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Worldres' Zeitgeist Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Worldres" data-source="post: 9195732" data-attributes="member: 7029564"><p>Hello again! I didn't get cooked and eaten alive by my players for not posting for a couple months, because…</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 26px"><em><span style="color: rgb(243, 121, 52)">WE JUST COMPLETED THE BATTLE AT THE AXIS SEAL, BABY!<img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🎉" title="Party popper :tada:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f389.png" data-shortname=":tada:" /></span></em></span></strong></p><p></p><p>Which means I have to post even faster, because my players want to get on here.</p><p></p><p>And besides, don’t you want to know what ending they got? But I digress…</p><p></p><p><strong>Adventure 8 & 9 Part II, Godmind & Gorged on Ruins: The World's Most Powerful Women: We made them discuss Weddings and Axis Island.</strong></p><p></p><p>Also, the Full Tilt War Crime episode.</p><p></p><p><strong>[ATTACH=full]329690[/ATTACH]</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Do you think Eloise Duffet had girl power? Do you think Eloise Duffet effectively utilized girl power by funneling Danoran money into an illegal paramilitary death squad in the Malice Lands?</em></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">AXIS ISLAND</span></strong></p><p></p><p>The players finally heed Ashima Shimtu's advice and head for Axis Island. The murderhobos decided to deal with the Hivemind by sneaking down into the caves and slitting the throats of the dying obscurati agents. Off to a great start with this write up, we are. I don’t think I had a chance to say this before, but a fair bit of exsanguination on behalf of the King of Risur has gone down in our campaign - Marcel beheaded the heretical druids who were trying to have the Fey Titans trample Bole, and the party mercy killed everyone inside of the Ursalina Bardic College by decapitation. Punching the grimdark until it bled rainbows this, unfortunately, aint. Are we the baddies?</p><p></p><p>So, having a Soldier of the Steel Lord in our party comp who also killed Gradiax’ daughter meant that there was absolutely no f-ing way that our party was ever going to ally with Gradiax. They at least heard him out, though - particularly because Brakken was there, who has stayed relevant long enough that the players have decided that he is their new favourite NPC. Gradiax boasted that had the Axis Seal Ritual location, and since party knew how to craft icons, they could end all of this. To sweeten the deal, he was willing to lend Risur the might of his gnoll army and all of his arcanotech, so long as the party handed over Gatria at the end of all things.</p><p></p><p>The party refused, of course. Gradiax told them they had until they left the island to make up their mind, because the next time they met, he wouldn’t be so friendly. Gatria said she looked forward to it.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329785[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Before they bounced, the party used this opportunity to find out what happened to the destroyed Borne. They collected evidence that the Voice of Rot was responsible for the attack, and the party stopped over to promise Borne that they would find a way to save him as soon as they could. They then absconded on their own, and I decided to let Gradiax keep Axis Island for now - this would be leveraged against me, but don't worry. I have something sinister up my sleeve.</p><p></p><p>Goodbye, dear Airship. Hello, twisting myself into pretzels trying to get the party to places on time...</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">CHERAGE</span></strong></p><p></p><p>So, everyone, do you think we finally have time for that Forward Symposium? The whole worldwide invasion of Risur thing? Geez Louise.</p><p></p><p>The party plots some political 4d chess to manipulate people into thinking Risur are the good guys on the international stage. Utilizing various levels of prestige to stall the Symposium, Gatria decides to utilize her Rumourmonger ability to reveal the Jierre’s historic relationship with the Ob, and the Ob’s relationship to the planar disaster, to brew up some civil unrest in Cherage. She timed this to spill over at the Forward Symposium.</p><p></p><p>Yeah, so I never said my party was made up of good people. (And if I did, that was a lie.)</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329691[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Fortunately I've got a good group of players that know how to make terrible PCs a good time for the whole table.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, rather than having Han's wife act as his representative, I had Eloise Duffet stand in for Danor's representation, since she was a familiar NPC and has a significant political role in <em>Adventures in Zeitgeist</em>.</p><p></p><p>And because I knew my players were going to head to Crysillyir after this, it didn't make a lot of sense to me for them to meet with Prime Cardinal Titus Banderesso only for him to be ushered out of the plot immediately after, so I elevated Savina Tullius to a sort of "appointed in extremis" Hierarch, who had taken the position to advance her own agenda after the Ob had created a power vacuum by executing Clergy. In doing this, I realized I had accidentally made all of the world leaders who attended the Symposium women (well, except Sidhon. And King Marcel, I suppose, but even he is loose with gender like his dreaming counterpart Thisraldion). Diversity win! The Council planning to invade your country and wipe out your people are all women!