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Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren
Charlotte, Aurora's Violet Faerie Dragon Familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren
Charlotte, Aurora's Violet Faerie Dragon Familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem
Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster
Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated
Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion
Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Comrades we have lost:
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Comrades we have lost:
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.
Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.
Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.
***** Lacysnows 22, CY 710, Jotsplat
The bloody rain that had been pouring down on the army below suddenly reversed and began going up into the clouds. Cyrrik jumped off the balcony and began hacking into the golems, then started flinging reverse gravity spells at them. I hopped on my broom and flew out to the battlefield, throwing out several spells to make me louder, and started buffing our forces. Even with the power we were throwing at the golems, things still weren't looking great for us here. The damned volcanic golems blowing up upon death was just fucking us- if we didn't kill them, they'd kill us, but killing them meant killing ourselves. Those fucking cultists had thought of everything.
Our aerial forces were doing well at least since they didn't have to get right in the golems' faces. The blood rain was beginning to take the shape of a giant, bloody, demonic-looking dragon, and I could just make out Sil in the middle of it. That kid is fucking creepy. I'm so glad she's on our side. Energy was coalescing around her too, and it seemed like all of a sudden the tides turned in our favor.
Wind roared around us as Aerathema began swooping over the battlefield, flinging golems into the torrent. Cyrrik dropped his reverse gravity, summoned a holy anvil, and struck it with his hammeraxe, unleashing a massive blast of radiant energy that swept over the battlefield. Aerathema's wind sent most of the remaining golems into the pillar of radiance, and slowly energy built. Cyrrik struck the anvil again, and a massive explosion went off, pieces of volcanic golems flying every which way. Volcanic rock rained down onto the battlefield as a cry of victory rang out among our troops. We had won!
The blood dragon landed- she'd finished forming just as Aerathema and Cyrrik finished off the golems- and the blood washed away, creating a large puddle. She glared daggers at Cyrrik for finishing them off before she got to play with them.
Overall there were 2,300 dwarves remaining, we'd lost 18% of Dervish's army, 5% of Aerathema's druid and Vale Elf forces, and 60% of the demon forces. I have no idea where the demons fucking came from, but they were useful.
Aerathema gathered her forces and headed toward Potidaea to help Briisa.
Allysandra told us that we needed to hurry to Alucard's body- apparently that was all they needed, they didn't require his soul. I showed her where Greyhawk was on the map so she could teleport us, and the rest of Dervish's people, there right away. She'd hold the gate open for as long as she could to get as many people there as possible- she figured she'd be able to keep it up for about a day. Cyrrik said the dwarves had their own gate there, so they would meet us in the city.
Nature had completely taken over the once great City of Greyhawk. The once great city was decrepit, old, and covered in plants. I picked up no magic here at all, aside from our gate. After the long battle with the volcanic golems, our forces needed some sleep, so we set up camp. Not long after we picked a place to settle down, we felt a surge of energy as Cyrrik's gate activated, and he brought with him 300 dwarves and five thousand terracotta soldiers. He set up the terracotta soldiers around us, establishing a perimeter so we could rest.
The fires seemed dimmer than they should have been, but I wasn't detecting any reason for it. It bugged me for some reason, and I had a bad feeling I couldn't shake.
A few hours later Sil said there were bad things lurking in the dark. As if to punctuate her point, the sound of the terracotta soldiers shattering rang out around us. Shadows were darting around us, and we couldn't get a handle on where they were. This was exactly like what we faced on that first night after we'd left Blackmoor. That feels like a lifetime ago, though it was only a few months ago. While we'd seen them before, I really didn't know much about them, they seemed to be a new creation.
The mages lit up the area, but the light was still dimmer than it should have been, and the shadows were actively avoiding the light. Cyrrik made his way to just outside the perimeter, and the moment he stepped outside the light, a creature popped out at him- it was hard to tell what it was, it was like an undead/lich/shadow. The dwarven king turned on his heel and ran right back into camp.
