Session 45: Finale & Epilogue

Port Shimmerly    The Amanita Effect    Session Reports      Session 45: Finale & Epilogue

← Previous: Session 44: A Rock, An Eye, and a Rescue

General Summary

The Finale

TA-2 sacrificed herself as the final offering to complete the Amanita Effect ritual. The Nexus began to collapse, and the Coast Guard focused on getting everyone out in three rounds. Emelia summoned her dragon spirit, who helped many (including Sid Vicious, who has fallen into his own chemicals) escape. Leaf, as a wolf, carried Jaysennia and other injured. SNTR-1 made a special point to retrieve Khalog's Sword, an item of precious value to their githyanki friend. Leaf made sure to be the last person to exit the gate, just as the Candle of Invocation was snuffed out and the plane collapsed.

Back on the Material Plane, the barracks at the Guard Complex had been turned into a makeshift field hospital tended by Ting and Kopala. Calloway and Emelia helped how they could with this effort. SNTR-1 reunited with Eidella, who expressed immense pride in her son. Captain Sultana gave solemn and silent nods of approval. Foggy was given the scoll of Greater Restoration, which halted the rot of his arm. Leaf, after a moment of shell-shock, immediately set out to check on Jaysennia, who Mili-bohn had brought to her hut.

Dominhall, shocked and amazed, tried to stay with Jaysennia as Leaf and Mili-bohn treated her, but was convinced to leave when he was told that Leshui was waiting for him somewhere in town. Leaf and Mili-bohn spent hours tending to Jaysennia, who awoke far faster than Dominhall thanks to Leaf's careful excision of her from the Siphonophyte. After a debreifing, the Coast Guard left her to rest while they celebrated at the Lodge.

At the Lodge, the festivities were dampened only by Leaf's discovery of Altunka's new state (see sidebar). He spoke with her as well as Klaus and Fionne. Everyone else, though, enjoyed free drinks and merriment.
Emelia did sneak off to speak with the Baron. She surprised him by asking if he regretted what he'd done. He said that he certainly regretted how everything ended, and was surprised they were able to win after all the damage he had done. He did not regret his pact, but was glad, in the end, Klaus did not have to die. Emelia completed her character arc by acknowledging that she and the Baron both got their power from something else, but while he used it all for personal gain, she had found the value in using it to help others. That, after all, is what made her truly a hero.

Epilogue

See sidebar for specifics! But here are the broad strokes:

The Coast Guard officially dissolves.

Creedence Clearwater takes control of the town as mayor, with built-in safeguards and a City Council to prevent him from being another tyrant warlock. He gave each of the Coast Guard the same reward he got after his own party solved the murders: a choice of cash, business rights, or land in Port Shimmerly.

Dominhall and Leshui live in the Arts District.

Calloway accepts an offer to visit the Feywild with Furn. There, they meet a community of rock spirits and earth elementals who assure them they never killed any of their rock friends. They stay in the Feywild, coming back to visit the Material Plane whenever they get a chance to do so, never lingering for long. They also decided to use their Weaver card from the Deck of Many Things to ensure that Creedence would bring about the prosperity and safety of the people of Port Shimmerly.

They also eventually managed to brute force their Wild Surges into becoming 8 feet tall. Can't forget about that!

Emelia and SNTR-1 work together to rebuild the Arts District, which had been more or less demolished by massive withered plants.

Emelia took up residence in Hestia Neverburn's old glassworks. She picked up paiting again, with her largest project being a mural of the Coast Guard on the side of her building. Will Hestia ever show up again? Who knows. But if she does, Emelia will be there, ready to make amends.

SNTR-1 also made a home in the Arts District, and founded a kind of orphanage for constructs and other artificial life like Glis. SHARE House, (SNTR-1's Home for Artificial Rehabilitation & Enrichment) became both a workshop and community center for those who aren't quite human, but are still people. A statue of TA-2 sits on the sign, welcoming those who want to grow beyond what they may have been originally created for.

Leaf accepted a plot of land and built a cabin on the outskirts of town. Having realized that being a hero, while noble, was not his true calling, he retired from the City Guard and started networking with Chelu-ka. On his first trip, he was joined by Klaus and Jaysennia. He and Jaysennia got their love story, but I will let you imagine exactly how that went. Just know that she will never let him live down the way he was portrayed in Shorewatch. At the end of the epilogue, he is still not fully welcomed by the Chelu-kaan, but he is at least tolerated, and is set to be instrumental in the eventual resolution of their complicated relationship to Port Shimmerly.

Padme grew to a full-sized gryphon, and traveled with Leaf.

2 years will pass in-world until the next campaign begins. Probably.

TLDR:

The heroes win! The campaign closes! So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Bookkeeping:

Final In-Game Date: 12/6/1492

Final Epilogue Date: 01/01/1495

Altunka's Fate

At first glance, you don’t recognize her at all. It seems that every time you shift your gaze, a new person stands before you. As you try to focus on her, you find it painful – your eyes and your mind have trouble pinning her down. Sometimes the lines of her face are drawn and wrinkled, others youthful and clear. Her expression and movement are strange, shifting as if seen through a constant stream of different filters of light. You cannot tell if she is moments from death or unnaturally young. At times she even looks monstrous, many-legged or split into parts by fissures of dry rot. Her voice itself is cracked, as arid and lifeless as a desert at high noon. She has taken to wearing a veil at all times, and speaks only rarely. Fionne took care of her when her pact broke.

Klaus & the Iverfort Barony

The Iverfort Estate is split between newly formed public land and some private properties that Klaus still owns. The Castle, its contents, and its plot of land belong fully to Klaus. Most of the contracts the Baron had with the businesses and immigrants to the city are maintained, but the taxes being paid go now to the town, not to the Baron. All undeveloped land is delegated as public property, and a similar system of encouraging business owners and other citizens to the area with attractive deals on land and contracts.
Ivan Iverfort is kept alive with a machine built by Eidella Montgomery. Klaus sent his father to the Neverwinter Iverforts, who took him in enchange for Klaus formally renouncing all ties to the family name. Klaus gave himself a new name: Klaus Ashwarden. He married Fionne soon after.

The Leadership of Port Shimmerly

After the Baron fled, Creedence Clearwater took up a leadership position. He worked with Captain Gherd to make sense of all of the Baron’s business dealings, most of which still stand; it seems the Iverforts were given very favorable agreements, but they are all legitimate.

He spoke with the Baron after his arrest and got information about what the ending of the Pact meant for Port Shimmerly & Chelu-ka – namely that YA was alleviating the pressure of Chelor’s imprisonment. Without that influence, the same problems that kept Chelu-ka isolated for centuries would return.

Prominent businesspeople support Creedence as he drafts a new Mayoral role – an executive-in-chief position with no explicit term limit. There are robust rules for voting to remove or replace him in the future, though.

Chelu-ka

Unrest in Chelu-ka is heightened. Since Ylmyo-Aldon is no longer allievating the pressure that kept the Chelu-ka isolated, they find themselves once again unable to leave the area. An outline of the short, medium, and long-term mood of the people as decided by tarot cards is as follows:

The Fool, Inverted: New project; fear of the unknown.

The Chariot, Inverted: Connect with power within and move forward to the future.

The Star: Power through inspired action, have faith, channel authentic self.

Miscellaneous Characters

Sulphier has grown depressed, being unable to leave Lient'roc like he had planned.

Sid Vicious, newly scarred, paid his debt to the Coast Guard and continues to be a little weirdo.

Gobson created his own catering business.

D. I. Furnace finished Shorewatch under their own leadership, with approval from each of the party members.

Report Date

30 Dec 2024