Kingdom on the Brink - Session 39
General Summary
The party short rests and the construct (Clyde Rusty) brings some spells scrolls to resupply and buffed the party, they go to the command area and find out there's a massive wave of skeletons heading towards the defenses, appears the mass graves from Hillfar and The Bloody year had been dug up and raised from the dead. The party finds out the Clocktower from Strongfare had been worked on to hopefully use the Bathazaar coil again, but contact had been lost from the work group so the party is sent to find out what happened and begin to make their way into the city. The party moves through the burned out buildings and come across three Wraiths and a skull Lord, Oneiro and Stormsong ready an attack, the Wraiths move forward and get attacked by the readied attacks. Ashara moves up and throws her Sun Crusher and launched a fireball, but it's evaded by the Skull Lord, Del Varis moves up and stuns one of the wraiths and flurry of blows the second Wraith. Hendred hits the stunned Wraith with sacred flame and Duromar moves up and strikes with his Rapier, Oneiro fires off all the charges from his wand of magic missiles and hits each of the Wraiths with a wave of force damage. Gareth moves up and strikes one of the Wraiths, the Skull Lord up casts a scorching Ray at both Gareth and Del Varis but the majority is either blocked by a shield spell or dodged. The Wraiths move in and hit Gareth and Del Varis with a life drain but their HP debilitation effect is resisted, Ashara and Hendred move up to help against the Wraiths and Duromar casts Steel wind strike and destroys two of the Wraiths and and two of the mirror images on the Skull Lord, he then teleports next to the third Wraith and finishes it off with his hasted attack. Del Varis moves up and attempts to stun the Skull Lord but is resisted, Oneiro sends another volley into the Skull Lord which shatters the last of the mirror images, the Skull Lord uses two of its legendary actions to attack Del Varis but he evades the staff attack. The Skull Lord casts finger of death on Oneiro but realizes he's too far and redirects at Del Varis but Duromar is able to counterspell it, Ashara and Duromar close the distance with the Skull Lord and proceed tear away at it and its legendary resistances, just as it tries to escape and is struck down Oneiro yells to the group that there's buildings shaking and whatever it is coming is getting closer, seconds later a Death Tyrant crashes through one of the buildings.
The Death Tyrant fires off three rays, Oneiro gets hit by a petrification ray and a death ray and fails to resist either and starts to turn to stone as well as sustaining a lot of damage, Stormsong get hit by a paralysis ray and fails to resist that as well. Duromar moves up around the side to try and close the distance and gets hit by a charm ray but he successfully resists it. Hendred, Gareth, Ashara, and Del Varis move towards cover anyway they can to break line of sight and move to get an angle on the Death Tyrant. Oneiro moves towards Hendred and says he needs help, he cast mirror image on himself and fully transforms into stone, the Death Tyrant fires a death ray and petrification ray at Duromar but he resists it and a telekinetic ray at a still paralyzed Stormsong and pulls her closer. Ashara fires off a volley of arrows into the Death Tyrant and it responds by shooting an eye ray at her which she evades, Duromar moves up and stabs it several times and then misty steps away and goes prone in a ruined building to break lone of sight. Hendred casts greater restoration on Oneiro and remains behind cover, Oneiro peeks around and casts shatter near the death tyrant causing limited damage. The Death Tyrant fires off three more rays which causes Ashara to become frightened and Del Varis to fall asleep, the final ray is a death ray and strikes Stormsong down and causes her to start bleeding out. Gareth Attempts to shake Ashara from her fear with little effect and Duromar casts fireball which the Death Tyrant fails to evade, Hendred attempts to heal Oneiro but it fails due to being inside the negative energy cone the Tyrant is projecting. The Death Tyrant fires off more rays hitting Ashara with a Death Ray and Del Varis with an Enervation Ray that awakes him from his slumber. Ashara tries to overcome her fear and fire a volley into the Tyrant but her aim is too shaky, she is able to shake the fear, Duromar runs up to a dying Stormsong and casts dimension door and teleports out of the cone and forces a healing potion into her and she awakes. With Del Varis awake he runs up and manages to stun the Death Tyrant and unloads a flurry of blows, this proves to be the break the group needs and unloads