The tilt of the floor proves too much for Ayas who is unable to prevent himself from sliding along the floor to crash into the wall that now sits at the base of the slope, though the rest of you fare better.

With uncharacteristic agility, Brugar not only manages to regain his feet and avoid falling into the hole in the centre of the chamber, but is also able to launch himself across the slope towards the approaching demon, his shard bedecked shield held out before him.

Hamin does not fare as well as the Dwarf, not trusting his ability to navigate the gradient, but the one-eyed warrior is at least able to manoeuvre himself to a perch on the edge of the hole where he can brace his bladed weapon.

Behind her father, Yetta too is able to stand, but chooses to take the time to set her footing in the hope of being able to stay upright if the angle of the floor worsens, as she considers which of the many dire threats besetting you to concentrate on.

The unholy nimbus of rainbow lights that cloak the demon suddenly burst outwards ... but as they slam into Brugar in his headlong flight towards the foe they are sucked into the shield, the crystals flaring with a bright light of their own as the Dwarf cannons into the fiend's legs ... though only manages to deflect the creature's path but a little.

The demon snorts gutterally, perhaps angry, perhaps only amused, raking at Brugar with cracked claws that merely scratch his glowing shield.

And down below, in the hole beneath the sundered seal, Alasha'an kicks off from the wall to fetch up against the glowing globe of light.  Shifting her grip on her dark blade, the Elf brings it down hard on the surface ...

The globe shatters in an explosion of light that streams from the hole to flood the chamber above.  This at least gives the demon pause, for before the light can reach it, the fiend vanishes.

From out of the hole, a being rises slowly, a bearded giant, his skin aglow with an inner radiance, Alasha'an floating in his wake.  Slowly his head turns as he looks around the chamber.  Raising his arm, a long oak-shafted spear appears in his hand which he lifts above his head.

The mountain stops, rights itself as the floor levels out, though you do not feel the motion, merely the cessation.

"I am Lugh," the radiant giant tells you, calmly.  "What has befallen here ?"


OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...

Hamin almost falls into the hole as the castle rights itself, but manages to scramble out and stand upright on the floor.

The sight of the deity surprises him.  he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a god.  Suddenly aware of his own lack of piety, he responds automatically.  "I don't really know ...  er ... Sir?" he adds hoping that is a suitable form of address for one of The Mother's Consorts.

Brugar is at first purely jubilant that the demon has been banished so successfully.

"Yeah, take that you stupid demon! Yer stupid magicks don't work on me! Yer lucky ye canna stand the light or Ah'd 'ave carved ye up like a roast turkey on mid-winter's eve."

It is only when he hears the giant's voice that he turns and stares, then breaks into a huge grin.

"'Ow long ye been locked in there then? D'ye know about 'ow the dark gods been ruling these lands an' defeated or locked away or banished the Mother an' 'er Consorts, or summat like that?" he asks.

"How long ..."

Lugh echos Brugar's words, his gaze seemingly turned somewhere else, perhaps beyond even this mortal plane.

"The People have forgotten me," he states, his expression blank. "My priests are no more, none yet living even remember me.  "Some of their kin, perhaps," his head turns, unseeing towards Alasha'an and Ayas, "but even they think me gone.  Lost."

"How long has it been ... an Age as you reckon it, two, three ?  Perhaps even longer."

"I remember ... Darkness.  Cold."

"Math did this.  The Dark Savant.  Him you know ?"  his gaze returns as he focuses it upon you.

”Aye, we know this be done by Math. All four of the dark gods done summat like this but we knew this one were Math’s. There be one of them illusion weavin’ wizards in control of this tower an’ ‘is lieing witch of an apprentice somewhere downstairs. Don’t s’pose ye’d like to ‘elp deal with them, would ye?” Brugar asks as he chats amicably with Lugh.

"All of the Foe ... then I was but the first," Lugh's radiant face hardens in anger at this news.

"Which of my brothers have been so ensnared ?" he asks the Dwarf.

"You speak of those set to watch over my captivity, I presume ?  Their petty glamours will not hide them from me ..."

The god's eyes go distant once more, but for but a short time.  "Evil and greedy they might be, children of the Dark, but not so foolish as to remain to face my wrath.  They have gone, it seems, though even as they fled they sort to destroy me."

