Tree of Life, Part 3

As the team glides to the ground (or, in Little Rock’s case, plummets), they see Windsor and his army below.  Windsor tells a cultist spellcaster to burn down the Big Ass Tree, and then meet back up with him at “the ziggurat.”  The cultist approaches the base of the tree and summons an army of fire-based demons to assist him in the destruction of the bear’s homeland.  Magmites jump from teepee to teepee, setting them on fire, while the ember snakes and ember demons kill the inhabitants. 

Luckily, the heroes are able to direct their landing.  Little Rock plows directly into an ember demon, severely injuring them both.  The other team members glide in, lands like ninjas, and begin a tactical assault on the enemies.  As more teepees catch on fire, other members of the bear clan run out, screaming and begging for anyone to help them put out the fires.  Phil and Bofa recognize these bears as distant cousins of the Deez Nuts family:  Felty, Rubdy, and FillYoEmptyMouthWif.

Dr. Drizzle uses her new teleportation ability to zip over to some nearby buckets of water, with the intention of putting out the fires.  However, the dynamic quickly changes:  by teleporting away, she leaves Little Rock surrounded by three enemies.  He is constricted by an ember snake, and a four-armed demon lands a critical quad-punch.  Little Rock succumbs to his injuries and slumps to the ground, lifeless. 

Fitzgerald pacifies the cultist by disarming him and kicking him into a flaming teepee.  Hand Banana fishes the cultist off by kicking him back in the fire as he tries to climb out.  Tao Ren attempts to help, but can’t seem to land a single attack.  Drizzle assesses her situation, and throws the bucket of water at the fire demons after deciding that they pose a greater threat than the teepee fires.

Nyridius engages one of the ember demons, but is quickly overpowered.  His new ability saves him, though; when Nyridius takes a knee for a second wind, he appears to be a tree to all enemies, and immediately loses all aggro.  He calls it his “Tree-Tebow,” or “Treebow.”  The rest of the team takes a savage beating from the snakes and demons, and in the heat of battle, they completely neglect to assist the town with their burning teepees.  Drizzle, Tao Ren, and Nyridius retreat to the safety of the river, which the fire-based enemies seem loathe to enter.  Fitzgerald and Hand Banana rush to Little Rock to stabilize him, and prevent him from bleeding out.  Well, “gravelling out,” since he is made of rocks.  The team fires on the enemies with their ranged attacks, but deal surprisingly little damage.

After a prolonged and bloody battle, both sides are weary.  The flame cult is pleased with their success; they’ve burned down the thug bear colony, and beat down all combatants.  When the party expresses exhaustion, the demons victoriously saunter off toward the ziggurat.  The bears express frustration that the adventurers didn’t do more to save their homes, and call them the worst rescue party ever.  Nyridius responds, “WE AREN’T A RESCUE PARTY.  WE NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A RESCUE PARTY.”

The lush, peaceful area surrounding the Big Ass Tree is now charred and smoking ruins.  The team picks Little Rock up out of the mud, quickly scavenges for supplies, and leave the bear colony behind.