Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

The 5th Editon playtest campaign.
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

The PCs found their enemies waiting for them on top of the Warlock's Tower. The floor was scorched in places, but all of the walls and roof were completely gone, as were any furnishings. Instead, close above them, huge, beautiful ribbons of all colors moved lazily above them, providing soft, multihued illumination.

With nothing more than a snarl and quick salute, the PCs longstanding enemies, Hravja, Khrytos, Balrakas and Erk started the battle.

Onarra quickly found that flying very high risked contact with the glowing ribbons of planar energy, when she was hit with one, suffering terrible lightning damage. Erk used the planar instability to summon a fierce fire giant, who Quarion quickly banished. Balrakas moved to engage Bannock, who ignored the dragonborn and made for Hravja.

Then the Oracle, Blueberry, Erbard, and the revenant Bern Haupt showed up, casually flying over the edge of the tower wall. The revenant sped toward his murderer, the rakshasa, and after only a moment, plunged JusticeSeeker right through the devil.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Combat interrupted:

The magical darkness surrounding you fades away in an instant, revealing a gruesome sight. The Revenant, Bern Haupt, stands before his quarry, Hravja. Strangely, they aren’t moving, but then you register that Bern has pierced Hravja’s chest with the holy blade, JusticeSeeker. Breaking the stillness, Hravja looks down, fanged mouth agape, then Bern Haupt’s other hand shoots forth, grabbing the rakshasa behind the neck and slams JusticeSeeker all the way through the fiend, only stopping at the hilt of the blade.

Hravja howls with rage and pain then rapidly dissolves into an oily, smoking, black puddle of goo, which then dissipates.

Bern Haupt tilts his head back in relief and satisfaction, dropping JusticeSeeker to the stone floor. “My vengeance is sated, my task here is complete.” Bern’s head snaps forward and he fixes his gaze on Bannock, who was also fighting Hravja. “You have helped me claim my vengeance, Bannock. Trithereon has seen this and sends this reward.” Bern makes an arcane gesture toward Bannock and his blade. Then with a sigh of satisfaction, Bern’s undead form crumbles to dust, which blows away in the slight wind on top of the Tower.

Your eyes are drawn to a gentle blue glow and you see that JusticeSeeker, too, fades from sight.

For a second, all of the combatants on the rooftop are paused, trying to take in the momentous events they just witnessed, then the stillness is broken by Balrakas’s raspy commentary, “well ….. damn”.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Quick summary of what happened after that:

(Almost) Everyone died. :lol: :lol:

Seriously though, Erk darted forward and pierced Brigga's side with the foul blade, Reave, which drained Brigga's soul and several of her magical items and fed them to the Book of Infinite Souls.

Shocked, the PCs renewed their assault. The fight was brutal, Balrakas, Krytos, and Erk all fell and were fed to the Book, but so was Onarra, Quarion, The Oracle (killed by Bannock despite the Oracle pleading that they were allies and trying to make a deal to avoid his death), and his servant, Erbard (formerly of Shining Justice). The Ogre Mage, Blueberry, was killed and drawn into the Book, too.

Left suddenly alone on the top of the Warlock's Tower, Bannock gathered his friends' lifeless bodies and contemplated how he was going to leave the Tower.
Last edited by EvilGenius on Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Meanwhile, Onarra and Quarion found themselves in a familiar but ominous environment. Onarra immediately recognized her surroundings from her near death vision: the interior of the Book of Infinite Souls.

I'll post the rules for your souls inside of the Book later this week so that we have them for the game on Sunday. :D
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Back on the Warlock's Tower, Bannock wracked his brain trying to remember anything about how to use the strange phenomenon above him to escape the top of the Tower. After several frustrating moments, Bannock was able to calm himself and focus on the whirling maelstrom of planar energy above him and realized that he could exert some power over it. After several minutes of trying, Bannock found a connection between him and something .... out there .... and after a few failed attempts, Bannock was able to use that connection to open a stable portal.

The Portal looked like the various Soul Portals you had seen previously, though unlike the previous portals, this one had a haze of multicolor energy just below the surface that made it difficult to see what lay beyond.

As Bannock contemplated the Portal before him, he heard a familiar, long lost voice in his mind. "Bannock, I am sending help before you go through the Portal! But once they arrive, you must hurry. Agents of the Dragon will gain a tactical advantage when your help arrives!"

Bannock looked about in confusion, then some alarm as ghostly figures began materializing around him, as though they were walking out of an invisible mist. The burly ranger raised Answerer, prepared for a fight, but then stood in shocked amazement as he recognized the slightly glowing, slightly incorporeal forms of his friends and adventuring companions! Mordai, Jareth, Balisar and Naziah all stood around Bannock, grinning good-naturedly. But something was different about his companions. Bannock quickly realized that his companions before him looked as they had looked years ago, when they all stood on this very spot, ready to undergo Erk's fake ritual; the night that pieces of their souls were stolen and fed to the Book of Infinite Souls.

