Blue Rose: Into the Sunshine

Roses are blue, violets are fragrant, why murder-hobo when you can kill-vagrant. Here's last time.

Darkfiends drop from the ceiling like cockroaches in a cheap motel! They surround our heroes and charge in, their fingers and fangs dripping poison. Most of them attack Kisha, trying to get to the Mask, and they manage to do some damage before Arlen calls on Purifying Light. It drives back most of the darkfiends and they scuttle to the walls, hissing at the heroes.

Arlen hands the map to Whirlpool to figure out which of the three exits from this room is the right one, and he susses it out pretty quickly. But then the heroes hear a horrific voice in their heads, petulantly demanding the light that Arlen wields. Kisha considers their options; they think about trying to destroy the shadowgate above their heads, but the sea-folk they talked to said that this gate doesn't seem to want to budge. They decide to handle the Mask and come back for the gate later, maybe.

They head for the exit, but the voice returns and screams at the darkfiends to stop them and get the Mask, even if they have to burn. The ceiling shifts and starts closing off the exit as some of the darkfiends force their way into the light, crying out in pain all the while. Pansy and Whirlpool throw themselves under the collapsing rock, and Kisha tosses the Mask, too. But now Dobbin, Kisha, and Arlen are stuck in the room with the darkfiends, while Whirlpool is trapped in a tunnel with the Mask (and Pansy, of course, who frantically digs at the stone).

Kisha uses Psychic Contact to tell Whirlpool to use his trident as a lever, while Kisha does the same thing from her side using her staff. They manage, with a great deal of effort, to lift the rock enough that the others can crawl under it, but now they have a conundrum: Kisha is holding up the rock. Arlen has to concentrate to maintain the light. How are they all going to get through?

Dobbin holds off the darkfiends with some arrows, and then dives under the boulder. Arlen follows, and then Kisha's grip slips and the rock starts to shift (Whirlpool, fortunately, has managed to brace it well on his end). The darkfiends bite at Kisha and nearly kill her, but Arlen casts Move Object and yanks Kisha under the rock, pulling her to safety.

Whirlpool and Arlen help Kisha with her wounds, and the party presses on, eventually emerging from the dark tunnels into the light. They're standing on an island in the Leviathan's Teeth. It's sunny and spring-like, and the small island boasts only one notable feature: a tomb, right in the middle, covered in moss and vines and lovely blossoms.

The heroes sit and rest. Their quest is almost at an end, and yet, this might be the hardest part.