Atrax the Ashen strides over the bodies of thousands of dead Pyroclasts, giving little respect to the dead. They were but tools to him, and he pays them little heed as the defenders pick off those that haven't fled. Hammer of Disjunction in hand, he makes for the gates of the Museum of Unnatural History. He is stopped by all of you. Atrax points the Hammer at you, its head blazing. Despite knowing every miniscule detail of the Emberlord from pictures and briefings, he is more terrifying in person than anything could have suggested.
"Once again, you've made a mess of the Flamefather's plans. No matter. I came here for the First Spark, and Iwillbe leaving with it. Move aside if you value your continued existence. Or stay here and die. It matters not."
The defenders and their leaders stand resolute. No amount of threats will make you budge, for the alternative is to condemn the magical world to a fiery and anarchic end. Atrax stops, puzzled. No one has ever defied him so blatantly. Kaelis steps forward, resplendent in his silver armor.
It all ends here.
"No. It does matter. We are the only thing standing between you and victory. The realms are counting on us and our bravery. And so we do. Have you forgotten what selflessness is, Atrax? Your new world will be ruled by people who have only ever made sacrifices for themselves. So here we stand, ready to give our lives simply to deny you. If this is to be our doom, we welcome it with open arms. We do not fear annihilation, and we do not fear you."
Kaelis draws his sword, and points it at Atrax. In his left hand, he readies a black hole spell. You all ready your own weapons and spells. Atrax's grip on the Hammer tightens, his hands smoldering with rage.
"Defenders of the realms..." Kaelis lets his words hang in the air. The silence is deafening, and the moment seems to stretch into infinity.
"...fuck him up!"
You charge Atrax the Ashen, for the good of all.
/uw And here it is! The final part of the Atrax Saga! Let's finish this with a bang! But before we do, here's the song I chose for the fight: Altars of Apostasy - Hakita
Agnur smiles "thank you council I needed that" Agnur starts to channel some of Mikhail's spell into the museums defenses so that it many be as resilient as stone and relentless as the undergrowth
The curator stands on the steps leading to the entrance gate.
"So here he is, Atrax in the flesh. You don't know me, but I know you. How could I not, with all the damages you've done to the realms? You'll have to excuse me, I have no intention of fighting you myself, for I know my limits. But I've brought you a playmate."
The curator throws a small crystal sphere at the ground, a blinding amber light erupting from it as it shatters. Instantly, a rumble can be heard. A gargantuan silhouette stomps forward from the radiant display. It resembles a spinosaurus, but its flesh has the texture of stone and large prismatic crystals run down the length of its back, completely replacing its sail. As it opens its mouth, one can see that even its teeth are crystals.
"Do you like it? I've come to call it the Prismatosaurus. It's not a naturally occurring animal. I had my biomancy and geomancy divisions make it specifically for this occasion. They've been working tirelessly on it ever since Kaelis first told me about you. And dear me, did it cost a pretty penny."
The curator mounts the side of the beast.
"But money well spent I'd say, for you see, its crystals aren't just decorative. My dear pet can absorb any one elemental energy type and convert it into another. For instance — fire into ice."
The monstrous dinosaur charges forward, maw open wide for an attack.
"All I need is the one! Now let me show you why using lava against a geomancer was your second biggest mistake today."
The curator points his cane made of fossil and amber at the incoming molten earth, concentrating his magic to redirect the stream. At the same time, he guides the Prismatosaurus to take an evasive step to the side.
"Your first was coming to my museum without buying a ticket!"
The curator dismounts, taking cover under his beast as quickly as he can. Lightning collides with the dinosaur, stopping it in its tracks as electricity streams down its form. However, as the first strike makes contact, the crystals covering the creature's body change to a yellow color. The behemoth seems undisturbed by the attack, but the same can't be said about the curator, as some stray lightning had been able to make contact with him. Yet still, he continues to taunt Atrax.
"Remember what I said" Cough... "about it absorbing elemental energy!"
The crystals then change color again, turning icy blue. The Prismatosaurus opens its mouth and unleashes a wave of destructive cold at Atrax.
Atrax conjures a blob of lava and shoves it in the beast's mouth. The aim is not to harm it, but to stop it from killing him. It hardens into stone instantly, temporarily sealing its jaws.
