One Shot: A Painful Harvest Report

General Summary

Introduction

It is the ancient past, roughly 150,000 years ago, before the creation of the Silver Flame. For as long as anyone can remember, the world has been ruled by the Na-Vakhti, what you know as fiendish overlords. All of you have spent most of your lives as playthings for these demons, whom can bend reality at their whim. Several years ago, the blue dragon Ourelonastrix and the couatl Hezcalipa discovered the Draconic Prophecy, and with it: hope for a future free of the overlords. This discovery has allowed Ourelonastrix to see the prophetic paths that lead to the defeat of individual overlords, and what followed has been years of conflict. There have been victories, but the overlords always reform after their destruction.     Until now. Last week you won your first real victory against the overlords. You four, along with a host of other dragons, managed to bring down the overlord Yad-Raghesh, the Omen of Corruption, in southwestern Argonessen, and it stayed down. Unlike every other time you've destroyed and overlord, Yad-Raghesh's corpse didn't dissipate and has even begun to decompose.     This was surely a cause for celebration, but you had only a single night of levity before called to action once more. The overlord Katashka, the Gatekeeper, who holds dominion over life and death itself, has begun to make it's way from Khorvaire to Argonessen, and is surely heading for the corpse of it's sibling. This scenario represents a previously unconceived horror, what happens if the corpse of an overlord is reanimated by Katashka?     You've been deployed to stop Katashka from reaching the corpse, whatever it takes. Dozens of your kin have died trying to slow the overlord down, and it has unfortunately reached the Light of Siberys region in Argonessen, where you face it now. The corpses of your comrades follow it, reanimated mockeries of the wonderful beings you once knew.     You feel the influence of the overlord long before you reach it, and the air has taken on a ghostly green glow. Overlords have no fixed forms, they can appear however they like, and today it seems that Katashka has chosen to mock you further by taking the form of a skeletal dragon, wrapped in the hides of your allies, and wielding a gigantic scythe made from some kind of energy. You meet the overlord in the fields, your own army of kobolds, lizardfolk, and orcs ready to lay down their lives to prevent Katashka from reanimating, or worse, consuming, the corpse of Yad-Raghesh.  

Session

A week ago, the dragons won their first real battle against the Overlords, with their defeat of Yad-Raghesh, the Fallen Rajah. Unlike every other time they'd destroyed an overlord, Yad-Raghesh stayed down and had even begun to decompose.   Ourelonastrix was tracking the other overlords, and observed that Katashka, the Gatekeeper was on the move, traveling from Khorvaire to Argonessen, where the corpse of Yad-Raghesh lay. Nobody wanted to see what would happen if Katashka got to the corpse.   The four dragons, Balynurastrix, Dularanahk, Dulazurak and Duldornahk, sallied out to meet Katashka, the Gatekeeper.   Before engaging the Overlord directly, they made swift work of it's army of ghouls with their breath weapons (and in the case of Dularanahk, her channel divinity). Once that was dealt with, they took a moment to prepare and recharge their breath weapons, and then the Gatekeeper was upon them.   Katashka was, to put it lightly, terrifying. The Overlord commanded life and death, and had with it an army of undead, including the dragons that had died to slow it down. Duldornahk went in close, and discovered that close proximity to Katashka is detrimental to ones health, just being near it drained his life essence. Katashka wielded a giant scythe made of ghosts, and was throwing out necrotic damage like it was it's sole dominion.   A few times, Dulazurak made eye contact with the overlord and had to reckon with it's Mortal Gaze, which caused a fear so acute and primal in Dulazurak that he thought he might die. He had a deep understanding of fear, however, and managed to suppress it each time.   Over the course of the their battle, which lasted quite some time, Balynurastrix, Duldornahk and Dulazurak all came quite close to death, but through careful application of breath weapons and healing magic, all of the dragons survived.   In the end, it was Dulazurak that managed to bring Katashka down, assisted by Balynurastrix harrying it from behind and Dularanahk peppering it with fireballs, a foil to Duldornahk's ice breath. Before the overlord dissipated, it grabbed Dulazurak around the neck and declared "I am beyond death, mortal wyrm. I will be back."   The dragons had won, for today, and repelled the overlord. It was a hollow victory, however, for they knew the overlord was right. It would be back, and Katashka was known for reforming quickly. Thankfully, Katashka always reforms on Khorvaire, so they knew they had some breathing room.