The party turns their attention to the closed sarcophagus. Unable to discern any traps, Trace pushes it open to reveal a completely empty container. Whoever had been here at one point is certainly gone now.
There is a quick discussion about backtracking down the western edge of the arcing hallway to see if there was anything missed. At the end of the day, Krask decides to check out the double-doors first to get a little more intel. After all, they’re already here, right?
As Krask nears the door, his bow begins to glow with a faint blue light. Orcs! Goblins! Just kidding, this isn’t Sting! The rest of the martial characters gather closer to the door and find that their dominant runeforged weapons also react to the force wall in the same way.
In a rare moment of investigative journalism, the party combines their weapons together and presses them into the force wall. It’s clear that there’s an effect, so they begin attacking the wall to bring it down. Several attacks later, the energy of the wall collapses in a burst of light, leaving the inviting double doors unprotected.
Fyn is low on spells, but the party decides to press a bit further. Krask hears the crackling of flames on the other side of the doors. The fire seems to be louder than a simple brazier, so either a large bonfire or magical flames must lie beyond. They open the doors.
The doors open up into a wide room containing a huge golden sphere cloaked in fire. A narrow staircase rises up to a wide platform that extends over the top of the sphere. There are four figures staring directly at the party as they step inside.
Three of them are the hulking forms of Cloud Giants. Their white hair billows in a non-existent breeze as they brandish their massive morningstars with ease.
Up on the steps, underneath the golden sphere, stands a gigantic and gorgeous lamia. With a lower half of a horse, a panther-like tail, and burly paws like that of a bear twice her size.
Her features are soft, looking out with deep brown eyes as her black hair cascades alongside her face from a high ponytail. Her bare torso is covered by a strip of exquisite linen, and her skin is accented by various golden accoutremon. She wields an angled dagger, also made of gold.
She speaks.
“It is too late, Heroes of Sandpoint. Karzoug is already aware of your presence, and he readies himself to face you as I speak.” She makes a quick glance back towards the golden sphere that dominates the room.
“Although, I warrant a guess that his preparations will be in vain. For the Most High Ceoptra will uphold her station and destroy this attempt to negate the inevitable!”
As she mentions her name, the giants silently put a fist to their chest in recognition. You can see wisps of shadowy clouds swirling around her hands as a faint glowing outline of a Thassilonian eye appears on her forehead.
Fobias recognizes this as a symbol you saw throughout the administrative buildings in the Harridan compound, but more notably in the architecture of the House of Divine Consumption, the pagodas down in Xin-Shalast.
“Your time has come to be dealt with. And even in the off-chance of you making it beyond the animus, our sacrifice will only make him stronger. And my children, those recalcitrant fools who wouldn’t fall in line, will forever haunt this mountain.”
“You have been living on borrowed time, and your debt is due. For Karzoug!”
The Most High Ceoptra casts a wall of whirling swords, separating Richard from the rest of the party. Now they have to fight unless they want to push through the dangerous blades back towards the hallway. One of the giants steps forward and connects her morningstar with Fyn. Krask cloaks himself in invisibility, preparing himself for better positioning next round.
Barnaby moves in and engages the closest giant, who is preventing the party from spreading out into the room. The good thing is that the giant is blocking her allies from attacking as well, so maybe it’s more of a blessing in disguise.
Fobias maneuvers himself to the south of the closest giant and lashes out with his ranseur. Fyn realizes the danger of the current situation, and creates a stone wall to close off the advance of another giant. Fobias is safe for now as the other giants don’t have space to engage the party in melee.
Finally, Trace sees his opening and uses Smite Evil with his blade. These giants aren’t long for this world as he deals a critical blow to the first giant. This angers Ceoptra, who casts Destruction on Fobias. Our resident druid steels himself against the worst of it, but still gets hit hard by the blast.
The giant turns her attention to Trace, the greatest threat, but can’t get through his divine armor. Krask uses the distraction to find an opening in the giant’s defenses, and takes her down. Barnaby activates his flight boots and hurries himself up to Ceoptra. Surely this spellcaster won’t be adept at melee combat?
As the melee battle down below rages, Fyn casts Haste and Greater Invisibility to give his allies a fighting chance. These giants hit like a Sky Citadel, and whatever can be done to make them hit like a Trunau tower is most welcomed.
Barnaby gets a single hit in on Ceoptra, who turns on her assailant with her angled knife. Before she slashes out, she inflicts Barnaby with permanent blindness! Without sight, Barnaby isn’t able to defend himself against the onslaught of Ceoptra’s attacks. He drops down ten feet to the ground, hoping that Ceoptra won’t be able to finish him off.
Will Barnaby survive this battle? Is Karzoug inside the golden sphere? Will Trace come prepared with a rousing speech next week?