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fiveandfifty · 10 years

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The Crystal Seas - A Campaign Retrospective PART 12

Bloodstone Returns

The crew could only stare in horror as a new sun rose on the northern horizon. Then crystals started to flicker out and fade, and then blaze back into life a corrupted sickly yellow. At first, only the smallest crystals were affected, but Zerzoq was confident that it would not end there.

While Zerzoq struggled to get the ships back in seaworthy condition with half his equipment corrupted and a celestial crystal he had just barely begun to understand how to use, the crew and the Aventurine refugees could only sit and wait and worry.

Soon, though, they were joined by unexpected guests. Farisa and her crew sailed into Aventurine's smouldering port, accompanied by Chrysta and, against all odds, a de-corrupted Bloodstone, who looked thoroughly miserable. The ship was also towing a huge shape which turned out to be a severely wounded Anuros. Anuros, it seemed, had in fact been a dragon the whole time. Everyone just sort of took that revelation in their stride at that point.

He was incredibly old, lived in a gem-lined cave called “The Dragon's Gullet”, made references to hunting for food every couple of centuries, came from a people powerful enough to challenge elementals even without magic, and most importantly was voiced by Sean Connery. I will never understand how the players did not put two and two together there but they were remarkably incurious about the incredibly powerful incredibly old man at the bottom of the whirlpool. I guess it's true you can't ever predict what players will focus on as a mystery that needs solving and what they will just chalk up to “weird shit”.

It turned out that Anuros and Chrysta had not managed to prevent Bloodstone from completing the ritual to resurrect the Golden Warrior. He had obliterated most of Obsidian Isle in his awakening. Bloodstone revealed that when the Warrior had been sealed away in crystal and then shattered, his soul and essence had also shattered. Since the crystals were conduits for the energy of the planet and thus interconnected, so too did shards of the Golden Warrior's soul come to reside in every single crystal, waiting to be awakened by the uniquely cruel act of draining the soul of another for power. (In bloodstone's case he had simply been at ground zero of the initial shattering which was good enough)

Those who augmented their bodies with corrupted crystals became thralls to the Warrior's will. Bloodstone had been watching himself commit heinous acts in service to his hated enemy for centuries, had watched himself kill his friends and allies, and finally seen himself strike down Anuros, before the drawing in of the Golden Warrior's soul had freed him from thralldom.

He was, understandably, upset.

Slam attempted to heal Anuros but was only able to ease his pain, giving the old dragon enough strength to swim out into the ocean and seek a quiet grave at the bottom of the sea. It was time for the heroes to step up and succeed where he had twice failed.

They also discovered that the Golden warrior had been the leader of the Ripcurl tribe, back when the Gnarls were simple barbarians in the time before the crystals came. This did not really make much difference to anything but is worth noting for completion's sake.

The crew got Bloodstone put of his funk with a few choice words and a bit of a pep talk. Soon after, Zerzoq announced that he'd gotten the Victory and the Horizon Breaker back in working condition.

It was time to strike.

The Final Showdown

The awakening of the Golden Warrior had made the seas around Obsidian Isle treacherous. Waves the height of skyscrapers tossed the ships about, and more and more crystal devices had to be thrown overboard as they became corrupted. While the celestial crystals were immune to the corruption as they were not of the earth, things were nevertheless looking grim.

Finally the crew arrived and were faced with a terrible sight. A crystal colossus towered above them, made in the image of the Warrior himself, great horned head scraping the clouds, glowing violently with the light of a second sun. Deep in its core, the figure of the true Golden Warrior could be seen manipulating the huge crystal statue he had constructed.

“I AM THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE WORLD” the Warrior crowed. “NONE CAN STAND GAINST MY MIGHT! WHEN I HAVE DESTROYED THIS WORLD I SHALL SEEK OTHER CHALLENGERS AMONG THE STARS. AND WHEN I HAVE BESTED THEM I SHALL DESTROY THEIR WORLDS ALSO. AND WHEN THERE ARE NO WORLDS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE ME I SHALL DESTROY GALAXIES. AND WHEN THERE ARE NO GALAXIES STRONG ENOUGH I SHALL DESTROY UNIVERSES. AND I SHALL NOT STOP UNTIL I HAVE PROVED MYSELF THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN ALL OF CREATION! FOR THERE IS NO GREATER GLORY THAN VICTORY AND STRENGTH AND I AM THEIR EMOBIDMENT!”

