The Long Shadow Sessions 31 - 46

General Summary

Session 31 As the party prepared to set off for the next leg of their journey, Mr. Buttons received some troubling news from Bold Fang via sending stone: the Roaring Peak clan had been detained while attempting to pass Penance on their journey to Borne. The party briefly debated whether or not they had time for the detour, but ultimately decided it was worth it.
They teleported to Sigil's old embassy in Penance where they met up with Bran, who King Aurum had brought in as a replacement for Eladan. The building was clearly abandoned, but their arrival triggered a magical alarm which prompted two Knight's Sovereign to investigate. Overhearing the Knight's speculate about rats setting off the alarm again, Bran turned the party (excluding Ximon but including Zel's warhorse) into rats, thus momentarily avoiding discovery. However, upon discovery of the "rats" the Knights opted to exterminate them right then and there, prompting Zel to revert to his lizardfolk form, scaring the living hell out of the Knight in the process. Combat ensued, resulting in the two Knights being incapacitated and unable to sound the alarm (thanks in no small part to rat!buttons stunning the one posted by the door).
Utilizing their writ of passage received from the border guard ages ago, the party was able to navigate the streets of Penance with relative ease. They were able to bribe their way into finding where the tabaxi were being held and in the same manner get most of them released from the warehouse they were being held in. The only snag was that Fang, along with a handful of other warriors, were being held and interrogated as potential spies: they would not be so easily freed. However, by this point, the ruler of Penance had gotten wind of the party's exploits and requested an audience. The party agreed and were escorted to meet the self-proclaimed Orator Enzo Hablador.
Hablador offered a simple bargain: if the party could procure him a sample of Cognance's explosive black powder, he would free the tabaxi. The party was able to derive though, that he was excluding Quiet Smoke and the dragon egg. When pressed on this, Hablador simply insisted that the dragon egg and its caretakers were ordained gifts from the gods and that they were non-negotiable. Without a guarantee of getting all the captured tabaxi, the party was extremely reticent to accept the deal, but ultimately decided they would take it with the intention to come back later and spring Smoke themselves. Ximon offered up two of the bricks of duergar explosive bricks he had taken from the Underdark and Hablador ordered the prisoners released.
With most of the tabaxi free, the party and Bold Fang decided to send their ship to continue on its journey and would rendezvous with them later. With evening setting on, they conspired to find a Knight Sovereign and make him give the location of Quiet Smoke and the Dragon Egg…
XP earned: 1,400 each
Session 32 The party opted to sneak into the Palace and see what information they could glean from there. They were able to make the approach without incident, but once again Ven noticed a shadowy figure tailing them from a distance. Timing the movement of the guards, they scaled the walls and proceeded to the courtyard with Zel having to fling himself from the wall to avoid detection, incurring some scrapes in the process. They were able to enter the palace-proper with Ven ghosting inside and knocking, causing the outer guards to open the door in confusion, offering the now bat-form party to rush in.
Once inside, they were able to locate the dungeons by way of the guards barracks, but things took a turn when Zel was once again shunted from beast form by a trigger-happy guard. In the confusion, Ven and Ximon freed a prisoner being held in solitary who claimed he had heard about the tabaxi and the egg. The man introduced himself as Vincent and then proceeded to murder the incapacitated guards and offered to do the same to the Orator. The party decided this was fine. Between the now freed serial killer and a guard taken hostage (before being murdered), they were able to learn that Quiet Smoke and the egg were being held in the Orator's private chambers.
Working their way back upstairs, the party launched a surprise assault on the remaining guards and barred themselves within the noble wing of the palace, just barely avoiding the oncoming terracotta soldiers. From there, some quick poking around and broken windows found them on the top floor of the palace and the bedchambers of the Orator, which they found empty. Just beyond though, the Orator, along with a compliment of terracotta guards was waiting with both the egg and Quiet Smoke. He offered a simple deal: Quiet Smoke in exchange for their immediate departure from the city. The egg was non-negotiable. Deciding amongst themselves that this was unacceptable, they deigned to polymorph Quiet Smoke into a giant constrictor snake so that she could at least survive the terracotta blade at her throat and then rush for her and the egg in order to plane shift away. However, this plan hinges on them being the first to the draw, and the Orator and his entourage are more than ready for them to make a move…
XP earned: 1,250 each
Session 33 The party engaged the Orator and his forces, first knocking down the Terracotta holding Quiet Smoke hostage and then the Orator himself. In doing so, the Orator was overwhelmed and forced to retreat, leaving the party free to abscond with both the tabaxi, the egg, and the serial killer they sprung from the dungeon. They planeshifted to Brynn's island and spent some time catching up with the old elf. There, he filled them in on Echoless, Shepherd, and Leona's actions as well as the continuing deterioration of the Foci. They also checked in with King Aurum, who informed them that the one Foci location was still experiencing seismic activity. Just before they planned to leave though, the dragon egg began to hatch.
