Ghosts of Derthaad Past P2 - 26/01/2023 - A Kavel Perspectiv

Continued from Part 1…


Derthaad’s Mind - A Memory from a Decade Ago - Entrance to a Cave on a Hill - Part 2

“What do you need?” asked Ulhar with not the faintest sense of recognition of who we were.

Ulhar explained that we were in front of his cave and it would be our funeral if we chose to explore it. It seemed a fight with Ulhar was brewing as we needed to confirm the sundial’s location for Tiamat. However, Ulhar said he had taken the sundial, but then got rid of it when he noticed, in his words, it had the energy of the dragon queen, but was tainted by Primus - further confirmation that this was indeed the item we came here to find.

Despite our appearance of a band of dwarves (and skunk) Derthaad managed to persuade Ulhar that Tiamat had sent us to retrieve the sundial. Ulhar, persuaded, gave us a lift on his back and flew us to where he dropped the sundial. I asked my comrade how come when he summons the draconic spirit it isn’t as big as Ulhar was in his memory. Derthaad said Ulhar lost weight. I think he was lying.

We approached a clearing very close to where Derthaad’s squad had made camp. Just before Ulhar landed, we noticed that Zihlil wasn’t with us, and were actually able to confirm his absence as we could see him a few 100ft away in the clearing!


Operation Find Sundial

Derthaad asked the others to find the sundial, while me and him would confront Zihlil. Derhaad used his Dimension Door spell to get him and me to Zihlil in an instant.

Up close to Zihlil there was a pearly dome over the stone sundial, and the copper piece that Zihlil had in his hands back when we saw him at the cart. The sundial was whole now, and quite protected. Zihlil, we foolishly didn’t notice did not join us to search the cave, he had instead gone to look for the sundial himself.

Me and Derthaad had found the sundial with Zihlil. We had split the party for nothing. While Zihlil was explaining what he was doing, I was happy to see Derthaad doing his silent Message spell. The others would be joining us soon.

Zihlil told us that what he was doing was the only way to bring peace, and we should get away because what would happen soon wouldn’t hurt him, but there were no guarantees for us.

The others arrived, including Ulhar, and we were not convinced that Zihlil should continue what he was up to. Zihlil disagreed.

We heard footsteps approaching through the trees from the direction of Derthaad’s squad’s camp. His team mates emerged from the trees, the pupil of their eyes all had turning cogs in them. They were being forced to obey Zihlil through magical divine means that Derthaad nor Elias could overcome with their anti-magic spells.

We were now distracted by Derthaad’s squad. The stone of the sundial opened up under the protection of the pearly dome that now engulfed Zihlil, revealing clockwork parts. Whatever Zihlil’s plans were, they were advancing.


Time to Fight

Derthaad said he would focus on dealing with Zihlil while we handled his squad.

Thinking back to when we saw the aftermath of his squad’s massacre, and Derthaad himself covered in blood with Yasinn in his arms, it was looking like the Dwarves were responsible now for that massacre in self defence. And now, due to the way we were experiencing Derthaad’s forgotten memory, it was us who were going to be responsible for his squad’s death. This was a terrible way for my friend to have to relive a most traumatic memory.

Heret struck first, piercing Ms and Chiff, the roguish kobolds with his rapier.

Ivan went from battlerage to his frenzied rage, and flew, riding Elchior to swing his greataxe, Barbara, at Rasskan, the brass dragonborn wielding a pair of swords.. Ivan had previously rubbed in some of that special sharpening oil to Barbara. In three swings of his axe, Rasskan was bloodied and surprisingly, still stood. With his two blades, he had a go at slashing Ivan in return. One blade made contact, but Ivan, an expert at retaliating with powerful counter swings, swung his mighty greataxe at Rasskan landing another terrifyingly deep wound. Rasskan was now at death’s door.

As Kelne casted Mirror Image and moved near to Heret, I stood with Yasinn to my right and Derthaad to my left.

