Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 53: Absolute Law
Here is week 53 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia, Absolute Law. One of their best friends is dead. And now they are fighting an angry God.
Don’t forget that this campaign has been ongoing for over four 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!!!
After making the mistake of releasing him, the God of Law tried to usher in absolute law. The party didn’t like the sound of that. Especially with said God proclaiming that it would take away free will from all life to bring absolute law.
Of course the group had no intention of letting this God do what he wanted. Especially after he had crushed Rose to death cruelly removing all her vital organs, bones, and blood. Even as the struck at the God’s avatar, the body did not bleed, or even gain wounds. Rose’s corpse was completely empty
Naturally a God presiding over law had no intention of fighting fair. First he cast a curse on the group which made their armor turn flimsy. Immediately after he summoned two of the Prime Dragons. Or their souls at least, as minions to kill the party.
But this group had fought against Demon Lords, World Destroying Monsters, Arch Angels, Liches, and even Gods. So two Dragon Souls were not enough. Nor was a unique attack which trapped Hadron in stasis while he slowly disintegrated.
To fight Fate:
Unfortunately, the God of Law was sufficiently pissed and willing to twist reality even further. He cast a second curse which caused critical success and feats that should have been impossible to spin the opposite way. In Dungeons and Dragons terms, natural 20s became natural 1s. And of course summoned two more Prime Dragon Souls.
But even with fate itself against them, the party refused to die. And so the God of Law brought out one final trick to try and bring absolute law to reality. He blocked all magic from working against him. And summoned one remaining Prime Dragon Soul. The other had been claimed by Eleth.
A shame that the party was prepared for this specific curse. Grez defeated The God of Law’s avatar enough to cause it to fade. But not before said God cursed the Monk with words claiming that Wylf was cheating in a sacrilege sort of way.
With the God of Law retreating, the realm no longer needed to exist and expelled the party. They returned to the tower in the middle of the Land of Dragons. But their victory was less than short lived. For things only got much worse from there.
Reality Undone:
Caethia and Eleth quickly appeared. As they tended to. But neither was looking for a fight. A good thing since the group was in no condition to deal with either of them much less both. Instead, the two servants of Kranaak seemed utterly delighted by what had happened. They helped the party leave the Land of Dragons so they could witness the chaos that was now unfolding.
The Party appeared back in the canyon. All it took was one look at the sky to realize what was happening. Since two of the Neutral Gods were active, and the third was partially unsealed now, the world had grown completely unstable. The sky had cracks forming. The ground shifted in strange ways. Sound completely distorted as it traveled. And light was muted.
It was clear that they had no choice but to free the final Neutral God. This was worse than when the evil Gods had taken over. Whatever was happening now had the potential to kill everyone and everything. The whole experience left Velkoara wondering if the party was the real villain and had caused far more harm than three actual evil deities.
Devil’s Chase:
And lest the party forget, they were currently in the domain of one of those three Gods. And Thea who had been mostly friendly to the party despite being the prime servant of Orabaras, could no longer stay kind. Rose was dead, and the group had unleashed a horrific calamity. Velkoara knew in her heart of hearts that there was only one path forward now.
Still, despite her fury, it took Thea a moment to give an order that would change her relationship with the party forever. On the word kill, she sent the entire legions of Devils to kill them. And not just any Devil. Every single creature chasing was a Pit Fiend, the most powerful of Devil kind. This was not a battle the group could fight, even at full strength. So they ran.
The Party was chased across the eastern section of Spatia. They ran past Krento where this entire journey had started. And past Grez’s ship which he was too afraid to even consider checking on. And none of dared to try and go to Lord Death’s Necropolis. After all, Thea could go there and bring this unbeatable army with her.
Surrounded:
The chase took them all the way to the Yggdrasil bridge. This massive structure straddled a massive gorge that separated Spatia from Innovia. Unfortunately, the other country was completely controlled by Nihilinn. And hordes of Undead surged across the bridge from the other side.
The party was trapped between two armies they had no chance of defeating. And they also got a cruel confirmation about what the God of Law had done when they noticed the army of Paladins that guarded this choke point all stood like statues, completely oblivious to the world.
The party saw that absolute law would kill everyone except the supernatural creatures that had every intention of killing each when they ran out of victims. But what could the party do? They were exhausted and on their last legs. Meanwhile they had two armies commanded by Gods who intended to kill them with said armies.
Thea appeared over her armies and demanded that the group surrender to her if they didn’t want to be condemned to Nihilinn’s realm of the dead. Meanwhile, Moshe in his human form rather than his Lich one welcomed the group to charge his direction so that they could face that death and not watch the world crumble.
But Grez had a plan. Ten years ago, he had been told to come to this bridge when he had matured. Well hopefully that moment was now. The group had been everywhere in the world save one place. To whatever place was beneath this bridge. The Monk jumped into the darkness. The rest of the party, Belwyn included followed. Choosing even a potential suicide to whatever would happen if they stayed on the bridge.
Wrap Up:
Its come to the darkest hour for both the party and the world. What will they find in the darkness? And can it help turn the tide?