Smith (Jaela, Calleigh, Surraruthru)

[Yuthirin]

Is Balyss still with our group?

[Anastasia]

Yes.

[Corwin]

Yes.

[Yuthirin]

Tryll bends his stupendously impressive brain power to wringing a weakness out of this. Some of the words thundering across the area taste...purple? And white. Yes. Taste? No. Hear? Maybe. Not important!

'Balyss! Remember the Sending you received! I have reason to believe the Sword of the Moon you spoke of earlier is nearby! Do you know how to retrieve it?'

[Corwin]

'Yes,' Balyss responds with certainty, the missing piece falling into place. Offering a prayer to Selune through high-powered magic hadn't done the trick, but perhaps it is time for a simple, earnest prayer!

[Anastasia]

As Jaela charges and Moore calls on his magic, Balyss says a prayer. A simple invocation to Selune - and amid all the chaos, the unreality that seems to shift and force you alone? It falls away, naught but an illusion. For from a remote corner floats a forgotten sword, seemingly invisible to all. The lost Sword of the Moon waits there, as if always meant to be. It sheds moonlight, seeming to chastise the dark chaos around you and restore sanity. It awaits, floating serenely.

Jaela, Moore and Tryll have already acted. Surraruthru has not, in case he wants to do anything here. Likewise, Baleruk and Tepen are also still free.

[Yuthirin]

SUCCESS!

[Corwin]

Jaela aborts her charge, privately feeling a bit foolish. Just what can possibly fool her sight with a mere illusion? And why? Does it mean the poison is also not real?

She decides to take a clearer look of things, even as her comrades rally together.

This does abort my Miracle, for better of worse. I'd like to figure out just what's going on right now, and what the best course of action is. If I still think using Miracles to settle things are, if I think Balyss should grab the sword, if I think we might be best served just waiting....

Taking ten for... K:A=52, K:R=58, K:P=58, Spellcraft=45.

If Miracle is the way to go, I'm fine with either using the existing rolls (passed spell failure, CL roll of 1 for result of 26) or rerolling (spell failure 50%, +25 CL roll).

[Iron Dragoon]

Surraruthru eyes the area suspiciously as his spell fades away with almost no effect, then eyes Balyss disgruntledly.

"Well, that was entirely too simple. It's never that easy. A prayer to Seira, at least, would have been better..."

He does, however, fly a circle around everyone, inspecting them for injuries, then lands on Kascha's shoulder, standing guard against any stragglers from the near by battles.

[Anastasia]

As Baleruk roars wordless defiance, Elder Magi Tepen flies to the sword. He grabs it, moonlight slicing through everything around you. You stand in ever-changing emptiness, yet it hardly matters. Before all of you is a figure in a black robe, face hidden by a hood. He seems ghostly and far away, one hand out. This hand's palm opens up into the fanged mouth of a snake. From it comes endless venom, a tidal wave that constantly soaks you. At the same time, he holds back a tremendous cluster of lights and magic with his other hand, preventing it from going forward.

Jaela knows this creature from her reports of Aurora's previous struggles. It is a projection of the Adversary, the new Oinoloth. His power is holding your spells back as surely as his poison steals away your lives.

Yet as you watch this, spectral images surround him. A great dragon of golden fire, the full moon, an elf woman with three faces, a thick tome. The magic he holds grows stronger in the light of the Sword of the Moon,

"The Astral is not your own!" The great dragon demands in a voice that can shake mountains, "Leave!"

"Flee or be cast aside, Oinoloth!" The moon declares, the that of a young woman, old and young at once.

"Will you challenge us together? It has been a long time since one took arms against the Triune." The three-faced elf demands.

"Your servants are defeated, fiend. Leave now or face us all. The book's voice is quieter than the others, but no less assured. "Will you risk all on Pale Night's support?"

Then - the figure withdraws back and is gone. The lights he was holding back surge forward, for a moment the bleeding rift exposed to your eyes.

There is a great shuddering moment and then you float in the Astral once more. The real Astral, the rift gone. Broken obsidian lies about, but no further signs of immediate conflict. From behind you are wailing cries, the images of several skeletal liches bursting aflame before vanishing. Soon only Vlaakith remains there, surrounded in a nimbus of sheer, bright arcane power. Pulsing undead and obsidian buildings of them soon follow, while the surviving dreadnoughts rupture like overripe fruits.

Free act.

[Corwin]

Exhausted but quite happy with the outcome, Jaela laughs! "Kascha!" she calls out. "Make sure Aurora knows we not only succeeded, but had no casualties!"

And since she's there and so is Vlaakith, Jaela drifts towards the gith queen slow enough to not appear as a threat in the aftermath of such an intense battle for her.

[Nephrite]

Moore can't spend any time reveling in their victory. He takes a breath and immediately flies over towards Vlaakith, stopping a respectful distance away, along with Jaela.

He takes a breath and bows, knowing his actions may have consequences, but seemingly to not care about how this goes. If it goes badly, so be it -- it's the right thing to do.

"Lady Vlaakith. My name is Moore, from Aurora. I know bits and pieces of the story and history between us and you, but regardless of where our paths take us past here, please accept my heartfelt thanks, and that of Celestia, for your actions here -- regardless of any differences we may have on the grander spectrum." Moore bows again to her -- it's the right thing to do. Regardless of good or evil, law or chaos, angel or demon, she was instrumental in allowing their forces to even get to the rift in the first place and should be thanked for such.

"Ah... sorry, Lady Jaela, that was probably your intent as well." Moore says with a small smile. "But perhaps I can just thank her on behalf of Celestia then, rather than anything else."

[Anastasia]

As Kascha goes to do exactly that, Jaela drifts towards the Queen of the Githyanki. Vlaakith is almost fully hidden, the sheer power and items around her projecting a palpable, terrifying field of power. Moore quickly joins Jaela, as you feel the lich queen's gaze on you.

'There will be another time and another place for us,' Vlaakith says, 'But this is not it.' You can virtually taste the malice in her voice as she says, 'But not today, for there are liches to instruct on the folly of their mistakes.'

[Nephrite]

Oh, that's right, Afina had said something about phylacteries.

Well, once they're done, Moore will look around for some, presuming that Vlaakith doesn't take them all when she departs, anyway.

[Iron Dragoon]

Surraruthru places himself between Kascha as she does her thing and Vlaakith. She's powerful and not confirmed as entirely friendly just yet.

He also eyes the area for any loot that could be snatched up. Priorities, after all.