Very hastily, the monks of the island made preperations and the wyrmling was hatched in an acid pool. Quiet Smoke named it Naarmundus, or Edge of the World in the common tongue. With the dragonling requiring at least a few days before it could be moved from the acid, Quiet Smoke remained on the island while the rest of the group reconvened with the Roaring Peak clan, now hastily sailing up the Klove River. The party spent a pleasant evening with the tabaxi, with Buttons spending time with Mist, Bran hooking up with an eligible bachelorette, and Ven continued to see hooded men following them from a distance. Zel was given a mysterious vile of dragonblood said to "give him the strength of a dragon in battle" as an "apology" from the islanders for trying to steal his soul.
In the morning, a slightly eccentric tabaxi wizard used their remaining teleporation circle scroll to send them to Cognance. There, they wandered about; Zel purchased volume three of "The Lusty Lizardfolk Maid" and then proceeded to get lost and gamble, Buttons and Bran hung out at a café, and Ven got Vincent all set up for a life of crime; purchasing him a finely crafted dagger, a wand of magic missiles, and a sending stone to keep in touch. She also came across a stall run by the Ethereal Eagle, Allston's crafting guild. There, she learned that Allston was recently the lone survivor of a giant attack and that the guild would pay for the retrieval of those goods. They then met with Queen Demantus herself to tell the story of what they experienced on the Plane of Air. She in turn informed them that Cogance had dispatched their army to counter Penance's alleged invasion of Borne. Because of this, she would be very much appreciative if the party was willing to locate the Reckoning's staging area and gave them yet another sending stone to connect with one of her military officials. And with that, the party set out to plan their next objective, as they had a number of avenues to pursue and precious little time…
Session 34 The party took full advantage of the myriad of tinkerers, craftsmen, and enchanters within Cognance to go on an extensive shopping trip. Towards the end of the day, right in the middle of the group experimenting with the substance "snake root," they received a sending message from Princess Tria inquiring to their location. Posthaste, they met her at the embassy, where she informed the still slightly buzzed group that her father was building a fleet of ships in Far Reach and that Palios had once again vanished. She also offered to travel with them again and teleport them to their next destination.
In the morning, they teleported to the temple of Talam to investigate those seismic events, taking some damage from a faulty spell execution on Tria's part. There, they met Avis Calcul and his Crown Mages, who revealed that Reckoning Forces were in the area and that they likely had the remaining information needed to access the temple. To that end, they asked the party to see if they couldn't find their camp, deal with them, and retrieve the information. Upon location of the camp though, they found another party had beat them to it: an ancient green dragon called Thursah'Reyth also sought access to the temple to claim its treasure for himself and had slaughtered the Reckoning here to retrieve that info. He had intended to do the same to the wizards next, but the party was able to strike a deal with him: they would get the dragon into the temple and give him first pick of the loot within.
Back at the wizard camp, the party took a brief rest while the remaining tablet fragment was decoded, during which time Ximon continued to casually hit on Tria and Zel uttered the greatest thing ever spoken when he pulled out his black dragon horn trophy, showed it to Reyth, and asked "did you know him?" with a completely straight face. But soon enough, the passphrase was deciphered and access to the temple was granted. The party and Reyth entered while the wizards remained behind, as per the deal the dragon struck with them as well.
Within, they found a veritable cave of wonders filled with countless treasures, though the tablet warned that nothing was to be touched, only offerings were to be given. They followed this instruction and made a humble offering to the statue of the god at the center of the gave, and when Buttons asked if he was Talam, the statue responded with a yes. A conversation with the spirit of Talam followed, where the old god revealed much about the nature of himself, the giants attempting to breach his sanctum, the seals scattered around the province, and more. When the party revealed they were fighting Cataclysm, Talam permitted them to take the Staff of the Former with them. Unfortunately, Reyth coveted this item, and despite Tria's best attempts to lie about its nature, the dragon opted to "take" a pouch containing the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar and trigger the temple's defenses. The room began to collapse and Galeb Duhr sprang to life while Reyth assumed his draconic form and attacked the party. The temple's remaining wards hindered a plane shift attempt by Bran and the group was forced to flee manually.
