Characters: Cael, Nomin, Tulgar, Anthony, Grim, Julian.
NPCs: Isidar Fianche, Paragon Juvenile Red Dragon, Blastum Bladeweaver.
E 19 Mirtul 1374 – E 19 Mirtul 1374
11,600 XP
With the news that the Parliamentarians had assaulted Arabel, the party readied themselves immediately for battle with powerful enchantments and abjurations. Arcane Sendings sent by the War Wizards of Arabel informed the War Room that the gates were broken; the fierce Red Raven mercenaries were already charging in. Knowing they would have to square-off against Flankmaster Fianche and Bladeweaver the party did not hesitate.
The party Teleported into the charred badland which lay just outside the north gate of Arabel. Ahead stood two figures clad in shining red amour, in the middle a man-sized red dragon stood smiling on its haunches. Isidar Fianche addressed the party, stating his pleasure to duel against enemies as experienced and brave as they. The large reserve force of parliamentarian soldiers waited well beyond the badland but still within viewing distance. Battle was joined.Julian charged forward without hesitation and cast a Force Cage around Blastum. Tulgar out-paced the sly rouge and unleashed a great attack against the waiting Flankmaster, but missed as he had underestimated Fianche’s speed. Nomin charged forth fully mounted and landed a powerful blow into Fianche’s pauldron, knocking him to his knees. Grim followed in suit and cast one of his signature Orbs of Force into Fianche. The party had made their plan known with quickness and efficiency that the Red Knight was their priority.
Blastum flashed out of the Force Cage with ease while he simultaneously evoked a Fireball upon the party with devastating power. The explosion sent the heroes flying in all directions leaving them disoriented and choking for air. Fianche rose quickly to his feet and invoked an epically powerful abjuration which Grim recognized as a Peripety. There would now be no use in targeting the Red Knight with ranged attacks, for they would simply deflect back upon the attacker. The fierce Red Dragon leapt upon Tulgar, ripped through his hardened skin, and thrashed his blood soaked claws through the air. Anthony Manton cast a Knight’s Move, kneeled beside Grim and Healed him of his horrible burns.
Cael had gathered his arcane strength and charged toward Fianche as a frosty haze built up around Calinus Brumalis. He struck into the Red Knight and unleashed a great blast of freezing weave; however Isidar’s epic armour protected him from much of the deadly energy. Tulgar continued to assault Fianche with a flurry of attacks, but again failed to penetrate the shining red plates adorned with divine golden runes. Nomin pulled his horse around for a second pass against Fianche, and made another unstoppable charge, this time missing. Grim pulled himself to his feet and cast Duel Ward upon himself in preparation for the next magical onslaught. Just as he predicted Blastum had begun to cast again. This time however, the intricacy of Blastum’s incantation was too complicated to even counter. His hands writhed and shook with the speed of a possessed conductor of destruction. After his epic incantation, Grim felt the Weave cry in pain as it began to tear. Through a portal of time space appeared a second Blastum, who was already about to finish a second evocation.Fianche turned to face the two icy warriors of the north that stood before him. His eyes darkened to the blackness of an endless void, and Tulgar began to shake as he felt every part of him collapsing in at once. Tulgar resisted with all his might, and weaved around to leave the Red Knight’s immediate field of vision. As Tulgar turned the Red Dragon continued its blood-letting attacks into the barbarian’s flesh, exacting an incredible amount of blood with each strike. Anthony Manton did not hesitate to rejuvenate the group with a burst of healing energy.
Cael maneuvered himself as best he could around Fianche and took the full offensive Raumathari battle-mage stance against the twin pyromaniac evokers. He chose his target, the first Bladeweaver, and felt a surge of power unlike any he had felt before as he leveled Calinus Brumalis’ icy edge into the fire mage. Julian watched with dismay as he knew Cael had chosen the incorrect form. Already, as the first Blastum reeled downward his half-frozen form was being sewn back into the Weave. Julian called out a Wish that Cael’s misfortune of choice was reversed, and the Weave responded to recall his strike. Cael landed the correct hit and Blastum fell back; the frost sizzled off his pale skin.
Bladeweaver’s eyes darted chaotically as he stumbled from his knees to meet Cael.
The fire mage laughed hysterically; his writhing hands then burst into white hot cones of fire. The party looked on with horror as he immolated Cael’s form with fire so intense it seemed to have sprung from Brass City itself. Julian sprung to action and a second time reverse Cael’s unfortunate fate, stopping his soul from separating from his badly charred flesh. Cael’s charcoal covered armour was quickly restored to a freezing glow by the Frost King’s crown.Meanwhile, Nomin had made a second roundabout and made his third unstoppable charge into the battlefield landing a lance into Fianche’s cuirass. Tulgar, badly wounded from the fierce dragons bloody claws, Dimension Doored away and landed a number of attacks into Fianche’s back; bloody snow burst from the Red Knight’s armour. That very moment a divine flash burst from Fianche’s form consuming him in red energy. Grim realized first that he was healed by a number of Contingent spells. Fianche retreated a few steps away from the flank realizing that further strikes wound be fatal. Both Bladeweaver and his called future self were still absent as the Weave attempted to repair itself. The extreme force which both Bladeweaver and Fianche pulled upon the Weave disturbed Grim greatly.
