Session 150 Report

General Summary

Selia Roselyn Maxwell quickened a Greater Teleport to move up to the second-floor walkway, taking Titta Morco, Kyrie Eleison Thatcher-Stone, and Pyzar Zim with her. Then she cast Time Stop and teleported back to the first floor and cast three Wall of Force spells to block the Unseen minions in while leaving a stairway open for the rest of the party to run upstairs. As the Unseen tried to maneuver about the room, the majority collided with invisible walls at every turn. Traegandar stepped up to two swordsmen blocking the stairs. He and Mogi Delvin attacked, wounding one. Titta sheathed her scimitars and moved up to the Black Requiem and reached for Hannah. She used her Belt of Battle and knocked off a couple of the duplicates from the Mirror Image before luckily landing on the right one. She managed to snatch the toddler from the lich and turned and put her down on the floor behind her, instructing her to run to Auntie Selia. Ladigo Farthon, in blink dog form, teleported to one corner of the foyer and cast Wall of Sand, covering the Unseen within that pocket of invisible walls. He was careful not to cover Astri and Thessalni who were on the floor nearby. The Black Requiem then cast Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, catching those upstairs and one of his doppelganger spellcasters. He was careful not to catch himself in the radius, though. For the party members upstairs, all the spells on them were instantly snuffed out, and many of their magic items as well. Thankfully, though, the Bag of Holding containing the lich’s phylactery survived. The doppelganger sorcerer caught on the stairs had his Mirror Image spell ended, plus his shape-changed appearance reverted to that of a doppelganger. He fired an Enervation up the stairs at Kyrie, but the spell missed. He then ran down towards the bottom of the stairs. Pyzar stepped up to the Black Requiem and attacked with his now mundane sword. His Bracers of Battle survived Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, so he used them to enhance his speed, unleashing as many attacks as possible to help clear out the Black Requiem’s duplicate images. The one strike he managed to land on the lich himself did very little damage though as his sword was no longer enchanted and did not have the added enhancement of the Greater True Death Crystal. Auren Sylynn maneuvered up the stairs, tumbling past the warriors there and ran up to stand next to the other enemy sorcerer. Kyrie then cast Mas Death Ward to protect those upstairs, followed by a quickened Righteous Wrath of the Faithful. Selia then moved down the hall around the corner and cast Benign Transposition, switching places with Hannah, telling her to run and hide. As the battle continued, the majority of the Unseen stumbled about the room, trying to find a way past the invisible walls. Mogi and Traegandar killed the swordsmen in front of them. Titta redrew her scimitars and attacked the Black Requiem, vowing aloud to do everything in her pwer to erase him from history. He retorted by claiming that with their deaths, he would take his first step towards true immortality. Then he touched Titta and she collapsed, looking pale and dead. When Kyrie saw this, she was surprised because the party was protected by Mass Death Ward. She suddenly remembered the paralyzing touch lich’s have, which make a victim appear to be dead. It was a powerful curse, not a death effect. The Black Requiem followed up his paralyzing touch with a quickened Cone of Cold, catching the fallen Titta, Selia, Kyrie, and Pyzar. Pyzar continued to attack with his greatsword, but his normally powerful strikes were blunted due to the lack of magic. Auren, however, ran past the sorcerer and attacked the Black Requiem from behind, his kukris still magical and enhanced with Greater True Death Crystals. He landed a massive blow to the lich’s back, causing the Black Requiem to cry out. The battle continued, both sides maneuvering as well as they could. Kyrie caught the Black Requiem with a Dimenional Anchor spell to prevent him from teleporting away. Selia stepped towards the Black Requiem and cast Benign Transposition, switching places with Mogi. She ended up on Traegandar’s back downstairs, while Mogi was not able to enage the Black Requiem using his still magical Holy Avenger and Greater True Death Crystal. Mogi moved in and attacked, using his Belt of Battle as well. He landfed some key strikes and finished off with a blow that almost cut the lich in half. But the Black Requiem remarked about having a contingency for that and a magical effect healed the lich completely. The Black Requiem then cast a quickened Mirror Image and slipped down the hall before casting another Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. Auren’s kurkris were disenchanted now, but Mogi’s Holy avenger survived the spell. Due to the placement of the spell, it also caught several creatures on the first floor, including Haymin, Jenivar, Patch, and Belpher. This ended the paralysis curse on them, allowing them to