Godfall Recaps

DM — 06/11/2018

Recap

We finished our shopping at Rothas' cathedral. Notably, some paranoid person picked up an orb that glows in the presence of Master/Stranger effects. Alspec is currently carrying it. We also got another prophecy, which we think implies that the Overgods have to work together if the world is to stand a chance. Rothas has agreed to mediate between the Overs (if we can find them), and to that end, gave us a 1-use pen that we can use to contact him.

We then left Scorchstone in a hurry with the empath in tow, not wanting to be caught in the siege.  There were enough steed statuettes to carry everyone, so we are all mounted. On the road, a bunch of dragons flew overhead (presumably to lay siege to the cathedral).  When we bedded down, we noticed that the stars were all gone, and that the moon seemed swollen. On her shift, Alspec tried to cast some moon spell and got herself possessed by a tendril of the Deep.

We were woken by the volcano exploding, although it seemed controlled, and we were out of range. We then noticed that the orb was glowing, and after only a few botched field amputations and a moderate amount of streaking, managed to burn out the parasite with Hess' grey-flame sword.

Later that day we encountered a column of dragonborn heading down to help the dragons take Scorchstone. Noticing that they were possessed by Deep tendrils (and wanting to give Rothas a hand), we promptly fell upon them and butchered them to a man and stole their ballista.

That evening we found out more about Raiwyn's past, then the empath and the axe had a heart-to heart, Hess and Theodore spoke about the church of Exaka and Theo's education, and Faraday and Alspec talked shoppe.

\*dragonborn(edited)

June 12, 2018

Vaden Vilepaw — 06/12/2018

Recap June 11th 2018

We continued on our way to the border wall of Aartillion. As we journeyed we noted several more draconids flying towards Rothas’ cathedral, though they were a fair distance from our path.

Once we made camp several of us noted an uneasy feeling. After some trial and error we discerned we were being scried upon. During one of these voyeuristic attempts, Alspec cast a successful counter on their scry causing a small rift to appear and dropping an assortment of their supplies to fall through, this effect would persist on their later attempts.  We had doggo sniff their stuff and determined it was owned by reptilians. The next day we took some precautions against the scrying, we had Alspec tail us from a ways back and spread out some in an attempt to figure out who specifically was the target of the scrying. A ways down the road we learned who had been watching us, a group of Naga tracking Vaden and Hess for the bounty they earned after their raid on the hatcheries.  We dispatched them without too much trouble and had a nice hearty mid-day meal, leading to a bet between Raiwyn and Vaden on who has the more adventurous palate.

We continued our journey, along the way we met a traveling merchant and several people amassed their money to buy some magic eggs. After that we made it the rest of the way to the wall and were admitted to the kingdom. We then took a ship to the capital where we will be gathering information and resources before making the final push towards the Shadow’s sepulchre.

Theodore — 06/18/2018

We started in Aartillion, gathering information for the journey to the Shadow's sepulcher, including a map of the area, a description of some of the monsters infesting the area, and the fact that the sepulcher is guarded by six demigods(edited)

While in the city Hess, Raiwyn, and I were attacked by people infected by the deep.

The evening of our first day on the road we encountered a well dressed merchant who invited us to dine with him, psionically, we accepted and a meal of games started. We were each given a secret mission to complete by the end of the meal, such as starting a food fight, or getting Hess to dance. After the meal it was revealed  that the elf was a mind flayer entertaining himself at our expense, he gave all participants a reward; and we went our separate ways. That night Hess was able to divine the roles of the six demigods.

Through the night and over the course of the next day we were continuously bothered by the sensation of being observed by lots of floating eyes, eventually Hess killed one and the rest attacked, we quickly drove them off and resumed our journey. The next day I spotted a large creature moving  in the same direction as us only about half a day's ride ahead.

Vaden and Raiwyn continued their bet by sampling various fares derived from floating eyeballs: including eyeball juice, Vaden's vomit after drinking the eyeball juice, and cornea steaks.