It was close, but they escaped the dragon with the staff in hand, believing Reyth to be buried in the collapsed temple, though a roar in the distance made them think twice on this and opt for a quick escape back to Brynn's island while the wizards retreated back to Sigil to garner reinforcements to examine the ruins. From there, the party began to plot their next move…
XP earned: 1,800 each
Session 35 The party spent some time on Brynn's Island. Ximon showed Tria around, the baby black dragon was visited, and Zel contemplated the concept of having a child of his own. Naarmundus had already noticeably grown since the party last saw him and crudely replicating speech patterns that were spoken to him. Brynn also offered more insight on the Former and the weapons they left behind, of which the party had now collected two.
In the morning, the party returned to Cognance, with Ven wishing to seek out the caravan she learned about the previous day. On their way out of the city though, Ximon was confronted by a somewhat unwelcome sight: Gottfried of the Immortals seemingly overseeing a magical crafts shop and beckoning to him telepathically. Gottfried informed Ximon that they were searching for the Grand Undying and would welcome his assistance in the endeavor, offering reinstatement into the guild as a reward as well as their assistance in the party's continued struggles against the forces of Cataclysm. Ximon tentatively agreed to meet with them again later to discuss details.
Out on the road, the party quickly found the sight of the caravan ambush and found signs of fire giants. They followed the trail they'd left behind out into the wilderness and to a cliff face overlooking a valley where the giants had made camp below. Zel pushed for a direct confrontation and combat ensued. Buttons was the first one to make it to the ground, which was unfortunate for him as he got absolutely pummeled by the giants, forcing the party to rethink their strategy. Not to be deterred, Zel continued the attack, with the rest of the group considering leaving him to his fate. However, with some lucky blows that felled one of the giants, the party opted to see the battle through, killing all but one. During the skirmish, Zel also consumed both a potion of growth and the dragonblood potion gifted to him by the lizardfolk of the Roaring Peak clan earlier, resulting in enormous strength coursing through him and, unbeknownst to him, establishing a psychic link between himself and the dragon Yolgorah.
After the battle, they interrogated the survivor, who clarified that the giants had been united by order of the King of the Giants himself, Karavnos, with Charaka acting as his general. The fire giants had been deployed to watch troop movements and harass them as they were able. When asked what he would do if he were released, the giant informed them that he would report back to the army. Initially, this made the party believe the best course of action then was to kill him, but Tria suggested that letting him go would lead them back to the horde. They agreed to this and let the giant scamper off, but not before relieving him of a toenail clipping to be used as a scrying focus later on. With that, the party turned to the loot the giants had seized from the roads to see if there was anything worth reporting as "missing"…
XP earned: 5,200 each
Session 36 The party returned the gnomish caravan to Cognance, each taking a choice item as a "finders fee" (though ironically, the Ethereal Eagle was willing to offer that regardless). Zel also took for himself a giant's eyeball as a trophy, much to the chagrin of Tria and the guards that stopped them on the way into town. Back in Cognance, they realized Agatha of Agatha's Apothecary could do quite a lot with the "raw material" they collected from the battlefield. Indeed, she offered to make for them 2 potions of giant strength and to preserve Zel's trophy in exchange for the rest of the head they brought. Afterwards, Tria went off to a nearby upscale tavern to begin scrying on the surviving giant while the rest of the group got up to shenanigans (Zel went to find a bath and Ximon commissioned a contraption to allow him to deploy his new eversmoking bottle from behind his back).
Regrouping at the end of the day at the Enlightened Troll, the group stumbled into an intriguing encounter. Venatrix once again noticed invisible, cloaked men lurking in the corner of the tavern, but this time, they were able to expose them with their new lantern of revealing, revealing two shady men evidently hunting for the Immortals, who they claimed had come into possession of the Tome of Vile Darkness. The party trepidatiously shared that they had an in with the Immortals and may be able to offer assistance. To that end, the men refused to confirm whom they work for, but told them to look for nightshade to identify their agents. From there, the party opted to seek out not only the Immortals, but also the Night's Song and explore all their options.