into the Death Tyrant, leaving its broken and shattered skull in the dirt. The party quickly heals up and continues on to the clocktower, inside they find several corpse with slashing and piercing wounds, the party begins to ascend the tower. As they come across a bridge Hendred notices a coin bounce towards her, the group looks across and sees three figures, after several seconds a few of the party recognizes two of the figures as one of the priests of the order and Nylian Kynelis from Lakeshore (Kingdom on the Brink - Session 18). Both groups begin to move up, Oneiro provides cover fire and the enemy force fires off a guiding bolt and dodges, Duromar casts haste on himself and Oneiro manages to banish the war priest. Gareth moves up and manages to disarm Nylian, Ashara and moves in and focuses on the Warlord, the Warlord returns with two Greatsword attacks, Del Varis moves in and stuns the Warlord and Duromar moves to the other side to flank the Warlord. The War Priest comes back and upcasts Spirit Guardians and moves so it effects Ashara, Duromar, Del Varis, and Gareth. Oneiro fires at the War Priest in an attempt to break his concentration but fails, Several spirits tear into Ashara but she pushes through and lands a strike on the War Priest but his concentration holds. Duromar fights through the spirits and strikes several times on the War Priest but the spirits continue to exist, Nylian Strikes Gareth with his poisoned blades and sneak attack causing heavy damage. Gareth is accosted by the spirits and casts blade ward on himself and Del Varis and strikes Nylian, Hendred casts sacred flame on the War Priest which caused him to lose concentration of the spirits and Stormsong continues to hurl eldritch blasts at the stunned Warlord. Del Varis attempts to stun Nylian but fails and with the Warlord no longer stunned it uses a legendary action to allow Nylian to strike and hitting Del Varis, though the attack is partially resisted. The War Priest, Warlord, Ashara, and Duromar begin to exchange melee strikes as Oneiro finally fells Nylian with arrow fire. Ashara knocks the War Priest to the ground and gareth moves to kill him, with only the warlord left the party quickly overwhelms him and he dies. The party finishes their ascent and find several more bodies at the top of the clocktower, they figure out how to activate the Bathazaar coil and it begins to fire off arcane energy, the building begins to shake and beams start to come undone, the party using their strength and an immovable rod manage to hold the tower together long enough for a second surge of arcane energy to unleash. the party then either flies out the nearest opening on Stormsong's broom or jump out and Duromar cast feather fall and safely lands on the ground.
The tower explodes but the party manages to buy the defense an hour of reprieve, though there's still a massive undead army that's regrouping for another assault. The party short rests as Ashara goes to mop up any undead within the defenses, during this time she feels Kalzoz is close and goes to alert the party. Hendred suggests they make a detour towards the temple and the party agrees, they cast catnap on Ashara and Hendred begins to pray to Kyzet, The Overseer, beseeching his aid in divine intervention. Hendred doesn't get a response. Del Varis quickly readjusts her Chakras and gives her inspiration, and she tries one last time saying:
With this the party moves to intercept Kalzoz, as they reach the wall a gigantic translucent silhouette lights the ground and they hear a thunderous roar, the skeleton of the dragon they moved with Salwor's airship (Kingdom on the Brink - Session 37) flies through the air. It is incased in shimmering light and there's a kobold at the center of it, it begins to strafe the regrouping horde with divine fire, destroying all pockets of enemy concentration. The party finds a gap in the wall, on the far end they see Kalzoz with orc body guards, the party begins to buff themselves with spells and potions and begin to close the distance with their foe. As the distance shrinks Stormsong and Duromar cast Fireball and Ashara throws her hammer to cause another fireball, this barely leaves a scratch on Kalzoz but wipes out most of his orc guards. Oneiro finshes off the last of the orcs and attempts to hit Kalzoz but misses, Kalzoz lets off a howl which frightens Ashara, Duromar, and Gareth but Del Varis moves up and uses his ki to remove the fright from Duromar and Ashara. Kalzoz attempts to curse Gareth but he uses his indomitable ability to resist it, and then Kalzoz follows up with a life drain and heals himself from Gareth and Ashara. Unfortunately for Kalzoz the party managed to undercut most of his tricks throughout the