Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 62: Horrors
Here is week 62 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Old horrors emerge to terrify new allies.
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!!!
To get to the realm of Entropy and stop the world from being destroyed, the party with their allies fought through monsters spawned from that very realm. As a chaotic neutral aligned deity, even the Goddesses’ own servant, Velkoara was in danger from these monsters
But between Wylf’s faithful, and the Death Knights who fought alongside the group, they all made it through with minimal casualties and brains only a little more strained than before. Though that encounter had been terrifying, it was in a long line of mind bending fights. Just another set of horrors.
Beyond that cave filled with horrors, the party made it to the Chapel that had once been at the heart of the Charice Cathedral. Now it was quiet and empty.
But they got strange news when they checked on the battle outside. The Tarrasque had appeared, and just as suddenly faded away. Before all the current conflicts, the party would have assumed this was some wonderful miracle. But now they knew better. This didn’t bode well at all.
One final passage stood between the chapel and the portal room. Not sure what they might encounter, the party summoned Berserker Knights and Paladins to help. This proved to be a mistake.
The Beast Appears:
Like before reality started breaking apart. Except this time the Tarrasque appeared. Rather pieces of it moved through the walls and floor. Poten the God that controlled the beast also appeared for a moment to talk to Wylf, but in his Grez form the Chaotic Good aligned Deity did not respect Poten’s methods.
Also the great beast easily slaughtered the Berserker Knights causing the Demons within their bodies to break free. Realizing that summoning more troops would only cause more senseless death, the party told the reinforcements to stay back as they navigated the halls.
Unfortunately as reality continued to break, up and down, left and right all got mixed up. The party wandered the halls lost unable to escape from the teleporting dinosaur or rooms connected to this twisted spot. But even feeling hopeless for a moment, the party escaped, though they would need Lord Death’s help to get any troops past that area.
Game Over:
But things got much much worse when they finally reached the portal room. Moshe was waiting for them. As were a ton of Witches. An absurd number of them in fact. And they were all working on some sort of spell. And it became clear in moments who the target of such a spell was.
Moshe cast a spell that killed everyone except Grez. He then gloated to Wylf that all the monsters between this room and the entrance of the Cathedral had served to slow the party down and ensure this ritual went off without an issue.
Was this it? Three of the party were dead. Not unconscious. Dead.
There was only one course of action. And Moshe was “kind” enough to open the door to it. Grez dived into Nihilinn’s realm to save his friends. Naturally the Arch Lich above had to get the last word. Time flowed differently in the realm of death. He might save his friends only to return to a destroyed world.
Wrap Up:
Grez has no choice though. To save the world and to see his plans come to fruition, he must brave the realm of death and its horrors to save the rest of the party But what will Nihilinn do once Wylf is vulnerable?