Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 40: Into the Darkness
Here is week 40 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Its ten years later. The party stepped into the darkness.
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!!!
Before the party could enter the canyon below, they had to fight off the rest of the Dracanoids. Something bothered Velkoara about this entire fight though. Rather than emerging to attack the group, it was almost as if these creatures were fleeing from something. And whatever it was made them willing to fight their way out even against their group.
Naturally even hundreds of Dracanoids was nothing compared to the might of a party that fought through Kranaak’s Demons, Nihilinn’s endless dead and realm of Entropy that had come close to breaking them. Armed with the power of two Dragons as well, this encounter was more a meatgrinder than a battle.
After the Dracanoids were slain the party dived into the canyon. At first the complete darkness impeded their vision. Even those who could see through magical darkness were blinded by whatever was happening here. Good thing Belwyn and Rose were Dragons then. They possessed some ability to dispel this magic. Soon after the entire group could see.
Maze of Darkness:
A good thing too since Rose and Belwyn had to lead the party through the canyon still. Rose gave a cryptic warning too. The party needed to follow the Dragons closely. And more importantly they needed to ignore anything that emerged that might try to divert them from the path.
The strange place didn’t follow the laws of reality. And the two Dragons took a seemingly nonsensical path through the gloom. And diverting from this path seemed to draw that same blackness from before. The party didn’t know what would happen if they went into the darkness and stayed close.
Naturally the group didn’t remain alone for long. Basilisks emerged from the shadows. These were the creatures Rose warned to ignore. Yet the group had fought these monsters before and knew how to defeat them.
Hadron cast a darkness globe around the group to protect from the creature’s deadly gaze. A shame that Velkoara and Caic could not see through magical darkness. So those two had no choice but to once more plunge into the darkness and hope their friends were alone where they were blind.
Wrap Up:
Fending off multiple creatures, the party stayed close to the Dragons as they wandered the canyon. Hopefully they will find the exit soon. Still, something made those Dracanoids flee. And it is something worse than Basilisks.