Act Two, Chapter Thirty Three "Assault on Alya" (26-03-2022)

The party handles their final preparations. They hear from a large distance away, the enemy army approaching, rising above the army they see Sextus and Seppia leading the forces and making sure they stay clear out of the range of the defending armies' ranged weapons. Mira manages to destroy a wall of force created by the fiend but Seppia soon raises another; Mira detonates the large black exhaultium device and manages to knock out half of the invading forces for a moment, seizing the momentum it seems like Commander Finnus' forces have the situation in control for the moment.

While surveying the army with the rest of the defenders, the party hears a loud booming sound from behind them and the beginnings of a battle. The party decides to do what they are here for and head out as the armies reaction force to take on whatever is going towards the center of Alya's city. Cade summons a dragon spirit to help him go into the air and survey the area, and seeing the size of the force, decides to go on the offensive and stop the enemies from dispersing into the area so he lands to draw attention to himself and begins his attack on top of a building. 

The force he finds himself fighting is divided between mechanical beings with multiple arms called Nimblewrights and Cartel Sicarios, the way they got in the square was a giant mechanical worm that was able to burrow then to that location. After some tense moments of Cade and his Dragon trading blows with these enemies, the party shows up and begins and all out brawl. Berrick and Kel take to the rooftops and start taking out enemies with magic. Berrick sniping with his fire bolts, and Kel bringing his thunder and lightning into the fray. Null runs and does her best to make it to Cade's location to support him as he's still surrounded, Lotty bracing herself and Nessie to fight the mechanical work, and Silas fighting enemies trying to get behind Lotty. After some tense fighting and with the worm unfortunately taking out Nessie; most of the enemy force destroyed, the party turns its attention on the worm and while bringing it down, the worm explodes taking Silas and Berrick who were within range of the blast down with it. 

The last two enemies seeing this happen stick around to try and finish the job with the rest of the party, but are quickly defeated. Cade heals Silas and Kel feeds Berrick a Good Berry ending combat. Cade transmutes the holes in the ground that the force came through so they wouldn't be able to take advantage of the entrances and manages close two openings and most of the third. 
Enemies are still able to make it through though and the party decides to throw as many things as they could into it, while some of the rest of the party arm their mines to prep for the next wave of enemies that decide they want to try and come through the entrance. Cade and Null decide to empty flasks of oil as well down into the hole. 

Kel investigates some of the bodies and finds a note with orders to the enemy to break in at this spot giving their army a back-up plan. A message is sent to the defenders at the wall letting them know the situation as well. When the party hears more enemies approaching the entrance, they set fire to it, and with all the oil and other flammable objects, the enemies become pretty flammable too. Some of them do manage to come through and the party activates one of the mines as well. Two of the Nimblewrights that came through were short circuited, but the other two made it by anyway. Again; the party take the fight to the enemy, making quick work of the four that made it through, and a storm sphere from Kel and a wall of thorns from Cade preventing any more from coming through the entrance, along with the fire still burning.

After a brief moment of respite, there is a distortion in the air…we can't tell if it's just some of the buildings crumbling from the worms attacks, or something else. Quickly though, but too late to react, the party realizes that it is the enemy dragon that has taken to the Ashen Company as it breathes its acid breath over the party.

It's breath manages to badly wound Cade & Lotty, put Silas and Null on their last legs and take down Kel. 

A difficult start to an even more difficult fight ahead of the party. The nail biting session ends here.

Act 2, Chapter Thirty Two: "Revelations"

 After seeing the hidden tattoo on Null’s neck, Berrik decides to keep quiet about the issue until he can speak to her and Silas alone. He files away the fact that he also saw something blue and glowy coming from Cade's chest - he will bring this up later when things are less pressing. The party leaves the tavern to do some last minute shopping at McFini’s, where they buy a couple more health potions. Berrik takes Silas and Null aside to ask them for help “choosing his spells” later that evening.

