------------- Tales of the Raptors – False Front

It was perhaps ten minutes after the encounter with the Bebilith when they came upon a platform that had been fortified with stone walls and an archway blocked with a makeshift iron portcullis. Spears lined the top of the wall and shadowy shapes moved back and forth along it. It was impossible to tell whether those forms were real or not from a distance.

As they approached, they could see that most of the figures were not actually there, but hollow, spectral illusions atop an equally illusionary wall. However, some of the wall was quite solid and real, though it appeared to be the remains of a large ship rather than stonework. Atop those remains was one solid figure, a female elf dressed in silver half-plate armor with gold filigree and a golden helm with a blue and white horsehair fan. She bore a shield of silver, emblazoned with a gold representation of the head of Medusa, and a long spear that sparkled of dwarven adamant and the constant crackle of lightning. She carried a pair of swords, broad, razor sharp and stained with years of blood and demonic ichor. Her armor bore the scars of many battles, even if her skin did not.

“Hold. You shall go no further. Identify yourselves or suffer the wrath of Olympus itself.”

Yllura Orellus had led warriors and priests against an incursion of demons on her island. She and her crew had been sucked into a whirlpool while crossing the sea in pursuit of the warpriest of Ares who had unleashed them. She had been the only survivor. Stranded in the Demonweb for how long, she might never remember. The shattered hull of her ship was quite dry and the bodies of her crewmen, the ones who were unlucky enough to survive the plunge through the whirlpool and the fall into the Abyss, were all quite desiccated by the time the Night Raptors crossed her path. She was on the very verge of sanity when they found her, having picked up a twitch that wouldn’t quit and severe paranoia of everything and everyone. She had been forced to do things there to survive that she never thought herself capable of. Fortunately, Meriadne had spells available to restore her former piety and saintly nature.

------------- Credits

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