Sacred Wind

"The Inner Sanctum of the Wind Shrine was much longer than the other two. The altar teleport took us far away, to a mountain in the distance of Altago. We had to climb it while jumping across chasms, using wind gusts to get high, and casually walking across floating rocks. The first part was just reaching the teleport disk at the end of the path. Part two was not falling, which grew progressively harder and more complex with branching roads. We eventually reached a road that looked manmade. This portion often split and required us to find green switches to tear down walls. If I had to sum up this whole experiment in one word, it would be "teleport." But, like I said, this was a long dungeon, and I'm not done. After the penultimate teleporter, the team had to float above a bottomless pit and glide with the help of fans. But said fans also blocked our oath. Fortunately, ramming into them only kinda hurt. There were two more switches here before one final surprise. A bird train was before us. It was the last step to reaching the summit. We'd be joined by an actual bird for the ride that tried to eat us, but we took it out with little issue.

Along the way were floating heads made of wind and crystal lice. These eventually gave way to electrical statue tops. Wind djinns and birds guarded the masonry, and sentient gems were beneath us on the floating part.

Mu-anti, the Wind Dragon, was even quieter than the other two gods. It's also the least draconic, resembling a bat with ram horns. But, as the others before it, it tested our strength. Mu reminded me of Keva Kalos from the first time we were here. A lot of butt bounce stuns took place in this quiz, and the range of them was utter nonsense! Fortunately, Mu didn't really follow them up with anything too bad. A poison (?) breathe attack and various tail swipes between the familiar charges were all we saw. He likes to fly higher than usual, but we learned from before and brought Mishera and Sigroon along.

Mu-anti was more talkative afterwards, though. He gave us his stone but inferred that it was already too late to save Altago and destruction was coming. Dogi asked why they hadn't done anything to stop the Winds of Destruction, but the lack of an answer made us wonder if this was beyond even their power. All we had to do now was find the Sea and Moon Shrine. We're out of places to look, so we hoped Ciarus had found something.

He didn't. But we didn't have time to wonder. Geis' fairy rushed into the room with terrible news. A black mist had appeared over Altago City. Monsters were approaching the town, so we quickly headed there. The mist was only affecting the town, but Altago was in ruins. Holes in the street, broken overhangs, and rubble lay everywhere. We split up to find survivors, and Dogi and I went to old town to check on Tia and Maya.

The place was empty, and everyone was in the temple. Everyone but Maya. Despite her illness, she had walked home and into a monster ambush. They didn't hurt her, but you can bet we harmed them. We took her back to Daliyan and went looking for our comrades. Elk and Cruxie were treating injured people in several homes after saving them on the streets. Geis was warding off monsters at the docks. The place we entered this land from seemed to be the heart of the infection around Altago. The three of us quickly dispatched some shellfish and went to look for the others. Mishera was in the new church, so we went to find Aisha.

And here's where everything changed.

Bodies of the fierce dragon knights lay dead on the ground before us, killed in one blow. These men fought the Romn Empire to a stalemate, but they couldn't put up a fight against their destroyer. We entered the palace fearing the worst. Ruad was kneeling over the corpse of his father. This was less upsetting. But Sigroon was behind him, dealing with her own impending fate. She informed us that Scias did all this. He and Aisha were in the throne room.

Scias was standing over the body of Driesen, who put up some semblance of a defense. And his sword was aimed at the Princess. Dogi yelled out to him, which got his attention. He pretended to still be mad at me for killing the King, but the jig was up. He was the assassin. And killing Aisha seemed to be a part of his plan. We tried to stop him, but he was just so fast...

The rest of the group joined us for his slaughter, but the mastermind teleported into the room. A hooded figure who has seen every event take place told the underling to stay his blade. It would be better to kill us at full power to make their grand design, the Root of Existence, more powerful. More hope will mean more despair when we fail. Aisha demanded to know who this figure was, and the hooded person obliged.

Tia?

Tia, real name Tialuna, is the elder of the Iskan tribe. She and Scias had been planning all of this, even myself getting the three Dragon Stones, and did all of this for vengeance. They wanted to reset Altago to restore the balance that's been off since Edonas invaded. We had no clue what most of that meant, but she and Scias gave me one chance to flee before getting swept up in all this. Not being from Altago gave me more freedom, I guess. But the two of them teleported away, and we cleaned up.

Fatima, Mustafa, and even Ciarus brought with them representatives and warriors to defend the now broken Altago City. The elders spoke and discussed everything they knew about what was going on. They asked me if I was going to leave, but the thought was so absurd that I got a little offended. I'm here for the long haul! Despite being asked to do so, we all thought we should keep searching for the Dragon Stones. The moon was still MIA, but we could go to Ruins Island now. Aisha was finally able to calm down and joined us, agreeing with the plan. She asked the elders to look over the kingdom while she came with us to the Sea Alter.

Aisha was able to speak to Sigroon, whose wounds weren't too serious. Siggy urged her leader to be strong.
Cruxie tried to talk to her father, but he was in a coma. The doctors think he'll pull through, but it's gonna be a while.

Dogi and I spoke to Damilyan about Tia, but he tried not to think about it. Maya was too ill, and we didn't want to burden her further. If she could hear us to begin with.
Another dinghy was at the docks for us. Before leaving, Mishera asked Aisha if she knew the phase. Kiemarl left her a note with the words before he died. We all think he was going to tell his daughter everything before Scias got to him...

Dogi'a pleasure cruise was remarkably nice. The seas were calm, and the fog waned as we got further from the mainland. Unlike before, my teleportation power worked! We headed towards the temple with hopes for more answers.

- Adol"

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I have mixed feelings about Tia being evil. There's no foreshadowing at all, so it feels like a hard left hook. The Scias one was all right, though. That one was slightly leaned on, but I guess those scenes with Tia helped her, too? I don't know...