The Forty-First Session

After defeating Xolax Baal and the Shadowhunters, the Sentinels regrouped on the beach of Procampur. Hanolin used a teleportation sigil to bring them to Myth Drannor, where they debriefed Melarra and Cormir, and Fish and Nul appeared there despite no one seeing them enter the room. Determining that the dragon would likely take about 8 hours to fly from Procampur to the Free Lands, they decided to rest. Shag and Xochic went to bed, but Aoth approached Melarra about the prisoner he had taken to interrogate, and asked if she could remove memories. She said she was capable of it, and Aoth asked her to remove the memory of torturing the soldier from both his and the soldier's mind after he regenerated the man's arms. She had some reservations about doing it to an enemy. Swallowing her prejudice, she decided to do the right thing, and led Aoth to a mage workroom, bringing in two tables. Melarra used Eyebite to force the soldier to sleep, and Aoth used Regenerate to reattach the arms. He then laid down on the table as Melarra began the ritual, saying she understood why he would want to forget, as she also bore a burden of the many lives she had taken that she didn't want to since the war started, and also understood having to take such brutal actions. As she began the ritual, Halrek blinked into the room, invisible, and hid so he could observe the process.

Aoth closed his eyes, preparing to forget, but felt the world around him fade away. Opening his eyes, he was surrounded by only white, alone in an ethereal space. Sitting up and calling out, he heard a voice, both whispered in an echo around him and clearly in his head. The voice asked why he would run from his memories, and asked him who he was and why he became who he was. When Aoth responded that he feared falling to darkness, the voice responded that if he forgot he fell, he would never know to climb back up. It asked that he carry it and grow from it, becoming a stronger, more healed person, rather than one who can't move past decisions they didn't want to make. Aoth's eyes welled up with tears, and the world around him blurred, and he opened his eyes once again on the table. Touching Melarra's hand, he asked her to stop, and said he no longer wished to forget, and that he could only be better if he accepted his failures. She wiped a tear from her eye, nodded, and continued the ritual on the soldier. Aoth then went to bed, and Halrek blinked back out of the room before going to bed himself.

Meanwhile, Yief and Fish began to toil with ideas for a "land canoe" that would use oil or steam to power it and move. Fish seemed unaware of Yief's incredibly smelly feet, as he had taken his boots off without showering, which most of the rest of the guild members in the common area found sickening. They ultimately fell asleep with their heads leaned together, and Nul laying across both of their laps.

They were awakened at 3:30AM by a young Wood Elf from the Warrior's Guild, saying there was an emergency and they needed to go to Melarra and Cormir immediately. When Shag said "I bet everything is awesome right now," the man said "I wouldn't go to Vegas if I were you." Entering the main war hall, they were informed that the dragon had landed in Harrowdale, and they wished to send an advance party to try and hold it off until more forces could arrive. Cormir and Amante went first, with the teleportation sigil cooling down for 30 seconds between uses. Hanolin grabbed Fish and Nul, saying he had an idea, and they each went through the sigil to an undisclosed location. The rest of the sentinels then followed to Harrowdale, but by the time they got there, the dragon had already begun destroying buildings along the coast, and the soldier from Delthuntle was locked in battle with Cormir and Amante.

Aoth and Halrek began blinking to where the fight was taking place, but before they could make it, the soldier hit Amante with a spell that knocked him far out of the battle and rendered him unconscious, and then delivered a fatal blow to Cormir. He then took Cormir's body and threw it against the bloodstone, activating it and summoning a fleet of 15 Shadowborn Warships. He then looked at Aoth and Halrek, and asked Aoth's name. When Aoth responded that genocidal maniacs don't deserve his name and took a battle position, the man inferred that he was Aoth Dragonshield, and said that his men had taken to calling him "Aoth the Unbreakable" after the number of commanders and generals the Sentinels had taken down. As they were going to begin fighting, another fleet of 20 Shadowborn warships began sailing in from the Sea of Fallen Stars, prompting the soldier to gloat that he wasn't the only one victorious, and that it marked the beginning of the fall of Suran. However, one of the incoming ships opened canonfire on the summoned fleet, and they then heard a loud voice carried by Thaumaturgy say "YOU CAN'T FUCK WITH THE PIRATE KING, BITCH!" and recognized it was Vissella as the incoming fleet dropped the major illusion and was revealed as the Bloodsail Fleet. The soldier then quickly engaged in battle with Aoth as a naval battle ensued, and Shag, Xochic, and Yief began trying to attack the dragon.