</p><p></p><p>The party hitched a ride in Brakken’s head, but decided to send Simulacra of King Marcel and his spymaster Gatria to the meeting and act as though they were invited. They decided they wanted them to be fashionably late, so I had Nic begin the symposium, and told the players to tell me when they wanted to burst down the door. I got one paragraph in. Better than I expected, honestly.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329692[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Here it is, the full meme in all of its glory.</em></p><p></p><p>King Marcel sat down and casually mentioned to the table that the intense civil unrest in the capital made Cherage an irresponsible place to hold a meeting of world leaders, as though it wasn’t Risur's own sinister plot.</p><p></p><p>Then Gatria laid out reams of evidence that the Voice of Rot was responsible for the attack on Axis Island, and that Gradiax was on Axis Island right now trying to lock in his new arrangement - demonstrating that a world war against Risur accomplished nothing, but grouping up as a united nations against the Steel Lord would save the world.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329784[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Wish I had a high-effort sh*tpost for this one, sorry.</em></p><p></p><p>This pleased Dmitra, Sidhon, and Brakken (who the Malice Lands rep Jacksdotter agreed to vote with, given Brakken’s work there), but Savina refused, and Eloise was resistant. To convince Eloise to join Risur against the Ob, the party dropped the bomb on her that Nicodemus and Han had Luc Jierre killed at the Obscurati Convention, and that Nathan Jierre currently had asylum in Risur out of fear that he would be assasinated if he returned to his homeland. Appalled, Eloise agreed to ally with Risur- under the belief that she could use this revelation against Han and make a grab for leadership of Danor.</p><p></p><p>Considering Eloise is a fascist, most of the party made secret plans to depose her and insert their own leader of Danor as head of state. Cleone was extremely distressed by this, and expressed that they couldn’t replace the Obscurati with another conspiracy. Gatria argued that replacing Han with Eloise would be a magnitude of order worse for everyone, but Cleone wouldn’t budge on this, insisting that the future of Danor must be democratically decided - even if it left the world worse off. The rest of the party pretended to agree.</p><p></p><p>Later, with Cleone’s player’s consent, I privately checked in with the rest of the party to see if wanted to proceed with their secret “insert their own Danoran head of state” conspiracy. They said yes. I told them never to tell Cleone’s player they fixed the leadership vote until the end of the game, after the epilogue. Lol.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329786[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Those are our Owlbear tokens, by the way.</em></p><p></p><p>Around this time, the unrest in Cherage boiled over and the Cherage Hivemind attacked the building. The players entered the hivemind to save the city, but not before ensuring the safety of the international leaders, forging some carefully crafted goodwill.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">ALAIS PRIMOS</span></strong></p><p></p><p>Ho boy! It's time to untangle how I completely changed this entire chapter! It’s worth it, though, I promise.</p><p></p><p>First of all… Yeah, so, the godhand who got imprisoned in Schism super died in our game, and I'd already shown the players his portrait at this point so, um. I needed to find a replacement. The party never met with Aulus Atticus, though - so congratulations on your promotion to chapter antagonist, buddy. In my game, Aulus Atticus was spared from the Ob cleanse simply by not being around at the time. He returned to Crysillyir to help with the Great Eclipse relief effort, where Ashima Shimtu decided to use him as an instrument to give the entire Clergy the same test Triegenes gave her.</p><p></p><p>In my game, Savina Tullius was a sort of anti-Ottavia Sacradote; a half-elf woman who had endured such terrible racism and bigotry from clergymen in her time that she considered it her personal mission to burn down the institution from the inside - and she is more than willing to play the longest of cons. Savina and Aulus were buds from the Beran Bardic college back in the day, where Aulus took credit for “”successfully converting her to Triegenes””, and Savina gradually rose through the ranks for her devotion to the clerical institution.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329846[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>She's quite a bit older than the book intends, but my players decided that Savina's likeness would be based on Kai Winn from DS9.</em></p><p></p><p>When Atticus was contacted by Ashima Shimtu with the Secret That Must Not Be Lost, he thought he could trust his friend with the Sacrament. He thought wrong, and as one of the last remaining godhands, he had no choice but to facilitate the God Trials, hoping against hope that the Clergy pantheon wouldn’t be killed.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the story was Family-centric. Our party was intensely invested in the Family- Morgan specifically- so I wanted his story to go out with a bang.</p><p></p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329845[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Our players designed a winter uniform for the party using the silver and black colours from the Crysillyiri flag - a secret symbol that they were Family allies. Yay, corruption!