Session 35: Dead Rising

We played again last Sunday. It has been a week since the game so my recollection may be a little fuzzy. If I miss anything out I am sure one of the players will remind me.

In our last session the group had corrected the fallout from one of their previous actions, the release of Amaan, by locking him back up and entombing a chunk of his undead army in his Fortress. However, the world is still plagued by vast hordes of undead, the sun has gone out and existence itself teeters on the edge of a precipice. The Void is hungry and Amaan tore a hole in the world through which it might feed.

Tonight the group try to fix that small problem.

Scene 1: A brief pause

First however Artemis is visited by his sister, Kallista, as they make preparations in the Library of Ages. She is concerned about Morn, he has been paying her a lot more attention recently. She doesn’t like it, after all he once loved then murdered her sister. Also he is a God, or very nearly so, and she fears that he will take her if she refuses him. She asks Artemis to protect her if he tries and he agrees.

Before heading off Morn takes a brief detour to the Prison of Man, where failed champions were consigned. He tries to convince the jailor that his task is done but he is unrelenting. There is still one champion who might yet fail and when he does the jailor shall be waiting.

Azhanti busies himself with aiding his people. As the newly risen God of the Dragonborn he invokes a ritual to empower his priesthood, sending each of his temples a Holy Symbol to enhance his priest’s abilities to protect the people against the undead.

Scene 2: Dark Days

Preparations made the group head to the rift. The Library deposits them in the desert on the edge of an enormous chasm, the land seems to have simply collapsed leaving a dismal rift into which the wind howls ceaselessly. The darkness within the rift almost seems to breathe, some malignant intelligence lives within. Undeterred our heroes make their way down.

Morn takes the lead easily picking a way down the rough walls while Azhanti maintains a rumbling chant, invoking the protection of the divine against whatever lives in the darkness. Unfortunately this seems to attract their enemies rather than drive them away and a swarm of wraiths descends screaming into them tearing at their souls before they howl back in to the rift. Artemis looks to follow them hurling himself into the darkness only to crash into the side of the cliff wall. Morn leaps down to protect him as a swarm of wraiths descend on the vulnerable ranger and bellows into the night, revealing himself as a power not to be crossed lightly. The night however is unimpressed and his challenge is absorbed soundlessly by the void leaving Morn chilled to the bone. Stumbling the three demi-gods flee into the caves at the bottom of the chasm and away from the darkness.

Scene 3: The Labyrinth

The group has visited these caves before long ago but they have changed significantly. The stone walls have run like candle wax and strange shapes press through, almost as if monsters were trapped within the rock. As they make their way through the labyrinth they become aware of stone statues in nooks and crannies all around them. Many different races and cultures are represented, each one from a civilisation which has gone extinct. Voices can be heard at the edge of perception whispering the secrets of cultures long since dead. The strongest comes through to Morn “the only way to defeat it is death...” What it might mean is anyone’s guess, at least for now.

As they explore the area Artemis finds himself separated from the others. A tall robed figure beckons him away. As he pursues he finds himself emerging out of a tunnel into an alley in the City of Kings. The sun is shining but the streets are empty, silent! As he explores he finds a few people but their bodies are ash and dust. At the centre of the city stands a Temple, all spires and cobwebs. Inside he finds five altars of the Primordial’s, each adorned with a trophy of their death and at the centre of the temple a new altar to the God of Death, or possibly the Death of Gods. It is his Temple and his world, a world with no gods at all.

With a start Artemis finds himself back with his friends. They continue to explore, heeding deeper into the caves and presently reaching the sprawling fungus fields of the Myconids. The once great mushroom forest has been warped, twisted and overgrown by an alien mould which is consuming what was left of the Myconids after our groups visit. Half absorbed in a wall the group finds Alias Windstorm, one time ally and friend of Artemis. He tells him that to close the rift they must enter it but that to do so is to invite death. He gives him a swift death to ease his pain.

Morn is the next to find himself separated from him companions and he too finds himself in the City of Kings. This version however is clean, orderly and well maintained. Merchants sell their wares safe from thievery and under the protection of well armed watch patrols. A great palace is being built at the centre of the City, built on the backs of thousands of slaves. Outside two statues have been raised, one of himself and the other of his Queen Kallista. Entering the palace he meets himself, or at least a possible future version of himself. Future Morn argues with him that what is done is necessary. They have rescued humanity on multiple occasions and what reward have they received. Nothing! Humanity is weak, foolish and stupid, everyone from the incompetent leaders of the rebellion, the squabbling Pashtun clan chiefs and the nobles of Arkhosia willing to sacrifice their own people to an army of ghouls. It is better that a strong leader take control and give the people what they need, stability, order and peace.

Morn finds himself back in the caves, the words of future Morn still ringing in his ears. The group press on, heading to the Pool of Radiance where once they fought a beholder. Around the pool they find many of the remaining Myconids being hungrily absorbed by the alien fungus. They decide they need to rescue these people and thereby save their racial memory. As they work Azhanti finds himself drawn away.

