#AlignmentMayVary

[zippdementia]

Part 95 Alignment May Vary: End of All Things

Here we are. I’ve been putting this off for a while, but this will be my final two-part post in the AMV campaign. This is the post that describes the end of our game, which happened on January 15th, 2021, over 4 years from our first campaign. It was an emotional moment for us all. I remember writing the notes the day before the session and then realizing I was sobbing openly as I wrote the campaign’s potential final lines. I thought, whew, well at least I’m getting it out of my system early. But the 4 hour session ended up being full of tears for us all, and once one of us started crying, the whole group couldn’t stop. It is impossibly hard to say goodbye to characters that you’ve essentially been the parents of, the creators of. And in writing this post, I’m doing it all over again.

This post was originally one long post, but I decided to break it into two pieces for ease of reading. If you’re reading this post after having read all 94 other posts, bless your heart. But regardless of how you arrived here, I’m glad you are here with us at the end of all things.

Our session begins right where the last one ended, at the foot of the Jarlberg mountain, at the summit of which Abenthy waits in the old cave of the stone giant Kirazov, for his ritual to complete and the plane of chaos merge with the material plane.

The PCs were saved in the final moments of the grand battle between the armies by Roger Krisp on board the renamed Anope intergalactic vessel, and a fleet of Githyanki who followed him to this planet to save the reality of those who had once aided them.

There is little time for reunion. Roger Krisp gives the PCs the last of the Surveyor’s remaining revitalization injection, which essentially long rests them all. They manage to save one: Imoaza took no damage during her stealth assassination in the last battle. Sasha, one of Aldric’s goblin children (his spunky daughter), has a brief and emotional greeting with the group. Time differentials in space travel (as well as speedy Goblin maturation) means she is an adult now, and she tells them that her father would be proud of them, and shows them that everyone on Anope has joined the Green Company to honor him. In death, he achieved what he had sought in life, the revival of his old Company.

(Cue our first round of tears).

Most surprising is the emergence of the The Old Surveyor from the ship. This is the old man from the Air Planet, who had disobeyed the orders of Primus centuries ago, and whose disobedience led to the creation of the “Progenitor Surveyor,” the one who created humanity and whom Imoaza’s ancestors worshipped long ago. He disembarks from the ship as well, now, and tells them that most will not be able to survive the “space beyond space” where Abenthy has fled to, so as to not be interrupted in his summoning of the Chaos Plane. He tells them that only Blackrazor can let them enter that space and allow them to do battle.

“He is no longer just Abenthy,” The Old Surveyor tells them. “He is a merging of three powers, three distinct lines of fate and alignment. Lawful, Evil, and Neutrality have all blended inside of that being. It carries the power of law, the knowledge of magic and the planes, and the determination of destiny.”

“We have the numbers,” Roger Krisp chimes in. ”It’s time to storm this mountain and end this!”

“Only these three can enter. Anyone else, anything else, would be torn assunder by trying to survive in that limbo. Blackrazor will keep Imoaza safe, the Surveyor’s Stone will keep Carrick safe, and Milosh's chest plate will keep him safe as it carries the true essence of Primus within it, the heartbeat of a god. Anyone else would be torn apart by what waits beyond. The fate of this plane of existence must be left in the hands of these three. Well, and one more, if you will grant him your protection.”

Out of the Surveyor's sleeve comes the Chi Chu, the little pet turned familiar that Imoaza hasn’t seen since entering the Abyssal plane ages ago. it flits over to Imoaza. They hear a "Chiiiii?" as if asking, you won't leave me behind this time, right?

(The return of a favored animal mascot? Cue our second round of tears).

With this, the group begins the ascent, though Carrick stays behind a moment to ask the Surveyor what will become of the Surveyors (of which Carrick and the old man are both technically the last) once Abenthy is defeated and Primus and Chaos’ soul erased in the process. The Surveyor says that for himself, it will be time to rest at last, and return to Primus’ side, even in oblivion. But for Carrick it will mean a different kind of freedom. Freedom to choose his own destiny.

"This is Where I First Learned to Hate”

As the group climbs the mountain, I remind them of the prophecy, to center us in on what this final session will cover. Friezurazov is the throne of power in the prophecy, a leyline in the world where reality can be weakened. It radiates power, and this power is what originally drew the Stone Giant Kirazov to the land, to make the Jarlberg (the seat of that psychic radiation) his lair. Now Abenthy has taken that seat back and from there plans the end of the world. 

The party have to enter and pursue him, and Blackrazor Alpha, which Imoaza carries, is needed to cut through into that limbo space where the fight will occur. Once they face Abenthy, they will also face his Blackrazor, the one that is corrupt and filled with all the powers of chaos. But even destorying the sword cannot kill that which Abenthy has become. They can only weaken him enough to call upon another power to destroy him. 

That power is the Source, Primus’ power which resides along with Primus’ soul inside Milosh's chest plate. Before this power is used, to truly win this fight, Carrick must use the Surveyor’s Stone to draw Primus' soul forth and Imoaza must weave that soul into one of them to become the shield in the prophecy, which is a word meaning sacrifice in the old languages. 

Destroy both the shield (imbued with Primus’ soul) and Abenthy’s body (imbued with Chaos’ soul), and they will finally win and achieve the destruction of the abyssal plane forever, for it cannot be reborn if balance (Primus) is also gone. They were birthed of the same universe. This is all the true meaning of the prophecy of the Three.

Is that a mouthful? A mindful, maybe? Ah, but there is more! For another prophecy was given, this one specifically to Imoaza, and it concerns her fate.

As the group summits the mountain and enters the Stone Giants cave, I remind Imoaza of her prophecy. She got this from the ice tribe shaman, who used a Taroka deck to do her reading. She thinks back and remembers it as if it were happening again...

The first card she drew was the Collector and showed a pursed lip noble placing coins into a bag. “This is a decision made in your past,” the Shaman says. “The Collector represents a debt you must someday pay, and you have stolen from time itself. Time will have its due, in due time.” 

Then he holds up a hand of cards and tells her to draw two, this time. She draws, and reveals first a cocky looking man gripping a sheathed blade with one hand and tossing a cloak over his shoulder with the other. Then a naked man, engulfed in flame and surrounded by a circle of swords, his head thrown back in either ecstasy or pain. The Shaman closes his eyes. “These cards represent a choice you will make. For you, the choice will be between two lives: the Rogue and the Tyrant. You shall choose one. The one chosen shall be saved, given a second chance. Those unchosen shall be lost forever, a sacrifice.” 

The final card Imoaza draws depicts a skull inside a jar. It is labeled the Artifact. “The last card shows a bond, a bond embedded deep in your soul. All that you do is tied to this bond. And for you, that bond is to an item of power. When that artifact meets its destiny, only then shall you be free to pursue your own.” 

Finally, the Shaman tells her that the power she wields, to see the Weave, is not one that is simply developed. It is a gift from Mystra, the goddess of the weave… some say she is the Weave itself. He tells her that the gift comes with responsibility and purpose. She does not need a teacher: the Weave itself will guide her to where she needs to be, when she needs to be there.

While Imoaza has been having this remembrance, they have completed the climb to Kirazov's old chamber, where they see the bones of the stone giant, where Abenthy struck him down long ago. There is a rumbling crack in the cave floor, like a rip in space time. They put Blackrazor in and split it open and jump into the Abyss to meet Abenthy.

Where they land is not where they expected. Things are quiet. There is the sound of lapping water and sea gulls. They are in an abandoned city, they see, a city of docks and ships, built on the edge of the ocean and looking out over its green-blue expanse. It is a peaceful, sunny day. And though the city seems deserted, they are not alone here. One figure stands near the docks, a beautiful man who radiates celestial power.

Abenthy stands over a bloodstain on the stone ground. He tells them “This is where I first learned to hate. This is where I was taught that people could not be trusted to govern themselves justly. It is also where I first learned failure.”

They have ended up, of course, at Ottoman’s Docks, abandoned as Abenthy sent his Tarasque there several weeks ago to empty the city. Abenthy refers here to one of his defining character moments, when he witnessed a child be put to death for stealing and was helpless to do anything about it.

(Cue, maybe not tears, but certainly chills from Milosh’s player, who used to play Abenthy).

The group tries to reason with Abenthy, tell him that what he has done since that time has only led to more evil and destruction, but it is not just Abenthy they speak with here. It is Nazragul, Karina, and Abenthy smashed into one... and Nazragul seems to be the dominant personality, though it is Abenthy’s form he controls.

Abenthy (as pushed to madness by Nazragul) says that crashing Chaos into this world will destroy both planes and usher in a new beginning for everyone. Carrick in particular derides him for this, saying that ending everything to start over is the ultimate act of cowardice. He also says it will not work: life by its nature is flawed. That is its beauty.

No, Abenthy says. This time it will not be flawed. This time he will be there to show life the proper way. As he will show them now. 

He begins summoning chaos, they see it coming up into Ottoman's docks, ripping through the docks as the translucent purple tentacles that have plagued them before. Wings erupt from Abenthy’s back, one black and one white. Black Razor warps into the battlefield, gives a crass greeting to Imoaza and taunts her for not wielding him when she had the chance (to which she shows him Blackrazor Alpha and prepares to fight back). Finally, three small crystals rise into the air, floating around Abenthy. They are old surveyor stones! The last remaining, aside from Carricks. They glow with power, and from the edges of the docks, two shadowy monsters approach to aid Abenthy in this fight. 

Roll initiative!

“I Will Show You”

As far as music goes, if you want to play something while reading this, I use Kefka’s theme from FFVI, Zeromous’ theme from FFIV, and the Final Lavos theme (this one) from Chrono Trigger. They are appropriate choices. A lot of this battle, and in fact the entire set up, has been inspired by both Chrono Trigger and FFVI in particular, which I think had some of the best final set ups of any JRPG ever. In FFVI Kefka wins and the party has to regather allies to face him like they do here. Chrono Trigger’s final battle takes place in time and space, which so does mine. And finally, there is the crystals that are so prevalent in early FF games (and sorely missed in more modern entries). They come into play in my design as well.

To get down to business... so I design Abenthy as a modified Solar from the Monster Manual, with some different spells that let him bring the Abyssal tentacles onto the battlefield (this is stuff like Evard’s tentacles, Shadows of Moil, Arms of Hadar) and which he can use as legendary actions in addition to a normal action. Note that the Solar is very deadly on his own, especially with his longbow:

Slaying Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, range 120/600 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) piercing damage plus 27 (6d8) radiant damage. If the target is a creature that has 190 hit points or fewer, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or die.

Holy instant kills batman. Especially with the Solar’s ability to teleport and fly, he can keep some massive distance between himself and the PCs and rain down destruction with that bow. That said, Abenthy does not start out combat using this deadly combo. Early on, he prefers to use his tentacles to suck the life from the PCs and use magic blasts to try to weaken them.

Abenthy also has four crystals floating around him, which serve to grant him different powers and which really should be targeted first in order to weaken him enough to fight. One crystal heals him every turn. Another two controls (one each) the shadowy monsters (which are themselves monsters from Tasha’s guide, beefed up versions of the Shadowspawn (pg 114, Tasha’s). This means the action economy is more balanced between the players and Abenthy, slightly skewed in his favor because of the legendary actions and the constant battlefield effects of the tentacles. Finally, the last crystal can block spells of up to 4th level, which helps mitigate Imoaza’s easy damage dealing cantrips (she is deadly with her Eldritch blasts).

Finally, there is Abenthy’s Blackrazor, which moves on its own and attacks with the same basic stats as a Solar’s Greatsword: 

Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reaah 5 ft. , one. target. Hit: 22 (4d6 + 8) slashing damage plus 27 (6d8) radiant damage.

