The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad
The Eternal Flame wavered and choked;
The last of the foul priests sought refuge;
A blurring cast of smoke he evoked;
Hoping to dodge the heroic deluge.
A bugbear lashed out to strike the paladin;
Who kicked the weak blow away;
Mounted atop Emris above the battle din;
Talindra held the focus of the fray.
She lashed out with the Rosethorn Blade;
Unleashing a cascade of fey glints;
Which from bugbear eyes did not fade;
And of the heroes' positions only revealed hints.
The fey paladin charged on past the goblinoids;
Riding down the final priest;
Striking true no matter how much he avoids;
Leaving him to life only thinnly leased.
The tiefling then turned her attention to arcane arts;
And cast an image into his opponent's mind;
Of a tower of living water striking to fiery hearts;
Sending the Razerblast to fly behind.
Stricken in flight by Marle and Talindra;
The burning fool realized his mistake;
As the false water elemental away did draw;
Once it's figment nature was made to break.
Fennle turned her focus on the bugbears nearby;
Fists and spear flying in a whirl of blade and blood;
Whittling the beasts' life down by and by;
And unleashing a veritable crimson flood.
Down below Aengus stepped back away;
And made his own use of illusory skill;
Crafting an image of himself looking many ways;
And calling for aid, open to the kill.
Then the assassin stepped back into the smoke;
And called out for hasty reinforcement;
Then the gargoyle boots answered their yoke;
And gave him an outward stony comportment.
Lohn directed his attention the door;
At the base of the damaged tower;
But was defeated by the lock's condition poor;
And earned from the duergar a glower.
Within the towers, a being like a flaming dwarf;
Called commands to move out the door below;
Forgetting the intelligence of those in fire's wharf;
As the upper door they found to resistant to blow.
While Elivia took the chance to seal her own scars;
Recovering from her close call with the hungering flame;
And calling forth a god's great power from heaven's bars;
To form as a hand set to lay down the blame.
The priest ran for the scaffolding but did not get far;
As Talindra ran him down and finished the job;
Before heading back to the bugbears' terminal spar;
And strike down the mercenary with nary a bob.
Marle swept forward to strike the fiery hearted fool;
Shandrilar's Song slashing that and this way;
And singing out as the blood did pool;
Bringing the cardiac fire to pulse with death to play.
The last of bugbears fell to the monk's practiced hand;
Opening the way to the door beyond;
Giving more progress to the Eclectic Band;
A thing with which the Flame was not fond.
Aengus's clever illusion drew a small crowd;
Who gathered together and readied to attack;
Surging forward in a charge most loud;
Upon the subverted mind they landed in a stack.
Shards of ice and bitter cold through them ripped;
And exhausted a razorblast's furnace core;
With the burning heart into blackness slipped;
The cultist erupted into a cloud of shrapnel and gore.
In the distance more mines were stumbled upon;
Ending the life of more cultist warriors;
And closer came silence on the hillside to dawn;
One lucky guardian of flame among the followers.
A latecomer to the party came to the side of his captain;
A pained razerblast staring at the continuing illusion;
A mocking image of Aengus's searching form thin;
Before a crossbow bolt made an intrusion.
A new burst of shrapnel and gore;
Left the last zealot all on his own;
To face the assassin with nothing more;
Than what life had not spilled on stone.
But as Aengus' counted down in threat;
Lohn offered their fellow fire support;
And drawing a sigh from rogue's throat;
A call of "kill-stealer" being the retort.
Fennel set herself in the door;
And waited for enemies to present;
Having heard calls for foes out to pour;
The wrath of the sun ready to vent.
Carried there she was upon Emris;
While Talindra set upon the bugbears;
Bringing once again the Rosethorn kiss;
To do more than splitting hairs.
A magmin opened the door at the base;
Only to be carried forth on the tip of spear;
To back to the plane of their native place;
In a explosive burst that made for little fear.
Having foreseen the explosive end;
Marle turned from blade to spell;
And unleashed a song to rend;
Like a bell that with thunder did knell.
The last of the razorblasts on the field;
Erupted in the air above the hill;
The zealot's dogged refusal to yield;
Bringing him nothing but a hole to fill.
Talindra joined Fennel in the doorway;
The foes within to effectively pen;
As the under idiocy's tyrannical sway;
It was soon raining men.
One flame guardian missed his jump;
Failing the far ledge to land on his back;
In a pail of debris lying like a lump;
As magmin around him died in a stack.
Before he even came back to his feet;
Half his life had been stripped away;
By the death fires of a burning beat;
And yet he chose not to simply lay.
As his fellows leaped down around him;
He stood up to return to the fight;
As a javelin launched by the tiefling slim;
Struck in Mystra's guiding light.
To a guardian's memory came a simple thing;
About a device he had to hand;
Called a crossbow which bolts could fling;
And took aim for a bolt to land.
The monk snatched this out of the air;
And returned the bolt to the sender with flair;
The tossed bolt missed by but a hair;
And embedded within the wall of the lair.
Deciding that crossbows didn't work;
He leaped down below and fell on his back;
While the heroes watched with many a smirk;
He proved he shared intelligence's lack.
The the burning dwarf above, an azer true;
Set about placing a chain to claim down;
As a last magmin leaped and then up it blew;
Burning the other servants of flame's crown.
Marle flitted in upon her wings;
As Talindra traveled through fey mists;
To engage the dwarf with thorny stings;
The tiefling slashed through the lists.
A singular cascade of deep inspiring note;
Rang as Shandrilar's song slashed through;
Spreading through allies an ethereal mote;
From this blow that landed most true.
Elivia healed again to fighting trim;
Had brought light on the field in a rain;
Bringing Mystra's guidance to allies' limb;
And leaving the battle in their reign.
The paladin's blade swung to and fro;
Drawing burning blood from her foe;
Who turned away from her to lay a blow;
Meant to bring the tower low.
Still he failed to even dent the wall;
And grew an arrow from his skull;
As the duergar rogue hastened the fall;
Which came in a matter most full.
As the battle wrapped up to an end;
The heroes freed the prisoners within;
One fire cultists on his own to fend;
Chose to surrender after the din.
A plea for the fallen sprite came from Marle;
Which gave a small benefit in gentle repose;
The corpse made fresh and removed of snarl;
To make for dignified burial in restful pose.
Word was taken to the Knights of Samular;
And a mass assault was sent to Riverguard Keep;
Securing the surface against this elemental scar;
Yet the Wave's lieutenants below did creep.
The next phase of the war was soon to dawn;
As the heroes prepared to push underneath;
Seeking to face many a cultist pawn;
A avenge the graves and each funeral wreath.
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