Her Final Form
Galoring
The Octurne
65–68 Autumn
The Suffering crushes and abandons the High Templar to cause a storm to roil above the Cathedral, exploding the templars and royal guards; their collected blood forms around and reveals a re-risen Tyr. Some of the engineered behemoths come from the south, but Bax goes into Yeti Rampage and beats them down. Roux is the one to land the final blow on Suffering-Tyr.
On cue, Alistair emerges from the pit to call for peace and order, and Carter starts about organizing the sending-out of word.
They suddenly realize nothing’s been heard from Eirlys for a bit, and Sav gets no response from the team responsible for him. Sav hitches a ride on Yeti-Bax while Danica flies and Ethan goes sparrowmode to fly toward the Spindlemark Theater, where they find Eirlys wounded and bleeding. He tells them Inquisitor Vethedrin took his research and fled; they can find no trace of his trail, so they return to the Cathedral.
In the research rooms, they collectively find more prisoners: an orc child, a little pink-feathered reptilian creature, and an illithid they don’t recognize as one, who had been picked up in an aasimar ruin in a suspended state. The research reveals they were being experimented on to try and extract and apply their powers. Correspondence between Tyr and the High Templar speaks of Moraeth and blood magic. Sav figures she can get the teleportation machine the Swans were researching fixed in about three days and use the whole power orb to power it. Nurie’te is afraid of having the fresh power orb inside of him and calls it a heart, and Sav suspects that perhaps these orbs are also their minds/spirits, so to speak, so doesn’t put it in him.
Bax tells Carter that Sylas is gone-gone, and a deal was broken with the Raven Queen, so some consequence must be faced. Consus tells them that Paloma blew the powder stores on the Pride’s Fall to scuttle the ship and take out the attacking Swans. Sav touches base with the surviving Briarbirds, and shows her real identity (well, not the witch part) to Adelard Sylas’ steward Warner. Bax holds a memorial ceremony for Sylas.
Three days later (68 Autumn), they use the machine to teleport up to the Octurne, though Astarael and Carter stay behind.
They find themselves in the center of a massive, wrecked metropolis that’s shaking itself apart and won’t be around for much longer. A miles-long black, geometric, sharklike shape twists floating in the center of it, very reminiscent of Fade Beast, but too big to notice them; it’s taking bites out of swarms of Nurie’te-like constructs. A scaffold runs the entire height of the Octurne, and hundreds of more constructs swarm around it, deconstructing the city and using its pieces to construct a gargantuan white tower. The only light in the entire city shines from the top of it, warm and inviting.
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