Session 97d - Spring Returns to Winter
“Greetings. I am Ekossigan of Spring, devoted servant of the Unseen Court and protector of the ever-turning seasons. It is with much remorse that I come to your dull and colourless world, but I shall rid this garden of the dark seeds you have planted.” The mask turned to regard Asrabey, as driving rain began to lash the tree. “Ah, the guard dog of the Court. I had hoped that you would lend me aid, but I see your masters want me put down. Yet you cannot harm me, so the guard dog brings pups of his own. Do you know what grows inside Cauldron Hill, little pups? Step with me into the Gate, and we’ll weed the dark garden together."
From the dorms on the other branches came the nervous cries of children. Ekossigan’s mask seemed to grow more solid. “Opening the gate requires death. The fresher the flower when cut, the more beautiful the wreath when woven. Spring returns to Winter.” It was clear that he intended to sacrifice the orphans. Whatever his purpose, they could not allow him to continue his ritual.
More of his form began to appear and blue light beamed from every surface of his wooden skin. The temperature began to drop, and the fey lord gave a chuckle. The wooden mask cracked and fell away to reveal a smooth, white face beneath. The robe of leaves was now a robe of driven snow.
“Greetings,” he said. “I am Ekossigan of Winter.”
Ice began to form on every surface and the driving rain became a swirl of sleet. Asrabey yelled over the wind, "He has grown mad! You must stop him! I'll keep his army at bay!" A writhing mass of gremlins struck Asrabey at that moment, but his shield blasted them back, and a sweep of his sword sent dozens of charred bodies falling to the ground below.
Uru drew El Perro's pistol. It was already loaded with a vendetta bullet he had crafted when Ekossigan caused him to renounce his regalia. He fired. Despite the swirling field of misdirection surrounding the fey lord, the magic of the bullet caused the shot to hit home.
"You seek to poison me with iron! But I will rid your world of its stench!" With that, he exhaled forth a cone of ice that caused the very bones of the adventurers to ache. The pugwampi and nuglub resumed their assault and, out of the mists, two snow leopards prowled towards them across the walkway to either side. "Ah, my winter sentinels. Come defend your master against these mortals. The ritual must be completed."
Leon cast a spell that drove the fey away from him in confusion and sent gremlins spilling over the rails. Even Ekossigan fell victim to his subtle mind magic, but he remained upright when his feet left the walkway, and he hovered in thin air and, as he waved his arm towards them, the very branches seized their limbs.
"Your nation's womb will birth a monster!" screamed Ekossigan wildly. "A child of death sleeps in the hill. He must not be awakened. He shall not be awakened!" And the tree limbs squeezed viciously.
Gale landed on the rooftop of the school. Even as she summoned winds to beset the unit she cried, "Let them go Ekossigan! They fight against the same foes as we do."
"Then they must join us!" cried Ekossigan.
"I don't get this," grumbled Rumdoom, breaking free from the entangling branches. "What's going on? Are we on the same side or not?"
The pitiable cries of the orphans were answer enough for the rest of the unit, and Matunaaga defied Ekossigan with a carefully aimed rifle shot. It swerved in middair and struck Uru, whose blood spattered on the fresh snow and ice that now covered every surface. One of the great boughs holding the southwest dormitory began to groan beneath its weight.
"So many screams!" Ekossigan wailed. "How many have been sacrificed to fuel this thing? How many souls have died to create this abomination? What are a few more to stop it? You would do the same if you could hear those screams!"
More frost built up on the tree branches. They groaned again and the southwest dorm began to break away from the trunk. Rumdoom hammered at a pouncing snow leopard. His blow sent the creature over the edge where it plummeted to its death. Gale summoned a cyclone that picked the dwarf off his feet, while more pugwampi pounced on Matunaaga. One of the nuglub conjured a noose that pulled tight around his neck and drew him, choking, to the edge of the walkway. Leon teleported close to Ekossigan, but with an airy word the fey lord rendered him catatonic. The pugwampi were on him at once, biting and clawing.
"Asrabey," teased Ekossigan, as he felled Uru with sharp white claws of his own. "Can you guess who else is in the hill? Why none other than your dear wife, Kasvarina. You remember her, don't you? I'm afraid she doesn't remember you."
Asrabey threw the remaining snow leopard to the ground but held his killing blow. He lay a wall of fire across the stairs to keep the gremlins at bay and demanded, "Kasvarina? How do you know?"
"I have passed beyond the Gate and seen things no other has seen. I have sensed her presence, she who was lost so long ago. With you by my side, Asrabey, fire and ice will free her from the gloom. Why side with your pups? Look, they are too feeble to defeat me, let alone what lies within the hill."
Asrabey took stock of the situation - the unconscious forms of Leon, Uru and Matunaaga. He turned to face Rumdoom, the only one of the unit who remained standing.
"I must join him," said Asrabey. "Lower your weapon, dwarf." Rumdoom didn't like being told what to do, and the last time he faced off against Asrabey, back on Axis Island, he had defeated him. He glowered back at the eladrin and gripped the haft of his hammer firmly.
"Ekossigan!" Gale pleaded. "They cannot stop you now. Let them go and I will fly them to safety."
"Will you surrender?" demanded Asrabey.
Rumdoom shrugged. "I'm not fighting you, so how can I surrender?"
"Then will you retreat?"
Rumdoom cast his eye over the recumbent forms of his comrades. "I'll help this lot to the bottom of the tree, if that's what you mean."
"Very well," crowed Ekossigan. "You may go."
At once, lest the deranged fey lord change his mind, Gale swept the unit up in much gentler winds and softly spirited them to the forest floor.
Above them the tree cracked completely asunder, its frozen boughs shattered like glass, the buildings splintered, and the fragments were swept away to leave dozens of small forms dangling from ropes, as if the tree was still there. The orphans had been hanged, in accordance with the ritual, and their bodies blackened in the cold. Ritual complete, sacrifice done, the swirling winds took on the same black shade and eventually the roiling mass became a dark portal. Led by the bright, angular form of Ekossigan, and accompanied by chaotic music, hundreds of kiltering fey passed through into the Bleak Gate with Asrabey and Gale among them. Then the portal closed like a yawn in reverse and there was silence. With even the memory of the tree now gone, dead children fell to the ground like obscene fruit. It was just as Malthusius had predicted.
"That still doesn't count as running away," said Rumdoom.