Allysandra said they were true shades; formed from pretty much every demonic and undead with a shadow. With that, she had all of her mages aid her in activating a massive control weather spell. The clouds began moving away and the light came through. As the area lit up, this sickening pulse of energy hit all of us, and the shades began to blur. Dervish's archers killed all of them.
***** Lacysnows 23, Free City of Greyhawk
When we were finished resting, we sent out scouts to see if we could find where in the Hells the damn cult had Alucard's body. There didn't seem to be any sign of them so far, and that worried me. We thought the most likely place they'd be holed up was the castle since castles usually have defenses.
Eventually, the scouts reported back that they'd found a temple to every God, and inside it was a strange black stone that seemed to be absorbing the light. This temple was one of the few buildings that was actually intact, and it was defensible. Scottie created the biggest Tenser's Floating Disk ever, and we migrated camp there. We found a hidden staircase inside, which led to a huge door, like as big as the doors to the Beacons, but we couldn't get in.
In the night, Pharin contacted Ralliakkan about the door. She told him not to let anybody touch it until she got there.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Ralliakkan in camp when I came out of my reverie.
***** Lacysnows 24, Free City of Greyhawk
In the morning, Cyrrik announced that Moradin was sending us aid. Since we didn't know when the aid would arrive, we headed up to the castle to check it out ourselves.
When we crested the top of the hill, we saw a 30-foot tall tower that looked like a finger. They were all over the castle walls. I'm pretty sure those were the things Oryn had said would set off a nova... not fucking good.
Allysandra strode toward the tower and it fired at her, but thankfully it missed. Ralliakkan told me to try to open the gate- she thought that Oryn's soul shard would protect me from the defenses. I hoped she was right. I got to the gate, but it was way too fucking heavy for me to open on my own. Cyrrik came to help me next, and even with the dwarf's bulky muscles, we still couldn't get it open. It took Dervish and Vish helping us to get that stupid fucking thing open. We'd been pushing on the gates, and Cyrrik realized they opened out just as Dervish and Vish arrived to help us. I felt a little stupid... Not that I'd ever admit it to anyone.
Waiting on the other side of the door was the Drow and the Duergar. Instantly Vish, Charlotte, Eurydice, and Aiden turned on Cyrrik, Dervish, and I. I dismissed Charlotte to her dimensional pocket to get her out of the way for the duration. Cyrrik tried his iron flask on Vish, and the stubborn ass resisted. Vish lunged at Dervish and missed him completely. Eurydice and Aiden couldn't get past the charismatic shield I had active, so they went for Cyrrik and somehow managed to hit him hard- well, hard for them. Cyrrik completely destroyed both of them. That's another true res... so inconvenient. Dervish managed to trap Vish in his flask while Cyrrik was destroying my former familiar.
The Duergar seemed to be having trouble controlling his fire, and he fell over. Sil dominated the Drow, who was the cause of Duergar falling- at least that's how it seemed. Cyrrik chucked his axe at the Duergar, and he screamed in pain as he began withering into a husk. It was like a supercharged blight hit him and slowly destroyed him. I hurried to the body and snatched up that concentration ring.
With the Drow under Sil's control, we were able to let Vish out of the flask and Charlotte out of the pocket. Dervish found a gem in the wall on the inside that powered down the nova tower so the others could get to us.
We were standing in a huge courtyard that was completely empty but somehow well preserved. This was one area where nature had not taken over, and that worried me a little. There was another massive gate waiting for us on the other side of the courtyard, but this one required a password. Dervish wanted to plane shift to that dimensional pocket that Oryn had taken us to, but it kicked him out instantly. We tried it with all four of us- since the soul was divvied between all four of us.
We were in a room we'd seen before, but it was no longer the comfortable room Oryn had once taken us to. It was now rundown and decrepit, everything was rotting and falling apart. There was a visage of Oryn, but half of his face was melted, it gave me chills. The door that led further into the house fell over when we moved to open it, and we entered the rotting sitting room.
Cyrrik found the one thing in the room that wasn't dying- a pristine metal box with no hinges. We could tell it was a box, and Cyrrik found a riddle on it; as soon as he recited it, the box sprang open. The box was empty. Ralliakkan found the password in it before collapsing into a coma. Cyrrik looked at it and saw written in literally every language: "let me in."