The soldier landed a single strike on Aoth, cutting through the top of his shield and into his shoulder armor, cutting into his skin. Aoth managed to dodge out of the way of the following two strikes, and knocked the third out of the way with Thunderburst. The soldier then began to dissipate, commanding the dragon to finish them before dealing with the Bloodsail Fleet, and then vanished. The dragon then let out a roar that terrified all but Shag and Xochic, and unleashed a breath weapon at Aoth and Halrek. Xochic stopped time, Dimension Doored everyone out of range, and spoke to Shag, saying that while he had very little left, he could give one final bout before passing his will and remaining energy to Shag. He said Shag's final trial would be to know love, lose it, and be able to move on, and that his love would always be with Shag. He ended by saying he was proud of both the mage, and the person Shag had become, and knew he would do well moving forward. He then unfroze time and began to deflect the breath weapon using a powerful energy, and began flying full force toward the dragon, unleashing a Paragon Surge as he hit it, causing his whole body to be destroyed as his spirit energy went inside of Shag, and dealing a great blow to the dragon.

Yief then went into a rage, snapping out of his fear, and he and Shag Dimension Doored onto the dragon's neck as Shag unleashed "The Fuckening," an immense combo attack of his various types of magic, dealing another great blow to the dragon. The dragon then reached to pull them off its neck, but only managed to grab Yief, who used Earthshatter to free himself, climbing back up the dragon's arm to the nape of its neck, and used his grappling hook to rodeo-loop the dragon's neck and stabilize himself. The dragon let out a hellfire burst that nearly killed Aoth, but Halrek came to his aid with a healing potion.

Yief then began attacking the muscles at the base of the neck that held its head up and that it would use to move its wings. It was an immensely strong area, but using Earthshatter repeatedly with power attacks, he slowly started to deal damage to it. The dragon was able to grab Shag and bite him, but Shag used Thunderstep to teleport back to its neck and continue dealing powerful attacks to it. Aoth also cast a number of higher level divine attacks, truly going all in as a group. They continuously took strategic attack positions to avoid its Hellfire breath, all the while Yief continued power striking its back. The dragon then lost use of its wings as the muscles took too much damage, and even some of its scales began to crack. It then successfully grabbed Shag and threw him to the ground, and he Dimension Doored away to where Halrek was. Yief then repositioned his rodeo-loop in an impressive dexterous display, hitching himself to the top of the dragon's neck, now striking a devastating blow to the back of its skull. He was then joined by Halrek, who had overcome his fear effect, blinked in, and landed a direct hit to the back of the dragon's head with Ekuzu.

Becoming overwhelmed, the dragon began to fall, succumbing to its injuries. Shag Dimension Doored to the roof of the building he was next to, and charged a final Eldritch Blast, firing it through the dragon's eye, as it blasted through its head and out the other eye, avenging his fallen husband. He used minor illusion to make confetti fly out and cheers heard for flare. Halrek and Yief rode it down as the dragon collapsed, and Halrek jumped and slid down its face Legolas style when it hit the ground.

The Bloodsail Fleet overwhelmed the Shadowborn Fleet, with the exception of 3 ships that made their way up the Moondragon River. The guild members and trained townsfolk defeated the few Shadowborn soldiers who docked and got off the ships. They then found Cormir's body, and Shag and Halrek used a combination of Dimension Door and blinking to get out to the Dragon's Wing, and asked for a diamond from Vissella. First asking Toby and then taking it back and asking Hap, they retrieved one from the treasure stores, and Shag and Halrek made their way back to the shore. Using the diamond in tandem with prayers from Aoth, Shag cast Revival. When the ritual was complete, Cormir awakened, brought back from the dead.