With the Immortals, the party learned that they were seeking for their order's leader: the Grand Undying. With his leadership, the Immortals could prove a valuable ally. The party ultimately agreed to assist, and the mystics gave them all the information they had on the Undying's location, which was believed to be somewhere within a week of Cognance, accessible by water, underground, and near a Foci. The mystics also made it seem like they knew nothing about the Tome of Vile Darkness or why the other interested party's thought they had it. At the Night's Song, they were greeted by some old "friends," Ezekiel and Bartimaeus. They offered a similar proposition: Help them find the Grand Undying and they would leave Venatrix and Rolf alone for good. They also confirmed that they were not the still unidentified figure following Ven in the corners of her vision. The party were significantly less forthcoming with the Night's Song but didn't outright say no. They regrouped realizing that they were likely about to get caught in the middle of a free-for-all with this, but with Tria reporting that the giant they're tracking still has a ways to go before he reaches their supposed rendezvous point, the party opted to begin searching for the Grand Undying and hopefully the Tome of Vile Darkness as well…
XP earned: 1,200 each
Session 37 The party used their connection with the Queen of Cognance to enter the HQ of the Circle of the Enlightened to peruse their archives for maps to narrow down their search, finding two likely candidates for the Grand Undying's Respite: a sinkhole near a lake to the west or an old dwarven ruin in the northern reaches of Lake Raelen. They opted to pursue the latter, believing it to be the more likely location and elected to set out in the morning. They were setback slightly come the morning when they encountered a wayward adventurer regaling the tavern-goers with tales of her exploits. The party chatted with her, who introduced herself as a sword-for-hire called Ysbetta, who half-jokingly offered to join them for the right price. Zel, of course, took this at face value and actually paid her to act as his "bodyguard." Further grilling back at her home, however, revealed that she had been at least partially lying about herself, specifically in not knowing who the Night's Song was. This was enough for the party to violently cancel the contract, ending with Ysbetta agreeing to return half of what Zel had paid.
With Bran casting wind walk from there, they made excellent time to Lake Raelen where they began scouring the shoreline and waters for signs of a cave entrance. During the search, Venatrix noticed that Zel had an unwelcome tag-along: a scrying sensor bobbing silently behind him. This appeared twice, with Ven dispelling the first one. The second sensor appeared as they began delving into halfway-submerged cave but dissipated before they found the hidden entrance to the Grand Undying's Respite, which took the form of a statue and a riddle. Ultimately, the passageway was opened by utilizing a seeing crystal, which they opted to take with them. This had the inadvertent consequence of leaving the door open behind them.
Within, they found an old dwarven outpost guarded by spirit trolls which were easily dispatched once they found the needed damage type to stop their regeneration. Inside the ruin, they were met by another ghost, this time of a robed, humanoid figure who simply asked "what is life's greatest lie?" seeking a specific response as a sort of code. Naturally, the party didn't get it right and the ghost simply left them after telling them to begone. Ignoring that, they pressed on, coming across a myriad of traps seemingly tailored to snare greedy adventurers. All the while, the ghost watched them from just beyond reach That is, until Zel decided to go meet them where they lived and coat himself in his oil of etherealness. Stepping off the material plane, Zel gave the ghosts a spook in return by casually approaching one of them. They had a bit of a back and forth, with Zel learning there were many ghosts within the ruin who would not allow them to progress past a certain point if they continued to explore. The ghost again warned them to simply leave. Zel took this information back to the group and together they continued to press on into the darkness…
XP earned: 2,400 each
Session 38 The party continued to press on into the ruin, discovering a large repository of urns and a few other traps, including a ladder that triggered darts to shoot from the ceiling and a corridor that conjured an incendiary cloud. Beyond that, they discovered something akin to a laboratory that gave the PCs that had travelled into the Underdark serious illithid déjà vu. Here, they were met by the sentinel ghosts who, after a brief exchange, attacked them in an attempt to thwart their progress. Ultimately, they were defeated, but did sufficient damage to merit a short rest.
In the chamber beyond, they discovered a number of stasis pods containing old, wizened, and/or afflicted Immortals, along with a collection of dwarven artifacts leftover from the ruins original purpose. Despite being intrigued by a few of the artifacts, they opted to leave them be for now in an attempt to not upset the Immortals further in. Indeed, the final chamber was a large amphitheater occupied by the Grand Undying himself, along with his inner circle and a group of mindflayer arcanists under the tutelage of the illithilich Azill. Both groups were intently studying the dark tome before them: the Book of Vile Darkness.
The party exchanged words with the GU and learned a little of his relationship with the Mindflayers: they offered insights on psionics, alchemy, and science, and the Immortals offered insights on matters of the arcane, as well as occasional sacrifices of Immortal initiates who didn't quite cut it. The Grand Undying tentatively offered his aid in the party's struggles, claiming the secrets within the Book would allow him to achieve godhood, but before a solid arrangement could be made, they were interrupted by the arrival of Shepherd and his deathlocks, who had come for the Book themselves. Words were exchanged and the merits of the lesser evil were debated, but ultimately (and with a nudge from Echoless to Ven via sending stone), the party opted to aid Shepherd in claiming the book. But even with their combined forces, the Immortals and the Mindflayers had no intentions of simply letting them take the book…
XP earned: 2,300 each
Session 39 The party, along with Shepherd and his deathlocks, engage the Immortals in combat. It was a pitched battle. Shepherd divided the room in two with a prismatic wall, which he used to kill the Grand Undying by throwing him through it. Despite this, the battle was rough on the party, with Bran being stunned for most of it, Ximon being swarmed by the Mindflayers, and Buttons and Zel both dying with the former being hit with Power Word Kill and the latter succumbing to Finger of Death.
