Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 44: Dealing with Devils
Here is week 44 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. The party is forced into dealing with Devils
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!!!
Orangar was tricked into helping Caethia have a child. Or rather they almost tricked him. Somehow the Elf still knew what was going on. Eleth lost her patience and just magically knocked him out. The powerful Black Dragon that served Kranaak alongside the Demon Dragon and Caethia found this whole exchange amusing.
Content with her end of the deal, Caethia flew away with the Elf who would father her child and disappeared into the skies around the Dragon tower. Eleth left, luckily without trying to kill the party.
Next, they returned to the Copper Dragon and reported their success. But they still had to get two powerful sorceresses to help them. One a dangerous enemy at that. Unfortunately they needed to find her and that left one obvious place to look.
The party asked the Copper Dragon to send them to the edge of Diamond, capital of Spatia. With luck, they might be able to get close to the city with Orarbaras’ minions not noticing. That didn’t work out at all.
Meeting with Thea:
The moment they appeared within the countries’ borders, the group was hit with a potent stunning spell. All save Hadron were immobilized. And the Barbarian only avoided such a fate due to a strange twist of fate. It became obvious who cast such magic when Thea herself appeared. She seemed insulted that they could appear here without being noticed.
The party was taken to the throne room of Diamond. From this room, Thea and her husband, the king of Spatia seemed to still be in power ten years later. She asked them what they wanted but only let them speak one at a time. The Orabaras Cult leader barely looked Velkoara in the eye. Was she insulted or upset by her betrayal?
Thea asked about their whereabouts. She revealed that Nihilinn had destroyed most of Innovia. Kranaak was trying to reclaim the underground, though the Dwarves fought valiantly. The Knights were stationed on the border between the two great nations. Probably not willingly.
Thea asked why the party wanted to continue their quest. She pointed out that Spatia knew better peace now than when the prior 1000 years had run their course. Was she right? Was the party wrong? The group feared she might not help them.
But when they explained what they needed her for, the powerful Wizard seemed interested. But naturally just like her even more dangerous ancestor, Thea wanted something in return. She told the party that she would help purify the water in exchange for them bringing Rose to her after their mission with the Dragons was complete.
Finding the Vampire:
That left Antoinette and if Thea was in Spatia, then the Vampire was in one obvious place. A spot that Grez did not want to go. But the rest of the group pointed out that alone he would be a target. So together they returned to the Dwarves. Fighting their way through Demons, they eventually made it through the tunnels.
Once in the Dwarven City, it wasn’t long before Antoinette appeared. Given that the party had not been subtle in their warpath on the way here, she had had ample time to prepare. Like the other two, she asked the party what they needed. A good thing that she was sort of their ally.
As usual the Vampire had some plot brewing. This was just her newest scheme to ensure she would continue to get what she wanted. Funny enough, most of the party agreed with her newest web of manipulations. One exception of course.
Grez had to swear an oath that pissed him off. And given that Antoinette was the one pulling the strings, he knew this one would be magically binding. With a simple command, a large part of the Monk’s goals over the course of his adventure was nullified. He would never be able to harm a Dwarf out of malice ever again for the rest of his life.
Purifying the Water:
With Caethia, Thea, and Antoinette gathered, it was a simple matter to purify the Elf spring. The spell itself released a lot of energy though. A good thing that most of the dangerous people in the world were the ones casting the magic.
Antionette and Thea left as soon as their work was done. The latter reminding them to fulfill their end of the bargain of course. But the Demoness remained behind. She had some more information for the group. As usual she had to have the last word.
Caethia revealed to the party that Entropy was trolling them. She could have done this herself. But as she left to do whatever a chaotic evil semi divine Demon did while bored, another entity had the last word instead. But only for Velkoara to hear. Entropy revealed another reason why she had done things this way. It was to keep the party alive. Two out of those three would have tried to kill the party while the spell was being cast otherwise.
It didn’t matter now, the group had what they needed. With the purified water in hand, the Copper Dragon granted support. Only two more votes left and the party could finally meet another Neutral God.
Gold Dragon’s Request:
Next they went to the Gold Dragon. They saw Belwyn there which was unsurprising considering she was a Gold Dragon herself. What was surprising was how simple a request it would be to gain the support of its brood.
The Dragon asked them to find the Knights of Exscutchon. Maybe to a Dragon this would be difficult, but Thea had already told the party where to find them. Asking the Gold to send them to a specific destination, it wouldn’t be long before they fulfilled this request.
As Thea had told them, the Paladins were stationed on the Yggdrasil bridge. Grez remembered that he was supposed to return here after he had become a better person. But he was once more disappointed. That other member of his race was no where to be found.
The Paladins were relieved to see them alive. The party requested to meet with the current leaders. As it turned out, that was Kalni. She was relieved to see them alive.
Wrap Up:
The party just has to figure out how to prove to the Gold Dragon that they found the Knights. Then they can check this task off and move on to the final one.