After Ralliakkan was revived, she picked the lock on the gate, giving us an hour to get our forces in before the defenses reactivated. I remembered at that point that she'd been trying to ally with Kas' cult, and asked about it; it failed, they cared more about eliminating us than working with us to stop Vecna.
Ralliakkan told us this was the only place that anyone could even attempt to do anything to Alucard's body- so the cult had to be here. The next doorway was covered in writing and seemed to be yet another fucking trap. I asked the Drow how the cult had gotten in, and thanks to Sil, she showed us the secret door and unlocked it with a mummified hand (not Vecna's). That seemed too easy. I asked the bitch what was waiting beyond the door- DEATH. Like The DEATH. Anything not bound to Venca or undead would not survive going through that door. Sil, being the terrifying child she is, told us to go back to the main doors, she'd take the Drow and get us in.
While we waited for Sil to get us inside, we looked more closely at the runes on the door. They were all inverted. It was fucking weird. I took advantage of the time to bring Eurydice back from the gave. Cyrrik summoned Stonefist while we waited too, and told him he could be redeemed if he could get the door opened. The dwarf spent the next three hours studying the door before it opened on its own.
A very badly beaten up Sil and the Drow were on the other side, and Sil was holding a scythe. She spent all of her wishes to kill DEATH and take its place. This four-year-old monster was now DEATH. I just... I couldn't even fathom how absurd my life had become.
We entered a grand hallway that was littered with corpses; every single cultist who had gotten in her way had met its end. Cyrrik asked Sil where we needed to go, and she turned into black mist to lead us. Eventually, we reached a dead end that Sil couldn't get through, and when she tried she just bounced off of it. It wasn't an illusion, but passwall didn't work. The entire fucking hallway was anti-magic. We had to push the fucking wall- glad we had dwarves.
Sil said they knew we were here, and they were actively trying to block her. She couldn't cross the threshold and felt like Vecna was literally holding her in place. Cyrrik attempted to get Vecna's claws off of Sil, but he couldn't do it. We had to leave Sil behind. Since the Drow was no longer useful, we gave her to Sil.
We spent the next few minutes making our way through the hallways, and every time we reached an intersection, Cyrrik would spin his axe or commune with Moradin or some such nonsense to determine which way to go. After walking for a while, we realized one of the turns we'd taken had led us into an endless maze. I hate those fucking things. After five full minutes, Vish was still trapped in the damned thing, so Ralliakkan went in with an iron flask to get him out.
Cyrrik got a random idea and knocked out Aiden, tossing him into the maze. Ralliakkan went to retrieve him. He thought we had to get to the end of the maze, but there's not supposed to be an end to an endless maze. But Ralliakkan thought he must've been onto something because she disappeared back into it. After almost six minutes, there was a flash, and Ralliakkan appeared, holding a dead illithid. Evidently, it had been fueling the maze. We began going down the now real hallway.
After an hour of walking, we finally saw a faint glow up ahead of us, and we heard chanting. I could just make out a door at the end of the hallway. We all quickly downed some fire ale to buff ourselves up a little- apparently, faerie dragons have no tolerance for alcohol, both Eurydice and Charlotte were completely drunk.
Stonefist clanged a bell and began charging the door, with all the other dwarves right on his heels. When they were about 20 feet away, Cyrrik hurled his axe at the door, sending a dispel magic with it. Stonefist punched the door and a barrier shattered, sending a massive wave of power down the hall. We all poured into the room on the other side of the door, expecting the cultists to be in here, but it was empty...
Aside from the 1,000-point magic circle that covered every surface of the room. There was an altar with a rune on it- Alucard's name in the true language. That was when we realized we'd just completely played into the cult's hands. They never had Alucard's body. We just took them past every single fucking trap and walked them right in the fucking door. This was fucking wonderful.