Ultimately though, all the combatants were killed or dispersed (the Immortals themselves did not leave behind bodies, curiously), and Shepherd cast Gentle Repose on the fallen party members, freezing the clock on their revival time. With his prize in hand, he left them behind to return to the Gray Wastes with Echoless and Leona, where they continue to lie in wait for Priscilla.
The party returned to Tria in Cognance and checked in with the King, with whom they made arrangements to have the dead PCs revived. Tria teleported them to Sigil where she and Ximon shared a quiet evening reflecting on the days events. In the morning, a cleric was brought and Zel and Buttons were revived. They spent the day recovering and gathering supplies. Venatrix met again with Ezekiel and Ysbetta of the Night's Song to discuss the fallout of the battle at the Respite, with Ezekiel confirming that the Night's Song would stay off her case so long as she continued to operate under the King's protection. In the evening, Tria discovered that the giant they had been scrying on had reached the main giant camp and that said camp appeared to be preparing to march. With only a small window to act upon, Tria and the party again teleported to the giants location to see what, if anything, could be done about the quickly advancing horde…
XP earned: leveled up to 20
Session 40 The party teleported to where the giants were amassing and attempted to engage in some reconnaissance. With Tria using arcane eye and Bran sneaking about as an unassuming owl, they were able to learn that the giants were currently marching towards Ensmore. They contacted Cognance to alert them, who in turn agreed to send a few ships to aid in the defense of Ensmore. Both the Night's Song and Immortals also agreed to send who they could (with the fun wrinkle in that both sides are at war and neither have yet to learn what transpired at the Grand Undying's Respite).
While investigating the camp, Bran had also noticed strange voices interlacing with the rumbling thunder from the mountains above. The party opted to see what that was about and found a violent storm churning at the peak of the mountain. It took some finagling, but Bran was able to maneuver through the cloud and found himself in the presence of 6 storm giants and one additional empty chair. Bran conversed with them and even prompted Keravnos himself to appear before him. He was not willing to share details of the giants plan, but made it clear that they were doing this because the survival of the giants as a species relied upon it. Bran expressed concern that the chaos the breaking of the seals would unleash would destroy everything, but Keravnos, assuming Bran was referring to the weapon sealed away and not Cataclysm (who Bran was referring to), assured him that the dust would eventually settle and the giants would be able to reclaim the world that was lost to them.
With their curiosity slaked for now, the party found a safe space to camp and in the morning contacted King Aurum to see if Sigil could offer aid as well. Unfortunately, Aurum had a very different idea: let the Reckoning take Ensmore. He claimed that the city could not withstand a full-on invasion and that it would be a better use of resources to defend the remaining Foci locations. The party ended up coming around to his line of thinking, but Tria was fiercely against just letting the Reckoning take Ensmore. Ultimately, they agreed to at least assess the situation in person. With that, they teleported to Ensmore and met with Queen Chantané, who was also not particularly thrilled about just opening her gates to the giants. She beseeched the party's aid in defending her city and even offered a powerful bardic instrument as payment should they succeed. With the idea of actually defending Ensmore looking more and more likely, the party decided to take what little time remained to track down a dragon who was rumored to be in the area and see if it would be able to assist…
XP earned: 1,200 each
Session 41 The party gathered some supplies (potions of water breathing and a ring of swimming for Tria) from the quickly evacuating city of Ensmore and set out into the bay to see about finding this rumored dragon. They wind walked several miles out above the open ocean and discovered a small cluster of islands. Investigating below the waves revealed a tribe of merfolk living in a vibrant coral reef. Their society was simple: they "farmed" small sea creatures, made tools and crafts with fish skin, stone, and coral, and worshipped a protector spirit they referred to as Ovahlok. Unfortunately, they absolutely refused to talk about any potential dragons in any capacity. The party firmly pressed them on the subject, believing perhaps that they were being enslaved or threatened, but eventually capitulated and decided to continue their search elsewhere.