He too emerges into the City of Kings, but this time it is a mass of rubble and wreckage. A storm rages in the far distance and a great pillar of blood stained white rock rises from the centre of the city. Heading closer he finds the Menbin Stone, the Spike of Law, on which his old mentor Nihlil has been crucified. Nihlil warns him that there is little left in the world, the Storm Lord battles his nemesis and their war has ripped the earth itself asunder. Volcanoes and earthquakes have torn the land apart and the battles between their children, Dragons and Dragonborn have devastated what little was left. Azhanti, the Storm Lord, battles against the old ways of Vulcan but it seems the victor will be left with little but ashes.

Scene 4: Herald of the Void

Returning to the pool Azhanti joins the others. Together they enter the pool and find themselves transported deep beneath the earth into a large cave. A crack runs through the cave out of which void energy is spilling and the figure from their visions sits on a throne of black stone. She leans forward, her cowl shifting to reveal Althea, a sorceress of the Cabal slain long ago by the group. She had sold her soul to several different demons and Amaan rescued it to learn more about those who freed him. Now she is bound as the Herald of the Void and guardian of the rift. “Turn back now, turn back or be slain.”

The group demur and choose violence instead. As they move to attack the enormous bulk of the granddaddy of all beholders emerges from the shadows. A pair of void wraths, all claws and mandibles and sharp pointy bits also make themselves known. Finally Althea also enters the fray, her very presence poisonous to creatures of this world.

Things look desperate, the damage heaped on the group is severe. Then they get worse as Morn collapses under the punishment he is receiving. The wraiths tear terrible wounds in creatures of the physical world and the Beholders great eye chills the soul and leaves its enemies weakened and feeble.

Artemis scrambles to put some distance between himself and his enemies while Azhanti now takes the brunt of the battle. Their foes however underestimate their abilities. Morns tattoos begin to glow as the Champion of Man rises once more and the words of the statues come back to him “the only way to defeat it is death...” He charges Althea and the Wraiths, a Wraith collapsing at his attack. The Beholder seems utterly oblivious to him (We agreed that if a PC went unconscious the Beholder would be unable to attack them unless it was first attacked by that person. It fit the secret of the statue rather nicely) and Althea, pressed on all sides flees, teleporting into the rift.

The group waste no time in following her. They plunge into the life ending cold on the rift and fall far far down onto a stone platform hanging in the Void. Ancient arcane machinery lies scattered all over the rune carved slab channelling the energy of the Void into keeping the rift open. In desperation Althea swears to overload the rift, closing it but sucking the entire desert region down into oblivion (including the Shrouded Oasis). Unhappy with this plan the group summarily murder her, again. As she dies she spits out her last curse, calling on her masters to give her vengeance. From the depths of the Void nameless horrors reach out to the stone slab and begin to tear it apart. Azhanti takes on dragon form and snatches the others in his claws and beats a hasty retreat out of the Void. Unfortunately it is too far and his wounds are too many, his strength giving out all three of our heroes fall back into the Void, their bodies shrivel, their souls burn and darkness falls. Our heroes are dead.

*cut scene*

Hanging low over the eastern sky the Hidden Moon watches the fall of our heroes. With them goes the hope of all living things (or so say some). Fearing for the end of all things she turns her face from world putting out the last of its lights. So begins the Greater Darkness, the last days before the ending of the World. In the distance bells begin to toll and the stars go out as the Membin Stone begins to rise.

*cut scene*

In the capital of the Arkhosian Empire funeral pyres burn and sacrifices are made so that their God might live well in the underworld. The Priests of Azhanti mourn the loss of their God, the priests of Vulcan mourn the loss of the Son of Vulcan and the people of the empire mourn the death of their greatest protector. All across the Empire grim faced legionnaires take to the walls of their cities for the last time. Beyond the few remaining points of light terrible monsters of chaos roam freely and soon they will turn their attention to the few remaining survivors.

*cut scene*

A circle of stones stands on a low hill rising out of the cold tundra of Iceholm. There the devotees of Morn gather to bid farewell to their God. An effigy is burned in his place on the ancient stones and songs are sung of bravery and courage. Drink flows freely and each man sacrifices something precious to him, a gift to the God in the Underworld. In the shadows of their fire a young Tiefling woman watches the ceremonies. In the small town several miles away rest a small force of her people, all she could save from the influence of Reptos. Together they will stand against his army when they come against the Hold tomorrow.

*cut scene*

The hidden paths to the Shrouded Oasis have been exposed. K’Shatta, once High Priestess of Ashura, has raised warriors of a lost civilisation from the sands of the desert. Now she seeks to reclaim her homeland from those who have stolen it and have her revenge on the man who murdered her God.