Sooo shit tons of damage. Blackrazor is also indestructible and invulnerable, except for one caveat... which we’ll get to later.

The final gimmick of this fight is that each round, as Abenthy takes damage, he changes the battlefield, taking the party through space and time to places that were of import to him, with his tentacles (representing the plane of Chaos) ripping these places to shreds as they fight. Basically, they are witnessing the destruction of their world as they fight, beginning with places that meant something to the players (if not necessarily these specific characters). It’s a way for me to meta-nod to our previous adventures, while also hitting us all where it hurts, right in the nostalgia feels. At the same time, it reveals more about Abenthy’s psyche and fall from grace.

So, below, I’m going to go through each place Abenthy takes them, and the general progression of combat events there (I won’t be getting action-by-action specific).

Time and Space

The opening clashes take place at Ottoman’s docks, but quickly this falls away to reveal floating space, the limbo before combat begins in earnest. This lets the combatants get off some opening salvos, test each other’s strengths and powers, and then we really dive into things, as the battlefield shifts for the first time to another memorable place.

You hurtle through space towards the planet you recognize as your own, heading at the speed of a comet through the atmosphere, coming down towards the crater of some long ago crashed meteor, heading through the earth itself to come to rest in a gigantic cavern, the epicenter which is a forgotten Yuan Ti pyramid.

Abenthy says that this is the place where an entire people proved they did not have the foresight to handle the responsibilities of caring for a world. They only sought power. And it was granted to them. They used it to destroy themselves. This is the Yuan Ti he refers to, this is their fane, Imoaza’s ancestors in particular, who worshipped the Surveyor and ultimately killed him when they felt he was giving their world to the humans he had helped raise out of primitive apes. Imoaza was last here at the end of the Red Hand campaign and it is also where our current Carrick awoke inside a clone body more recently.

The fight progresses for a time, with Milosh focusing on the shadow spirits, Imoaza trying to deal with Blackrazor, sword against sword, and Carrick rushing to fight Abenthy directly. And eventually the battlefield changes again. 

The world shifts and shatters around you and the first sign of the transition is the biting cold. You find yourself standing on the edge of a ruined village, floating on an icy glacier.

Abenthy says he has seen that they themselves dare to think themselves capable of judging others, referring to the ice village that Milosh destroyed. “You have eradicated an entire village out of anger. What I do, I do out of foresight, not anger.”

Carrick gets some critical hits in this round and the PCs begin to figure out that they need to be targeting the surveyor stones floating around Abenthy. Their strategy changes, and as it does, something seems to split inside of Abenthy... his confidence changes to something more like sorrow.

Your next destination smells of brine and your ears fill with the roar of the sea as you stand aboard a wrecked seaship. Fog emanates from all around the dilapidated vessel and you can see bits of debris from its hull floating in the choppy waters. One board has the name STORM painted across it.

“Here is where she learned sorrow,” Abenthy says, and they wonder who he refers to. “Where she learned that she could not save the world. Her friends died here. The one who helped kill them she later took as lover. She never told you that, did she? Karina didn’t tell many that story. But I know it. For I know Karina, better maybe than she knows even herself.”

One of the stones, one controlling one of the shadow demons, is destroyed this round, by Milosh, while Carrick distracts Abenthy. However, this sends Abenthy into a rage and he unleashes his Bow of Slaying on Carrick, nearly taking him out of the fight completely. Carrick has to pull back to heal, and the map changes again.

This place you all recognize, for you were here but recently. It is the inside of the volcano in which Haggemoth’s tomb resides. Lava fills its chambers now, except for one high precipice on which you all find yourselves facing Abenthy.

This area ends up being the most critical of their fight. Imoaza finally realizes that Blackrazor is indestructible, but has the thought that her version of it, Blackrazor Alpha, is the promise of all that the evil sword will become. And if it never existed... the sword Alpha actually finishes this thought for her, telling her that, yes, this is the only way. And so, with her action, Imoaza throws Blackrazor Alpha into the lava flow, destroying it forever.

This is a shockingly intense moment for the player. Once she starts crying, we all do. She explains it as a huge arc for Imoaza. Blackrazor Alpha was made in part from her Drosselgreymer, the weapon she stole from her people. It represented her desire for power, her class as a Hexblade. It was her Hexblade. To destroy it all now symbolizes her letting go of that pursuit of power. It also dooms her people to being a simpler folk, for the power of their hexblades is drawn from Blackrazor, and now that is forever destroyed. This also fulfills a piece of her personal prophecy: she has let go of the artifact, and freed her fate from it.

The more evil Blackrazor lets out a mighty scream, saying that its destruction is impossible, that time has already decided it exists. But the lava of Haggemoth’s lair was imbued with his magical energy in order to destroy artifacts. What’s more, with such a powerful artifact destroyed here, the sacrifice offered to the gods is complete. The balancing of Haggemoth’s soul, so long ago disrupted by Abenthy, is finally complete. Attonement is given to the dwarf. He appears briefly, thanks the party, and finally goes to rest in the halls of his ancestors.

However, though Blackrazor is destroyed, the fight goes on. Abenthy begins to spiral back towards his old self, remembering... and as he remembers...

The roar of lava is replaced by the roar of the sea, crashing against a sandy shore. Above you looms a great cliff, at the top of which can be seen a broken pagoda. Another roar sounds, a quake shudders the island, and the pagoda begins to split apart even more.

This is the Island of the Oracle. “Here,” Abenthy says, “is the sanctum of one who could have changed things. She saw. She knew. But she choose to send me on the quest. Because she knew what needed to happen.”

As they fight here, the island continues to fall apart. The Oracle is dying, her power being drawn from the world, for she received her power from the surveyor’s stones, and Abenthy has channeled the last of that energy into this fight.

In the fight, the stones are all but destroyed now by the PCs. The last one remaining under Abenthy’s control is the one that heals him, and Carrick makes a desperate gambit to snag it out of the air and flee from Abenthy with it, getting ready to destroy it at all costs.

You are in a cool, calm place. Books and shelves surround you, as does an aura of austerity. A shield depicting a woman’s profile, her head wrapped in a laurel crown, is set in a place of honor overlooking this large library.

“And this is where it happened. This is where I met my father. He thought he knew the way. He thought he could control me. But he was wrong. He was only a lesser evil. He had failed so long ago, he had become irrelevant. I ignored him and he met his fate at the hands of the demons he fought with over power.”

Abenthy’s voice rings through the halls of the Sisters of Celaenos. And then suddenly a new voice takes over. It speaks in an arcane tongue and tentacles erupt all over the battlefield.

“Enough of this whining and melancholic tripe,” the cruel voice of Nazragul speaks, though it comes from Abenthy’s body. “I have indulged you all long enough. Now it is time to end this.” 

The battle changes drastically at this point. The tentacles snatch at the party, trying to tie them to the ground, while Abenthy/Nazragul flies high into the air, far beyond their reach, and begins raining magic down on them. His blasts destroy the final crystal, but he doesn’t seem to care. He is raining destruction on the party, seeking to end them before they have a chance to recover.

Imoaza uses her last remaining injection from Roger Krisp to heal Carrick to full health. MIlosh frees everyone from the tentacles, Imoaza uses the last of her magic to cast fly on them all and they rush to reach Abenthy. They rush as the battlefield continues to shift to other places they know... Waterdeep... the ruins of Vraath Keep... and finally as they reach Abenthy and strike a grevious blow against him, it becomes a temple, darkly familiar, a temple that should destroyed.

You stare at a place you thought you would never see again, hoped to never see again. Its dark corridors have been rebuilt and blue flame flickers in torch brackets all around the rebuilt altar room of the Maakengorge temple. Where the Tarrasque once blocked the view of the abyssal chasm of the Maakengorge, now instead there is only space beyond that opening, a void without color or definition.

Nazragul sees the end coming for him and so he curses the players, telling them that there is no way for them to win here... there never was a way. He is inevitable. He is timeless. He is the death beyond the end of the world. He is the new beginning.

And as he speaks, he summons his final spell. A storm of meteors crashes through the high roof of the temple above him, fire raining down on him and the players alike, dealing hundreds of damage, utterly destroying the temple and leaving Nazragul alone, broken but regenerating, floating in space.

The players have been defeated.

Next time, the second part of this final session!

[zippdementia]

Part 79 Alignment May Vary: Safety in Numbers

We are more than three years into the game, now. Maybe it’s time for a little recap?

I envision our adventure as taking part in multiple arcs. The first arc Preludes and Portents was mostly set up for the story, taking Karina, Shando, and Targaryen/Daymos up through the death of Shando at the hands of Reeves Testain.

The second arc An Unintended Quest follows Tywin (renamed Lorin in our podcast), Karina, and Abenthy on the first part of their quest for Haggemoth’s tomb, ending with the death of Tywin.

The third arc The Forgotten Past follows Karina, Abenthy, and crowd pleaser Tyrion (to be renamed at a later date) through the desert of Thud and up until the reveal of Abenthy’s demonic father at the monastery.

The fourth arc The Hidden Hoard follows the same party as they finish the quest of Haggemoth, gain Trakki the elven monk as a companion, and lose Abenthy to his own machinations. With Reeves Sar Testain finally defeated, the third arc ends, and Karina finally leaves the party to pursue her own destiny.

The fifth arc Into the Maw involves a new party of Tyrion (for our story, renamed Bitterberry), Trakki, and Nysyries as they pursue the Red Hand into the lands of Rhest. It ends as they become infected by the will of Nazragul.

The sixth arc Redemption takes us through the evil arc, ending with the death of Tyrion and the arrival of Aldric, and concludes with the purging of Nazragul from Nysyries.

The seventh arc The Fall into Night covers the battle of brindol, sees the newest party formed after the death of Nysyries: Carrick, Aldric, and Imoaza, and goes up through the party blasting (unintentionally) into space.

The eighth arc Hellspawn covers the party’s adventures in Hell and the elemental planet of air..

The ninth arc Crossing the Void begins with Aldric’s death. It covers the githyanki fortress and will end with what is about to come next, described in this post. Because there are a planned total of eleven arcs (after this there is Tears and Torments, and finally The Coming of the Three), this really brings us close to the end. It’s been a huge, epic adventure, but now it’s time to start pulling all the players together for the inevitable endgame, which is why we are going to start with the return of a character from long ago...

The Return of Daymos

Centuries ago, Daymos was killed on Faerun by Lorin, Karina, and Abenthy, and Abenthy sent his soul to Ia’fret to be tortured for eternity. Only, eternity didn’t up being all that long in the grand scheme of things. Ia’fret was called by Asmodeus to do battle in the final days of the blood war and so Ia’fret took his cavernous domain and transported it like a giant arc into the Abyss, using his souls to power him as he cut through swathes of demons alongside Asmodeus. However, while this gambit ultimately won the war, Ia’fret himself was cut down in battle and his “arc” left abandoned, sandwiched three quarters between the 9th and 10th layers of the abyss, the wayward souls he brought with him exposed to the depravities and hunger of an entire population of demons now cut off from the material realm.

Many of the souls perished in those early days, but Daymos was not among them. He hid through most of the initial carnage and when that was over, he emerged and made the now empty cavern his own lair. He could not command it the way Ia’fret had, but he could use it as a secret refuge. He wanted to get back to Faerun, to find his sister, Jade, and to restart his life. But he could not find a way out of the Abyss: it seemed shut off from the outside world completely. So he bid his time and wait, and in his waiting, he hunted. What did he hunt? Demons.