On the way back to the surface however, they spotted an ominous sight: a massive shadow quickly approaching the reefs. It became quickly apparent that this was a massive shark (and some slightly smaller tag along's) intent on devouring the merfolk. The party was somewhat divided on offering aid, but ultimately opted to intervene (Tria made a point to argue the moral imperative of the strong aiding the weak). It quickly became apparent that things were not as they seemed as the smaller sharks vanished when defeated and the massive shark transformed itself into an octopus (the same one that had been following the group around earlier) after taking sufficient damage. Indeed, the shark/octopus was the bronze dragon Ovahlok (Ximon felt vindicated in having predicted that earlier).
Ovahlok had wished to test the group to see if their intentions were noble, and they passed. She agreed to aid them in the defense of Ensmore and also provided some more background on dragons, giants, and what exactly the Reckoning were after: a so-called weapon both crafted and sealed away by the Former. Theoretically, if the Reckoning got ahold of it, they could make the world as it was before the Great Diminishing. With that, Ovahlok departed to see what threat the giants posed and the party returned to Ensmore.
Over the next two days, both the Immortals and the Night's Song arrived with what forces they could muster and even agreeing to a temporary truce to fight the giants. A defensive strategy was devised, and Mr. Buttons specifically aided in the conceptualization and creation of traps. By the dawn of the third day, it seemed that despite the insurmountable odds Ensmore faced, it looked like they'd at least put up a good fight. That is until the party received word from their contact with Cognance's court that they were under attack by a fleet from Sigil. Shocked, the party contacted the King, who revealed that it had been there plan for some time to seize both Cognance and Penance in one fell swoop in order to end the current conflict and unite Requiem under one banner. The King tried to justify this further, but the party disconnected the communication crystal. Tria realized that she may be able to do something for Cognance, but she also believed the party (including Ximon) needed to stay and fight in Ensmore. And so she teleported herself to Cognance, though Ximon did try to stop her, leaving the party to face the oncoming horde of giants, orcs, and more, but now without the promised aid of Cognance and their cannons…
XP earned: 800 each
Session 42 With the setting of the sun, the battle commenced. It took some time for the battle to reach the party, but soon enough, advance waves of giants were falling on their position. First, a group of crazed Mouth of Grolantor hill giants descended on them with the main goal of tearing every living thing in their way to shreds. Most of the party were able to evade the brunt of the giants fury save for Zel, who waded into the thick of things and took somewhat of a pummeling. With assistance from a few Immortal mystics, they were also able to keep the giants from doing too much damage to the personnel manning the battlements.
Shortly after, a second wave of giants were able to break off from the main fight and assaulted the Fountain Square. Fire giants and frost giants, led by a dreadnaught and an everlasting one, bludgeoned their way past the barricades. This time, the party soaked significantly more damage from the more tactically-minded giants with Mr Buttons taking several hits from hurled rocks, Bran being knocked out of mammoth form momentarily, and both Zel and Ximon taking some solid hits in melee. What's more, the giants were successful in smashing down two of the main barricades before they were pushed back. Some assistance from a pair of summoned Armanites and both Seymore and Gottfried also helped turn the battle in the party's favor.
When the dust settled, the party did what they could to heal up while the remaining defenders shored up the defenses as best they could. However, with the main battle still slowly pushing its way towards them, they couldn't help but wonder how long they'd truly be able to hold off the onslaught of the Reckoning…
XP earned: 10,000 each
Session 43 While the party was able to rest and regroup without any direct attacks on the square, they soon realized that there were several key areas where the battle was going poorly for the army at large. They opted to divide and conquer, with Bran going alone to attempt a subtle sabotage of Heralds of Aevilok bringing explosives to the front lines while Zel, Ven, and Buttons went to take out a fire giant general. Meanwhile, Ximon stayed behind to guard the square; a fortunate decision, as shortly after a squad of stone giants burrowed their way in and attacked the square's defenses from behind.
They were all ultimately successful in their assigned tasks, though all took some heavy hits for their efforts. Regrouping once more at the square, the party had little time to lick their wounds before the next wave was upon them, this time in the form of storm giants attacking from the bay. At this point, after hearing that more giants were surging in, potentially led by Charaka himself, the group mostly agreed that it was time to cut their losses and beat a hasty retreat to Brynn's island. There, the old elf healed them as best he could and gave them a pep talk. Now refreshed somewhat, they were willing to go back and give it one last attempt to push the giants back (save Ximon, who decided he wanted to try and find Tria in Cognance).