Cyrrik had Stonefist destroy the rune with Alucard's name on it, we could absolutely not let the cult get their hands on that. He crumbled it with ease. Cyrrik made the circle flare to life, and little black motes were floating in it. The circle was fucking tainted. We tried cleansing it, but our first attempt didn't work. I tried using my legend lore spell to get any idea of what we were fucking dealing with, but I couldn't get shit. Then Cyrrik said he thought the fire from a god's forge could cleanse the taint. Since he would be turning it into an inferno, I took everyone except for Cyrrik into my pocket paradise and waited for him to call us back.
Pharin tapped into the forge in the Forgotten City and the room filled with flame. None of the others could have survived the blast. The little black flecks of corruption began falling out of the air. Pharin tried to scoop them up, and the corruption wrapped itself around his hand. It began traveling up his arm at an alarming speed, so with a flick of his blade, he cut his arm off. He stuffed the arm in an iron flask and sent it to the plane of positive energy; that should cleanse it. When Pharin was finished, the room was free of corruption.
When we got back Cyrrik was missing an arm. He mumbled something about it getting a little tainted so he got rid of it. Fucking insane dwarf. We got Alucard's blood from Ralliakkan and got to work trying to summon the body away from the cult. Of course, that was easier said than done, we couldn't get a connection. Then we tried summoning Vecna's coffin, assuming Alucard's body would be in that.
A coffin appeared where the altar had been, and the lid instantly popped open. A blonde human male sat up, said "it worked!" and the coffin exploded. We had Alucard's body, with Vecna inhabiting it. Several of the dwarves just flat out died. We'd just given Vecna exactly what he needed to come back- a mortal vessel. We're doing a fucking wonderful job of stopping him.
Ralliakkan ran up to Vecna, stabbed him in the chest, and yelled "run" over his scream. As we turned to run, Cyrrik called out "how many?" Stonefist said 17, Stonemason said 14, the High Priest of Moradin said 3, and the Bard said 6. Everything slowed down as the Deck of Many Things began dealing cards...
Stonefist first drew the Euryale, then the Vizier, a Moon with two wishes, then another Moon with two more wishes, another Vizier, another Moon with three more wishes, the Jester, Ruin, The Fool- which turned into Euryale, the Skull, Gems, another Skull, another Moon with one wish, the Sun- which summoned Lothar, apparently he's a magic item- the Knight, the Key, the Comet, another Key, and another Vizier.
Stonemason drew the Talon, the Moon with two wishes, the Flame, the Comet, the Key, three Suns in a row, the Fates, the Flame again, Balance, another Comet, the Star, and another Vizier. The dude ended up with the Sword of Kas, the Wand of Orcus, a Wish Ring with three fucking wishes, a Hammer of Lightning Bolts, and a Vorpal Sword. I kind of hate these guys.
The Priest drew two Stars in a row, the Jester, the Skull, and the Knight.
The Bard ended up with the Sun, the Talon, another Sun, Balance, Gem, and the Key.
Then Stonefist and the Priest's knights were given draws...
Stonefist's knight got the Key, the Sun, the Fool- turned into Comet, and another Comet.
The Priest's knight drew the Rogue and the Gems.
All in all, that was the luckiest string of draws I've ever seen or even heard of. Briisa's probably going to think I'm embellishing the fuck out of this. When the third Skull was drawn, we told him not to attack Sil, who appeared in the true form of DEATH. She might be able to help us.
Stonefist calmly said he knew what to wish for, and time slowed again. Stonefist and Stonemason walked up to Vecna- Ralliakkan vanished as they did- and Moons began glowing and vanishing. Stonefist said he'd mortal right now and punched Vecna. He went flying into the remains of the coffin. Reality then warped and Vecna was ripped out of Alucard's body, we could see him clawing desperately at the body before he flew out of the room.
We just kind of beat Vecna. That went surprisingly well. Cyrrik certainly keeps things interesting.
Ralliakkan had been sent back to the stronghold in Jotsplat for some reason. She told us we needed to revive Alucard and bring him with us; we were going to need him.
Lothar saw through Pharin's disguise and began to out him, until Moradin declared Pharin the king, so long as he didn't fuck over the dwarves.
Stonemason began rebuilding the altar so we could perform the ritual.
