Upward Mobility – Sheryl, the Fae-Touched – 14.04.2020

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Pulling out the nesting boxes, Sheryl’s quick fingers dance across its surface as Aurelia watches. There’s a soft click and then she opens it, pulling out a second box and does the same with that and then a third. When the last is opened, she reaches in, her arm disappearing up to her elbow and out she pulls the Second Seal, placing it carefully on the table in the Council woman’s chamber.

They all stare at its shifting orangey-red sigil, the collective sigh once again running through them all.

“This is great work you all did today,” Aurelia says, looking at each of them in turn. “We will be able to secure the Seal here, where we know it can be safe.”

She looks at Sheryl. “May I?” she asks, gesturing to the boxes.

Sheryl looks at the nesting box in her hands.

“If it will help to protect it and keep it hidden,” she starts, placing it on the table, “then you may have the boxes.” She pushes them towards the mage.

“Thank you Sheryl,” Aurelia says, nodding. “Thank you, all of you. This victory today against the Vanguard was the upward mobility we needed to get ahead of them. Well done.”

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Two months had passed since the First Seal had been found in the Plane of Air, since Sheryl had gotten her first true look at what the Vanguard are after and who they may be. Now the time has come for the Second Seal to be found, in the Feywild too no less. Sheryl had put her name forward to Aurelia at the first opportunity, and so it had seemed, some of the people from the group that found the First Seal.

Markas was there at Portal Plaza, waiting, which was what she expected given their shared interest in the Vanguard’s movements. She had not managed to find a chance to see him, let alone say hello since she came back, and she wondered if she could do so afterwards. Heret was also there, with his horse, along with Harmony and Ghesh. Sheryl had expected to see Arkadius there and was a little sad when she didn’t see his towering form waiting.

He must have many things to do with his new business ventures. I am very happy to see that his entrepreneurship has turned into profitable business, though it does keep him very busy.

Lillith was the final member, looking nervous about the prospect of going to the Feywild. She had asked Sheryl about what to expect and though the fae-bard had tried to give an honest answer, it seemed like the tiefling had already made up her mind about the place – that it was somewhere she’d rather not go to.

“I have been there once before,” Lillith admitted, flipping her hair back.

“Oh! I thought you hadn’t, that’s why you had asked me what it’s like,” Sheryl said, surprised.

“Yes… The last time I went it was a rather horrible experience.”

“I see.”

Then why ask me if you already have a preconceived notion about the place? she had thought.

“My music will help counteract any charming effects, if that is what you are worried about,” she offers with a kind smile.

“Oh, well, yes. Yes that would be wonderful. Thank you, Sheryl,” Lillith had said, relaxing a little.

Girelle and Aurelia both explained where they were going in the Feywild; A group of unusual wizards who called themselves the Curialessen Conclave had a tower in a mountain range in the ’Wilds. The name rang a vague bell in Sheryl’s mind. She recalled the Summer Queen mentioning the ancient eladrin wizards in a favourable manner once in passing, but not much more than that. Unlike the time when she was Plane Shifting her to the Summer Court, Aurelia assured them she would be able to get them as close as nearly the base of the tower.

“It doesn’t reside in either the Summer or Winter Courts but somewhere between the two,” the council woman had explained when they asked

Probably also the reason she could get us so close.

After stepping through the portal, and receiving a Scroll of Sending to message Aurelia when they were ready to come back, the group was instantly buffeted by the high winds and flurries on the mountain side they found themselves on. Up the trail rose the tower, in the shape of a giant golden fist. It was unusual, to say the least. Harmony, ever aware of the weather, took Control of the Wind to make it not as cold for everyone, allowing them better visibility up the mountain towards the tower. They saw a pair of figures and the briefest splash of red colour that could only be masks of the Vanguard.

They are already here.

Stealthily, the group advanced, not attracting the notice of the two at the door.

This part of the Feywild was different from the Summer Court, not only for the weather, but for how it felt. Sheryl was used to the heat of full summer and the intoxicating smells that came with it. Though at the moment it was a blizzard, there was something else biting in the air, something that threatened to make them all dizzy with heightened vertigo. Looking up to the top of the mountain was like seeing into realms beyond their ken, whilst looking down would draw them closer to the edge to fall into the clouds to whatever waited them at the infinity down below.

Most of the group was able to keep their wits about them, Sheryl adjusting without issue. Perhaps because Heret is human, he seemed to have a really rough time concentrating on what they were trying to do. Even after scaring the two guards off with their mini ambush – Markas and Heret using their returning boomerangs, Lillith and herself using their magics – Heret had to keep stopping and staring at his hands, the ground, anything small in order to keep himself together. Sheryl had seen this kind of reaction before from the Mundane Folk who happened to enter the Feywild before so she tried to sooth him with some encouraging words. It seemed to help a little.

