The Next Leap

Perspicacious let's out a low whisper as she sees the band of light leading up to her friend. Out of options, and not sure what else to do, she reaches out to the golden thread, and grabs hold. 

Gordra collapses to the ground at the same moment that Luna feels half of her life sapped by the black orb. The dragonborn isn't moving.

Perspicacious, you ride the golden tunnel of light up and into a sea of fire. Your perceptions are extended out in every direction- into more dimensions than you realized existed. It's too much to take in. You don't need to breathe in this body, but you feel like you're drowning all the same. There's no way out! It's too much! It's-

"It's alright, my dear friend. I can help. Not much, but we can do this one thing together, I think."

You hear Vasht's calm voice enter your mind like a remembered melody. The storm passes, then your godlike extra-dimensional perception fades back to merely a supernatural level. You require a moment to collect yourself. In the meantime...

(No initiative here. Everyone gets a single turn in any order. Vasht/Perspicacious will move after you all, and then the orb will reach them)

Amaruve sees the sphere climbing away, he shrinks back down releasing the bounty of physical power and resilience of his Wild Shape. With the Wild Hunt still pulsing the shift is more dramatic as he returns to the body of a half man. He holds a claw up, as if to release some spell to strike down the sphere, but would it be enough? The power of his magic has done little to lay foes low in his life. He was no spell slinger... In the back of his mind he remembers Vasht's words...

"No you won't..."

Gordra's heart beat pulses quietly behind him, amplified in his long ears. He turns and speaks in The tongue of the forest, drawing on Gaia's strength, "Chan ann an-diugh" (not today), and the healing energy flows to Gordra, recovering 5 health.

Putting my turn behind a spoiler, for after the others go.

Jean attempts to sever the bands of orange and purple with her blade. "Here goes nothing!"

Attack: 12 Damage: 10

(Jean probably has advantage with Help from Prespicacious.)

Quote from BDaddLy >>

(Jean probably has advantage with Help from Prespicacious.)

 Yes, this.

(13 is enough to hit the bands, but I'll need an athletics check with advantage to get up there, Rivina!)

(Your mind makes it real)

 (Try Help for the crit)

Athletics: 20

Cordelia sees Jean make an effort to destroy the band holding Vasht back. She decides to take aim and fires a bolt at the band hoping to strike her target in unison with Jean.

Attack: 15 Damage: 10 (and if Jean could be considered adjacent and we hit at the same time??? here is a sneak attack: 14)

Cordelia and Jean's strikes find their marks, severing a few of Perspicacious'/Vasht's bonds. It isn't much, but it's enough to free one of their arms. You all see the familiar doubling effect, but this time, it's unique. Two immensely powerful sunbursts, one red and one blue, erupt within the black sphere. 

The alien orb screams with the Pretender's familiar psychic wail as it is burned from within. Jagged black spikes protrude from its surface, and it is splattered against the side of the radio tower. It takes a vaguely bestial form, edges moving like quicksilver on a subwoofer. (jarring gif in spoiler)

 It menaces Vasht/Perspicacious, ready to pounce...

...And then it's Gordra's turn. The dragonborn arcanist rises from the roof and sees his comrades fighting the pretender. But everything is strangely... flat. The scene before him is off, somehow. If he were more familiar with Cordelia's world, he might feel as though he were watching a movie. He glances down and notices something strange. He sees his own body lying on the roof. Bright healing magic flows into him from his old, strange friend, Amaruve. The bear is leaning over his scaled face, but his healing is blocked by the swirling, lingering effects of the necrotic attack that sapped his life just moments before. Before he can puzzle it out, though, Gordra feels a bump at his shins.

It's the orange cat the party rescued in the last leap. It butts at the dragonborn's legs, weaving in and out and rubbing affectionately. It takes a few steps away, and following it with his eyes, Gordra sees that a brightly burning path has appeared behind him. It is made of pure red and gold flame, and it leads upward to an impossible mountain in the sky. Miles above and away, there is a host of red dragons wheeling and breathing flame. Gordra feels their fire fill his soul, and he knows then that this is the end of his story. The Lost, the conflict, the fruitless searching, his mistakes... They can all be dropped and left behind in this moment.

The cat looks at the professor expectantly, waiting for a decision. 

Gordra, what do you do?

Gordra looks from the scene on the rooftop, to the mountains above, and back again. "I... I just need..."

Gordra's eyelids open, his real eyelids, but where his eyes once were, there is now only fire. "One more moment.." he says, as his body slowly rises off the ground and he gradually lifts up to a standing position. As he does the flames spread out across his face, burning away his scales. The flames don't stop until all that is left of the dragonborn is fire.

He lifts up off the ground, giant wings sprouting from his back, his hands turning into great fiery claws, his legs turning into a long tail that stretches out behind him as he soars through the air before turnjng his sights on the hovering sphere. The great beast that once was Gordra launches itself straight into the heart of the orb, exploding it from within, the light so bright you all have to turn your eyes away. 

Damage: 70

Amaruve looks at his own hand in awe, he had no idea he could do that...

(76 x 2 = 152 damage to the pretender)

The Pretender explodes. You are all knocked prone by the explosion, but the fury of the fiery dragon's final act is sculpted as it bursts outward, avoiding you all. Tongues of flame melt the radio tower at the base, shattering the windows that surround the rooftop and gouging deep, bubbling trenches into the concrete. 

Perspicacious and Vasht are forced apart, but the angel (let's not parse words anymore- that is what it has become) catches the tiefling and gently lowers her to the rooftop on wings of shattered glass. 

You all rest in a rough circle: Cordelia holds the gray kitten, while the orange tabby rests at her side. Jean tends to Perspicacious, who has suffered a cut across her cheek and left eye. Amaruve rests on his haunches a bit apart from the rest. And Gordra...

Of Gordra there is no sign. Only a blackened starburst of soot remains of your dragonborn companion.

Amaruve heals Prespicacious' wound, placing a clawed hand unnecessarily on her cheek.

He stands and turns to the space where Gordra's body had lain "Farewell, Old Friend." he whispers, as his form reverts back to what has become his normal black bear. He pads around the space marking the soot with druidic symbols in a sort of Ceremony, though with no body to protect its only for peace of mind and doesn't draw on any magical energy.

Amaruve sits with his head hanging. He's not one for speeches, he glances at the others, maybe they have some words they'd like to say...

Perspicacious raises her hand to her cheek, thanking Amaruve, and looking to the spot where Gordra had been. "Gordra, you magnificent fool..." and then, turning the Vasht she yells towards the angelic form , "Please tell me it was worth his sacrifice! Can we go home now?"

Jean frowned for a moment and then asked the question that was on her mind. "What in the Nine Hells just happened?"