There's not really a door. This is all taking place in rooms 14 and 15 on the map. The red-ish indicator on the map shows where the boss is at the start of the fight.
You enter the grand sanctuary of the temple. The room is littered with the bodies of dead cultists. Some died fighting you, but most died in agony, victims of the psychic assault you all endured. Despite being located under a mountain, the room is surprisingly warm. The fourteen corpses, combined with the heat in the room, create a terrible miasma of death. Behind the lecturn, in the altar space, you hear continued chanting. As you approach the altar (room 15), the heat grows more intense.
In the altar, the sacred heart of the temple, you are greeted with a stunning blasphemy. The altar itself has been destroyed. In the stone of the floor, an elaborate series of runes and circles, approximately 10 feet across, have been carved. At equal points around the circle, five cultists stand. As you approach the ceremony, the chanting reaches a crescendo, and each cultist pours a vial of silvery liquid into the runes carved into the floor. Reed and Emeryn recognize this substance--the blood of a celestial being. A corpse lies in the center of the carvings. With alabaster skin, long dark hair, and two feathered wings now broken and bent at unnatural angles, it can only be one of Arawan's angels. The angel is curled protectively around a smaller figure: the corpse a human child, no more than four or five years old.
As the angel's blood fills the runes, a swirling storm of silver liquid begins to rage within the circle, seemingly contained by whatever binding spell is woven into the ritual. The cultists being to spasm, a white mist being drawn from their eyes and mouths into the storm, then collapse, dead. With an indescribable sound, the very fabric of reality is torn asunder. Heat boils out from the eye of the storm.
A figure steps out from behind the altar, surveying his work. He is human, though taller than any human you've seen before. His skin is pale, his grey eyes sunken. His long black hair is tied back with a silver chain. He wears a black robe trimmed in silver filigree, and leans on a tall ebony staff. He wears two pendants around his neck--one, the skull and spider of Arawan's death priests; the other, a broken sword wrapped in chains. None of you recognize this symbol.
"I take it from your presence the gods aren't as blind as I'd hoped," he says. "Ah, well. Life gives you lemons, and all that."
The party, exhausted from the fighting, shocked and awed by the scream, takes some time to regroup before heading into the next room to confront the source of that grave announcement and death scream. Those with a connection to the divine feel a slight chill, the calm before a storm of dangerous magic. Those with a connection to the arcane feel a tingle, the prickling of static as a magical charge begins to build. As best any of you can tell, whatever is happening in the next room is going to require hours to complete, so you have time to recover and formulate a plan.
Unknown, whilst we have made the save rolls we are still waiting on the results of that angelic death scream.
For ease of restarting it would probably be best if we all just started at our maximum hit point totals rather than getting bogged down in working out just how close to death each one of us was before and after the scream and subsquent rest.
Fails on the death scream take 8 damage, saves take half.
This week's story, continuing our break from Innistrad to focus on tales from the worlds referenced in Eternal Masters, is "All That Came Before". Like last week's story, this one is tied to a card from EMA: Ancestral Mask.
It's also a return to a plane I didn't expect us to revisit any time soon: Mercadia.
I like this piece. It was nice to have references to the Cho-Arrim, the river, Rushwood. Nostalgic, but then again I started playing the game in Masques.
Archythagoras accumulated three points and has been suspended for one week.
Hamm81 was suspended for one week for promoting illegal activity, then decided to gimmick as Hamm82. Hamm82 is banned, and Hamm81's suspension was extended to three weeks.
WarMachinePrime decided to abuse the report system, and has been suspended for one week
You (the collective you; this isn't aimed at any particular person) also need to realize that just because *you* hate Jace, that doesn't mean *everyone* hates Jace.
I'm most excited about Aether Revolt not using the Æ ligature.
In all seriousness, this looks to be a great set for me. Artifacts (as Kaladesh demands), Chandra focused (since it's her homeworld), political intrigue (I mean, the second setting has the word revolt in the name!), a cool new 'walker (here's hoping Saheeli Rai's card is artifact-focused, and given her art shows her manipulating metal that's a safe bet)...if we can get a UR artifact-focused legendary creature for EDH, Kaladesh may dethrone Innistrad as my favorite setting.
I wonder what other 'walkers will show up here. Chandra's obvious, and Saheeli is our new 'walker. Given their history, I wouldn't be shocked to see Gideon tag along to support Chandra, although I'd prefer to see Nissa in the "other Gatewatch Member" slot (because the contrast of her nature-affinity with Kaladesh's prominent artiface would be a fun juxtaposition, plus I like the Chandra-Nissa dynamic we saw at the end of OGW).
I have no idea, but I was under the impression that Innistrad devils were a Tibalt thing. Of course, I wasn't around during the first Innistrad go-around, so please forgive my ignorance.
You're forgiven.
Devils were a thing before well before Tibalt. Tibalt's origin is that he was a human from Nephalia, who did experiments in inflicting pain on others. (He originally apprenticed under one of the many stitchers, but found he was much more interested in experiments on the living than the dead.) He did all of this under the tutelage of devils. They has seen his work and were impressed, so they offered him their insight into the nature of pain. Eventually word of his experiments got out, and Inquisitors from the church came to put a stop to his experiments. In an last-ditch effort to save himself, he invoked a powerful spell that fused the devils' essences with his own, but caused him to experience in a single moment all the suffering he had ever inflicted on others. That trauma trigger his spark's ignition.
