PeaceKeepers of Northmorrah

Muir's eyes widen "Yes....That is not good....This becomes even more ......We should send word to Gyro that someone needs to check on her. She could be captured already and turned undead....We should have told Vox to just let this realm collapse and we take refugees to our world and help them settle instead of this madness. The odds are not in our favor, even more at this point."

Slowly recovering her faculties, she turns to Muir after his statement.  "I realize we are in a precarious state, odds against us and all that, but to let a realm collapse and force people to come to our world when there is a chance we can save it?  We can't do that."  She almost says it is the cowards way out and is surprised by her own hold of the tongue.  The old Elthana she knew that worked in Marblestead would have had no quams at all and would have made sure Muir knew that she meant it.

She reaches up to the tickle at her neck and sees blood on her fingers as she pulls it away. "What I am most curious about... why didn't she go through with it?  I foolishly didn't think about her taking my life when she was in me... but that would be such an easy way for her to become whole again.  Unless.. if she killed me while occupying my body - would that kill her too?  If that's the case, please kill me next time she is here... it's worth the possibility of ridding the world of her malice."

"Elthana is right, Muir. Abandoning this realm doesn't solve the problem. It just invites the rot to follow us home, and likely causes a ton of overcrowding and logistical complexity. It's also not the most helpful of comments right now", Vin agrees.

He turns to Elthana, his gaze softening. "I’ve been weighing her reluctance too. It's why I think she’s either blinded by her own ego or simply isn't as all-powerful as she wants us to believe. But don't ask me to kill you, Elthana. I'm not sure I would be able to follow through on that, regardless of the stakes".

A low rumble of disapproval emanates from Neferox's throat at the last comment.

"Now, back to the issue at hand. You said only one like you could get close to that brain. Why? What exactly is the barrier that makes you the only key to her inner sanctum?"

Elthana grins at Neferox as she growls.  "I know I can count on you, can't I pup?"  But she looks back at Vin with a solum expression, she knows she can't ask that of him.

Then she pauses as she thinks back to the brief conversation, "Well, how Vox put it was that 'the nodes should be able to be destroyed or dispelled with the right amount of power. But your allies should do that from range, nobody but her and possibly you can get close to my brain here without activating that trap.'  I honestly didn't ask why me?  I just figured that since I was a part of Nivara or that looked like her?  Not sure, sorry.  I knew my time was short."

Gewyn thumbs the edge of one of daggers, thinking of options. If it came down to it, could he do it? Then perhaps he could... "No, Elthana. I understand what you are asking and what you are offering. In another world perhaps it might be the only way. But we have a plan. A good one. You may think you are offering up an easy victory, but the easy victory is the one where none of us die, even if it takes blood, sweat, and tears to get there."

As conversation winds on, the feeling of the days exhaustion begins to take hold, Neferox and Spyro wind down making themselves comfortable on the cloud like cushions throughout Ömertyr's private room here in the mount. 

The two Chwingas that Gewyn had brought from Ginro's isle make little noises as they separate themselves from Spyro's form, they call and seek out a third which had been hiding for some days within Muir's woodland staff. Once their little greeting dance is finished they seek places to stay, the one that was in Muir's staff returns to him, another finds bry'ze a comfortable wooden structure and phases inside, the last returns to Gewyn and enters his cittern. Their instinct on assisting those of good intent may come in useful in the fight.

Kudd the dragonborn stands guard outside the door likely to be relieved at some point through your extended sleep cycle by another trusted guard.

Exhaustion and anxiety makes for a deep but fretful rest. The plan for the coming fight roiling in your heads, in your dreams...

Getting past the crazed titan of the Astral Dreadnought, 

Undoing the miasma of undeath surrounding the castle, 

Finding and killing the undead form of the primordial giant Vox Tontritor, 

Having Ömertyr escape with Vox's rune,

Singing the song to open the phylactery,

Having the Xorns devour the crystal cube vessel to trap Nivara's soul in her lich form.

All of these things need doing before facing the awaiting lich. Each part a delicate balancing act, each one being dreamt of over and over as you sleep. 

Vin feels an overwhelming sense of dread that rouses him after many many hours. But it is not his dread he is feeling. A mental spark ignites, and before he can sit up his face is being licked and a telepathic communication interrupts his groggy stirring "wake! Vin! Elthana is gone!". She barks loudly waking everybody else. As each of you stir and sit up you realise that she is gone, Neferox sniffs the ground and rushes toward the doors out of the room at the mount. Elthana has stolen herself away during your prolonged rest. (Everybody gets a long rest.)

Muir wakes and hears Vin's dread in his voice. "The guard!" Muir shouts and runs to do the door "Guard, did you see Elthana leave this room? Where was she headed?"

