Quickly we made our way to the ritual chamber and stopped just outside the door. The ritual was underway. The room was large and a ring off zombies stood around the center. To the left was a monument to the evil god and to the right a dark, swirling portal through the floor. Straight ahead, Kalarel in his physical form was occupied before five pillars, chanting his ritual. Something moved in the corner just out of sight from the doorway. I pulled the small dragon statue out of my bag to check for runes or any clues that would help us seal the rift. The statue was glowing at this point, but gave no indication of the solution. “Blast! Had we even thought to ask HOW to use these?” I said as I tucked it away.
We had to move quickly, but the room was very large and we could not risk running straight into the middle of these zombies. I knew I could reach Kalarel with a spell or two, and he was our biggest concern. The group pushed me ahead and I conjured an icy hand beside Kalarel to attempt to grasp him and stop his casting. He reached out his hand and magically resisted my spell, then turned his attention to the doorway.
“So, you have arrived to try to stop the rift from being opened. Well, you’re too late. The ritual has begun!”
A voice emerged from the swirling, necrotic blackness of the portal, calling out in a dark tongue and tendrils of death reached outward. Anything that would be drawn into the rift would die instantly. We moved in carefully avoiding the portal and the grasp of the creature that seemed to be reaching outward toward the statue. I finally managed to grasp Kalarel with the icy hand, which paused the ritual for a moment, but soon he slipped free again and continued casting.
I stood in the doorway as the others moved to the center of the room to attack Kalarel. Cherry had been the furthest ahead. A voice called her name and a clawed arm reached out from the rift and clutched her. She slipped out of its grip just before she reached the portal. Zombies quickly closed in on us all, but Heddro and I had problems of our own. The figure that had slipped just out of sight from us moments earlier had followed the wall to us now and was right upon us. I was focussed on Kalarel and my spell, and took little notice of specifics. Heddro looked up at the wight that had just approached and went mad with fear.
“Oh my god! It has white curls!” were his last words before he stumbled back into the previous room in shock. Heddro would not be joining us anytime soon.
“Damn it, Heddro! Get back here!” Iceborn roared, “He’s got one of the statues!”
The statues gave off a light ringing as they began to glow brighter and a warm voice spoke to us. Charged with new spirit and a guiding voice, we knew Bahamut was with us. A voice in my head began to speak to me, the words to counter Kalarel’s incantation. Kriv kept the zombies off me as Iceborn and Cherry worked their way further into the room. The same voice was speaking to the others, and they soon began to chant along with me as I scorced and blasted against the undead that filled the room. Cherry reached Kalarel and landed a dagger into him. He grunted in pain, but then a dark mist reached out to him from the rift and healed his wound. He chanted on.
The wight cackled as Kalarel grew stronger and I blasted her again. She cursed our defiance and lashed out furiously. Heddro was still nowhere to be seen and I was trying to maintain my focus to counter the ritual. The voice from the rift came again, this time to Kriv. An arm reached out and pulled Kriv in and he escaped at the last second. I could not longer attempt to hold the icy hand as Kalarel would not be held, so I dropped the spell and conjured the flaming sphere into the wight, setting a few zombies ablaze nearby. I chanted again and the rift grew smaller.
The wight was enraged and clumsy as she tried to reach out for me. The flames overcame her and soon Kalarel was the last of them standing. I moved in, chanting against him all the while. The portal was shrinking with every line, but still remained enough to heal his wounds. The others hacked away at him as into my mind the last lines of the spell were spoken. I chanted them out as loud as I could and the rift closed. Kalarel roared as he began to fire off everything he had at us. I blasted him with acid and rolled the fire into him with all the energy I had. Kriv landed a heavy blow with his sword, Cherry jabbed her daggers in with all her might and Iceborn heaved his great axe with every ounce of wrath a tiefling can muster. Straight down into Kalarel’s skull, the axe sunk and the evil mage crumpled as the tension left his body.
