The terrifying wind of the white dragon nearly threw the dwarf off his feet. Instead, he plants his feet and endures behind Karakarin. When the torrent finally relented, he looked out from behind his bulwark to see the massive, serpentine head before him. Such a great foe, let alone the two others as well. Bründir braced himself and pushed away the rime and seeping cold with a mighty roar. "This is it, lads! Been waitin' t'kill these inbred cu**s Fer weeks! Hold tight an'-"

The dwarf was cut short in his rallying cry as the white dragon's jaws clamped around his torso. Karkalad held firm, but the pressure nearly crushed the dwarf within his armour. No sooner had Bründir gained his senses being thrashed like a rodent, the dragon released him and sent him clattering down a dozen steps of the pyramid.

Aiden moves in, closer to the circle and one of the dragon heads lunges out at him. He barely blocks the gnashing teeth with his large, round shield. He pushes back, and feels something in his upper arm stretch and then give with a sickening crunch. He falls back slightly, the pain in his arm radiating up into his throat and sitting there like a stone. Removing one of the goblin potions from his pouch he chokes it down.

He feels the pain in his arm dissipate as the bones knit back together, but something strange happens. His wrists, barely visible through the underside of his gauntlets, turn a deep shade of royal purple. He waited for something more horrible to happen for a few moments, nearly taking an attack by the dragon head again. But nothing happens. "Now that is strange," he mutters to himself.

Putting his purple skin aside as something to worry about later, Aiden's eyes take in the revealed symbols on the portal. One appears to resemble a symbol he had seen in reference to Niflheim. Without another thought, seeing Brundir in the white dragon's jaw and Thurston closing in on the black dragon, Aiden reaches to the sky and pulls down another bolt of lightning, channeling it through himself and out into the symbol. 

The glowing sigil flickers once and dissipates. With a short, roaring suction, the portal flares and then closes, severing the necks of the dragons and turning the blue, black, and white heads into a cold breeze, crumbly earth, and a splash of cold water that flows over his boots, respectively. Brundir clanks to the floor, and Thurston, mid-hammer-swing, looks disappointed. 

Val continues to focus on the swarm of cultists left gathering around the base of the pyramid as she holds back the tides to allow her friends to work on closing this portal. Rook swings out, connecting hard with the neck of a cultist and it crushes beneath the assault, making a wet, popping sound as metal pulverizes bone and muscle tissue. It takes her a moment to realize that sudden quiet that seemed to have overtaken the room and she looks up to see the portal closed and the dragon heads gone. She looks at the remaining cultists like a predatory grin. "Your dragons are gone. Surrender and end up like the rest of them." She gestures towards the dozen or so corpses that liter the floor around them. 

The cultist nearest to Val snarls as those who remain gather in an arc around her.

"Release the demon to us and we will leave in peace. We have no further business here," snarls a reptilian voice from within the darkness of its hood.

Val stares at the cultists for a moment, seemingly confused by its words and then bursts into incredulous laughter. “I think you do not understand your danger.” She edges closer with Rook still sparking.

The cultists surrounding Valaith begin to chant in a foul-sounding alien language. As the incantation grows louder, Rook's sparks grow less controlled and more chaotic, as though the hammer is struggling to contain the presence bound within.

Aiden shakes his head as Valaith's hammer continues to be affected by the cultist's chanting. "You are not in a position to be demanding anything," Aiden says, and looses a bolt of lightning that fries two cultists from the inside out. "Much less the release of a demon."

Val rushes forward as the chanting continues, raising Rook over her head and slamming it down incredibly hard upon the skull of the cultist that had been making demands. The cloak ripples as the skull is crushed down and into chest cavity. There is a sickening crunch and pop as the sparks continue their erratic patterns as the rest of the Acharnost rallies around her and the group quickly dismantles the remaining cultists. As the chanting stops, she holds the hammer out at an arm's length to examine it carefully...  

As though he carried a warning beacon, Bründir slowly waves Dumdrengi overhead. It's glow had greatly diminished, but a faint life still remained. "Careful, I don' think we're through yet." As he descends the monuments stairs, the blades light grows slightly until it resembles a small torch when he rejoins with the others. "I think this thing's paranoid now. Can a sword even do that?"

As Vark turns to unleash his sorcery on the cultists surrounding Valaith, he hears the breathy whisper of a familiar voice.

Some things you just need to put down and know the world will be better for it.