When they got to the door he had looked up and read a phrase that was written above it which sounded like “Curialessen,” which he said was the elvish word for ‘Cinnamon Spice.’ With a shaky smile and slightly steadier hands, he got the door open and went in, seemingly more grounded once inside.

The Cinnamon Spice Conclave. What an interesting name. I wonder what it–

“What in the Hells happened here?” Lillith’s soft exclamation made Sheryl turn and survey the room. What she saw stopped her cold.

The room was strewn with bodies of Vanguard cultists everywhere, some burned to indistinguishable crisps, others with their chests caved in from mighty blows with bits of earth around them. The scent of seawater still lingered in the air and it was not coming from Harmony. Two staircases on either side of the room ascended in opposite directions to the next floor in the beginnings of a helix pattern. Heret, visibly calmer and more himself, pointed out the mosaic floor was in a particular pattern, and that maybe the intruders had triggered the traps that had killed them. Either way, the room was cleared, all the surprises already sprung.

Leaving his horse by the door Heret started making his way up one of the two staircases, Markas following him. Sheryl started to go up the other one but noticed Harmony was over by Heret’s horse, brushing it’s mane with a fine coral comb. Lillith mentions she could Speak with the Dead but as no one seemed keen on waiting the ten minutes it would take to cast, she asks Ghesh to help her decapitate one of the corpses.

“To add to my collection,” Lillith had explained. Ghesh begrudgingly obliges, swiftly decapitating one of the cultists and turning away just as quickly.

Seeing that Harmony wasn’t going to be moving on with them, Sheryl went back over to them and took their hand, leading the way up to the next level. When they got there she saw what the others had already discovered. Another group of Vanguard cultists, these ones frozen in place holding various weights and workout equipment. Ghesh looked intrigued by the equipment, and went over to one of the dumbells to take it. He discovered instantly what exactly happened to the minotaurs frozen in various poses around the room for like them, the black dragonborn got Held in Place.

Once Markas and Harmony got Ghesh free of the spell (“Why is it only the gym stuff I want is cursed?” Ghesh asked facetiously, looking between the dumbell he had held and the gold robe Lillith found in a closet.), Heret went to listen at one of the two doors where the staircase would clearly ascend. He informed them that he heard Infernal behind the one, but nothing beyond the other.

“Also, the inscription above both doors says, ‘Only the swol will ascend.’” Heret said.

“Swol?” Sheryl asks, confused.

“I believe it means strong,” Markas suggests, opening the door silently and taking a look beyond.

Sheryl had lifted her arm, poking at her bicep muscle with her finger with a frown. The others had shared a chuckle at her silliness and she smiled.

“It’s clear they valued body fitness a lot,” Ghesh adds appraisingly, gesturing at the fitness equipment around them.

“True…” Sheryl said, thinking. “But wizards also value intelligence. I think there must be something more to it than just body strength.”

Markas volunteered to go up the staircase. It was a dark tunnel with torches that lit 15 feet ahead of him, with the stairs covered in a carpet that had stars in eight different colours dusted across it in various patterns that had no rhyme or reason to them. When he came back he said the Vanguard were in the next room which looked like it just continued on and on for an eternity.

“Let me try the stairs that have the least number of stars on them,” the grey monk suggests as he tries again.

He came back, saying the same results.

They all think, trying to solve the puzzle. It’s as she looks at the carpet of eight different coloured stars that an idea occurs to Sheryl.

“There are eight colours just like there are eight schools of magic!” Sheryl says, feeling this was the right train of thought. She points to each as she names them. “Blue for Abjuration, silver for Divination, pink for Enchantment,” she smirks playfully, “and purple for Illusion. Orange is Conjuration, red-”

“Orange?” Markas asks. “Before, when I stepped on the second stair, my foot was on the orange star, there.” He points. “I felt something… activate.”

“That must be the way up!”

Lending some help to Heret by Enhancing his strength along with her own, they all leap and bound up the stairs, touching only the orange stars, each person’s passing making them glow brighter and brighter. Once at the top, Markas opens the door and they all walk out into a massive arena.

With the incinerated corpses and bones of the Curialessen Conclave strewn everywhere.

Great Queen of Summer, what happened to them? Sheryl thinks as she looks around in shock. Going to the epicentre of where it looks like the explosion of fire started she crouches down, fingers touching the ash and cinders residue.

Was this a fire elemental? she ponders, looking around.

The others have scattered to search for the Second Seal, but she sees Harmony watching an adult red dragon battling against a large tentacled monster in a body of water.

