Episode Seventy - Thessaldeath

General Summary

Part One

Churning with excitement, the Champions of Destiny roared with the might of a second wind as they awaited their teleportation capable mage. When he arrived, he brought with him a walking companion, Master Boldirk of the Halls of Justice. Boldirk brought news of the coming forces, largely wanting only to see the heroes in their own environment for once. At the Deepwinter Estate just past dawn on the first of the tenday, the 1st of Flamerule 1479 DR, Master Boldirk informed the heroes about the temple's troops. He told them specifically about how many could be at hand for a battle with Sauron at the Hall of the Four Ghosts. They then spoke with him about spies, and Sauron's use of them, and he offered to send a bird to warn the men as they passed through Beliard.
Then, as planned, the heroes were teleported away to Olostin's Hold but not to a situation that they expected. They found around them a small room that held a Teleportation Circle on the floor and a dungeon of dangers beyond. As they proceeded forward, Arion called out and announced himself. They found a portal protected by animated armor suits, that Aldrich upset, and then Arion opened a lock door, locked on his side, to a group of drow whom immediately attacked. The battle was long and fierce but the Champions of Destiny came out the victors. Though in the end, Aldrich had cut a massive chunk of meat from a drow that retorted with a bullet. The drow had cocked his firearm with his teeth as he stuffed his hand into his stomach to contain his innards and fired a shot into Aldrich's in eye. Aldrich lost the eye but was able to carry on.
Having cleared the spider fashioned room, the heroes left behind a shrine and encountered a drider, the commander of the drow, and another drow. They fought through the darkness once more and prevailed this time with less loss. After the fighting Annabelle did her best to heal Aldrich.

Part Two

Further into the dungeon, Aldrich lead up an attempt to rescue a miniscule civilization living in one of the dungeon rooms. Packed into two boxes Arion drew with Nolzur's pigments, the party pressed on. They passed a vampire named Zumlar, whom liked Annabelle for her politeness, and from him they learned that they were beneath Tormaq's tower. In another location, a Temple of Lolth, they found a statue of Sol and they all began to grow suspicious of him but a battle ensued. They defeated a devourer that had been summoned by Thessalar and fought driders and a drow. Thessalar then summoned a tarrasque that was blood bound to destroy the party but it fell into the Underdark. After winning their battle, they rushed on the backs of the driders, back to the surface. Tormaq assisted the party in securing the civilization and divining the location of the fight to come. Using his last bit of energy, summoned from within, Tormaq wept for a chance to meet his wife again in the afterlife as he delivered the party to a location near the Nether Mountains.
Through his death the party watched on as the ground began to quake.