The remaining four back on the battlefield, they found the square occupied by Charaka and a handful of his honor guard, who quickly attacked in response to the group portaling back in. The battle was intense, but despite wave after wave of giants joining the fray, Charaka was slain. Before the group could be entirely overrun, they were saved by an unlikely appearance: Shepherd, Leona, and Echoless had returned from their field trip to the Gray Wastes and had vital news to share, but first, they needed to get to safety. With a prismatic wall temporarily cutting the giants off from the group, they were all able to teleport to Cognance with a new objective: Find their old friend Dawncaller…
XP earned: 9,200 each
Session 44 On the outskirts of Cognance, Shepherd and Echoless caught the party up to speed. They had tracked down Priscilla's hut in the Gray Wastes and laid an ambush for her there. Eventually, they were able to catch her and made a deal: everything she knew in exchange for her life. Much was learned, but the most pertinent of which was that Heralds of Aevilok were deeply imbedded in Sigil and had sabotaged the remaining seal locations and were about to awaken to "weapon" in the Heart of Requiem, all according to Cataclysm's plan. Fortunately, there was at least one person readily available to guide them there: the blue goliath Dawncaller, who had worked with the Reckoning for a time before having a falling out. It was known that Dawncaller was still lingering around Cognance in an effort to keep an ear out for the orc tribe he travelled with, and thus the party needed to seek him out as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, Cognance was currently under occupation by Sigil. Fortunately, the soldiers recognized the party's status and allowed them to roam relatively freely. Meanwhile, Ximon encountered King Aurum attempting to convince a captive Tria to return to Sigil with him, relatively unsuccessfully. Ximon attempted to talk Aurum down on his plans, but the King was ultimately too invested in them to back out now. Eventually, Ximon left, but not before forging a telepathic connection with Tria to keep in contact.
Back on the streets, the party had split up in search of signs of Dawncaller. Each of them were able to pick up clues of either a big blue man or big blue animal causing chaos during the fighting, but it was ultimately Bran who located him in an abandoned tavern called the Maudlin Scholar. Once reunited with the whole group, Dawncaller confirmed that he could get them at least most of the way to the Heart of Requiem, as he knew where Lazaros' old tribe was encamped and that they would be nearby. But first, Ximon insisted on breaking Tria out of her confinement.
The combined group infiltrated the stronghold with Echoless and Leona causing a distraction at the gate, while the rest crept inside invisibly. Once within the dungeon, they ambushed the royal guards and Aurum ended up surrendering rather than waste the lives of his men. With that, the party exited with Tria and promptly crashed at the abandoned tavern. In the morning, they set off for the Anvil Mountains via Wind Walk.
After a full day of travel, they arrived at an encampment of goliath high in the mountains. There, they met the elders of the Inulathai clan who, after winning over their trust, explained their misgivings about Lazaros and his new allies. Ultimately, they agreed to lead them to the Heart of Requiem nearby, but upon reaching the hidden valley, they found that they were too late. They watched as the last magical bands encircling a massive rock formation winked out of existence and the earth tremored with each disappearance. However, nothing immediately happened upon the last seal breaking. That was until Palios appeared from thin air and explained a powerful surge in magic was needed to finally wake the beast; something he could provide with the wish scroll he procured with the unwitting aid of Eladan.
With that, the Tarrasque was awoken, and with Lazaros mounted atop it, pointed in the direction of Sigil with a massive army of giants and orcs in tow…
XP earned: 1,550 each
Session 45 The party quickly realized that attempting to fight the Reckoning in the mountain pass was a losing proposition and opted to teleport back to Sigil to warn everyone that a massive army headed by an unkillable monster of legend was hot on their tail. Once in the city though, they realized that they would not be receiving a warm welcome: wanted posters were in the process of being plastered all over the city offering a 5k gold reward for information leading to the arrest of the group who "kidnapped the princess."
Shortly, the group was confronted by a full compliment of crown mages who demanded they turn themselves in. Ultimately, they agreed, as it was guaranteed to them that the King would come speak to them. They were placed (the main five, anyway) in a specially warded cell in the palace dungeons where the King came to speak with them as promised come the morning. He was inclined to believe their story, believing that they would not do something as foolish as returning to his home city without good reason. He released them, exonerated them for their "crimes" and promised anything within his power as king in exchange for the party's aid in defending the city. With that, they began to gather supplies and prepare as best they could.
As the days past, a multitude of allies came to aid in the defense: the Night's Song, the Immortals (Gottfried pulled Ximon aside and revealed he had met the Grand Undying, but that was a discussion to be had for later), the Dragon's Fangs of Crucible led by Dorian Havik himself, mages of the Lunar Forum, and soldiers from the nearby cities of Culloch, Vathkal, and Dor'Loss. In addition, Rolf returned, injured but alive, from his encounter with corrupt mages at the foci point he was guarding. He even had a gift for Ven: a matched pendant that would allow either wearer to draw life-force from the other. Likewise, Tria had a gift for Ximon on the eve of battle, a ring that would allow her to know his exact location and for him to cast the shield spell from it.
