Rise of the Runelords

Karzog's body hits the ground with a lifeless thud. Those of you on the ground feel the impact through your boots.  As you are checking to see how everyone fared, you feel another shudder through your feet.  This one is larger and longer.  Looking around for the source, you notice that the churning, swirling misty walls of this realm are still.  Gone also are the tormented and twisted faces and figures.  Chalking it up to the fact that Karzog's grip over the realm is gone you continue with the 'after battle checklist.' Henrik scoops up Golian's body, D'Argo and Pirozzi scour the wizards body and morbidly cut a few ioun stone from his corpse.

After a moment of calm, you hear a deep rumble followed quickly by a very loud sound of stone cracking.  You do not feel this as much through your feet, but more with your whole body as the floor on which you are standing pitches a few degrees.  The previously still misty walls are now slowly spinning and appear to be being drawn down to a point far below you. The floor lurches back to level and continues beyond in the other direction.

Large cracks start to appear in and between the stone floor tiles.  The swirling of the smoky walls increases in speed. Someone yells for everyone to hurry up. Pirozzi and Wolfgar start pounding on the gem floating above the now dry pool.  They are doing some damage, but if shattering it is the key, you are not sure they will accomplish it in time.

Soon the swirling walls start to close in on the area delineated by the stone floor.  Tiles at the edge start to fall away as the floor begins to pitch more quickly and dramatically.  Gouts of flame start to randomly shoot through the mists of the walls, some coming close enough for you to feel their immense heat.  You gather near the pool and notice that its water has drained away.  Chunks of stone have been picked up by the now near gale force winds.  You have to actively dodge some of the larger pieces.  The flames are hotter and nearer, singing your hair.  All the while the floor continues to pitch and roll as it rapidly falls away at the edges.  In a flash of light, the last of the floor falls away as the remains of the well crumble.  You feel yourself caught up in the winds. You lose sight of everything else as you feel burnt by the flames and bruised by the buffets of pieces of stone as you are pulled round and down to some far away point.

You catch sight of a blue-green sphere far below you that seems to be the source (or perhaps destination) of the turbulent funnel.  Your flesh is burning from the heat and what isn't, is bruised and bleeding from being bombarded by cart-sized pieces of stone.  You feel near death. The sphere looms ever closer.  It is immense - larger than you ever imagined.  You are pulled faster and faster toward it.  You brace yourself or impact. Everything goes dark.

The light returns.  You find yourself floating high above the city of Xin Shalast encased a cool, soothing layer of mist.  Your burns and bruises are healing.  At varying distances, you can make out other figures similarly floating, although you cannot make out enough details to determine who it might be.  You cannot account for all your companions. Soon the rumbling returns.  You direct your view to the city below.  You notice the massive buildings begin to sway and crumble.  Enormous cracks start to appear in the mountain walls surrounding the city revealing a red glow deep within. As the earth continues to shake, house-sized boulders let loose from the mountain and pummel the city.  Buildings continue to fall.  Magma starts pouring from the crevasses and flows into the heart of the city below.

Soon a crack that follows the Golden Road starts to appear.  It stretches nearly the length of the entire city.  As it continues to widen, you begin to see a dark, swirling mass deep within.  It appears to be smoke, mist, or water with chaotic, spinning swirls of dark blues, purples and blacks.  As the buildings continue to fall, the lava begins to fill the lower elevations of the city. It soon reaches the top of the ever widening chasm in the center. You watch as the molten rock begins to pour over the top of what remains of the Golden Road and plummets into the chasm.  Just as the first of the lava hits the dark, swirling mass, there is an unbelievable release of energy.

You witness in horror, as you are unable to avoid the massive fireball that escapes from the chasm.  Everything goes dark.

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