Part Three

A strong wind thrashed in to the heroes. It roared through their equipment and cut the heat of the summer from their cheeks. Seemingly the sole signs of life upon that open plain, they looked towards the center of their group as the teleportation magic that brought them there faded. Borne upon his staff they witnessed the old wizard who's life had left him ever so suddenly. They had discerned his intentions, his apology made hollow, he had brought them to that plain hoping to keep the battle far away from innocents and the battle would soon come. The wizard Tormaq's tears were different however as the last fell to the ground, he hadn't mourned, it was a glimmer of hope in an old man whom had lost it all. His embrace of death left no sign of hope for them however, as he warned and their book foretold, death was surely coming.
His knees quaked as the ground shook and then he fell. Birds fluttered and tore their eyes to the distance and in the distance they saw a great avian dominance. A dragon soared above the farthest mountain their eyes could see and what looked like great eagles cut the middle distance. Clouds rolled across the closest of the northern mountain tops but the fall of a great oak in the rolling, rustling forest south, carried so far that it caught their attention. As their heads turned from north to south they saw, across the windswept plain, a figure in the distance. The crackling river nearby rushed their attention west along with it as its waters battered the stones of the mountains from wince it came. Far to their west a massive man appeared as nothing more then a purple smudge in humanoid form but before they could steady their eyes the ground between them exploded.
Soils and earth from far below the surface scattered in the sky as horns emerged from the depths. A large snout with teeth the size of massive men began to reveal an ever widening maw as the tarrasque emerged from below. In that moment, as they all struggled to maintain their balance, Sol from the back of the group saw a glimmer of light in the wizard's staff.
As fear rushed in, a memory flashed into Sol's mind. A dark place that's details alluded him, soared before his mind's eye like a foggy room. Before him stood a man he recognized, the figure he fought in some magical place before he was cast through time. He struggled with with Sol again in that memory, he fought over a staff who's power Sol was coming as he saw it again in that memory, that's magic was bursting throughout the room. Sol was then pushed from his body, and he saw himself but older and darker. That older version of himself continued to struggle with the man but with a roar the battle came to a head and Sol was blasted away as he watch parts of the staff scatter into the fog. Sol then realize that in his hands that staff was a weapon of time. He knew then that he could potentially fuel his chronurgy into that staff and change the world. With enough power from it you could stop time, change time, or even reverse time. The options seemed limitless for a boy from nothing. The memory faded as quickly as it came but the notion of power didn't. Sol then knew that standing before him was an option. The staff could give him power, it could give you time, or if broken it could do so.. so much more in its final release.
Sol then lunged for the staff as the heroes around him prepared for battle. He channeled his waning chronurgy into the staff and dreamed of halting time. In that moment, everything and everyone stopped. His mind fluttered to the heroes all around him for a moment in that halted space. The real heroes who were ready face down the greatest threat any mere mortal had ever seen and he wondered if he was worthy to be among them. A simple orphan boy made common thief by circumstance but then Sol began to plan, he though his next for moments through and made a decision. The real heroes didn't move as he gathered his coming power, they didn't think, but as power over time began to fade he twisted the staff and bore a vision of the future, a vision of his friends dying at the hands of the great beast.
With a shout of power and determination, the Champions of Destiny all hear Sol and then see him level the wizard's staff, as if it resisted him, against the tarrasque. A blast, like translucent waves, reverberated through the air and then vibrated against the gargantuan creature that was surfacing. For but moment the creature was held in place, a moment long enough to think they could fight it freely, but the beast shattered the sphere that surrounded it. The monstrosity's claws burst forth from the earth and grabbed hold. It ripped its way forward and revealed its impenetrable flesh.
Sol gripped the staff with might as he saw his companions setting up to surge forth to their doom and deaths. He knew he'd only have one shot, one opportunity, to seize that moment and not let the lives of everyone one around him slip. He knew he'd have to want his next action more then anything he'd ever wanted and he would have to channel everything he had, everything he would have, and all the hate and rage he could muster into what he wanted to do. Then he began, blue lightening burst from his flesh and anchored into the ground, the very sky began to tear apart as embers of fire burst from his skin, lines like lava from a great volcano traced his veins and smoke roared from your skin. Might, hate, power, lothing, suffering, rage, love, and gods be damned determination ripped time from its lofty mantle and became bent under Sol's will.
Then he fell to his hands and knees in a quiet, poorly lit, stone hall; a water droplet seared his cheek. The pain stood him back up and he watched as Annabelle's light flickered back on to Merlyn, his hawk familiar.
As the heroes looked around they realized that they were, huddled in a group, in the Temple of Lolth. After Sol explained the situation, Arion and Kelaryn took a moment to worry about the purple fellow, Than, the Last Titan of Urgrund, but Sol put the worry to rest along with others and informed them all that he'd reversed time and that they would have another chance to stop Thessalar before he summoned his tarrasque.
As the rest made plans, Aldrich checked on the devourer and then looted the chest inside. He took the mace there and an emerald as well as a voice spoke in his head and told him of the mace. The voice was female and familiar, but he would later learn it was Annabelle god. Then they put their plan in action, Aldrich gathered their attention and then Arion and Sol charged in. Kelaryn then hurled a vial of alchemist's fire at a drider as Merlyn, Sol's familiar, dive bombed another vial onto the scroll of tarrasque summoning.
Sol kicked Thessalar dagger away then used Mage Hand to lift what became the scroll's ashes from the fire. Aldrich then charged a drider and attacked as Kelaryn made her retreat. So too did a drider and a drow.
Arion then stabbed Thessaler as the sinister soul shouted, "no this is not the way its supposed to happen."
Then, as he pulled the blade out Thessalar cried, "the black tragedy will have your heads for this!"
Arion stabbed Thessalar again and blood poured from his mouth. Tormaq congratulated Sol on his use of the staff as they all brokered peace. After Arion cut Thessalar's head off and took it. Then Sol spoke with the drow and he seemed to know Sol well. The drow spoke as if Sol was a friend and he admired Sol very much. The drow even complemented Sol looks after 125 years of life. They then swore a truce as Arion assured it with the threat of Thessalars head.
The group then spoke with Tormaq and he told them, "I remember everything and for a moment I saw my wife's face again before the clutches of time drug me back here. She was waiting for me in the beyond. She has grown more powerful there then I could have imagined and made a life for herself serving the gods. It was a delight to see. But I know that if fate wanted me back I would have been sent to Purgatory. The fact that I am here bods ill for the power used to bring us to this moment or it signals well the power of the heroes that can reverse time."
Once informed on how the return was made possible, he continues, "you are beyond the realm of normal heroes now. You are superior, to quip perhaps, you are superheroes. Your extraordinary talents, your items of legend, your drive, your courage, and your deeds all speak of your super heroic might. You may not know how the strings attach themselves but my divination in our forgotten future speaks volumes. You have only plucked the earliest strings and only at the River Rauvin will your tale move beyond its long beginning I fear. But you must go, you must face the Titan in one form or another before the fate of Entropy can be placed into your hands. This I have forseen."
When asked how, he answers, "in my divination I saw man of green who had a book chained to his wrist. He told me what I told you but he also mentioned a trap. He told me one was sprung upon his champions and thus one was sprung upon him. He said that he was the real target and that his vessel was imploding as he spoke. He showed me three faces. One in a mask of red and yellow with ears like a flash, one with green skin who's mind radiated spoken thought, and his. He said that I would be the last to see them and that I was to share his fate when all was redone."
The party discussed their options, their future, Kelaryn even tried to reach out but when she did; she and Arion saw visions of Destiny's death. They then realized that his vessel had truly imploded.
On their furture, Tormaq offered, "it would seem to me that you are free of your bonds to your patron, that you may do as you wish. Likewise it seems that your enemies are many and they are powerful. But alas, you have come through the strangeness and mystery of learning your enemy and may settle for awhile as you learn to combat them and quest against them."
Alas, the heroes would have no rest, Arion mustered the force and drove them forth. After a meal in the sanguine dawn, and hearing once again the town was under siege, they saw the culprit outside of the town's general store. A few hundred feet off in the treeline, Kelaryn's Elf eyes saw The Cloak of Sauron. Once they realized that the enemy was in town for them, Arion knew they had to return.
The heroes then snuck off and planned their escape. They teleported away and returned once more to Waterdeep and the Deepwinter Estate. As the rest of the heroes settled in to rest for a spell, the effects of the mushroom that Aldrich ate, began to take hold. His hallucinations were divine and only by the morning would he come to know the extent of his wild ramblings.

