Act IV, Chapter 21: "Give me battlefield mobility and/or give me death." (2024/12/14)

(Combat recaps continue to be hard. Doing my best with the notes I got, ya know?) 

The gang is still fighting Azher when they notice the final shield dissipate from around the soul turbine. Guess the Guardians came through! We are, however, too occupied to text them our appreciation. Time for everyone to take a free action, because of fate and stuff. Everyone seems to have a cool and normal time with their free actions except Null. Recently revivified Null has ultra-low HP you see and so tries to remedy that by using her action to take a potion of supreme healing. Sucks to be her, because the unshielded turbine has a lil arcane UNO reverse when it comes to nearby healing magics. This chick drops to 0 HP again and this time Azher looks hella compelled to make this a permanent arrangement for his wayward science experiment. Bro's gonna be disappointed though, because in an absolute KING move Silas swoops in and Dimension Doors his friend a couple hundred feet away from the turbine. He rouses her and tells her to wait until he can bring them back to the fight. Grateful, Null will chug a couple health potions until Silas DD's them back to scrap.

Meanwhile, back at the turbine, things are not going well. Alistair victimizes Flynn until he hits 0 HP and then kills Berrik! Lotty tries to do some rapid distance math and reflect on whether her dead pal is an object. Azher casts Invulnerability on himself, knowing the wizard was the last one with a chance of dispelling it. Lotty finishes her equations and casts Haste on herself, grabbing Berrik and dragging him as far as she can away from the turbine. Silas and Null DD back to the fight, appearing right next to Lotty and dead!Berrik. Azher Feebleminds Silas, but a Greater Restoration potion solves that real quick. Silas continues his MVP world tour and crushes white exaltium in order to be able to Dimension Door two more of his friends to safety. Strangely the exaltium's wild magic affects Lotty, allowing her to immediately cast Arcane Gate. A portal appears in front of the trio, with another popping up next to a still-downed Flynn. Clocking an opportunity to get Flynn away from a potential killing blow, Null runs over and drags him through the portal. The duo appear next to their friends. Null snatches a potion from dead!Berrik's bandolier and pours it into Flynn's mouth, bringing him up. She then turns around and leaves back through the gate to take Azher's attention off of our little recuperation station. Lotty gets Berrik back to the land of the living. Flynn heals up and rejoins the fight. Berrik, now fully amped for wizard on wizard violence, steps through the gate. He dispels Azher's invulnerability and then finishes off with a Healing Word (Reminder: healing magic hurts Azher). 

We're back in it, babes! The Ashen Company is off to the killing races again. A bit more fighting happens. We continue trying to shrug off lair actions. Lotty spots a strange but familiar figure from the mountain, a dwarven chef being piloted by a rat. She feels inspired? Null yeets Azher into the turbine with fate stuff, but the damage is necrotic so the cinematic falls flat. Azher keeps trying to villain monologue us, but fate steps in and we feel replenished, like we've each gotten a full night's rest in the past 6 seconds. SO WEIRD.

In the end, it's Null who gets the killing blow. She sweeps his legs and knocks him prone, stepping on his wrists to stop any last minute somatic attempts. Null brings down the blade of Reaper's Scream into his open mouth before he can speak another word - no spells, no threats, no laughter. Alistair's demise sends a shockwave through the entire chamber, forcing everyone to make saving throws. Lotty falls unconscious, but everyone else stays up and instead takes massive amounts of force damage.

Berrik and Silas heal up Lotty right away. A somewhat dazed Null keeps stabbing the now-still corpse of her lifelong tormentor. Is this a blatant homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2 E01, when Buffy finds an outlet for her trauma by destroying the bones of the Master? Maybe, but there's no catharsis to be found here for our gal Null. Flynn discreetly texts Ezra that it's time to do his thing. The soul turbine hums along. We'll have to do something soon.



