Storytime

This shit is riveting keep going!

Okay! Glad to hear.

When Act II began, the party were adventuring through Mechanus in search of the Amber Elf vault that was supposed to hold the first shard. However, the party had yet again changed up. In the chaos at the end of Act I, Edwin had gone through the wrong portal and was lost to the party. Now we had:
>Kewil, drow ranger, mama-bear / party leader, CG
>Akiiki, anubite rogue, greedy little cutthroat, NE
>Charles Barkley, human monk, flying-jump kicker, Chaotic. Just chaotic.
>Ezapali of Itchtali, drow favored soul(?), now carrying Jim’s adamantium sword, TN
In addition to two new characters:
>Werkzeug, undead cleric of Falth, god of death. LE. Roommate’s new character. Actually a fairly cool character IMO, also the viable version of LE.
>Edmond Belmont, the human barbarian, CN. Edwin’s player’s new character.

A small note about Belmont. Belmont’s backstory was that he was captured by demons while a young man and tortured for a long time before breaking out and becoming the rage-filled “Crimson Blight.” He stood at 6’8” feet tall with spiky black hair. He hated being touched by other people because of the things done to him. He carried a greatsword big enough to make a Final Fantasy character blush and thanks to Monkey Grip, didn’t take too much of a penalty for it. His are nemesis was a fiend named Griffith. If you’re thinking: “geez, this sounds a lot like a particular anime character,” you’ve caught on much quicker than I did. Yes, Belmont was basically a carbon copy of Guts. At least, he would be, if it hadn’t been for Etzi. But that happens much later.

So the party were in Mechanus and knew they needed to find a shard somewhere, but weren’t too keen on details. They start asking around for information on the elves who traveled to Mechanus years ago, but don’t get too far. They wind up in a small town that was under attack by the shardmind--chaotic invaders to the plane. The military shows up to protect the town and conscripts the party (including Belmont and Werkzeug) into guarding a transport of some artifact carried by silent monks. So the party embarks through the cogs of Mechanus, Kewil and Akiiki interested in getting information, Barkley in...whatever Barkley was interested in, and Belmont and Werkzeug in killing demons because ‘muh backstory.’ There were quite a few sessions of travel through the desert cogs which are fairly uneventful to the main story, but during that time they met Tan’Ri--the second most important NPC in the campaign.

Tan’Ri was, by all appearances, a fast-talking, sex addicted business guru who ran some trade cartel with a trading post in Mechanus. Think a bizarre combination of Cave Johnson, Hugh Hefner, and Iknik Varrick. His first conversation with the party involved a rather detailed description of Tan’Ri’s attempts to woo the daughter of some Earth Elemental prince. He also made several sexual advances towards Akiiki (who nearly stabbed him at least twice), but only ever verbally (psst, that’s important). The party found him to be quite amusing but said their goodbyes and continued on their journey. However, Tan’Ri would show up again, and again, and soon enough, nearly destroy the whole universe. Yeah, things got out of hand.

The party continued towards their destination with the silent monks--the city of Klag-Sur, capital of the Six-Eight Consortium, intersection of three gear clusters. Before they reached Klag-Sur, they had to pass through a massive desert, within which they found Barkley’s tower. You see, Jay had decided that Barkley was having vision of a golden city that Barkley would rule. Jay had grown tired of Barkley and wanted to play a new character: a changeling gunslinger by the name of Gil. So, for some reason, I indulged Jay, and let Barkley find a golden tower in the middle of the desert which had some connection to his magic mask. There was one obstacle from keeping Barkley from claiming his throne--another masked person. The idea was that Barkley would have to fight other masked assassin one-on-one at the peak of the tower while the rest of the party would be locked in combat with the creatures below. Barkley had a series of terrible rolls and terrible decisions and died--falling 100ft off the tower into the hard desert below.

Yet again, Etzi had encountered death and was left feeling powerless and upset (much like Jay), and though Kewil tried to comfort him, Etzi was drifting down a dark path.

(As a side note, Jay was super pissed that his character died, so he took the liberty of killing *my* character in a campaign that he was running. I was mind controlled into jumping off a tower to my death. So I guess it all worked out.)

The party unceremoniously buried Barkley and headed off towards Klag-Sur, only to be stopped by the Vorpali. The Vorpali were inevitables gone rogue who had been programmed to eliminate flesh-based lifeforms, such as the Thri-Kreen, humans, and the players. While things looked grim, the party was rescued by a group of eladrin eagle riders known as the Wings of Justice.

The Wings took the party to Klag-Sur, the party delivered the artifact, and now had some time to gather information on the location of the shard. Everyone went their own way for a session or two as the party handled side-quests and gathered information. Kewil got close to the Wings of Justice, Akiiki killed some innocent clerics, Belmont and Werkzeug killed some demons, and Etzi? Well, Etzi went off and spent his time with an elven girl he met in the marketplace. She was a simple daughter of an alchemist, but the first bit of “normal” that Etzi had had for a while.

Unfortunately, good things don’t last long in Etzi’s life.

You see, while the party was in Klag-Sur, the villain, Hadrianus, sent his lackey, Cnidara to retrieve the shard for him.

As a note, Cnidara ended up being much more interesting than Hadrianus and became one of the party’s most hated enemies. Which is pretty remarkable, since they only ever encountered her four times in 60 sessions. I'm not sure why.

Anyways, Cnidara recruited a changeling to infiltrate the party and lead them into an ambush. That changeling? Gil Darkeyes, Jay’s newest character. Gil joined up with the team, as well as another new player’s character--a goliath druid who is completely unimportant to the story. The party was content working on their side quests and developing their characters and were quite excited that Etzi fancied this alchemist girl. Unfortunately, the excitement was replaced by fear when a Vorpali warship is spotted on the horizon.

Why did I give Jay the chance to betray the party? Well, to be fair, everyone IRL had some problems with Jay, so it wasn't exactly hurting his reputation. Besides, he was about to graduate.

The big warship needed to be destroyed, but the party was not strong enough to do it, so the leader of the Wings of Justice took the artifact that the party brought to Klag-Sur, an antimagic bomb, and leds a suicide mission into the heart of the warship to set it off. Kewil was appointed the new head of the Wings of Justice, and the remainder of the Wings of Justice and the party set off towards the dungeon where the shard is located.

So the adventurers took flight, leaving behind a panicked city, Etzi’s only normal friend, and a trail of destruction. Etzi was heartbroken. All Etzi had seen up to this point was the death that followed in the party’s wake. (Pic related) Was there any hope left? Where was the light in the midst of this crushing darkness?

There was a glimmer of hope for the party members as they traveled through a small town in Mechanus. In that town, Kewil was taken aside by a strange man who called himself “Joshwa.” He was an older man, who smelt of cabbages and smoked an old pipe. Kewil had recognized that smell coming off of a few helpful NPC’s before, and the players had begun to suspect something was up. The “cabbage man” only told Kewil that Etzi was of great importance, and that the boy would have to be protected. The players would come to refer to this man as “The Traveler” and he only existed because of how attached the players were to Etzi.