He seems amused by this, rather than offended.

"A small matter."  You feel the mountain begin to descend, slowly, then come to a gradual stop.  "There, if not back where it belongs, then at least in a place to which it is more suited."

"I will find them," he promises Brugar, smiling good-naturedly at the Dwarf, "and they and I will discuss their role in this at length."

As Lugh speaks he looks around the chamber, his gaze falling upon the small wire birdcage suspended from the ceiling.  With a gesture he causes the cage to drop slowly to the stone flags below, whence it fades away.  You can barely make out the tiny creature that is revealed, but that lasts but a moment as it suddenly grows taking the form of a huge winged and horned beast, the blue-white scales that adorn its body exuding wisps of fog, its snout short but filled with sharp teeth.

"Another prisoner here, in need of rescue," the god remarks.  [Language unknown: "It earundalltioati na a e cestr, manstrpre der,"] he addresses the creature.

OOC: Map of the proceedings updated ...
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:56, Thu 06 Jan 2022.

Hamin steps back sharply as the creature from the cage grows to its full size and eyes it warily.  But then anything that Math has imprisoned, deserves to be free.   Probably.

He thinks for a moment, then pulls out a shard of the green material, "This is from the seal that Rhiannon set.  A great dragon filled with the light of the sun burst forth when we broke that door open.  That was a difficult time, a great friend of mine perished there.  Then there was the door under the city of undead.  A man gave his life to break that seal." Hamin says recalling the basics of those expeditions.

He goes quiet for a moment, "The world outside goes ill, although we have visted with and spoken to the few remaining daughters.  So all is not yet lost."


OOC: Laptop and local wifi  just about behaving today!

"Aye, it were the Great Serpent were freed when we broke the seals an' unlocked Rhiannon's  portal in the Cold Waste. Sun shone bright for a while after that afore the skies clouded over again.

"Arawn's portal were under his City of the Dead, but it were Seker what were released from that one.

"Now Math's portal 'as been opened 'ere in this flyin' tower an' it be yerself as been freed.

"Well, Ah reckon that must mean there be only one to go, though we don't rightly know where Morrigan's portal is to be found. Don't s'pose ye got any ideas where that's likely be, do ye?" Brugar asks Lugh.

"Ancient gods," Lugh ponders.

"The Serpent and its worshipers were roused from their long sleep by mortals, long long ago, while those same mortals foolishly tried to bind Seker thinking to harness the power of starlight that he commands."

"Rhiannon, I do not ... ah, she has taken the Aspect of the Moon with stolen power to raise herself up, as Math stole mine, though he to raise himself yet higher.  But never high enough."

He snorts.  "The Dark Gods learned much from you.  And we would have done well to take note of where that would lead them."

"You have done well."

"Yet neither the Serpent nor Seker would I count as brother ... you say one more is yet bound as I was ?  Belenus, then, if the skies are darkened, for he is the Fire of the Sun where I am the Light that Shines."

His gaze goes blank for a moment.  "No, I sense him above, not he."

"Who then ?"

The dragon bows its long, sinuous neck before Lugh's radiance,  its misty form wavering between solidity and insubstantiality almost like a mortal might inhale and exhale.

[Language unknown:  "Whionepro erathatic et is ?"] it sounds surprised but grateful as it replies to the god in its ancient tongue.

"Ezoran and I have fought before," it continues, choosing to speak the common language of mortals, "but this time he bested me.  He seemed to think that the secrets of the flying mountain were known to me and that with that knowledge he would gain control of it ... but the Deceiver fooled only himself.  What need have I for such a construct as this when I am one with the Air itself ?  He will regret his mistake and his cruelty."

"You have my thanks too," it tells you.  "I am in your debt."

"The skies be darkened 'cause of them clouds what never parts," Brugar noted. "Elder Bellows, well, whenever there were clouds as dark as that it were Daghdha what Elder Bellows always blamed, 'cause 'e be the Storm Bringer, ain't 'e? Of course, our clan priest insisted Daghdha sends rain in season to water the crops, and stirs the wind to spread the seeds of trees and plants, so it weren't fair to blame 'im for gettin' a bit carried away with 'is winter storms an' the like. Mind ye, if the Storm Bringer brought this lot on, 'e got more'n just carried away this time!"