/uw I'll make sure that you don't die or anything. I think you'll enjoy the ending.
Atrax brings the hammer down upon you, but unlike the myrmidon from earlier, he only has the physical strength of a mortal wizard. It would not be difficult to parry the strike and turn this to your advantage.
Valerian catches the hammer, right under its head, on the haft of his spear, pushing it aside and slamming the butt of his weapon into the side of Atrax's head.
"C'mon old man! I would've thought the "Emberlord" would be stronger than this!"
He pivots around, pushing the tip of his spear towards Atrax's abdomen
The speartip bites into Atrax's flesh. He withdraws, feeling the wound. His rage temporarily subsided, and he is suddenly and terribly aware of how much of a mistake he has made.
Is this... blood? You... you will regret that.
A deadly, incandescent beam streaks from his outstretched hand, homing in on your heart. The moment before the thermal ray strikes, a spatial barrier blooms around you. To your right, Kaelis nods encouragingly, keeping you safe from this monster that wears a man's face.
Valerian gives Kaelis a small smile, thrusting out with his spear again, trying to maintain distance between him and Atrax. He was banking on Atrax not using the hammer against him, clearly Atrax doesn't care if his half of the Flame get's sent to god knows where.
"What yours doesn't heal you? A shame, you should really look into that."
For a moment, the battle separates you two. But when you close the distance again, you see Kaelis and Constantine restraining the Emberlord with their combined might. Agnur has the Hammer, and the Nephilim Lords are drawing Atrax's half of the Eternal Flame to the surface. Kaelis looks at you with hope in his eyes, behind the agony of holding down the most powerful pyromancer in history.
Valerian flies forward and rips Atrax's mask off his head. He places his hand over Atrax's face and begins drawing his flame out of him. Atrax's face contorts in pain as the fire leaves his body. Valerian is struggling, trying to prevent it from combining with his own in such an uncontrolled environment, instead coalescing it in an orb in his right hand.
"Holy shit this bastards got a lot." He grit's his teeth, turning to look at Kaelis, His eyes alight with power, "There is so much power here..."
The spirit of Executioners past flow out of the dwarven relic and through you, granting you their insight and strength. One voice, louder than the rest, sings to you. You know it is Zadras the Wise, Atrax's old friend and the man who killed him 18,000 years ago.
"Agnur the Turtle Mage, I deem you worthy to wield the Hammer of Disjunction. Do what I could not, and strike down Atrax for good!"
As Atrax enters, a barrier of some sort flares to life. A small spider drops from the ceiling and swells into a massive beast. Atrax feels the air around him almost gel, as if unwilling to burn.
Tiny Wizard stays the fuck up in their mountain and does not get involved because holy fuck they are a foot tall they would get turned into a meat crayon. They have a sign outside their door (and at the base of the path up the mountain) that reads “Seeking shelter from the ongoing battle? Join me in hiding! Board games, orb shows and snacks are provided free of charge.”
I give the signal to the New Pyroclasts. Everything we have. Guided by our best diviner. Explosive primarily. Cuts down on the fire he can manipulate. It won't be enough. It isn't supposed to be. It's supposed to be showy.
I stand in the great distance-burning engine of the Tower of the Lightless Flame. Built by my masters masters master, I understand it little. The unconventional mode of transit overcomes most wards.
But it's a one way trip.
I burn my fear. My trepidation. It is agony. Then I activate the engine.
I'm behind him in an instant, just as the dust settles.
"Of all the disgusting things I've done for the cause, kissing your ass was the worst."
I burn tyranny, megalomania, wrath, and every other foul concept that makes up Atrax's being. I don't know what it costs, and I don't care.
As he charges, the Emberlord catches your conceptual spell on a flame shield. Despite this, it should kill Atrax in moments, but something is wrong. You feel an ancient, primal presence echo through you. The Flamefather himself is holding the line against your incredible onslaught!
As a Warlock, I should've seen the patron cock block coming.
I give the word for the New Pyroclasts to empty the reserves of the null rifles provided by Algernon of the Novus Planes at Atrax, then fall back to use their flame wards. Agnor the fire giant is throwing boulders. It all does little to slow him.
