Ishgar Symposium (Group 1, Bellum)

Within the dome, Kyran, Leona, and Lehanna were lead by a blur of panic and desperation through the grueling task of taking down their enemies, only to discover the lacrima bombs embedded within the machine’s chests that promised ill fortune to any unlucky enough to be trapped inside the dome when the timers ran out. And like a foreboding preview of what was to come, the trio -- and Mythica -- would have a brief glimpse of an explosion taking place high up on the mountain where the meeting house, their original intended destination, stood. The only sight that marred the view was the smoke in the nearer distance where the bomb near Maven had gone off. Given their own imminent peril, however, they would likely have little time to dwell on it for now.

Instead, they banded together to bring the last of their assailants down, with Leona and Lehanna focusing on the mage with the tome in the hopes that it was the key to freeing them from their bubbled trap. Like before the remaining target had built up quite a bit of resistance to the party’s magics and as a result the damage dealt by Tempest Avian’s wind and flechette spells wasn’t as potent as normal. However, it was enough to keep the target pinned, particularly the flechettes as they continued to batter against him over and over. It provided just enough distraction that Lehanna was able to swoop in to focus on the tome itself, striking it with her sword before lighting it on fire. The book was immediately consumed by flames, the pages curling up into blackened charcoal as flakes of paper thin ash got tossed about in the green winds from Tempest Avian’s spellwork.

And as the tome crumbled to ash, the dome flickered and disappeared.

By the time the dome disintegrated, enough time would have passed for the trio to assume they wouldn’t have much longer than a second or two before the lacrimas exploded -- just enough time to either teleport out of the immediate area or throw up some defensive spells and hope for the best. Only a moment later, the explosions would detonate, wiping out another large section of the city around them, leveling buildings and lighting much of the natural forests around them on fire.

Meanwhile, several streets down and out of view of the rest of the party, Maven descended upon the Cardinal as the shock of Norwoods sudden and violent death overtook him. Between that, the injuries he’d sustained in the explosion, and his earnest trust of his assigned protector, he was not ready in any capacity as Mythica approached and spoke so calmly of his death alongside Norwood’s. “W-wha-” was all he would have time to stammer out, his eyes wide as he started to turn toward Mythica. And then, everything froze. A very real panic washed through the Cardinal’s body as he realized he was completely paralyzed. Not only him, but the entire world around him, held in place through whatever time magic that Mythica commanded. He could only listen in horror as the dark mage gave quite the villain speech, and though he tried with all his considerable might to break free, he found even his magic was frozen in place, unable to be reached.

Leonida could do nothing as Maven approached, procuring a dagger of oblivium, the metal which Pergrande was known for, and plunged it into her own midsection. Somehow amidst the chaos of overwhelming alarm and trauma, clarity set in. This woman, this mage, was going to kill him… and blame it on Pergrande. She and whoever else they worked for, not only were they trying to stop the peace talks, but they were trying to guarantee a war. And the only thought Leonida could muster as the woman brought the dagger to his neck was to somehow, almost comically, appreciate the irony of the situation.

Only a moment later, time was back to normal and he found himself choking on his own blood as it poured out of the gaping wound in his neck like a pig left to bleed after a slaughter. He had access to his magic again, but he was bleeding out so quickly that he didn’t have the energy to try and summon any healing spells. Even as Mythica dropped to the ground and, with very real agony from her own wound, spoke into her wristband to alert the rest of the party as to what happened, Leonida slumped over himself, losing life and consciousness by the millisecond.

Before the party could even have a chance to respond to Maven’s distress call, however, one last catastrophe befell the city. From atop the mountain, in what remained of the meetinghouse since the first explosion had rocked it only a few second before, another wave of destruction was unleashed with the mountain top as its epicenter. Before their eyes, the entire mountain was swallowed by a wave of darkness that was quickly spreading down and toward the rest of the city, disintegrating everything in its wake with near instantaneousness. The power of the spell was so vast that it made even the lacrima bombs look like a teenager’s haphazard foray into crude garage chemistry. As the party looked on, there would be no doubt in their minds that they, and the rest of the people of Felidae, were about to die.

However, by the time the darkness reached the base of the mountain, where the Bellum protection squad lingered, there was a noticeable enough change in the speed of the blast as a failsafe that had been set throughout the city prior to the meeting took effect, slowing the wave down more and more until it came to a full and complete stop before hitting the ground level of the city. When the smoke cleared, the crew would be horrified to see that the entire mountain and much of the countryside beyond it was simply…. Gone. No one would know the exact numbers until much later after there had been time enough for an official survey, but from a glance the party members could quickly surmise that more than half of the city had been completely wiped out in one blast, leaving less than forty percent of Felidae still relatively intact, if still in shambles from the riots and the party’s own battle.

By the time the party was able to locate Maven, the Cardinal would be dead. Since the events that had transpired between Mythica, Norwood, and Leonida had happened out of eyesight of the rest of the party, Kyran, Leona, and Lehanna would be unaware of the truth as to how the Cardinal had met his demise. Instead, all they would find was Mythica, dangerously wounded and suffering major injuries, the only survivor amidst the wreckage of the lacrima bombs. Leonida was dead, his body still on the ground and an expression of shock and horror stuck on his face where he lay beside what remained of Norwood’s charred body.

And as the thick smoke of destruction filled the air, a gentle rain of ash fell upon what remained of Joya’s largest city… as did a deafening silence.

Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

The Bellum event thread is now COMPLETE. Thank you everyone!