The Forty-Third Session

After encountering Adema, the group continued traversing the mountain. They ultimately came to an area of flatter ground, where there were ruins of an old building and a statue of a phoenix. While searching through the ruins, they were attacked by a group of Earth Golems. Yief jumped off a wall of the ruins into a power attack, using Earthshatter to destroy one of them. While the ensuing battle was hard fought, the Sentinels ultimately destroyed the last one, with Yief unceremoniously hitting a pressure point on its head and crumbling its entire body.

Once they were sure they were safe, they went back in the ruins, now seeing a piece that had been overturned by Earthshatter during the fight, and realized the building was once a temple of Sola. Aoth found a ceremonial fire pit, and Yief recognized the inscriptions on it as Primordial Ignan, though he couldn't read it. Aoth then cast Comprehend Languages, and found out it was a prayer in the form of a poem, speaking of the grace of Sola's light, and the divine path of the Phoenixmother. Realizing there were no specific clues to the location of the phoenix, they continued on their path. Yief then found a patch of scorched rock that was still giving off a slight smoke.

Continuing, they eventually came closer to the summit of the mountain, finding more scorch marks the further they went. Encountering an area near the top where the rocks were looser and the incline steeper, Shag and Yief lost their footing and fell. Aoth stabbed his sword into the stone beneath Shag, giving him something to fall onto, but Yief tumbled down nearly 20 feet. He tried again to climb, but now couldn't find a solid handhold. Adema and Halrek made it past the loose rocks to sturdier terrain, and Aoth threw her his rope. She tied it, and it was just long enough to get to Yief, who was able to much more easily climb the rest of the way up.

Now no more than 25 feet from the summit, completely covered in black scorch marks, they began to bicker about how best to approach. Adema still wanted to kill it, while the rest of the group wanted to subdue it and take its feathers. While they argued over tactics, Raijin heard a voice in his head, welcoming him. He told Aoth that the voice sounded nice, and was welcoming them. It then told him that it was waiting for Yief. Realizing that it knew they were there, Yief decided to go in alone. He turned to Adema, and told her not to jump in and shoot it. She told him he'd have 5 minutes before she would assume him dead and go in, and he got her to agree to 10.

He then climbed over the summit, into a concave nest at the peak. There was intricate stonework like in the ceremonial pit in the ruins, but much larger, seemingly with the same Ignan runes. Sitting in the middle, was a 12 foot tall bird with feathers like fire. Yief heard a voice in his head, welcoming him, and he began to talk to it, completely in awe of the creature before him. The phoenix introduced herself as Arylaxia, and began to ask Yief about his quest and his purpose. He told her of how he was tasked by his father and his herd with bringing them a phoenix feather. She said such a quest would be a hunt, yet Yief didn't come to kill her. She recognized his desires didn't line up with his task, and asked what his path was. When he admitted he wasn't sure, she said it would be time for him to stop following, and start paving his own path. He realized he wasn't sure he even wanted to return to his herd, as the fact they would give a child an impossible task and even potentially a suicide mission wasn't something he wanted. He realized he had found a new herd who would never expect such a trial just to prove he could walk among them, and that they saw him as equal from the start.

Arylaxia then revealed that she'd had her eye on him for some time, and had first visited him when he still lived in the Frigid Divide, and knew he had more potential than the mundane survival there. She was coming to an end of her cycle, and would soon die and be reborn, but didn't want her powers to fade, as the current state of the world was something she wanted to help with, but wouldn't be able to for too long a period of time after her rebirth. She was looking for a champion, one who could carry on her power and use it to fight the shadows in her absence, in the name of the divine path of light and the Phoenixmother. When she found Yief, she wanted to give him a push, and came to him in the form of a cardinal, leading him south toward the Free Lands. His conversations with her in that time made her know she picked the right person, as he was truly kind and empathetic under his hardened exterior. When they reached Shadowdale and she sensed Aoth, Shag, Halrek, and Nul, she knew it was the right place for his journey to begin, and he would find her when he was ready.

She then told him of a ritual, where in the moments following her death before the ashes reformed into the Obsidian Egg, he must become one with her ashes. It was then that Aoth, Shag, and Halrek realized Adema had snuck away from them, and Yief saw her appear on the other side of the summit with her ice arrow drawn. She wanted to shoot and prove to herself that she was strong enough to prove her father wrong, but was unable to let the arrow go. She broke down, unable to understand why she couldn't go through with it, at which point Aoth, Shag, and Halrek had made it to the summit as well, and Aoth ran to her and helped her step away. After he continued talking to her, she realized that like Yief, she had to let go of the quests given to her by others, and walk her own path. She decided to go to Midfall and start over, taking some time to learn how to be alone, and wished the group luck in their coming endeavors, hoping she would someday see them again when she was ready to let someone in.

Arylaxia then approached Yief, giving him two of her feathers, and then returned to the center of her nest, spread her wings to their massive 25 foot span, and ignited into a bright crimson, leaving a pile of ashes behind. Yief then rubbed the ashes on his forehead, at which point they began to bind to him, seeping into his body and altering his physiology. Feeling the warmth of Sola, he took on a new path in that moment as a paladin, walking the Path of the Phoenix. The ashes then reshaped into the form of an egg resembling molten magma. Shag suggested they take the egg, but Yief insisted they leave it, and that she should be free.

They then looked off into the distance, finally noticing that they could see the vast wasteland of the Badlands on the other side of the mountain range, a motionless land that seemed darker than the bright overcast would suggest, an eerie contrast to the forest that came to the foot of the mountain of the side of the Free Lands. They then turned, looking out over the entirety of the Free Lands, taking in the view. Shag then teleported them back to Myth Drannor.