It may have been sixty years. It may have been a hundred. Time is... difficult... in the Abyss. Daymos aged, but he kept himself young by locating caches of potions of youth and using them. This was somewhat dangerous: sometimes the potions backfired and aged him. Other times, they deaged him too much and once he had to hide out until he grew back from a child into an adult again. Overall, though, he managed to keep himself in his young 20s and 30s. And he hunted demons, stalking them through many layers of the abyss, learning their secrets and building his psychic powers back. He quickly found that his powers were growing beyond his ability to control: he needed a focus. In Ia’fret’s lair he found a demonic spellbook and he poured his energy into this. This meant that he needed the book to cast most of his psionic powers but it removed the threat of his powers tearing his mind apart. He acquired other items during this time, such as a robe of stars, a ring of cold resistance, and a baleful dagger that he used to slit the throats of a few demons, but his greatest power lay in ranged ambushes, using his mind to dominate lesser demons and then slay them. He remained physically weak and would not long stand up to the direct attacks of even a mid-tier demon.

And so Daymos learned to be clever, and he learned to be silent, and he learned, above all, to be patient, while he waited for his opportunity to escape. And then, suddenly, it came. He felt the Abyss expand, reconnect to the outer world. And so he left Ia’fret’s cave, following his psychic senses to a newly opened portal. He leaped in, and escaped.

Not the Expected Homecoming

"What’s that?” Imoaza pointed through the frozen air and pounding sleet. Carrick, next to her, squinted towards the sky but it was like trying to see through a physical object.

“You’re going to have to describe it,” he said.

“It’s a light, human shaped, and it’s moving fast back towards the camp.”

“Could be trouble. We should head back. This hunt for a sabre-toothed tiger hasn’t done anything except make me colder.”

“Don’t mention the cold.” Imoaza was trying not to think about it. Her metabolism was not built for cold climates.

Heading back towards the camp, the two find Daymos waiting for them. He tells them the light they saw was him, that it is a way he can choose to travel when he has “a mind” to.

Daymos is mostly excited to be out of the Abyss and back on Faerun, but he is disturbed when he learns from Carrick that he has landed in the Sword Coast.

“Last I checked, the sword coast wasn’t frozen,” Daymos says. “How long has it been?”

But Carrick and Imoaza aren’t the best source of information, as they are new to this Faerun as well and can only tell Daymos that the last time they set foot on Faerun it was DR 1475. Daymos nods at this, telling them that he died in 1474, and he knows that was at least a century ago.

Ultimately, Daymos decides to travel with the group. The other travelers who are leading this pilgrimage don’t mind, they say anyone is welcome to “visit the lady.” He spends the evening gambling with Carrick, and using his psychic powers to turn the dice to his favor, a trick Carrick eventually catches. Carrick lets him keep his winnings, saying that he has paid to learn something about Daymos.

Milosh spends the evening weaving leather armor into his body, patching himself up, though he remains looking like a Frankenstein-ian monster. Imoaza curls up as close to a fire as she can and watches the strange and unfamiliar weave that the magic in this time creates in the air, visible to those who know how to seek it.

The morning is wet and miserable. The caravan soon comes to an inn outside of Baldur’s Gate and the players are warned it is haunted. But Daymos is keen to explore it and Carrick sees his paladin friend from the ship inside, his head bleeding from some kind of wound. The party as a whole decides to investigate, running through the rain and inside the arch of the inn:

The main doorway is unbarred, and the archway is as silent and gloomy as the exterior of the keep. Any wafting mists or ill weather seems to halt abruptly within 10 ft. of the open doors. There are no sounds of clattering dishes nor the bustle of inn keepers. Rain drips upon you as you pass under the keystone of the arch. From the glow of hundreds of candles that are lit in the lobby, though, you realize this passing has instead anointed you in red, dripping blood.

 The lobby is an expansive space, broken up by a dozen hearth stations, and the dual stairway across the room, which converges into a landing and slopes to the floor. Once you are all inside, it’s as if a veil of shadow has been lifted from your sight, and you see a vast array of strange, stirring shapes around you. The scene has the aspect of a monstrous court of deformed demons dressed to nobility. Your nose warns of the unpleasant possibility that human blood is being used as perfume, and flesh is being roasted or consumed raw from the many spits planted over the hearths. In the air, there rises a crescendo of guttural chortling that you cannot comprehend.

A woman of undeniable beauty makes a dramatic entrance down the stairway. Her footsteps echo with the clack of thigh-high, studded leather boots and she carries an immediate air of dismissive authority. She is showing a generous amount of skin between silver plating that has been polished to a mirror surface, adding a shimmering effect in the firelight. She is wrapped in a shawl of white fox fur, and although she appears youthful and walks with a brash, flippant strut, her shortcropped hair is white and her unnaturally blue eyes betray some sort of ancient malevolence. She takes her place by the grandest hearth and reclines against two huge, muscled men in chained collars who kneel to form her chair. Her baleful gaze has never parted from all of you as she made this fashionable entrance.

The woman is a Demoness, really a Demon Goddess, named Eshebala and she explains that this isn’t Faerun, but rather a good possibility for what Faerun could look like if they ever return, based on what she has taken from the minds of the players and from Milosh’s prophecy, which is still buried inside of him and which she claims to understand better than he does. She offers them a chance to see for themselves by returning to Faerun, but first they have to play her game. Eshebala doesn’t mention her true motives yet, which are... well, no, I shouldn’t say now. My players could be reading. We’ll get to that in a later post.

In any case, her game is simple: the players have arrived on the 193rd layer of the Abyss, a place called Vulgarea. Now they have to survive 20 of Vulgarea’s most deadly locations. All the demons chant as the room goes dark, “...all will enter, one walks away…all will enter, one walks away…”

This is the beginning of a new dungeon, one created by a third party designer and illustrator, Ryan Durney. It is called Mirrors of the Abyss, and it is intensely interesting.

I choose Mirrors because it is the only campaign I’ve ever read that actually captures the chaos and insane deadliness of the Abyss. It is a player killer dungeon, make no mistake about that, but with enough personality that an enterprising DM can easily adjust the difficulty down simply by playing the personalities up; a haughty demon might not use all of its powerful attacks on a party it views as too weak to harm it, allowing them to gain the upper hand, bargain with it, or escape it’s grasp; a obsessive compulsive demon may have powerful melee strikes but will refrain from approaching a human because “they are gross and full of germs.” And there are lots of nooks and crannies in which to fit long rest options.

Regardless, the descriptions, the illustrations and handouts, and the sheer ambition of the dungeon makes for a truly unique experience for anywhere from 3-12 players and the dungeon has a ton of randomized elements that make it replayable. You can insert this into your own story (just make sure players are at least level 15) or run it once a year as a special grindhouse game for a big group of players. There are even rules for continuing to play if you are killed, at which point you become a wraith who is given a chance to get their life back by screwing over one of the party members. It makes for a memorable experience, to be sure.

The way the dungeon is laid out is that there are 21 rooms. The 1st room is always visited first and sets up the rest of the game, but after that the room order is randomized. Each room represents one challenge or series of themed challenges which the players have to solve or survive in order to progress. Along the way are hidden rooms and treasures and some of the deadliest (but avoidable) encounters I’ve ever seen penned in Dungeons & Dragons. And at the end... well, that’s another thing we’ll have to get to later.

For now, the players are left in the dark as the inn collapses around them. When the dust settles, they find they are in a dark cave, with a riddle and a clue and room #1: the start of Esheballa’s Game. Next time, Welcome to My Game.

[zippdementia]

Part 77 Alignment May Vary: A Little Touch of Undermountain

Last time, my players got wrapped up with a bunch of Githzerai and so I needed to come up with a Gith dungeon. For the next piece of the adventure, I used level 16 of Undermountain, so following will be spoilers for that level of 5e’s Undermountain. If you don’t mind, then read on to see how it progressed!

When I prep for a dungeon, I like to read the whole thing first. Not in incredible detail while taking notes or anything, but just skimming through, browsing maps, getting the general idea, spotting interesting rooms, getting a sense of the challenge. 

What I’m really trying to do is to find the story.

Every dungeon tells a tale, or at least has the ability to tell a tale. There is no exception to this. Sometimes the tale is very deliberate, other times it will read differently to each GM, based on the personal biases and aesthetics they bring to their reading of the dungeon. For instance, in a dungeon run by Kobolds but with no details as to why they are there, different DMs will draw different conclusions. Some might look at the treasure room and determine that the Kobolds must be protecting an ancient treasure of their people. Bam, there you have a story. Others might notice that the Kobolds are oddly led by a Drow wizard and conclude that this is only the tip of a greater invasion dwelling just below the surface. Another might take the same data and think that this is the dwelling of an outcast Drow, who pridefully believes this to be the first step towards his conquering of the world. Even another might see this and believe that the Drow has been magically enchanted to believe that he himself is a Kobold, and the Kobolds serving him don’t have the courage to try and convince him otherwise, not after what happened to poor pussbottom...

In the case of the dungeon levels of Undermountain, we have quite a bit to go on. Each level in the fifth edition rendition of the dungeon is given at least one deliberate and major story that can be used as a throughline without and several smaller plot lines that are left more open for the DM and players to develop through their actions. In level 16, there is a Githyanki fortress led by a female warrior, Al’Chaia. Wrapped up in her rule is a number of complications. For one, she has encouraged competition among her followers and this has had led to at least one believing they could be a better ruler than she is. Even among her dragon pets, there is competition, as one of the young dragons is seeking to escape the rule of his great red mother and is willing to burn his way to freedom if given the opportunity and a strong enough party of (momentary) allies. And speaking of momentary allies, there are prisoners in the dungeon just waiting for a chance to escape: a group of Mind Flayers for one, and a lone Githzerai monk for another. The two groups won’t work together, but either one could make for a powerful set of allies when trying to work against Al’Chaia. Al’Chaia, for her part, is equal mixture paranoia and pride, desiring to have a direct hand in everything that happens in Stardock and personally interviewing all trespassers and prisoners. She prefers to have intruders taken alive and her knights see this as such a clear way to her favor that they will go to great lengths, even endangering themselves, to capture interlopers rather than kill them.

So, this leaves us with the following story threads:

Al’Chaia wants prisoners

Ezria is a prisoner whom the Githzerai want freed

At least one general wants Al’Chaia dead

There are Mindflayer prisoners who want to be freed

Level 16 is broken into two dungeons, really: the Crystal Labyrinth and the Githyanki Stardock (which is actually located in space and is a light entry into the Spelljammer campaign setting).

Transposing a Dungeon

If playing Undermountain on its own, then the purpose of every dungeon level is to survive and make it to the next lowest level. In this light, Level 16 is an odd one, because you never actually have to go to Stardock to proceed to the next level of Undermountain. Even a group curious about Stardock can’t easily access it, they have to find a key first which requires either killing or convincing one of the more powerful combatants in the Crystal Labyrinth to give you their key. A group might be COMPELLED to seek out and explore Stardock by groups they encounter earlier or later in Undermountain, but square for square it is the easiest level of Undermountain to bypass. The other surprising thing is that all of the story I mentioned above, all of those hooks, happen mostly in Stardock and not so much in the Crystal Labyrinth.

For my purposes, there isn’t anywhere else to go: the players aren’t in Undermountain trying to get to the next level, so I had to focus them from the start on the idea of accessing the Stardock. At the same time, they had some major restrictions that delvers into Undermountain don’t, the big one being they have nowhere to run to in case they need a long rest. Oh, and because their ship is running out of oxygen, they have a limited amount of time to finish the adventure and achieve their goal.