The general strategy decided upon by the combined leaders was to reinforce the bottleneck of the river the Reckoning were traversing across by freezing it with a massive winter storm. The conjoined armies will attempt to drive a wedge between the Tarrasque at the head of the horde and the rest of the Reckoning, allowing the party to combat it.
With preperations finished, all that was left was to wait. The Reckoning did not keep them waiting long. Right as dusk fell, the horde was within range of the extended fortifications stretching along the river banks. As if rehearsed a thousand times, the flanks closed in and formed a wall of soldiers between the great monster and the rest of the horde, putting only the party between it and the walls of Sigil. The battle began with an impressive barrage of salvos from Echoless and Bran while Buttons and Ven peppered both the beast and Lazaros astride it with well-placed arrows. Zel, naturally, charged in full tilt with the intent of climbing the beast and challenging Lazaros directly. He made a noble effort, but ultimately, the beast was able to cast him from its flank and ended up swallowing him. However, Bran was able to halt its advance by reversing gravity surrounding it, causing it to plummet into the sky. Despite this, with already one warrior off the field of play and another already taking significant damage (Ximon), it remains to be seen if the party will be able to surmount this legendary creature…
XP earned: tbd next session
Session 46 An epic battle ensued between the party and the Tarrasque. Lazaros quickly joined the fray to deal with Bran's reverse gravity spell and called in reinforcements by way of Praesten and a pair of giants (a frost and a cloud sorcerer) to deal with the party members attempting to keep out of reach. The fight was incredibly close, but by the skin of their teeth, they were ultimately victorious: Venatrix killed Praesten, Echoless disintegrated the cloud giant, Bran called mighty thunderbolts down on the frost giant who was then ultimately slain by a lightning bolt from King Aurum, and Lazaros, after being whittled down by the whole party was disintegrated by Shepherd. Zel was saved from the gullet of the Tarrasque by Echoless, who allowed herself to be swallowed and used dimension door to get them both out. From there, the whole party was able to lay into the beast, though both Buttons and Ximon were swallowed by the end as well. Ultimately, Bran in the form of a Planetar was able to break enough cracks in the Tarrasque's armor for Ven to deal the killing blow.
Though the battle was not yet over. During the skirmish, Lazaros' axe was recovered; first by Ximon, who attempted to direct the Tarrasque with it and ended up having a mental confrontation with Cataclysm himself. Cataclysm offered power, influence, and the hand of the Princess if Ximon simply directed the Tarrasque to destroy Sigil. He refused and threw the axe in the river, but Zel went after it and retrieved it himself, and he did not resist Cataclysm's temptation. When he surfaced to see the beast had been felled, Cataclysm informed him that it would soon rise again and that Zel should "take care" of his friends so that they would not get in the way. He acquiesced and attacked Echoless, who retorted with lethal force, as did Bran. Ven felt a moment of confliction, which Amalgam capitalized on, breaking his silence and seizing control of her, though she was able to break this compunction after soaking some damage from Bran. Ultimately, Zel was stopped and the axe was confiscated with the group chalking up his actions to the evil nature of the weapon. Finally, Aefaren arrived and used a wish spell to permanently bury the Tarrasque, loosing the ability to cast it again in the process.
After the battle, the King confirmed that the group would be granted any boon within his power to grant. Bran requested a diamond(s) capable of casting true resurrection, Ximon requested that he and Tria had leave to wander and be left alone (Aurum agreed to this on one condition; that the pair be married to make it "official"), and the rest of the group requested an item from the royal armory. He also had a surprise gift for them; something found in Palios' office and addressed specifically to the party: a deck of many things. For now, they all (except Zel) agreed not to do anything with it, and Bran would be the one to hold onto it. Lastly, Shepherd came to claim the axe, arguing that it was once the prison that housed Cataclysm and that it could be again given time to study it.
Finally, after a few days had passed, Aefaren again approached the party to inform them of his plans to investigate the wider world for "common threads," believing the Tarrasque was just the beginning of something far more dangerous. He requested only that the party be ready for his word once the time came, though Echoless requested to travel with him, believing he was the most likely to find Cataclysm at this point. As for the rest of the party, they were free to pursue their own personal goals for the time being, though it was clear that the shadow of something far greater would soon be cresting the horizon…
XP earned: 25,000 each

Report Date

13 Dec 2022