Quick Summary
The team faces their most deadly battle yet. Solstice leads the offensive. Ellsee convinces Yunan to reconsider. Chicory activates Kairos' paragon state. The Hammer falls. Atropus arrives.
Session Recap
As Yunan joined the fight, Rin tossed Solstice a smoke bomb and raced towards them on Solstice’s order to steal their eyepatch. Chicory found themself cornered by both the spellhound and the Doldrone; Solstice tossed the smoke bomb to give them cover. After teleporting into the air to land a series of bloodthirsty blows on Ishalba, Laetus pulled himself away from his revenge to run to Chicory’s defence, and they used the cover of the smoke to get distance and cast Rime’s binding ice on both of their opponents.
Solstice found herself the target of The Hammer’s formidable psionic power and retaliated with the Hashalaq’s share pain ability. She drew on her sorcerous power to cast sickening radiance, but Ishalba’s spellhound nullified the spell and freeing itself with its howl. The Magpie taunted Yunan to draw their attacks and Ellsee cast entangle, allowing Rin to steal their eye patch.
While Ellsee had Yunan restrained, she attempted to reason with them, asking why they were fighting on behalf of people who would not defend them and forcing them to confront that they were merely a captive and a tool of the kaliesh’erai. Ellsee intuited that they still believed in the Voices’ cause, but that their confidence in their own role had been shaken and they no longer wished to fight. They confessed to their fear that there was nowhere they could go where the Voices would not find them, but with Ellsee’s targeted persuasion and her reassurance that the team’s distraction would give them a head start, they threw their torc of teleportation into the ocean and fled the scene.
After Solstice wracked Ishalba with a powerful shatter, she asked the team if they were “so shortsighted” that they would put “personal grievances” above the safety of all Ambar, but Solstice refuted her claim that the Kaliesh’erai are their protectors. Ellsee switched from her dragon constellation to the archer as she backed up Solstice with offensive magic, and Chicory targeted Ishalba with Kairos shots until they were pushed off the roof. The sacrifice of the Doldrone was able to heal The Hammer and her spellhound summoned two allies, but the team didn’t back down.
After Ishalba’s concussive wave sent Rin flying and damaged Solstice and Laetus heavily, Arye began to fly towards the fight. Solstice’s determination and trust in Ellsee empowered her to get off another powerful shatter just before the spellhounds fell on her unconscious form. Ellsee drew on her love for her friends and cast mass healing word, bringing Solstice and Rin back from the brink of death
Arye swooped in and reached out to heal Chicory. Having realised that Ishalba’s platinum staff controlled the spellhound summons, Chicory took a risk on a truly legendary called shot and successfully knocked the staff out of her hand, sending it flying towards Solstice. In this moment of triumph, Kairos awakened to its paragon state for the first time, allowing Chicory to lay into Ishalba with a powerful mortal shot.
When the battle had reached its highest pitch and the Laetus lay dying, Ishalba used her warp space ability and made to flee, but an external force snapped her portal shut and a reverberating telepathic voice commanded her to “return victorious, or not at all”. Solstice pointed out that she had been abandoned, but though Ishalba was very afraid, she was determined not to fail. Solstice attempted to persuade her towards true cooperation in the defence of Ambar, and Ellsee pointed out that corruption had tainted the Voices’ original goals. As The Hammer hesitated, The Magpie urged the team that she couldn’t be trusted and to end the problem. Ellsee brought Laetus back to consciousness with a healing word, and Rin, Chicory, and Solstice all held attacks.
Ellsee tried one more time to persuade Ishalba to stand down, but her belief was too deeply entrenched. Understanding that she was outnumbered and overpowered, and unable to return victorious, she expended the remainder of her psionic power and fell beneath the team’s held attacks. Drawn into Ishalba’s emotions, Ellsee experienced the moment of her death and flashes of her life before their eyes.
As Ellsee screamed in overwhelm, the clouds churned and darkened to a deep red; Solstice caught sight of three ghostly lights floating above the water of the harbour; and Chicory realised that what was beginning to fall from the sky was not ash, but snow that melted to necrotic blood.