Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 4884291" data-attributes="member: 8951">Sessions 83 - 84: The Heroes of LegendApproximately 1500 years earlier. After Alexander drank from the Fountain of Dreams, all of the members of the party were overwhelmed by a rush of alien yet strangely familiar memories. The landscape around them swirled away into a vortex of lightning and wind, fire and rain, ending in the darkness of utter nothingness. For several uneasy moments, the party members floated adrift in this empty silence. They felt the cold perpetuity of the infinite weighing upon them. Suddenly, the party members found themselves standing on a windy bluff overlooking an immense canyon that had to be Rift Canyon. The canyon was surprisingly lush, with enormous trees growing all the way up to the canyon's rim. Far to the south, across a long, flat plain, the party members could just barely make out the faint, looming specter of White Plume Mountain. Then the unmistakeable din of battle, both near and distant, assaulted the party members' ears. As if rising from the ground, on ledges and mesas both near and far, armies of creatures faded into view. In the distance, towns and villages lay smoking in ruin, and the sky was cast with a dark pallor. The cacophonous moans of the undead rode the wind. The party members saw huge numbers of armed and armored humanoids arrayed against an apparently endless wave of undead. Many of these undead creatures were familiar to the party - Spawn of Kyuss, Swords of Kyuss, Knights of Kyuss, Wormcallers, Morhgs, Eviscerator Beetles, Overworms, and Ulgurstastas - along with other Kyuss-creatures that the party had never seen, such as enormous worm-dripping centipedes, immense black scorpions, and immense wormlike dragons who breathed swarms of Kyuss-worms upon their enemies. And wheeling in the skies above, attended by numerous smaller dragons, was a horrifying shape - a skeletal red dragon of great size. Dragotha. For all of the humanoid army's numbers, it was clear to the party members that they were doomed to fall before the invincible minions of Kyuss. As soon as they became oriented to their new surroundings, they heard someone behind them say in an unfamiliar language that they could nonetheless understand perfectly, "Thank the Mother, they have arrived!" The party turned to see a small unit of perhaps two or three dozen somber druids wearing tattered, blood-stained robes. Although they were clearly tired and battle-scarred, they did not have the look of hopelessness about them that one might expect. The one who had spoken approached the party members who recognized him as the living Tylanthros who would eventually transform himself into the undying warden of the Fountain of Dreams. He approached the party members, saying, "The spell was successful! You must be the heroes of legend who have partaken of the Fountain of Dreams in order to prevent the Age of Worms in our future. You have been summoned to aid us now in our time of greatest need, for if we do not succeed in our task now, then there will be no future for you to save." He gestured behind him and the druids parted to give the party members a glimpse of a large package, a strange container with its sides carved in the shape of leering demonic and draconic faces. "Dragotha's phylactery is ours, yet at a great price. He and his minions come for us even now to reclaim it. We must hide it forever from his reach. If we take it from this land, he will sense its loss and abandon his army. Without Dragotha's leadership, the undead horde will wander without focus and will be vulnerable to counter-attack. This is our only hope of defeating an army that has us vastly outnumbered. However, in order for us to remove his phylactery, we need you to buy us some time. You must hold off the Kyuss-spawn that even now scramble at the edges of the cliffs around us. Our trusted ally will hold off his aerial forces while you prevent the ground forces from disturbing us while we break the wards that protect the phylactery." With this, Tylanthros gestured at a gorgeous young elf woman dressed in ornate mithral armor whom the party recognized as a younger version of Lashonna, Zeech's mysterious elven advisor! She stepped forward without any sense of recognition in her eyes and said, "I have volunteered to sacrifice myself in order to hold off Dragotha and his progeny. You will face Swords of Kyuss and Spawn of Kyuss. But beware, there is also something else approaching, an abomination the likes of which I have never seen before. It, too, must be delayed if our druid friends are to complete their work. Farewell and good luck." Having no time for lengthy goodbyes, Lashonna spread her arms and transformed into a magnificent silver dragon. With a single beat of her wings, she launched into the air and soared off toward the distant dracolich. As Lashonna receded into the sky, the company of druids began dragging the phylactery into a natural cavern in the rock wall behind them. Tylanthros paused to give the party some important last words. "Fear not, my friends. While Lashonna flies off to her almost certain death, you are summoned creatures. Your death in this place will not be your final death, for when you die here, you will reappear whenever you left, none the worse for wear. You will notice that any wounds you had when you left have been healed and all your spellcasting power has been refreshed. So be bold and be brave. Hold them off for as long as you can. At all costs, prevent them from disturbing our work in that cavern! It may benefit you to know that we plan to entomb Dragotha's phylactery in a place he'd never think to look, right under his nose in Rift Canyon! If you ever need to recover it, you will find it in a stone giant fortress known as Kongen-Thulnir." Tylanthros paused for a moment as if seeing or hearing something important. Then he continued, "I must fly! Protect me and my companions from the Kyuss-spawn, or the Age of Worms shall doom us all!" With that, Tylanthros ran into the cavern and was quickly out of sight.Killick strode towards the cave and cast a spell, sealing its entrance up with a sheet of rock. Then