Leo — 06/27/2018

As we continued on the road towards the border we noticed that a pod of beholders were also traveling the same directions as us, we met some soldiers on the road and heard that they were on their way to help reinforce an area? (I was distracted by my carton of eggs so I didn't get the whole story), we were about to set down for the night but Vilepaw had some pressing matters to attend to and split from the group, as we were about to go to bed after yet another average meal from Raiwyn, Alspec started running off but when we stopped her the orb wasn't glowing which was peculiar, as we followed the sounds of werewolves howling we found too many to count around a tree in the middle of a glade, as we slaughtered the werewolves we saw another group of adventurers in the glade fighting with us, until a very large weird dragon ish bird thingy RAN ME THE FUCK OVER, and Hess and Theo and the other adventurers, we began to fight of this large weird dragon ish bird thingy it started to run off into the trees with Raiwyn on its back, Unfortunately I started to black out from the sheer amount of joy coming from Raiwyn that I can't remember much else...

DM — 07/02/2018

The party had reached the Edge of the exclusion zone, after a nights rest the group ventured into the twisted and scarred landscape of the Ravaged Kingdom.  their first hurdle was a massive carrion drake perched among the ruins of and old God-Fort. Thinking it best to avoid the creature the party attempted to circumvent the beast only to fall ambush to some carrion crawlers burrowed along the road. The crawlers let out a call that alerted the drake to the battle, as well as a few nearby gibbering horrors. managing to route the smaller creatures just before the drake arrived the party attempted to take cover, but were mostly unsuccessful. Hess made use of her Ddoor to escape the drake. After figuring out that the evil Eyes that had been following them were relaying the party's location to the drake the party took a look at the map Theodore had mad and decided to make a run for a nearby sanctuary said to be protected by a strong entity. The Entity guarding the sanctuary had been warped by madness but still remained true to its original purpose and asked each member to show the strength of their character. after a close call the whole party was allowed into the sanctuary and bedded down safely for the night.

The  parties continued advance into the heart of the ruins of Morningtide drew the ire of many local denizens but nothing was much of a problem. the  party used its resources to commune with the shadow in order to prepare for the coming fight. after two days for fighting and planning the party found themselves looking at the Maw, a gaping hole that housed the shadows sepulcher at is bottom.

Theodore — 07/08/2018

As the party descended the Maw, it became more clear that this was the end of the road. Severed heads, some from  the shadows chosen, some from their companions, adorned the walls in some kind of outlandish display of interior decoration. In preparation for the trial to come Alspec summoned a creature to serve as a distraction in combat, however she summoned one of the only aquatic animals available to her, on dry land. Whether this was intentional or not will be debated by scholars for years to come. Finally the party reached the bottom of the Maw, where upon they started final preparations for the fight ahead. Theodore, Alspec, and Feely all began preparing spells and summoning boons to aid the party, while the remainder did... something else? Most importantly Faraday the wisest, most handsome and talented tinker the world has ever known, dealt a massive blow to the morale of Karn's forces, by defacing a sign of great importance. With all the preparations made, the party traversed the mist, entering an arena of sorts.

It was dark. There were statues at the end of the room. Not surprisingly, the statues began to move. These were the guardians Karn put in place to imprison the shadow. What was surprising however was the lack of acknowledgment from half the party in regards to moving statues at the end of this room. Suddenly a gust of wind started to blow against the party, slowing their advance toward the foes. That was not enough to save the guardians however, as once Raiwyn crossed their lines, doom was already certain. Assisted by Faraday the charming/brilliant and his perfect shots that never missed even once, the party made short work of the guardian's tank and healer. After it was apparent that defeat was eminent for Karn's guardians , the illusionist decided it would be better to die, doing his duty, by killing himself to take out the intruders. He died in vain however, as his suicidal attack did almost nothing to stop the party from killing his friends. Bummer. The party finished off the guardians, killing the final enemy by firing squad.

After the ordeal, the party approached the shadow's prison. With some understandable confusion on Vaden's part as to how to open a door created by a god, the party finally managed to set the shadow free. She seemed..content? Calm might be more accurate of a descriptor. The Shadow explained that this was not the end, and there was more work to be done. She teleported the party to a different location, overlooking two mountains. On one mountain lay a fortress, supposedly housing Karn. In the other, a dragon too massive for words resided, watching as armies of demi-gods prepared for what was next to come.

Alspec — 07/16/2018

An Excerpt from Alspec’s Journal

“The Shadow, my goddess, slick with oily blackness, had left us in her most holy encampment and moved in an instant a three hours run away to Karn’s fortress. Of course the one-with-the-small-machine decided to leave us as his payment had been received. We all said our curt goodbyes and he left (in a direction we later learned Dragons to be coming from).

