Cycle of Millennia 2021 Session 31: Warped Reality 2
Here is week 30 of my 2021 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. The universe is still out to lunch. Warped Reality 2 is just as strange as the first part.
Don’t forget that this campaign has been ongoing for over three years. There is a lot of story to cover and I’m writing a book series to document it all. I am adapting this adventure into a book series. The first three are on Amazon.
!!!Trigger Warnings Abound!!!
This campaign takes place in an incredibly unpleasant setting. The party has dealt with Human Traffickers, Sex Slavery, Child Sacrifice, The Apocalypse, Genocide, Wicked Cults, and other related topics.
There is a God of Madness that is fond of causing auditory and visual hallucinations, makes use of psychic gaslighting, commands the literal legions of hell, and all around causes untold suffering in the setting.
Essentially, nothing is off the table in this campaign. If the above ideas are not ones you want to think about, I do not think this blog series is for you. That is not a problem and does not indicate any failings on your part. I am a storyteller that does not shy away from the darkest topics. It would be horrible for me to not warn my audiences of this in advance.
!!!Final Trigger Warning. Past this point there be dark topics!!!
The party fought through countless more groups of eldritch creatures. For every inch they fought against the Charice Faithful, the group used their powers and devotion to their missing Goddess to somehow summon more and more creatures from the void.
After taking on one especially powerful group, most of the party was left in a weakened state. Grez and Caic were fighting nonstop on their last legs. Velkora had no choice but to use the last of her healing potions to keep the two hotheaded fighters from falling for good.
Eventually Caic tried to summon a steed. Realizing that his powers did not help him against aberrations from another dimension, he tried another tactic. But the cave they fought through had been warped by the eldritch magic at play. Instead of of a horse or similar creature, Caic managed to summon a giant wasp. And not just any wasp. This one had eyes covering its wings. This wasn’t a natural creature.
Velkora pointed out that using such a creature as a mount went contrary to the God he drew his power from. Caic corrected her and reminded the former Orabaras Witch that he would use anything at his disposal to destroy the evil forces that threatened the world.
Mimics:
Hadron refused to be one upped by the Paladin’s summon magic and called a Mosquito Demon to match the wasp. A good thing they both called for backup, cause things only got freakier as they continued on. The next group of Charice Faithful continued using their summoning Magic, but this time nothing appeared.
At least not until the group got close to the carpet the Charice Faithful had pretended to be drugged out of their minds on. Turned out that the carpet had become a mass of living creatures. The party fought the many Mimics and looted potions from their corpses. Without the surprise factor, such monsters were easy picking for a group that cause explosions of every flavor at will.
Caic and Velkora ended up drugged. Initially the former Cultist tricked the Paladin into consuming an item that was not actually a healing potion. But after the fact, she felt bad since this was a trick she would have pulled while still serving Orabaras. But she was free now and able to make poor choices by defying what her Goddess would have made her do.
Dead End:
Once the party defeated all the Eldritch Creatures, the weirdness in the cave vanished and everything was back to how it was before. Of course that included drug inducing gas which had been here long before the party arrived. They needed to press on. The Charice Faithful had become a lot more dangerous in a short amount of time.
Unfortunately, defeating all the creatures in the cavern did not remove the barrier blocking the way forward. A terrible time for this to happen after countless dungeons where it hadn’t. The party seemed to have finally hit a dead end. They had no way to proceed. Would they have to go back and risk facing Lune?
Sneak Peak:
Just when things seemed to be dire, the group heard a noise from the celling and had no choice but to prepare for an enemy attack. Instead something worse fell on them. A certain Stone Giant that had recently been a chicken chose that moment to appear.
Grez and Hadron cursed their already bad luck. Caic was too exhausted trying to ride around on his new flying mount to pay the Stone Giant much heed. Velkora didn’t know much about Sneak Peak outside of stories they had told her. But as was usual whenever this strange Rogue appeared, he changed this rather quickly.
Sneak Peak dropped another bombshell of a reveal in a long chain of twists and turns in the story. He revealed his allegiances. Some time between the end of the world and now, the Stone Giant had joined the Charice Faithful. How Thia had managed to capture him was anyone’s guess.
Conveniently for the party, he was able to open the barrier. He did offer a warning to the group. The Charice Faithful were conducting a ritual. He wasn’t even allowed near it. There were terrifying monsters between the cave and this ritual. For a change, Hadron and Grez were glad that this obnoxious Giant had appeared.
Before Grez could change his mind on that though, the Giant somehow jumped back up into the hole he created. The Stone Giant was likely bringing chaos to some other part of the world. At least he was ignoring the group for the time being. Something they all liked.
Chapel:
With the barrier gone, the party left the cave and entered another room. Unfortunately this one seemed to be a dead end. It appeared to be some sort of chapel used for prayer. And the statues lining the room with chalices made it too obvious for even Hadron to ignore. Grez however wanted to move forward and saw a breakable glass window on the other side of the room.
Velkora tried to stop him. She was worried that acting in such a way in a Goddesses holy place might trigger some sort of reaction. But where would they go from here. They had once again hit a dead end. Would they have to give up the chase after having new hopes just moments before?
As they turned around to leave, the group realized that they were not the only ones in this chapel. The two remaining rogue Death Knights stood by the door. They commended the party for fighting against unspeakable horrors and making into a room that only the Charice Faithful could open.
Grez wasn’t in a talking mood. He wanted their runes so that he could be even more powerful. The two were disappointed by his rudeness, but drew their weapons all the same.
Wrap Up:
The party is exhausted after the fight with all the Eldritch Creatures. Before that they battled through hordes of Undead and even the most powerful of Nihilinn’s Witches. Can they defeat these two Death Knights, who are likely more dangerous than all of those other mentioned fights? Especially given one can bend space, and the other one is has mastered time itself?