</em></p><p></p><p> Morgan Cippiano was now Donna Aneenya's son; the youngest of seven, who was never expected to be a major player for the Family compared to his older brothers. In my game, Morgan concealed the party's ownership of the Humble Hook after Hoya converted to the Humble Path and showed real promise as a genuine Saint of the Clergy - knowing well that not seizing the Hook for the Family was an intractable betrayal of his bloodline.</p><p></p><p>Donna Aneenya found out about this around the time of the God Trials. As punishment, the Donna decreed that Morgan must stand as the representative of Triegenes - and he would either die a martyr for the Family while the rest of them fled to demiplanes, or win the trial on behalf of Crysillyir's most beloved God and have a real shot at being appointed Prime Cardinal. Either way, Morgan would be sacrificed as a pawn to serve Family interests, and Morgan did not have the right to say no. He was forced to appoint his daughter Antonia as the new Head of the Family in Flint, because he would never return there, no matter what outcome came to pass.</p><p></p><p>The Family surrendered Morgan to Aulus Atticus. But Morgan made one request - before his arrest and execution, he wished to see his daughter happily wed. As it turned out, just before this adventure, Gatria had proposed to her! So I decided to hail the party in a sort of reverse-"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farewell_(2019_film)" target="_blank">The Farewell</a>" Wedding celebration - a wedding held as a secret funeral to Morgan, where the brides are the only ones not in on the secret. I planned a whole ass wedding. I invented scripture. I planned the guest list, the seating arrangements, the speeches, the dinner. Why did I do this? Because I am evil.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329776[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Before the ceremony, Morgan had a Family priest heal the eyeless Gatria so she could look upon her bride.</em></p><p></p><p>At the crack of "dawn" the day after, when Atticus came to arrest Morgan and the secret was revealed, Gatria punched Morgan as hard as she could in the face and broke his nose. For the first time, Morgan broke his facade of near-regal eloquence to laugh. He barked through the blood in his throat that the party made saving the world look so effortless.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329694[/ATTACH]</p><p><a href="https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-need-my-prestige-tv-shows-to-make-me-feel-so-bad-that-i-see-hell" target="_blank">I'm pretty sure I ghostwrote this article.</a></p><p></p><p>So, Morgan was arrested and the players agreed to stand in his defense at the God Trials. They convinced both the unwitting Aulus Atticus and Natalie Degaspare to let them search for evidence…. which I moved to the Library Vault. (Yes, this loses the whole point that Triegenes' own diary was considered heresy and locked away in the demon dungeon, sorry. In my defense, I liked the idea that any given head of the Clergy knew the whole time that Triegenes was never a God and was just using his influence to oppress people). I knew the party would be back for Ashima Shimtu later, so that could come at the end. The party managed to find the Axis Seal ritual while they were there.</p><p></p><p>The players broke the news that Triegenes was never a God to Morgan, first. He was stunned, but decided that Triegenes' refusal to endanger believers and become all-powerful only bolstered his faith in the humble path. Under Morgan's suggestion that they wait for the right moment, the players decided that they would go public with this revelation at the end of the trial.</p><p></p><p>The party had their Ace Attorney episode and did extremely well against Savina, winning Morgan and Triegenes a Not Guilty verdict. Savina considered it a personal victory that the Clergy's lies had been exposed, and accepted defeat gracefully. But Atticus absolutely broke at the revelation that Triegenes was not a God - everything he had done, from music to his crusades in Elfaivar, had been in the name of Triegenes. He refused to accept that the God Triegenes was not real, and decided he would prove it. In his despair, he began to conduct the Minor Sacrament of Apotheosis behind his back, planning to cast himself into the flames if Crysillyir did not accept him even then - but the party noticed him doing this, and managed to stop him in one round.</p><p></p><p>I also let them roll to contain the Embodiment of all Evil through true prayers of the faithful, which they passed, but the party decided to have Morgan use the Minor Sacrament and seal away the evil contained within the mountain once and for all.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329696[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So they never fought that cool lava creature. God damn it. Why do I even give them the option?</p><p></p><p>But seeing Morgan act as Triegenes caused such an overwhelming emotional reaction in Hoya that she worships Triegenes ardently now, even though he doesn’t actually exist. In our game, she is known as the Saint of Triegenes, who has true faith even in light of the church’s deception. Among a new faction of people who believe Triegenes is actually a Saint and not a God, they call her the Second Saint.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329695[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Now the party had to reckon with Ashima Shimtu, who had given the Sacrament to Aulus knowing full well that the Clergy would use it to kill their own people. As the new de facto leader of Crysillyir, Morgan wanted her sentenced to death, but asked the party to try her.