At his bidding, a fleet rose from the water – a fleet of dead ships dredged from the ocean floor, piloted by ghost crews. It seemed that Captain Fogge was not as dead as previously hoped. She writhed above the dead fleet, a great misty ghost dragon, coiling her soul through the corrupted crystals which sprouted all over the decks. Crystals sloughed off the body of the Warrior and formed into miniature warriors, striding across the decks and issuing commands to the undead crew.

Battle was joined and at first things seemed hopeless. The crystals monsters were near impossible to damage, and the undead crew simply kept coming back to fight again. Even the mighty Victory Kaiser could not make a permanent dent in their numbers.

Just as things seemed at their most dire, help came from an unexpected quarter. Gru arrived, her fleet in tow, and joined the battle on the heroes' side. The crew were surprised to see Barkeep fighting alongside Gru, though they would later find out that, pursuant to their brawl on Malachite Isle the two had reached an Understanding and were now quite inseparable.

With the new reinforcements the tide turned. With some room to breathe, Sphagnum of all people pinpointed the ghosts weakspots. Ignoring Farisa's scoffs that it couldn't be done, he began firing arrows into the cracks and tiny crevices in the crystal clusters onboard the ships. Using their celestial crystals' powers the crew were able to destroy or weaken many of the corrupted crystals which acted as houses for Fogge's spirit, and it was clear that her hold on the souls of the dead was weakening. The final blow shattered her final anchor and she finally dissipated into fog, to a hopefully eternal rest.

Nevertheless, the crystal monsters were still a problem, and nothing had been done to face the Warrior himself. That is, until possibly the last person ANYONE expected to see showed up – Captain Nightshade, Thornbush's old first mate / clingy ex-boyfriend who it turned out had at some point discovered the crystal of Light and Dark. The crew found that out when he lead a seemingly suicidal attack against the Warrior and lanced a beam of twisting light and darkness at the crystal giant.

To everyone's surprise (not least Nightshade's) this attack actually worked. The hand of the giant was scythed off at the wrist and did not regrow. It was clear that all-out attacks from the celestial crystals could damage the Colossus. The Colossus, in turn, punted Nightshade's ship over the horizon.

Nevertheless, it was On now.

The VICTORY KAISER leapt into action. First, a brutal blast of water and wind from Zerzoq shattered the warrior's sword. Cold and Heat and Speed and Sloth smashed and battered the Colossus until its legs shattered and it fell like a tree. Legless, weapon-less, the Colossus staggered against the ruins of Obsidian Isle as the Victory Kaiser leapt upon it and plunged Excalibreaker into its pulsing heart, sending the pure power of Death into its body and rending it asunder.

The ensuing explosion smashed the Kaiser wide open and the crew and the Warrior tumbled into the caldera of Obsidian Isle, where the true final battle would begin.

Caldera Battle / Sacrifices

The crew found themselves in a cavern open to the sky, deep within Obsidian Isle. The Warrior faced them, flanked by terrible crystal copies of himself. Two were dark and drew in matter and light like aching wounds in the world. The other two were blinding, searing infernos. The Warrior drew his strength from these crystal guardians and could not be harmed until they were destroyed.

The Warrior was immune to all damage, but lost this buff for a round every time a Guardian was destroyed. Once they were all gone he was permanently vulnerable.

The Warrior proved a gruelling opponent. The crew were powerful, but they were slowly worn down by the Warrior's relentless and punishing attacks. Achelos was repeatedly suplexed into the floor, and Tideus found himself prevented from reaching his preferred targets by the inescapable tug of the dark guardians. Slam was doing his best to keep everyone on their feet but five against three was not good odds.

Once again, I had the “risk an NPC” rules running and this time it was like the dice knew it was the final fight.