The echo stops Vark in his tracks. “Archie?!” He looks around, but upon seeing nothing he convinces himself that he’s only imagined the voice. Winds whip around the sorcerer and convene in a whirling cyclone just in front of them. With a primordial shout he sends the twister spinning towards the last of the cultists. The storm tears through them, picking them up and tossing them like ragdolls. As their bodies break in gory splatters against the stones, his long gone companions words echo once again through Vark’s head.

The chamber falls quiet, but for the wind whistling through the hole in the centre of the ceiling. As the bodies of the cultists fall still, Vark notices that amongst the humans, elves and dragonborn there are also numerous smaller figures.

Val spins around to look at Vark after his exclamation, her head jerking about as she looks around for the diminutive rogue friend. "Where?! Did you see him?"

“No I...” his eyes glance about, scanning the bodies that lie before them. “I thought I heard him. Is everyone alright?” As the Acharnost collect themselves, Vark’s gaze doesn’t leave the diminutive corpses.

Val looks at Vark suspiciously. "Vark, I mean you no disrespect, but you tend to hear voices that only you can hear... It makes me worry for you." Still, she begins to move around and start checking the bodies of the fallen.

“Well.. I just...” Vark stammers for a moment before a wave of guile hits him. “Hey... Wait a minute, I’m not the only one with voices in their head, Val. You’ve got voices in both of your heads.” He points to the weapon in her hands to illustrate that Rook is the second ‘head’. Feeling triumphant in his snarky comeback, Vark turns his attention to the remnants of the ritual and the teleportation circle at their feet.

With Aiden’s sagely assistance, the two spellcasters are able to confirm much of what they had suspected earlier. The sisters had co-opted this ancient fortress and channeled the power of the Morrigan in an effort to attain some level of divinity. Thanks to the Acharnost and the divine will of Thor their plans were sent awry and their corrupted form was banished to the Abyss. “We could maybe use this place later... or someone else might try. Should we send people here to man the fort?”

Quote from Lyrel >>

Val looks at Vark suspiciously. "Vark, I mean you no disrespect, but you tend to hear voices that only you can hear... It makes me worry for you." Still, she begins to move around and start checking the bodies of the fallen.

As Val sorts through the broken and bloody figures of the fallen cultists, she finds that their ranks were clearly filled by many of Arden's peoples. Many are humans, much like the bandits that the Acharnost first fought in the Hróna foothills. However, there are also a large number of chromatic dragonborn, elves and forest gnomes. Some wear leather armour under their cloaks and others wear robes. Otherwise they bore only light weapons, minor personal trinkets and handfuls of coin in small denominations - mostly Eldrani ithil.

As Vark inspects the teleportation circle, he feels the codex resonate with it. Glyphs similar those around the rim of the circle light up on its sides.

The voices of his friends around him fade into the background as the alluring glyphs catch the young arcanist’s attention. He holds the codex with one hand and places a thumb on the glowing symbols. With the fingers of his opposite hand he makes contact with the glyphs of the circle, opening up to the connection between them.

Aiden sees the arcane connection begin to develop between the codex and the glyphs and a shiver of cold runs down his back. "Vark, wait!" he shouts, moving to pull the sorcerer back from the circle. "You'll open another portal to gods only know where."

“No, it’s okay, I promise!” he says, disregarding the cleric’s warning and shouldering out of his grasp. Vark steps into the circle, still fiddling with the glyphs on the codex. The symbols shift as he swipes them across the ruby surface, and the symbols around the circle begins to glow brighter in time with his adjustments. “I’ve almost got it, I just wanna see if it wil-“ Vark’s words are snatched up by a pulse of red light and displaced air. The mage is nowhere to be seen, and Aiden is left standing there at the edge of the circle reaching for empty space.

Somewhere across miles of frozen mountains, deep beneath the dwarven city of Khaz a Grungron, a half-orc mage bursts into existence amidst crackling ruby light. “OH ****! That didn’t- I didn’t think-“ Vark looks frantically around the crystal studded vault, remembering the monstrosities they faced here before. He quickly dials back to the circle beneath Morloth and just as suddenly as he appeared, he is gone again.

With an equally dramatic crimson flare, Vark reappears moments later. He sways a little as the effects of the teleportation take their toll on his body, but his face is plastered with a giddy smile. 

“Did you have a nice trip?” Aiden asks, arms crosses and brow raised.

”It worked! I did it! just... I just wanted to see what it was like. I went to the vault, beneath Khaz a Grungron.” He takes a staggering step out of the circle and looks around, equally proud of his ability and embarrassed at the scene he just made. “Uhm... is there anything else here?”