Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 59: Beginning of the End
Here is week 59 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia, Beginning of the End. The final battle has begun. And the story is reaching its epic conclusion.
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!!!
The Charice Temple was the source of all that was making the world crumble. And so the party needed to go there to save everyone. But doing so would end the cycle and put the Evil Gods to sleep. And so even though the end of world might happen, the Gods were putting everything in reality at risk to simply stay active.
But the enemies here were just cannon fodder and the combined might of so many powerful people got them to the Temple quickly. They did have a couple Gods on their side after all. The champion of two of them, and one in the flesh.
Stronger enemies awaited them on their way through the capital of Innovia and towards the temple itself. Innovia City had been conquered and complete sacked. The anti combat spells were no more and the Charice Statues were all inactive. The trees had rotted away and the city was crumbling. The itself was being killed by the God of Death. Even things that normally didn’t die.
Guarding the entrance to the Charice Temple stood Spatian Soldiers, Nihilinn Witches, Orabaras Cultists, and Drow Wizards. The party had not fought the legions of the fallen human nation yet and had no idea what to expect. Naturally they feared what might happen given that Orabaras had chosen these soldiers rather than the armies of Devils under her command.
Allies Join the Fray:
Since representatives of all three Evil Gods stood between them and their goal, the party knew it was time to summon the armies that had pledged loyalty. But not all of them at once. Lord Death had told them he would be able to send armies to assist them once they cleared the way even deeper in, so they choose two groups to help get inside.
The first two armies to heed the call were the Icegut Dwarves and the Orc Armies. Grez had suggested not to bring Drow to this fight so they wouldn’t find their own kin. These two armies had no connection to the troops here and would have nothing distracting them in battle.
Snakes:
But Orabaras had a trick or two to play. Turned out she had chosen those soldiers intentionally. And the wicked lie she had spread was finally revealed. Yes Spatia was doing better than Innovia. But when the soldiers were slain, they got back up a second time with snakes emerging from all over their bodies. The corpses came at the armies and party a second time.
The fact that this was uniform to every soldier indicated that Orabaras had likely “blessed” the entire nation in the same way. Free from the horrors of Nihilinn and Kranaak perhaps, but still slaves to the Goddess of Domination.
Grez aided the soldiers since they were not killing the enemies fast enough. In fact the Orcs were getting pushed back. Nihilinn Witches had started appearing en masse and teleporting over to them. The Orcs were powerful warriors, but against an army of zombie mages with no regard for their own life or safety it was hard to fight back.
But as an actual God, the Witches posed little threat to Grez. And soon the Orcs were keeping up the the Iceguts who were naturally resistant to magic after all the insane training they survived simply to be a part of the clan.
Wrap Up:
They have not reached the Temple yet, but the party continues pushing forward and these armies are little more than a distraction. But that also means that the heavy hitters are already inside. Is the party ready to face whatever horrors wait inside? This truly is the beginning of the end.