Back outside, the crew's allies and friends were trying to keep the crystal monsters from rejoining their master, and from killing everything that got in their way. Separated from their ships, impromptu groups formed and were split up again by capsizes or hordes of crystal monsters.

Thornbush, Jackdaw, Blizzmann, Pax and Orlan were one such party that cut a swathe through the enemy, attempting to reach the remains of the Crystal Colossus, which was still a deadly threat even in its wrecked state.

Blizzmann was the first casualty. Finally aware of the horrific legacy of the elementals, he was determined to make amends and dove into the battle, for once taking an active role rather than simply healing the wounded (an impossible task in any case, as nowhere was safe for more than a few minutes). When a giant crystal monster blocked his party's path, he dissipated and worked his way into the cracks and fissures of its form, before blowing it up from the inside. Though this act allowed his group to press on, Blizzmann was sadly unable to reform himself afterwards, and dispersed into the wind. He died to save others from the monster his people had created.

The crew reached one of the ships which turned out to be an old one of Jackdaw's, from when he and Thornbush had roamed the seas as treasure hunters. Unfortunately, it proved to be home to a huge corrupted crystal and a small army of crystal monsters. Thornbush bellowed at the others to get away and held off the crystal monsters for long enough to allow them to cross to another ship. Then Thornbush lead his enemies on a merry chase, stopping briefly in the ammunition room before being forced to barricade himself in the galley. As he realised he had no chance to escape, he activated the timed detonator for the bomb he'd lobbed into the ammo store. In his last few moments, he cracked open a bottle of lemon wine, leaned back in his chair and said to himself: “Well, Thornbush, you old rascal, this is it. Face it, deep down, this was how you always wanted to go out.” As the monsters smashed down the door, Thornbush raised his glass in toast and died a hero.

The Colossus in sight, Jackdaw, Pax and Orlan found themselves once again blocked by a horde of crystal monsters. Orlan stepped up this time, urging Jackdaw on as she and Pax unsheathed their many blades. Their last stand upon that deck of that unknown ship would be spoken of in legend for centuries to come, as the two warriors, two halves of the same soul, were soon forcing their enemies to clamber over piles of their dead to reach them. Nevertheless, inevitably the enemy wore them down, and Orlan and Pax, the first of the crew to be recruited, disappeared under a wave of corrupted foes.

Finally, Jackdaw reached the Colossus. It still had enough of an arm left to cause significant damage to the fleet, and the energy it radiated was sapping the heroes' strength and bolstering their foes. Jackdaw muttered “hang in there girl” to Bifrost, whose crystal axeblades were flickering fitfully as they struggled to remain powered under the onslaught of corrupted energy. Leaping upon the colossus Jackdaw struck blow after mighty blow, but the Colossus fought back, smashing its fist down upon Jackdaw, wearing down Bifrost's power with every strike he was forced to block. Finally, summoning the last reserves of his power and refusing to allow his (old and new) friends' sacrifices to be in vain, Jackdaw flew into the air, ran up the Colossus' arm and leapt into the sky, bringing the full force of Bifrost down upon the great horned head with a thunderous CRACK that shook the entire battlefield into silence. As the colossus shattered, so too did Bifrost, and Jackdaw, his energies spent, his life force fading, slipped peacefully under the surface of the water and was never seen again.

Oh yeah, it rolled everyone's favourite NPCs and then rolled 'em dead. I LOVE the NPC risk system for this kind of game and it showed just how good it is narratively here.

The battle in the caldera was coming to a close. The efforts of those outside had prevented the Warrior from gaining any reinforcements and the crew had him on the ropes. His seemingly limitless power had been drained by the constant barrage of Celestial magic and his powers of Earth and Sun were ebbing away.

Slam dealt the final blow. In his final moments, a little of the Warrior's old self surfaced, and he beamed with pride that his lineage had survived and produced such a worthy descendant. Seizing Slam in a final hug-slash-suplex, the Warrior passed away, in the end once again an ordinary Gnarl.

And with that, it was over.

Mostly.

Epilogues

At this point I put on some soothing music and totted up the strikes the players had accrued. They had gotten few enough for a total victory – that meant that the overall tone of the ending was going to be happy. They had won a total victory and the world would move on to a brighter age, at least on average.