“Comrade. Don’t look to your right. It’s probably best,” I said sympathetically to my dragonborn friend. Derthaad said it was alright, since he had already seen the end of the massacre an hour ago as we jumped around his memories. But, as intelligent and rational as he is, I am not sure he has my stoicism to simply experience traumatising events as they are - let alone again. I hoped he will be fine. Leaving him to it, I turned to Yasinn, clubbed her neck and dragged her behind the line of her allies and brought her to Vak, the lizardfolk cleric. I then felt that if I killed Yasinn, Derthaad’s lover, I would at least be able to do him the courtesy of doing it out of his sight. But, now she was less visible to him, I decided to beat up the cleric, and switched from grappling Yassin to bodylocking Vak - he was going nowhere without me directing his motion, and I carried him over to Elchior where his greataxe wielding rider would make mincemeat of him.

Glancing to my left over the heads of Derthaad’s squad, I could see Derthaad use his Dispel Magic spell, but it wasn’t working. It only seemed to make the cogs in Vak, and the other squad members’ eyes light up more. Derthaad yelled out that this was divine magic at play.

Unsurprisingly, it always happens when I’m not focusing on the right thing. A couple of arrows pierced my shoulder, shot from Kakira, the copper dragonborn ranger’s bow. I did not let go of Vak though.

Mis and Chif tag teamed Heret with their daggers. Heret did an uncannily good job avoiding being turned into a watering can of blood - the kobolds were very sneaky and fast with their strikes.

Quite inspired by Mis and Chif, I saw Elias… well, I saw a very chic skunk, open up a bag revealing many daggers, which came alive (it seemed) and flung themselves at Mis and Chif. The pair of kobolds, unlike Heret, were turned into watering cans of blood as the multiple daggers stabbed them. Now, Rasskan wasn’t the only squad member close to death.

Yasinn, I guess put out from being dragged around the battleground, slashed up my back with her glaive. She got one more slash in more than Ivan can in the same amount of time. She was fast, but not as powerful as my thicc-bro. I was bleeding a little now. But I still didn’t let go of Vak.

Wulfarn, perhaps in an attempt to stop the very dangerous whirlwind of daggers, went to introduce Elias, well, again - a skunk, to his warhammer. Elias went to intercept him with his scythe, but missed, and Wulfarn landed his warhammer to Elias’s outstretched arm and divine energy pounded out through the warhammer into Elias.

Vak, not so much enjoying Air-Kavel, did have his head screwed on and did what I didn’t want to happen, which was why I went after him - he healed all his fellow squad members with his divine magic.

Ulhar was merely observing everything up until then. He then decided to fly over the dome of the sundial and breathed lightning down on it. The dome stood.


Reset!

Zihlil said some prayer to Primus under the protection of the dome. A shimmering mirror image of Zihlil stood opposite him on the other side of the sundial now, and from the sundial a flash of radiant energy was unleashed.

The radiant light hurt just a little. My comrades, however, were hurt by the radiant energy more than me - not enough conditioning! This didn’t just feel like radiant energy though. What was even weirder was Vak was no longer in my grasp. I didn’t remember letting go of him. I looked around, I realised what was weird about the radiant energy; I was closer to the dome again, Derthaad to my left, Yasinn to my right and Vak behind the rest of the squad - we had gone back in time to a few seconds ago! All my good grappling had been undone!

Heret fooled Mis with his feint lunge at Chif and redirected the point of his rapier at Mis’s chest. Mis fell to one knee, and then to the ground. Chif was then caught off guard when Heret lunged his way and this time wasn’t feinting. Chif followed Mis to the ground. Heret brought his rapier up and whipped the point round towards Heskan whilst at the same time stepping over the prone bodies of the kobolds. Heskan brought his shield up to intercept the strike.