After some discussion with the party about how to get to Alya, eventually Berrik, Null and Silas meet in Berrik’s room. Berrik tells Null about what he saw on her neck with True Seeing and at first Null doesn’t believe him, thinking he’s joking. Eventually Null sees the sincerity in his face and decides to check for herself. She goes back to her changeling form willingly, the first time in a long time, and inspects her neck using a mirror and shiny dagger. Seeing the tattoo, she is terrified and has no idea where it came from. She tries to cut it off and the dagger shatters against it. Berrik attempts to dispel the tattoo and it doesn’t work. Null then attacks Berrik and Silas, wounding them both. She doesn’t remember doing so and begins to panic, dropping her weapons and isolating herself in a corner. Berrik soon realizes that this is far above their skill level, and that removing something like this will requires either: a Wish spell, a 9^th level Dispel Magic, or removal by the person who put it there. After some discussion, the trio concludes that they need to loop in the rest of the Ashen Company. Null returns to her human form.

Berrik goes to fetch Lotty, Cade and Kel. Upon entering the room, Cade proudly shows everyone the new sigil on his shield, a sigil that features 3 new symbols to include the latest members of the Ashen Company. It’s very endearing and makes the next conversation more difficult. Berrik explains the situation and requests their help. Null first asks the group not to kill her and then drops her human form again. She apologizes for the deception and explains that she wasn’t forthcoming about it because of how hyper-vigilant they were about Vi – she was worried they would attack her. The party examines the tattoo – it appears to be at least ten years old.

Null doesn’t remember getting a tattoo and can’t recall any point in her life where she missed big chunks of time. Her life was normal until a few months ago. A bit of backstory get explained here: Null is from Pacapa and doesn’t really know any other changelings – it was just Null and her friend for most of her life, doing freelance petty crime to get by. The last job went awry and Null’s friend died. Null survived and found herself unable to cope with the loss of her friend. Null left Pacapa and now all she has left to memorialize her is the human form Null wears. She thinks it should have been her to die instead. The group comforts Null.

Cade asks permission to seek external help. Null agrees. Cade then sends a message to Ezra saying that they have found someone who they believe is an unwilling agent of the Marionettist and asks for his help. Ezra is unable to right now, as he is closing in on Vi. If the Ashen Company doesn’t hear from him in the next 72 hours, they should presume him dead. If he dies, he has left something for them at his island.

With the battle looming and few options at hand, the party decides to keep an eye on Null for the time being. They teleport to Alya and begin a couple days of battle prep (Lotty tinkers, the wizards are each given two bombs, Cade reinforces defences and sets up a tree bottleneck, Silas spars with local warriors) all the while making sure to never let Null out of their sight. Cade even takes the night shift and watches her sleep.

At some point during this time, Latharial comes to Null’s room late one night and asks to speak with her. Since Cade is there, Latharial and Null decide to walk along the ramparts. Latharial asks Null how she is and Null answers vaguely, still reeling from events of the past couple days. After a bit more conversation, it becomes clear that Latharial’s intentions here are romantic. Null is very surprised, never thinking that Latharial might think of her this way, but she is receptive to the idea. She decides to take a risk and tell Latharial the truth about being a changeling before proceeding further. Null explains that she only kept it a secret so as not retraumatize Latharial, after she had been held captive and tortured at the hands of a changeling who then impersonated her. Latharial reacts calmly and takes the revelation in stride. They exchange awkward compliments, thoughtful affirmations, and flirting. They smooch.

Later the party gathers and speaks about some grim possibilities prior to the big battle – Lotty wants to live and would gladly accept a revivify, but wants to stay a gnome at all costs. Null understands that things may happen where the party may have to stop her – she would understand if stopping her means killing her, but confesses that (for the first time in a long time) she wants to live. She wants to see this through.

Before going to bed, Null visits Latharial one last time. She sees that Latharial is writing something, but it’s covered as she enters the room. Null is curious but doesn’t pry. They exchange hopes of victory for the battle to come and affirm their affection for each other. They solemnly, and somewhat awkwardly, grasp each other’s hands and then Null takes her leave.

Come what may - the Ashen Company is as ready as they’ll ever be for the Battle of Alya.

