The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad
Aengus reunited with the party;
As they observed the Scarlet Moon Hall;
A haze of smoke quite hearty;
Choked out the air of and left a pall.
Shapes fluttered in the air above;
Leathery wings patrolling the smoky sky;
And hounds of sorts did push and shove;
Along paths beside cultists applying their eye.
Quickly a series of infiltrations were loosed;
Marle veiled in magic flitted through the air;
Aengus strolled through the fire cult's roost;
Lohn a shadow avoiding their hated stare.
Drifting through the smoky haze;
Marle found the edge of the bats' senses;
And twisted between them directing her gaze;
To count the flames of consequences.
Lohn slipped among the rocks unseen;
Finding arcane wards defending the cult;
Which they subverted to a purpose keen;
Fire to ice to hit the flame as a catapult.
Aengus slipped past the defenses unshackled;
And joined alongside the cultist numbers;
He worked his way up to where fire crackled;
To poison hell hounds and sabotage runners.
Prisoners were found in a quick stockade;
Beaten, bruised and on the edge of life;
Only living to be into sacrifices made;
It was necessary to bring quick end to strife.
With the duergar directing intelligence;
On the whispers of a simple spell;
A charge was planned to end the arrogance;
Moving stealthily through the air most fell.
Not wolves nor fire-hearted soldiers saw them pass;
Until Elizar Dryflagon saw Emris leaping the fence;
He called a warning to his fellows en masse;
But too late to stir them to timely defense.
The noble fey steed broke down the gates;
As Talindra saw a young druidess in passing;
Cradled in her hands, touched by unkind fates;
A dead pixie over which she was crying.
Incited to action at the clear cruelty;
The paladin called down a blast of moonlight;
Cutting into Elizar and two cronies duly;
Searing them with fey wrath burning bright.
The displaced child of another world;
Swooped low on unseen tiefling wings;
"Love is a battlefield" from her lips unfurled;
As Shandrilar's Song thunderously rings.
Elizar stands against moonlight and thunder;
As priests fall about him and arrows fly past;
But he had not yet come ready to sunder;
His enemies as before him came a monk fast.
Fennle lashed out with many a blow;
The first ringing a cascade of ki;
Scattering Elizar's body, mind and soul;
Taking away any control to be.
Down in the camps, Aengus traveled the crowds;
Confused by the light and fury above;
But with no alarm and the smoke in clouds;
Did not yet realize that upon them battle had dove.
The assassin found one bugbear on his own;
And slipped a blade through his heart;
Taking the body off behind many stones;
And seeking another target from whom life to part.
The former druid had not the will or presence;
To even form the word of awakening;
Trapped in a stunned form without the sense;
To so much as step out of the moonlit beam.
Nothing could he even do as on wings an angel came;
Flanked by a host of celestial soldiers;
Amongst the servants of the abhorrent Eternal Flame;
With wrath went far past a smoulder.
A hellhound charged through Elivia's aura fabled;
Slowed by angelic host and celestial blade;
As a bugbear rushed to the gong Aengus disabled;
Thus found no way to alert others to the raid.
The paladin swept her moonbeam across;
Searing to death priests and hellhounds alike;
As Marle loosed a bolt leaving an enemy cross;
And added a dagger that did little more in a strike.
A priest stood and cast fire at the nimble monk;
Before calling on the flaming heart of a wicker giant;
Which strode forward it's body a great fiery trunk;
It set about its task in a manner most compliant.
Fennle unleashed her kienzan in a flurry;
Striking into the living flame swift and sharp;
The radiant blasts trying to give the fire worry;
And whining through the air an off-tune harp.
Hellhounds and bugbears swarmed forward;
Crossing the courtyard and fighting the host;
But only one made a way most tortured;
To breathe a lash of flame the heroes to roast.
The beam of moonlight and host of angels;
Fell away as the wash of fire came over the heroes;
Leaving them open to counter from many angles;
And enemies were coming in rows.
Below, Aengus tried to kill another foe;
But his sword clanged across the sharp armor;
And a grim-burned warrior turned to show;
A heart replaced by an eternally burning cinder.
He scarpered away into the haze of smoke;
The razerblast calling alarm and pursuit;
And to the presence of intruders the camp woke;
Though away from the battle above in the soot.
Soldiers and cultists swarmed for the assassin;
Stumbling upon the locksmith claimed traps;
Erupting in bursts of ice making ranks grow thin;
As they searched and missed him in smoky gaps.
The guard seeking to raise alarm fell to an arrow;
From out of nowhere and striking him down;
Leaving the camp still believing the threat below;
Where they pursued a ghost like many a clown.
Elivia turned a guiding bolt on to Elizar;
Slaying him in a burst of divine wrath;
Asking of Mystra to remove a seared scar;
And moving to a position out of enemy path.
Below a monstrous wolf seeks Aengus;
But stumbles upon one of the subverted wards;
And the shower of ice triggers some anguish;
Sending his howl out skywards.
An answering howl from elsewhere comes to ears;
And Talindra the sound of werewolves did know;
But betrayal by the cult was chief in their fears;
And so the wolves left the field at speed not slow.
The elemental reached out to grab at the priestess;
Drawing the ire of Fennle's spear;
Who braved the burning touch in close distance;
And still Elivia's tabards burning dear.
Taindra sliced through the remaining hellhounds;
Spilling their guts of fungus poisoned rot;
And drawing attention from across the grounds;
As bugbears swarm to her by the lot.
Marle abandoned her crossbow and dropped;
Shandrilar's Song and Nailbiter in hand;
By the razerblast's defense her blows were not stopped;
And the returning strikes failed to land.
Fennle returned to unleashing blasts of sharpened ki;
Avoiding touching the pillar of living flame;
While slaying one bugbear charging past where she be;
And whittling the elemental further out of the game.
Above Lohn heard movement in the keep;
And acted to lock the doors against egress;
The gloves creating an arcane sweep;
And shutting reinforcements within the address.
Down below Aengus shook his most dogged pursuer;
And kept the confusion up to a high degree;
As he bought time for the primary force of rescuers;
He still remained out of combat free.
Elivia took the time to put out her fire;
Before calling for the might of Mystra once more;
Into a hand of divine force and mighty ire;
Which snuffed the elemental as battle still tore.
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