resources:adventure:operation_descent [Memento Mundi]

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====== operation descent ======
===== Initial Brief =====

The Leader Incarnate has issued a decree:

--
The threat of the Serradic Empire has hung over the city of Acryn for too long. It is time to cut the head from the beast which threatens us.

However, the Serradic Empire's power is strong, especially their skill when it comes to Wayfinding. To this effect I call upon the greatest Wayfinder's the city has to offer in order to make a voyage into the Heart of the Empire and cripple it from within: Vanessa, Eric Luckner, and Mark Carter and any who would support them are called to fight for the future of the city.
--

Following the decree, a number of council members who have been working with Vanessa on operation "Descent" have pushed to get their own plan put into action before the Leader has an opportunity to enact what they believe to be a highly suspicious plan of his (or her) own. Not least because those in the know recognise another shared trait between those the Leader wishes to send on an apparent suicide mission.

===== PCs =====

===== Summary =====

The party first attempt to unify the first bow and the first implement so that the ritual of destruction can be delivered to the Ascendant one from a safe distance. The fight is as gruelling as they remember but after one failed attempt they manage to hold off the strange spectre's for long enough for Colin Fletcher to unify the first items. 

With the means to deliver the ritual secured they head to Margush to attempt to find someone high enough in the Ascendant ones regard that they will know his whereabouts and how he can be killed. After fighting their way past several Serradic patrols and entering the city they are informed that a serradic man turned himself in recently and claims to be waiting for them.

When they talk to this man in the cell block it emerges that he is a priest of silent expectation sent to meet them. He informs them that the leader of the army surrounding Margush a voice of the ascendant one will be a suitable target. He agrees to help sneak them into the camp and tells them to return to him with the voice so that he can ensure that they all enter silent expectations domain.

Dressed as camp followers the party sneak into the Serradic camp and after a fire distracts some of the guards succeed in feeding a sleep of death to the voice and begin to carry her out of the camp. Their attempts at stealth however are interrupted when something else appears to possess the body and screams in a voice that wakes the whole camp. The party are forced to fight their way free as the camp awakens but fortunately in the chaos manage to escape without fighting the whole serradic army.

Once back in Margush the party go once again to see the priest. He stares them mutely for some time before they feel their limbs start to become sluggish as the life drains from their bodies. Alistair as always refuses to die easily but even he eventually succumbs.

The party awaken to find themselves in the serradic underworld. There they meet with silent expectation and together interrogate the prisoner. They learn that the ascendant one can be found in the inner sanctum of his palace. They also learn that he gained much of his power by consuming the souls of others. With this information in hand Colin devises a ritual to hopefully free the consumed souls from the Ascendant one hopefully weakening him enough in the process that he may be killed.

Vanessa and Eric also ask Silent expectation about what is required to make a functioning afterlife. They are told that what is required is something with which to hold the souls safe from the dragons, something to draw newly dead souls into the afterlife and some means of keeping them safe on their travels. 

With everything in place the party exit the underworld into the temple of silent expectation in Serradice. They swiftly travel across the city and soon find themselves at the base of the ascendant ones tower. After sneaking in through the back and fighting their way past his favoured disciples they ascend the tower. On the top floor they find a golden door guarded the favoured guardians of the ascendant one. As they attempt to fight of these powerful figures all bar Alistair are brought to the ground. Whilst he eventually finishes off the guardians the party find that Eric has been carried into the Sanctum ahead of them.

Feeling his life slipping away as he is carried into the Sanctum to be consumed Eric slips free of his Mortal bonds. His body newly invigorated as an ascended God he strikes down his captor and moves to attack the ascendant one. Just as he transitions however he feels the familiar influence of Carleon in his head who commands him to defeat the Ascendant one and consume all that he is.

As the party enter the Sanctum the Ascendant one greets them arrogant in his superiority. This is swiftly ended however as Colin unleashes the ritual upon him fracturing his form splitting him into many smaller fractions of himself each much diminished. A fight ensues and eventually the Ascendant in is brought low. Eric leaps forward and begins to consume the fellow gods essence himself whilst the others look on in consternation. With he souls sight Alistair quickly perceives Carleon's malign influence and leaps free from his body to attempt to shatter the link binding the two. Vanessa extends her protection to him and together the two manage to beat back the link but not before Eric has consumed most of the Ascendant one and the souls he housed. Brought back to his senses Eric begins to send the souls to the Serradic afterlife instead. 

With their job done and the tower collapsing around them the party flee. Colin, Vanessa and Eric head to the nearest waystone whilst Alistair heads back to the temple of Silent expectation.  

=====Debrief=====

   

{{tag>"operation descent" adventure colin_fletcher vanessa eric_luckner alastair_fitzgrave}}
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