Session 56: And Now it Will All End with Naught but Dust

General Summary

Crawling From the Muck, I am the Decay You Fear

The session began with some combat, just a little bit of combat, a pinch even, just a tiny bit as a treat. Frode was dealing with his own issues throughout combat. It started with Božena reaching out with a gentle hand and some ominous words. "I can’t stop what has already happened, Frode, I wish I could, but I can’t. You could see them again, though. You could experience what they did, you could join them in Eternity." Frode fell unconscious at that time. Whatever Božena did had someone instantly removed all of his remaining health, and he found himself in a familiar place while in this unconscious state. He seemed to be just waking up with a splitting headache at the same time his eyes closed. He had a sore throat and itchy skin that stung as he moved. He felt both lighter, smaller, but also significantly heavier as his frame was incredibly weak. His surroundings were familiar, his home, but everything was bigger than he remembered. There was some melancholy as he saw how empty it was, and he heard a knock at the door. Frode attempted to investigate by looking out the window, but all he was able to see was the glint of armor on a lithe frame, perhaps belonging to an old friend of his.

Božena continued to get damaged each turn by beams of moonlight, and they continued to approach a deep, blood-red color as everyone that wasn't dying scrambled about to deal with Božena and her zombies. Frode's visions were interrupted as he was healed and returned to the fight, but he found himself blinded, deafened and sick with a familiar plague. The blindness and deafness, strangely enough, seemed to be creating illusions of home unlike any normal sort of similar handicap. These conditions were gradually removed, but the plague persisted and worsened as combat continued. Zombies were cleared away, and the beams of moonlight finally became an incredibly ominous blood-red color before bursting. Several of you took heavy damage, Frode and Agave fell unconscious, and Frode's strange visions continued. Agave had visions of his own, he felt as though he were wilting in the sun, roots unable to reach any water or nutrients as they rotted away. Frode yelled at his visitor, telling him to go away, but the visitor kept knocking. Kaswink took the Necromancer's mask at some point as well. She handed it to Hysteria with hopes that they would be able to do something impressive with it. Božena was at last defeated by DAN's onslaught of warpicks, and she vanished into the ground below her while reaching for a mask that only DAN was able to see. You all had a moment to heal up, remove some rot, but the ground was shaking below your feet.

Until the End, I Will be Forever by Your Side

The area began to flood with putrid, slimy water as puddles and the stream overflowed while cracks in the ground also started to leak the same offal substance. The spiky, thick vines and carnivorous looking plants retreated below the water for a moment before a much larger carnivorous looking flower burst from the ground. Beneath it were the vines and flowers that had retreated, now wrapped around each other and supporting the larger flower. Božena was at the center of this plant as the vines bent and pointed her towards you. She had a new mask with a more hand-crafted appearance. It was dark and carved from the wood of the Black Pear Tree. The nose and jaw were more jagged and there were no eyeholes, just some indentations suggesting a place where eyes once were. Chipped and gouged portions almost simulated boils or rotting flesh while a long and loose fringe hung around the rim with bent and broken sections causing it to jut off in random directions giving it an appearance similar to mycelium.

The long, thorn-covered vines of this flower reached out towards you and attempted to grab as many of you as possible. Flowers spat caustic fluids at some of you, but they missed every time so you don't really know what they would've done. Božena cast more and more powerful spells, and another attempt at using moonbeam was also involved that nearly killed several of you. Many of you were rotting away being near all of this, but Frode, DAN and Hysteria seemed to be having the worst of times. Kaswink, however, had a slightly different approach. Rather than rack up rot while attacking Božena and this weird flower, she chose to try and heal her. She used her weapon and the connection it has to spirals, corruption and all sorts of mental and spiritual madness to try and heal Božena of whatever is corrupting her. She was making progress as she felt Božena's emotions within her own heart, and she tried to have Božena experience some more positive feelings through her own influence as well. Within Božena she felt guilt, heartache and immense loss, but it wasn't clear if this was attributed to Božena's current ritual/plans, the millennia spent on this ritual, or perhaps something deeper. She continued to connect with Božena each round, and she was able to see a glimpse of the past. She was surrounded in robed, masked folks all hoping to hide their uniqueness in dense conformity or anonymity. Half-masks similar to a masquerade style or full-masks that were closer to Hysteria's own were all present, whereas others hid their faces under hoods. She saw Božena, intrinsically aware of where she was, and she was able to see this Necromancer laughing and having fun with a group of people. It was a serene moment, but Božena's mood quickly plummeted as her attention shifted towards Kaswink. Kaswink tried to channel a realization into Božena's spirit by reminding her that moments like this, goals, pursuits and civilizations wouldn't be able to happen in this way again, but Božena just crouched and stared at the ground.

Meanwhile, DAN and Hysteria got trapped inside a big flower, and Kaswink's efforts were interrupted as DAN killed Božena for a final time. Their pickaxes swung through the air, with a final blow piercing Božena's second mask, Skorumpovaný, as it split in half before disintegrating into a luminescent dust. This dust floated towards Hysteria's unconscious body, particularly onto his own mask causing it to glow. Vines and flowers instantly started to decay into a cascade of torrential rot that filled the chasms in this garden. Within these same chasms, you could see the roots of the Black Pear Tree were sticking out of the ground. They were immense, far larger than you would expect, and wide enough to allow you to walk through them. Within these roots you could see only darkness, but also the potential for someplace other than here. Agave, as Bobcat, swore to burn down the garden and all the remains of the giant flower Božena was using. Though, something tells me Agave might want to harvest some plants first as they could be useful. Kaswink left to find a giant shark skeleton as she promised to visit it after Božena was defeated. Frode took Božena's spear, Mordrimna, and heard the sound of labored breathing and muck squelching beneath exhausted bodies. He turned to see two zombies rising from the slime that was once a giant horrible flower, and he recognized them as some of his family. His wife, still missing her lower half, and his daughter, more whole though just as plagued and decayed. They greeted him with terms of affection, and the session ended.

Monday D&D Jan 09, 2023