You see, I was committed from that time on to give Etzi a happy ending, because a happy ending for Etzi would be a happy ending for my players.

So our party at this point consisted of:
>Kewil, drow “racism wins” ranger
>Akiiki, anubite “how much would you pay me?” rogue
>Belmont, human “torturing a demon for fun isn’t wrong, ‘cause it’s a demon” barbarian
>Werkzeug, undead “I pray for a centipede swarm to live inside me” cleric
>Gil, changeling “totally not going to betray you” rogue
>???, goliath “forgettable” druid
>Etzi, drow “why does everything I love die” favored soul

The party arrives in the Abandoned Gear Cluster to find the evil robots Vorpali as well as Cnidara and some demons. It looked like both groups were now after the shard. The party also met Alpha-H-Kappa-47-143, an inevitable gone wonky, intent on destroying the Vorpali. If you’re imagining HK-47, you’re pretty much right. Alpha, as the party came to call him, believed that the best solution to deal with the Vorpali was to awaken the local silicon dragon from its slumber. To that end, he hitched a ride with the players near the Vorpali warship and told the party he would return shortly with the dragon’s help.

The rest of the party entered the dungeon the same way Cnidara and her demons had. The six adventurers, plus Etzi, entered the decaying remains of some robot factory to be met by Cnidara’s soldiers. That’s about the time things went very, very wrong. The soldiers were mostly tieflings but were flanked by a Mezzoloth. While Belmont and Akiiki went after the Mezzoloth, Gil, the goliath, and Kewil sparred with a few other tieflings. This left Werkzeug to spar head to head with the tiefling commander...who decapitated Werkzeug in two rounds. My roommate’s characters always seemed to die at the ends of story arcs. When the combat was over, Werkzeug was dead and Gil had had enough. So, for reasons that still elude me, Gil turned his pistol on Etzi and took aim.

A word of advice: if you’re going to kill a beloved NPC, make sure you do it in one round. Not because of what the NPC will do. (Though, Etzi did start getting smoky and probably could have landed a flame strike or two). No, you want to make sure you do it in one round because of the barbarian, assassin, and ranger who love the NPC.

Gil was unconscious moments later and Jay was pissed. Frankly, the only reason that Belmont didn’t kill Gil was because Belmont’s player didn’t want us to devolve into PVP. So now most of the party was wounded, Gil was unconscious, Werkzeug was dead, and Etzi was losing control. Etzi had fought Tethgalos for his will, mind, and soul every day, and hesitated to use his power ever so that Tethgalos would never get a chance to take over. But Etzi had been betrayed, hurt, and was still recovering from a lost friend. For a brief moment, Tethgalos had an in, and all was lost. Etzi was gone.

At least, he would have been, if it hadn’t been for Alpha-H-Kappa-47-143. My roommate had decided to jump in as Alpha and was having none of this “meatbag nonsense.” He looked straight at Etzi (possessed by the god Tethgalos this point) and said: “”Leave this meatbag, now.” He rolled to intimidate. He rolled to intimidate a god.

Natural 20.

I decided that that was a good enough excuse to snap Etzi out of it.

Well, now the party had Etzi back, an unconscious Gil (starting to wake up), and a dungeon worth of conquering to do. When Gil woke up, he said (in rough terms): “screw you guys, I’m going home” and Jay was no longer with us. The rest of the party (with a spring in their step) charged forward through the dungeon. They had a brief skirmish with Cnidara, who fled when the fighting got rough. Kewil had her moment of victory killing some dragonborn assassin guy who was also in the dungeon. Followed by the startling realization that the dragonborn guy HAD NEVER HURT HER EVER. Then, they entered the shard chamber.

Unfortunately, the shard chamber was also the main magical control room for the whole robot factory. The robot lady who controlled the place decided the factory was too “contaminated” and that only a “total purge” could make things right. Typical boss fight--turn off the magical crystals that powered her while fighting her defensive golems. Oh, and Alpha realized that if the factory was destroyed, then all the Vorpali would be destroyed. He failed a few will saves and followed his programming, by turning on the party. It was one or two hours of zero-g fighting, and it was glorious.

When all was said and done, Kewil, Akiiki, Belmont, and Etzi, all deeply wounded, managed to get the shard and stop the self-destruct. When they got outside, they met the Vorpali commander. The look of horror on my player’s faces was absolutely priceless.

Their expressions changed from horror to joy when a massive harpoon pinned the command to the ground, and a familiar voice called to the party. Looking up, they saw a human rogue who was several years older than when they last met him. It was Edwin the pirate, former PC turned NPC turned “get out of jail free card.” With him was a cast of characters new and old: Nari, an elf witch; Hobbes, a frogman professor, and Captain Fredrick Rutledge, hadozee pirate captain.

The party boarded Edwin’s ship, named the Wailing Grick, and were whisked away to the space between the planes. The party was not just a group of rag-tag adventurers anymore. They had a crew to help, and someone willing to fund the adventure. A man named Tan’Ri.

Our group took a break for the summer as people went home or graduated but their adventures were not over. When Fall rolled around, Belmont’s player wasn’t in town, and would not be for another few months. So, I told the players that were in town, along with the new people I had recruited, that we would just be playing an intermission of sorts--same world, different campaign. This was also about the time we switched over to 5e. Over the summer I was able to pick up the books and I thought it’d be a better fit for my group of players.

Our adventure was set in Skyhelm, Jewel of the Western Sea. A ragtag group of adventurers had been recruited by a man going by the name of Caspian to retrieve a jade egg, lost somewhere in Skyhelm.

Our team:
>Cin, Aarakocra Warlock of Horus (Divine Arbiter homebrew), Lawful Horus. (My roommate’s new character)
>Bellatrix, Ratfolk Ranger (Beastmaster), Chaotic Good-ish (Akiiki’s player, though Bellatrix was not a complete sociopath)
>Lothair, Human Paladin (Oath of the Common Man homebrew), Lawful Communist (new player--philosopher friend of mine, wanted to play a communist)
>Sarnai, Orc Rogue (Arcane Trickster), Chaotic Flirty (the forgotten goliath’s player)
>Vur-Udapesh, Aarakocra Monk (Way of the Open Hand), Truly Neutral, (new player, friend of Kewil’s player)

As a side note: I jumped into homebrew too quickly, I think. I enjoy lots of options, but at times, the homebrews would reveal themselves to be quite unbalanced. Still, it made for a good story. Any mistake can be turned into a plot point, if you’re creative.

The party set out to investigate the goings-on in town and had a wonderful little adventure for a few weeks. Each character was fun in their own way, but everyone was focused on learning 5e, so there wasn’t as much interesting stuff happening. Then again, I suppose it really was Etzi’s story, so most of the details don’t matter. Then we got word that Belmont’s player was going to be back in town much earlier than expected. Excellent.