</p><p></p><p>Ashima Shimtu pled her case, reflected on Triegenes, and told the party that she truly believed in the Humble Path. The party was unable to determine if she was lying, but Mona decided to trust her, and agreed to forgive her under one condition - she gives up on her demonic form and becomes a human woman, doomed to live out one single mortal life with none of her demonic powers or knowledge, which would be stripped from her. Ashima Shimtu agreed, but before she turned, she needed to pass on the Secret that Must Not Be Lost - the Major Sacrament of Apotheosis. She entrusted it to Mona and only to Mona, knowing that Mona will eventually use it to ascend to godhood, herself, to save the world. Then she became a human woman, and left the vault to start her new life.</p><p></p><p>I’m sure she’s completely trustworthy and won’t return in a later adventure to aggro the party or anything.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329782[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>I don't know how it happened, but my players started calling Ashima Shimtu "Shamwow." I'm sorry.</em></p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">DRAKR IS HERE TOO</span></strong></p><p></p><p>Because the party had decided to make up a cover story that Drakr's radical eschatologists created the Colossus, they had no friends left in Drakr other than Heid, who was being held captive. So the players had to make a deal with a radical eschatologist prisoner from “Cauldron Born” and pardon him for all of his crimes in exchange for him sneaking them in to the heart of the seige. Yay?</p><p></p><p>Otherwise, things went pretty close to the book, including the players teaming up with the rogue Rider (who they did not let have a harem). The party managed to stop Grandis and save the day, and destroyed the Voice of Rot’s eye.</p><p></p><p>Um, we don't spend a lot of time in Drakr because we don't have an eschatologist in our party. Sorry.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">AXIS ISLAND 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO</span></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>[ATTACH=full]329780[/ATTACH]</strong></p><p></p><p>The party decided that it was time to call in all of our international goodwill and deal with Gradiax.</p><p></p><p>The world launches their assault on Axis Island, and enters a stalemate fighting unlimited Gradiax Duplicants. Gatria says she will take care of it, and, in cooperation with The Strange One, hauls the corpse of Terakalyr to Pemberton's tower and leaves it on his duplicant ritual bed - and flees. The real Gradiax wakes up, pursues in a blind rage, and they fight him face-to-face.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329783[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Showing up to the battle for axis island 15 minutes late with starbucks</em></p><p></p><p>Something something “I never said the party are good people”.</p><p></p><p>The party loaded up on all the pre-buffs in the world and took on Gradiax. The fight still took us a combined 3 hours, but because we're not the fastest players in the tabletop cafe, it was actually over within a handful of rounds. In fact, Gatria aggroed Gradiax into full-attacking her - but he missed his attacks, and she brought him down from half HP to below zero in a single turn. Gradiax was dead before he had time to register it.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329781[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Gatria tracked down Pardo, and gave the Cult Gnolls the option to surrender peacefully or die. Many of the gnolls bowed to Gatria the God Killer, as she was now the strongest being in the world, but Pardo refused. Gatria responded by cutting off his limbs, ripping out his tongue, and taking him prisoner on behalf of the King, so he could live the rest of his life in utter agony, unable to communicate of his own free will. Yay, war crimes!!</p><p></p><p>All that remained was to plan the planar arrangement... and to find a way to obtain the icons needed to do it.</p><p></p><p><strong>Next Time: </strong>Part 1 of the ending. We almost hard swerve into a party-supported Watchmakers plan. Whoopsie doodle!</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]329777[/ATTACH]</p><p><em>Wait until you see what I did with Grinding Gears of Heaven and Avatar of Revolution.</em></p><p></p><p>--</p><p></p><p>By the way, starting at the end of Adventure 9, my players introduced me to Kenkubot, which lets me play music over the call. This led to the following songs being used as background music, if you're interested in loading up on some:</p><p></p><p>Flint Anthem:</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]AhqoMtvkPZA[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>The Meteor Shower (Fighting Roland Stanfield):</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]9IAa0eHm-js[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>Fighting Gradiax:</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]iXEAr0UjlOg[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>Meeting William Miller on Ascetia:</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]Es5JaYR2gAo[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>Fighting Bruse Shantus:</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]IarF06JKANg[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>Fighting Morgan Cippiano & His Brothers (Adventure 13 boss):</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtiZ5RVze9E" target="_blank">Area Zero - Orchestral Remix / Pokémon Scarlet & Violet</a></p><p></p><p>Reida