Shifting Lands

A fiery red landscape met the group of warriors headed into battle. The Feywild was nothing like previously known. Instead of lush greenery or exotic flora and fauna, there was an enormous black volcano spewing glowing lava from its core. Instead of a whole land there were chunks of terrain floating around a red void. It looked like the small chunks of land were trying to get away from the showering lava. 

In the distance they could all see a small object approaching. As it got closer they could start to make out that it was a smaller air ship. Inside was a knight decked out in shining red armor. He removed his helmet to reveal that he was Regent Philip. During the Grand Guild Games, Regent Philip had followed the Queen through the Fae Gate to fight her and keep her from coming through to our plane. It looked as though he had fallen, his former comrades were nowhere near. Behind him were five people. Almost all were easily recognizable as people they had encountered in their adventures. They saw: Zenriel, Athena, the Wizard from the Oasis, Sane from under the mountains north of King’s Crest, and one unknown red dragonborn that stared at them with hate in his eyes. 

Regent Philip began to speak, telling them to leave and never return. This was their last chance at life. If they continued the Queen would obliterate them and succeed anyhow. While he was spewing his threats, Milo moved in the shadows and got closer to the ship which was floating parallel to theirs at this point. When he got close enough he tested the ship to make sure it was real and it was. He could feel the hardened wood beneath his fingers. They continued listening to the threats for a moment longer. It was sometime through the litany that Kaladrax noticed something strange about the background characters. Regent Phillip was speaking but the others were silent. After a while he noticed that their mannerisms would repeat every so often. 

Athena kept crossing and uncrossing her arms right after rolling her eyes. Zenriel kept shooting the same venomous look at Kariss. The others had their own little repeating quirks but they had spent the most time with Athena and Zenriel so they were the most noticeable. Kaladrax shared this with Milo. He took out a dagger and flicked it at Regent Phillip. It went right through him and returned to Milos’ belt. At that moment the smaller ship began to back away and turn to face them head on. Aleera was the first to yell out that they should prepare the cannons. She saw them getting ready to ram their ship with the smaller one. The ship crew flew into activity, preparing gunpowder and ammunition. Kariss was so caught up in the upswing of battle that she didn’t notice the invisible touch of Zenriel’s pseudodragon. She felt a tingle run through her body and the pseudodragon became visible. She tried to change into her half were-hippo form to bat it away and found she could not. The small dragonling had been used to magically remove the shape changing disease from Kariss. 

When they were ready and the smaller ship closer as it began its assault on their bigger ship, Aleera gave the command to lose the cannons. A volley of cannonballs erupted from the side facing the small ship and peppered it with holes.Their aim must have been good since the small ship slowed its forward movement and began to fall downward at a slow rate. Smoke wisped out of the holes in the ship leaving behind black streams in the air. The larger ship renewed its progression towards the closest cluster of floating islands. Upon reaching them, some of the warriors, including the Drow contingent, disembarked from the ship to land upon the floating island clusters. Some also stayed on the ship to protect it and allow the use of the cannons for extra support fire. Those that went down into the islands were faced with the members of the Queen of Ash’s court. 

Aleera and Milo headed to another island and fought the wizard from the Oasis  and Sane, along with some of their allies, cambion demons, the succubus they had encountered before and some heavy duty constructs. On one of the islands the warriors were faced with Zenriel and her own dragon allies. A white and a blue dragon fought on her behalf as she commanded them from the safety of a tower. The dragons that had come with the party had to fly down to engage the enemies. Kariss, furious at being disempowered, and Hepolita went along to help them fight against Zenriel and her minions. Kaladrax and Gralmor stayed on the ship to steer it and man the giant cannon they had attached. Kaladrax used some of his special dragon killing ammunition to keep the white dragon from attacking the ship. 

All the fighting and they still hadn’t taken on the Queen of Ash or her knight. Her allies were proving to be capable and prepared for the tricks that the party carried. Still they fought on, hoping that they could last long enough to destroy the queen and prevent her from taking over the gods and the planes they presided over. If she had her way she would rule everything with her cold, unfeeling heart. The Hand of Destiny could not allow this so they dug their heels in and prepared for a long battle.