With Tulgar out of immediate reach, the Red Dragon pounced upon Anthony Manton, eviscerating him with its vorpal-like claws. Anthony Manton raised his shield against the scaly beast and cast Mass Heal to rejuvenate the party once again. Running low on spells and weary to draw from the seemingly fragile Weave, Grim casted Mordkainen’s Lucribration to restore his spell power.
Cael meanwhile, had risen to one knee and began channeling his bitter cold spell power into Calinus Brumalis. The arcane runes glowed with icy blue light as he completed his casting. After testing the hands of time twice already, Julian’s head was spinning. He fell to one knee in an attempt to gain composure unaware of the surrounding battle. Tulgar and Nomin continued to focus their attacks upon the Flankmaster as he shifted toward the tearing Weave around Bladeweaver’s return for assistance.
Bladeweaver had now returned. Grim recognized Blastum’s next incantation as the invincible aura Time Buttress. Fianche disappeared for a brief second after casting a spell which Julian and Grim recognize as Time Stop. The next Fianche re-appeared starting again with a blast of divine power which surged into Tulgar like a hungry dog from a broken leash. Tulgar again felt the power of death wash over him, but rather than submit he let out a stentorian roar and charged toward the Red Knight. The Red Dragon continued its blood-splattering flurry of attacks into Anthony Manton dealing a near lethal blow. Rather than back down, Anthony set his shield against the rakish attacker and raised his gauntlet into silhouette with the morning sun. The Blade of Cosmas erupted from fist sending golden white light to wash over the raging red serpent. Anthony called out the holy word of Tyr as he smote the creature with a divinely inspired blast of positive energy.
With Blastum still invulnerable to all attacks, Nomin, Tulgar, and Cael closed in on Fianche now more eager than ever to finish him. Fianche took a number of palpable hits and bled continuously from his dented and scored red armour. In the midst of the combat, Blastum and Isidar turned back to back and began the incantation of their most powerful spell yet. Grim had seen this one before; the same one which had destroyed the remaining Corp of Obold’s orcs at the first Battle of Arabel. Before Grim or Julian could intervene, the spell went off sending the Weave into a screaming torrent of raw fibers which burst into the material plane as explosions of arcane fire. In the wake of the blast the two epic casters had pulled the remaining Weave around them in a glowing red abjurative aura.The party was again thrown to all corners of the badland outside Arabel’s northern gate. The fiery explosion had cratered the area for hundreds of feet in every direction and nearly shook the weakened northern wall to pieces. Anthony Manton rose from the burning embers of the explosion’s wake and cast another burst of positive energy to Heal the party nearby. Julian somehow had managed to remain unscathed from the great blast. A curious testament to Lady Luck’s off fascination with the spell-thief.
Grim could barely stand. His knees shook as he arose from both physical exhaustion and the mental agony of seeing the Weave be nearly torn apart by his irreverent enemies. As Grim pulled himself together he felt his arcane hand born of the very Weave itself, a gift from lady Mystra, flickering to remain present. This was now not just simply a fight of survival, not a fight for the preservation of the Crown of Cormyr, it was a religious battle to protect the Weave itself against those which would rape and destroy it in their own zealous search for unlimited power. Grim invoked his most powerful spell, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, and shaped it around his two epic enemies.
The Disjunction cleanly sliced through the Weave around Bladeweaver and Fianche threatening to annihilate every magical connection to the Weave they possessed and thus end their powerful force upon it. As the fibers were surgically sliced nearly instantaneously, all but Bladeweaver and Fianche’s most powerful connections were severed. However, in the process, the Disjunction took one powerful connection with it, Insanity’s Last Defense, Blastum’s artifact spell dagger. The instant the artifact’s connection was severed the incredible magical energy normally pouring into the dagger burst into the material plane like blood from a great artery. The arcane blast erupted outward even more deadly and powerful than the explosion created by Blastum before. The sonic boom dropped the battling armies within Arabel to the ground, and in its wake all but Bladeweaver remained. Grim had not seen the forces which impacted into Blastum during the explosion, but could only imagine the Wizard to be dead.After the explosion, the party stumbled again to their feet and looked upon the cratered battlefield for signs of Bladeweaver and Fianche. The Red Knight remained, but what was even more pressing was the new weight of their equipment, and mundane weapons. Grim looked down to his hand and found it gone. He realized at once that had had created a dead magic zone from the artifact’s destruction. Far away from him to the south towards Arabel he thought he could make out what was the shimmer of the Weave. While it was ripped and torn before, now it was gone. Every fiber had been burned itself out in the magical explosion. Grim’s soul wept with grief.
Fianche knew at once he had been defeated, and did not hesitate to run to the north toward his awaiting army. Nomin and Tulgar chased him down and reached him just outside the dead magic zone where the shimmering Weave fibers reached out and flowed into their magical items. The rest of the party followed suit and found Fianche battling Nomin and Tulgar in a fierce melee. Fianche realized this could no longer continue and used a Word of Recall. However, Grim stricken by the dead magic zone, reacted with fury and Wished that he could counterspell the attempt. Fianche’s spell died out as Grim felt a second toll upon his heart. Then with the stern face of a prepared tactician, Fianche repeated the commands and escaped in a flash of red light.
