58.0 - Twilight of the Dragons

Sil'Ferrous now will occaisionally see "ghosts" of things now that he's used the last charge of the water temple thing.   Both Ixen and Kilith are immune to fire damage, but vulnerable to cold.   Kallista +2 sanity check for rifts. Can control the destination unless rolls <10=Amalgamation. Rolling a 1 tears open an uncontrolable rift that has stuff start pouring out of it.   Ixen is in coma, can be cured by blood magic; hint is a crack on his right palm, reminiscent of cut he and Kilith had done.   Asriya has been kidnapped by Korinth, taken into the Amalgamation.   Bevarelse cannot transform back into any other form.

Plot points/Scenes

Recap

"This world doesn’t exist as a plaything for dragons!"   The party makes their way to Vira's Aspiration, descending into a resistant fog to the island's shattered remains. Safe Script-stone areas are created and the group waits—tense—for anything to respond. It doesn't take long for combat with Ånd and a swarm of undead to ensue. And after wounding Ånd, she retreats into the thinning fog. And now beside her is Omdanne and a risen, undead Lady Vira Rhedell.  

The Plan

  Current Day Water Cycle Day 25, afternoon  

Combat

 
Continue combat from top of the round. Try and keep it snappy.   Zaru goes apeshit-beserk over the sight of Vira's desecrated corpse. He's going to charge straight in for whichever dragon he can reach first, though probably more Ånd since he knows Ånd would be the one with the power to have done this. Zlæ will prioritize supporting his brother.   Ånd opens with lair action Grasping Muck. Vira will go right after lair action. She will lift a hand and cut a jagged rift through the air in front of her, then wedge her spear into to pry it open. Elementals begin to pour out from the rift.   After a couple of turns, Kallista feels a familiar presence. And suddenly there's a honey warm voice from behind her. "Seems I'm just in time," says an incredibly handsome man, with a bit of chuckle at "time", as if he's making a joke to himself. His image is familiar, sharp jaw, smirking smile, twinkling dagnerously dark brown, or green? or are they just black? eyes, black locks of hair that are arranged playfully on his head; it's the image of the man from Korinth's coin. "Oh, sour flower, don't worry. I have come to pay my debt to you for assisting with my freedom. I will take care of the amalgam magic." He lifts and glides through the air, grabbing and closing his fist at the rift, which closes.   As the rift opens and with everything happening in a concentrated area, magic is becoming unstable to a point that it can be felt for the players, since they have been so close to the amalgamation and the magic within, either through all their casting of magic or being in the Amalgamation. Unbound damage is added to their attacks.  
Korinth proceeds to intercept any elementals close to players and crushes them with his fist, while his fists never actually touch any of them. His eyes fill with the joy of such "slaughter".   Unbound magic: With any damage players deal, they roll 1d6 and add that damage as "unbound damage" to their damage. This effect stays even after the rift is closed, and does not disperse until the fight is over.   Orbs: White, radiant orbs when touched will heal 4d10 and can touch (touch range) as a bonus action. Black, necrotic orbs will deal 4d10 necrotic damage when touched.   Wisps: Black and white energy motes begin to coalesce into a larger mote, a 1-to-2 ratio to make 3 total combining into a wisp. ??Diagram which ones will do this. 8 remaining, so 2 wisps with some motes leftover.   Fissures: If players step off of the script stone areas, they have 1 turn to move out of the now-set 10ft radius fire explosion zone. As they end their turn on a spot not within a script stone area, the earth rumbles beneath their feet. At the end of their next turn, a gout of fire erupts from the spot they were standing on. It stays active for 1 more round (until the end of their next turn), dealing 10d10 fire damage in the 10ft radius.   Ånd dies: Holg will to make a sanity save + con mod save, DC 20; fail = unconcious as the bond/connection/power snaps and breaks painfully.   Destroying a Chaos Heart: Sanity save DC15 to see who gets sucked into her mind and who doesn't. Omdanne will take a significant chuck of damage in the meantime.
  Insanity time! Once per turn on their turn, the following characters manifest insanity.   Holg insanity: Ånd snarls at Holg. "You would throw away the chance to achieve greatness? You had a unique opportunity with power and your heritage; you could've solved it." No ones hears this, even though Holg is certain it wasn't in his head.   Holg goes to release a spell at his target, his own mother staring at him with fearful eyes, eyes that can't believe this is what her son has become.   "Holg, son," his father says, "you can't save them all." His father's flesh rots before his eyes. "You can't even save me." His own flesh begins to rot.   Sil'Ferrous insanity: His fingers aren't fused together. Why would they be? He's a great alchemist; never a mistake.   A rift opens near your feet, and an arm reaches through it. "Help me!" Asriya demands. But he doesn't pull out Asriya from the Amalgamation, he pulls out a skeleton from the ground.   You blink and find yourself underwater, with a growing peace, remembering the embrace of water filling your lungs. How easy it would be to just... let go.   Kilith insanity: You finish your attack, and notice the blood on your hands, dripping, running down your arms. It doens't slow, it doesn't stop. You can smell it, taste it, feel it start to dribble out of your mouth.  