Mordai still wore the holy symbol of Rudd and wore his signature luckblade, Longshot. Balisar was outfitted as a rogue instead of a sorcerer. Naziah, the young and carefree bard, carrying the Pipes of Dawn. And Jareth, whose face you finally recognize as your long lost companion, an elf again, equipped as a mighty warrior, carrying his family's heirloom moonblade, Aegenthal (now wielded by his brother, Quarion).

Bannock confessed to the pieces of his friend's souls that he was at a loss and didn't know how to enter the Book after his companions, at least not without stabbing himself with the cursed blade, Reave, and dying. The souls told Bannock that that was not why they had come. A battle would be fought in the Book, but someone also needed to enter the Donjon and confront the Dragon, Valos, himself. Since all of his other companions were in the Book, the former echoes of his companions were sent to help him against Valos, the Master.

The Soul Shards reminded Bannock of the information that Brigga had gleaned from Esoterica Pneuma about how much to feed the Book in order to pass into the Donjon safely. Bannock quickly gathered a pile of magical items from his fallen foes, chief among them the terrible blade, Reave, then he used one of the feeding necklaces worn by servants of the Master to drain the pile of magical items into the Book of Infinite souls.

When he did so, the mutlicolor haze in the open Soul Portal cleared and Bannock could see a lush, but dark looking forest beyond. The Soul Shards of his companions urged Bannock to cross through quickly, while the Book was satiated. Bannock took a fortifying breath then he and Shadow stepped though the Portal together, followed quickly by the Soul Shards of his companions.

The Soul Portal closed behind them, leaving only the bodies of the fallen on the top of the Warlock's Tower.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Meanwhile, inside of the Book of Infinite Souls, Quarion and Onarra continued to cautiously move through the otherworldly library, heading south, toward the sounds of battle, and toward the location where they heard Brigga shouting dwarven warcries.

Before they had gone much farther, though, a beam of eldritch energy slammed into Onarra, pushing her backwards toward the edge of the room that she was in! Quarion peered ahead and saw Erk crouched behind a bookshelf in the next room. As soon as Quarion spotted him, Erk, dashed toward the exit of the room, hastily flinging Eldritch Blasts over his shoulder at the two elves closing in on him. Reaching the edge of the room he was in, Erk made a prodigious leap, seeming to hang in the air much longer than a gnome normally should be able to, and easily soaring over the black abyss in between rooms, landing in the middle of the next room, and sprinting away.

Onarra and Quarion chased after, but a few solid eldritch blasts from Erk almost pushed Onarra into the blackness beyond the library rooms. Quarion ran up and pulled Onarra to safety, but by the time they were recovered, they had lost track of Erk's whereabouts.

The elves took a moment to contemplate their situation and figure out what to do next when the entire library seemed to suffer some sort of minor earthquake. Books fell off of shelves and bottles crashed to the floor in all directions. The tremors died down very quickly, but the library seemed to suffer a series of these quakes in rapid succession and then faded away. Onarra and Quarion were just beginning to relax when another anomaly drew their attention to the south-east. A series of 4 lightning strikes occurred in quick succession, though from Quarion and Onarra's perspective the bolts appears to travel from the floor up into the inky blackness above them.

But the strange events were not done yet. In the darkness above the location of the lightning strikes, a scene opened up like looking on the surface of a rippling pond. From their vantage point, the elves seemed to be looking up at a scene. They saw the swirling bands of energy above the Warlock's Tower, and a Soul Portal open. Then there were more lightning strikes, this time the lightning struck downward they noted, and then they saw Bannock and Shadow step through the Portal and disappear. Strangely, it appeared that small motes of light followed him through the portal and then the portal, and the window back to the Warlock's Tower, closed.

To the southeast, Onarra and Quarion could see that there was something giving off a lot of light, and several figures moving around whatever it was.

Not knowing what to make of all of this, Onarra tried to calm herself and focus on the intermittent buzzing sensations that all of you have felt at various times when you were in the vicinity of a portal, and discovered two things. The first was an overwhelming sense that the source of all of the portals and your connection to them lay nearby, and was probably the brightly glowing object to the southeast.

The second was much different. Onarra was able to reach out and make telepathic contact with another part of her soul in the Book of Infinite Souls! After a strange merging of consciousness, Onarra learned that her Soul Shard and the Shards of several other of your companions were near the heart of the Book of Infinite Souls, along with the soul of your slain mentor, Quirinseyru! All of you were guarding the Sphere of Annihilation, attempting to prevent the Book from feeding, and thus denying the dragon, Valos, control over the Books magical might.

Onarra and Quarion set off to rendezvous with Quirinseyru at The Heart, but ran afoul of some other trapped souls. A hill giant and a hobgoblin spotted Onarra (in giant bird form). The giant threw a bench at them and missed but the hobgoblin unleashed a powerful cone of cold, which knocked Onarra out of bird form and sent her crashing to the ground. As he cast the spell, however, the hobgoblin's soul form elongated into a ribbon of energy which shot away to the east with a mournful wail, and Onarra's soul shard reported that some soul was just absorbed into The Heart (sphere of annihilation).