Montage, naturally:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDPdEChGl8" target="_blank">On the Nature of Daylight (Cover)</a></p><p></p><p>Fighting the Voice of Rot:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tFx3w_8xc" target="_blank">OMORI - OMORI (ALTER) -- METAL REMIX BY J-TRIGGER (SPOILERS)</a></p><p></p><p>Whenever You’re Ready (casting into the Gyre):</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/goKm4DhvJto?si=YDhoaMLxJfM9I6Ff" target="_blank">Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight (Soft Sounds)</a></p><p></p><p>Battle for the Axis Seal (reprise of Adventure 13 boss music):</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a748RRKapi0" target="_blank">Area Zero (Cinematic Arrangement) - Pokémon Scarlet / Violet</a></p><p></p><p>An end, once and for all:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJhnX2sGdw" target="_blank">OMORI - mari's ver -</a></p><p></p><p>(Does anyone know how to make the first few links not appear as videos in the text? Let me know so I can clean it up a bit.)</p><p></p><p>Do you have songs you ran for any moments in Zeitgeist?</p><p>Or do you have an inspiration playlist to get you in the DM mood? I do, but I already shared a lot of my cringe taste in music, so you just get the above… for now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Worldres, post: 9195732, member: 7029564"] Hello again! I didn't get cooked and eaten alive by my players for not posting for a couple months, because… [B][SIZE=7][I][COLOR=rgb(243, 121, 52)]WE JUST COMPLETED THE BATTLE AT THE AXIS SEAL, BABY!🎉[/COLOR][/I][/SIZE][/B] Which means I have to post even faster, because my players want to get on here. And besides, don’t you want to know what ending they got? But I digress… [B]Adventure 8 & 9 Part II, Godmind & Gorged on Ruins: The World's Most Powerful Women: We made them discuss Weddings and Axis Island.[/B] Also, the Full Tilt War Crime episode. [B][ATTACH type="full" alt="powerful women.png"]329690[/ATTACH][/B] [I]Do you think Eloise Duffet had girl power? Do you think Eloise Duffet effectively utilized girl power by funneling Danoran money into an illegal paramilitary death squad in the Malice Lands?[/I] [B][SIZE=6]AXIS ISLAND[/SIZE][/B] The players finally heed Ashima Shimtu's advice and head for Axis Island. The murderhobos decided to deal with the Hivemind by sneaking down into the caves and slitting the throats of the dying obscurati agents. Off to a great start with this write up, we are. I don’t think I had a chance to say this before, but a fair bit of exsanguination on behalf of the King of Risur has gone down in our campaign - Marcel beheaded the heretical druids who were trying to have the Fey Titans trample Bole, and the party mercy killed everyone inside of the Ursalina Bardic College by decapitation. Punching the grimdark until it bled rainbows this, unfortunately, aint. Are we the baddies? So, having a Soldier of the Steel Lord in our party comp who also killed Gradiax’ daughter meant that there was absolutely no f-ing way that our party was ever going to ally with Gradiax. They at least heard him out, though - particularly because Brakken was there, who has stayed relevant long enough that the players have decided that he is their new favourite NPC. Gradiax boasted that had the Axis Seal Ritual location, and since party knew how to craft icons, they could end all of this. To sweeten the deal, he was willing to lend Risur the might of his gnoll army and all of his arcanotech, so long as the party handed over Gatria at the end of all things. The party refused, of course. Gradiax told them they had until they left the island to make up their mind, because the next time they met, he wouldn’t be so friendly. Gatria said she looked forward to it. [ATTACH type="full" alt="gatria 2.png"]329785[/ATTACH] Before they bounced, the party used this opportunity to find out what happened to the destroyed Borne. They collected evidence that the Voice of Rot was responsible for the attack, and the party stopped over to promise Borne that they would find a way to save him as soon as they could. They then absconded on their own, and I decided to let Gradiax keep Axis Island for now - this would be leveraged against me, but don't worry. I have something sinister up my sleeve. Goodbye, dear Airship. Hello, twisting myself into pretzels trying to get the party to places on time... [B][SIZE=6]CHERAGE[/SIZE][/B] So, everyone, do you think we finally have time for that Forward Symposium? The whole worldwide invasion of Risur thing? Geez Louise. The party plots some political 4d chess to manipulate people into thinking Risur are the good guys on the international stage. Utilizing various levels of prestige to stall the Symposium, Gatria decides to utilize her Rumourmonger ability to reveal the Jierre’s historic relationship with the Ob, and the Ob’s relationship to the planar disaster, to brew up some civil unrest in Cherage. She timed this to spill over at the Forward Symposium. Yeah, so I never said my party was made up of good people. (And if I did, that was a lie.) [ATTACH type="full" alt="hivemind.png"]329691[/ATTACH] Fortunately I've got a good group of players that know how to make terrible PCs a good time for the whole table. Anyway, rather than having Han's wife act as his representative, I had Eloise Duffet stand in for Danor's representation, since she was a familiar NPC and has a significant political role in [I]Adventures in Zeitgeist[/I]. And because I knew my players were going to head to Crysillyir after this, it didn't make a lot of sense to me for them to meet with Prime Cardinal Titus Banderesso only for him to be ushered out of the plot immediately