Recap - 2026-07-30
The group, slightly battered and bruised from their courtroom escapade, milled around the foyer of the courtroom while Angelus chatted up the judge and Chibro interrogated the hound archons. He didn’t get much from them beyond that they were bound to the service of the priest as part of a summons, and that he hexed their minds to follow his ways even outside their holy purpose. They apologized, and began to heal Chibro and even attempt to resurrect some of the fallen.
As this happened, a hobgoblin burst through the outer door into the courtroom. He looked gravely injured, and held a scroll in one hand. He searched the room and then sprinted up to Kor. “Are you Korarad Skywalker Agu-Vekali?” Kor nodded, “Yes?” The hobgoblin, without saying another word, wrapped himself around Kor and teleported himself, Kor, Tag, Tag’s horse, Parth, Hankin, and Josiah.
They fell out of the sky and splashed into a river. Kor, standing, recognized the place as one of his tribe’s many villages. Looking up the hill, he saw many of the temporary huts they assembled each season burning. A number of shadowy figures ran around above them, and a set of four archers fired arrows down at them.
The hobgoblin collapsed, falling into the river. As the group scrambled to get out of the line of fire, Kor picked up the hobgoblin and dragged him onto the store. There was the sound of a terrible battle on the cliffs above them, and the group ran into action.
Tag jumped onto his nightmare steed and spurred it up the hill, riding into the thick of the battle. As he rounded a corner to the top of the hill, a goliath woman whipped her bow around and shouted, “More of them! From behind!” Before she could fire, Tag told her he was with Kor, and she accepted it with a grunt and returned to fire on the enemy. Josiah used his magic to launch Hankin up the hill, and Kor scrambled up the side of the cliff to face what stood above.
Climbing over the edge of the cliff, there was chaos. Four hobgoblins, three in ebony armor holding sharp swords and shields at the ready, stood in a phalanx formation around a fourth - Zrul, the hobgoblin captain Kor had talked to in the Molten Curtain. He nodded to Kor, but focused on the enemy. Many of Kor’s tribe, including his uncle, stood wounded but with weapons raised, javelins, bows, hammers and axes. As Kor scrambled up the side, his uncle let out a cry of joy. “We knew you would return to us when we were in need! Huzzah!” Kor shrugged and said, “Yeah, well, I never really intended to leave, but…yeah.”
His uncle gestured at the enemy, and Kor saw a mass of creatures approaching. There were a half-dozen armor-clad figures, their faces masked by thick metal visors. Archers, black cloaks billowing around them and faces hidden by hoods, had bows raised and were letting loose arrows, peppering the ground around them. A massive siege engine, its front sporting an enormous gaping maw of serrated blades whirling in a circle, with two smaller similar faces above and beneath, and massive steam pipes belching out steam and flames, rolled toward him, out of a burning hut. And behind it, a tall, figure in obsidian armor, flames arcing up out of grooves inset in the metal. He held out a long, flaming sword and shouted, “I know not who you are, but I make the same offer to you that I made to these people! Turn Zrul over to me, and I will let you live.”
A pitched battle took place. Tag fired arrow after arrow from atop his steed, taking down many of the archers and soldiers around him. He succumbed to an arrow in the side and toppled off his horse. Hankin alternated between trying to control the battlefield with his magic, commanding those around him to fight, forcing the archers to pause in their attacks, bringing Tag back to life with his healing magics. He was marching toward the siege engine to bring it down when the villain, called Aeternean by Zrul, struck him down in three rapid blows of immense strength.
Kor stepped forward and grabbed Aeternean by the chestplate, so angered by his brazen attack on his people, and threw him down the cliff. He plummeted thirty feet, smashing a barn to pieces as he landed next to Josiah.
Josiah summoned a hail of animated bullets, knocking him down, but Aeternean rose and strode toward him. Josiah froze him in place with an ice spell, fleeing only to have an archer drop him as he ran. Parth the Tumbleweed, seeing his creator fall, fumbled into Josiah’s bag and fed him a healing potion, having a mild existential crisis while doing so.
The goliaths of Kor’s tribe and the soldiers of Aeternean fought in pitched battle. With Tag, Hankin’s and Kor’s help, before long, many of the enemy lay dead on the ground. Many of Kor’s people lay around them. Looking around, one of Kor’s kin called out to his uncle, “This is madness! We are protecting one who is not even our own!” His uncle called back, “This man asked for our protection. We gave it. It is not just him, or his sword that we protect, but our honor!”