-Nahiri was Sorin's student/protege.
-She was a kid when Sorin found her. Where we still don't know. May not be Zen.
-She has no magical influence over Helvault. Possibly made of an otherworldly material.
-Helvault was towed by Bob the Builder Sorin. Created by Bob the Builder Sorin.
What I'm interested in was Sorin's reply when she ask how was Avacyn under his control.
"The other half."
A cryptic response, and for us to savor.
There's nothing cryptic about it. The first half was the Helvault (his "rudimentary attempt at shaping stone"), and the second was Avacyn. He created a prison where things that couldn't simply be destroyed could be stored away, and a hunter to collect them for storage.
In the altar, the sacred heart of the temple, you are greeted with a stunning blasphemy. The altar itself has been destroyed. In the stone of the floor, an elaborate series of runes and circles, approximately 10 feet across, have been carved. At equal points around the circle, five cultists stand. As you approach the ceremony, the chanting reaches a crescendo, and each cultist pours a vial of silvery liquid into the runes carved into the floor. Reed and Emeryn recognize this substance--the blood of a celestial being. A corpse lies in the center of the carvings. With alabaster skin, long dark hair, and two feathered wings now broken and bent at unnatural angles, it can only be one of Arawan's angels. The angel is curled protectively around a smaller figure: the corpse a human child, no more than four or five years old.
As the angel's blood fills the runes, a swirling storm of silver liquid begins to rage within the circle, seemingly contained by whatever binding spell is woven into the ritual. The cultists being to spasm, a white mist being drawn from their eyes and mouths into the storm, then collapse, dead. With an indescribable sound, the very fabric of reality is torn asunder. Heat boils out from the eye of the storm.
A figure steps out from behind the altar, surveying his work. He is human, though taller than any human you've seen before. His skin is pale, his grey eyes sunken. His long black hair is tied back with a silver chain. He wears a black robe trimmed in silver filigree, and leans on a tall ebony staff. He wears two pendants around his neck--one, the skull and spider of Arawan's death priests; the other, a broken sword wrapped in chains. None of you recognize this symbol.
"I take it from your presence the gods aren't as blind as I'd hoped," he says. "Ah, well. Life gives you lemons, and all that."
Lucial[dice=1]20+4[/dice]Reed[dice=1]20+3[/dice]Korvat[dice=1]20+2[/dice]Paravrax[dice=1]20+0[/dice]Strathalmere[dice=1]20+2[/dice]Emeryn[dice=1]20+0[/dice]Dieknuh[dice=1]20-1[/dice]
The party, exhausted from the fighting, shocked and awed by the scream, takes some time to regroup before heading into the next room to confront the source of that grave announcement and death scream. Those with a connection to the divine feel a slight chill, the calm before a storm of dangerous magic. Those with a connection to the arcane feel a tingle, the prickling of static as a magical charge begins to build. As best any of you can tell, whatever is happening in the next room is going to require hours to complete, so you have time to recover and formulate a plan.
@All Yesterday was busier than expected (also hot) so we're actually getting things rolling today.
It's also a return to a plane I didn't expect us to revisit any time soon: Mercadia.
I like this piece. It was nice to have references to the Cho-Arrim, the river, Rushwood. Nostalgic, but then again I started playing the game in Masques.
Hamm81 was suspended for one week for promoting illegal activity, then decided to gimmick as Hamm82. Hamm82 is banned, and Hamm81's suspension was extended to three weeks.
WarMachinePrime decided to abuse the report system, and has been suspended for one week
I mean, I'd be kind of mad if I pulled it from an EMA booster, but sixteen years ago? I loved it.
I love Jace.
In all seriousness, this looks to be a great set for me. Artifacts (as Kaladesh demands), Chandra focused (since it's her homeworld), political intrigue (I mean, the second setting has the word revolt in the name!), a cool new 'walker (here's hoping Saheeli Rai's card is artifact-focused, and given her art shows her manipulating metal that's a safe bet)...if we can get a UR artifact-focused legendary creature for EDH, Kaladesh may dethrone Innistrad as my favorite setting.
I wonder what other 'walkers will show up here. Chandra's obvious, and Saheeli is our new 'walker. Given their history, I wouldn't be shocked to see Gideon tag along to support Chandra, although I'd prefer to see Nissa in the "other Gatewatch Member" slot (because the contrast of her nature-affinity with Kaladesh's prominent artiface would be a fun juxtaposition, plus I like the Chandra-Nissa dynamic we saw at the end of OGW).
Devils were a thing before well before Tibalt. Tibalt's origin is that he was a human from Nephalia, who did experiments in inflicting pain on others. (He originally apprenticed under one of the many stitchers, but found he was much more interested in experiments on the living than the dead.) He did all of this under the tutelage of devils. They has seen his work and were impressed, so they offered him their insight into the nature of pain. Eventually word of his experiments got out, and Inquisitors from the church came to put a stop to his experiments. In an last-ditch effort to save himself, he invoked a powerful spell that fused the devils' essences with his own, but caused him to experience in a single moment all the suffering he had ever inflicted on others. That trauma trigger his spark's ignition.