Last Time on Emberheart Z: Children of Fear (Part 2)

🔥Last time on Emberheart Z!🔥

((Alternative Title: How to retruamatize characters and ragebait your players!))

The location emphasized on the cultists’ map led towards a ziggurat enveloped in the southern autumn forests of Zul’Aman. Expecting the worst, Emberheart prepared for the worst. Merada, unable to join because of a rapid decline in Dorant’s health, sent expensive potions from Silvermoon ahead of the main force. Journa set down a time anchor away from possible danger for later use. 

And the worst is what they found. From the start, they were greeted with malice; at the entrance of the structure was a gruesome welcome, an effigy with stacked corpses and a crude, patchwork Emberheart tabard stuffed like a scarecrow and soaked in blood. The grim display made the stakes very clear and very personal. The architecture was nearly identical to that of the previous crypt. Still, upon closer inspection by those experienced in the various ways of altering structural integrity, the collapse portion of the central burial chamber was not caused by the march of time. No, it was far too deliberate, too clean, too close to a perfect choke point, all indicating it had been brought down on purpose. Further in, the trail of demolition gave away the location of the trap, that being the ritual room, where Emberheart came face to face with Vaer Ming once again.

Seemingly unguarded and channeling into the same dark ritual that was left unattended at the previous site, she greeted the gathered members, named the shadow-burnt undead as “her Endless” and “her Children of Fear,” and introduced them to another known name -  Keshar Shadowsinger. THE Shadowsinger, spoken of in the correspondence and the hushed tones of the dying prisoner, mistress of this sect of the Twilight’s Blade, responsible for the runic brands, and likely the disturbing greeting outside, as it was revealed in the trading of threats and monologues that Keshar was one of the Sentinel commanders affected by a younger Bazrokh’s massacre in Ashenvale.

Keshar Shadowsinger, Mistress of the Twilight's Blade

Confrontation started when Kiri, sick of listening to the Witch taunt them with the fate of Dorant, attempted to shadowstep behind the Witch and silence her tongue. She failed, and Vaer Ming, recognizing Kiri as one of the original members who had entered her tomb, cast her dark magic on the vulpera. Trorick avenged his beloved with a perfect arm-boomstick shot, forcing the Spirit-Binder to retreat, and the cult’s trap to -finally- be sprung: hiding inside the mummies within the wall alcoves were cultists and the Endless, ready to surround and ensure none escaped.

The combat was intense, more akin to gang violence, but just as Emberheart was beginning to gain ground, the onion of this conspiracy peeled back another layer when the supplies given to the cult by Vessar (for the crates bore the same blue rising sun and crossed sword stamp) exploded, nearly killing Bazrokh, Journa, Slade, and Keshar. However, Slade was able to hear the sounds of the acid delayed-release mechanism and barely escaped the blast radius.

Halting to retrieve the fallen, vengeance was put on the shelf in favor of survival as sections of the ceiling rained down from above, killing the cult ambushers either where they stood or as they attempted to flee. Keshar, surviving the blast (if barely), hounded their every step, though her pursuit was slowed through Journa’s persistent interference. When a colossal threat was posed to trap Emberheart, extraordinary teamwork proved the only way that the team was able to return home, battered but alive. 

The fate of Keshar remains unknown; the last sight of her was her screaming in rage at Bazrokh’s survival on the wrong side of the sinkhole as the ziggurat finished its inward collapse.

---------------------What awaits the Expedition? Find out next time on Emberheart Z!!------------------