‘Bring Diafani to Floodwall and I’ll allow the city to keep on standing. And every other plane it’s connected to.’ And the image of Aurifar vanished.
Firuzeh, Vi, and Cranzalar exchanged looks, then almost as one turned to Diafani.
‘We should get going then,’ said Diafani.
‘There’s no way you’re coming,’ said Uzi at nearly the same time. ‘It’s too risky. It’s obviously a trap.’ Her face was calm, but her shoulders had begun to shake just a little. ‘We can’t. We just can’t.’
‘I don’t want to fight you on this,’ said Diafani. ‘Obviously the three of you are the heavy hitters here. I know my presence puts me at risk. But I need to come with you.’
Cranzalar and Vi kept quiet. It seemed they knew this was something between Diafani and Uzi. They just watched her, carefully.
‘Fine,’ said Uzi. ‘It isn’t up to me, I know that. But you have to promise that you’ll get out if things are looking bad.’
Diafani just nodded and gripped the hilt of her sword.
The four of them stepped through the portal together.
*
The first sense that things had gone horribly wrong in Floodwall was the taste of the air. It was too hot; their mouths were dry.
They’d exited the portal through the lilypad on the bottom tier; only, that’s not where they’d intended to go. Now they stood on parched, cracked earth that might have once been a seabed. The lilypad crumbled away even as they stepped from it – it seemed like that was the only portal still intact. And it was gone now. No going back.
Above them, the city of Floodwall towered dark against a crimson sky. The massive shape of the sun was far too close in the sky, hovering maybe a mile above the city. The sea had dried up. Disturbing shapes dotted the landscape – Cranzalar, shielding his eyes from the light, could see they were freshly mummified dragons.
But there wasn’t time. They had to move.
They went in through the bottom tier, winding their way through the sewers. It’s still a bit damp, shielded from the sun as it is. The route they took ended up being strangely familiar, coming into clarity as the group came to a pool of black liquid with a tightrope stretched across it. These were the caverns that the three had been washed down months ago, when the tide first forced them into companionship.
Things had changed, of course. Instead of quavering along the rope as before, Vi simply froze the pool solid and paced across. When accosted by a large group of crabs, Vi dealt with them just as handily, bringing down a Moonbeam and sweeping it through them without breaking a sweat.
They emerged in a familiar little tavern. Within, they found a cell of the rebellion who, once the group proved they were who they said they were, summoned up the resistance leaders.
Carnival and Redford appeared in the doorway. Carnival, now sporting scaly wings, quickly swept the four up in an embrace, the golden arm Vi had given her almost crushing them.
‘It’s good to see you alive,’ said Redford, trying not to smile.
‘It’s surprising to see you alive,’ Cranzalar shot back.
Redford laughed, and fiddled with the rifle he carried. Cranzalar went on to explain the situation, how they needed to reach the top of the city or every single plane was under threat from Aurifar.
‘Alright,’ smiled Carnival. ‘Looks like a last stand, then.’
The people of Floodwall gathered behind them, and they set out to reach the top.
*
The greenery of the third tier is brown and dying. The tree that held the first portal to the Regicider base is literally aflame. Passing by the tavern that the three had landed in when Firuzeh jumped them off the side of the tower, it’s full of civilians under siege from more undead. Cranzalar, rather than using Turn Undead as he might have once, simply crushes the zombies with an empowered Shatter. The rebellion doesn’t even break stride as he deals with them.
On the fourth tier, an explosion rocks the group as tree of the massive Nurse Things from Argat’s hospital come lumbering through a wall. Cranzalar passes the Evocation spark to Uzi and she blasts out a Lightning Bolt to rival the one she’d used on Shallows. The things drop and they keep moving.
The fifth tier holds a different kind of resistance – that last of the remaining church guard still loyal to the Royals, and thus Aurifar, stands in a defensive position at the opposite end of the bridge. The rebellion forces slam into them, but Uzi, Cranzalar, Vi, and Diafani emerge on the other side.
‘Keep moving!’ shouts Carnival. ‘We’ll hold them!’
*
The sixth tier was a mess. The entirety of the place had been overrun by the Bloodforged that the group once found a prototype for. Life-drained church guards and rebellion members alike are strewn about the streets.
Realising there were too many to fight, especially with the auras the Bloodforged exuded, the four decided it’s be best to slip through unnoticed. When they reached the centre spire, the door was still broken from Cranzalar kicking it in months back.
*
Atop the centre spire, Aurifar Incarnate, God of the Sun, God of Magic, and the One that Split the Planes, was focusing intently on opening rifts into the other planes. The sun above seemed just a few hundred feet away. He didn’t realise that the four he’d invited had made their way to him much more quickly than anticipated.
‘Let me borrow the spark,’ said Vi, her voice the barest whisper against the hum of power in the air. ‘I want to try something.’
She fired out a spark-empowered Witch Bolt, a new spell for her, with the idea that she could keep it sustained on Aurifar through the fight. But with the sheer amount of magic in the air – and the fact that she rolled a natural 20 – the beam that was produced dwarfed even the sun above; it smashed into Aurifar like a river washing away a beetle.
It disintegrated him.
But with the sparks, Aurifar could keep coming back. He reformed and fought back. ‘That hurt, Verischa. But I’m willing to look past it since you brought my prize.’
A spike, like the one in the middle of Floodwall itself, like the ones that had been used to pin the Leviathan down across the planes, skewered Diafani from above, removing her from the fight. ‘I’ll get to her after I get to you three,’ said the God.