Note: Remember to send my ballista to machine-man to help further his construction of the giant-metal-bird.

Quick witted Hess, the gorgeous protector of friend and slayer of man, took the loss of ally and time in stride. She hastily called out to the surrounding shadowy crowd if anyone had a white flag.

The most spooniest bard I have seen steps forth and presents a shirt off his very back. I immediately distrust this man as he reminds me of my late father who had a foul tongue able to broker deals between celestial and infernal patterns. Hess takes the shirt and Vilepaw (the handsome architect of death) whispers something to the effect of “If you find us latter you can have your shirt back.” I hope that we are not enthralled by the spoony bard next we meet.

Note: This Bard's definitely has a diplomatic air about him, so remind Hess if we are in need of a diplomate.

Amazing Hess holds us and we are instantly transported to Karn’s fortress and are confronted with a measly regiment of winged celestials. Their leader hides behind his shield while the Shadow pelts him with black bolts demanding honorable combat with Karn. The lecherous Feely waves our makeshift white flag and requests parlay. I of course translate that fool’s speech into celestial because they obviously could not understand the Shadow’s common.

The celestials do not respond. Karn appears and the Shadow shouts a word of challenge. Instantly Hess takes a flame from her pocket (given to her from an inconsequential meeting with a fire god in the Shadow’s camp) and speaks into it. Combat begins between the Shadow and Karn with his forces. Hess points to a unoccupied guard hut and the party piles in. Then the god of campfires appears only to encase the hut in a wall of lava.

I begin to sweat. Silently, I started to recite a teleportation spell. I could get get Hess out and Vaden could teleport to her, but that would leave the rest of them. Like I care! I look to Hess for consent to be teleported, but she looks oddly calm. I check the orb. It's not glowing. Battle rages outside. Everyone looks calm. Did I miss something?

The god of oil lamps is explaining that we have to wait until the Shadow and Karn are exhausted before we can open communications. Great gods can fight for years. “Now!” the god of stubby candles shouts and entombs the Shadow and Karn in a bit of flame. Well that was a bit anticlimactic.

Hess saunters out to arrange an armistice between gods. I recommend we try to get a diplomat to do the talking. Hess declines and saunters out with such confidence that I forget to accompany her. A short talk later and the Shadow has agreed not to kill Karn until after we save the world (Karn also agrees not to fight but only to save his skin and face). Sparky-the-god sets Karn and the Shadow free. He then gives Hess his contact information and a pen to send him a message. Wet-flint says goodbye and when he is gone Hess exclaims how helpful he is. I agree through gritted teeth. I don't know what Hess sees in that god.