battle so there was no more tricks to be sprung and the fight devolved into a brutal melee, Oneiro took a quartz potion and unleashed several empowered scorching rays on Kalzoz and Stormsong used channel divinity to make a double to gain an advantage on hurling eldritich blasts (unfortunately this causes an eldritich blast to backfire on her). Kalzoz attempted to drain the energy from the party but is resisted and he attempted to blind those in the immediate vicinity but proves to be too little to late. Del Varis removes the frightened condition from Gareth, at the cost of his own health and Ashara nearly falls out of her rage but she digs her nails into her arm to continue her fury. The strikes to Kalzoz prove to overwhelm him and when the eldritch blast hits him cracks begin to form in his skeleton, Kalzoz turns to Ashara and she is hit with a psychic force and Kalzoz crumbles to the ground. Ashara falls to her knees, she realizes that his Phylactory still exists and she ultimately is unsuccessful in her quest, this saddens the party, Ashara invites the party to the temple as her role in this is over and another will be sent to take up where she left off (Del Varis and Duromar do not follow). As they make their way to the temple they are greeted by groups of soldiers and thank the party for all they did. At the Temple Ashara begins to lay several items at the alter and she lies down on it, the skies darken and a pillar of light hits the alter, Ashara's body begins to transform into snow and blow away in the wind, her spirit rises into the pillar of light and they say goodbye and voice their wishes to reunite with her again.
In the days to follow what's left of the party gathers with the surviving provincial leadership, the horde had disrupted their planting and harvesting, the fires they lit had destroyed much, and the rebellion against Bridgeford in Aramore had left a precarious situation. there was much to be done. During this time Hendred received a vision, warning her of Nadranth and that Salwor had given the party a way to find out more, Hendred seeks out Oneiro and they find the scroll of Legend Lore that Salwor had given the party (Kingdom on the brink - session 24). They go to Hendred's room for privacy and she uses the scroll and says "Nadranth", the lights go out and voice begins to speak:
As the voice speaks Hendred and Oneiro sees illusions of a great black dragon awakening and forming and destroying its creations multiple times, then of the nine dragons locking it away, then of the nine doing battle with the Shadow. then finally they see visions of the Order of the Dragon confiscating relics and burning manuscripts and the Cult of Nadranth moving in the shadows and enacting their own plans.
The Death Tyrant fires off three rays, Oneiro gets hit by a petrification ray and a death ray and fails to resist either and starts to turn to stone as well as sustaining a lot of damage, Stormsong get hit by a paralysis ray and fails to resist that as well. Duromar moves up around the side to try and close the distance and gets hit by a charm ray but he successfully resists it. Hendred, Gareth, Ashara, and Del Varis move towards cover anyway they can to break line of sight and move to get an angle on the Death Tyrant. Oneiro moves towards Hendred and says he needs help, he cast mirror image on himself and fully transforms into stone, the Death Tyrant fires a death ray and petrification ray at Duromar but he resists it and a telekinetic ray at a still paralyzed Stormsong and pulls her closer. Ashara fires off a volley of arrows into the Death Tyrant and it responds by shooting an eye ray at her which she evades, Duromar moves up and stabs it several times and then misty steps away and goes prone in a ruined building to break lone of sight. Hendred casts greater restoration on Oneiro and remains behind cover, Oneiro peeks around and casts shatter near the death tyrant causing limited damage. The Death Tyrant fires off three more rays which causes Ashara to become frightened and Del Varis to fall asleep, the final ray is a death ray and strikes Stormsong down and causes her to start bleeding out. Gareth Attempts to shake Ashara from her fear with little effect and Duromar casts fireball which the Death Tyrant fails to evade, Hendred attempts to heal Oneiro but it fails due to being inside the negative energy cone the Tyrant is projecting. The Death Tyrant fires off more rays hitting Ashara with a Death Ray and Del Varis with an Enervation Ray that awakes him from his slumber. Ashara tries to overcome her fear and fire a volley into the Tyrant but her aim is too shaky, she is able to shake the fear, Duromar runs up to a dying Stormsong and casts dimension door and teleports