he turned to his companions and said, "This is the main event folks. You all know what to do." Tarric looked over at Alees and saw her trembling with fear. He said, "You just heard the stakes. Can we count on you to help us this time?" Alees's eyes were transfixed on the unending horde of undead that stretched to the horizon. Without meeting Tarric's gaze, she replied, "Yes, I'm with you. Fharlangn protect me... Fharlangn protect us all! The Age of Worms is real!" At long last, she turned to face Tarric and announced, "We can't let this happen in our time! We have to stop it!" Tarric gave a nod of agreement. He was pleased to hear that she finally understood the stakes.For a few moments, all that could be heard was the sound of frantic spell-casting, as the party members cast preparatory defensive spells. But less than a minute later, the first wave of Swords of Kyuss scrambled over the cliff's ledge and began approaching the party. Half of them approached the party at top speed - clanking forward in the heavy armor - but the rest of them used their abilities to call down black columns of unholy flame on the still-clustered party members. Most of the party was immune to this unholy magic, but although Alexander was invisible, he was still unprotected. The party heard his screams of pain as he was quickly dispatched back to his own time. First blood went to the minions of Kyuss.The party members were all stunned for a moment, shocked by the sudden loss of the party's wizard. But then they sprang into action with a renewed sense of purpose and ferocity. With the use of potent clerical spells and deft melee attacks, most of the Swords of Kyuss were quickly dispatched. There were only about five left when the next wave of undead clambored over the ledge. There were two eviscerator beetles along with an animated pile of bones whose shape resembled an enormous white dragon. As this animated conglomeration of bones approached the party, they could see something protruding from its sides. These protrusions seemed to be growing larger and taking shapes of their own. This lumbering bag of bones was a surprisingly agile combatant, able to move from opponent to opponent. Grimlock moved up to it to protect its master, but the Boneyard bit the dog with its tremendous dragon jaw. The dog gave a horrific yelp. The party watched helplessly as the dog's bones flew out of its body and merged with those of the Boneyard. It had absorbed the dog's bones into itself! Killick yelled "No!" as the Boneyard tossed Grimlock's lifeless husk back down to earth. In the mean time, two giant worms - an Overworm and an Ulgurstasta - surrounded by about two dozen Spawn of Kyuss crested the ridge and began moving in to make attacks. Norvelle did what he could to keep the remaining Swords of Kyuss from reaching the cave entrance while Alees tried to occupy the Spawn of Kyuss, Killick attacked the worms, and Tarric and Katawan remained focused on the Boneyard. At this point, the Boneyard jettisoned three dragon skeletons from its body which began fighting independently. They surrounded Killick who was occupied with the two giant worms, but he was anything but disturbed by being outflanked by the enemy. Instead, he seemed to revel in the combat. He yelled with the glee of vengeance when he felled the ulgurstasta - the same sort of worm creature that had rampaged through Greyhawk when the party had been unable to stop it. Having been unable to hurt Killick, the dragon skeletons disengaged from him and headed straight for the cavern entrance. This forced the party to move back to make sure that none of them could disturb the druids' work.Then three things happened nearly simultaneously that caused the party's hearts to sink into their stomachs. First, another wave of Swords of Kyuss crested the ridge, and they immediately began healing the Boneyard by calling down their black flames upon it. Second, the Boneyard successfully grabbed Katawan in its immense jaws and caused the monk's bones to fly out of his body, killing him in just the same way as it had killed Grimlock. Finally, in the distance, the party saw Lashonna's defeated and apparently lifeless body plummeting to the ground. Now Dragotha himself was on his way to deal with the party himself! But the party had no time for despair. They redoubled their efforts. But it was no use. One by one, the party members succumbed to the unending wave of Kyuss-minions. Norvelle was next to fall, then Tarric, then Talon, then Alees. Finally, only Killick remained, grievously wounded. He used his last potent spell to sheath his quarterstaff in flame. Using it, he was able to strike the Boneyard down at long last. He grinned as it collapsed into a pile of bones, and he didn't stop grinning even when he saw Dragotha himself land on the ledge. He approached Killick's position, but just as he was about to engage the druid, the undead dragon paused and gave an unearthly ear-piercing wail. Killick surmised that Dragotha had just sensed the loss of his phylactery. The party had succeeded; the druids had gotten away with Dragotha's phylactery! Killick gave a pained smile and beckoned for Dragotha to approach. Dragotha took his frustrations out on the defiant, but wounded druid, slaying him instantly with a slap of his tail. But before the life went completely out of his broken body, Killick's dying eyes saw Dragotha take flight. He was fleeing, leaving his army behind just as the druids had predicted!Suddenly, Killick awoke to find himself surrounded by all of his boon companions. Killick told them all what he had seen just before his "death," and the party rejoiced in their victory. They could barely recognize the island they were on without the constant wind and rain that they had experienced upon arriving. They could clearly see the ancient temple where they had found the gems necessary to activate the gate to the demiplane, and beyond that they could see the orc pirates who had been shipwrecked by Darl Quethos on the coast, still working on fashioning a new ship. Alexander looked at his friends, smiled, and said, "I have a promise to keep," and he began walking toward the beach.</blockquote>

Verification