Mage bashing and nuking the only settlement in the campaign

In our last episode, the group got a lift on a flying carpet, boarding the floating mountain that’s laying waste to the city below.

Inside the cave, a dwarf mob guard was killed by a magic missile, and then the group scrambled for cover.

Anuin, the possessed elf, notice it was the same cave where they saw the World Engine/Furnace, and tried to contact the alien intelligence through telepathy.

From the back of the cave, a grizzled wizard, dressed in rags and with a bandaged head, step forward, and laughed with a deep voice.

Gorgoradin wasn’t amused by the death of another dwarf, and charged. Epaminondas, the sharpened-teeth barbarian, followed suit, and Alma, the rogue, moved herself trying to flank the wizard.

The group tries to hit the wizard, but the level difference means that they have a hefty penalty in doing so. Epaminondas even has a fumble with his magical shovel-axe, a weapon that he had pilfered from the very engine room they saw once again. Even though, Alma (the rogue) manages to hit him with a thrown short sword, and finding himself beset by all sides, the wizard retreated to a side corridor on the cave.

Anuin, the elf, managed to contact the alien intelligence of the World Engine, and it confirmed that the wounded wizard was also an servant.

Although the elf urged his companions not to attack, blood was running hot and they pursued.

Blini, the dwarf mob chief, was the first to charge into the darkness, yelling the name “Algieba” (for those who have been paying attention: Algieba was the mage-mayor who disappeared after the goblin attack).

Things would turn for the worse: after a few seconds, Blini returned from the dark corridor, dragging his feet and staggering. Behind him, a bright green fog poured into the cave.

Gorgoradin approached his fellow dwarf, but found that the skin from his face was melting right off from the skull, and he was no more than a walking corpse. The acidic fog approached, and Anuin felt the calling from inside the World Engine. Seeing that Blini was dying, Gorgoradin took his jewelry and the fine silver hammer he used as a weapon and symbol of office.

While the group ran to the entrance of the cave, he circled back and opened the back door of the engine, and there he saw a world of putrefaction and death, a veritable garden of decay, and voice calling him.

Epaminondas urged his elf friend to forgo the many promises of power and might, but he stepped in, and in the blink of an eye was turned into and egg, then a flower, and finally blossomed as monstrous humanoid: his skin turned into tarnished bronze, his hair a mess of spikes, and black sharpened nails adorning his hands.

From the back of the cave, the wizard dragged himself, and protested against Anuin’s rise to power. He summoned an ethereal black bear to slay him, before fleeing again.

With newfound strenght (a +4 demonic bonus, nonetheless), Anuin rips the ethereal black bears with his sword in two rounds. His friends feel that the cave is trembling a little bit too much, and run for the flying carpet that brought them up and inside the floating mountain.

After destroying the ethereal black bear, the possessed elf saw another two monsters – and charged at them. The monsters, however, were Epaminondas and Gorgoradin. Before he hacked them to pieces, Anuin resisted the bloodlust fog that corroded his mind.

A shrieking voice fills his ears, telling him that now he would be anchor in this world, an agent of chaos. Apart the spooky message, the World Engine began detaching itself from the floor the cavern, and taking the roof with it.

The party took their queue, and ran for the flying carpet. Being the only dwarf around, Gorgo manages to attune with the artifact, and it floats. Along for the ride comes Epaminondas and Anuin, but Alma failed to reach them in time: in a couple of seconds, the mountain splits in half! The lower parts falls and crushes the city below, causing a small tsunami from the docks and sending the refugee ships into disarray, and the top speeds into space, turning itself into a bright star.

The party is then engulfed in a huge cloud of smoke, dust and debris, floating high above the city.

Will they survive? Stay tuned for the next installment!