out of the cone and forces a healing potion into her and she awakes. With Del Varis awake he runs up and manages to stun the Death Tyrant and unloads a flurry of blows, this proves to be the break the group needs and unloads into the Death Tyrant, leaving its broken and shattered skull in the dirt. The party quickly heals up and continues on to the clocktower, inside they find several corpse with slashing and piercing wounds, the party begins to ascend the tower. As they come across a bridge Hendred notices a coin bounce towards her, the group looks across and sees three figures, after several seconds a few of the party recognizes two of the figures as one of the priests of the order and Nylian Kynelis from Lakeshore (Kingdom on the Brink - Session 18). Both groups begin to move up, Oneiro provides cover fire and the enemy force fires off a guiding bolt and dodges, Duromar casts haste on himself and Oneiro manages to banish the war priest. Gareth moves up and manages to disarm Nylian, Ashara and moves in and focuses on the Warlord, the Warlord returns with two Greatsword attacks, Del Varis moves in and stuns the Warlord and Duromar moves to the other side to flank the Warlord. The War Priest comes back and upcasts Spirit Guardians and moves so it effects Ashara, Duromar, Del Varis, and Gareth. Oneiro fires at the War Priest in an attempt to break his concentration but fails, Several spirits tear into Ashara but she pushes through and lands a strike on the War Priest but his concentration holds. Duromar fights through the spirits and strikes several times on the War Priest but the spirits continue to exist, Nylian Strikes Gareth with his poisoned blades and sneak attack causing heavy damage. Gareth is accosted by the spirits and casts blade ward on himself and Del Varis and strikes Nylian, Hendred casts sacred flame on the War Priest which caused him to lose concentration of the spirits and Stormsong continues to hurl eldritch blasts at the stunned Warlord. Del Varis attempts to stun Nylian but fails and with the Warlord no longer stunned it uses a legendary action to allow Nylian to strike and hitting Del Varis, though the attack is partially resisted. The War Priest, Warlord, Ashara, and Duromar begin to exchange melee strikes as Oneiro finally fells Nylian with arrow fire. Ashara knocks the War Priest to the ground and gareth moves to kill him, with only the warlord left the party quickly overwhelms him and he dies. The party finishes their ascent and find several more bodies at the top of the clocktower, they figure out how to activate the Bathazaar coil and it begins to fire off arcane energy, the building begins to shake and beams start to come undone, the party using their strength and an immovable rod manage to hold the tower together long enough for a second surge of arcane energy to unleash. the party then either flies out the nearest opening on Stormsong's broom or jump out and Duromar cast feather fall and safely lands on the ground.
The tower explodes but the party manages to buy the defense an hour of reprieve, though there's still a massive undead army that's regrouping for another assault. The party short rests as Ashara goes to mop up any undead within the defenses, during this time she feels Kalzoz is close and goes to alert the party. Hendred suggests they make a detour towards the temple and the party agrees, they cast catnap on Ashara and Hendred begins to pray to Kyzet, The Overseer, beseeching his aid in divine intervention. Hendred doesn't get a response. Del Varis quickly readjusts her Chakras and gives her inspiration, and she tries one last time saying:
"Oh mighty overseer, give us the strength to bring the one who defies death and uses the bodies of those who have passed for his own selfish reasons to his death. Give us the power to avenge those who were slain and used by this monster"
With this the party moves to intercept Kalzoz, as they reach the wall a gigantic translucent silhouette lights the ground and they hear a thunderous roar, the skeleton of the dragon they moved with Salwor's airship (Kingdom on the Brink - Session 37) flies through the air. It is incased in shimmering light and there's a kobold at the center of it, it begins to strafe the regrouping horde with divine fire, destroying all pockets of enemy concentration. The party finds a gap in the wall, on the far end they see Kalzoz with orc body guards, the party begins to buff themselves with spells and potions and begin to close the distance with their foe. As the distance shrinks Stormsong and Duromar cast Fireball and Ashara throws her hammer to cause another fireball, this barely leaves a scratch on Kalzoz but wipes out most of his orc guards. Oneiro finshes off the