomedaen virtues: Honesty, Honor, Humility, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Piety and Self-Sacrifice. Instead of directly stating those principles, the columns showed them in visual parables. The column of justice, as an example, showed a magistrate delivering sentence upon the guilty. Kelvin detected a powerful magical aura about the place from the school of abjuration.  There was also a powerful good aura as well. Kelvin recognized the aura for what it was – the lingering spirit of the king's line that gathered in that place and protected and guided their son. “This is where he will come,” Kelvin said. “So this is where we wait. It’s time to make our preparations.”The others nodded and set about readying themselves for the king’s arrival. As a last minute thought, Tardaesha snapped her fingers, and Jeratheon appeared before her out of thin air.“I thought it appropriate to have you present,” she said. “Your father might feast on the blood of a princess tonight, but you, my loyal mount, shall have a king!”____________________________________________________________________In the midnight hour on the night of the new moon, Chargammon fulfilled his oath. He flew in low, gliding upon the powerful night winds that swept off the southern ocean into the Cambrian Bay. He was silent, wings unflapping. He was cloaked in magical darkness. He came like a thief in the night.And then he cast aside stealth. His onslaught ensued by drowning the upper halls with a wave of acid, one hundred and twenty feet long. Servants and guards died and melted into an unidentifiable slurry of molten flesh. The great wyrm ripped the top of the palace off and bellowed a war cry that reverberated through the moonless night. Even in Matharyn across the bay, they heard his wail. And fear seized the capital of Talingarde.A contingent of knights rushed upward, eager to defend both the palace and the princess. That was their last mistake. Chargammon summoned a fog of caustic vapor and fought them even as it seared their flesh. Brave soldiers of Talingarde died screaming in his wake.Chargammon sniffed the air and caught a scent unlike the soldiers. That must be Bellinda. He moved like a great angel of death through the palace. Anyone in the Adarium with any sense, fled. A few valiant soldiers did not. They meet Iomedae quickly. At last, Chargammon neared his prey. No wall of force could stop him. He ripped off  the roof and burrowed in through the ceiling. He entered the  princesses’ opulent bed chamber and discovered one guardian not fleeing – Sir Richard Thomasson. The paladin faced the dragon alone. Chargammon let forth a laugh that would have chilled an ice devil's blood. “So, you desire to die in battle with a legend?”“No, ” answered the paladin. “I intend to slay one.”The dragon's laugh turned into a scowl. His eyes burned with the full wrath of hell. Chargammon did not tolerate insults nor did he suffer fools. He lashed out with a blast of acidic fury and was annoyed to discover the paladin still standing in its wake. It became a standing fight then – dragon against knight. Sir Richard answered the dragon's impressive assaults with powerful blows, smiting the dragon with painful sacred sword strokes. Each blow left horrid scars across ancient black scales. Chargammon for his part, inflicted horrid wounds upon the paladin that would have killed any lesser man. He lashed the knight with claw, tooth, tail and wing. He lacerated flesh from bone and soon the dragon stood over the fallen wreck of Sir Richard. “Pathetic. Time to die, little hero,” the dragon said as the paladin used all his strength to rise one last time.And then something happened that Chargammon did not anticipate. Dressed in a robe of silver, a beautiful young maiden emerged from her sanctum and stood in front of the stricken knight. Upon her robe was embroidered the sword of Iomedae and a white unicorn. Chargammon sniffed the air. Yes, that was her. But there was more. He smelled something else, something familiar. And suddenly he recognized the scent.  “Antharia,” the dragon whisperedThe princess spoke. “Ah, you've met my mother.” And for the first time, she unleashed herself. Four powerful meteor strikes ripped into the great wyrm one after another. Chargammon enjoyed powerful magic defenses but that magic tore them asunder. In his old age, the dragon was not as quick as in his youth and the four darting meteors smashed into him with blinding speed. How could the princess miss as gigantic a target as that vast dragon? Already badly mauled from his battle with the paladin, the meteor swarm was too great. The dragon toppled. That was  how the great wyrm Chargammon died. No one was more stunned than the princess herself.“Did...did you see that?” said Bellinda. “I did that!”The wounded knight rasped, “You are your mother's daughter. More than that, you are Iomedae’s chosen. You are our light in this time of darkness. Maybe the last light... ” Bellinda faced her protector. “Richard, you're hurt!”“I'll recover, your highness. The dragon...is not alone. He has allies ... the Knot of Thorns. They're everywhere.”“The Knot of Thorns? Who are they?” Bellinda asked“They are the root of this war, this pestilence and all the ills that have befallen Talingarde,” Richard Replied. “They are our true enemies, highness. And until they are destroyed, you are in the gravest danger. ”“Tell me more. Tell me everything.” And with that, she touched the Paladin and they were gone.______________________________________________________________________Five minutes after Chargammon’s attack began, a very powerful magical pulse flashed throughout the chamber where the Nessian Knot awaited the arrival of the king. In that instant, several of the protective auras the companions had woven about themselves were snuffed out. A moment later a magical portal opened and the King himself, along with six companions, stepped through. “Where is my daughter?” demanded King Markadian V, called The Brave.“You’ll get no answer from these blackguards, your Majesty!” snarled a man standing to the right of the king, whose badge of office identified him as a member of the inquisition. “Best to just have done with them!”He raised one hand and called down a column of white fire upon the heads of Lemmy and Roger. “It’s your own hides you should be concerned with!” Kelvin challenged.He cast his own spell, and a barred cage of pure force appeared around Markadian and three of his knights.The one remaining free knight drew his sword and charged the Knot. Tardaesha tagged him a glancing blow as he rushed past her and straight towards Jeratheon. At the same moment, another of Markadian’s entourage, this one a priest, spoke a holy word. The effect was impressive. Knick-Knack, who’d been seated on Tardaesha’s shoulder, disappeared, instantly banished back to his home plane of Abaddon. Every other member of the Knot, including Jeratheon, was struck blind. Still, dragons had other senses to rely on besides their sight, and as the charging knight drew near, Jeratheon lashed out, catching the man in his jaws and biting down, ending his life with a sickening grinding of teeth. Dakota’s vision slowly returned, but it was still enough for her to put a volley of arrows between the bars of the force cage and into the King. Furious at his impotence, Markadian’s crown began to glow, and then a mote of that light shot towards Dak. When it reached her, it morphed into a glowing sword which began to menace and slash at her. “It appears we have a few of the undead among us,” the inquisitor sneered. “Let’s see how they like Iomedae’s shining light!”He extended his palm and a lance of searing radiance flashed towards Dakota. When it struck her, her flesh began to burn and she screamed in agony. Kelvin’s own gaze was clearing by that point, and he quickly hurled an explosive acid ball into the midst of the king’s contingent. Before they could recover, Jeratheon flew across the room and landed atop the priest, mauling and tearing him limb from limb. At the same time his massive wings buffeted the inquisitor aside. Roger charged forward, his eyes still watering, and drove Helbrand through the inquisitor’s chest. Once the light was no longer burning her, Dakota managed to regain her composure and quickly snapped off another flight of arrows. These struck Markadian squarely, and he reeled backwards against the bars of the cage. His knights turned to aid him, and that’s when Jeratheon’s caustic breath completely filled the inside of the pen.</blockquote>

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