The goal I set up as rescuing Ezria, the Githzerai monk. It made the most sense in terms of story and also felt like the most achievable mission (as killing Al’Chaia is tough, considering she fights with other Gith at her side and at least one young red dragon (possibly more, and possibly an Adult Red Dragon, too, depending on when and how you fight her). I didn’t rule out the possibility of them killing Al’Chaia, but if they did it would have to take place as a hit-and-run assassination, killing her in a few rounds before she had a chance to summon any guards and then getting the heck outta dodge before the mamma dragon showed up to take revenge. Regardless, the mission would require stealthy play, something we haven’t done too much of in our adventures. 

I also broke the mission into three pieces in my mind: one was to get through the Crystal Labyrinth (reskinned for my purposes as an in-between world, a backdoor the Githzerai “tunneled” through the aether into the Githyanki fortress, but which was discovered and occupied by the Githyanki) probably proceeding with the help of one of the dissatisfied generals working under Al’Chaia. The second part was to find Ezria in Stardock and break him out of prison. The third part was to escape back to the entrance of Stardock, where Ezria would open a portal and they would get back to the Githzerai homeworld.

There was nothing I threw out or changed over much aside from focusing the dungeon flow on these elements and adhering to those three parts. Other than that, I just got ready to improvise based on whatever the players did.

How Did it Go?

After an initial added puzzle involving a malfunctioning security laser system, the players enter the Labyrinth proper. I changed the entrance point to be the far east side of the map, rather than the west, because I wanted to place them potentially closer to Urlon, one of the more benign of the disgruntled lieutenants (AKA he doesn’t attack them on sight). Overall, there is less activity on this side of the map so I felt like it gave them a better chance of finding a way through the maze to the Stardock.

They do a good job initially of sneaking around. They encounter an imprisoned Mind Flayer, Marqoux (we call him Marky for short) and talk to him for a moment to get a basic understanding of where they are and what to look out for. They are unable to free him at this time, and so they move on and come to a gigantic cavern filled with Githyanki, overseen by a more powerful Githyanki female floating naked in a crystal in the center of the room. This fight is huge. It ends up involving about a dozen Githyanki, all them leaping and misty stepping all over the place, striking by darting in and then teleporting away. The woman in the crystal compliments their attacks with magic missile, haste spells, and twice a gigantic fireball that the party manages to dodge. There are also three Crystal Golems, time and light bending monstrous statues who are less effective than they might have been (due to some poor rolling on my part) and instead make the players feel pretty epic as they dodge around +8 and +10 to hits and whittle away at the Golems until they are naught but crystaline dust in the glowing Labyrinth.

The coolest moments to come out of this come from Imoaza. At one point she strikes down a Githyanki and then uses her Warlock powers to trap his soul and raise him from the dead as a wraith who fights at her command. At another, she leaps over a Crystal Golem’s attack, splits Drosselgreymer into its two smaller sickles, lands on the golem’s chest and hangs there with one sickle while slashing away at the creature’s single diamond eye with the other until it goes down. She then backflips off of it, puts together Drosselgremyer again, and shoots eldritch blasts at two Githyanki as she lands. It’s some next level anime shit.

All this fighting eventually attracts the attentions of one of the Githyanki Knights, who strides into battle atop a young red dragon and who turns the tide in favor of the enemy, scattering the players. Imoaza hides inside a cone of ice and then sneaks away when it dissipates. Carrick flees deeper into the caverns, hiding himself in a crevice. And Milosh, who has proven to be by far the tankiest of the characters, takes on the dragon and its rider on his own for a round or two before being forced into a dead end outside of the Mind Flayer’s prison cell.

I don’t know if we’ve mentioned before that Milosh has a power cannon on his arm, similar to Mega Man? His can burn special gun-arm slots to mimic certain magic and it can fire arrows like a crossbow, powering them up with different effects as he fires them (and he’ll learn more effects as time goes on). He uses one here to launch an electrified arrow into the Githyanki knight’s chest, nearly killing her in a single blow! She survives though and with his resources running out and a pissed off red dragon staring him down, Milosh prepares to either make his final stand or use a special ranger power he has to pierce the aether and travel unseen through the ethereal plane to escape. But instead the Githyanki hails him between ragged and haggard breaths and orders him to stand down and surrender. Milosh agrees and tries to find some clever way to turn this to advantage, but instead he is clapped in magical irons that prevent the use of his abilities and a magical headband that might have been familiar to Targaryen/Daymos from long long ago, blocking out Milosh’s thoughts and blinding him. Then he is led from the arena and up to Stardock.

But what about the player? Not wanting to lose anyone from the table for an extended period, we determine that in their haste to capture Milosh, the guards did not notice a key lifting off of their belt and floating quietly towards the small portal set in the door to the Mindflayer’s prison...

Keeping Your “Head” in the Game

The other party members, Imoaza and Carrick, witness Milosh’s surrender (Imoaza was actually disguised through magic as one of the Gith warriors talking to Milosh about surrendering, though she is too afraid to be caught to try and make a big play, like escorting him herself). They see him being led away by the injured Githyanki knight and her very-healthy-looking red dragon and realizing (correctly) that there is probably nothing they can do to rescue Milosh without risking the death of at least one party member, they continue to explore the labyrinth. Carrick is not very stealthy in his plate mail, and ends up alerting ANOTHER Githyanki magic user in a crystal, but Imoaza still has her disguise, and is able to pretend she is chasing him down, which makes the other Githyanki pause in their own pursuit. In this way, they stumble into the workshop of Urlon, creator of the crystal golems and their best bet at getting into Stardock.

Urlon explains his frustrations of Al’Chai’s rule and his desire to see her dead. He says if they manage to assassinate her, then he will create a distraction and slow the hunt for them, buying them time to find their comrade and escape. The players agree, though in truth they don’t intend to take on Al’Chai: they simply want to get to Ezria and get the heck out of this mess. Urlon doesn’t know this, so he offers them a ton of help: items and a general layout of the Stardock, and he also reforges Mistweaver, which used to belong to Aldric but which Carrick is now using, into a +3 magic weapon that retains its curious ability to hold onto and reproduce certain kinds of damage. An alarm then sounds throughtout the Labyrinth and Urlon snarls: “One of the Mindflayers has escaped,” he tells them. “They’ll be swarming the Labyrinth to find and kill the bastard. Here, you’ll need to hide until this is over.” He telekinetically levitates a massive work table off the ground to reveal a trapdoor leading into a small chamber underneath the workshop, where Imoaza and Carrick squeeze into a semi-comfortable spot, getting a short rest while Urlon and his apprentice, a younger Gith male, go to join the hunt.

The Mindflayer in question is the one being played by our other player, and the alarm is because he inadvertently alerted the Gith after a botched stealth roll. He now flees through the Labyrinth, seeking a hiding spot. He eventually spots one while slinking around the edge of a large cavern: a niche high in the wall that he levitates to and stuffs himself inside like a trapdoor spider. Indeed, the metaphor is apt, for some time later (after a short rest), a young Gith rests against the wall, out of sight of his companions... and is promptly set upon by the Mindflayer, who scores a critical hit against him and drags him up into the niche to feast on his brain. The brain’s memories rush into Marky and it turns out he ate the brain of Urlon’s apprentice. He now knows that two of the adventurers he met earlier are hiding out in Urlon’s workshop and that they have the means to enter Stardock.

Imoaza and Carrick have been sharing a somewhat uncomfortable silence while they rest. Carrick has been keeping an eye on Imoaza since Aldric’s death. Some whisper of fear eats at him. He hasn’t exactly suspected her, but some Paladin intuition is cluing him in to Imoaza’s deeper evil... though, for her part, Imoaza does not believe in evil. She believes only in pragmatism, and has already justified Aldric’s murder in her mind as an act of mercy. Aldric was clearly going to die, she tells herself, and was beginning to show his weakness besides. He’d become emotional and attached. He had a family, for god’s sake. That was dangerous for the group. She was preserving the group.

When Imoaza and Carrick next see the light of the Crystal Labyrinth pouring in through the trapdoor, it is not Urlon who stares down at them, but instead the tentacled face of the Mindflayer. He sends a telepathic message into their heads: “We should help each other.”

It is not the easiest decision to make. After all, Mindflayers are not easily trusted, and they also know that the Gith will be hunting for this one and will respond to any sighting of it with extreme prejudice. Even Urlon, who seemed actually sympathetic towards Ezria and the other Githzerai, going so far as to say he would cease the hunt for them if he replaces Al’Chaia, turned cold when it came to discussing the hunt for the ‘flayer.

At the same time, what choice do they really have?

The three thus band together, leave Urlon’s workshop, and make their way to the portal to Stardock. The Mindflayer uses his access to the Gith’s brain he devoured to fool the lone Crystal Golem blocking their way to the portal to Stardock (a cool notion the player came up with). They pass the golem without incident and insert the key into the portal, and are whisked away to the second part of the adventure, which we will cover next time.

One More Thing...

Before I sign off though, notice some of the things that went on in this session. I didn’t overly prep for this session. All I did read over the dungeon and then find those story threads. To keep things moving and the game fun in the actual session, all I had to do was tie everything that happened in the actual play with one of those story threads. Thus, when the fight with the Githyanki threatened to kill one or more of the players, it was perfectly reasonable instead for the Knight to try and imprison at least one of them, avoiding a TPK and keeping the story moving. Then, because that was removing a player from our game potentially, I improvised by turning to another story point: the Mindflayers. Now my player could stay in the action (very memorably so) as a Mindflayer. How often does a player get to play a monster in a game? And last, when the players seemed beat down and at a loss for where to go next, they found Urlon, who connected them to the “revolution” plot line.

Thus, no matter how crazy things got, I could always get us out of the weeds by steering us back towards the story threads. Identify these in your own sessions and you will find you have to plan a lot less and are ready to improvise when the need arises. And it ALWAYS arises. That’s half the fun of being a Dungeon Master!

[zippdementia]

Part 86: Alignment May Vary: Back to the Future

This post begins Chapter 10, which used to be called Tears and Torments, but which I’ve renamed “The Coming of the Three.” It marks the last chapter of our game and focuses on the prophecy of the three. For a reminder, the prophecy was created by a Surveyor who foresaw that Primus’ great mission to bring stability and order to the world would end in Chaos and sorrow. He passed down a prophecy of how this would come to pass and how it could be countered. The prophecy is as follows:

Three shall be the kings who sit the single throne And Order's rule by Chaos shall be overthrown The Universe will end by their divine hands Chaos will devour every woman, child, and man

Each shall be seen by a singular sign Each shall be born of a different line. The devil's blood runs in the first of the three They bear the eye that can seek but cannot see The second will by heaven be blessed But wings of black will mar their pureness The third contains the dragon's flame What was dead will rise to live again Three to rule, Three to lead, Three to destroy and make the universe bleed. Removing one will not lead to the fall To end the curse you must destroy them all Four things must gather to alter fate's course The Sword, The Shield, The Stone, The Source Then upon the throne the three must be Before they can meet their destiny In the time these things come to pass The future will be decided by the ones from the past

As this is the last chapter and there is a lot of call backs and wrap ups, I’m going to focus more on the big picture narrative and less on individual mechanics. I’ll try to put in reminders, too, of who everyone important is as I coe to them. One day I will finish the Encyclopedia but until then, I’ll do everything “in-post.”

Through the Woods to Grandmother’s Fortress

There was something wrong about this place, but what was most disturbing was that the wrongness hadn’t been there a moment ago. The very earth was becoming infected beneath him, with him as witness to its corruption. The wrongness wasn’t an attribute of this land, it was a living malice, moving through the land and turning it against all living creatures. Imoaza tensed and stood quickly, spinning around to face the horrors that were emerging on all sides of her, from the sudden mist that had settled upon everything. She held up her hand to summon Blackrazor to her and then stopped, noticing that where she had pressed it into the earth fresh blood had stained it. The very ground was bleeding... that was her first thought. But then she gasped as hands erupted from under the earth, seeking, grasping for any flesh they could find.