The party kept up their assault, passing the spark between them to empower their spells and keep Aurifar from focusing too much on a single target. But they couldn’t keep him down, despite destroying him multiple times.
He reformed and picked up Cranzalar by the throat. The heat coming from him began to burn away at the Dragonborn’s flesh, as a sizzling sound filled his ears… and was interrupted by a gunshot.
Cranzalar landed on the stone spire, and turned to see Carnival flying past, carrying Redford and his rifle. Redford saluted awkwardly, trying to aim another shot – but Aurifar roared and sent a lash f fire toward them, sending Carnival spiraling to dodge it.
‘Fine,’ said the God. ‘If you can’t stop you physically I’ll just have to convince you otherwise.’ He tore open a further three pocket dimensions and sent the party spiraling down them.
*
Within, he offered them the chance to fix their mistakes. For Uzi, he took her back to when she agreed to be his champion. He took Cranzalar to his hostage negotiation with the Mind Spider. And Vi, he sent to the moment she threw a knife towards their captive inquisitor.
‘You can change what happened,’ offered Aurifar. ‘Fix your mistakes here. Do better this time.’
And all three gave him the same response. ‘I regret what happened. But I wouldn’t be who I am now without it happening.’
With this refusal, Aurifar changed tactics. Instead of a better past, he’d offer a better future. To Cranzalar, he showed a vision of his fighting off a vast monster, the Leviathan, to save the city and everyone in it. To Vi, he showed a family reunion, with respect from those she cared about, with Hestia and Edsel by her side. To Uzi, he showed a wedding with Diafani, with all her friends alive and present.
‘You can skip what’s happening now,’ offered Aurifar. ‘Leave this and move onto something better.’
And all three refused again. Uzi put it best. ‘I can still have that. I’m making that happen by fighting you now!’
*
The three of them emerged from the pocket dimensions still the same. Aurifar loomed over Vi, wounded from the fight. He reached down, and something slammed into the side of him, coming from the portal to the Feywild. Suddenly Granny Hestia was helping her up.
‘Hello, Verischa,’ she said. ‘You’re doing well. We’ve all been watching.’
Vi looked past her to see two figures driving Aurifar back with spears, the metal whirling in their hands. One was Edsel, back up on his feet, a look of determination on his face. And the other was her Father.
‘I’m proud of you,’ said Hestia. ‘Keep it up.’ And she leapt forward to teleport Vi’s family away as Aurifar hurled a bolt of force at them.
The three fought with renewed vigor, but Aurifar just kept getting back up. Uzi changed her approach, trying to get the spike out of Diafani so she could help.
‘It’s no good,’ said Diafani, weakly.
‘I’ll get you free, just hold on,’ said Uzi. Her shoulders were trembling again.
‘No… not that. I mean fighting him while he’s still got the sparks.’
‘We’ll figure something out!’
Diafani’s eyes shone. ‘I know,’ she said, taking Uzi’s hand. ‘I love you.’
Diafani’s spark was a fundamental change to the shape of her soul. A vessel for the other sparks of magic. When she passed it to Uzi, she closed her eyes and didn’t open them again.
But the Vessel spark was too much. Uzi’s skin began to glow, heat suffused her and began to burn away at her from inside. It was too much for one person.
Then Cranzalar and Vi were by her side, locking hands with her. And together, they took the spark’s power.
‘That isn’t yours!!’ screamed Aurifar, seeing the light of the spark.
They came at him again, and now each time they struck the God they took a spark from him and let it burn away to nothing.
‘It isn’t yours either!’ shouted Vi.
‘Nothing is,’ said Cranzalar, as he buried his sword in the God’s chest.
*
The massive false sun crackles and implodes when Aurifar dies. A roiling mass of dark clouds, created by the sudden shockwave of boiling air, lets forth a deluge of rain. Slowly, the sea begins to refill.
The fanatical churchguards have thrown down their weapons. The rebellion is seizing their supplies and distributing them to those most in need.
The Royals are gone, and so is the thing they inherited their power from.
And so is Diafani. Her soul itself was used up tearing the sparks from Aurifar; not even a True Resurrection can reach her. But Uzi is holding something small, her eyes determined despite their tears. It’s her mother’s ring. There’s still one wish left.
‘You’ve got to phrase it perfectly!’ says Vi. The three of them brainstorm for a little while, and then Uzi says:
‘I wish that Diafani would be returned to life with sound mind and body, cured of all wounds, and her soul returned in its original form, freed from any attachment to the God Aurifar.’
The spike in Diafani’s body crumbles away to nothing, and slowly, she opens her eyes.
*
In the following months, the city of Floodwall was rebuilt. The portals atop it stayed open, and soon the residents found themselves living in a busy multi-planar port town. The rebellion installed a democratically elected city council, with Redford and Carnival ending up as senior members. Cranzalar took on a role as city protector, both defending the city from within and representing its interests when negotiating with other planes. Of course, he’d still rely on his friends to stand with him on adventures across the newly-open multiverse.
Vi, with help from the others, made sure to expand her initial efforts of helping out those in need in the city. She’d gotten mixed up in all this by trying to bring food to the poor in Floodwall, so it was only fitting she continued to do so. There were a lot of kids that needed help, so she – with backup from the rest of her family – built something not unlike an orphanage.
Uzi and Diafani’s wedding ceremony was a smaller event than might be expected of the saviours of all existence. Vi and Cranzalar smiled away near the front of a room full of their friends and family, watching as Uzi slipped a ring with three now-empty gems onto Diafani’s finger.
Roll History 