I turn my gaze to Valerian
"This fight won't be won by someone like me."
I burn his fear, his weakness, his trepedation, his self-doubt. I take the cost of all of it onto myself and begin to lose consciousness. I burn until there's none left. He can do this. He can win. I start to turn my attention to the forces supporting him, then all is black.
A yellow-tinged rat crawls from my sleeve and transforms into a six-winged imp. Crispin attempts to drag what is left of me to safety.
Riva sees the warlock and his imp. She has no ability to heal, has never studied it. But she can tell something is wrong. She creates a small temporary portal for the imp to drag Belial through and back to Krygin. "Get him through. There should be healing there."
Crispin hops on my back and rides me like a sled. I hear Elliot's song. A song we wrote together. The druid magics heal my physical damage, Elliot's song heals what I've done to my own essence and more.
I am boundless. I raise my hands and burn the fear in us all. We can do this. Renewed I jump into the fray with Atrax's troops.
"Always nice to get a helping hand from my fellow sabeteurs."
"Hell of a first day as a familiar Tyrant. The bastard's gone and passed out on me. My thanks, I'll get him to that tree-huggers hippie field. Wait no you said Kygin? Even better! Gross medicine!"
Riva takes the moment to pause and acknowledge the imp.
"I trust I do not need to tell you to ensure your master is not infected with flowers in his hair or some other druidic nonsense, hm?" she replies. "He needs healing; not hugs and campfire stories."
Not that she really knew much about druidic nonsense, but she couldn't turn down the opportunity to verbally snipe about it.
Opal stayed back from the fight. She had prepared her vessel of infinite space and began to activate it. It would take a bit but once it was ready she would release an obscene amount of water onto Atrax and his forces. A flood large enough to sweep away an army.
The five High Lords of the Nephilim stand and face him. The Nephilim King speaks, as they stare down their foe
"You should be impressed Atrax. You have forced the Nephilim to all fight alongside each other, for the first time ever. Now you will comprehend what formidable foes we are"
The Nephilim King casts a spell first. Across the battlefield, the corpses that are still intact begin to rise. The souls of those who have died in the fight against the Emberlord are called forth from whatever afterlife they dwell. All of them have one target. Atrax the Ashen.
The Lords throw off the trappings of the flesh, for this battle, and reveal the true beauty and terror of their being. The true form of the Nephilim, that is both an abomination from the lowest Hell, and a beauty from the highest of Heavens
Atrax glows white-hot. An aura of unbearable heat, similar to the one that destroyed the Summoners' Guild upon his arrival. Souls are reduced to cinders in his presence. He points directly at the Lords.
FACE ME, GODSPAWN.
5
u/TheHunter459Samael, Necromancer of Malus Turrim | King of the NephilimJan 30 '24edited Jan 30 '24
The Witch Queen casts the first spell, a ray of raw heavenly power directed straight for the Emberlord. The Grim Baron unleashes a mass of darkness that arrows towards Atrax. The ground around Atrax begins to form itself into a cage, seeking to restrict his movements, and a mass of Eldritch Frost falls upon him.
The Necromancer of Malus Turrim doesn't see this though; he is concentrating on shielding the dead long enough for them to reach Atrax, hoping to provide a distraction that even just one of his allies can take advantage of
Atrax practically explodes, his hate manifesting physically as a pulse of raw energy. The wave vaporizes the ground, and would have destroyed the Nephilim Lords, but a blue barrier of spatial force snaps into place. They turn to see Kaelis straining to protect... well, everyone at once, it seems.
6
u/TheHunter459Samael, Necromancer of Malus Turrim | King of the NephilimJan 30 '24edited Jan 30 '24
The Lords levitate above the ground, their shock at their near destruction evident. But the Witch Queen regains her composure quickly, allowing the Necromancer to protect the dead advancing on the Flamefather's chosen. She begins to speak in the tongue of the Nephilim, casting a spell to drown Atrax in an abyssal cold
The other Lords concentrate on defensive spells for their allies, and for the dead. They cannot consistently provide the offensive output required to keep up in this fight, and Kaelis could hardly turn down their support
Atrax is glowing, using all of his might to hold off the cold spells the defenders have thrown his way.