The guard at the door is startled and instinctively puts hands on his weapons but calms a moment later more confused at the panic than anything else. Muir recognises the guard as Eaos, the other dragonborn who the party had fought when they first met Hector on the isle of Gojiin. Eaos not speaking much common lowers his palms in a settling motion and says some thing in draconic before pointing out the door and repeating "stables, stables, yes? Uhhh kudd, uhhh girl, aminal stables." He points to the wings on his back to connect the thoughts between animals and flight. Then lifts a hand to his mouth before rubbing his stomach. Feeding animals?

Vin groggily comes to from his long sleep, his mind still half-trapped in the nightmare of trapped souls and primordial giants. He blinks against the sudden intrusion of Neferox into his mind, and then the noise of Muir shouting at the door, the sheer panic in the room spiking his adrenaline before his rational brain can fully catch up.

He listens to Eaos’s broken Common, watching the dragonborn mime wings and a growling stomach. The heavy dread in his chest begins to loosen, replaced by a dry, slightly exhausted amusement.

"Muir, breathe", he says, his voice raspy from the long sleep. "Elthana doesn't sleep like the rest of us, she likely got bored waiting for us to wake up after she finished her trance", he suggests.

He stands up, stretching out the tightness in his back from the fretful dreams, and glances toward the door where Neferox is still sniffing the threshold with low, protective rumbles. He wanders across and pats Neferox's side.

"It sounds like she went to the stables to feed the mounts with Kudd. We can go and look for her, but let's not panic just yet", he says, hoping to calm both Neferox and Muir.

"Indeed...She out of all of us should not be alone....We should gather our things and check on her"

Exiting the mount, you all make your way behind the Elders building and toward the stabling area, on your way you see shenohan soldiers and kobold clerics working to get her to get their preparations ready, merchants and families organising stock for support in the coming battle, everything is nearly complete, but not quite yet.

Eaos follows along and you easily find the ruined crystal building housing your mounts for the journey. The griffons seem well fed, ready, their saddlebags hanging on a wall cleaned and oiled. The roc's are sleeping, the armour that had been bestowed to them still on their bodies, as form fitting as they are it does not bother them. But there is no sign of Elthana, nor her Wyvern, nor Kudd.

Neferox puts her nose to the ground and begins sniffing around, her ears perk up and she communicated something to vin.

Muir watches Vin's mother demon dog sniff around and does a sniff or two of his own

Muir does not wait for the demon dog and Vin to finish "It's blood...A lot of blood, draconic. Where the wyvern should be....There's no dead body just, draconic blood....."

"Neferox agrees, although she adds it was likely from humanoid, which means it was unfortunately more likely to belong to Kudd than the wyvern", Vin replies. "She says this happened a few hours ago", he adds, obviously annoyed he hadn't taken it seriously enough before.

"I thought Elthana breaking Nivara's leg was humorous, but she obviously didn't so. But why no body?", he asks.

He starts to look around for signs of what might have happened, or clues as to where Elthana went, although bearing in mind she took a wyvern, he is not hopeful.

“Perhaps whoever did this did not want to leave a trail….if Elthana was asleep or trance and Nivara took her over this could….” Muir tries to determine which way Elthana went sniffing around one more time

Muir has hunted animals before, ones that were diseased and risked a whole group, in those times learning how to kill an animal quickly and painlessly is key. He studies the arterial spray upon the ruined wall and concludes that Kudd did not suffer, this was an instant death.

Gewyn looks around and finds nothing, his background in swaying targets to his will gives him an idea. What you don't say, what you don't do, that is just as important as what you do say and do. The fact that there is nothing here, no saddle, no signs of a fight, it means that kids was surprised, and that Nivara had planned this. 

Everything Vin sees only confirms the dread in his mind, the Cavalcade academy didn't really teach much on the methods of assassination, but the amount of blood on the wall here and the fact that the others know it is arterial, Vin too concludes that Kudd died instantly, there are no signs of a fight, he trusted her. The saddle is gone, she planned this. But why? That is what he keeps coming back to. Elthana was coming anyway, Nivara's words through Elthana's lips echo in his head "she is coming willingly" so then why this? This is not about her, it's about you three, it's about the decisions you make next.

Time is not on your side, Elthana has a few hours headstart, and once she arrives her death is a certainty, but the backup from the organised army is not ready to go right this second. 

The griffons cock their heads to the side with curiosity and eagerness, their saddles are right there, but if you leave now there will be no backup, the plan and the dominoes that must fall one before the next are key to your success... But every second that passes Elthana gets further away and Nivara's ascension becomes more of a certainty.