after, so I elevated Savina Tullius to a sort of "appointed in extremis" Hierarch, who had taken the position to advance her own agenda after the Ob had created a power vacuum by executing Clergy. In doing this, I realized I had accidentally made all of the world leaders who attended the Symposium women (well, except Sidhon. And King Marcel, I suppose, but even he is loose with gender like his dreaming counterpart Thisraldion). Diversity win! The Council planning to invade your country and wipe out your people are all women! The party hitched a ride in Brakken’s head, but decided to send Simulacra of King Marcel and his spymaster Gatria to the meeting and act as though they were invited. They decided they wanted them to be fashionably late, so I had Nic begin the symposium, and told the players to tell me when they wanted to burst down the door. I got one paragraph in. Better than I expected, honestly. [ATTACH type="full" alt="nic_symposium.png"]329692[/ATTACH] [I]Here it is, the full meme in all of its glory.[/I] King Marcel sat down and casually mentioned to the table that the intense civil unrest in the capital made Cherage an irresponsible place to hold a meeting of world leaders, as though it wasn’t Risur's own sinister plot. Then Gatria laid out reams of evidence that the Voice of Rot was responsible for the attack on Axis Island, and that Gradiax was on Axis Island right now trying to lock in his new arrangement - demonstrating that a world war against Risur accomplished nothing, but grouping up as a united nations against the Steel Lord would save the world. [ATTACH type="full" width="608px" alt="Tumblr_l_372036015025941.jpg"]329784[/ATTACH] [I]Wish I had a high-effort sh*tpost for this one, sorry.[/I] This pleased Dmitra, Sidhon, and Brakken (who the Malice Lands rep Jacksdotter agreed to vote with, given Brakken’s work there), but Savina refused, and Eloise was resistant. To convince Eloise to join Risur against the Ob, the party dropped the bomb on her that Nicodemus and Han had Luc Jierre killed at the Obscurati Convention, and that Nathan Jierre currently had asylum in Risur out of fear that he would be assasinated if he returned to his homeland. Appalled, Eloise agreed to ally with Risur- under the belief that she could use this revelation against Han and make a grab for leadership of Danor. Considering Eloise is a fascist, most of the party made secret plans to depose her and insert their own leader of Danor as head of state. Cleone was extremely distressed by this, and expressed that they couldn’t replace the Obscurati with another conspiracy. Gatria argued that replacing Han with Eloise would be a magnitude of order worse for everyone, but Cleone wouldn’t budge on this, insisting that the future of Danor must be democratically decided - even if it left the world worse off. The rest of the party pretended to agree. Later, with Cleone’s player’s consent, I privately checked in with the rest of the party to see if wanted to proceed with their secret “insert their own Danoran head of state” conspiracy. They said yes. I told them never to tell Cleone’s player they fixed the leadership vote until the end of the game, after the epilogue. Lol. [ATTACH type="full" width="527px" alt="rise_rise_rise_cleone.png"]329786[/ATTACH] [I]Those are our Owlbear tokens, by the way.[/I] Around this time, the unrest in Cherage boiled over and the Cherage Hivemind attacked the building. The players entered the hivemind to save the city, but not before ensuring the safety of the international leaders, forging some carefully crafted goodwill. [B][SIZE=6]ALAIS PRIMOS[/SIZE][/B] Ho boy! It's time to untangle how I completely changed this entire chapter! It’s worth it, though, I promise. First of all… Yeah, so, the godhand who got imprisoned in Schism super died in our game, and I'd already shown the players his portrait at this point so, um. I needed to find a replacement. The party never met with Aulus Atticus, though - so congratulations on your promotion to chapter antagonist, buddy. In my game, Aulus Atticus was spared from the Ob cleanse simply by not being around at the time. He returned to Crysillyir to help with the Great Eclipse relief effort, where Ashima Shimtu decided to use him as an instrument to give the entire Clergy the same test Triegenes gave her. In my game, Savina Tullius was a sort of anti-Ottavia Sacradote; a half-elf woman who had endured such terrible racism and bigotry from clergymen in her time that she considered it her personal mission to burn down the institution from the inside - and she is more than willing to play the longest of cons. Savina and Aulus were buds from the Beran Bardic college back in the day, where Aulus took credit for “”successfully converting her to Triegenes””, and Savina gradually rose through the ranks for her devotion to the clerical institution. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Winn_Adami.png"]329846[/ATTACH] [I]She's quite a bit older than the book intends, but my players decided that Savina's likeness would be based on Kai Winn from DS9.