Inside a glowing ward hut of crackling runes, Mother’s towering shadowed figure looms over terrified Virgil. Sundr braces nearby, radiant wings half-unfurled. Frosty wind blasts through broken walls as Mother’s claws hover inches from Virgil’s face.
Mother backhands Sundr with impossible force, sending him skidding across stone and dirt, golden feathers scattering. Lightning sigils flicker around him as he struggles to rise. Virgil reaches out helplessly.
On a cliff edge over a roaring abyss, Virgil bodily tackles Mother, pushing her off the precipice. Her silhouette plummets into the storm clouds below… while her shadowy aura already begins to reform behind him.
Sundr kneels, light pouring from his chest. A massive serpentine lightning dragon coils out of a storm portal above him, its body made of crackling white-blue electricity. Mother recoils, shielding her face.
Iazz stands trance-like, dozens of floating brain-creatures orbiting him. Boris gestures confidently, ears perked, explaining why they must fix the hut’s wards instead of annihilating the Mushroom Gods. The brains nod in synchronized thoughtful pulses.
The second hut sits atop a cracking iceberg sinking into freezing water. A massive multi-headed hydra surges up, jaws open. Haru holds his ground while the mammoth crouches, ready to yank the team free.
Hydra heads coil around Turkesa and yank him toward the sea. Haru shouts in desperation as his summoned mammoth digs its feet into the ice, dragging Turkesa back with sheer brute force.
A gigantic skeletal bird dive-bombs through the hut roof, shattering beams and blasting Kiet off his feet. Boris drops in beside him mid-air, cloak of protection fluttering, flames reflected in his goggles.
Kiet struggles to hold the ritual chamber against falling debris while Boris uses mage hand to sweep soot and rubble off the glowing runes. Light lines reconnect, forming a complete circuit as the ritual succeeds.
As the sun dips behind icy peaks, an enormous fairy-lit fortress materializes on the distant mountains — Mother’s Wicker Home stronghold. The party stands in silhouette, newly blessed by their gods, power swirling around them as they level up.