The resetted Ivan decided to switch his initial target from Rasskan to Wulfarn. Having witnessed Wulfarn bring down divine smiting power into his strikes against Elias, I should have guessed Ivan, compelled by a need to demonstrate superiority, would feel a compulsion to go after him and show Wulfarn who the most powerful melee combatant is. Elchior was commanded to fly towards Wulfarn. It was as if Rasskan was a tune up for Wulfarn. Wulfarn didn’t stand a chance. Ivan brought his greataxe round three times and slashed the edge of its blade deep into Wulfarn on every landing. The extra sharpness from the magical oil and the added fire damage from his gauntlets were superfluous here. Wulfarn fell to the ground, devastated from Ivan’s ‘frenzied smite’.

Derthaad attempted a powerful Shatter spell on the dome, but it failed. Kelne attempted a powerful spell to break the dome, but then they switched up what they were doing as Derthaad signalled it would fail. Derthaad conveyed that the dome only got weaker with every squad controlled member's defeat. Kelne then said something with such magical force it hit us all like a wave. Unfortunately, it did not seem to have the desired effect on our opponents. They shook their ears out, but did not seem affected. Their dead allies seemed to die further, strangely - that was a bit excessive.

With all my hard grappling work undone, this time I ignored Yasinn and went straight for Vak. Using my flight legs I jumped over Yasinn and Rasskan and threw a flying punch at Vak’s face that caught him on his cheek. He managed to intercept my left hook with his buckler, but I held his buckler down with my left hand so he couldn’t stop my right cross from connecting with his face. Both his cheeks began to swell with pain. I admired my work, as four consecutive arrows hit me all over my body from the right.

Kakira had chosen to stick to the same target after the reset, and stick it to me she did. Still, it didn’t matter how many arrows she loosed into me, they all felt like pinpricks. And, Kakira probably picked the wrong target anyway; if she meant to save Vak some pain. Elias’s animated daggers then stuck it real good to Vak. Vak was the bloodiest water can I had ever seen. Elias then became extra mean and casted a psychic spell on both Vak and Kakira causing their heads to fry. Vak looked like he was going the way of his downed allies.

Yasinn split her focus on me and Ivan this time. She once again swung her glaive faster than Ivan, but again she didn’t land her attacks quite like him. Ivan was now a little cut up. Me also, but less so.

Wulfarn, perhaps feeling less inclined to retaliate against Ivan, took the opportunity to bash Kelne with his warhammer, and attempted the same at Heret but missed. Vak with his swollen cheeks attempted to cast his Mass Cure Wounds spell again. But, this time Elias used his magic to prevent that.

Whilst all this fighting carried on, Ulhar attempted to talk to Zihlil. It didn’t seem to achieve anything. Zihlil seemed to be saying a prayer to Tiamat now. As he did, another pulsing wave of energy came from the clockwork device and struck us all.


Time’s Up!

At least this time, time did not reset. The wave of energy was different too, this time necrotic. Again, it stung, it was powerful. But nothing much for my iron strong body. My comrades on the other hand, weren't blood filled watering cans, but they were hurt. In fact, Heret was down.

Ivan went back to his first dance partner and this time brought Rasskan down, and moved on to Heskan inflicting painful wounds on him. As he did, Kelne casted the most powerful healing spell I have ever seen them cast. I felt rejuvenated and so too did all my comrades from the looks of it, including the now standing a spritely Heret.

Rejuvenated, I turned back to the very punctured Vak and killed him with a left cross and then went back to my first plan, and grabbed and dragged Yasinn towards Heret. I was thinking that Heret could run her through cleanly rather than have me pommel her to death. It would be nicer for her and Derthaad too in the aftermath. Plus, I didn’t feel like letting Ivan slash her with Barbara. He saw me punch Yasinn before moving her towards Heret and sarcastically asked if, “I needed a weapon, comrade?” I responded, a bit weakly, that, “I can’t apply magic oil to my fists, Ivan.” I should be better than that, but also, I must admit I do enjoy that he tries to hide from me when he drinks a magic potion.