The players had obtained the jade egg, and their contact “Caspian” wanted them to meet the boss who had hired them. The players were suspicious, but attending the meeting. It was held in a shut-down wing of the local university. They passed rooms full of planar research, odd objects, and a frogman professor researching something called “Charybdis.” In the final room, the players were invited to dinner by a smiling and talkative anubite.

“The name is Tan’Ri” he said. “And have I got a deal for you.”

The group was confused--wait, wasn't this a different campaign? Nope, it's alllll connected. The party was to retrieve some old crown which Tan’Ri claimed belong to some long-dead elf queen. OOC the players all realized that this must be the "crown" part of the mcguffin they were looking for.

Tan'Ri explained that the journey would be fraught with danger, but the reward at the end would be well worth it. In addition, they would guided to their location by a friend of Tan'Ri. A human warlock (archfiend) named Edward. (Edward was Belmont’s player’s new character. He exclusively had Ed- names.) The party set out, a full six adventurers, into the wilderness north of Skyhelm. They were looking for the Vale of the Sleeping Queen.

When they arrived in the first town, they were greeted only by misery--the daughter of a local mayor had been kidnapped. The party set out to find the kidnapper and rescue the girl, typical stuff. While fighting their way through the dungeon, Vur-Udapesh was killed and the party rescued a kobold bard from captivity. The kobold’s named was A’akaga the Awesome, and he had set off adventuring so that he could become a dragon. Since A’akaga had nothing else going on, he joined with the party and they set forth (again) to the north, to the Vale of the Sleeping Queen.

>Cin, Aarakocra Warlock of “have you heard the good news of our lord and savior Horus?”
>Bella, Ratfolk Beastmaster of “my tiger is dead again!?”
>Lothair, Human Paladin of “I hand him a pamphlet on communism”
>Sarnai, Orc Spellthief of “I roll seduce him and break her hip”
>Edward, Human Warlock of “I’d sell your soul to Plutarch for sandwich”
>A’akaga, Kobold Bard of “I hope you don’t mind if I cast Crown of Madness”

Soon after leaving the town, loaded with gold and recognition, the party learned that they were entering the Raven Wood. It was mostly home to bandits and the occasional fae. I then described an iron falcon that followed the party through the Raven Wood. Cin was paranoid that his god was watching him, but the party discovered that was not the case. Instead, the falcon served a masked man covered in bandages who called himself Czar.
Pic related.
Czar seemed to be a masterful monk who warned the party that Tan’Ri was an evil, vile man. More troublesome, Czar wore the iron mask of Charles Barkley. IC, the characters had no idea. OOC, all of the former team were freaking out. Yes, Jay was gone, but was Barkley back from the dead? Czar sparred with the party briefly, but seemed hesitant to do them real harm. He flew away when it was clear that he could not get the jade egg from them.

After many weeks of adventuring, the party had bravely made their way around an encroaching army, unseelie fae, and gnolls, and were nearly at the Vale of the Sleeping Queen. During this time, they had gained a title, or rather, Edward had given the party a name: The Sassafras Guild. It wasn’t the best name, but it was the only one that stuck. Shortly before reaching the Vale, now under the control of a mad wizard and his devilish servants, the “Sassafras Guild” met a traveler who invited them to dine with him for the night. He called himself Josh’wa and smelt faintly of boiled cabbages. A’akaga did his best to try to learn the secrets of this man, but the charming old human only spoke riddles. He promptly went to bed and was gone by the time the party woke up. However, all of them got the sense that he was not a threat to the party--only a guide.

The next leg of their journey was directed into the Vale of the Sleeping Queen. They found a dungeon where the crown was. Descending into the dungeon, they met the mysterious mage who had been driving the gnolls to their bloodshed. A half-ilithid ogre named Gradoc.
“Ello there!” he said in thick cockney accent.

All mindflayers need cockney accents. It makes it so much better.

Gradoc was a jovel fellow who enjoyed reading, chess, eatings brains, and playing games. He gave the party a challenge:
“I’ve got myself a few days with not’in’ to do, you know, just waitin’, and I need a little bit o’ entertainment. You survived the ol’ guardian, so I think you might be able to survive the res’ of my forces. If you can figure out o’ way to get into my chamber, I promise I’ll give you a fair fight, you know, not gon’ tel’port away or anything like that.”

I give the dialogue to characterize Gradoc and explain why he became such a favorite of the party. That’ll be important for later.

Anyways, the party fought their way through the fiends and made their way to Gradoc’s chamber. Along the way, they found bits of an old journal, written by an Amber Elf. The journal recounted the story of how the Amber Elves found out about the godcrown and what would be needed to make it. It spoke of a team of adventurers--including an anubite rogue and a drow ranger--who came together to get the pieces.

OOC, the players speculated about time travel. IC, they were not particularly interested. The journal went on to detail (among other things) how a powerful forge beyond the planes was needed to forge the pieces together, and recount the tragic fall of the Amber Empire before the crown could be complete. The incomplete crown, missing its magical shards, was still quite powerful and quite dangerous, and now sat squarely on Gradoc’s head.

As the party prepared to enter Gradoc’s chamber, they raided a small vault of magical objects ranging from the mundane to the immensely powerful.
Lothair picked himself up a magic greataxe that glowed in the presence of aberrant creatures, A’akaga picked up a magical orb of some sort, Cin picked up a magic shield, and Sarnai got a blade of vengeance. Most were not particularly important, but I had to mention the orb somewhere, 'cause that was actually incredibly important.

Armed with magic and power, they charged into the half-ilithid’s lair. It was then that they learned why Gradoc had given them so much time to come and face him. The mad wizard was attempting to open a portal to Far Realm and had been successful. Reality started to break down; fire, water, earth, and air were replaced by flesh and mind; euclidian geometry was brought to a halt. All became a twisted nightmare that brought brought only madness. It was at that moment that the two warlocks looked at each other and quietly agreed to the nuclear option.

You see, I had houseruled that Cin’s spells occasionally did a different type of damage since he was a priest of Horus. One such spell was Hunger of Hadar, which was Hunger of Horus for Cin. When Edward asked me what would happen if the two were put together, I offhanded ruled that there’d be a massive implosion. The nuclear option. The two concentrated their spells just inside the portal and I asked Cin to roll a 1d6.
“What, 1d6 damage to each of us?”
“No, 1d6 miles of destruction.”

When the smoke cleared, there was naught but a crater. I described angelic figures hoisting the bodies of the party and carrying them away. Among them was a masked figure who lamented the passing of the guild.