The massive siege engine, acting as if on a tether to Aeternean, began rolling down the cliff face attempting to follow him. Zrul launched himself onto it, attempting to destroy it, urging Kor to do so as well. As the machine tumbled down the cliff, smashing the building below even further, Hankin fell to an arrow above. Tag rode into the mass of remaining archers, attempting to take them down with his soul knife, but caught an arrow as he did.
Kor, seeing his friends and tribe fall around him, dove off the cliff, maul first, and smashed through the siege engine, blowing it to pieces around him. As he stood and dusted himself off, Aeternean, having freed himself from the ice, shouted, “WHO ARE YOU?” Kor took a deep breath and responded, “WHAT?” His ears still ringing from the explosion of the machine. Thinking he was being mocked, Aeternean stalked forward, grabbing a gravely wounded Zrul by the neck, and using his magics to command Kor and Zrul both grovel before him. Zrul used the last of his strength to use his sword to cut a hole in reality, showing nothing but eternal winds whistling through beyond. He gasped, “The portal! Throw him through!”
Josiah, staggering through the water, cast blight on Aeternean, hoping desperately to weaken his grip on Kor. Aeternean turned to Josiah and raised a hand, shouting, “Why do you protect this worm? No one escapes Acheron! No one escapes me! And no one steals from us!” Josiah shrugged, and said, “Honestly, you just seem kinda evil.” As Aeternean gaped at him, Kor stepped forward, freeing himself from the charm, and planted a foot on Aeternean’s chest. With a mighty kick, Aeternean staggered backward into the portal, dragging Zrul with him. The immense and buffeting wins from beyond the portal grabbed him, and he was gone. Zrul, before he was dragged through, tossed the sword he was carrying, etched with the symbols of each of the outer and inner planes, at Kor. He choked out, “I’m so sorry,” before he too vanished, and the tear in reality closed behind him.
His uncle, coughing up blood, staggered over to Kor, and lifted the blade into his hands. “We know not what this is, but many of your kin died protecting it from that evil creature. Take it!” Kor picked it up and scratched his head, showing it to Josiah. “Soo…this thing is…powerful? Dangerous?” Josiah nodded his head, “Yup. Would seem that way.” Kor held it out to him. “You want it?” Josiah started to take it, saying, “Well, I reckon we could find a way to…” when Kor’s uncle grabbed his shoulder. “No, Kor. This is your burden to bear. We vowed we would help this man. We did not know him, but he came to us, telling us stories of you. Of your endurance. Of your strength. Of how with your simple charms, you convinced him to run from the Eternal War. To take this weapon, whatever it is, and keep it out of the hands of those who would do harm. You cannot foist this on another.” Josiah shrugged again, “I guess you could just…try to stay one step ahead of whoever is coming for it?”
Kor showed his friends the portal he accidentally took to Sigil, those few months ago. They made camp near it, patching up their wounds, and protecting Kor as he attuned to the new weapon. Chibro, using sending, inquired as to where they were. “Taken through portal by Hobgoblin. With Kor’s tribe. Big fight, patching ourselves up.”
After Kor attuned to his weapon, Kor’s eyes took on even more of a silvery blue after he did, and with an odd surety, he showed them how to work the portal to Sigil.
As the group stepped through, Josiah turned back and saw Kor heft the blade, slice through the air, and beyond the tear in reality, a long flat plain stretched before him. Far in the distance, in the starry sky, a massive creature moved slowly through the sky, long tendrils trailing behind it. Kor waved, once, and then the portal closed behind him.
Josiah and the rest of the group made their way to Chirper’s Inn, where Chibro and Angelus were sharing a drink with a few regulars. Angelus, in a common fit of clout-chasing, had bought rounds for the whole bar, and they were all laughing along to one of his stories.
When they entered, Chibro raised his trunk in greeting, and said, “Where is our goliath friend?” Josiah took of his hat and rubbed his head. “He, uh…found a higher purpose.” Hankin put a hand on Josiah’s shoulder and nodded. “He is chasing a destiny.” Chibro looked from one to the other, and nodded once. “Would that we all were so lucky.” Angelus raised his glass and said, “Y’know, I never really got to know that Kor guy much, but he seemed pretty swell.” And he thrust his glass into the air, shouting, “To Kor!” The bar patrons, swayed by Angelus’ generosity, repeated the toast, “TO KOR!”
Song of the Session
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