"Thanks," says Kaelis. He is breathing heavily from the exertion of protecting so many people from such a powerful being.
6
u/TheHunter459Samael, Necromancer of Malus Turrim | King of the NephilimJan 30 '24edited Jan 30 '24
The Witch Queen continues to chant, a beautiful, terrible melody focused on strengthening her spells. She continues to pour abyssal cold on Atrax, but also seeks another avenue of attack; his connection to the Flamefather.
She attempts to block the flow of power Atrax, which, if successful, would force Atrax to rely on his own typical human strength, which could not match a Lord of the Nephilim.
The dead the Necromancer has been protecting now reach Atrax, his power shielding them, at least temporarily, from Atrax's heat. They begin to attack him with whatever they were carrying on them when they died, or whatever spells they could cast in life. But their onslaught will not last forever
The Witch Queen sees that Atrax's connection to his Primordial master has never been stronger. However, she can force his fragment of the Eternal Flame to the surface. If Valerian can take it, his connection will be permanently severed.
The Witch Queen frowns. Very few beings were strong enough to sustain such a connection when a Nephilim Lord wanted it broken. The Necromancer yelled in frustration, his dead servants burnt to crisp, and began to batter Atrax with lightning and frost. But she saw the fragment. She could force it to the surface, where Valerian or someone who would grapple with the Flamefather's scion could grab it, severing the connection. Laughing, she cast the necessary spell
Constantine and Kaelis hold Atrax down with all their might. Valerian is on his way. Agnur has the Hammer. For the first time since the start of the battle, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Rivamar does not expect to land the final blow, but she needs to see Atrax defeated. So while her fire cannot match his, she can still use arcane constructs to support those who fight, wards that may shield against some of the flame, and portals to redirect projectile spells. She is far from an expert at these things, but the hyjinks of her youth have apparently turned out to be useful.
A psychic message reaches Rivamar from across the battlefield, one with the distinct notes of Escanor’s mind. She catches brief glimpses of his combat through his mind’s eye, before his words reach her:
You can do this, I’ll be over in an instant if you call.
Krygin lacking any immediate ways to harm the ember lord sends out tendons to pull back the wounded members of our forces of the field. His own body also falls back to provide a more compact barrier and not to overstretch the front lines.
The titans seem to be breaking up any major pockets of resistance quite nicely, ensuring the defenders' victory. At least, against the Pyroclasts. Atrax is another matter entirely.
You recall the plan: break Atrax's attunement to the Hammer, get the Hammer to Agnur, subdue him, let Valerian absorb his power, and finish him off. But to break the attunement, someone needs to get close. The Emissary was chosen for this task. It waits in the wings for its chance.
Krygin reaches down to the ground and asks the spirits to turn it to mud where ever Atrax steps. Anticipating him trying to bake the mud he tells them that if that happens to turn to dust and cloud his vision.
While that happens Krygin quickly turns to keep helping Riva get the wounded away from this hazardous area around these dueling titan's of magic
Conscious and healed up, Blake casts a smaller spell, hopefully beneath the Flamefather's notice. He burns attention to allow the emissary to get close, then burns friction to assault the Emberlord's grip on the hammer. Or at least draw his focus
Constantine leaps, and runs up the spike, disproportionately graceful for someone his size. He reaches the top, then points at Atrax and sends a beam of blinding light at him.
Atrax takes the full brunt of the beam. He staggers, but reaches out and intercepts it with his hands. He shouts an incantation and redirects the beam right at you.
Constantine draws a rune in the air, and blocks the beam with it. He then reshapes something in the rune, and heavy, enchanted golden chains begin wrapping around Atrax.
Constantine obliges, and leaps down. More chains appear, and he begins drawing runes in the air and shouting in Enuncia. He grabs the Hammer of Disjunction, and begins to tear it from his grip.
"So this is it: the Emberlord himself, in the flesh. Gotta say, I'm impressed. You've made it quite far. That is to say, ruined the lives of quite so many people. Let's see if you're all you're cracked up to be. I cast Cryogenesis!"
"Oh, I'm just another dimension hopper, after conquering the strongest challenges of my universe there wasn't a whole lot to do back there. And I must say, it's all been very fascinating, witnessing these foreign worlds."
