Cycle of Millennia 2022-23 Session 70: The Final Battle
Here is week 70 of my 2022-23 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. The Final Battle is upon them. The fate of the world is at stake.
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!!!
With Caethia’s help, the party split the Demon possessing Luna’s soul fragments into several more manageable chunks. The final battle had started against the most dangerous Demon in the entire setting. And there was no telling what Kranaak would do in such a situation.
Splitting the Demon Possessing Luna into several soul fragments was even taxing on Caethia despite her seemingly unlimited amounts of power and magic mastery. For this to actually work, she was forced to efficiently split the pieces into four distinct pocket realms.
Grez stayed in the first zone. Apparently he would be making sure none of the souls escaped to cause havoc in the outside world while the group and their allies completed their work. But the Demon that was the enemy of them all decided to attack while in the prep phase of this final battle.
Morphing the battlefield to her will, the Demon intensified the heat until it was nearing fatal levels for everyone there. But Caethia counted on this maneuver as well as said Demon targeting her instead of basically anyone else. This allowed her to create the next soul split.
Velkoara stayed in the second zone. And given the monsters that would likely appear to oppose the current servant of the Goddess of Entropy, Caethia cooked up a scheme to take down some of the most dangerous souls contained here.
Splitting Souls:
But first she needed to deal with the Demon again. Pointing out the party that despite all her power, The Demon possessing Luna was little more than a child that had gained access to a toy that had no right owning. This enemy was foolish and impulsive. Desperate to justify her new power, the more experienced Archdemon played their enemy like a fiddle.
When the Demon started catching on to what was happening, she took control of this pocket realm as well and lowered the temperature until it threatened to freeze everyone solid. Hopefully Velkoara and their allies would be able to deal with the change in conditions.
Caic stayed in Zone 3 which the Demon possessing Luna had preemptively altered the pocket realm. Now an electric current was running through the air. And the Dwarf would be facing one of the toughest fights of his life. Without his party members, he worried what might happen.
Battle Commences:
But the harshest fight of them all would start at the fourth level. At the deepest part of this soul shattering multi realm, The Demon Possessing Luna was separate from the Death Knight. Here they could finally damage the Demon directly. Ready to attack, the final battle truly began. The ground shook as an earthquake consumed the entire space.
With Antoinette, Caethia, Eleth, Furavel, and Luna herself Hadron fought against Ravaleth and Berserker Knights that the Demon summoned. Meanwhile the still nameless Arch Demon channeled Kranaak’s blessing which debilitated the group, as powerful as they were.
But even against such wicked odds and even when Ravaleth started talking as if she was still alive, Hadron and the rest of his makeshift allies took her down. Then again, for Caethia, Furavel, and Eleth, this might just be another Tuesday. They had killed tons of Berserker Knights themselves after all.
Antoinette had betrayed their order once for personal gain. Her schemes were even partially to blame for Ravaleth being here in the first place. Maybe Hadron underestimated the company he was in. The only unknown was Luna herself. He hadn’t ever interacted with the real her.
Under those conditions, it looked like victory was actually assured. That was until the Unnamed Demon played her hand. All the Berserker Knights and Ravaleth moved past the group with one specific target: Luna herself. And who knew what would happen if she was defeated? Especially with the Demon using her body in the outside world.
The fight became a race to keep Luna conscious will defeating this enemy swarm. But between all their unique abilities and a lot of quick thinking, the umm… less evil group defeated the other. Ravaleth’s soul faded away, finally free from its torment. But while they battled here, the other three pocket realms were still awash in violence.
Layer 3:
Caic fought with allies and against former allies. But they also felt the effects of the fight deeper in the soul realm. The Demon grew weakened and Kranaak’s blessing fickle as with all things faded away. But even without this extra boost, the Dwarves and nearby allies would have problems.
Fighting alongside Calni, Folgire, The Icegut Leaders, Vurn, and Amalica as well as some of their respective soldiers would have been almost unheard of in the past. Many of those here had been enemies between Civil Wars and International Ones, but threats against the world had managed to unify them. And woe to the fools who did.
They fought against Chained Devils, Icegut Dwarves, and Dwarven Warriors too. The rest of the Drow Matron Mothers were there too. But the Demon also brought forth Gonk and Oswald, to really twist the knife. Caic was forced to fight and even potentially kill two of his close friends again.
Gonk was still in a monstrous form and charged at the group and right at his former friend. And the Iceguts leapt into action and saved Caic from having to relive a horrible experience. But that still left several enemies and Oswald who also intended to fight Caic.
Wrap Up:
There are two more battles raging and the final battle continues. Should they prevail here, they may still face Kranaak’s wrath.