Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 47: Near Death
Here is week 47 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. While exploring the Realm of Law, one of them survives a near death experience.
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!!!
Racing against time, the party fought through Nihilinn’s hordes. All the way the prime Black Dragon taunted their actions and questioned their choices. Could they really save Belwyn and Rose?
Yet the group was able to ignore the Dragon. After all, it served a God that represented both Death and Nihilism. Naturally giving up and surrendering to death was its goal. But they had something to worry about like never before. Now that they really were on the God’s list of to be killed, the creatures they fought used a tactic rarely used.
Near Fatal:
Caic was almost killed. If not for Grez freezing time, the Paladin would have died right there and then. Nihilinn intended to claim their souls and stop them for good. The near death experience shook the Paladin to the core. This was it. They really had made an enemy of several Gods by coming here.
Hadron ran into even more trouble as they fought their way through the restless dead. Nihilinn once more had taken a Mindflayer from Orabaras and weaponized the creature against the group. The Barbarian without thinking things through tried to kill it with an illusion of madness.
But this didn’t work on a powerful psionic creature. Instead, it countered his illusion with one of its own. To horrific effect. Not only did it overwrite some of Hadron’s memories, but left the Barbarian addled, confused, and weakened.
Velkoara magically forced some sense into him. It was a simple matter for the woman to undo the spell of a Mindflayer. She had after all commanded several of them in the past. A good thing too since the greater challenge still stood ahead and reminded them of its existence.
The Prime Black Dragon continues to mock the party and how their entire mission was futile. Grez decided that killing the Dragon would be the fastest way to shut it up.
Wrap Up:
But this is a prime Dragon. One of the strongest of an ancient and powerful species. And they likely will have to take on two more before they can save Belwyn and Rose.