Onarra and Quarion looked around them and realized that their short flight had put them directly to the north of the brightly glowing source of the portals, currently surrounded by Khrytos, Balrakas, and Erk.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

After a comical, surprised, tense moment when Onarra and Quarion locked gazes with Khrytos and Balrakas in the next room, the elven duo fled to the 'east' toward Quirinseyru and The Heart of the Book of Infinite Souls.

As a quick recap, Quarion, Onarra, and Brigga reunited. Brigga found a Staff of the Magi with a few charges left in it. The three PCs also met Awen, a human mage who had previously been trapped in Quarion's Ring of Air Elemental Command. When the ring was absorbed into the Book of Infinite Souls, Awen's soul was 'freed' from the ring. The small group made their way through the Book's Infinite (or at least Very Large) library of magical knowledge, sometimes having to physically* pull Awen along with them, away from whatever fascinating book she had discovered.

The PCs found The Heart, Quirinseyru, and their own Soul Shards. Onarra confessed her deep heartache and battle weariness to her younger, still optimistic soul shard. Her younger self smiled and offered to help Onarra remember who she once was, then the two parts of Onarra's battered soul merged together, restoring the last remaining pieces of Onarra's memory and greatly restoring her peace of mind.

Seeing that, Brigga and Quarion both chose to join with their soul shards, too.

As the PCs reintegrated their former selves with their new realities, Quirinseyru warned them that the Master, Valos, was likely sending allies or servants to attempt to regain control of The Heart, and that Valos' minions now controlled the Well of the Worlds. Quirinseyru also revealed that he had been able to use the connection between the PCs souls and the Well of the Worlds to send the soul shards of Jareth, Balisar, Mordai, and Naziah out of the Book to join Bannock at the top of the Warlock's Tower. While their help would be invaluable to Bannock, who would now be confronting Valos alone, it did surrender a key resource to Valos' minions.

The PCs, Quirinseyru, and Awen prepared as best they could for whatever onslaught The Master was preparing for them ....




* Physically - as physical as two disembodied souls can be
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
User avatar
EvilGenius
Posts: 6716
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:09 pm
Location: Allentown, PA

Re: Episode 27: The End of (Most) All Things

Post by EvilGenius »

Meanwhile, Bannock and the Soul Shards of Naziah, Balisar, Mordai, and Jareth (in human variation) passed through the portal and into the Donjon. They found themselves on a heavily forested plateau, near a log bridge spanning a wide river. Behind them they could just make out the clear or dark shape of a massive dome rising above them. In front of them, in the distance they could see a heavily forested valley surrounding a lonely spire of rock.

Deciding that he didn't want to walk brazenly into any prepared combat zones under the dragon's control, Bannock decided to try and bring the dragon to him. He lit a tall tree on fire and stoked the fire into a huge bonfire, then sat back and waited. Some time passed and then Bannock began to notice the underbrush in the area was rapidly getting thicker. This growth continued for a few rounds, growing into a half a dozen large treants, who begain ripping up sod and rocks to throw at Bannock and his companions. As the Soul Shards moved to engage, Bannock addressed the treants and told them that he was only there for the dragon and he didn't wish to waste time on them. The treants paused and then allowed Bannock to proceed.

Bannock and the Soul Shards moved to the log bridge and began to cross the river, which was at least 50 feet below the bridge. Bannock's short sword of warning alerted Bannock to an impending attack just as the green dragon, Valos, burst from the water at speed, darting up and over the bridge, grappling Bannock and Shadow, then plunging back into the river below. The dragon carried Bannock and Shadow deep into the river, releasing them at least 50' down, and then disappeared into the depths below them. Disquieted by the unexpected depth of the river, Bannock pulled up the hood of his Cloak of the Manta Ray and quickly swam to the surface, while Shadow blinked his way out of the river and over to the still burning tree to dry himself off in the bonfire.

Bannock transformed back into his normal form and climbed onto shore. Almost immediately, the dragon burst from the river, flying straight up to about the level of the bridge again. A column of water followed Valos in his flight, then curved over into a fist which smashed down onto Bannock. The Soul Shards moved to support Bannock on the beach and the dragon dove back into the river, disappearing.

The PCs waited for a time but the dragon did not reappear.

After a few minutes, Bannock was contacted telepathically by Quirinseyru, giving him an update on the PCs inside the Book, and offering to send Bannock's Soul Shard to him for reintegration. Quirinseyru also advised Bannock to find the Book which was somewhere in the Donjon. If Bannock could physically gain control of the Book, it would be easier to thwart Valos' use of the Book.
Another daring escape for the intrepid Spaceman Spiff!
Post Reply