The final task left to weaken Isair and Madae’s power before confrontation was to ambush and battle the delegation from the Cabal of Dragonkind. This would both eliminate one final alliance from the Legion, and force Isair and Madae to appear and deal with them personally. Unfortunately that meant combating a force of winged dragon warriors, with magical backup, from an exposed position on a tower battlement…
It wasn’t looking good for the good guys… until Garin appeared with reinforcements! It helps to have friends in high places!.Once they defeated the combined Legion and Cabal forces meeting at the tower, they descended back into the fortress. They were immediately met on the stairs by a mage who claimed that Isair and Madae were ready for an audience. Shocking. He immediately teleported them to the throne room, were the twins appeared simultaneously angry and dismissive. Karain tried to get what information she could, and tried to find an opening for negotiation, but the twins were not interested. A battle it was to be.Percy introduced himself to the contingent of Banite guards, echoing his exploits from Katarina’s childhood. Six guards and one Percy? No problem. After all, he has more knives…Kordaal took the fight to Isair, attempting to match Isair’s twin whirling blades with his own acrobatics. But the cambion was unbelievably fast, and supplemented his speed with sorcery. It wasn’t clear how long he would be able to hold out on his own.Katarina attempted to match up similarly with Madae. She was by far the best equipped to resist Madae’s magic. But Madae was supernaturally fast and strong, and Katarina too wasn’t sure how long she could hold out.At this point Solstice had had just about *enough* of Red Wizards of Thay, and *really* cut loose on them….Meanwhile Elara took out her own frustrations on an unfortunate Balor summoned to the fray. She can summon big friends too… Once the Knights of Bane, Thayan Wizards, demons and such had been dealt with, the entire team was able to focus on the twins. At that point the tide began to shift. Isair began to weaken first – neither as well armored, as durable, nor as strong willed as his sister. Just as Katarina thought victory was at hand… the twins vanished!It took but a moment to realize what had happened. The Twins had teleported to the Radiant Pool to replenish themselves, not knowing that that resource had already been closed to them… They rushed to the Arboretum, and sure enough found Isair and Madae sullenly awaiting them. Bitterly congratulating their foresight in cleansing the pool. But the twins did not look nearly as defeated as it seemed they should. Instead they began smiling and glowing an eerie ruby redThey rejoined battle, but somehow the twins seemed even stronger than before. But before the battle could get seriously underway, Orrick appeared! “You fools!” he cried. “I warned you not to tap the Mythal! “ Isair and Madae sneered at him, but then suddenly looked at each other in confusion. Their ruby glow was growing stronger, burning them, and appearing to be literally dissolving them. And it was spreading to the ground as well…
“What is happening?” they wailed. But Orrick just shook his head. “You have destabilized the Mythal’s link to the Prime Material. It is re-absorbing everything to which it is linked and returning to the Ethereal Plane. Including You.” And as the twins continued to rage and dissolve he yelled out to Katarina, “Run! Leave the Hand while you still can! I will be safe in my tower, but I cannot protect all of you!“
And so they madly dashed for the exit, making outside just in time to see the entire Severed Hand fold in on itself and vanish in a shower of rock and crimson flame. Leaving nothing but the Wizard Tower and the bluff on which it once had stood.
One response to “IWD2 Winter’s Warriors: Endgame”
atcDave
So sad, no more Severed Hand?! looks like an epic climax though. This was a fun run.
Solstace destroying the Red Wizards looks awesome. And I like Percy a lot too. Good and colorful team.
The twins on their thrones is an amusing image. My kind of funny!
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