~ Imoaza facing the Blighted horrors of the Wytchwood

The first part of this chapter is about introducing the players to the end game set up. This means introducing them to the key NPCs and situation. But I don’t want to be blunt about it. It’s more engaging if it’s not just one big exposition but rather an experience of what’s at stake.

So we start with them not sure if they’ve made it back to Faerun. They wake up in the woods being stared at by a Forest Giant. Daymos isn’t with them, and Ruze has undergone a change: no longer a fox faced man, he becomes an elvish looking female with black hair. She does not explain the transformation or the choice of her new form, but it reveals something about her nature: she is a Changeling, a mysterious race of dopplegangers that is rare on Faerun, but which does have clans spread around the world. A rather large one existed in Brindol, and as a matter of fact, that’s where Ruze is from. 

The Giant is soon joined by a lean female Half Orc. The two are allied, their names are Grimoire and Sierra. Sierra tells the characters that they have been waiting for them and that their coming was foretold by Carrick, who found his way to these woods after he awoke in the Destroyed Temple of the Yuan Ti. Now they are to take them to the Lady of the Wood. Also, they are in for a shock: 80 years or more have passed since they left Faerun.

Cliff Notes: Carrick was the character originally controlled by Ruze’s player. He had a really in depth plot tied to the backstory of the game, as the players discovered that Carrick had long ago been possessed by the soul of the last Surveyor. The Surveyors are creations of Primus who helped usher in the age of Humanity on Faerun and who are indirectly responsible for many of the major events of the campaign, like the powers of the Jade Statue, the downfall of the Yuan Ti society, the arrival of the Mind Flayer who creates the Red Hand, and the Prophecy.

The players accompany Sierra on a short side quest, first, as she scouts out Skull Gorge, where it is said that the Enemy was recently spotted. Who is the enemy? They are told that only the Lady of the Wood truly knows, but that it is said to be the revived form of some old dead warlord, a Dragonborn who tried to conquer the world long ago.

Cliff Notes: All of this is referencing back to the PCs adventures with the Red Hand campaign. Skull Gorge Bridge was blown up by Nysyries in a very memorable moment decades earlier. The Dragonlord is Nazragul, whom the party served for a while when they were turned evil. The fact that he is mentioned to be returned is dark tidings indeed, as his power was shown to be pretty intense even from beyond the grave. How did he return, though? It should be noted that none of these PCs actually know of Nazragul or met him. The last PC who would have worked for his cause would have been Aldric.

While out scouting by the bridge, the party encounters a strange plant creature pouring some sort of necrotic energy into the land. The land becomes infected and the party is set upon by awakened trees and blights and Grimoire, whose connection to the forest causes him to be infected as well. The PCs win the battle but Hecate disappears during it. The PCs track her to a spot where they discover many prints that Imoaza recognizes as belonging to other Yuan Ti. Before they can investigate further, they are attacked by a Death Knight. He surprises Imoaza but when she draws Black Razor Alpha he retreats, and the party, taking advantage of the sudden reprieve and wondering who this mysterious helmed knight is, follows Sierra to Vraath Keep. They are about to meet the Lady of the Wood.

Cliff Notes: Vraath Keep was last seen 80 years ago, during the Red hand campaign. Xaviee, companion of General Twyin... renamed Lorin by us later... became its ruler and restored it to glory. But he died some time ago and who runs it now?

The Keep is revealed to have been expanded upon greatly in the past decades and has become a refuge for creatures of all manner, from humans and elves to giants and fey and even changelings. Really, it is a last bastion, a final hope of resistance to the forces that are growing in the Elsir Vale and swiftly taking it over. The major cities of the nation have fallen, Brindol most recently, and now Vraath Keep is all that remains, the only place housing an army left to fight back against Nazragul and his swarms of undead. Around the entire keep is a magical shield, meant to keep out all invaders and their magics.

And the Lady of the Wood? None other than an aging Karina, one of the original companions for the entire campaign and a major player in the Tomb of Haggemoth adventure. She retired from adventuring after Haggemoth and set  about creating an adventuring school in the former Desert of Thud, believing that she would one day need an army of adventurers to combat Abenthy, who turned to a dark path when last she saw him.

The PCs meet with Karina and it is a solemn meeting as she fills them in on the history they have missed. She knows much of their story from Carrick (who is currently out on a mission of his own) and she knows of the prophecy. Discussing the prophecy becomes the focus of most of a session for us, while the players read over the lines and try to make sense of it with Karina. She also reveals that Nazragul has arisen after taking over the body and mind of a former disciple of hers: Jade, whom she last saw nearly 80 years ago, when she left to travel to the Elsir Vale because she sensed Nazragul’s power and sought to defeat him. With her went Verrick, Karina’s lover, and Lee, their pet slime. Abenthy she hasn’t seen in years either, and his presence seems to have disappeared from the world of Torril, or is otherwise blocked to her scrying. She believes some ill befell him, but she cannot be sure. She says that the Yuan Ti have joined with Nazragul in a religious Jihad, for they believe the end times are coming at last and the Night Serpent will finally swallow all light.

At hearing the news about Jade, Daymos suddenly appears, still in his Quasit form. He reveals that he has been invisibly following the party since they left Esheballa’s realm and now rails against Karina for not keeping his sister, Jade, safe. He then uses his prodigious abilities to phase through her protective shields around Vraath Keep, claiming he will find a way to save Jade. 

There are some really amazing roleplaying moments while at Vraath Keep, as I ask each player what their character does in between their meetings with Karina. Each choice is a really interesting look at the character’s psyche. Here’s the brief of each one.

For Imoaza, the Weave has started to become visible to her. She can see it shaping the magic of the world around her, the way it coalesces around Karina and is tightly knit in her magical energy shield surrounding Vraath Keep. She spends her time examining her surroundings with this new found sight, but it drifts in and out and ultimately she is left without access to it, only a feeling like she has had an incredibly important thought, but cannot retrieve it now. She talks with Black Razor alpha, too, and gains a further understanding of her bond to the sword. He considers her his “mother,” a word that has uncomfortable past associations for Imoaza. And finally, I ask her what she seeks out for food, as it has been, in Faerun years, a very very long time (decades) since any of our companions have actually eaten food. They did not eat in the Chaos world (and good thing, too). Imoaza, true to a character beat that was established back on the air planet, seeks out sweets to salve her addiction to sugar, and gorges herself on fruits and baked goods made by some of the best bakers from Brindol, now refuging in Vraath Keep. 

Cliff Notes: The Weave is the magical energy that powers magic in Dungeons & Dragons. It’s never been fully explained in canonical text in order to leave its inner workings more mysterious and up to GMs to develop. The idea of seeing the Weave came to me in a moment of improvisation as I tried to find ways to picture the level of magical power that Imoaza has reached after spending time in the Chaos plane.

For Ruz, she seeks out the company of other Changelings, looking to see if she has any family left in this world. She finds a tribe of Changelings, but she does not know any of them. Too many years have passed since last she set foot on Faerun. Ruz also is given a set of magical robes by Karina, which Karina’s used to wear on her own adventures. They have a lot of powers and incorporate her old Mariner’s Armor from back when she was level 3, so many real time years ago. Ruz also donates a huge amount of wealth, her spoils from Esheballa’s realm, to the war effort, which does not go unnoticed, though does not effect the current session. My favorite thing about her downtime, however, is her description of Ruz’s reaction to normal food. Ruz was in the Abyss far longer than the others and did partake of its food out of neccessity. But food on the chaos realm is hardly sustenance. It is soul energy and it is poisoned, like a drug that worms its way inside your heart. It almost drove Ruz to insanity and suicide, but she survived, her hope restored by the companions when she found them wandering Esheballa’s dark beach. Now, the player describes in beautiful detail how Ruz reacts to real food: real vegetables and meat. She asks for a simple meal, that of beef stew, the more generic and normal, the better, for it is “normal” that she has lacked and sought all of these years.

For Milosh, he does not eat. He is no longer a biological creature and hasn’t been since the Surveyor built him so many aeons ago. But something has changed in him: he now is beginning to remember who he was before he was a machine. His manner changes, no longer naive and friendly. He is now dour and quiet. His characteristic “ah!” with finger upraised has been replaced with a cool intellect and assessment of each situation he finds himself in. And he has recently gone through several shocks: first Carrick is dead, then he finds out he is still alive and on Faerun, and now Milosh is no longer certain of his mission. He goes to the keep’s forge, which Dwarven refugees have expanded into a mighty operation in the basement. Here, Milosh requests armor be made to help cover up his disfigurement (gotten at the fiery breath of the dragon on the Githyanki asteroid) and then he falls into a deep slumber. While he slumbers, he is visited by a beardless dwarf: Haggemoth. Haggemoth tells him that he had tried to forge a better future for the world but he failed when Aldric died and Blackrazor escaped into the void to work terror and mischief in unseen ways. Now he says that Milosh is the one who can change the future and forge a better path and that if he needs a new purpose, then this should be it.

What Does the Prophecy Mean?

In a long meeting with Karina, the PCs discuss the prophecy and its meaning. Here is what they come up with...

Three shall be the kings who sit the single throne And Order's rule by Chaos shall be overthrown The Universe will end by their divine hands Chaos will devour every woman, child, and man

This section seems to be fairly obvious. It is a warning and a reference to Primus’ war against Chaos, a history that was given to them in full by the last remaining Surveyor they found on the air planet. The three kings are the catalysts for a great and terrible destruction.

Each shall be seen by a singular sign Each shall be born of a different line.

The devil's blood runs in the first of the three They bear the eye that can seek but cannot see The second will by heaven be blessed But wings of black will mar their pureness The third contains the dragon's flame What was dead will rise to live again

The three are identified. The first has devil’s blood and the eye that can seek but cannot see. Karina acknowledges this must be her, as a Tiefling (Devil’s Blood) and known by the moniker “Seeker of Callax,” and indicates the gem that is fit into her empty eye socket.

The second, Karina suspects is the Assimir Abenthy, a companion she once sought a great treasure with before he “turned his will to darker ways.” She says that Abenthy was whom she feared was leading the undead army before she discovered it was the possessed Jade.

Which brings her to the third... she believes the third is Nazragul himself, the one possessing Jade. He is Dragonborn and was dead, but has risen again.

Three to rule, Three to lead, Three to destroy and make the universe bleed. Removing one will not lead to the fall To end the curse you must destroy them all

This part Karina is contemplative about. She does not know what it means to “destroy them all.” She admits she has contemplated suicide in order to remove her from the possibility of being used to end the world, but as the PCs point out, “removing one will not lead to the fall.” They all wonder if perhaps the three have to be destroyed at one time or if there is a riddle hidden in this line.

Four things must gather to alter fate's course The Sword, The Shield, The Stone, The Source Then upon the throne the three must be Before they can meet their destiny

This is where most of the discussion takes place. What are the four things that must be gathered? Karina says that Carrick has been out in the world searching for the answers to this riddle. The Sword they think is probably Blackrazor, as it is the most powerful blade they have ever encountered.

The Shield... Imoaza wonders aloud if it could refer to a person, like “Jon Snow, the Shield of the North.” But if it does refer to a person, they have no idea who that person is.

The Stone Karina says that Carrick figured out and believes is one of the crystals that the Surveyor used to power his creations, like a certain Jade statue from days gone by. He’s searching for a piece of one of the Crystals now.

The Source is another stumper... none of them have any idea what it might mean. Milosh wonders if it is the source of the prophecy, or maybe the source of the troubles. Ruz wonders if it is a place, like a river’s mouth or a source of heat or power. Imoaza wonders if it is the Rod of Storms... a different kind of source of power.