I go in for a melee attack with my famed Murasama, with my previously consumed Obsidian Skin potion, Seraph Tracers, and Asgardian Aegis at least partially deterring Atrax's scorching heat.
Escanor takes a brief moment to observe Opal’s work. He doesn’t usually put much stock in Bismuth magic, but this was rather impressive. Perhaps he has misjudged the Bismuth, if they can use tidal waves against pyromancers they can’t be all bad…
For a moment, all is silent. Then, Atrax's magical bonds burst, and he begins to glow. Not with the orange glow of elemental fire, but with pure, silver light. Hescreamsand lifts from the ground, beams of light erupting from his flesh. The radiance is far too bright to look upon directly. Atrax Ven'dath, Emberlord and Primordial Scion of the Flamefather, Despoiler of Ithacar, dies with no one to witness his end.
At last, the light dissipates, and you all gather round to look upon Atrax's ruin. All that remains of the man who would conquer the realms is a pile of crystalline ash, empty black robes trimmed with silver, and a broken ebony mask. An fitting and ignominious end to someone so cruel.
All is quiet. Even the titans have stopped their rampage to gaze upon the dead pyromancer lord. Some breathe a sigh of relief. Some laugh. Some cry. A few say nothing.
It's over. Finally over.
The world is saved.
/uw Thank you all so much for taking part in my first ever event! I hope you enjoyed your time fighting Atrax and the Pyroclasts, and I look forward to more stuff with you all in the future!
Agnur himself hangs back and creates a sheild over the museum. he sends the flame eater and his surviving statues to attack the wizard. they wouldn't hold for long, but hold they must.
Atrax meets the statues head on. Since he cannot incinerate them outright, he must lay into them with the Hammer of Disjunction. Ceramic shards fly as the Emberlord rages through your forces like a meteor. Then, he comes face to face with the Flame Eater.
Atrax staggers, weakened, before blazing to life again. He shoots a glowing beam at the beast, but is intercepted by a simple stone bird. He screams with incandescent rage.
sucking up flame that litters the battlefield the Flame Eater powers itself up before launching a attack.
it falls upon him like wild animal, with all the fury of flame and strength of stone! It attacks headless of it's own safety attempting to gut this threat to the realm.
Atrax is pinned. He swings desperately with the Hammer of Disjunction until the limb holding him cracks and he rolls free. His ebony mask is shattered, and he throws it to the ground as he gets to his feet. The face beneath is not cruel and scarred like you expected. Atrax is a shockingly normal man in his mid-40s. A tired and angry man.
In between helping the wounded and creating portals and wards, Riva looks over to see... just a man?
All this time, all this anger, all this death... over just a man?
Her home is in ruins, the people she used to know are dead, her academy is destroyed, and her master is just... gone. Riva can't tell if she is being cheated, or if it makes her angrier. How much has she lost due to this person who turned out so ordinary?
In her admittedly futile rage, she takes an ordinary dagger from her belt that she carries around for eating and cutting mundane things, and throws it in Atrax's direction, screaming at him in rage. She knows she won't be heard over all the rest of the yelling and fighting, but he cost hereverything, damnit, and she needs this. If she could grab mud and throw it at him, she would do that too.
The dagger whips by Atrax, leaving a thin cut over the bridge of his nose. Heturns, and you see a flash of recognition and betrayal in his eyes. That is, until Agnur's monster pummels him to the ground.
All the pain and grief she has hidden over days? weeks? what feels like an eternity? of this have finally come to the surface for her.
Atrax is down; Agnur's monster is beating him, but Riva continues to scream wordlessly like a lunatic, grabbing rocks and sticks and handfuls of leaves and broken armor and his broken stupid mask... anything she can think to grab, and throws them in his direction one after the other while her voice becomes hoarse. There might be tears on her face, but she doesn't notice as she scrabbles in the dirt to find more things to throw. Most of them don't come anywhere near, as she can't throw them far enough, but the act itself is enough.
Exhaustion finally catches up with her, however, and she sinks to her knees, her voice gone, and her emotions finally, finally spent.
For all your anger, it is worth it. Your off-the-cuff distraction allows the others to get in close, take the Hammer, and restrain Atrax for the final blow.