Rewards Granted

1130xp Part One 3150xp Part Two 1000xp Part Three

Missions/Quests Completed

Quest of Fate Continued, Subquest Forging Fate Continued, Sidequest Facing Thessalar Completed

Notes

Notable Party Damage:

• Aldrich has a horrible burn scar on the left side of his neck in front of the ear from an azure fire elemental summoned by Seldra Tylmarande. His armor and shield are extremely claw marked from many Lizardfolk. His shield has a large fist shaped dent in it and the knees of his pants were torn out by his bones when he was crushed by a Sacred Statue.
  Noted Effects: Horrible Scar (Neck). You are disfigured to the extent that the wound can't be easily concealed. You have disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
• Annabelle has a noticeable bend in her scale armor about the stomach where she was crushed by a Sacred Statue.
  Noted Effects: None
• Arion came from Arda with a scar that won't seem to heal.
  Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Head). The scar doesn't have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.
• Kelaryn has two faint hand-print shaped scars on her left arm. She has a scar from the stab of a spear that she received valiantly fighting an ice devil on her stomach. She has a scar that emanates infernal essences from a horned devil's tail above her right breast. Kelaryn has a large scar that runs down over her left breast, across the center of her chest, and then down to her right abdomen where the large axe of a minotaur split her open. She has two large gore hole scars from a minotaur on the left side of her stomach. Her back is also tweaked from the hard battering she took from the minotaur. The scales of her Khuzdûl armor are dented above the left breast from a hit she took from a lizardfolk. Her left pant leg is torn above the ankle after having it bit open by a lizardfolk.
  Noted Effects: Minor Scars (Left Arm, Right Breast, Torso, and Stomach). The scar doesn't have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar. Mild Limp. Your speed on foot is reduced by 5 feet. You must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw after using the Dash action. If you fail the save, you fall prone. Magical healing removes the limp.
• Sol has tear marks across the back and chest of his shirt, as well as down the sleeve, from the claws of lizardfolk. He has a small tear in the knee of his trouser where once his bone tore though them after he was crushed. He has a burn mark on his cheek where a water droplet seared his flesh.
  Noted Effects: Minor Scar (Left Cheek). The scar doesn't have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar.

Report Date

20 Mar 2021

Primary Location

Ostenwold