Lothar told us he'd been summoned here by the Deck because we couldn't revive Alucard without him. In order to bring back Alucard, we'd have to kill Lothar.
The bloody rain that had been pouring down on the army below suddenly reversed and began going up into the clouds. Cyrrik jumped off the balcony and began hacking into the golems, then started flinging reverse gravity spells at them. I hopped on my broom and flew out to the battlefield, throwing out several spells to make me louder, and started buffing our forces. Even with the power we were throwing at the golems, things still weren't looking great for us here. The damned volcanic golems blowing up upon death was just fucking us- if we didn't kill them, they'd kill us, but killing them meant killing ourselves. Those fucking cultists had thought of everything.
Our aerial forces were doing well at least since they didn't have to get right in the golems' faces. The blood rain was beginning to take the shape of a giant, bloody, demonic-looking dragon, and I could just make out Sil in the middle of it. That kid is fucking creepy. I'm so glad she's on our side. Energy was coalescing around her too, and it seemed like all of a sudden the tides turned in our favor.
Wind roared around us as Aerathema began swooping over the battlefield, flinging golems into the torrent. Cyrrik dropped his reverse gravity, summoned a holy anvil, and struck it with his hammeraxe, unleashing a massive blast of radiant energy that swept over the battlefield. Aerathema's wind sent most of the remaining golems into the pillar of radiance, and slowly energy built. Cyrrik struck the anvil again, and a massive explosion went off, pieces of volcanic golems flying every which way. Volcanic rock rained down onto the battlefield as a cry of victory rang out among our troops. We had won!
The blood dragon landed- she'd finished forming just as Aerathema and Cyrrik finished off the golems- and the blood washed away, creating a large puddle. She glared daggers at Cyrrik for finishing them off before she got to play with them.
Overall there were 2,300 dwarves remaining, we'd lost 18% of Dervish's army, 5% of Aerathema's druid and Vale Elf forces, and 60% of the demon forces. I have no idea where the demons fucking came from, but they were useful.
Aerathema gathered her forces and headed toward Potidaea to help Briisa.
Allysandra told us that we needed to hurry to Alucard's body- apparently that was all they needed, they didn't require his soul. I showed her where Greyhawk was on the map so she could teleport us, and the rest of Dervish's people, there right away. She'd hold the gate open for as long as she could to get as many people there as possible- she figured she'd be able to keep it up for about a day. Cyrrik said the dwarves had their own gate there, so they would meet us in the city.
Nature had completely taken over the once great City of Greyhawk. The once great city was decrepit, old, and covered in plants. I picked up no magic here at all, aside from our gate. After the long battle with the volcanic golems, our forces needed some sleep, so we set up camp. Not long after we picked a place to settle down, we felt a surge of energy as Cyrrik's gate activated, and he brought with him 300 dwarves and five thousand terracotta soldiers. He set up the terracotta soldiers around us, establishing a perimeter so we could rest.
The fires seemed dimmer than they should have been, but I wasn't detecting any reason for it. It bugged me for some reason, and I had a bad feeling I couldn't shake.
A few hours later Sil said there were bad things lurking in the dark. As if to punctuate her point, the sound of the terracotta soldiers shattering rang out around us. Shadows were darting around us, and we couldn't get a handle on where they were. This was exactly like what we faced on that first night after we'd left Blackmoor. That feels like a lifetime ago, though it was only a few months ago. While we'd seen them before, I really didn't know much about them, they seemed to be a new creation.
The mages lit up the area, but the light was still dimmer than it should have been, and the shadows were actively avoiding the light. Cyrrik made his way to just outside the perimeter, and the moment he stepped outside the light, a creature popped out at him- it was hard to tell what it was, it was like an undead/lich/shadow. The dwarven king turned on his heel and ran right back into camp.
Allysandra said they were true shades; formed from pretty much every demonic and undead with a shadow. With that, she had all of her mages aid her in activating a massive control weather spell. The clouds began moving away and the light came through. As the area lit up, this sickening pulse of energy hit all of us, and the shades began to blur. Dervish's archers killed all of them.