When they awoke, the Sassafras Guild found themselves in a monastery in the Plane of Positive Energy. They were informed by the monks that Tan’Ri had brought them here to heal for a few months because of their severe injuries. Sadly, however, Edward was not among their number--he had disappeared. Word was sent to Tan’Ri and a small interplanar ship, the Wailing Grick, arrived with Tan’Ri on board. The party had failed to get the crown and thought it likely destroyed in the blast. However Tan’Ri was not upset. He brought the guild into his private quarters and explained that the small orb that A’akaga had picked up was far more valuable than the crown. It wasn’t a normal object: it was a map so rare that even the gods had forgotten about it. It was a map to the Forge of Eternity.

You know, if they had just not picked that little orb up, things probably wouldn't have gotten that bad. But I digress.

After a break for the holidays, our group got back together and I explained what had happened. It had been a full year in-game since the original party was rescued from Mechanus, during which the remaining party members trained and researched Tethgalos. It had been three months since the second party awoke in the plane of positive energy, and all of them had been recruited by Tan’Ri to help out. In addition, Tan’Ri had recruited a few other adventurers who had proven themselves powerful allies. Twelve adventurers in total. The plan? Half would travel to the plane of Charybdis to reclaim the second shard while the other half would do some tasks for Tan’Ri and the Countess.

I suppose I should introduce the Countess, as she was the one funding much of the mission. The mysterious woman lived in an isolated drow village and appeared to be an elf herself, but very pale and never was seen in the sunlight. Yep, a vampire. Tan’Ri’s partner was a vampire. Not a red flag, not at all.

As the twelve got to know one another and the mission was explained: they would travel to Charybdis and find the lair of Volos the Destroyer, an obsidian dragon who held the second shard. During the course of this explanation, Tan’Ri casually mentioned that Kewil had died. The whole party was shocked, but none more so than Etzi.
Kewil had left in the middle of the night soon after the party was rescued from Mechanus. She did it to “protect the shard” and “lead the Wings of Justice.” In RL, she graduated and moved 2,000 miles away. Now, Etzi’s mother figure was dead, just like Jim, Barkley, and all the rest. Akiiki and Belmont looked at each other and silently agreed that they would become the mother and father to Etzi that he needed. Yes, the sociopath and berserker would make excellent parents of the reluctant Avatar of Tethgalos. In a way, Etzi ended up changing them as much as they changed him.

So the primary party roster was:
>A’akaga, kobold bard, master of puns
>Akiiki, anubite assassin, master of edges
>Belmont, human barbarian, master of muscles (ended up giving him a homebrew subclass that gave him higher strength at the cost of intelligence, wisdom, and charisma--huge mistake)
>Lothair, human paladin, master of smites
>Sarnai, orc spellthief, master of sass
>Soren, human sorcerer, master of flames (my roommate’s new character)
>Etzi, drow cleric, master of regrets

The backup party, briefly, was:
>Dayaram, lizardfolk sorcerer, all about that wild magic life
>Bellatrix, ratfolk ranger, all about letting her animals die because beastmaster is a terrible class
>(Edgelord) Edrick Black, human fighter, basically just backup Belmont with more maneuvers
>Wilhelm, minotaur warmage, Nietzschean Ubermensch (Lothair’s other character, homebrew class)
>Rose Fletcher, human paladin, hated evil magic and was the single best player character in the campaign (IMO)
>Cin, aarakocra warlock, probably going to betray the party to Horus

And so after a long but fun first session, the first party made their way into the maddening land of Charybdis. The plane was a battlefield for the celestials, fiends, slaadi, invitables, and others to fight over magical crap, and was a vortex the size of an ocean. The outer rim of the vortex had several islands on it, while the inner islands were gradually being down into the eye of the vortex. The party made their way through some ship ports towards the volcano where Volos was known to dwell. The adventure was going well, and the party had earned quite a bit of fame and gold along the way. They learned of an oracle who might be able to give them the secret to killing Volos and hitched a ride with some pirates to get to the oracle’s isle.

Sarnai, always the flirt, bedded an attractive orc on the ship whose name was Zeus. While Sarnai was getting lucky, the rest of the party were above deck, quite unlucky, being attacked by a strange inevitable. The inevitable claimed it was looking for a criminal who had committed crimes against the gods. Akiiki, fearing for her life, ran. The fear turned to confusion when the inevitable turned and sent a bolt of lightning down on Etzi.

Belmont flew into a rage, Lothair dove between the machine and the boy, Soren and A’akaga slammed the creature with every high-damage spell in their arsenal, and Akiiki jumped right on top of the creature to stab into its machine core. But inevitable kept fighting, and kept fighting,
until Etzi snapped and unleashed the fury of the Ashen Tree on the unfortunate creature.

He bound it with black petrified roots, and the party watched in horror as Etzi tore its adamantium plates apart and melted its mithril core with ancient divine power. A’akaga finished his teleport incantation and the hunk of molten metal was sent flying off into the heart of the vortex. Steam still pouring out of him, his wounds closing up, Etzi collapsed.

When the party reached the oracle’s island, they were not sure what to do. They left an NPC to guard Etzi and consulted the oracle. The oracle spoke in riddles and half-truths, but they did manage to find out that a magic sword was used to hurt Volos before. So at least the party had a direction to go now: find the magic sword, used it to kill Volos, and get the second shard. Etzi, however, remained a mystery, even to the oracle.

Returning to Etzi, they found that even after several hours, Etzi would not wake up.
“He will not wake up,” a voice said. “Because I am keeping him asleep.”
The strong odor of boiled cabbage filled the room, and a faceless man in a green cloak revealed himself: the Traveler.
“Akiiki, Belmont, you have seen the factories of the inevitables. Tell me, did you recognize the being that attacked Etzi?”
They said that they had not.
“Indeed,” the Traveler replied. “Because that inevitable will not be made for another 100 years … Etzi is guilty of crimes against the gods, or will be, if he continues down the road he’s on.”
The party stood in shocked silence as the Traveler described the grim future that awaited Etzi. Cursed to be the avatar of a dark god, Etzi would fulfill his destiny and with fire, purge the world. So the Traveler offered the party a deal: the Traveler would take Etzi away, where he would be safe and never become the Unholy Flame of Tethgalos.
“Will he have a happy life?” Belmont asked.
The Traveler only looked down and said nothing. The answer was clear in his silence.

The party declined the Traveler’s offer. They didn’t care about destiny, fate, or the future. They didn’t care about the risk. They wanted Etzi to have a happy ending. They would fight and die to make sure that Etzi got that. The Traveler nodded and handed the party a ring made from a unicorn’s horn. It would dampen Tethgalos’ power over Etzi, but also leave him frail and sap what little strength remained.
Etzi’s fate was in squarely the hands of the party.
They would have to lead Etzi down a different path that he was fated to go down.
They would have to show Etzi what it meant to be a hero.

When Etzi finally woke up, the party explained very little to him. They didn’t want to give him some awful prophecy that would hang over his head, and rather just told him that they had found a ring that would dampen his power. He put it on, and at first, was doing okay. The rest of the party had bigger problems to deal with: a crew of pirates aligned with Tethgalos.