In terms of individual strikes, Tideus and Slam got off scot free, but Achelos had enough to ensure that his ending was going to be bittersweet – he would get what he wanted, but it would not be satisfying. This played well enough into Achelos' player's plans anyway, so we rolled with it.

A Few Weeks Later, on Aventurine Isle

The survivors of the Crystal War sit around fires on the beach, listening to music playing and the sound of the waves. Some dance, for after all their town has been rebuilt and the war is over. Most sit and talk quietly amongst themselves, or silently remember those lost to the fighting.

Roll Fizzlebeef approaches Slam Ripcurl, and somewhat awkwardly asks if he's going to stand for Mayor. It seems most of the islanders would vote for him in a heartbeat. Slam shakes his head. He has other plans...

Tideus sits with Rena Lionward, the two of them comparing adventure stories and reminiscing about old times. Rena asks what Tideus will do next. Tideus says he will seek out new lands, new adventures, beyond the Crystal Seas. Rena places her hand upon his, and asks if, perhaps, he would like some company on the trip...

Bloodstone sits alone and stare into the fire. He does not look up as the dark figure approaches. Achelos steps between the old general and the fire, and tells him he has a proposition...

Months Later

The world is beginning to change. The Celestial crystals fade away, becoming mere carved stones. The floating islands suddenly change course, begin to meet, to conglomerate into larger islands. A continent begins to reform, as the land heals from the destruction caused by the Elemental War. Roll Fizzlebeef has become mayor of aventurine Isle. Zerzoq and Reef Blastbody are rival crystificing masters now, each trying to out-do the other in the intricacy and power of their creations. Chrysta sepnds much of her time trying to make sure their inventions don't endanger the world. Farisa and Thuum have fallen into obscurity, the latter willingly and the former kicking and screaming. Mustetopia is briefly re-established and just as quickly collapses again.

Tideus and Rena sail the new seas and travel the new lands looking for adventure and fun, as Tideus' reputation begins to overshadow even Ironstag and Jackdaw. It is soon common knowledge that there is no greater hero in all the world...

Slam, having achieved his dream of glory, retires to an impossibly remote hermitage atop the tallest mountain in the world. Here he establishes a barbecue grill so incredible people willingly brave the perils of the mountain to have a taste. He trains students here in the art of the barbie, and Elayn the White is his most devout pupil, having finally found spiritual peace and a respite from grief and guilt...

Achelos is putting his plans into motion. He has allied with Queen Gru of the Pyrite Queendom, and with his fame and renown as the leader of the alliance that brought down Bluebraid and the Golden Warrior, he has amassed an army. With Bloodstone at his side as his most trusted general, Achelos has begun to conquer the new land and establish his empire. He stands at the prow of his new flagship, the Orithyia, and considers what to do with the captured pirates awaiting judgement...

Years Later

A figure stumbles through the driving snow and freezing wind, finally reaching a wooden door with a heavy iron knocker. The door is flung open at the knock, and a deep, bombastic voice booms out a welcome. The figure smells the mouthwatering aroma of pulled pork, hears raucous music coming from the dining room, and sees walls covered in memorabilia from the Crystal War – Bluebraid's pegleg, the stock of the axe that was once Bifrost, a diorama of Mustetopia. A Whelan in a simple robe leads the figure inside, and shuts the door...

In a brightly lit throne room, Achelos sits, chin in his hand. He is dressed in the regalia of the Emperor of the United Lands, and sits upon a golden throne. His empire stretches across most of the known world, and his rule has been mostly peaceful for the last year or so. He has brought justice and safety to all he surveys. And yet, as he glances at the empty throne beside him, he cannot help wondering if he has truly done the right thing...

A ship makes landfall on an unknown shore. Figures leap off the boat and begin making fast and unloading supplies. Tideus walks a little way up the beach and breathes in their air of an entirely new land. Rena joins him, and he takes her hand and smiles. It has been a long journey, but he and his family have made it, and now the new world is theirs to explore. Who could possibly ask for a better adventure? And that's all, folks.

#scbbq #roleplaying #the crystal seas #epilogue

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