With the gratuitous enemies defeated, the Exalts sought to leave the forbidding depths of the tunnel and return to the surface -- only to discover the tunnel rumbling every time they tried to climb up it. Fully aware that it was a trap, they went down the other tunnel instead, deeper into the heart of the volcano -- and there they met Pyroclasm, god of that particular volcano, who looked favorably on the return of the Solars, and offered them a staircase exit out through the actual cone of the extinct mountain.

Where they were properly captured by Dragon-Blooded and half-forced, half-encouraged to take up arms against the necrocitadel advancing from the desert. Pleasant. Eight of the Dragon-Blooded accompanied them; two more ventured into the depths of the mountain from whence they'd come.

The Dragon-Blooded shot forward into combat against the hundreds of swarming zombies, eight jade daiklaives shimmering with elemental Essence as they spun in intricate designs through the onrushing hordes. Behind them, a hundred pikes wavered in feeble bare-unison as the hastily-recruited militia marched forwards to their dooms. The zombies fell upon them, cutting them down without mercy.

"We have to stop the citadel," the Dawn said to himself, his grimcleaver still safely on his back as he held himself from the lines. But that citadel towered above the battlefield, several hundred feet away and no small distance up, supported on its four corners by thick, elephantine legs that marched it relentlessly forward.

Then the pattern spiders of the Loom gave him a break; he saw his moment and acted upon it even before the thought could reach his forebrain. Racing forward, the massive figure ducked one arm to the ground, scooping up fallen lances into one oversized hand. The citadel trembled as it adjusted its guidance, but the Exalt's hand held firm as he cast the lances into the air, one at a time. Then, before they could fall, he threw himself into the air, landing on the hurled lance. Before its momentum could dissipate, in that breath of a moment when the pattern spiders flexed the laws of physics enough to suspend the equal and opposite reaction he should have invoked, the Dawn sprang lightly off its haft, bounding to the next, and the next, until his feet landed firmly on the solid, swaying stone of the citadel's great staircase.

Not to be outdone, the others followed. The Lunar, spry and feline, followed in the Dawn's thoughts like a shadow; the Night simply sank into Graceful Crane Stance, freeing the pattern spiders of their obligations as he raced along the spears that were, to him, as solid and stable as a column of stone. The Twilight, coming last, came also least; too slow or too lacking in favor, he found himself stranded in midair, the pike he bestrode descending without safety nearby. Calmly he drew his bow, calmly he impaled rope with an arrow, and calmly he fired that jury-rigged grappler into the stone arch above the staircase.

I forgive them borrowing this stunt from a character of mine, ages ago, because it's awesome.

The Exalts smash through a window and hurry down the great hall to the double doors that lead to the control room of the castle. Bursting in, they discover an immense six-armed creature in constant motion, its hands continually reaching for and adjusting hundreds of webs surrounding the column on which it sits. One player promptly bursts into scathing profanity about webs. Meanwhile, I reach into the depths of my brain for instant character traits, and in an absolutely inexplicable and frankly alarming twist, come up with "voice of Yakov Smirnoff with hints of the Swedish Chef".

Yeaaaah. The players were alternately amused and horrified.

The spider-controller finally convinced them to enter into the "safety circle", which they all enter despite openly recognizing it's a trap. It was. The floor opened, revealing giant blades which fail to kill them as they all blithely balance on the very edge of the pit. The Twilight bitchslaps the barrier ward with Sorcery countermagic, which I allow because it's cool. Then they attack...