Cycle of Millennia 2021 Session 7: Flex Off
Here is week 7 of my 2021 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Lets go over session 7: Flex Off.
Don’t forget that this campaign has been ongoing for over three 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 so many intense battles back to back, the party finally had a moment to rest. Wasting not even a moment, Velkora the ambiguously Human Artificer summoned Dwarven Ale. Hadron The Human Warlock/Barbarian accidently revealed its source to Grez the Monk. The hotheaded man harbored an intense hated of Dwarves and immediately spit the drink out.
Not wanting to waste any of the drink, Rose, the Draconic Sorceress, used magic to actually pull the stuff off the ground and into a bottle. While she drank what Grez refused, he taunted her by pointing out that lizards ate food off the ground.
Hadron and Caic the Dwarven Paladin had a flex off feeling bored due to lack of violence. Even Thea was impressed. The Head of the Orabaras Cult had every reason to hate these two. Curtesy who the divine entities they served both wittingly and not so wittingly.
The Party with Artin the Elf Druid among them returned to Lord Death. He warned that Thea might try to pull something. This was nothing new to the party. Velkora, who continued traveling with the group but made her allegiances clear at every turn laughed at such fears. Not that this helped her position.
Hadron once again considered checking on the orphans. But all he did was get near the next room before he stopped. Children laughed and he didn’t want to interrupt whatever was happening in there.
Rebuilding a City:
Returning to Mongress once again, the Party met master mason Oliver who showed an extreme level of excitement when he was told to rebuild the city. Thea once again appeared and claimed that she had done nothing to the townspeople.
Grez didn’t believe her and checked personally. He bore a mark from a prior encounter with the Goddess Orabaras which allowed him to tell if others had been marked in kind. Velkora and Rose could have done the same, but he didn’t trust them.
When asked why he reveled needing a new purpose in life. Before the Tarrasque had come and destroyed Mongress, Oliver had lost his wife. After a healthy marriage of almost 25 years, he didn’t have much else to do in his life. Fixing this place would fill that empty void.
Grez asked to have a Dojo built. He argued that once Mongress was rebuilt they would need troops to keep the place safe. While Innovia was not known for its armies, in fact Spatia and Innovia had existed in harmony without this country needing one, the mason agreed. These were different times now.
Oliver decided to build group housing that would converted into an inn. It was the most logical way to prepare and accommodate for all the workers and builders that were needed to reenergize Mongress.
Needed Allies:
The party was told by Lord Death that Orcs were trying to reach them. At first this had the group worried. Why would Orcs be trying to reach them? How were Orcs trying reach them?
Rose, Oliver, and Artin stayed behind to continue on work. The rest of the group decided to investigate this strange happening.
The group found out that it was their friends the Orcs: Rengar and Vorgak. Rengar had been an opponent and ally a long time ago before the apocalypse had happened. That time so long ago felt like another life.
Vorgak had been one of the first antagonistic people that the party had encountered. Their very first adventure in fact. But they were all friends now. And the group reported back to the cave where these Orcs still lived.
Realizing that the Orcs would be amazing help in rebuilding Mongress, the group, Hadron notably being the one to ask, pushed the idea towards the Orcs. As it turned out, Antoinette the Vampire Dwarven Queen and leader of the Berserker Knights had paid them a prior visit and told them about Mongress. This also explained how the Orcs had managed to contact Lord Death.
Building an Alliance:
However, the group worried that the nearby Drow Matron would cause problems for the group. She potentially served Kranaak God of Madness, and although other servants of said God were helping the party, only a fool trusted a Chaotic Evil God who’s sole goal was spreading madness and destruction everywhere.
Velkora came up with a plan quickly and summoned a portal to Thea. She could deal with this one. After sending the Matron Mother away, a group consisting of Orcs the party and Drow headed back towards Mongress. The Drow remaining leader was much more agreeable and happy to help, though he reminded the party that Humans did not like his kind very much.
The Orcs and Drow planned to build their own town underneath Mongress. And given that the city was only starting to be built, the party surmised it was better not to hide this information for later.
Given this new strange alliance, Velkora decided to summon more of that Dwarven Drink. Grez groaned and this time partook in the booze. The others didn’t stop teasing him about it.
Wrap Up:
There is a large rift between the races of the world. And given that mad Gods are on a rampage these species need to set aside their differences if they want to survive the increasingly worse ordeals. If Mongress can properly be built it might go a long way towards securing said alliance.