Cycle of Millennia 2021 Session 34: Death of Innocence
Here is week 34 of my 2021 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. Now that they have made their choice, the party is about to cause a death of innocence.
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!!!
As the Party moved towards the second of the three orphans, they fought more angels. They winged defenders of light served Charice and would do whatever it took to keep this dream real going.
But the group had fought enough of them at this point to know how to kill them. Hadron notably was more than capable of taking them on himself thanks to his unique Berserker Knight powers. But the Angels had no interest in the Barbarian. They wanted to kill Velkora, the one who had destabilized this entire realm with her most recent actions.
Hadron tried to stop another child from dying. But while he was distracted with Velkora, Grez decided to reveal he was in on this cruel plot. With one well placed energy blast, two children were dead. Only one remained. And the Charice Dreamworld only grew more unstable as another pillar of the world faded.
The party ran towards Vinetta and the Angels guarding her. Each one for different reasons. Grez wanted out of here and that meant the girl needed to die. Velkora wanted to give her a painless way out. Caic didn’t know what to do anymore and felt powerless. Meanwhile, Hadron had every intention of saving his cousin. This was his only living relative. The only family he had.
Failed Duel:
Hadron demanded the angels let his cousin go. He didn’t want her to die and was willing to slaughter them all to protect her. From his companions, the world, and everything for that matter.
Naturally they refused. Vinetta was Charice’s property. And now, the sole person keeping this world from fading away.
He tried fighting the angels alone. By keeping the rest of the party back, he intended to protect his cousin from any and all killers.
Unfortunately, this time the Angels had a few tricks to make use of. When his allies fought common enemies, these Angels had been too focused on staying alive. But now he was alone and vulnerable. His body might have absorbed holy energy, but Angels had other tools they could use in a pinch. As entire walls of blades cut into his flesh, he fell to the ground. He was defeated. A rarity for one with such battle tenacity.
Fire Forged Bond:
The rest of the party jumped in to save him. It truly showed the bond the four now shared that it was obvious Hadron meant to kill two of them as soon as he could. Yet they saved him. Those blade wouldn’t have left even a corpse for the group to save later.
Velkora of all people was the one to save him in fact. Using the powerful swords against the Angels, she used the spinning momentum to spread healing magic to everyone nearby. The Angels might have been healed by such energy, but that didn’t matter. As a group even three powerful servants of Charice had no chance of winning.
The group slaughtered the Angels with little time to breath. Unfortunately, Hadron had been so lost in rage that he hadn’t noticed that one member of his group was about to make a power play he would never be able to forgive.
Vinetta:
Velkora made it to Vinetta first. The girl’s fate was basically sealed. However, before the former Cultist could administer her instant poison, the young girl told her to wait and listen.
Vinetta dropped some horrific truths. The three girls had been forced to watch everything that had happened. After learning that their mother had sacrificed countless innocent people just to keep them alive, Vinetta didn’t value her life much anymore. Three orphans were not equal to all the babies and mothers killed to swell Nihilinn’s horde.
She couldn’t handle the survivors guilt anymore. Especially now that her two friends were dead as well. After watching the Tarrasque kill almost everyone in the only town she had ever felt safe in, the girl had lost most of her happiness. But learning about the Matron’s dark secret had only blackened the poor child’s heart.
Worse though, while in this world, Charice’s energy was slowly siphoning them away. Eventually their minds would have been absorbed into the world. The had no choice but to sacrifice their own dreams for the sake of countless others.
Last Requests:
As she continued talking, Hadron prepared to attack Velkora. Anything to keep his cousin alive. She called out to him and begged him to stop. His rage faded as she continued hoping that he would listen to her final request.
Vinetta begged Hadron not to hate his friends, or the Charice Faithful. The real enemies were Nihilinn and the other evil Gods who had harmed them and created orphans. Everything in this place as well as Mongress had all happened because of an unfair world. A place that never could have made the girl happy.
She stated as her last wish that the four would work together to create a future where there wouldn’t be orphans with no choice but to be sacrifices. The girl even made eye contact with Velkora and whispered that she knew that they were both the same.
The former Cultist didn’t know how to react to hearing so much insight from a little girl. Wondering what her life would have been life if she hadn’t been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery, Velkora stood transfixed.
Tragedy:
Now it was time for her final request. Vinetta asked Velkora for that same knife she had used to end one of the other orphan’s lives a few minutes earlier. She put on a strong front, but Grez decided to read the child’s inner thoughts. She might have been strong on the outside, but she was after all still a child. Vinetta was afraid to die. The Monk cut the connection. There were only so many times even he could deal with a little girl repeating that she was scared over and over.
Before the deed could be done, Hadron tried one last time to stop this. Vinetta begged her cousin to let her make one choice in a life where nothing had ever gone her way. Giving the final smile of her life, the girl asked if Hadron would hold her hand.
Hadron at first shut his eyes, but when he realized that Vinetta was looking at him, he gritted his teeth and made sure that she knew he was there. It only took a little poke. The poor girl didn’t even cry out. Her last breath joined the fading dream as Hadron cried out the most dismayed shout of his entire life.
Wrap Up:
The Charice Dream world is fading quickly. The group is now haunted by their hand in these events. They not only destroyed innocence. They caused the death of innocence. A much more cruel action. But their task isn’t done yet. What will they find when they return?