Resolution

  Omdanne falls. Her body solidifies into an earthen heap, parts crumbling, leaving her heart exposed. Bevarelse approaches, obviously very remorseful. "I am sorry. I am sorry I drove us down this path, even from the beginning." He reaches his claws around her heart, pauses, and then crushes it.   He immediately begins thrashing as magic flows into him. "ARGH, quickly, before her power changes my mind!" They must end him, and crush his heart. (and Natur's if it's not already, otherwise the magic in the area will be wack af.) Bevarelse's body vanishes in a clap of lightning, leaving nothing but all his magic aspects. The magic swirls—preservation and chaos—you can feel all the elements' influence leave you. It all coalesces and begins to take shape. A gigantic, long, snake-like body, spines along its back, and front legs or arms that end in large fins, it's face swept back with similar fins as well. Its scales are a pearlescent purple, with prominent swirls of silver and deep gold.   *Slaps down the solar dragon* and that's where we'll end it.  
  Bevarelse's description. Bevarelse's final description: With all his aspects returned, he can't seem to keep the draconic nature from his humnaoid form any more. The bottom half of his irises are shaded a deeper blue. Spears of purple spread from his pupils, which are now a reptilian slit shape. Spots of shiny silver scales are visible on the edges and extremities of his skin. More of his teeth are visibly sharper and the tips of fingers are definitively more claw than humanoid hand.   When Bevarelse turns back into a silver dragon, he looks a bit different; a lot more blue in his silver coloring, and the fin membrane connecting between his spines along his back and tail are receding down. And he's longer than before and his limbs seem fairly shorter.   Omdanne description: lines of crimson fan out from her pupils within her irises.  
 

Hearts of Chaos

  They stand up and find themselves in Omdanne's mind. A rocky and tumultous ground contantly rumbles beneath your feet, gouts of flame erupting from the cracks with alarming frequency, though it does help provide light. You hear her voice before you see her.  

Natur

"No. No! NO!" Omdanne growls, very inhumanly. You look to find her, eyes wild and drilling into you, her fury would surely have torn you to pieces if she could move. She's tangled in roots, vines, and thorny branches. The vegetation spreads a great deal from here, making a sort of brambly, ~10ft tall at most forest. Angry tears streak down her face. "You've killed her!!" She devolves into more or less incoherent screaming and growling as she claws her way into the forest, rather than towards the party.   When Omdanne reaches the wild-child aspect of nature, the vegetation blooms outward across the barren land, this time untangled and with far more flowers and softer bits. Omdanne stands, imposing. "Leave," she commands and they are dragged down by vines through the earth. Everyone returns back to their physical bodies, but with a level of exhaustion.   The players can try and hold her back from reaching the nature aspect, so that the team outside has time to do damage. They will also need to find a way through the dense brambles. Timescale 2 turns in mindscape = 1 turn outside.   Getting touched by the white energy orbs will heal 4d10, but the black ones will deal 4d10 necrotic.   10d10 fire damage from any fire geysers.   Add "A carpet of vegetation lines the ground, though not all of it looks soft and safe." to the mindscape description.   Add "Her irises are green around the pupil." to Omdanne's description.  

Ånd

  Add "A more constant but soft light comes from small floating motes of white light all around, and contrasting against those motes are motes of pure blackness, almost sucking in the light around them." to the mindscape description.   Add "Flecks of black speckle the iris of one eye, and white the other. Her claws are now webbed." to Omdanne's description.  
  What happens if they kill Omdanne before her aspects? Then it's just an easier fight. If Natur isn't resurrected, then there's nothing she can do, and then they can just destroy the heart after Omdanne is dead; the magic is released into the world and opens the seal to the Amalgamation.

Relations

Allies

Valki: https://5e.tools/bestiary.html#assassin_mm plus fire resistance and can cast thaumaturgy cantrip, hellish rebuke at 2nd-level 1 per long rest, darkness 1 per long rest. Charisma is spellcasting ability.   Bevarelse: https://5e.tools/bestiary.html#ancient%20silver%20dragon_mm

Neutrals/Bystanders

Zlæ Kulden: https://5e.tools/bestiary.html#alyxian%20the%20absolved_crcotn   Zaru Kulden

Backdrops

Locations

Encounters

Phase 1

 

Phase 2

What I need
  • Full battle map (small map added to large)(energy orb locations)
  • mindsacpe map (small map)(fire geyser and orb locations)
  • fire geyser markers
  • Effects of Sil'Ferrous's flyers
Rift travel: DC 20 Sanity check success = Wherever she thought of going failure = coin flip Havon Riner Is   Dirty magic: con check with int mod
Key Items
Valki, Kallista's sister. Conscripted into the Enforcers not too long ago while Kallista was gone. About 5-ish years younger than Kallista (kallista's probably around 45ish?) and she's a little spontaneous and fiesty. offspring of Graz'zt.


Cover image: by holyflpncows

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