In the time these things come to pass The future will be decided by the ones from the past

This one seems pretty obvious to the PCs. The ones from the past are themselves. They are the ones destined to determine the future.

In any case, the PCs stay up late into the evening with Karina before retiring to get some much needed sleep. But they are awoken early by a summons... Karina has dreamed of Dragons, and one in particular to whom she long ago traded the Rod of Storms when it was briefly in her possession. She was told that when the time was right, she would be given something in return and in her dream she had been told that time is now. And so she has a mission for the players.

Next time, the heroes tackle their final dungeon crawl of the campaign (not the final dungeon, mind you...) in a scenario lifted directly from Tyranny of Dragons, The Sea of Moving Ice.

[zippdementia]

Part 76 Alignment May Vary: Portents and Prophecies

Welcome to the continuing adventures of Alignment May Vary, our twice a month gaming group! We’ve been playing the same narrative for three years this month, with tons of twists and turns along the way. You can now hear the dramatized episodes at our website, Alignment May Vary.

In the last session, long time player character Aldric was killed by another player character, Imoaza, in an unseen betrayal out in the cold of space. Carrick, the third PC, is unaware of the betrayal as the group tries to figure out what to do about their current predicament.

Days pass. The situation on board the (still unnamed) Surveyor ship goes from desperate to grim. The power surge used to fight off the asteroid spiders has left the ship’s crystal depleted. What fuel they have is being used to keep life systems active, but this will fail within the week and the party is adrift in some unknown corner of space, surrounded only by asteroid dust and the wreckage of previous ships who have become stranded here.

The dreadful monotony, the slow wait for the end, is broken by one major event: a capsule adrift in the wreckage around them suddenly comes to life and starts sending out a signal. Retrieving it and bringing it on board, Carrick and Imoaza find it is a life capsule identical in most ways to the one they saw Carrick’s double in, back on Faerun. That tells them this is Surveyor technology, though it looks older even than that capsule. Carrick, accessing his Surveyor memories, figures out how to open the capsule, to reveal...

... nothing. The capsule is empty.

But it wasn’t empty very long ago. Its inhabitant has the ability to shift through space using the ethereal plane and now he appears beside the party, a hulking humanoid robot with red glowing eyes who raises his hand to stri-- or no, raises it in greeting to Carrick.

“Ah! Greetings. My name is Milosh. Are you the Surveyor?”

“No,” Carrick replies. “At least not the one you are probably looking for.”

“Ah! My visual senses tell me you are a 93% match for the Surveyor. Ah! I have come to serve the surveyor and stop the prophecy.”

Meet Milosh, our new PC (following Shando, Abenthy, Trakki, and Aldric... we’ve had quite a few player characters over the course of this epic).

Milosh, the Seeker of Prophecy

Milosh is a Warforged out of the recent Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberon. He is, visually, a little like a Mechanical Groot. He is, personality wise, a lot like the Paper Clip office assistant from 1997′s Microsoft Word. His backstory is that he was created by one of the Surveyors ages ago, centuries ago, to hunt down and stop a certain prophecy, a prophecy we’ve heard about before, involving the three figures: a devil, an angel, and a dragonborn. But while he was traveling to his destination, which would eventually become known as Faerun, his ship was caught in the Asteroid Spider’s webs and destroyed. He managed to escape and has been floating in stasis ever since. In the ages that have gone by, his memory banks have been damaged and now he cannot recall the full prophecy or even his full abilities. But he does know how to transform his right arm into a variety of weapons and tools and uses this to form a variety of special attacks, including a photon blast and a drill arm.

His personality is a little... simple. He says “Ah!” before every sentence, usually while holding up a finger, and runs off of very literal interpretations of his surroundings, relying on old programs in his working memory banks to get him through situations like combat or social etiquette.

This leads to some awkward (and funny) moments, such as when the party tells Fiona that Aldric has passed. She isn’t sure how to respond and also being a robot doesn’t do the best job of it...

“Where is Aldric? He’s dead?? Oh! I guess... Wow!”

... but she tries to give Milosh some advice, at least. Fiona tells him that bad news is best given with a smile and exuberance. And his response...

“Ah! I am unable to smile.”

The group also tells Milosh about the suspected traitor somewhere on the ship, the one who changed the bearings on the party in the first place, dropping them on Hell, and the one who erased the footage showing evidence of the deed. Milosh agrees to try and help them discover who the traitor is.

Good Moments of Interlude and Development

This session was mostly interlude, originally meant to be a quick connection to the next event, but the players got really into the roleplaying here and so the session became an elongated exploration of the personalities on the ship and their response to the various situations going on. Here are the best moments...

Milosh, with the help of Fiona, tries to access his old memories and also hack into the computer mainframes and learn more information about the traitor. What follows is a fun little hacking mini-game, where Milosh has to devote different levels of energy to different tasks, increasing his chances in some and decreasing it in others, then rolling to see what is successful. Ultimately, he fails to access any thing coherent from his memories, and he also fails to pull out any detailed information about the traitor, but it is still a good moment of personality development for him and gives us a chance to play around with some improvised mechanics. It also sets up the next good scene...

While Milosh plays around inside his head, Carrick and Imoaza decide the best clue they have for discovering the traitor is the ripped piece of leather. They go to talk to Krisp, who has leather gloves, and who the find in the darkened and otherwise empty bridge, staring out into space. This is a good roleplaying moment, as the three of them talk about Aldric. Imoaza keeps her cool and neither of them suspects that she actually murdered Aldric. Krisp is depressed, and asks Carrick if he ever just looked out at it all, at space. He is not his usual boisterous self and is instead contemplative, saying that this is never how a captain thinks they are going to end their days, but now he has captained TWO ships to his death. He also says that it wasn’t fair Aldric had to die, while Krisp had two chances to live his life. Carrick asks about the Horn of Green Company and the horn gets bequeathed to Carrick and renamed the Horn of Silent Sounding, for its power has fallen quiet and it makes no sound. This scene is interrupted by Milosh accidentally tying his memory visions into the bridge mainscreens, replacing the view of the stars with a crazy scene of Nazragul proclaiming his dominion over the world and flashes of an Aasimir and a Tiefling they don’t know. Carrick asks Krisp if he ever knew a Tiefling, and Krisp responds he did, then says it couldn’t possibly be the same one. The whole time, Imoaza is trying to look at Krisp’s gloves, but she ultimately sees no rip or tear.

Carrick meets up with Alyss, who says she wants to celebrate Aldric’s memory. She had built him a bike in secret and planned to teach him to ride, but now instead she gets high with Carrick on some drugs and takes him for a race around an empty cargo bay. The two sit for a long time, reminiscing and bonding until Carrick realizes she always wears a leather jacket. He asks for it, and she thinks he is coming on to her. Thus follows a pretty amazing scene, where Carrick is examining the jacket, then looks up to see Alyss is down to her bra. He is stunned, even more so when she leans in to kiss him. He tells her awkwardly he is a virgin and that he can’t do this, that he isn’t in a headspace to do it. Alyss is surprised and feels a little dumb herself for jumping to conclusions. She ends up telling him it doesn’t have to be awkward between them and not to worry. However, as she is getting dressed, Carrick notices that she has recently covered a hole in her jacket with a new patch. In honor of Aldric (it reads, “The Green Company”) but there is a lingering question now as to her innocence.

There is a funeral for Aldric, with some suitably bad speeches from Krisp. Among the lines he offers are this gem: “We will all be dead soon, but that’s longer than Aldric got.” Milosh accesses his memory banks and uses his vocal processor to play sad music in honor of Aldric. Aldric’s goblin kids are there, Alyss is there... heck, everyone is there except, noticeably, Otto (one of Krisp’s lieutenants). We’ll come back to this in a moment...

Maybe my favorite moment is when Milosh and Carrick hunt down Alyss, with the goal of figuring out if she was the traitor. Milosh asserts he has sensors in his hands that can detect traces of DNA on the leather scrap and, if he can gain physical contact with Alyss, he can see if the DNA is a match. Carrick agrees they should try it and so they find Alyss near her chambers in the mid section of the ship and Carrick introduces her to Milosh.

It’s such a great scene. There is some sexual tension left over between Alyss and Carrick and Alyss plays it up for fun, making Carrick as uncomfortable as possible. Then, knowing Milosh is such an outrageously naive personality makes all of his approaches to the situation hilarious. He boldly sticks out his hand and says (ah!) he understands that humans have a custom wherein they must grip hands when they meet and he would be delighted to try it. Bemused, Alyss takes his proffered hand and Carrick breathes a sigh of relief, thinking they now have their sample. Then Milosh says, “Ah! Now we must stay like this for two minutes.”

“It takes that long to get a sample?!” Carrick whispers in Milosh’s ear.

“Yes,” Milosh explains loudly. “This process takes five minutes to gather the appropriate data.”

Now thoroughly wierded out, Alyss extracts her hand from Milosh’s grip and he fails to get the sample. So then he tries another tact: he asks to see her jacket. Suspicious now, Alyss asks why and Carrick stutters and speaks for him, saying that he’s hoping Milosh can make a copy of it for him to wear. Milosh barely registers that this is an attempt at skullduggery and manages to keep silent until Alyss, after a brief hesitation, agrees to the request. “This your new wingman, Carrick?” she asks, making light of the situation. Carrick doesn’t get the joke. Alyss sighs and explains, “because he got my shirt off for you, again. Nevermind...”

Milosh examines the jacket while Carrick tries to distract Alyss, asking about Otto’s absence from the funeral. She says she hadn’t noticed, but then she hasn’t seen him around in a couple of days.

Suddenly Milosh says, “Ah! Surveyor, I have new information! The sample matches the jacket.”

Now armed with evidence, Carrick turns on Alyss and confronts her, demanding to know why she erased the footage of the ship’s sabotage. She cocks her head and says, as if it’s obvious, “Because I didn’t want you to see that it was me on the footage.”

And right on cue, hearing this, Milosh says, “Ah! Surveyor, I have new information!” As if that wasn’t painfully obvious.

Alyss proceeds to give an explanation for her actions, though not an apology. She says that in life, she was the leader of a powerful cult that worshipped Asmodeus and in death she sought to join his retinue in Hell, only to find he had disappeared during the Blood War. Obsessed with finding him, she wanted to bring to pass the prophecy that the Abyss would return if a devil ever left Hell. To do that, she needed outsiders to come with a ship. She secretly resurrected old technology, excavating it from the deserts around the Hell city, and eventually built herself a ship capable of at least leaving the atmosphere. She also fixed up tech that could detect when a ship would pass through Hell’s space. That is how she found and got onboard the Surveyor’s ship.

“I checked the original coordinates, you know,” she tells Carrick. “It was heading for a corner of space ruled by the Mind Flayers. That would have been a bad fate for you all, if you’d even survived to see it. By the time I boarded your ship, a critical failure had occurred in one of your engines. You had left warp space and were drifting slowly towards your destination on momentum alone. It would have been centuries before you reached it. In a way, I saved you by bringing you down to Hell.”

She further tells him that she has a piece of Asmodeus which she will use to find his body in the Abyss, once the way becomes clear. But she does not elaborate more and, not seeing her as an immediate threat, Carrick lets her go to contemplate what all this might mean.

Moving On

During the funeral Imoaza happens to spot Otto down a corridor and he is acting very strange, walking around stiffly and stopping to stare directly at her. Curious, she follows him down several corridors to a large room where she sees Otto addressing in a foreign language all of the Fiona and Bobs, the androids of the ship, gathered and floating cross legged in the air. Startled, she tries to flee, but suddenly is targeted by a psychic attack! Fending off visions of Aldric and Hecate (for those who don’t remember, that’s her dead daughter, who has been trying to kill her for a while), she runs down the ship’s corridors with Otto in pursuit. He catches up to her, but does not attack. Instead, he explains that he is not Otto, but is simply borrowing Otto’s body to be able to observe the crew and see if they can help his people.