Act Two, Chapter 31: Fighting An Extraplanar Terminator May Not Be The Worst Thing To Happen Today

 The party continues their evening talking about their equipment needs for the fights ahead, which ends in the party graciously agreeing to sell a magical throwing weapon in order buy Null some better armour. Null is extremely appreciative and feels like much less of a liability. Everyone settles in for the night and finishes a long rest.

In the morning, the party finds Remmi. He relays that much of their forces have left for Alya already, but that there has been no sign of Mira yet this morning. Unable to go himself due to the accessibility issues of the Last Stand Inn, he asks the party to check on her. We make our way downstairs to find the door to the chamber ajar. This is Vi's old room.

The large room holds walls of books, a teleportation circle, assorted furniture, four braziers with arcane inscriptions and one unconscious Mira. She is somewhat wounded, but cannot be healed or roused. Spreading out, the party notices signs of a struggle. Berrik casts detect magic, which pings the four braziers. Soon after, he feels something brush against his back. He casts See Invisibility in time to see a large, alien, metallic construct step into the material plane.

A fight ensues! The construct hits hard and fast, it can liquify itself to avoid attacks of opportunity, and soon the party realizes it is hard to injure, as it resists spell effects and physical damage. Thinking that the braziers might be nullifying some of their offensive spells, the casters get to work dispelling them. Once this is done, Berrik casts a high level Fireball spell in order to speed up its demise, but to everyone's dismay the inferno has a healing a effect on the construct. The fight continues, with the construct seeming to focus most of its attacks on the most immediate threat (mostly Lotty, Silas and Cade's summoned bear). As the construct gets whittled down in health it goes into "berserker" mode, growing more arms to attack with. Cade attempts an Inflict Wounds spell, but the construct manages to deflect the damage back to Cade, greatly injuring him. Soon after, Silas lands the killing blow and the construct liquefies into a pool of shiny metal.

The party rouses Mira, who seems somewhat hurt but overall none to worse for wear. Cade sheepishly tries to make the charred and soiled carpet presentable before she notices it. Everyone next turns their attention to the pool of metal on the floor, wondering what to do with it. Lotty approaches to inspect it, but to the party's surprise it attacks her, climbing up her arm and moving to slide down her throat. Lotty manages to repel it and the alien metal returns to its pool on the floor. As everyone seeks some way to contain this strange enemy, it's Mira who has the solution. She pulls out a valuable gem and traps the liquid metal inside with magic. She then places the gem inside a hidden vault in the wall, securing it until it can be studied at a later date. Soon after, Mira goes upstairs to join Remmi. After she leaves, the party regroups and examines the room. They don't discover much beyond some arcane inscriptions on the floor that indicate this room is safe against divination magic that could be used to spy.

The party soon realizes that they neglected to verify that the person they found was truly Mira and not an impostor before she left the room. Heading upstairs, they find Remmi, Mira, Latharial and Rhone. They awkwardly try to get Remmi's attention and make a few attempts to subtly check Mira. Lotty soon loses patience with the whole exercise and marches up to Remmi, bluntly asking him to verify the Mira in front of him. He grudgingly does, appearing to cast the True Seeing spell and looking directly at Mira before confirming that it's really her.

[SIDEBAR - True Seeing last for an hour. Did he only look at Mira and then drop the spell immediately without looking at the other people in the room? Did he see the changeling standing a few feet away and decide not to say anything? EXTREMELY SUSPICIOUS].

Berrik, not knowing Remmi very well and remembering that he's not been the most trustworthy ally to the Ashen Company, decides to use one of the party's True Seeing spell scrolls to check for himself. After casting the spell, he looks at the leaders in front of them (Remmi, Mira, Latharial and Rhone) and is relieved to see that they are all truly who they appear to be. He decides to also look at his party and finds the same, except for Null. He sees her in the changeling form he expected, the form that remains a secret from their new compatriots. Before turning away, a mark at the base of her neck catches his eye - something he's never seen there before in either of her forms. Focusing on it, realization turns to horror as he discerns it to be a tattoo that reads "VIII". It's all-too-familiar indicator - Berrik has only ever seen such numerical identifiers on agents of the Marionettist. He freezes.