Exploding Dreams

Hi there!

So we finally finished up our Second Darkness campaign! It was fairly epic.

Here’s the post our DM wrote up about our very last session!

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When the group entered the room, Allevrah was standing in front of a glyph larger than the ones they had seen before, chanting. Standing with her, were four Drow priestesses, chanting along with her. At the bottom of some very wide stairs were a number of Drow soldiers. Alcoves recessed into the wall held statues, perched atop those statues were several Vrocks. The soldiers didn’t last long against the party, and the Vrocks, being demons fighting a group who were pretty heavily geared up for demon-killing went soon after. And so the party was left to fight Allevrah and her priestesses, and a strangely familiar Drow wizard. The familiarity quickly became apparent when she asked the party how they had enjoyed their trip to the <place the “djinni” sent them to>. Obviously this wizard had been posing as the djinn, which meant that the real one might be out there somewhere.

The wizard managed to significantly injure Elan before she was killed by Garand. While this was going on, Allevrah had floated up into the air and was doing her best to cause the party grief, but Agrini’s arrows were making short work of her. It looked like he had almost finished her, when she cast a teleportation spell and vanished. From there, the remaining priestesses were not much of a challenge, though the last two disappeared into the walls before the party could kill them. Figuring that they would be able to stay there for a while, our heroes focused on deactivating the master glyph.

It quickly became apparent that as the master glyph was drawing its power from the smaller glyphs, the methods used to deactivate those must also be used to deactivate this one. And so, Gimdahl, Elyse and Quilindra got to work deactivating the glyph. As this was occurring, Garand was hacking at the wall where one of the priestesses had disappeared, in the hopes of killing her.

As the group managed to deactivate the glyph, there was a bright flash of light and lots of magical effects. The entire group felt a wave of magical energy wash over them, and they all felt stronger, or smarter, or faster. The benefits seemed to change from person to person.

Immediately after this, they heard a woman screaming in pain, and turned to see Allevrah standing in the midst of what had once been the master glyph. She rose, enraged, and started attacking the party. Her whip seemed almost alive, and it seemed unnatural, the way she could strike everyone with in reach. She seemed a lot healthier than when she had disappeared, and was also a lot harder to hit, as approximately half the attacks that should have hit her seemed to pass right through her. Although the fight was tougher, the party was gaining the upper hand. Elan, who had dabbled in alternative ways of using magic in the past, decided to try something new. He struck out at Allevrah with what appeared to be a blast of raw magical power. She put up defenses, and even tried to strike back, but he easily overpowered her. She dropped to one knee momentarily, seeming to be in a weakened state. The rest of the party attacked, and she seemed as though she was really struggling to stand. Buoyed by his previous success, Elan gathered his strength for another blast. He struck out again, but despite her injuries, she was able to resist more effectively, even managing to gain the upper hand a couple of times. With one final act of will, Elan summoned all of his strength and power and put it all into a final push, which went straight past her defenses. A swirling miasma surrounded her, and then she was no more. Her gear fell to the ground, but there was no trace of Allevrah. It seemed as though she had been completely vapourised.

The cheers of victory were short-lived though, as Elan sank to the ground. He had been badly injured in the battle, and the strain of what he had just done had taken its toll on him. Gimdahl rushed to his side, but the sheer amount of magic that had passed through his system had overloaded it, and the cleric’s healing magic had no effect.

While the party was recovering from the battle and taking a moment to say goodbye to their fallen comrade, Garand discovered an unusual patch of stone work, which on further investigation appeared to be a secret passage. This passage led to a series of rooms, featuring a couple of bedchambers, one of which had a secret room of its own, containing a sizable amount of treasure. The other room of note was one with familiar statues, and an altar. Standing in front of this altar was a Marilith.

Although the party swiftly prepared themselves for another fight, it became clear that she wanted to talk. She told them that while it was a shame that Allevrah’s plans had failed, it truly did not matter to her master, who only cared that the knowledge of the old Aboleth magics had once again been found. She offered the party vast riches in exchange for taking the books and papers they had found in another room and hiding them in a library on the surface. The party conferred amongst themselves, and decided to take them, but to store the information in a number of different libraries, at least some of which were controlled by those who could protect the information. The Marilith was not entirely pleased with this, and said she would need to speak to her master. She disappeared, and the party gathered up the papers and left.

As they did not want to leave Elan’s body down in the underdark, they took it with them as they left the place. Not having any means to travel back to the surface, they headed back to the spot they had entered the Land of Black Blood from. On the way, they decided to stop in at the Shrine of Bound Earth and see if the djinn was there. As they searched, they discovered a secret passage going down. In a cave at the bottom, they found the djinn trapped in a crystal. They were able to free her, and she was overjoyed when they told her that Allevrah Azinrae had been defeated, for it was her who had imprisoned the djinn in this place, and left her minion to stay here and try to keep any who came after from following her.

To show her gratitude, the djinn used one of her wishes to transport the party back to the surface world. They appeared in the centre of the square in Kyonin, and once the elves there realised what was happening and who the party were, they were quickly surrounded. Within minutes the Queen herself appeared and escorted them to the palace. As they were walking to the palace, the black shape in the sky, which now seemed to be travelling away from Golarion, exploded in a flash of light and smoke.

After the Queen and the court had heard the story, she proclaimed the party heroes of Kyonin, and offered them rewards of valuable magical tombs from the library. She also told the party that with the Winter Council gone, she needed new advisors, and asked the party if they would assist.

As a tribute to his noble sacrifice, she immediately arranged for a statue of Elan to be created and placed in a prominent location in the city, so that all who lived there or visited would know of his great deed.

The documents were indeed split up and taken to a number of different libraries, including that of the elves. As a result of this, all surviving members of the party found a reward waiting for them in their new homes. It was clear that this reward had not been left by the elves, but had come from the demon lord, who had obviously accepted their deal. They couldn’t help but feel uneasy about this, but Elyse found that she no longer felt the presence of her goddess, much like she had been at the start of this whole adventure.

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So that’s it! We saved the world and won the loot. Apart from my character of course, who got killed.

Next post, I’ll be describing the start of my home-brew campaign, using the 4th Edition Rules and loosely set in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Stay tuned!