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Runtime Break start
6h 30m 1h 51m

Episode 101: Downfall: Part Three

For those coming back, the gods have not only infiltrated the city of Aeor, but have infiltrated Exandria itself. A plan decades in the making while Exandria remained choked under ash and beset by monstrous hordes of the armies of the gods both Prime and Betrayer alike.
A plan was hatched to bypass the magical wards of the mighty city of Aeor; for the gods to take mortal form to pass those boundaries that only mortals could pass.
Having arrived in Aeor disguised as humble ground-dwelling mortals bringing food. Probably the last thing tethering Aeor to terrestrial Exandria. The gods and their companions discovered that they would need to work quickly, that the Factorum Malleus was all but operational.
Moving swiftly, our divine protagonists (we have to wait to find out if the word ‘heroes’ is appropriate or not) discovered the Archmage Cassida Preven who was working on the Factorum Malleus. Part of a secret society of Aeorian archmages dedicated to helping the Prime Deities win the Calamity. After all this is a war between gods isn’t it? Or are they not so much enemies as family?
We also discovered the Obtenebrator Engine and beneath it The Scribe (an Aeormaton tasked with operating the massive obfuscation that is hiding the city from divine sight, but also in the event of an emergency, broadcast the schematics of the Factorum Malleus across Exandria; an insurance policy should the gods somehow bypass Aeor’s defenses). It took less than six seconds for you to dispatch them.
We return now to an extra-dimensional holding chamber (a “back room” if you will) of the Ars Elysia (the hidden speakeasy/society of beauty/nightclub run by SILAHA aka The Arch Heart). Within this realm, you now appear:

  • The six of you
  • Cassida Preven (one of the archmages who crafted the Factorum Malleus)
  • Your sister and companion Arcadia (also masquerading as an Aeorian archmage; one of the two deities to have spent some time in Aeor.
  • Zaharzht, Father Milo Caust, and Tishar

All of you dwell now under scintillating silver light forming an ovoid sphere with elongated twinkling silver strands in all directions. You do not stand on the floor so much as you hover in suspended space here in the middle. Though it is clean and scintillating and extra-dimensional, perhaps you can smell that not very long ago, a celestial died here.
You have removed the Obtenebrator Engine and thus the gods can see Aeor. You have removed the Eravox Protocol and thus their insurance policy to disseminate this knowledge has faded. In that engine room you heard winds kick up outside; omens of things to come. All that remains is the destruction of the Latimus Princeps that force keeping the gods physically away and keeping you definitively mortal. That Latimus Princeps has been integrated to and built within the weapon itself.
You have one task remaining, but can you agree on what that task is? As we enter this chamber and Cassida (standing by Trist’s side) looks as Zaharzht coughing blood. Tishar goes and flanks Cassida on the other side and puts her chin close to Cassida’s shoulder and sniffs,
Tishar:”Mortal. Funny.”
Cassida looks to all of you now gathered here after the flash of combat and feels the power radiating off of all of you (who have just unmade decades of arcane work in a matter of seconds),
Cassida:“Who is everyone here? Are you…?”
Tishar reaches up a hand and puts it on Cassida’s back.
Tishar:“This person is supposed to be here? Or they leave?”
Tishar grabs the hair on the back of her (Cassida) head. Trist takes Cassida’s hand and looks at Tishar.
Trist:”She’s with me. Please take your hand away.”

Previous Episode: “Downfall: Part Two”

Artwork by KuyaSerge

  • UltragrampsOPMEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago
    • 05:33:43 *The mortal forms of the Spider Queen, The Crawling King, and the Ruiner, waiting for their chance to bend this weapon towards all of you are instead destroyed as the energy redirects towards them.
    • 05:36:10 Ayden:“…I wanted to save them.”
      Okay “sunburst”
    • 05:37:38 Asmodeus:“I HATE YOU! And I always will! Forever! Until the stars twinkle out of the sky! Until nothing is left but darkness, I will hate you. Forever.”
    • 05:44:09 Fan Art Moment The Raven Queen embracing Everlight and enfolding them in her wings with the freshly ruined city of Aeor in the background.
    • 05:45:14 We learn Hallis was sent somewhere in Exandria
    • 05:46:43 The sun begins to rise as all ascend. You watch the roiling as the Storm Lord pushing the city. Speeding up. Let none survive this crash.
      Far above, you are joined by your sister who appears in this moment. As your form passes, Wildmother, you appear here above the clouds. The Lawbearer arrives and the Knowing Mistress stands with you.
      “The Lord of Hells will not be long gone. Once the city crashes, they will gather the others and they will know we are here. We should not dawdle long.”
    • 05:48:58 Ioun:"At the last minute, why didn’t you come? (to help finish the mission)
      TLawBs:“For love. If something were to happen to her, I could not break my own rules to save her. So I gave up my son. (to RQ) Thank you for taking care of him.”
      RQ:“He was a pure heart.”
    • 05:50:22 Everlight:“You carry a weight much heavier than all of us. I don’t know how you do it.”
      RQ:“It is the path I chose.”
    • 05:51:54 TLawBs:“We have broken this place.”
      Ioun:“I agree.”
      Everlight:“As do I.”
      Wildmother:“We have. Now what?” Ioun:“There is a way. Our efforts have been half measures. We seek to do as we did before, not to kill our kin who oppose us or place them in realms of their own design that they craft into some torture (perhaps to torment us, I do not know). It will not last unless we close the door behind us.”
      RQ:“This is the only home I’ve ever known.”
      Wildmother:“This is ours. No.”
      TLawBs:“Look how far they came, my love. They almost took it from us by force.”
      Wildmother:“I don’t want to go.”
      RQ:“If we do this, it protects them from the others as well.”
      Dawnfather:“We protect them.”
      TLawBs:“Do we? Look at what you have wrought, Dawnfather.”
      RQ:“I have ushered many souls, this day.”
      TLawBs:“We killed them for being good. My heart is tired.”
    • 05:56:20 Ioun:“…we will address this Calamity. I believe that we can end it. We just must try and be willing to do whatever it takes.”
    • 05:57:34 TLawBs:“A forest with rules…Please tell me all about my son (The Emissary).”
      The Wildmother and Law Bearer depart.
    • 05:58:41 Everlight asks RQ to extend the threads or return the souls of Topher and Hailey and is told it is not possible. The RQ pulls two strong threads into view. “They will do great things and then you will see them again.”
    • 06:01:58 Arch Heart:“You know, in my heart I knew this was all going to happen. I mean, they’re our children after all. They’re gonna go out there, do their own thing. It’s what we did…They will always be with us. Like a scar.”
    • 06:07:31 When first the gods came to Exandria, they came from a realm of eternal possibility. Their first and greatest sacrifice was to become real. Now reflected in that first tragedy, that first calamity, it’s a reflection:
      In short, brief life can even the infinite change, realize, recognize, commit to something new, singular. To move forward on the paths of destiny and fate. Changed. Beautiful as the dawn. We do not see the gods, we only see light.

    MFMM replaces BLeeM
    Light.
    Endless light. A fractured divine memory, captured in a long lost relic. Bits have cracked and ruined history realized once again. As the light fades, here in this dark subterranean room, the ruination of a great and terrifying city, these memories, they surface once more here in this glistening arcane sphere in the hands of a man born in the lingering fires of what the gods have done.
    Here, the light has echoes.
    Here, who knows the danger these ripples might have.