The party had an epic sea battle above deck, but Belmont and Akiiki realized that Etzi was under attack too. Below deck, Cnidara had snuck in and was trying to take Etzi. An NPC companion was trying to fend her off, but Cnidara mopped the floor with her. As she prepared to plane shift herself and Etzi away, there was a “twang” and Cnidara’s hand was pinned to a nearby pole by a well placed arrow from Akiiki. Cnidara created a blade barrier. Belmont, who had next to no health left, said: screw it. Jumped through the blade barrier, took massive damage, but survived with ~1 hp. He then delivered two massive blows to Cnidara, who teleported out of danger, cursing Belmont as best should could as she fled. In the aftermath of the battle, the party gathered to talk. Etzi was safe, yes, but the forces of Tethgalos would never stop trying to get him. The party needed to find a way to free Etzi from this curse. Otherwise, Etzi would never have peace.

Over the next few weeks, the party made their way to the volcano of Nushgar, where Volos made his lair. They picked up a magic dragon-slaying sword along the way, which Belmont was quite happy to have. They prepared their weapons and advanced towards the mountain, expecting the dragon to attack. However, instead of a dragon, they were met by a company of fiery elves. The elves were the residents of the volcano and arrested the party for trespassing. The party, confused, were taken to a holding cell inside of the city where they were thrown into a cell beside a man wearing a mask. Czar.

Czar chatted briefly with the party, seemingly knowing each of them. He said that Barkley was long dead, but still knew things only Barkley would know. Before they could learn anything more, Czar was dragged away to the arena, where he would be forced to fight to entertain the elves. Getting captured *was* part of his plan. The party questioned the guards and discovered the Czar had been arresting trying to sneak into the palace. At that moment, the guards were called upstairs “by order of the queen”, and a young elven girl made her way down into the prison. She called herself Opal, and the players immediately guessed that she was some sort of royalty.

Cliche? Kinda. Adorable? I guess. Fun? Definitely.

Opal was in fact, royalty. Daughter of Queen Saphira, heir to the throne of Nushgar. She was a sheltered child who had never left the confines of the volcano, well, except for a secret trip to the plane of fire “which mother has never forgiven me for.” She asked the party why they were in Nushgar, and then furrowed her brow as they explained. “It’s going to be hard to kill Volos, as he’s been dead for years.” As it turns out, the elves only wanted to be left alone, and having the story of a massive dragon kept away outsiders fairly well. At that moment, a company of guards returned to the prison and were shocked to see Princess Opal standing there. The commander said: “Princess, what are you doing in here?”
She replied: “Well, I came to see the guests in my kingdom.
“Your majesty, don’t you know that these individuals are dangerous invaders? They are a threat to you and your throne.”
“There is no question that they are dangerous.” she said, turning to the party. “The better questions is—are you a threat to me or the rest of the royal house?”
The party vehemently shook their heads and tried to explain the situation.
“Your majesty,” the commander said, “I think that you may want to seek your mother’s advice.”
“She is too paranoid. By my royal right as future queen of Nushgar, I demand that these individuals be pardoned!
The guards looked confused for a moment, unsure of what to do. The commander nodded and the guards begin to open up the cells.
“Guards, please escort my guests and I to the palace, send a message to have rooms prepared for them, as well as a meal for us.” Opal said. Adding: “Oh, and after that… take the day off!”

Something about Opal was endearing to the party and naturally they tried to push Etzi to spend time with her. Etzi quietly explained to Belmont that he was not too confident, since almost everyone he had tried to make friends with or been interested in had ended up dead, or their city destroyed, or both. Belmont assured him that it would be fine. One day later, as Etzi, Opal, and Belmont overlooked the city as it was exploding all around them Belmont quietly whispered: “Never fall in love, Etzi.” But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The party were welcomed to the palace rather reluctantly by Queen Saphira. Czar’s assassination attempt still fresh in her mind, the Queen was untrusting of outsiders. Nevertheless, Opal’s relentless enthusiasm helped to calm things. As the party dined with the Queen, they learned that Volos had ruled over the elves for centuries until she and her people rebelled, overthrew Volos, and established their own enclave in the volcanic tunnels. The party was suspicious, as Volos was evidently a very powerful dragon. They asked where Volos’ treasure had gone, and the Queen explained that they had been using it to provide for the repairs to the city and to establish trade between various planes. Among the treasure, the Queen said that there was no shard as they described. The queen gave them leave to investigate Volos’ old lair and freedom to wander the city for up to three days, after which, they would need to leave.

So the party spent the next day on various tasks.
Lothair was slowly spreading the message of communism around the bugbear working class, who didn’t seem smart enough to catch on.
Akiiki, Sarnai, and A’akaga went down into the Volos’ lair. They found it was completely empty, save for magma and a memorial to the elves who had died in the fight with Volos. Somehow, only Queen Saphira survived the battle. They began to suspect that Volos was not as dead as Queen Saphira had claimed, but was perhaps still ruling the elves, if only from the shadows.
Meanwhile, Soren and Belmont were acting as chaperones for Etzi on his tour of the city with Opal. The pair seemed to really hit it off--Etzi and Opal that is, though Soren and Belmont became bros, too. Opal explained to Etzi that her father and siblings had been killed by Volos, and that her mother had been very protective of her since that time. Etzi eventually explained his own struggles and his curse. Etzi expected Opal to run away when he told her, but she only smiled and in her relentlessly hopeful manner said: “Well, we’re just going to have to find a way to fix it!”

Lothair, Akiiki, Sarnai, and A’akaga all arrived at the palace that evening around the same time. Making their way inside, they were told that the Queen had guests staying with her that evening. Curious to meet these guests, the party, minus Belmont, Soren, and Etzi, walked in on a meeting between Queen Saphira and Hadrianus, the high priest of Tethgalos, flanked by an iron dwarf commander and Cnidara. It was a scene straight out of Empire Strikes Back and the party immediately noped the hell out of there.

Or they would have, had Czar not shown up at that exact moment. You see, Czar had escaped from confinement and met up with the rest of his team. Yes, Czar now had a team of anti-party members. Now the party was trapped between Hadrianus & Co. and Czar & Co. without an escape route. Czar coldly said to the Queen: “Give me the shard, or I will reveal your precious secret to this city.”
She only glared and muttered, “I will end your miserable life, orc.”
“A shame,” Czar replied. “Mr. Iron, if you would?”
A cloaked figure stretched out his metallic arm, and said: “dispel magic.”
Queen Saphira began to twist and transform, her true form revealed. Her skin became like blue crystal, her hands became like claws. She screamed, and the scream became a roar. Queen Saphira was a dragon--a sapphire dragon who had killed Volos to take his hoard and his people. Hadrianus was shocked, the palace guards were shocked, the party (surprisingly) were shocked. She blasted the room with force breath and tore through the walls to get to Czar. Czar took flight and led her out of the room while the anti-party leveled every attack they could against the dragon queen. Hadrianus kindly nope’d back to the realm he came from, and the party was left in the middle of a collapsing palace.