last of the orcs and attempts to hit Kalzoz but misses, Kalzoz lets off a howl which frightens Ashara, Duromar, and Gareth but Del Varis moves up and uses his ki to remove the fright from Duromar and Ashara. Kalzoz attempts to curse Gareth but he uses his indomitable ability to resist it, and then Kalzoz follows up with a life drain and heals himself from Gareth and Ashara. Unfortunately for Kalzoz the party managed to undercut most of his tricks throughout the battle so there was no more tricks to be sprung and the fight devolved into a brutal melee, Oneiro took a quartz potion and unleashed several empowered scorching rays on Kalzoz and Stormsong used channel divinity to make a double to gain an advantage on hurling eldritich blasts (unfortunately this causes an eldritich blast to backfire on her). Kalzoz attempted to drain the energy from the party but is resisted and he attempted to blind those in the immediate vicinity but proves to be too little to late. Del Varis removes the frightened condition from Gareth, at the cost of his own health and Ashara nearly falls out of her rage but she digs her nails into her arm to continue her fury. The strikes to Kalzoz prove to overwhelm him and when the eldritch blast hits him cracks begin to form in his skeleton, Kalzoz turns to Ashara and she is hit with a psychic force and Kalzoz crumbles to the ground. Ashara falls to her knees, she realizes that his Phylactory still exists and she ultimately is unsuccessful in her quest, this saddens the party, Ashara invites the party to the temple as her role in this is over and another will be sent to take up where she left off (Del Varis and Duromar do not follow). As they make their way to the temple they are greeted by groups of soldiers and thank the party for all they did. At the Temple Ashara begins to lay several items at the alter and she lies down on it, the skies darken and a pillar of light hits the alter, Ashara's body begins to transform into snow and blow away in the wind, her spirit rises into the pillar of light and they say goodbye and voice their wishes to reunite with her again.
In the days to follow what's left of the party gathers with the surviving provincial leadership, the horde had disrupted their planting and harvesting, the fires they lit had destroyed much, and the rebellion against Bridgeford in Aramore had left a precarious situation. there was much to be done. During this time Hendred received a vision, warning her of Nadranth and that Salwor had given the party a way to find out more, Hendred seeks out Oneiro and they find the scroll of Legend Lore that Salwor had given the party (Kingdom on the brink - session 24). They go to Hendred's room for privacy and she uses the scroll and says "Nadranth", the lights go out and voice begins to speak:
"The popular view is the nine dragons breathed into being the planes as it is known, this is a falsehood, the planes were always there, just needed to molded. In the beginning there was only chaos, but among this chaos a Titan of great power awoke, it’s name is Nadranth. It shaped the chaos, molded it, and built great monuments, but he grew bored of them and eventually destroyed it and would create again, each time more complicated then the last. Nadranth eventually decided to make entities in its own image and thus the nine dragons were born, with their assistance Menorith was formed, it’s moons, and the surrounding space. But as with every other time Nadranth grew bored and sought to deconstruct as it always did. The nine dragons opposed him and argued that this loss of life was needless and uncalled for, but he wouldn’t listen, so they rebelled. How do you destroy your creator? They didn’t know so they did the next best thing, imprisonment and anchored his prison to Menorith (The irony is poetic in some way). But Nadranth wasn’t without a trick, it projected it’s shadow to break the anchors and so the nine did battle with it. The nine suffered greatly and some lost the ability to permanently manifest themselves, but in the end the shadow was defeated. So Nadranth remains imprisoned, nearly forgotten……. Nearly."
As the voice speaks Hendred and Oneiro sees illusions of a great black dragon awakening and forming and destroying its creations multiple times, then of the nine dragons locking it away, then of the nine doing battle with the Shadow. then finally they see visions of the Order of the Dragon confiscating relics and burning manuscripts and the Cult of Nadranth moving in the shadows and enacting their own plans.
It is the 20th day of Nyroth
Rewards Granted
Party is level 11
Missions/Quests Completed
Party defeated the horde invading the province of Eastbrook
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