Hamin thinks over his sketchy knowledge of the gods - if only he had paid attention - as he notices the gods that Lugh lists are all associated with light of some sort.

"My brother is mercurial," Lugh tells Brugar, "but not cruel.  Daghdha would not bring these mists," his focus shifts again as he reaches out to see them for himself, "more like the Dark Gods have corrupted the land itself."

"If so, then that would mean ..."

His countenance glows every brighter as anger etches itself upon his features as he determines the truth of what has transpired.

"They dared !  They have bound the Urthe Mother herself !"

Hamin pales at the very thought, "Bound the Urthe Mother?  How ...  Where ..."

While he was never a religious man, Hamin finds that possibility disconcerting, and his thoughts turn to the Daughters.  "Perhaps the last of the Daughters ..." although he is unsure what the daughters might be able to do or say.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:27, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

Brugar picks up a piece of the broken seal and grips it so tightly in his fist that the edges crumble and sift through his fingers to scatter on the floor. Then he hurls the rest of it into the pit in anger.

"Damn them all back to the 'ells that spawned 'em!" he exclaims.

Then he looks up at Lugh to voice the question that just occurred to him.

"If ye can sense the Mother's been bound, can ye tell where that be?" he asks hopefully.

Stunned by the destruction of the globe that imprisoned Lugh, Alasha'an has only been half-listening to the discussion, yet comes to at the revelation that the Urthe Mother is trapped behind the last portal.

"Oh gods," the elf murmurs.

"Sorry," she dips her head to Lugh.

"Seker is an old god, last of his kind, forgotten now by mortals ... as I have been," Lugh smiles wryly, "though that is of no import.  He and I you might name cousins."

"The Great Serpent is ancient and if ever that one had kin then it consumed them long ago."

"The power they stole from us three when they bound us may have sufficed to allow them in turn to bind the Urthe herself.  And She is as far above those of us who are her consorts as we are above you ... with Her shackled, the Dark Gods had power enough and more to wrought as they would."

"Her Daughters will have been cut off from her grace - until she is free they are powerless to help."

"But the path you walk may yet lead to salvation.  How you set foot upon it would make a tale that Oghma himself would delight in the telling !"

"But they cannot, will not, conceal Her from my gaze ..."

Lugh closes his eyes one more, stretching his awareness to the far reaches.

"There.  I have found Her.  Her prison lies far beneath the ground buried 'neath earth and stone, in a place named Garek Enkdal ... the City of Ten Thousand Blades !"

"These mists that cloak the lands as a corpse-shroud shall not stand !  With Belenus at my side the Light will shine bright and sweep them away like fallen leaves before a broom.  So too I shall rally the other gods to challenge The Morrigan and her fell lackeys to turn their eyes from you."

"A final roll of the dice to win the game !"

"City of Ten Thousand Blades? Aye, that be makin' sense. We been told the key to unlock that portal be a sword, though no clue as to which sword that be. A City of Ten Thousand Blades sounds like a fine place to 'ide that one special sword, don't it?" Brugar responds thoughtfully.

"Mind ye, summat tells me we oughta fetch Calanor's sword with us when we go there. Might not be the one - ye'd be sure to get long odds bettin' against it - but Ah recall as Saffaris thought it important enough to remind us of it afore we lost her."

That reminder of the price that has already been paid silences Brugar for a while.

Eventually he glances around at his companions again.

"Ah ain't never 'eard of no City of Ten Thousand Blades, though, not by the name of Garek Enkdal anyways. Do that ring a bell for any of the rest of ye?" he asks.

Hamin listens as Lugh responds to Brugar's questions, his brow furrowing as the various gods he doesn't recognize are put into their appropriate places in heaven's hierarchy.  However, a slight smile crosses his face as Lugh talks about rallying the others gods - apparently as unit of deities providing a diversion to disguise their direct attack, appeals to him in some way.

However, Brugar's mention of Saffaris, and her loss, wipes even that small smile from his face, although he nods at the idea of taking Calanor's sword with them.

"Nor I." he responds as the dwarf asks abouy the underground city's location.

"It does," Alasha'an replies grimly, lips tightening in sympathy as she shares the loss of Saffaris and Calanor with man and dwarf, reluctant to add to that burden, yet..

