II. The Celestine Obelisk

As the Incursion spread, the Venthari returned to the Celestine Obelisk, the Naerid relic that had remained under their protection since the crash of Ithis Veyra.

Generations of scholars at Rimecliff had studied its crystalline structure and the intricate patterns beneath its surface, but much of its purpose remained unknown. The surviving Naerids had treated the Obelisk with particular care, and the fragments of knowledge they left behind suggested that it had served a purpose beyond preserving their history.

During the Incursion, the Venthari opened its study to scholars outside the Way of the Celestine. Arcanists, artificers, planar theorists, linguists, and others familiar with psionic phenomena came to Rimecliff from across Eldareth. Several represented nations that had only recently begun cooperating against the invasion.

Understanding the Obelisk took time. Its markings did not form a conventional written language, and some responded only to psionic contact. Patterns once mistaken for ornamentation proved to contain information concerning planar relationships, while others described forms of resonance for which Eldarethian scholars possessed no direct equivalent.

Their work eventually revealed that the Celestine Obelisk was not unique. It belonged to a network of similar structures scattered across distant worlds and realms, each capable of detecting and responding to the others across extraordinary distances.

Even the surviving Naerid records did not identify those who first constructed the network. Its purpose, however, remained embedded within the Obelisks themselves.

They had been built to resist incursions from the Far Realm.

Individual Obelisks could detect severe disturbances along planar boundaries and transmit warnings through the network. When several answered one another, they could also produce a combined psionic resonance capable of disrupting Far Realm creatures and energies.

The Celestine Obelisk alone could affect lesser aberrations, but its greatest potential depended upon a much larger breach. Scholars determined that the passage of a sufficiently powerful entity into the Material Plane would place enormous strain upon both the breach and whatever was attempting to cross it. If the wider Obelisk network could be activated during that passage, its resonance might destabilize the crossing before it was complete.

There was no certainty that the plan would work. No one knew how many other Obelisks remained intact, whether any were still active, or whether they would answer a signal from Eldareth. Timing presented another problem. Activating the network too early might produce little effect, while waiting too long could allow the crossing entity to establish itself fully within the Material Plane.

The Venthari shared what had been learned with allied commanders while research continued at Rimecliff. Elsewhere, armies fought to hold settlements, protect evacuation routes, and slow the advance of the Incursion long enough for a viable opportunity to appear.

That opportunity came when one of the largest breaches of the war began to form amid a major concentration of Far Realm forces.

Unlike the smaller openings used by nautiloids and lesser aberrations, the breach expanded violently as something far greater pressed against the boundary of the Material Plane. The entity attempting to cross would later be identified as Nyxarath, the Eye Beyond the Stars.

Only part of Nyxarath entered Eldareth at first. Accounts of its appearance differ considerably, particularly among those exposed directly to its psionic presence. Those sensitive to mental forces reported overwhelming pressure against the mind and impressions they struggled to translate into ordinary thought.

The Venthari waited until the crossing had progressed far enough for Nyxarath and the breach to become vulnerable, then activated the Celestine Obelisk.

Light spread through the crystal along patterns that had remained dormant for centuries. A powerful psionic resonance filled the chamber and passed outward through the network.

For a short time, nothing returned. Then other Obelisks answered.

How many responded or where they were located was never established. Their signals converged upon the Celestine Obelisk, each adding to the resonance being directed toward the breach.

Those present at Rimecliff experienced the effect differently. Some described layered tones, while others perceived the resonance primarily through thought. On the battlefield, its effect upon the invading forces was far more immediate.

Illithid concentration failed across parts of the fighting. Aberrations staggered, fled, or collapsed, while creatures that had previously acted with coordinated purpose became disorganized. Psychic control over dominated soldiers and civilians weakened or broke entirely.

Nyxarath remained caught between planes.

As the Obelisk network reached full resonance, the breach could no longer sustain the crossing. The portion of Nyxarath already within Eldareth was severed from whatever remained beyond the Material Plane as the opening collapsed around it.

Its manifested form broke apart under the continuing resonance, leaving behind fragments of unfamiliar matter and lingering psionic energy. Whether Nyxarath itself was destroyed, injured, or merely cut off from the portion that had entered Eldareth could not be determined.

The collapse of the breach changed the course of the battle. Far Realm forces that had relied upon coordinated psionic control fell into disorder, and defenders who had spent months surrendering ground were able to counterattack. Besieged settlements were relieved, occupied positions were retaken, and surviving invaders began withdrawing toward whatever crossings remained open.

The Incursion did not end with Nyxarath's failed crossing. Aberrations remained throughout Eldareth, some settlements were still occupied, and many breaches had yet to be contained or closed. Large parts of the world had suffered severe losses, and the effects of the invasion continued long after its main advance had been broken.

The Celestine Obelisk nevertheless proved decisive. A relic entrusted to the ancestors of the Venthari centuries earlier had connected Eldareth to a network whose full extent remained unknown and provided the means to stop the largest Far Realm breach of the Incursion.

Its activation also changed the place of both the Venthari and Rimecliff in the wider world. The Obelisk was no longer only a surviving link to the Naerids or a subject of specialist study. Its role during the Incursion demonstrated that the knowledge preserved at Rimecliff could have consequences far beyond the Greyspires, and research into the Obelisk and the network it revealed continued long after the war.