Race to King’s Crest

Aleera got up, drying her tears and brushing the grime off her clothes. She was about to fly upwards to meet the others when the ground, a little ways off, rumbled. A mound of dirt came popping out of the ground as if something was burrowing. She got ready to fight again if need be when something came out. It was a statue of Milo. It was a perfect replica of him. Cracks formed on the statue and Aleera stepped forward in concern. 

Chips fell away from the statue and revealed the flesh of a small person underneath. When the top half chipped off, Milo’s upper body slumped forward. His eyes were still closed. Aleera hurried forward to catch him and helped him stay upright. He groaned as she removed the rest of the stone from his legs and lowered his body to the stone floor. He was naked yet again, but being used to it, Aleera sacrificed one of her robes to cover him up. 

At the center of his chest was a giant gash where Tylo’s knife had struck. It was jagged and red. There was a rough coating of earth forming across the wound as if to protect the raw puncture. Milo opened his eyes slowly and blinked to clear his vision. When he sat up Terra was waiting in one of her statue forms. She spoke only to him. Aleera couldn’t understand a word, though it sounded familiar. 

“I have stopped the flow of death for now. Pieced you back together from your parts and used my essence to breathe life back into the clay of your flesh. Until your friends can help you, I give you life from me. Great work with the trials, you have earned my blessing. I think we’re going to have lots of fun!” 

With that said Terra’s form collapsed into the dirt and left them alone in the chasms of her temple. Aleera helped him to get back on his feet and she teleported them back to the top of the temple grounds. They came out at the giant altar to Terra and quickly made their way to check on Kaladrax. He was surrounded by Hepolita and Kariss. Kariss explained that she didn’t have the power to bring him back. Aleera fell to her knees once more, mourning the loss of her new love. 

Kariss explained that she had cast Gentle Repose on his body to delay the decay process and get him to a healer that might be able to bring him back. Aleera perked up at this and asked what they could do. They were going to have trouble carrying his body back to King’s Crest. He may have been, was, a wizard but he was also a bulky dragonborn. Aleera thought desperately of a way to transport him. Then an idea bloomed. It was a bad idea. 

“Can we fit him in the bag of holding?”

The rest of the party looked at her in surprise and slight confusion. Then they agreed that it was the easiest, fastest way to get him there. He wasn’t alive so the bag couldn’t kill him more. They took the bag and began shoving his feet into it. The hardest part came when they got the bag to his shoulders. They were broad and lightly muscled and hard to fit in the bag. They stretched the magical bag as far as they could. Aleera stretched until she could feel the fibers straining to hold the bag together and barely managed to fit it over and shove his head into the void. With the bag at maximum they limped out of the temple. 

Aleea floated up into the air and waited on her friends. Kariss got on her broom and Hepolita borrowed Aleera’s broom, Treble. She got on that broom and Milo rode with her since he was small enough. They zoomed away from the caves and made straight for King’s Crest. Aleera kept praying to the Traveler for help in bringing Kaladrax back. 

After a few hours of flying without break they saw the looming stone walls of the city. They flew as hard as they could to reach it. As they got closer to the walls they began to see rocks everywhere on the road. They ranged in size from pebbles to large boulders. At the walls were the nervous makeshift army they had left to defend the city. Urstill was looking out over the walls searching the horizon. She waved them over when she saw them. 

The party landed on the city walls and rushed to Urstill. Aleera begged her to bring Kaladrax back. She asked if there were any healers that could do that. Urstill told her to calm down in a measured tone and asked where his body was. The party looked at Aleera and she took the bag of holding from her side. They began to inch his body out as Urstill watched in equal parts horror and humor. Once his body was out, Kariss explained that she had cast Gentle Repose on him to preserve his body. 

Urstill nodded her acknowledgement and took a large glittering diamond from within the pockets of her robes. She held the diamond in her hand and, with a trickle of magical energy, pulverized it into dust. She sprinkled it over his body while chanting arcane words of magic. A white light shone out over Kaladrax’s body. After a few minutes of chanting, Urstill fell silent and waited to see if the magic worked. The white light and dust settled over Kaladrax’s body and melted into him. 

With a shudder he breathed in sharply but stayed unconscious. Aleera cried out in relief and hugged his sleeping body gently before releasing him. She turned to Urstill with tears brimming over and thanked her. Urstill smiled and nodded her acceptance stating that it was the least she could do for their help. Plus Kaladrax was a respected researcher of the college and much too valuable to let go without a fight. 

Now that he was taken care of, Aleera asked if there were many others injured in the fight. Urstill looked at her with a curious look on her face and explained that the elementals had been within feet of the wall and the forces were ready to engage in battle when they simply disintegrated into pieces right before the two forces could clash. For once, no innocents had been hurt or killed. This time everyone had lived!