[/I] When Atticus was contacted by Ashima Shimtu with the Secret That Must Not Be Lost, he thought he could trust his friend with the Sacrament. He thought wrong, and as one of the last remaining godhands, he had no choice but to facilitate the God Trials, hoping against hope that the Clergy pantheon wouldn’t be killed. The rest of the story was Family-centric. Our party was intensely invested in the Family- Morgan specifically- so I wanted his story to go out with a bang. [ATTACH type="full" width="352px" alt="wedding_gift.png"]329845[/ATTACH] [I]Our players designed a winter uniform for the party using the silver and black colours from the Crysillyiri flag - a secret symbol that they were Family allies. Yay, corruption![/I] Morgan Cippiano was now Donna Aneenya's son; the youngest of seven, who was never expected to be a major player for the Family compared to his older brothers. In my game, Morgan concealed the party's ownership of the Humble Hook after Hoya converted to the Humble Path and showed real promise as a genuine Saint of the Clergy - knowing well that not seizing the Hook for the Family was an intractable betrayal of his bloodline. Donna Aneenya found out about this around the time of the God Trials. As punishment, the Donna decreed that Morgan must stand as the representative of Triegenes - and he would either die a martyr for the Family while the rest of them fled to demiplanes, or win the trial on behalf of Crysillyir's most beloved God and have a real shot at being appointed Prime Cardinal. Either way, Morgan would be sacrificed as a pawn to serve Family interests, and Morgan did not have the right to say no. He was forced to appoint his daughter Antonia as the new Head of the Family in Flint, because he would never return there, no matter what outcome came to pass. The Family surrendered Morgan to Aulus Atticus. But Morgan made one request - before his arrest and execution, he wished to see his daughter happily wed. As it turned out, just before this adventure, Gatria had proposed to her! So I decided to hail the party in a sort of reverse-"[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farewell_(2019_film)']The Farewell[/URL]" Wedding celebration - a wedding held as a secret funeral to Morgan, where the brides are the only ones not in on the secret. I planned a whole ass wedding. I invented scripture. I planned the guest list, the seating arrangements, the speeches, the dinner. Why did I do this? Because I am evil. [ATTACH type="full" width="568px" alt="wedding.png"]329776[/ATTACH] [I]Before the ceremony, Morgan had a Family priest heal the eyeless Gatria so she could look upon her bride.[/I] At the crack of "dawn" the day after, when Atticus came to arrest Morgan and the secret was revealed, Gatria punched Morgan as hard as she could in the face and broke his nose. For the first time, Morgan broke his facade of near-regal eloquence to laugh. He barked through the blood in his throat that the party made saving the world look so effortless. [ATTACH type="full" alt="seehell.png"]329694[/ATTACH] [URL='https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-need-my-prestige-tv-shows-to-make-me-feel-so-bad-that-i-see-hell']I'm pretty sure I ghostwrote this article.[/URL] So, Morgan was arrested and the players agreed to stand in his defense at the God Trials. They convinced both the unwitting Aulus Atticus and Natalie Degaspare to let them search for evidence…. which I moved to the Library Vault. (Yes, this loses the whole point that Triegenes' own diary was considered heresy and locked away in the demon dungeon, sorry. In my defense, I liked the idea that any given head of the Clergy knew the whole time that Triegenes was never a God and was just using his influence to oppress people). I knew the party would be back for Ashima Shimtu later, so that could come at the end. The party managed to find the Axis Seal ritual while they were there. The players broke the news that Triegenes was never a God to Morgan, first. He was stunned, but decided that Triegenes' refusal to endanger believers and become all-powerful only bolstered his faith in the humble path. Under Morgan's suggestion that they wait for the right moment, the players decided that they would go public with this revelation at the end of the trial. The party had their Ace Attorney episode and did extremely well against Savina, winning Morgan and Triegenes a Not Guilty verdict. Savina considered it a personal victory that the Clergy's lies had been exposed, and accepted defeat gracefully. But Atticus absolutely broke at the revelation that Triegenes was not a God - everything he had done, from music to his crusades in Elfaivar, had been in the name of Triegenes. He refused to accept that the God Triegenes was not real, and decided he would prove it. In his despair, he began to conduct the Minor Sacrament of Apotheosis behind his back, planning to cast himself into the flames if Crysillyir did not accept him even then - but the party noticed him doing this, and managed to stop him in one round. I also let them roll to contain the Embodiment of all Evil through true prayers of the faithful, which they passed, but the party decided to have Morgan use the Minor Sacrament and seal away the evil contained within the mountain once and for all. [ATTACH type="full" alt="dragon_sealed.gif"]329696[/ATTACH] So they never fought that cool lava creature. God damn it. Why do I even give them the option? But seeing Morgan act as Triegenes caused such an overwhelming emotional reaction in Hoya that she worships Triegenes ardently now, even though he doesn’t actually exist. In our game, she is known as the Saint of Triegenes, who has true faith even in light of the church’s deception. Among a new faction of people who believe Triegenes is actually a Saint and not a God, they call her the Second Saint. [ATTACH type="full" alt="layton.png"]329695[/ATTACH] Now the party had to reckon with Ashima Shimtu, who had given the Sacrament to Aulus knowing full well that the Clergy would use it to kill their own people. As the new de facto leader of Crysillyir, Morgan wanted her sentenced to death, but asked the party to try her. Ashima Shimtu pled her case, reflected on Triegenes, and told the party that she truly believed in the Humble Path. The party was unable to determine if she was lying, but Mona