Meanwhile, Etzi was having a wonderful candlelit dinner with Opal, Belmont and Soren quietly standing guard. Suddenly, the earth began to shake and spouts of magma began to open up throughout the city. They watched as a titanic crystalline dragon tore its way through the trade district, chasing after a small figure jumping from house to house. Opal looked heartbroken.

She explained that Volos had killed her father, a powerful dragon in the Plane of Earth. Her mother had slain Volos and used her consider magic power to convince the elves of Nushgar that she was their queen.
All Queen Saphira had wanted was a safe place for her daughter, and Czar had destroyed that.

The party reunited and compared notes, and realized that Saphira had to have her own hidden lair somewhere nearby. Opal was willing to lead them to it, and the party promised her that they would not hurt her mother, if they could help it. So they found their way into Saphira’s lair and found the dead body of Volos surrounded by full treasure hoard; precious gems, magical items, and loot aplenty. Then, in the skeletal remains of Volos: the second shard. Akiiki snuck her way towards the skeleton. At that moment, Queen Saphira arrived. Furious and barely thinking straight, she demanded that Opal leave the outsiders so that she could destroy them. Then the party did something I didn’t expect them to: they tried to reason with Queen Saphira. They understood her plight, they genuinely didn’t want to kill her, and seriously believed that Saphira was justified for what she did.

Of all of the mistakes I made in the campaign, this was the one that sticks out the most to me. I was so obsessed with the idea of a massive fight against a dragon that I basically didn’t allow for diplomacy. I mean, they had some fantastic persuasion rolls and sincerely didn’t want to hurt the queen. I should have let things end peacefully, and I might have, had Akiiki not fumbled her stealth roll to steal the second shard.

“THIEVES” Saphira roared. She whipped her head around and blasted the area where Akiiki was to bits. Akiiki rolled to avoid the blast, and somehow, even on disadvantage, avoided taking any damage. Thus, combat began. The players were really trying their hardest to just calm her down, but I was in battle mode, and refused to hear them. The combat was glorious, though heartbreaking. Opal morphed into her dragon form and began to wrestle with her mother in midair. A’akaga cursed and confused the Queen, Soren called down lightning storms, and Akiiki and Sarnai fired arrow after arrow. Lothair and Belmont had climbed onto the Queen’s back and were using the dragon-slaying sword to tear through Saphira’s hardened scales. And Etzi? Etzi used his magic to bind Opal’s wounds and stayed by her side when she collapsed from the combat. In the end, they won, but the Queen was dead.

As they were preparing to leave, the party was met by Czar and his anti-party. There might have been a big fight between the two of them had Sarnai not realized who “Mr. Iron” was. Edward, the warlock. He had gone full Winter Soldier and was now serving Czar without any memories of the party. Sarnai cried out to him and with a natural twenty on a charisma check, Edward realized who he was. Edward turned on Czar, plane-shifted the anti-party away, and fled.

The party stumbled out of the Queen’s lair and found that the city was in chaos. You see, Lothair’s little communist revolution was actually a huge success among the bugbears and in the chaos of the Queen’s secret revealed, the bugbears had decided it was time for a worker’s revolution. So after only a day and a half in the city, the Sassafras Guild had somehow burn a city in a volcano to the ground.

It's almost impressive.

Opal left the city with the rest of the party. She had lost a little of her childlike innocence when her mother died, but her relentless optimism was not going anywhere. She liked Etzi and wasn’t afraid of him, which gave Etzi hope, too. The team took a ship to a nearby island and then a portal to the plane of earth, where they would meet up with Tan’Ri and the rest of the guild. On the way, they were stopped by the Traveler. He warned the party that the path ahead was dangerous, and it would be best if he were to take the shard and give it to someone else for safekeeping. The party was unsure at first, but there was a seed of doubt about Tan’Ri. So, they gave the second shard to the Traveler who shortly disappeared. Shortly thereafter, they were greeted by Tan’Ri and the crew of the Wailing Grick.

I suppose a brief review of what the other group had been doing would be good. You see, we had a problem during our “intermission” season where sometimes two or three people wouldn’t show up and trying to juggle six characters in a night was difficult. So, on nights when people couldn’t make it, the back up team would jump into a random adventure I had planned, doing whatever Tan’Ri told them to. The first mission? Break an old frogman wizard out of a prison.
Simple enough, except that prison was in Asgard and protected by some of the finest celestial warriors in the Outer Planes.

The alt party (minus Edrick and Cin) landed in the Asgardian town and were informed that they could go into town, but that Tan’Ri would not be allowed in. They learned that Tan’Ri lacked a soul and so ancient laws prevented him from crossing into Asgardian Territory. So Tan’Ri sent Nari in his place. Nari was, by all appearances, a witch who acted as the team healer. So the party broke into the prison, and found the wizard Rousseau.

Unfortunately, Rousseau wasn’t quite… “all there.” He muttered something about “caviar” over and over and banged his head against the wall. He was basically a senile old man who seemed utterly useless to the party.
Useless, until he summoned a pit fiend “as a distraction” to give the party time to flee the prison.

Yes, Rousseau was not just any wizard, but a master mage who had at one point, stolen the Eye of Odin to gain knowledge of the multiverse. All that knowledge was now locked in his damaged mind.
“Caviar” Rousseau repeated.
When the party got onboard the Wailing Grick, the ship took off fleeing from the legion of angry valkyrie into the void between the planes.

Tan’Ri greeted Rousseau, but was only met by an empty stare. Tan’Ri began to talk about how much of an admirer he was of Rousseau, how he had read about him, when Rousseau interrupted. “Caviar.”
“You… you poisoned my caviar…” Rousseau said, glaring at Tan’Ri. “That’s how you did it. That’s how you knocked me out.”
The table was silent, as I described Tan’Ri’s usual smiling continence turn to fear.
“I..uhh, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tan’Ri mutter.
“You… you poisoned my caviar, and then shoved an ice pick into my brain.” Rousseau said, quietly.
Pointing to his temple, Rousseau described in detail the lobotomy that Tan’Ri had performed. “You did this to me, caviar. You did this.”
Tan’Ri eventually managed to get on Rousseau’s good side by offering some refreshments, which the aged wizard readily took. The party was unsure of what to think. They began to realize that they knew very, very little of the man who called himself Tan’Ri.

Anyways, when the guild had finally reunited, Tan’Ri ordered for a celebration. Sailing through the darkness of Eagos, Plane of Webs, the guild swapped stories, laughed, cried, drank plenty of wine (from Nari’s homeland) and had a good time. At one point in the dinner, Nari ducked out to grab more wine, and Tan’Ri told a story. The story of a group of adventurers who had encountered Volos the Slumber in ages long past. He recounted in vivid detail how all but two members of the adventuring party died at Volos’ hands, and was about to talk about the thief and archer who had survived when one by one, the party members began to choke.
The wine.
Poison.
Nari.

