Cycle of Millennia 2023 Session 66: Orabaras
Here is week 66 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Thia may be dangerous, but her Goddess Orabaras is much worse.
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 party had survived Thia’s Big Bang spell. Barely if that. And they had little time to recover. Because this wasn’t a one time spell.
Seeing how close she was to stopping the party and in her mind, saving the world, Thia started that same incantation again. And she had several clones and Orabaras’ divine blessing protecting her as she prepared to end the group forever.
But the party understood what was going on better now. And figured out much faster where the real one was hiding. Though Thia managed to cast the spell a second time, Velkoara protected Grez once more. And the blast was significantly weaker.
By this point Thia was starting to reach her limit. Yes she was capable of casting that spell a third time. But she was no longer redirecting the attacks from the group towards soldiers outside this battle. She was a squishy wizard at the end of the day. And her enemies were using enchanted weapons that had slain divine entities and damaged Gods.
Before she could cast a third time, she fell to the ground in defeat. The powerful witch who had been a mother figure to Velkoara and an affable enemy to the party did the unthinkable; Begged for mercy.
Mir appeared ready to finish the job. Not a good prospect considering how weakened the party already was after dealing with Thia. And they had yet to defeat her outside of Dragon Form.
The Goddess Strikes:
But things only got worse not better. The four heard a voice that had not spoken to them in a long time. Orabaras herself. And she had no intention of letting Mir deal with them. Since Grez was actually Wylf, she had the right to enter this battle directly.
Thia was not only her chosen champion, but apparently could be a vessel the Goddess could possess to have her avatar interact with the world. Something the party had never seen her do at any point on this adventure.
Soon Thia’s body was reduced to paste and the Goddess shaped her form to something new. A monstrosity appeared soon after. A massive beast with tough looking flesh. But that was far from the worst part. Like a Hydra, this creature had several heads. And not reptilian or even Draconic heads for that matter.
No, Orabaras knew of a creature that made the party’s skin crawl and assumed that form. The Mindflayer heads each moved towards another target. And the party knew that having their brains eaten was the least of their concerns from the Goddess who also had Depravity as one of her domains.
Grez managed to fend off one of the attacks. But the others were not so lucky. Orabaras weakened the party using traumatic illusions to break their resolve. Velkoara was in the most danger this way since the Goddess had already her before and knew exactly how to do it again.
Caic managed to break free and for a moment was able to try and fight the Goddess who served as the evil counterpart to the one he championed. But Orabaras was done letting this party weasel their way out of her will, so she attacked and dragged him right back to his own nightmare.
To Serve Chaos:
Grez had managed to stay out of her control so far, but it was only a matter of time until she got even him. She had more power currently than he did. And there was no telling what might happen if he was caught in one of her illusions.
But just as it looked likely that Grez or rather Wylf might lose to her, Velkoara broke free. And she had a lot to ask her former patron.
Like why the Goddess wasn’t impressed with her soul fracture techniques and the other experiments that had brought incredible results. And the answer she got was not to her liking. Solidifying her resolve to stop her.
Orabaras explained that as Goddess of control, results that broke control were the complete opposite of what she wanted. And for refusing to see that, Velkoara was a failure and not worthy of her power or attention anymore. Considering all the trauma that this poor woman had gone through in service to this Goddess, there was only one choice left.
To Join Chaos:
Velkoara fully let Entropy in. She accepted her new Goddess and all became clear. As she was standing in her new patron’s realm, she could see clearly. And her magic was greatly amplified.
Declaring that this realm didn’t belong to her, the former Orabaras Witch, groomed and manipulated by said Goddess, purged Entropy’s realm of the Goddess of control. That avatar was shredded by Entropy’s unshackled power. Orabaras screamed hate as she faded. They had won. Against her at least.
Aftermath:
But Mir was still present. Would she fight them too? They were on their last legs now.
But she didn’t want to fight. Instead, she asked one thing. But not simple. Mir, a being who was easily within her power to kill them all right now begged them to let Thia live. Not an easy choice since she was one of their main enemies. Even if one on normally friendly terms.
The group eventually let Velkoara be the one to decide. Which was fair since she had known the Witch the longest by far. Entropy had some input too. That they should spare her. But Entropy was cryptic on why. This all seemed contrived. But even if they killed her, that would just mean Nihilin might find a way to use her instead.
So Velkoara spared her life. And Mir didn’t make a move to stop them from leaving. Which meant they only had two Evil Gods left to deal with before they could save the world and maybe reality itself.
Marching Towards Death:
Now that Orabaras had been dealt with, the Paladins who had been nearby in case this battle got ugly, took the parties place at holding this part of the maze. In case Nihilinn or more likely Kranaak tried to make a power play, they were ready.
Kalni asked if the party needed any help before they went into the next battle. At first the group asked for a moment to rest, but Entropy removed their fatigue and refreshed their bodies as if they hadn’t fought Thia or Orabaras.
It was clear that she had truly chosen Velkoara as her champion. And now they didn’t need to rest. Bidding Kalni and the Paladins farewell, they traveled north, or at least what Entropy told them was north towards Moshe and Nihilinn.
Orabaras had used human soldiers as cannon fodder. But Nihilinn had no need for such things. Instead the God of death sent Banshees. The ghosts of dead Orarbaras Witches seemed like the perfect power move of a human and not that of a Nihilistic God. Moshe was definatly nearby. He had enough hubris to do this.
And when they finally reached him, the man, well Lich now, revealed just how much he had masterminded much of the modern world. Naturally he wasn’t going to let the party simply rot to death while giving his villain monologue political speech. The Archlich summoned hordes of Undead and started channeling a spell.
Wrap Up:
The party has no idea what this spell might do. And after what happened with Thia, the party is on their gaurd.