Or could it have been something else, like a devil…

Looking to her right she sees a pile of ashes. Turning to the opposite side, she sees another pile of ashes and the pieces start to fall into place.

Lillith, over at a podium, looking at a scrolling list of names says, “It appears that they conjured beasts and monsters and made them fight, whilst at the same time fighting each other.”

“It’s here!” Markas suddenly exclaims from behind the podium and everyone gathers over where he is. Sheryl slowly stands up and looks around at the carnage a worrisome thought occurring to her as she makes her way over.

If the Second Seal has been here since their death, what if the Conclave conjured something they couldn’t control? What if that something is what the Seals are meant to be keeping locked away? It incinerated them all in an instant. If something like that is let loose on the Material Plane…

Sheryl shudders at the thought.

Harmony and Ghesh successfully pry the Seal off of the pedestal without breaking it, much to everyone’s relief. Markas suggested one of two places to store it whilst they make their escape: either in Hoop the talking plate, who would probably never give it back, or in Sheryl’s Nesting Boxes of Infinite Storage. Everyone agreed it would be safest in the nesting boxes.

It was at that moment that they all heard the Vanguard’s shouts of triumph coming from both stairways. Seemed they had figured out the Curialessen Conclave’s puzzle for getting up the stairs. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to strike first, Sheryl and her companions went to the two separate doors, preparing to attack. They saw them advance, a group of 6 minotaurs wearing the red lacquered mask with the V slashed across it. But then, from the dark, emerges a burnished golden armoured, golden masked, cultist Sheryl has never seen before but has only heard of.

The Enforcer.

Markas pulls out a longsword and starts making quick work of the minotaurs in the staircase on the left. Seeing they are trapped in this room unless they make a path for themselves, Sheryl decides to not hold back. Advancing towards the door on the right, she points and in front of the Enforcer a wave of Feywild magic explodes outwards. Every one of them clutches at their head as a psychic wave of cacophonous energy muddles their thoughts, causing great pain. An impish grin slices across her face as she sees how many of them she has affected and she feels the ’Wilds rise to meet her power.

Yes.

Ghesh unleashes his acid breath next on the left staircase, decimating more of them, whilst Heret deftly comes in to slash at one and then retreat. Lillith reaches out into the darkness and inky black tendrils reach up and attempt to grasp the minotaurs in the right-hand staircase.

Then Harmony steps forward, summoning an Orb of Lighting which they hurl down at the Enforcer. The imposing minotaur woman raises her hand and attempts a few words of Counterspell but it’s no use. As the ball of lighting explodes out the reverberations of its thunderclap are amplified double as Harmony shrieks, calling upon her deity. When the blue-white light dies away and Sheryl can see again, the Enforcer is leaning heavily against the wall, clutching her side as blood pours from underneath her golden armour, ears, and mouth.

The fight continues. Sheryl throwing her voice down the stairwell again to Shatters more of the cultists, which nearly was countered were it not for Harmony backing her up with her own melodious counter tune to ensure its success. The melee fighters, Markas and Ghesh, slowly take out the minotaur cultists coming out of the left staircase, whilst Heret works to finish off those on the right.

The Enforcer realises she is either going to die where she stands or she would have to make a tactical retreat. Casting a Web to make their pursuit difficult she starts to flee. There was no way she could have known that the arena in which they stood also allowed them to see the level below as if it was a one-way glass. Lillith walked through a Dimension Door she summoned with Harmony, who then proceeded to end the Enforcer once and for all.

Heret, seeing the stairwell in front of them clear of the magical webbing the moment the Enforcer died, turned to Sheryl and said, “Come, we should go!”

From behind her Sheryl hears Markas and Ghesh still fighting four minotaur cultists with a fervour. Drawing her rapier she hears it hum and her features shift and flicker like a flame, the gem in her circlet glowing a little brighter.

“Go if you wish. I will help them finish this.”

Sheryl turns and charges towards the minotaurs, rapier leaping from her hand as she sang out a battle cry. Heret stood there for a moment watching the fierceness of the small woman who seemed to be both dancing and fighting. Then he too, joined the fight to finish them off.

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The scratching of her quill against the parchment of her notebook stops as she makes her final notes. She felt very good about the last two missions she has been on. First saving Girelle, then protecting the Second Seal. Aurelia was right, it was the leg up they needed to get a little ahead of the Vanguard. Her Queen Mother would be pleased to hear this news, she was sure of it.

But we cannot rest on our laurels. They still have that artefact that can track the Seals. I wonder what it could be…

Getting that artefact would be the next logical step, but no one, so far as Sheryl was aware, knows what it is let alone where it could be found. That would be a dangerous mission… But that can be a plan for another day. For now, she had a letter she needed to write…


Continued in ‘Tea Time for Two’ 🦋