decided to trust her, and agreed to forgive her under one condition - she gives up on her demonic form and becomes a human woman, doomed to live out one single mortal life with none of her demonic powers or knowledge, which would be stripped from her. Ashima Shimtu agreed, but before she turned, she needed to pass on the Secret that Must Not Be Lost - the Major Sacrament of Apotheosis. She entrusted it to Mona and only to Mona, knowing that Mona will eventually use it to ascend to godhood, herself, to save the world. Then she became a human woman, and left the vault to start her new life. I’m sure she’s completely trustworthy and won’t return in a later adventure to aggro the party or anything. [ATTACH type="full" width="550px" alt="mona_and_shimmy.png"]329782[/ATTACH] [I]I don't know how it happened, but my players started calling Ashima Shimtu "Shamwow." I'm sorry.[/I] [B][SIZE=6]DRAKR IS HERE TOO[/SIZE][/B] Because the party had decided to make up a cover story that Drakr's radical eschatologists created the Colossus, they had no friends left in Drakr other than Heid, who was being held captive. So the players had to make a deal with a radical eschatologist prisoner from “Cauldron Born” and pardon him for all of his crimes in exchange for him sneaking them in to the heart of the seige. Yay? Otherwise, things went pretty close to the book, including the players teaming up with the rogue Rider (who they did not let have a harem). The party managed to stop Grandis and save the day, and destroyed the Voice of Rot’s eye. Um, we don't spend a lot of time in Drakr because we don't have an eschatologist in our party. Sorry. [B][SIZE=6]AXIS ISLAND 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO[/SIZE] [ATTACH type="full" alt="30_seconds_v2.png"]329780[/ATTACH][/B] The party decided that it was time to call in all of our international goodwill and deal with Gradiax. The world launches their assault on Axis Island, and enters a stalemate fighting unlimited Gradiax Duplicants. Gatria says she will take care of it, and, in cooperation with The Strange One, hauls the corpse of Terakalyr to Pemberton's tower and leaves it on his duplicant ritual bed - and flees. The real Gradiax wakes up, pursues in a blind rage, and they fight him face-to-face. [ATTACH type="full" alt="15_minutes_late.png"]329783[/ATTACH] [I]Showing up to the battle for axis island 15 minutes late with starbucks[/I] Something something “I never said the party are good people”. The party loaded up on all the pre-buffs in the world and took on Gradiax. The fight still took us a combined 3 hours, but because we're not the fastest players in the tabletop cafe, it was actually over within a handful of rounds. In fact, Gatria aggroed Gradiax into full-attacking her - but he missed his attacks, and she brought him down from half HP to below zero in a single turn. Gradiax was dead before he had time to register it. [ATTACH type="full" alt="30_seconds.png"]329781[/ATTACH] Gatria tracked down Pardo, and gave the Cult Gnolls the option to surrender peacefully or die. Many of the gnolls bowed to Gatria the God Killer, as she was now the strongest being in the world, but Pardo refused. Gatria responded by cutting off his limbs, ripping out his tongue, and taking him prisoner on behalf of the King, so he could live the rest of his life in utter agony, unable to communicate of his own free will. Yay, war crimes!! All that remained was to plan the planar arrangement... and to find a way to obtain the icons needed to do it. [B]Next Time: [/B]Part 1 of the ending. We almost hard swerve into a party-supported Watchmakers plan. Whoopsie doodle! [ATTACH type="full" alt="bamboozled.png"]329777[/ATTACH] [I]Wait until you see what I did with Grinding Gears of Heaven and Avatar of Revolution.[/I] -- By the way, starting at the end of Adventure 9, my players introduced me to Kenkubot, which lets me play music over the call. This led to the following songs being used as background music, if you're interested in loading up on some: Flint Anthem: [MEDIA=youtube]AhqoMtvkPZA[/MEDIA] The Meteor Shower (Fighting Roland Stanfield): [MEDIA=youtube]9IAa0eHm-js[/MEDIA] Fighting Gradiax: [MEDIA=youtube]iXEAr0UjlOg[/MEDIA] Meeting William Miller on Ascetia: [MEDIA=youtube]Es5JaYR2gAo[/MEDIA] Fighting Bruse Shantus: [MEDIA=youtube]IarF06JKANg[/MEDIA] Fighting Morgan Cippiano & His Brothers (Adventure 13 boss): [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtiZ5RVze9E']Area Zero - Orchestral Remix / Pokémon Scarlet & Violet[/URL] Reida Montage, naturally: [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDPdEChGl8']On the Nature of Daylight (Cover)[/URL] Fighting the Voice of Rot: [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tFx3w_8xc']OMORI - OMORI (ALTER) -- METAL REMIX BY J-TRIGGER (SPOILERS)[/URL] Whenever You’re Ready (casting into the Gyre): [URL='https://youtu.be/goKm4DhvJto?si=YDhoaMLxJfM9I6Ff']Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight (Soft Sounds)[/URL] Battle for the Axis Seal (reprise of Adventure 13 boss music): [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a748RRKapi0']Area Zero (Cinematic Arrangement) - Pokémon Scarlet / Violet[/URL] An end, once and for all: [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJhnX2sGdw']OMORI - mari's ver -[/URL] (Does anyone know how to make the first few links not appear as videos in the text? Let me know so I can clean it up a bit.) Do you have songs you ran for any moments in Zeitgeist? Or do you have an inspiration playlist to get you in the DM mood? I do, but I already shared a lot of my cringe taste in music, so you just get the above… for now. [/QUOTE]
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