Those who had succeeded their Con saving throws dove out of the cabin, searching the ship.
Akiiki stumbled across the ship’s blacksmith, Duncan Fletcher. (a beloved NPC, the brother of the paladin Rose Fletcher). Duncan advised her to check in the hull. Around that time, Belmont arrived in the hull and found Duncan Fletcher’s dead body. A doppleganger had infiltrated their group. Had they more time, they would have looked to see what else was in the hull--several massive barrels of gunpower, and a lit fuse. They watched as the doppelganger grew wings and took flight to a warship hidden nearby: Hadrianus’ Thunder.

Then, an explosion ripped through the hull, piercing the planar matrix.

Lothair and Dayaram opened their eyes and found themselves in a frozen wasteland, surrounded by a tribe of orcs.

Akiiki found herself with in an endless desert with numberless suns above her, Cin lying in the sand nearby, frothing at the mouth and seizing.

A’akaga and Bellatrix were lost in a massive forest and captured by the fae.

Belmont and Rose awoke in a metal battlefield in a war-torn plane, caught between two demonic armies.

Soren landed with a crunch in a small wooden hut, Edrick and Wilhelm landing beside him. Looking out, the three saw only endless sea. The party had been scattered, and there was no way to contact one another. However, the fate of Etzi was far worse.

You see, Sarnai found herself in Mechanus. Beside her lay Etzi and Opal, both extremely injured. Two figures leered over them. The first was a tall, elderly, fiendish man, with reddish skin and small goat-like horns poking out of his skull. His body was scarred from long years of battle, and he hefted a massive greatsword. The other figure was a dragonborn in a golden robe, a purple hourglass embroidered on it. The man with horns looked down, and smiled.
“Etzi” Belmont said, “It’s been a long time…”

I guess I'll keep going.

And that’s where we ended the season; the school year was about to be over so we would not meet for another four months. I couldn’t help but smile as the group pestered me with questions about the individual they labeled “Felmont.” The four months that followed were rough for me, but helped to build anticipation. When we finally got back together, I began by telling a story.

Two figured walked through the ruined remains of a great city. One was an orc of considerable skill, and the other was an elderly drow man. The two spoke of the orc’s mission--to travel back and stop “this” from happening. He was given gifts; an old feather token from General Lothair, the remains of Akiiki’s fortune, and an iron mask from his old master. The elderly drow looked at Czar and told him that the only way to secure a future without all this destruction and death was to kill Etzi. Czar tried to object, but the two were interrupted by an imposing figure moving fast towards them. The old drow finished his incantation and Czar watched as the elderly Ezapali was obliterated, as well as the whole of the future.

My players were more confused than ever--why did Etzi send Czar back? Wasn’t Etzi the bad guy in the future?
Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have time to ruminate on this as I immediately threw Lothair and Dayaram into combat with a white dragon.
They were at the roof of the world, fighting beside an orcish tribe against the vile wyrm. After the battle was over, I introduced one of the young orcish leaders of the tribe: an orc named Czar. He gave Lothair a feather token, which signified that he and Lothair were now blood brothers.

Before they could question that, we jumped over to Ebbus, the Plane of Sand, where Akiiki, Rousseau, and a brain-damaged Cin (now called Bird) wandered in search of escape.

In the Fae Realm, Tan’Ri, A’akaga, and Bellatrix awoke from a six month slumber--having traveled deep into the Realm of Dreams to learn valuable information.
In Archeron, Belmont and Rose fought side by side against an advancing giant army as Hobbes the wizard prepared a teleport spell.
In the Ocean of Dragonturtles, Wilhelm, Soren, Edwin, and Edrick fought a desperate battle against a crew of weresharks before they were finally whisked away by powerful magic. The four found themselves standing in the Countess’ Manor, surrounded by their companions. The guild had assembled once more, nearly a year after the destruction of the Wailing Grick.

However, Sarnai, Opal, and Etzi were not among them. All divination attempts had failed--they simply could not be found. The Countess had little concern for the fate of the three--she presumed them dead and wanted to make finding the third shard the priority. The party was furious (both IC and OOC)--finding Etzi (and Sarnai and Opal) was the priority, the shards be damned! Tan’Ri suggested that the party consult an oracle who lived a few day’s travel away and then return. So, about half of the Sassafras Guild departed for the oracle.

Meanwhile, Sarnai opened her eyes to a destroyed battlefield, being helped to her feet by a orc. The sky was gray, the earth--gray, the water, gray. Except green fire rained upon her. Pic related.

She couldn’t quite remember what was going on. The last thing she remembered was getting onboard the Wailing Grick, and even that was fuzzy. The orc shook her, and she snapped into focus. “Damn all the gods--she breathed in some of the Lethe! Sarnai, you need to go, now. Ride with Opal, flee. Get help. Sarnai, I promise you--I will save the boy.”

Still unsure, Sarnai managed to get on the young dragon’s back, who looked as confused as she did. As Opal and Sarnai departed, they saw a hoard of demons charging across a battlefield. The anti-party stood side by side with aarakocra monks--a handful against a legion. Czar donned his mask, the fire of Horus scorching his flesh once again. He took flight as Sarnai and Opal crashed through a nearby portal out of Hades. Sarnai could not help but feel as though something was missing, or someone. She had forgotten, she had forgotten something very important.

The oracle was cryptic at best, but what good oracle isn’t? He said that the “firekeeper” was beyond his sight, but that the “princess and the spellthief” lay among the dead, and yet lived. Upon an island where the dirges of Hades were once sung. Putting the pieces together, the party reasoned that it was a necropolis on the continent of Medior.

Tan’Ri was more than happy to send some of the party to retrieve Sarnai and Opal (and Etzi, if they could). However, half of the team would need to come with Tan’Ri to Mechanus to finish some old business for him. So a team went to Medior and a team went (back) to Mechanus.

Our roster for Medior:
>Belmont, Human Barbarian, the Son of War
>Akiiki, Anubite Rogue, the Desert Queen
>A’akaga, Kobold Bard, the Wordsmith
>Wilhelm, Minotaur Warmage, the Stormbringer
>Bird, Aarakocra Warlock, the Simpleton
>Rose Fletcher, Human Paladin, the Blacksmith’s Daughter

The party arrived in Medior in a prominent minotaur city. Wilhelm had some weight around town, so they were able to get an audience with the king. The king told them of the island they sought, but warned that it was haunted. So the party set out upon the waves, sailing towards Carsarus, Isle of the Dead. When they arrived on the island, they were met by various undead monsters and met the dread necromancer who called the isle home: Xias Rex. Xias Rex demanded the party pay him tribute or he would kill the three prisoners that he had. While most of the party accepted this deal, Rose refused.

