Cycle of Millennia 2022 Session 48: Confronting Idrio
Here is week 48 of my 2022 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Cycle of Millennia. The party is forced into confronting Idrio, one of the most powerful Dragons in existence.
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 mentally preparing for what they faced, the party fought Idrio, the most powerful of all Black Dragons. This was an ancient being that had survived several cycles and might even be as old as the world itself. Still, to stop the wicked Gods, including the one ruling over Death which this being served, they had to win this fight.
But Idrio was no ordinary Dragon. And this battle was in a realm that it controlled. The ground beneath the party’s ground didn’t stay solid for long. And the air changed form too. Soon the floor had transformed into deadly acid and visibility was not only reduced but the light refracted as well.
Fighting the Black Dragon:
But Idrio didn’t give the party time to adapt to their new conditions. The acid burned through the armor and weakened them. The fog gave the Dragon advantage at range where it would not be hit by stray attacks.
And the prime Black Dragon wasn’t alone. Idrio was flanked by several smaller Black Dragons. And they all chose one target. Caic made the mistake of being isolated in the acid. And as the larger Black Dragon magically trapped him in the acid, its young allies capitalized on this.
Caic was stunned and on the verge of death. Courtesy of being unable to defend himself from the Black Dragons. Idrio removed the Dwarf from the fight and threatened to let him fall to his death should the rest of the group try to strike the Dragon down.
But Velkoara found a way to save him. Using her own telekinetic powers, she waited for Idrio to follow through on the threat and stopped Caic’s descent towards death. With that threat removed from the battle, Grez focused on the Alpha Dragon while Hadron hacked the heads off of the three weaker ones.
While Idrio had plenty of tricks from insect swarms to acid waves that brought flying enemies back towards the ground, the group prevailed even against one of the most powerful creatures in the world. Unfortunately this encounter left the four in a weakened state. They were in no condition to fight two more such Dragons.
Suluss’ Sacrifice:
But a voice called out to them and soon the speaker materialized. It was Suluss, Silver Dragon Prime. Fearing this exact scenario is why the Dragon had not given them the vote of confidence to enter the Realm of Law. But now they were here and had even defeated Idrio. So the Silver helped them. Though not in a way that the party liked.
Suluss sacrificed time. Its own time. The Dragons defeated here would not die. But they would not be reborn until this cycle came to an end. The Silver Dragon was investing in the party ending this conflict quickly.
As the group came to grips with what the Silver Dragon had done for them, the reality shaped by Idrio faded away. And with it, the party was back in the central room of the Realm of Law. Things had not changed much. At least not for the better.
Rose and Belwyn’s prison continued to shrink. There were still entire broods of Dragon nearby Blue and Red might be worse than the Black Dragons in this scenario. After all Orabaras sought to enslave the world. Kranaak was self explanatory. The God of Madness had made the party’s life living hell almost the entire adventure.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Grez attacked Blue Dragon guards by throwing them at each other. His Ape form dwarfed even the Dragons in size. And the Monk was very very pissed.
Naturally a group of weaker Dragons posed little threat to this group of demigod slayers. As soon as the last Blue Dragon faded away, another entrance to another pocket dimension within the Realm of Law appeared.
Wrap Up:
Yet within this next space is the Blue Dragon that made the entire chain of events possible. Is the party about to walk into a trap?