It is soon revealed that Otto has been taken over by a Githzerai psychic, whose myriad companions have also taken over the systems of the Fiona’s and Bobs and who now proceed to hold the players hostage... well, sort of. In a mutually beneficial way.

Essentially, it turns out the players have invaded, by accident (or at least they think it’s by accident), a sector of space that is being fought over by the Githyanki and the Githzerai. The Githyanki have had the upper hand for many years and have captured an ancient Stardock carved out of an asteroid deep in the asteroid field and have essentially barred all ways in. The Githzerai “bored” a new way through the space between space, but their path was discovered recently and retaken by the Githyanki. In this same battle, the leader of the Githzerai lost his son, Ezria, to the Githyanki and Ezria is now being held captive on Stardock. The Githzerai cannot go after him because the Githyanki are scanning for ‘zerai brain patterns and would detect them immediately.

What the ‘zerai want the players to do, therefore, is to send a team of three humanoids into this space-between-space, and from there have them enter and infiltrate Stardock, rescue Ezria, and return. If they succeed in saving their kin, the ‘zerai will help them by using their prodigious powers to recharge their crystal with enough energy to get them to Faerun. This long space journey is nearing its end!

The players agree to this (their only other option, honestly, is to float out here until they become space dust). They are the perfect candidates, besides: a warforged, a yuan-ti, and a half elf with the brain signature of a Surveyor are unusual enough that they will definitely slip under the Githyanki radar.

And so the Githzerai open a portal to the space between worlds and the players teleport through... though not before Immerstal takes Carrick aside and warns him that Imoaza now carries the Rod of Storms and that could be a very dangerous thing for the universe, if she fails to control its power. Or chooses to abuse it.

And one last thing...

Alyss sat crosslegged on the floor of the ventilation chamber, the altar to Asmodeus before her. Her hands were clenched tightly, her nails drawing blood from her palms as she concentrated. With a gasp, she made the connection and opened her eyes as in front of her a portal appeared.

“Took long enough.” The taunting voice of Puck broke her concentration and she turned to him with a snarl.

“It wasn’t easy to tap into the Gith’s power. And it won’t stay open for long.”

The little impish devil hovered in the air lazily, raising a red bushy eyebrow at her. “Are you sure you are ready for this? The abyss is not a place for those who are not fully sure of who they are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What did you tell Carrick about your past? Did you tell him the truth?”

“What I told him doesn’t matter. I know who I am. But more importantly, I know my purpose.” She grunted and rose to her feet. “Coming?”

[zippdementia]

Part 73 Alignment May Vary: To the Races

As a reminder of where we are at, the party is currently traveling around the galaxy with a group of rogues who have broken free of the planet hell. They are all trying to reach Faerun but to get there they have to power their ship with crystals. A crystal has been located on the planet of Air and now in order to learn its exact whereabouts, the players have been asked to win an air race. They have as their vehicle a giant bird known as an Aether Craw--specifically one that was raised by Star’s dead lover, Fesserania--but more unusual racers are lining up....

Race day arrives. It is a beautiful day, the weather magically generated by the genies who hold the race. Oddly, a storm cloud is moving in (a result of Aldric holding the Rod of Storms, now empowered with the presence of the Elder Tempest), but it goes mostly unnoticed as the racers line up.

And boy, what a line up it is:

Cargoyle: a gargoyle with a stone goatee, wearing sunglasses, with jet black hair in a cascading mane down his head and back and he drives a bright red shiny flying corvette that  wohshoots flames out of its exhaust.

Cybeholder: the Cybeholder is a mechanical Beholder with jet engines powering and enhancing its movement, steel plates reinforcing it, and a disturbing inability to speak in anything except discordant static and weird strings of almost-sound (like a fax machine or an early internet modem sound).

Freaky Family Flyers: a group of goblins racing in tiny dog-fighting planes.

The Icer: An Ice Genasi who uses incredible control over ice to create ice slides for himself in mid air to skate around on.

Tailspin: Another Aether craw, named Tailspin, controlled by a mysterious masked figure and his three masked companions, who ride behind the board on three boomerang shaped surfboard looking things attached to the bird’s sadle.

Balloon Bombers: A group of tinkerer gnomes riding around in an air balloon, powering it with magic and dropping various bombs on the other racers with crazy effects.

Mr. Icky: A sentient large mix of a black ooze and a gelatinous cube who flies around in a plane with tubes hooked up to his body, used to suck pieces of himself up and shoot them as semi-intelligent oozes towards other racers, where their acidic properties spell eventual doom for their mounts/transportation.

Bite Me: A giant iron flying tank shaped like a massive shark, which opens its mouth to fire tentacles that pull racers into its maw where they are never seen again.

Last but not least (the most, in fact) is the current champion of the races, a being made of pure fire in humanoid shape, who calls himself Heatstroke. He flies under his own power and can launch balls of fire. Mostly, though, he’s just damn fast. He’s the reigning champion for the last year, having been placed under a Gaes to win each and every race.

Finally, before we begin, an important note: killing is not allowed during the race! But accidental death is okay :)

Leg 1: A Rough Start

All around the companions came the sound of loud cheers, many indeterminate as actual words, but eventually coalescing into one name shouted over and over: Heatstroke! Heatstroke! Heatstroke!

The owner of this nom-de-guerre strides forward to the start line, sending sparks flying from his body in a sign of acknowledgement of the crowd’s adulation. “Buy my book!” he shouts. “Coming out as soon as I learn how to write on paper without destroying it!”

The crowds are situated in a floating set of tiered seating that will magically follow the racers as they speed along the race course, a course that will take them through open sky, into the Citadel’s winding streets, and out into a mighty Maelstrom that is a black blemish on the otherwise bright sky.

Imoaza took her place on the front of their Aether Craw (now dubbed Cookie after her newfound love of sweets... well, actually she uses a Yuan Ti word for wonderful sweetness but the others can’t pronounce it so it becomes Cookie). Star was right beside her, speaking to her words of companionable encouragement that Imoaza either ignored or didn’t notice above the roar of the crowd. Carrick was positioned in the middle of the bird, tied to the saddle so that he could maneuver around on the craw. He peered over the edge of the bird’s great wingspan and saw the open sky beneath him, stretching on towards infinity. He felt nausea wash over him as he took in the impressive sight and gripped the saddle’s pommel tightly.

Aldric was in the very back of the bird, also tied in, but much more at ease. He didn’t love the idea of falling into that open sky, but he felt at home on any mount, having literally been born in the saddle (long story). He gripped MistReaver tightly, feeling its electric energy raise the hairs on the back of his hands as he waited for the race to start. He was already eyeing his opponents, trying to guess which would pose the greatest and most immediate threat...

The race gets off to a rough start. Cookie rears up as the other racers start their engines, jet packs, magical powers, etc. and the companions struggle to get her back under control long enough to launch into the open air. They sail off the launch platform, but the Ice Genasi turns and blasts a wall of ice at them, pulling them up short and knocking them further behind. Only Bite Me gets worse luck, one of its engines exploding loudly with a waloomph of thick black smoke. Kobolds open hatches in the metal monstrosity and, coughing, scramble over the machine with hammers and other tools, banging and gripping and klonking and generally working on the broken engine.

The players set off finally, ending up in last place (except for the stuck Shark Tank). Close by, however, is the other Aether Craw riders with the black masks. They release their boomerang air boards and three of the masked figures come sailing backwards towards Cookie and her passengers, slashing with blades made of energy. Aldric meets this attack and strikes back hard, slicing one of the attackers down the middle, knocking away its mask and robes, revealing a swirling figure made of pure air underneath. An air elemental!

Leg 2: Across the Open Sky

The damn bird wouldn’t stop diving at them! Aldric could hear Imoaza’s hissed curse ahead of him as she struggled to get Cookie to dodge the smaller and much faster Aether Craw that swooped down at them again and again, like an annoying Jackdaw pecking away at a hawk.

Aldric stood up then, planting his feet and balancing on the back of the bird, feeling the sway of its mighty spine underneath him. The next time the Aether Craw dove, he would be ready. He could hear the leather of Mistreaver’s hilt groan as he gripped it, but the Aether Craw didn’t dive. Instead, it swerved and changed direction, dodging something else incoming at them. Aldric squinted his eyes against the sun and saw for a brief moment a colorful balloon silhouetted against the sky. Then there was a sound of many explosions...

The enemy Aether Craw pulls back in time to let the gnomish tinkerers enter the fray, dropping bombs down on the players. The first couple explode with fiery debris but the players dodge them alrite. The second barrage flashes brightly, nearly blinding Imoaza and the bird, and blinding Star momentarily. The third is the worst, a bomb that explodes into a sticky mass that engulfs the Aether Craw, Imoaza, Star, and Aldric. Only Carrick escapes it, and he’s left to deal with trying to unstick everyone. Cookie is a problem, because he is covered in the stuff and its affecting his flight. But also a problem is Star, who can’t breath as the sticky mass has engulfed her head. She desperately claws at the gunk, but to no avail. Finally, he tries making his sword vibrate with holy power, using Divine Smite to burn away the hardening goop from Star’s mouth and face. Meanwhile, Imoaza has learned that she can use her magic to freeze the stuff, at which point it becomes brittle and easier to break. She breaks free and to try and stave off future attacks summons a crown of explosive crystals which she places in front of her, on the head of the Aether Craw.

Aldric bursts free of the goop of his own accord, using his pure strength, and just in time for the other Aether Craw to dive and attack them again! Finally fed up with the attacks, he cuts the cord holding him to Cookie’s saddle and uses his grapple shot to snatch hold of one of the boomerang air boards. He is lifted from the bird and pulled away into the sky. At the same time, Carrick fires several eldritch blasts at the head masked figure controlling the Aether Craw. His goal is to knock him from the saddle and, thanks to some good rolls on his part and some bad ones on the masked figure’s part, he succeeds, blasting the masked figure off into the air. The bird, freed from its sympathetic bond, freezes mid air and plummets, carrying its remaining riders, and Aldric, down with it.

Leg 3: The City of Leaves

“Imoaza, stop! We’ve lost Aldric! We have to go back!” Carrick gripped the Yuan-Ti Pureblood by the shoulder, but she just shook him off.

“No, we have to win the race. Besides, it takes more than a fall to kill Aldric.”

Star caught Carrick’s eye and he wasn’t sure what he read there. Was she sympathetic to him, or was she also caught up in the heat of the race? He didn’t ask. He liked her better not knowing her thoughts and besides, Imoaza controlled Cookie, not Star.

“Up ahead,” Star said, “is the Citadel of Ice and Steel. We have quite a ways to go to catch up!”

"Then let’s catch up,” Imoaza answered, and forced Cookie into a deep dive. The others gripped tightly as the world flew past them, Cookie diving deeper and deeper, going beneath the ground level of the Citadel and then suddenly pulling up just in time to enter its cramped streets at whirlwind speed, coming in so quickly that they breezed past one of the straggling Goblin Fliers, who struggled to control his plane, failed, and slammed into the side of the Citadel’s massive city walls.

Imoaza did not laugh or exult in her burst of speed. She stayed monotone as always, eyes focused on what obstacles might lay ahead for her to overcome.