***** Lacysnows 23, Free City of Greyhawk
When we were finished resting, we sent out scouts to see if we could find where in the Hells the damn cult had Alucard's body. There didn't seem to be any sign of them so far, and that worried me. We thought the most likely place they'd be holed up was the castle since castles usually have defenses.
Eventually, the scouts reported back that they'd found a temple to every God, and inside it was a strange black stone that seemed to be absorbing the light. This temple was one of the few buildings that was actually intact, and it was defensible. Scottie created the biggest Tenser's Floating Disk ever, and we migrated camp there. We found a hidden staircase inside, which led to a huge door, like as big as the doors to the Beacons, but we couldn't get in.
In the night, Pharin contacted Ralliakkan about the door. She told him not to let anybody touch it until she got there.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Ralliakkan in camp when I came out of my reverie.
***** Lacysnows 24, Free City of Greyhawk
In the morning, Cyrrik announced that Moradin was sending us aid. Since we didn't know when the aid would arrive, we headed up to the castle to check it out ourselves.
When we crested the top of the hill, we saw a 30-foot tall tower that looked like a finger. They were all over the castle walls. I'm pretty sure those were the things Oryn had said would set off a nova... not fucking good.
Allysandra strode toward the tower and it fired at her, but thankfully it missed. Ralliakkan told me to try to open the gate- she thought that Oryn's soul shard would protect me from the defenses. I hoped she was right. I got to the gate, but it was way too fucking heavy for me to open on my own. Cyrrik came to help me next, and even with the dwarf's bulky muscles, we still couldn't get it open. It took Dervish and Vish helping us to get that stupid fucking thing open. We'd been pushing on the gates, and Cyrrik realized they opened out just as Dervish and Vish arrived to help us. I felt a little stupid... Not that I'd ever admit it to anyone.
Waiting on the other side of the door was the Drow and the Duergar. Instantly Vish, Charlotte, Eurydice, and Aiden turned on Cyrrik, Dervish, and I. I dismissed Charlotte to her dimensional pocket to get her out of the way for the duration. Cyrrik tried his iron flask on Vish, and the stubborn ass resisted. Vish lunged at Dervish and missed him completely. Eurydice and Aiden couldn't get past the charismatic shield I had active, so they went for Cyrrik and somehow managed to hit him hard- well, hard for them. Cyrrik completely destroyed both of them. That's another true res... so inconvenient. Dervish managed to trap Vish in his flask while Cyrrik was destroying my former familiar.
The Duergar seemed to be having trouble controlling his fire, and he fell over. Sil dominated the Drow, who was the cause of Duergar falling- at least that's how it seemed. Cyrrik chucked his axe at the Duergar, and he screamed in pain as he began withering into a husk. It was like a supercharged blight hit him and slowly destroyed him. I hurried to the body and snatched up that concentration ring.
With the Drow under Sil's control, we were able to let Vish out of the flask and Charlotte out of the pocket. Dervish found a gem in the wall on the inside that powered down the nova tower so the others could get to us.
We were standing in a huge courtyard that was completely empty but somehow well preserved. This was one area where nature had not taken over, and that worried me a little. There was another massive gate waiting for us on the other side of the courtyard, but this one required a password. Dervish wanted to plane shift to that dimensional pocket that Oryn had taken us to, but it kicked him out instantly. We tried it with all four of us- since the soul was divvied between all four of us.
We were in a room we'd seen before, but it was no longer the comfortable room Oryn had once taken us to. It was now rundown and decrepit, everything was rotting and falling apart. There was a visage of Oryn, but half of his face was melted, it gave me chills. The door that led further into the house fell over when we moved to open it, and we entered the rotting sitting room.
Cyrrik found the one thing in the room that wasn't dying- a pristine metal box with no hinges. We could tell it was a box, and Cyrrik found a riddle on it; as soon as he recited it, the box sprang open. The box was empty. Ralliakkan found the password in it before collapsing into a coma. Cyrrik looked at it and saw written in literally every language: "let me in."
