Cycle of Millennia 2021 Session 37: Prelude to Nightmare
Here is week 37 of my 2021 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia: A Prelude to Nightmare. This might the low point of the entire story.
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!!!
Grez woke unsure where he was. After wandering around a bit, he dealt with Dwarf and Velros images that multiplied every time he attacked them. Though they were weak alone millions of them swarmed all over and slowly killed him. Then he appeared alive and well and returned to the same place. Unfortunately, the same chain of events played out once more.
Over several failures where he died, Grez finally decided to burn the soul font out that kept reviving him. The experience was maddening. So maddening in fact that the stubborn warrior was willing to choose oblivion just to escape it.
Hadron was swarmed by the orphans who multiplied again and again. Screaming that the kids were dead, he kept swinging at them again and again. But nothing worked. Hadron thus got to experience getting killed by millions of orphans that looked and sounded like the ones he had befriended and then watched die.
The Barbarian assumed Kranaak was up to his usual tricks and so this time decided to avoid the kids completely. As he ran past them, he was confronted by matron Silvina. She also messed with his head while asking questions that confused and angered him. But he was too scared to fight back after what had happened with the orphans.
Once more Hadron was whittled down with weak jabs and attacks. It seemed that this version of the Matron lacked her powers at least. But dying this way was no less painful than the prior one. Yet just as before, he appeared at the beginning of this horrible cavern.
Need for Escape:
Hadron refused to play along with whatever Kranaak was up to. Instead he sat alone in silence. Did he sit there for Minutes? hours? Days? Weeks? Maybe even years or decades? Time didn’t seem to flow and even to the Barbarian that was clear. With no hunger, thirst, or anything else to break up the monotony, he simply continued waiting.
Velkora found herself in a dark cave alone. It didn’t take long before she was confronted by illusions of Rose and Mirr which drove her mad with their words. Rose continually demanded to know why she had been forced to sacrifice her future for Velkora’s sake. Mir meanwhile described how she intended to punish the witch for her betrayal.
A punishment she then dealt out. Velkora fought back in vain. Each strike only created new enemies to fight. A tactic that she was all too used to. Fighting back only increased her troubles and she was faced with an opponent too powerful for her to defeat on top of that.
But death did not help her escape this predicament. Velkora reappeared in that same cave and was promptly killed when she encountered the same two illusions as before. Succumbing to despair once more, she attacked the magic font that seemed to be tethering her here. The caverns faded away and the former Orabaras Witch knew only darkness.
Eaten Alive:
Caic awoke alone. But this wasn’t the first second or even third time this had happened. Refusing to be worried, he ran out of his starting area and set out to find his friends. He found a friend almost immediately, but not the one he expected.
The Paladin ran into Gonk who transformed into a Wereboar almost immediately. Still his voice was that of the Dwarf and kept asking Caic why he had killed him. Demanding the ghost to vanish, the Paladin attacked his fallen friend. This accomplished worse than nothing as Gonk split into several more.
Faced with several Wereboar Gonks, Caic tried to run away. This failed as well as his body got stuck in an invisible barrier. Now trapped and surrounded by hungry monsters, the Paladin was ripped apart and got the experience the horrific sensation of being eaten alive.
He reappeared back at the cave entrance. Not wanting to experience that ever again, Caic chose oblivion as he dropped himself willingly into the abyss below the floating cave. He didn’t know how long he fell. It could have been decades for all he knew. But eventually he reappeared
The pain from this chain of experiences made the Dwarf break the Nexus keeping him here. Even oblivion was better than being forced to be eaten alive once more.
Despair:
Was this the end for them all? They were trapped with seeming no way out. Naturally as this post continues farther down, its not. But a long period of time passed before anything happened in this realm marked as the prelude to nightmare.
Hadron finally moved and broke free from the loop. He had been the only one not to destroy the tether keeping him here. A voice that he didn’t recognize told him that his trial was almost over. While he still assumed Kranaak was messing with him, he had no choice as reality around him shifted. The Barbarian soon saw his allies. All four had been profoundly changed by their horrific experiences. All of them Hadron included looked terrible.
Grez no longer wanted to kill Dwarves, Velkora was ready to submit herself to Orabaras and atone for hurting others, Caic was a bit more simple. He was afraid of being eaten. Meanwhile, Hadron seethed in silence. He would never be able to even fathom harming a child ever again, much less seeing one hurt.
Entropy Chaotic Neutral Goddess:
Finally a voice reached out to the four. This same speaker had already talked to Hadron who recognized it immediately. Turned out that this feeling like something Kranaak would do, he wasn’t responsible for all this. One of the Neutral Gods that they had sought for so long was finally in front of them. And she was the responsible party.
The Neutral Goddess explained that it needed to break all four of them so that they would understand just what they were doing. Naturally no one in the group found such statements reassuring. She told them some other nonsense about how their minds needed to be completely broken for them to succeed at the tasks they would soon need to overcome.
Naturally, they all wanted out of this place. Tormented for who knows how long, the group wanted to escape and never return. Even if this was one of the Neutral Gods needed to awaken to save the world, none wanted to deal with her right now.
They went towards the middle of this realm guided by this God. Though none of the party really trusted her. Hard to when she had tormented and tortured them for an unspecified amount of time.
After a few moments of awkward silence, she finally introduced herself as Entropy and told them that the world was not ready for her power. Given that the party had released the Tarassque the last time they had made a deal with a Neutral God, even in their current states, they agreed with her.
Slaying Innias:
Instead she told them they had one more trial to overcome before she would let them leave. One final test to see if they were ready to face saving the world. And it was something tangible that the party understood. More importantly, their final test involved a being that all four wanted to kill.
Innias stood in the middle of this room, completely insane. Though he had already been nuts before the five had ended up here, he started spouting words that indicated that Entropy had not been kind to him either.
Naturally, the party fought the Archangel. He was One of the most powerful beings they had ever encountered. But he had tried to kill them countless times and had stolen Caic’s armor. They would not lose.
After defeating him, he fell into a pit in the middle of the room. This seemed to be the end of him. Unfortunately he didn’t relinquish the armor as he fell. This left Caic feeling dejected after everything he had gone through to reach this point.
Fallen Angel:
Entropy warned that he was not defeated yet. Orabaras’ power brought the Angel back for a second fight. He struggled to not get pulled into the abyss.
The party fought him off. With Orabaras power, he was even stronger than before. Unleashing both holy energy attacks and even some power that even a Berserker Knight like Hadron had no way to absorb.
He fell into the abyss again. Except that wasn’t the last of him.
The energies of this chaotic realm brought Innias back from the brink one final time. This was one of the toughest opponents the party had ever faced. And now they were tired and exhausted. Their ordeals had taken a toll on their sanity and now this monster who just refused to die threatened to make everything they had gone through pointless.
But they were desperate to escape this place. And that Angel had been their enemy for a long time now. Those facts alone gave the party the second wind they needed to finally kill Innias for good.
Once defeated Caic reclaimed his armor. Entropy told them that they could leave now. She was satisfied with their determination. However, she would not be fully awakening. She pointed out that her power had leaked out and caused all the horrible creatures the party had encountered to appear. The world could not handle her powers fully appearing.
But she issued a dire warning warning. They had been trapped her for 10 years and the world had moved forward in that time.
With that bombshell of a reveal she warped the party back to the outside world. Right in front of Lord Deaths Necropolis. The group didn’t even have time to process all the stuff that had happened to them. They had work to do.
Wrap Up:
Just what will this world look like 10 years later? Is everyone dead? Is it too late to save everyone?