Derthaad had tears in his eyes as he approached me and Yasinn. I hoped Ivan and my bickering was not exacerbating things for him. But, something in Yasinn seemed to change as she looked at Derthaad’s face. She shook her head and relaxed in my grip. Derthaad was now directly in front of Yasinn, so I let Yasinn go. “What’s going on?” Yasinn asked, as the cogs in her eyes disappeared after Derthaad spoke to her heart. Kakira tried to loose some arrows at Derthaad, but Yasinn stood in the path, shielding Derthaad and took the arrows herself.

Elias brought his scythe round and buried it in Heskan’s chest, killing him. Elias’s daggers then flew towards Kakira, ending her life.

Yasinn arrows from her friend Kakira in her body, dropped her glaive and nestled her head into Derthaad’s shoulder, “I’m scared! What is going on?!” Derthaad comforted her, “it’s alright. I’m scared too.”

Ulhar stood on the dome and looked our way, and addressed Derthaad, mostly, “usually when I meet humanoids, it’s all about fighting. You seem to be more thoughtful and less bloody. I hope we meet in the future and can work together someday. Find me… if you survive.”

Ulhar then turned back to look down at Zihlil and his shimmering duplicate, “you are an idiot. You can’t control this. It’s bigger than you,” and Ulhar breathed a gigantic amount of lightning down on the dome.

Zihlil, however, was fully persuaded by his own words. He would not change course. “I am the dragon of balance!” he said, “I bring equilibrium within me into this plane!”

With that, everything went black for a long second.

The dome had gone.

What seemed like over a thousand cog pieces flew into us from the origin of the sundial. I felt fine, but I could also feel the dwarven body I inhabited being ripped apart from the cogs. The rest of the Dwarves were hit too. Derthaad’s squad were shredded, just like how we found them in the memory we witnessed before. This time though, we could see a huge blue dragon was also shredded apart, as well as a little skunk.


Up in the Mountains - Return to Galavir

Derthaad’s eyes were still closed. The rest of us were awake under Ethelex’s golden winged embrace.

Derthaad later told us that he and Zihlil survived and he spoke to Zihlil in the memory. Zihlil was surprised that another survived. His plans had failed that day, but he would not stop pursuing them.

Derthaad also explained that Tiamat gave him a boon before he left the memory. He said he was able to get closure and felt a little better than he’s ever felt before about this part of his past. I didn’t press him on the details at that moment. It was good enough at this point that he wasn’t overwhelmed from reliving his traumatic experience.

We all gave Derthaad a hug to let him know we were all there for him. Ethelex was sorry for having to make Derthaad go through a bad memory again. By Ethelex’s own account, normally he only shows people good memories. Derthaad reassured the dragon that the experience had helped him close a chapter of his life.

Tiamat told Derthaad that she had made it so he would be able to summon Ulhar again. I wasn’t sure what was stopping that in the first place, but I was glad to hear the news. Tiamat said she was grateful with what we accomplished and now that she knew what the engagement ring was and where it last was, she’d be able to scheme a way to get to it. As she left, the five rings she had on her fingers were left as gifts for the rest of us. I was then introduced to Heret’s method of loot division. I must say, it is the fairest way of distributing loot equally… if problematic if certain loot items have a much higher value than other items…

Ethelex gave us gifts generated from the Turning Field orb. Archie later confirmed that what I got was very much an item based version of his Enhance Ability spell. My one-charge orb was specifically an orb of Fox’s Cunning.

I suggested we stay in Galavir for a drink before heading back to Daring Heights. Derthaad wished to spend some time by the lake by himself. So, we agreed to get something to drink, bring it to the lake, but give him plenty of space to be alone.

As we sat and watched the sunset with our drinks, occasionally looking over at Derthaad, I hoped he was in the best possible head space he could be in after the events of the day.