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Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement #1097359 added September 14, 2025 at 4:01pm
Restrictions: None
The Calm Before the Storm
At the Kyriellian Convocation, the meeting of regional governors to discuss Ethelbert’s march on Eastern Aleria is cut short as a fifteen-foot-tall Goristro demon charges through the wall with three Babau demons riding on its hulking shoulders. From your position on the second floor balcony, Reggie immediately hops on the Goristro’s back and starts punching demons, while Big-E leaps off the balcony and smashes the Goristro in the face with his Sun Maul before landing in Big-D’s saddle. Antonio focuses on the Babau while Thogun buffs the party with healing, which comes in super handy since the Goristro is essentially a living siege engine that repeatedly inflicts dozens of hit points’ worth of damage with every slam and brutal gore attack.
When the Babau are eliminated, everyone focuses their attention on the Goristro, who detours through the pillars supporting the balcony, knocking them over in quick succession and causing the entire balcony to collapse. Thogun and Antonio manage to avoid any falling damage, but the governors are not so lucky. Many look worse for wear as they gather themselves from the rubble once Big-E deals a finishing smite on the Goristro demon.
Azura impresses upon you the importance of enlisting Korrigan and the storm giant Riazsa to the cause if this is the kind of destructive power that Ar’unath and Ethelbert wield. You first set out to meet with Korrigan to ask if he has any advice for seeing Riazsa, then Thogun uses his power of divination to determine that your teleport spell will work after an initial, minor mishap. Upon teleporting, you find yourself on the outskirts of the small village of Norwood, a community of Riazsa’s worshippers living in a small oasis in the middle of the storm.
In Norwood’s one and only tavern, the townspeople seem to regard you with awe. You meet a female goliath named Kinea who takes a liking to Thogun, and just happens to have the recipe to Antonio’s favorite creamy chicken and gnocchi soup from his favorite restaurant, Giardino di Ulivi, the finest dining establishment in all of Aleria. Kinea turns out to have worked there previously, and Antonio is delighted to get a taste of home. You all load up on soup and unlimited breadsticks, and head down to the shore where you encounter the Temple of Riazsa.
You discover the main room of the temple is a viewing gallery where you can see Riazsa’s storm centered around an island a mile offshore. But far more interesting is the fact that the gallery room contains six paintings of you and your exploits. The first five recount your encounters with the Hill Giants upon arriving in Kyriel, the vampires who attempted to take over Southwestern Kyriel, the Purple Worm you fought in the train tunnel between Calira and Ansgar, the Demons you fended off at Harborcrest, and your initial encounter with Korrigan. It seems impossible that this gallery had aged, hanging paintings of events that happened only days ago, but that’s nothing compared to the sixth painting, which seems to depict something that hasn’t happened yet... Big-E and his brother Ethelberg engaged in a violent, bitter battle with one another.
A riddle on the mantle of the fireplace in the room leads you to identify the types of creatures in each painting, and then use the number of creatures depicted to count which letter of the creatures’ names you’re supposed to use in a word scramble. When arranged correctly, you identify and speak aloud the word “rapids,” which causes the fireplace to sink into the floor and reveal a small antechamber that serves as the top of a medieval-style water slide that leads down the backside of the temple cliff and into a coral reef located in the roiling, stormy ocean.
Using one of your Scrolls of Water Breathing, you take the literal plunge and ride the slide down into the unknown.
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650 words
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