move. It also freed Titta from the curse. Additionally, the Wall of Force spells and the Wall of Sand were all ended. The party was swarming him now, their attacks breaking his illusory duplicates before finaly landing blows on him. The Black Requiem attempted a Wail of the Banshee spell, but they were all protected by Mass Death Ward. His minions, however, were not, and several of them died on the spot. The Black Requiem was wounded again. But he recast Mirror Image. Kyrie had recast True Seeing on herself and could see through the illusion. When an opening appeared, she maneuvered down the hall from him and said, “Goodbye, Father. I hope you have the afterlife you deserve.” Then she cast Bolt of Glory. The beam of positive energy struck the Black Requiem and illuminated through out his undead body. As his skeletal form began to collapse, he warned them they would meet again. Then Titta quickly told him that his vault was empty. The Black Requiem skull imploded as he gasped, “Wha—” There was nothing left but dust. There were three Unseen still downstairs. With their master gone, they quickly ran out of the building. Haymin’s Heroes did not pursue. Selia used Limited Wish and Kyrie used Miracle to undo the curses on Astra and Thessalni. They gathered everyone, uncluding finding Fisher and Pennig in the stables. There were tears, embraches, and cursory examinations to make sure everyone was all right. When they were satisfied, they made plans to destroy the phylactery. They would take it to Trinity Hall and seek the clergy’s help there. Haymin and Jenivar were invited to come, and they did. On the way, they picked up Lady Dyora Albyn as well. At the temple, they were given a room sanctified by divine magic. The area was made clear. The black box was opened and the original copy of A Bard’s Tale was removed. Both needed to be destroyed together. Simultaneously, Selia and Kyrie cast Disintegrate, the latter using a Miracle to duplicate the arcane spell. When the phylactery was destroyed, a black energy exploded from it. They were protected by Mass Death Ward and the spells in the room fought the blackness back and subdued it until it faded away. It was finally over. The Black Requiem was destroyed and would not be coming back. The party returned home. A somewhat somber celebration followed, a mix of joy and relief with tears of sorrow for all the pain and sufferying Merrywind/Mr. King/The Black Requiem had caused them throughout the years. The scene became a surreal montage of celebratory snippets, eventually ending with them going to sleep. The words THE END appeared and credits began scrolling. Images of characters they had met and encountered throughout the past four years faded in and out as directors, writers, programmers, and artists were credited. Eventually, the background went black and the credits continued to scroll while Last Breath, the rendition sung by Merrywind at Haymin’s funeral, played. When the song was over, the credits finished. Better Than Life Games ©7328. Thank you for playing. They awoke disoriented, their minds in a foggy state. Their visors had turned off. They could see others around them through the visors. They vaguely recognized the faces. Each had their hands and feet restrained in reclining chairs surrounding a central terminal. Computer screens next to them showed pictures of what they recognized as their own faces. But these were not the faces of Titta, Selia, Mogi, Auren, and Ladigo. These were their real faces, ones that might take some time to grow accustomed with once again. A shrill larm sounded, followed by a voice over the intercom. “This is an omega alert. Xenomorphs have overtaken the docking back. All personnel fall back to Cell Block Alpha.” Scraping sounds in the background came through the intercom. Then distant voices. “Oh, God! They’re at the door. They cant’ get in, it’s reinforced. The ceiling vent!” A clattering sound rattled through the intercom, followed by death screams. The intercome cut off. Footseps and frightened voices were heard from outside the door. But they seemed to pass by and fade away in the distance. Then a power surge took out the lights and restarted the computer terminals next to their chairs. The restraints on their chairs unlocked and the screens came back on. They could see their faces again and read the details. They learned their names and situation. They were prisoners in Koval Prison, sentenced to five years for smuggling Antiqui Artifiacts in the Anga System, from Minerva Station on Planet Hele. They are suspected of various other crimes, such as theft, smuggling, and assault, all throughout the Grand Braeladine Empire, particularly in the Mudaros, Ithos, and Luceat systems. They had been selected for an experimental VR testing program for Better Than Life Games. The Heart of Embril playtest took 15 days to complete. Throughout that time, they were under surveillance, beign fed intravenously. Their ship, The Mirage, is in the docking bay, still awaiting repossession. The beginning…

Campaign

The Heart of Embril

Protagonists