The Storm

The teleportation magic sends the King's Hand deep beneath Cielmir, into the heart of an abandoned dwarven fortress the cult has claimed as its ritual ground. Waiting for them is a face they know, Brenna Stonehill, her eyes hollowed and empty, no longer the ranger they once knew. Above the chamber, perched on a parapet, stands the Ember Hierophant. He casts off his anonymity, naming himself Aurelius Blackflame, the disgraced knight whose vandalized shrine the heirs passed on the Knight's Road. He speaks of a truth: that no honor ever truly comes from the hands of men, no matter how high one climbs. Dragons are older and greater beings, far more deserving of the divine authority mankind so jealously hoards for itself.

The battle then erupts, and Via does not wait. Seizing the moment, she Vortex Warps Brenna and casts the ranger down into the lava below. Whatever was left of Brenna Stonehill is gone in an instant. With the first chamber cleared, the rest of their allies pour in behind them. The heirs and their companions begin to spread out across the fortress. Pressing on, the King's Hand reaches a vast chamber of lava channels, where four narrow bridges meet at a central platform, each branching off toward a separate room beyond.

It is here that Zepharos recognizes one among the enemy: an undying dragonborn whose presence drags up a great deal of old and bitter history. The cultist seize on it, jeering at the necromancer over his past deeds in Ederia and taunting the heirs about how little they truly know of the ones they fight beside. They boast, too, that death holds no power over them, that they will simply return, again and again. Visibly shaken and seething, Zepharos hauls one of the still-living cultists aside and interrogates the man himself, and whatever answers he gets, Zephoros does not share them with the King’s Hand.

With the chamber cleared and the way ahead uncertain, the King's Hand take a brief moment to catch their breath and steady themselves before pushing deeper into the keep.