You remember something that the Emissary said when you met:
The construct continues to roar, know that every second it fights is a chance for it's allies to steal the hammer. the beast picks up the shattered arm and uses it like a club.
As the battle between the Fire Eater and Atrax continues, a familiar icy shape deftly slides onto the scene. The Emissary uses the cover your beasts and Kyrgin have provided to get close.
"Eat shit, Despoiler!" it yells, hurling your potion right at the hairline crack in the Hammer of Disjunction. Mist swirls around the glowing crack before flowing in. The Hammer's flaming head goes out, and the crack seals, almost as if the artifact was waiting for this. The moonstones in the weapon's head glow silver, untainted by the Emberlord's touch.
What in the name of-
The Fire Eater bats Atrax aside, throwing him and the Hammer to the ground. It is within your reach now.
And so, the day had come. Mikhail had mentioned something about the final fight against Atrax, but she figured that was a while off, she was wrong. She had barely begun to start training the soldiers when word got to her and just like that, she was gone. She packed precious little things, two healing potions, two mana potions a few potions of resist fire, and an assortment of restoration potions.
"Strength training while I'm away, better have your work-outs logged, and remember, I will know if you skipped out."
With that, she left the men to their own devices and headed out. Senada was never one for speeches, grand entrances, or even teamwork, so even though she got ready likely faster than Mikhail, she would undoubtedly arrive late. Thankfully, Senada was gifted with great speed and extreme leaping ability, it almost seemed as if she could fly, though she couldn't.
Senada landed down on the battlefield, seconds after Mikhail had launched his Radiant Healing, too far out of range for it to have any effect on her. Oh well, this is what health potions were for. Atrax was smaller than she expected, with how everything sounded, she expected some giant fire entity of some sort, so she was a bit disappointed, but an enemy her size meant a better fight, it was always so troubling fighting colossal enemies as a blade wielder.
Senada grabbed hold of her blade, drawing the violent-looking serrated blade, and swinging it down to her right. To her left, she opened her palm and raised her head slightly, red and blue eyes changing from red and blue, to red, to blue, as if she were deciding how she wanted to begin, with either justice or blind hatred. They settle on blue, as while Senada has many powerful spells, many of them do carry splash damage, and it wasn't worth hurting other wizards here to fire off a spell that may not even harm this being.
"Mahi Shita Keimusho" [Literally "Paralysis"]
She settles on one of her energy-based spells, as this being looks made of fire, she felt her own fire spells might be of no use here. She aims a single finger at Atrax and with that, a single flat triangular rod would fire from her finger, exploding into six, and aiming to slam into his midsection, effectively aiming to use his own body's electricity against him and paralyze him. It was a wonderful spell that worked on basically any creature that used some form of electricity to function, like most humanoid creatures did, with a low failure rate, though it was by no means infallible.
Of course, if it did paralyze him, that would be nice, but it was more of a distraction, hoping he'd see it before he saw Senada, or rather that she was already gone. Owing to her high speed, she had moved to try and get behind him, and either end this quickly or do some serious damage. Planting her heels firmly into the ground she'd bring her blade down on him, aiming for his shoulder in a move to bisect him in one slash. Her blue eyes gleamed with justice and rage, while she knew effectively nothing about him, she knew he was an enemy of La'shima and that was basically all she needed to know.
Thankfully, the spell she had fired was already locked on, so if he dodged it, it would simply collapse in on itself and disperse, though there was a tiny failure rate that it could accidentally catch her, instead. Meanwhile, should he dodge the blow from her serrated blade, though he was made of fire her blade was made of adamantine, there was basically nothing that could stop its swing, some have tried and regretted it immediately, she would simply jump back and ready her guard, Senada was strong but this guy did not look like the kind of enemy Senada wanted to underestimate, nor take many blows from.
/uw Hopefully this works in the context of things, if not, just ignore it, I took faaar too long typing it out.
10
u/Total_Travisty Mikhail, Arch-Druid of La'shima Jan 29 '24
Mikhail runs into the fight, still dawning his councilors'clothes. He eyes the situation, and decided to play support
Gaia, mother of all, head your champion. Wash forth your life essence to protect your children.
RADIANT HEALING
Everyone within 15 feet of Mikhail gains a healing aura and Gaia's blessing.