"Venelia," another companion now dead, "once told me a tale concerning one of the drow who returned to his home in a place called Garek Enkdal by way of a passage hidden beneath the roots of a blasted tree in some ruins that lay some way outside of Kalibar."

"Kalibar might not be there any more, but that entrance might be - may even be forgotten now, if luck favors us. And luck is your province I believe?" she smiles at Lugh.

"That's where Inurien's door took us, before delivering us to the Pit," she nods at Hamin. "Where we lost Nanoc."

"Before we were graced with your presence," the elf assures Brugar and Yetta.

She snorts. "Looks like we're coming full circle. Melzakre's long gone be he live or dead, for all his face keeps popping up, so there's just the two of us left from that little foray."

Hamin nods as Alasha'an speaks of long gone memories, from an age ago but, for a moment, remains silent in the presence of his god.  Then, quietly, he says "It is worth as try, if we don't have anything else to go on." and glances up, deferentially, at the deity before him.

Your plans take shape ...

The Halls of the Master where Calinor's corpse and his sword reside lie not far from the mean village of Osen'tauri where Alasha'an and Brugar recall a fraught night spent at the Ferryboat Tavern assailed by the fiends the locals called Night Things ... and that ill-favoured establishment in turn was fortuitously but a few miles north and west of the stepped temple where you entered the portal, though you are unsure quite were you might be now after your transportation to the flying mountain and its subsequent grounding, but thanks to Lugh's intervention you did not crash to the earth, and there is some hope the portal might still function to allow your swift return.

From there, the journey to the molten land where Kalibar once stood is about sixteen leagues, and the ruins somewhat further though no more than a day's travel by Venelia's account.  You do recall that the Master of the Halls had command of the mirrors by which you were able to travel to Talhamnoduin, Iskbridge that was, and you might be able to use them to at least reduce the length of the journey somewhat.

How you might sneak unnoticed into Garek Enkdal, the City of Ten Thousand Blades ... perhaps the time betwixt now and when you arrive there might yield some ideas.

And while the rescue of the Urthe Mother herself might seem a daunting task, you are buoyed by what you have achieved thus far ... and in the knowledge that the God of Radiance will rouse his fellows to lift the veil of mists that cloak the lands, and bring the fight to the Dark Gods themselves !

With final words of gratitude, Dragon and God depart to see to their tasks.  A final search of the few remaining rooms on this level of the tower reveals a not insubstantial amount of coin, jewellery and gemstones, though nothing in the way of enchanted items - assumedly the Deceiver and his accomplice bore whatever they had upon their persons, else either hid it too well or made sure to collect it before they departed !

Retracing your steps, it takes some time before you emerge once more into the courtyard ... squinting at the bright light from Belenus' Orb that shines down, warming the land and driving back the mists, much as it has done each time you broke the seal which bound a god in thrall, though you have some hope that this time the mists might not return.

Since you neither recognise any landmarks nor wish to chance the climb down, you chance the return passage through the Portal ... which thankfully proves uneventful.  Emerging from the stepped temple, you turn north west, skirting the foothills as you head towards the Sankaduin, the Snake River that was, and the hamlet of Osen'tauri, taking the first steps on a path that may well see the Prophesy fulfilled at last ...

OOC: momentary pause in case there are any loose threads you wish to pursue before we continue on.  :>

Brugar seems much happier now that he is away from the enchanted hallways of the flying tower and back on solid ground again. He keeps an eye open for any sign of animals suitable to hunt for the cooking pot as they travel but isn't too concerned about that as the journey to Osen'tauri is not a long one.

"Ah bet ye be lookin' forward to a good night's sleep, Ayas - no, Ah forgot, you long-eared folk don't sleep, do ye? A nice restful trance, then? So ye can prepare yer spells afresh in he morning?"

The elf can not shake off his recent experiences as easily as the dwarf.

"I doubt that I will be able to calm my mind enough to enter trance after all that has happened!", the young man shakes his head.

"I struggled enough to believe that I possessed the power of true magic, and moreso that the sleepers of the prophecy would prove real. And now I have seen a mountain fly and a god unbound.."

"Oh, I won't have any trouble sleeping. Especially after a few beers ...."  Hamin says with a grin.