Rose was a paladin who would never let a vile spellcaster like Xias Rex profit from her work. So while the rest of the party went off to retrieve some loot for Xias Rex, Rose summoned a pegasus and flew herself and Belmont back to the minotaur city to request aid. The minotaur king refused to help, but one of the warmages on the island offered Rose and Belmont a deal: overthrow the king who has become corrupt and put the mage in power. Rose and Belmont agreed and after an epic duel, the king was dead and the mage “Brostrus” came to power.

Around the same time that the rest of the party had returned with their loot for Xias Rex, the full might of the minotaur city descended on Carsarus. They defeated Xias Rex (very, very easily), and rescued the three prisoners. The first two were Opal and Sarnai, but the third was not Etzi. He was an elf of some years, and though Akiiki had seen him only two or three years before, Ethelea had aged a full century. Yes, it was Ethelea, the elven wizard who accompanied the party way back in Act I. He wore a purple garment with a golden hourglass on his shirt.

Time wizards!

Ethelea was wounded but woke up long enough to say that he knew where Etzi was, but that the trip would take them to the depths of Hades, and then, to the graveyard of the gods. The party look at one another and nodded. They were willing to go to the ends of the earth and to the depths of hell to get Etzi back.

Meanwhile, the Mechanus team were tasked with getting the Manuel of the Planes from a villain the party had met back in Act II. As you’re probably realizing, I love continuity. Anyways, the roster for the Mechanus team was:
>Edrick, Human Fighter, Suddenly evil
>Bellatrix, Ratfolk Ranger, Weakest character by far :(
>Dayaram, Lizardfolk Sorcerer, Just a gimmick
>Lothair, Human Paladin, Finally understood how to play
>Soren, Human Sorcerer, Hasn’t died yet

To speed things up, the party got up to their usual shenanigans in Mechanus but managed to get the book. Edrick, however, went down a different path than the rest of the party. You see, Edrick’s backstory was basically the same as Belmont’s--both were tortured by the same demon cult (the Rotting Teeth), both had the same special red eyes, and both had escaped at the same time. However, Edrick always felt like second best. Belmont was always stronger, always more respected, always more dangerous. Edrick had grown tired of this, and when a fiend offered to give Edrick power, Edrick took the opportunity. The two left Mechanus to meet “the master” and Edrick was no longer a PC. I did this for a few reasons, which will become evident shortly.

The rest of the Mechanus team was successful and they retrieve the Manuel of the Planes. No, that’s not a typo, the book’s name was Manuel. He was Rousseau’s creation from centuries ago and Tan’Ri needed it to find passage to Deadwinter, where the third shard was.

The main party however, spent their time sailing from Carsarus to an isolated river which Ethelea assured them would lead them to Hades. While sailing, Ethelea finally had time to tell his story to the party. I'll spare you the details. At this point the plot has begun to get so complex that you may graphs and charts to figure everything out, and for that I apologize. At the core, the message from Ethelea was: Blight is bad news, from future, and has Etzi.

So the party (excluding Rose, who was staying back to tend to Opal’s wounds.) made their way into Hades, fought through shades and their own dark pasts, and arrive in Vh, the Plane of Void. Vh was the graveyard of the gods, where the titanic beings floated in the oxygenless space and were devoured by super worms. This was also where Blight made his lair, on the corpse of a stone giant god. If you’re imagining the cover of some death metal album, that was the theme I was going for. The party fought through each level of the castle, approaching the throne room where they reasoned Blight and, likely, Etzi were.

As they made their way through the castle, Sarnai found her way into a bedroom that seemed very familiar to her. Looking around, she some of her person items, as well as two cribs. The memories began to flood back in. She was.. Pregnant. Or, she had been. Twins. Sol and Nyxia. Not the offspring of some horrific act by Blight or a demon, no, this had happened in Charybdis. Sarnai didn’t just sleep with any orc named Zeus. She had successfully bedded the god himself, and had been pregnant when the Wailing Grick exploded. Blight had provided Sarnai excellent care and watched over the children’s birth, making sure that both the children and mother survived. Before she could put the pieces together, the party had been drawn into combat with the demons and had to keep fighting up through the fortress towards Blight.

By all accounts, the party was simply not ready to take on Blight. They were low on health, low on spells, and could not rest even for a few minutes. This was a suicide mission, but it was worth it--for Etzi. When they kicked down the door into the throne room, they finally met Blight. As the players OOC had suspected, Blight was an older, fiendish version of Belmont. At his side were a small army of demons and two figures on their knees. The first was Czar, his bandages removed to show his scarred and burned skin--time travel is not kind to the body. The second was Etzi, weak, broken, and hollow. Blight gave little time for the party to act--he gave them a choice: Etzi or Czar.

They chose Etzi, and the demons immediately killed Czar.

Blight informed the party that they ought to rush down to the prison beneath the castle, because Etzi would not last long. The demon who had disguised itself as Etzi smiled and reverted to its true form. The party had been tricked, and now had to rush to save their beloved Ezapali. Everyone ran, save for Bird and Sarnai. Bird asked for the mask of Horus, and Blight, for some reason, obliged. Sarnai demanded her children, and Blight refused. Blight had no use for Etzi, but the bastard twins of Zeus? No, they would serve an important role in Blight’s master plan. With the advance of the demon guard, Sarnai and Bird fled down the stairs while Blight silently watched.

The party found Etzi in the basement, protected by a hungry xenohydra. The party fought the xenohydra back, rescued Etzi and the other prisoner kept here--a young elven woman named Edna. As the castle started to collapse, A’akaga used a scroll of teleportation to take the whole party back to Rose’s camp and the team was able to care for Etzi.

As they gathered themselves around the small fire that Rose had started, the party questioned whether they had been successful. They had lost Ethelea during the fighting in the castle, they knew nothing of Blight’s plan, and it seemed as though they rescued Etzi too late--he was so broken from months of torture for Blight’s delight. The youthful hope was gone, only a hollow, empty man remained. Opal was in even worse shape: her first day of freedom landed her in Blight’s clutches. She trusted no one, and though she and Etzi had a deep bond--forged by their year in captivity together--she would never be the princess the party met in Charybdis.

But, there was hope in the midst of this. They had freed Etzi, and with time, he could heal. They also freed Edna, a necromancer of considerable power. She was researching Deadwinter when she was captured by Blight. Her knowledge of the plane proved invaluable. In addition, the party had hope that the future could change. While looting the castle, the party had found a prophecy. It spoke of an age of darkness, the death of the gods, and the reign of a race of fiends. But, it spoke of an end to the night. When the Queen kills the Walker of Roads, the fiends would be undone, and the age of darkness would be averted. The party did not understand the prophecy, but knew that there was a way to stop the grim future that Blight and Czar came from.

There was a way to give Etzi a happy ending.

But I guess I'll call it for the night.

Bumperino

Ahhhh hell yes. This is some good shit. Do post the rest later.

Bump. Way too much to read in one go.