After Ralliakkan was revived, she picked the lock on the gate, giving us an hour to get our forces in before the defenses reactivated. I remembered at that point that she'd been trying to ally with Kas' cult, and asked about it; it failed, they cared more about eliminating us than working with us to stop Vecna.
Ralliakkan told us this was the only place that anyone could even attempt to do anything to Alucard's body- so the cult had to be here. The next doorway was covered in writing and seemed to be yet another fucking trap. I asked the Drow how the cult had gotten in, and thanks to Sil, she showed us the secret door and unlocked it with a mummified hand (not Vecna's). That seemed too easy. I asked the bitch what was waiting beyond the door- DEATH. Like The DEATH. Anything not bound to Venca or undead would not survive going through that door. Sil, being the terrifying child she is, told us to go back to the main doors, she'd take the Drow and get us in.
While we waited for Sil to get us inside, we looked more closely at the runes on the door. They were all inverted. It was fucking weird. I took advantage of the time to bring Eurydice back from the gave. Cyrrik summoned Stonefist while we waited too, and told him he could be redeemed if he could get the door opened. The dwarf spent the next three hours studying the door before it opened on its own.
A very badly beaten up Sil and the Drow were on the other side, and Sil was holding a scythe. She spent all of her wishes to kill DEATH and take its place. This four-year-old monster was now DEATH. I just... I couldn't even fathom how absurd my life had become.
We entered a grand hallway that was littered with corpses; every single cultist who had gotten in her way had met its end. Cyrrik asked Sil where we needed to go, and she turned into black mist to lead us. Eventually, we reached a dead end that Sil couldn't get through, and when she tried she just bounced off of it. It wasn't an illusion, but passwall didn't work. The entire fucking hallway was anti-magic. We had to push the fucking wall- glad we had dwarves.
Sil said they knew we were here, and they were actively trying to block her. She couldn't cross the threshold and felt like Vecna was literally holding her in place. Cyrrik attempted to get Vecna's claws off of Sil, but he couldn't do it. We had to leave Sil behind. Since the Drow was no longer useful, we gave her to Sil.
We spent the next few minutes making our way through the hallways, and every time we reached an intersection, Cyrrik would spin his axe or commune with Moradin or some such nonsense to determine which way to go. After walking for a while, we realized one of the turns we'd taken had led us into an endless maze. I hate those fucking things. After five full minutes, Vish was still trapped in the damned thing, so Ralliakkan went in with an iron flask to get him out.
Cyrrik got a random idea and knocked out Aiden, tossing him into the maze. Ralliakkan went to retrieve him. He thought we had to get to the end of the maze, but there's not supposed to be an end to an endless maze. But Ralliakkan thought he must've been onto something because she disappeared back into it. After almost six minutes, there was a flash, and Ralliakkan appeared, holding a dead illithid. Evidently, it had been fueling the maze. We began going down the now real hallway.
After an hour of walking, we finally saw a faint glow up ahead of us, and we heard chanting. I could just make out a door at the end of the hallway. We all quickly downed some fire ale to buff ourselves up a little- apparently, faerie dragons have no tolerance for alcohol, both Eurydice and Charlotte were completely drunk.
Stonefist clanged a bell and began charging the door, with all the other dwarves right on his heels. When they were about 20 feet away, Cyrrik hurled his axe at the door, sending a dispel magic with it. Stonefist punched the door and a barrier shattered, sending a massive wave of power down the hall. We all poured into the room on the other side of the door, expecting the cultists to be in here, but it was empty...
Aside from the 1,000-point magic circle that covered every surface of the room. There was an altar with a rune on it- Alucard's name in the true language. That was when we realized we'd just completely played into the cult's hands. They never had Alucard's body. We just took them past every single fucking trap and walked them right in the fucking door. This was fucking wonderful.
Cyrrik had Stonefist destroy the rune with Alucard's name on it, we could absolutely not let the cult get their hands on that. He crumbled it with ease. Cyrrik made the circle flare to life, and little black motes were floating in it. The circle was fucking tainted. We tried cleansing it, but our first attempt didn't work. I tried using my legend lore spell to get any idea of what we were fucking dealing with, but I couldn't get shit. Then Cyrrik said he thought the fire from a god's forge could cleanse the taint. Since he would be turning it into an inferno, I took everyone except for Cyrrik into my pocket paradise and waited for him to call us back.
