Cycle of Millennia 2021 Session 32: Warped Reality 3
Here is week 32 of my 2021 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Everything is coming to an insane head as Warped Reality 3 continues trends.
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 confronted the final two death knights. Grez above all was eager to kill them and take their runes. But they wouldn’t go down easily. Especially given what their powers happened to be. Hadron took this serious though and morphed into a Giant Dragon.
They manipulated time and space. While the group had dealt with creatures from the void with those same powers, these two were intelligent and knew how to use such reality warping to their advantage. They made for deadly foes. Even nastier than Mariette who had almost singlehandedly brought the group to their knees.
After fighting them for a time, the two revealed a harsh truth. They had no intention of fighting and they also had known the group far longer than apparent. Much much longer. Especially in Lorsen’s case
He didn’t manipulate time because of a Rune. Those were his innate powers. The same applied to Saleh who didn’t need a rune to bend space. Why? Because they weren’t death knights. They were the two liches the party had been against since the very start. Lorsen was the bartender in Krento. Saleh was the Dark Elf that had tricked the party into helping with his ritual.
Truths:
They revealed that Charice faithful were trying to summon neutral God. Not that this little part shocked the group much. What did surprise them however was why Nihilinn was interested in sending its forces here.
Nihilinn had followers planning to botch ritual. Apparently they planned to cause the Charice Faithful to summon an explosion that would destroy the entire city. And once dead, the entire population would serve The God of Death. They left after saying their piece.
The party was contacted by Moshe after the two not Death Knights left. He showed them what was happening with fight outside. And the group didn’t like what they saw.
Death of a Friend:
Luna killed Sigwald. She didn’t kill him gently either. She stabbed him and let him grasp with mortality. But before he took his last breath, the Demon separated his head from his neck with her bare hands before letting his blood fall on her face. Caic fought back fury. That man had been one of his few close friends in the Paladin order. Like the other two Liches, he left the party soon after revealing those horrible facts.
The party couldn’t go back. The fight outside would have to continue without them. Instead the group had to fight on. They were forced to fight forward and knowing that there was a timer slowly tick down towards doom.
Countdown to Doom:
They fought through more Eldritch Horrors and raced to stop the ritual before it was too late. The party was getting better at facing their fears and these creatures from the void were putting up less and less of a fight. Unfortunately, Velkora and Caic were waging a different battle. They had taken drugged potions earlier. And enough time had passed for them to feel the effects.
Grez meanwhile made use of his new artifact. He matched Hadron’s size in his Ape form. A good thing he didn’t succumb to beastial rage.
Party found Charice’s Leaders and Innias. The host included countless angels and Charice Faithful. Luciano commended them on reaching them, but asked why they opposed his work.
Party tried to convince Charice Faithful to stop. But they didn’t listen. Luciano pointed out that they had mastered the void itself and could handle this Neutral God. The group pointed out that they had thought the same. Until they unleashed the Tarrasque. They didn’t think that way anymore.
But the Charice Faithful continued a potent ritual. Even the non Magic users in the group could sense it. And Luciano decided he didn’t want to party to stop him. Telling them he would send them to the children they were looking for, the Charice Gas filled the ritual area.
The party lost sense of reality as everything around them faded. They have no idea what is about to happen.
Wrap Up:
They need to deal with whatever tricks Charice’s Faithful are pulling. If they don’t the cost of failure might be too high.