The Citadel is laid out like a race through non-eucledian geometry. When they first approach, it is the city they’ve been spending so much time in. But when they begin to fly through it, the genie’s magic shapes reality around them. Walls rise up to create circular tunnels, streets reform into loops that exit into entirely different streets, homes and shops reform as the players fly at them into pathways. The citizens wandering the streets don’t seem to notice the changes, even as streets shift under their feet and buildings they occupy reshape themselves. This means it is either all illusion or some sort of separate reality affecting only the racers. Regardless, it makes for an insane landscape to race through as the players dodge obstacles and struggle to follow a course that reveals itself only moments before they reach it.

Not a lot happens here: the players roll well on their racing dice and manage to chart a course through the city that actually puts them ahead of a few racers. But then...

Leg 4: Shark Tank!

The sound behind them was a mixture of screeching metal and breaking stone. Imoaza was concentrating on steering their mount through the constantly changing streets, so she did not turn around. Carrick did, however, and saw the source of the commotion: the Shark Tank which had stalled at the beginning of the race, had re-entered it, tearing through a wall behind them and erupting into the race!

“Imoaza! Look out behind us!” Carrick shouts.

“Look out ahead of us!” Star screams.

Ahead of them, the last bit of the city stretches on in a long corridor formed of buildings impossibly mashed together, leading at last towards the open air. In the distance, they can see other racers exiting this corridor. But even as Imoaza and her team enters, the buildings begin to move closer, closing the corridor in what will be a deadly smash!

Imoaza bends down to spur Cookie onward, but before she can do anything else, the Shark Tank opens its mouth and huge tentacles whip out from between its jaws. One wraps around Imoaza, lifts her from the saddle, and pulls her into the jaws, which then snap shut.

There is a lot that is going on here. Imoaza has been swallowed by the Shark Tank; Carrick is trying to gain control of the now crazed mount, Cookie; and Aldric is still alive, far behind the others, and fighting the elementals. He actually manages to impress them with his strength as they try to swarm him and throw him from his precarious perch upon their mount, and he breaks free of them to bond with the Aether Craw (whom he names Percy). At this, the elementals declare him their leader for the race and decide to help him win. Using powerful gusts, they blow and guide him through the city. Last place, but catching up, he manages to reach the long closing corridor with just enough time to squeeze through.

But back to that in a moment.

First, Carrick has managed to regain control of Cookie with the help of Star and casts haste on it. Together the two of them, Half Elf and Tiefling, steer the bird from the city’s grasp and out into open air, escaping the Shark Tank as it stalls again in the closing corridor.

Meanwhile, Imoaza finds herself in a pocket dimension inside the shark tank (much bigger on the inside than it could possibly be). She is submerged in a giant fishbowl, surrounded by four angry Merrow who close in on her and stab at her with tridents and slash at her with razor sharp claws. Outside the bowl a rather insane looking wizard works around several panels, bossing around kobolds who dart here and there fixing the constantly breaking machine. He cackles madly about how he has subverted the rules of the game by creating this pocket dimension, where killing is totally allowable. He intends to murder Imoaza!

Imoaza has other plans, though. After a tense moment where the player is sure she is going to die, she comes up with the idea of trying to mind control the wizard. It doesn’t work: he rolls too high on his save and mocks her for her feeble attempt, and she is left with an option: either try again, or try to shatter the fishbowl with her magical weapon, Drosselgreymer. Both are risky... but then she switches the mind control attempt to one of the kobolds and, before the wizard can figure out what’s going on, she forces the kobold to slam a hammer into the various instruments controlling the machine. The resulting damage opens a portal back to the outside and she swims inside, as the Merrow swing their tridents down at her.

Imoaza reappears outside just as Aldric passes by the Shark Tank. He doesn’t notice as she leaps out and just grabs his bird’s tail feathers, but he does notice as the Shark Tank sends more tendrils after them, trying to grab and pull them back inside its maw. He slices them away and urges the air elementals to push faster on the bird to try and outrun the closing city pathway. The Shark Tank comes back to life and trundles after them slowly, so damaged is it, and with kobolds crawling all over it trying desperately to fix it. Before it can go far, the walls close completely, the kobolds screech and abandon ship, jumping to their doom, and a final wailing “curses!” sounds as the machine is completely crushed. The walls crunch together over it and are slowed for just a moment, during which Aldric (and the stowaway Imoaza) escape!

Leg 5: The Maelstrom

The companions regathered at the edge of the Maelstrom with some fanfare, as Carrick and Star marveled that Aldric was still alive. More surprising was Imoaza, as she clambered back up onto the Aether Craw with Aldric, casting an appraising glance over his new intriguing companions. He saw her and did a startled double take.

“Don’t crawl up behind me like that!” Aldric said to the snakeish lady. “Do you have any idea what you look like? I only like surprises in the bedroom.”

Imoaza glared at him briefly in distaste then nodded towards the Maelstrom.

“We’ve fallen behind,” she said. “But with any luck that has caused the others some problems.”

“We have to go through it ourselves,” Star said. “The race has changed since I last did it. I mean, it’s always changing, but it used to be more about skill. None of this... gimmicky stuff.”

“What’s more skillful than navigating a tornado?” Carrick asked.

“Let’s not delay any more,” Imoaza said. “Aldric, I’m ready to go down.”

Whatever quip Aldric came back with was lost in the sudden rush of wings as he and the elementals directed Percy into the storm. After a moment, Star and Carrick followed on Cookie.

Entering the Tornado, the players have an unexpected encounter. The Tornado is dark and unsurprisingly stormy, but it is also oddly frozen, covered in ice and not spinning, but rather a huge ice cavern. Dark storm clouds cut it off from the outside. The judges and the stands holding the contestants are gone and the air is eerily filled with the sounds of booming thunder and thick black fog.

Heatstroke suddenly appears, wrestling with one of the goblin pilots. He destroys the goblin’s plane and then sees the players. They brace as he approaches, but then he lets out an exclamation of joy and surprise:

“Aldric?!”

It soon transpires that Heatstroke knows Aldric from past adventures. In fact, Heatstroke is the true form of Knick Knack, who had previously been imprisoned in the door knocker of the Mad Mage of the swamp and who was thought to have perished in the White Plume Mountain. He tell them this is his true form, he is a spirit from the world of Fire. But on his way back there from Toril, he had a little fling with a Cloud Giant’s daughter and ended up on the wrong end of the father’s wrath, now being forced to serve under a Gaes to win the race forever and always bring glory to the Cloud Giant’s house. The only way to break the curse is for him to unintentionally lose the race in a fair fight.

“I’m pleased to say this may be the time I lose, though I’m not too excited about the way it’s going to happen.”

Turns out the other races have all conspired against him and have a trap planned. The Tornado has been alchemically and magically altered by the combined efforts of the Ice Genasi and of the gnomes, who plan to trap Heatstroke here, kill him, and then move on with the race. Even the genie judges have been fooled (or allowed themselves to be fooled to make it all more interesting) and right now all bets are off: killing is allowed.

Heatstroke makes a deal with them: if they can help him fight off the other combatants in this icy arena, then he will give them as much of a headstart as possible on winning the race before his Gaes kicks in and he has to race after them. The players agree and a massive fight begins.

The highlight of the fight is the Cyberholder, who comes after the players with its full power, assisted by the other racers (except the Ice Genasi, who is busy keeping the tornado frozen). The Cyberholder casts a fear ray on Cookie and it takes off despite Star and Carrick’s efforts. This isolates Percy, the elementals, Aldric, and Imoaza. Heatstroke takes on the other races, distracting them all except the Ooze, who goes after Cookie. The fight that follows takes an entire session and is great fun, the kind of fight you dream for in a beholder encounter (and my first time running a beholder fight!) Almost immediately the Cyberholder goes to town on the party with its eye beams, inundating them with status effects, like almost turning Imoaza to stone, blasting Aldric with a disintegration beam, and slowing pretty much everyone. One of the air elementals dies, Aldric is kept pinned down for most of the fight, and the Cyberholder takes a particular dislike to Imoaza, who keeps blasting it with eldritch blast and seems to do the most consistent damage to it by hexing it (she is a hexblade warlock, in case you’ve forgotten) and then just focusing fire. At one point she tries to chuck one of her crown jewel explodey thingeys up one of its tailpipes, but fails. Finally, the Cyberholder gets smart and begins to hide in the fog, while still raining its eye rays down upon the group. But before it can finish them off, Heatstroke finishes its battle with the Cargoyle and returns to deal one last blow to the Cyberholder, blowing it up in a fiery flash that booms like thunder in the fog. This isn’t taking the victory away from the players: on the contrary, they brought the beast down to 8 HP and this felt like a fitting way to hand them the victory after all of that.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Aldric at one point runs up to the Beholder while it hovers near Percy and punches it in the face. It actually deals okay damage! And it’s about the most ballsy thing I’ve ever had a player do. Well, except for maybe that time Nysyries flew a bomb into a bridge on a suicide mission.

While this fight is going on, Carrick and Star are fighting the Ooze, which fires living acidic pieces of itself at Cookie in an attempt to knock their bird out of flight or destroy their armor. We get the first taste of Star as a combatant here, as she uses dual wrist crossbows loaded with poison arrows to badly necrotize the oozes. Then Carrick uses thunderwave to Captain Falcon punch the Oozes off of Cookie (one hits a passing goblin fighter plane, who then caroms into the ooze pilot... both go down in a fiery mess) but neither he nor Star can overcome the fear effect that Cookie is under as a result of the Behodler and the Aether Craw dives deeper and deeper into the tornado...

… and eventually comes to the bottom of it, where the Ice Genasi is keeping the whole mess frozen. Carrick shows some of his darker side and tells Star to take him out. He uses the fear of Cookie to steer the bird into an insane dive towards the Genasi and, before the mage can respond, Star takes two of her poisoned crossbow bolts and slams them into the side of his neck as the Aether Craw swoops past, showing her assassin background as she sneak attacks the Genasi and scores a double critical hit! The Genasi loses his concentration and suddenly is ripped away by the force of the tornado as it half breaks free from his spell. It’s actually a gross ending for him: he gets pulled between sheets of frozen ice, essentially crushed and pounded to bits by his own magic as he is forced between the solid ice by the power of the tornado. Like a blender. Yuck.

And like that, the tornado is spinning again and the race is back on! Things get crazy inside the tornado as the goblin turn on the gnomes and the two races duke it out in an aerial battle that goes well for neither of the forces. The goblins are hit by various powders and potions the gnomes throw at them and it ignites something in their engines, turning them into kamikaze balls of fire. Several of these slam into the gnome’s balloon ship and the whole thing goes up in flames. In the midst of all this, the players flee the tornado with Heatstroke, barely dodging the rain of fiery debris and crashing ships.

Leg 6: Race to the Finish

Heatstroke dove into the Tornado and, showcasing incredible force, ripped a hole in it with his fiery hands, holding it apart like a magician holding a curtain.

“You ready? I can’t give you much of a lead. I’m obligated to try to win. Go. Now!”

Aldric and Imoaza didn’t wait. They burst through the hole and out into the final part of the race.

The last bit of the race is a sprint for the finish. Carrick casts haste on Cookie and they blast towards the finish line! Aldric and Imoaza give chase, more for fun at this point, though Aldric is VERY INTENT on winning this race. I actually imagine this will come down to a roll between him and Carrick: Carrick and Star have the lead and they have haste. Aldric has the skill as a Cavalier and he has the air elementals to push him forward. As a side note, I have Morgan (who plays Imoaza) roll for Heatstroke to see if he catches up.

And she rolls a natural 20.

Heatstroke blasts past Aldric and ends up neck and neck with Carrick. The final roll of the race ends up between them. Aldric is extremely frustrated by this...

… but Carrick at least makes the final roll. It is his 17 to Heatstroke’s 16. An intensely close finale, but one that ends in the party’s favor as Carrick and Star pass the finish line first.

* * *

Next time, we’ll cover the aftermath of the race and reveal a big secret.