Pharin tapped into the forge in the Forgotten City and the room filled with flame. None of the others could have survived the blast. The little black flecks of corruption began falling out of the air. Pharin tried to scoop them up, and the corruption wrapped itself around his hand. It began traveling up his arm at an alarming speed, so with a flick of his blade, he cut his arm off. He stuffed the arm in an iron flask and sent it to the plane of positive energy; that should cleanse it. When Pharin was finished, the room was free of corruption.
When we got back Cyrrik was missing an arm. He mumbled something about it getting a little tainted so he got rid of it. Fucking insane dwarf. We got Alucard's blood from Ralliakkan and got to work trying to summon the body away from the cult. Of course, that was easier said than done, we couldn't get a connection. Then we tried summoning Vecna's coffin, assuming Alucard's body would be in that.
A coffin appeared where the altar had been, and the lid instantly popped open. A blonde human male sat up, said "it worked!" and the coffin exploded. We had Alucard's body, with Vecna inhabiting it. Several of the dwarves just flat out died. We'd just given Vecna exactly what he needed to come back- a mortal vessel. We're doing a fucking wonderful job of stopping him.
Ralliakkan ran up to Vecna, stabbed him in the chest, and yelled "run" over his scream. As we turned to run, Cyrrik called out "how many?" Stonefist said 17, Stonemason said 14, the High Priest of Moradin said 3, and the Bard said 6. Everything slowed down as the Deck of Many Things began dealing cards...
Stonefist first drew the Euryale, then the Vizier, a Moon with two wishes, then another Moon with two more wishes, another Vizier, another Moon with three more wishes, the Jester, Ruin, The Fool- which turned into Euryale, the Skull, Gems, another Skull, another Moon with one wish, the Sun- which summoned Lothar, apparently he's a magic item- the Knight, the Key, the Comet, another Key, and another Vizier.
Stonemason drew the Talon, the Moon with two wishes, the Flame, the Comet, the Key, three Suns in a row, the Fates, the Flame again, Balance, another Comet, the Star, and another Vizier. The dude ended up with the Sword of Kas, the Wand of Orcus, a Wish Ring with three fucking wishes, a Hammer of Lightning Bolts, and a Vorpal Sword. I kind of hate these guys.
The Priest drew two Stars in a row, the Jester, the Skull, and the Knight.
The Bard ended up with the Sun, the Talon, another Sun, Balance, Gem, and the Key.
Then Stonefist and the Priest's knights were given draws...
Stonefist's knight got the Key, the Sun, the Fool- turned into Comet, and another Comet.
The Priest's knight drew the Rogue and the Gems.
All in all, that was the luckiest string of draws I've ever seen or even heard of. Briisa's probably going to think I'm embellishing the fuck out of this. When the third Skull was drawn, we told him not to attack Sil, who appeared in the true form of DEATH. She might be able to help us.
Stonefist calmly said he knew what to wish for, and time slowed again. Stonefist and Stonemason walked up to Vecna- Ralliakkan vanished as they did- and Moons began glowing and vanishing. Stonefist said he'd mortal right now and punched Vecna. He went flying into the remains of the coffin. Reality then warped and Vecna was ripped out of Alucard's body, we could see him clawing desperately at the body before he flew out of the room.
We just kind of beat Vecna. That went surprisingly well. Cyrrik certainly keeps things interesting.
Ralliakkan had been sent back to the stronghold in Jotsplat for some reason. She told us we needed to revive Alucard and bring him with us; we were going to need him.
Lothar saw through Pharin's disguise and began to out him, until Moradin declared Pharin the king, so long as he didn't fuck over the dwarves.
Stonemason began rebuilding the altar so we could perform the ritual.
Lothar told us he'd been summoned here by the Deck because we couldn't revive Alucard without him. In order to bring back Alucard, we'd have to kill Lothar.
Maps by Anna B. Meyer
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