Act IV, Chapter twenty "One Alistair down, one to go" (07/12/2024)

 Our heroes continue the fight with Azher and, as avid readers of Lotty's journal will know, fight notes are hard dude so some of highlights include:

Berrick destroys the orb holding Flynn's concentration and gets polymorphed in to it's replacement. Flynn dispels the polymorph meaning the litch can only concentrate on two spells at a time.

Berrick is almost disintegrated but Flynn saves him just in the neck of time but it's still not a fun time for Berrick, he does go down to zero hit points just at the point the fates grant the rest of the group some temporary hit points.

Null summons our old buddy Cade for a big heal and gets everyone back on their feet, healing is halved in close proximity to the soul turbine but it does the jov.

Null dies - but you know, it's been at least an hour since anyone has died so it's par for the course and Silas brings her back before the turbine can claim her soul.

Silas is almost killed but sacrifices Flame to restore to full health and spell slots, Lotty hands off Latharial's Grace to Silas, both practically and thematically it just feel right that Silas puts the lady's sword to good use.

The Ashen Company does kill Alistair at one point but we all know it's not going to be that easy; like any BBEG worth their salt he quickly returns more powerful than, ever full restored in health and spell slots

Berrick accidentally magic's himself to the Etherial plane with a wild surge, it's not the first time Berrick's spent a chunk of a fight missing out on his turns (and it probably won't be the last) and he pulls it out of the bag with a good use of fate cards.

The cliff-hanger is Berrick returning from the Etherial plan giving everyone a free action to take against the Marionettist

Act IV, Chapter Nineteen "It's time" (30/11/2024)

Whilst the last two Death Knights are locked in a force cage the Ashen company take a breather. Berrick casts Catnap on Lotty & Flynn whilst the OG Zanidonia crew catch up and give Silas the tdlr version of all the wild things that have happened in the months he's been gone. On the subject of Nikolai Silas is able to feel his heartbeat through their shared blades, he doesn't know where he is but he knows he's ok for now. Null asks Silas if he would do the honour of marrying her and Latharial, he's cagy about the future and suggests they concentrate on the task at hand first. 

After their catnap Lotty tries to comfort Flynn around his loss in the same way that Mordecai did when she lost her father and tinkers the sound of the ocean on to the now lifeless urn to remind Flynn of Mordecai's favourite sounds (it would have been a touching moment but everyone else was giggling at some double entendre that had been made in the background 😉 ).

After dispatching the last two knights the Company steel themselves to face Alistair when Null feels herself suddenly transported to a new, empty, space. Alistair is going to make sure he takes one last opportunity to offer Null a place of power less-horror in his new world. Of course she's not going to turn to the dark side so he resorts to threatening Latharial but our girl stays strong and silent. Both a blessing and a curse he also restores every last memory ever altered or taken from Null's mind. As Null is returned to her friends she's shaken with all the good and bad that's come flooding back to her as happy childhood memories are laced with murderous ones. 

As her friends rally around her Null and the Ashen Company are only ever more determined to end this.

The Marionettist, Alistair Azher, finally appears himself and the fight ensures with the Litch. Reno has already been eliminated, Flynn is banished to a Maze, some heavy hits have been dealt to the Ashen Company and Azher is still looking mostly unhurt......




Soul Turbine Tower levels:

  • Entry - Aspect of Azrael
  • Necro fruit- Rune scarred cultists
  • Clockwork - Lich & death knights
  • Graveyard - Rune scarred banshees (Hi Eleanor!)
  • Lava - Rune scarred balor
  • Ice tundra - frigid cold
  • Swamp - Rune scarred basilisks
  • Snow farm - Rune scarred zombie giants
  • Classroom - Alistair's riddles (+book on Soul Transference)
  • Underwater - Kraken
  • Wall - Spikes of agony
  • Ashen Company Villa - duplicates
  • Sands - Silas
  • Azher's tower entrance (Astral Plane?)
  • Inverted Tower ft. Magister Peanut Gallery
  • Puzzle cube 
  • Handsy platform - Noped
  • Magic fuckery bridge - bug guys
  • Welcome back Silas - Death Knights
  • Soul Turbine Boss Level - Alistair "The Marionettist" Azher