Karn offers lodging in his fortress. Which we accept. On our way to our private bunks Feely says that he is going to look for God. I hope he is going to confess his many sins. Chiefly the sin that is polluting countless souls with his own wrenched spirit. So Feely leaves us for a moment while we are choosing sleeping arrangements. So I get to sang a bed close-ish to Hess and Vaden. Everyone is asleep now as I right this except for Vaden who is glaring angrily at my dim light. Feely isn't back yet.

~~~

Feely returned later last night with the look of a manic depressive. It looks like the confession was a success!

Note: If Feely kills himself reanimate him as a mindless servant for Vaden. He seems to like loyal dogs.

My spell preparation today was interrupted by an annoying massager who requested the party’s presence at the gods strategy meeting. We said that we would get back to them after breakfast. After an amazing breakfast we sauntered over to the meeting hall. There we found a throng of gods looking over a strategic map.

Note: Those cursed with lycanthropy are approaching from the SW, Wyverns approaching from above the Shadow’s camp in the S, We are in the NW, and the big dragon is in the NE.

While a plan to consecrate the Deep under big-dragon-cave is being proposed by Vilepaw, I notice a swarm of bees in back of the room looking at Hess. A honey bee makes a beeline for Hess and stops behind Karn. The bee buzzes a happy ‘hello’ pattern in the air. Hess is concentrating too hard on the plan to notice a bee. The bee slowly starts towards Hess obviously trying to buzz close and loud enough to get her attention. My shadow shoots out from its hiding spot under the table and crushes the bee. I glare at the swarm and it shutters.

The spoony bard enters flanked by his two best friends, who happen to be the guards to the meeting hall. He suggests that he should join us, as we are in desperate need of a diplomate. Hess and I agree. Hess begins filling in the amazing diplomate with our plans. I check the orb. How long has it been glowing?

Suddenly the winged celestial that was holding off the Shadow at the gates of Karn’s fortress yesterday appears. He tells us that a mysterious hut has appeared near the Shadows camp. Hess exclaims that we know this dude and that we should pay him a visit. I am okay with Hess visiting strange men as long as I am there to protect her, so I agree to go along. The celestial takes us in his arms and mentions not to worry.

Suddenly the party is hurtling to the ground above the teleporting hut. I begin casting a mass teleportation spell. The ground is approaching too fast. Hess’s ring of featherfall isn't working. I reach out for her. My shadow reaches for Vilepaw. We land with a thud. Luckily, I land on my feet, but I know there are ones in the party weaker than I. So I look to where Feely fell. Drat. Feely is alive and well.

We are surrounded by skeletons. The diplomat laments that he cannot deal with mindless undead creatures, but the rest of the party dispatch them swiftly. I get to show off my new skill by dominating five skeletons simultaneously. I think Hess is impressed (it’s hard to tell what Vaden thinks of me).

Hess’s old friend the chaos-enchanter steps out from his hut and offers his services in the battle against the dragon-god. And then the party pools together there resources and gets me a new pair of boots from the chaos-enchanter’s cauldron. I store my old boots from when I left home in my bag. I pick up my boots and am surprised that they feel cold and clammy.  I put them on and am again surprised that the inside is moist and warm. I smile and have a sudden urge to pee.

Note: Tonight when I was taking off my boots I accidentally turned into water and wet my bedroll. I hope no one noticed.

We waved goodbye to the chaos-enchanter and the celestial then set out to talk to the dragon-god. We teleport our disposable members, the spoony bard and Feely, with a white flag to talk with the dragon. It must have went well because an escort dragon was sent to our location and we were carried to the dragon-god’s lair, so he could answer three questions. Even though we were promised protection I still moved a tree close to us so we could teleport out of there.

Note: The questions asked and the answers given where as follows:

Where is the Storm Wolf?

I am holding her Far away you cannot save her.

What is your Plan?

To kill the gods to satisfy the deep.

Is  there another way?

No.

We left the deep-filled dragon and teleported back to Karn’s fortress…”

The party found Alspec’s Dairy that night and it was passed around for anyone to read.

Alspec — 07/23/2018

Since Theodore had burned Alspec’s Journal last night there will be no journal entry from her today. So please enjoy my humble ramblings instead.

Today's session was all about final preparations before the battle. The plan is to help Karn consecrate the deep. But if that fails then we will descend in godhood and let Athudair’s ritual suck all the power out of the gods to reseal the deep. To prepare for failure the party went to tell the gods they cared about their plan.

Of course they went to Rothas first. And after explaining the plan, he explained how to descend in godhood. Basically you have to be sworn into Karn’s court and then let all your power go to Karn. After being sworn in this process should take about 6 seconds to complete. After the subject has renounced their power to Karn they will be descended. Rothas thanked us for the information and we left him.

Next on the list was Vesbra, she had been trying to contact her sister in arms (Hess) for months. Upon seeing that Hess was in Karn’s fortress she had redoubled her efforts. Unfortunately Alspec jealous of Vesbra trying to reach out was killing her bees. Through a concerted effort Vesbra was able to lead the party to her room, but only wanted to converse with Hess.

Hess stepped into a swarm of bees with the truth candle. At the center of the swarm stands a dolled up Vesbra with a pasty white manservant on a golden chain. Hess looks through Vesbra’s illusions and sees her as the simple girl in too big robes she knows. After a short and awkward conversation, Vesbra understands what she has to do to descend. Vesbra sends her familiar with Hess, a pocket beetle, in it is three vials of vampire blood honey. Vesbra warns Hess that the healing potential of the honey is immense, but with very addictive qualities. Hess flashes a goodbye and leaves the swarm.

While Hess was talking with Vesbra, Feely had fetched Tsunelle who had agreed to be a mediator for our next meeting. Eskaren stood in the strategic center of command with other gods, including the Shadow, milling about. Vaden, Hess, Theodore, and Alspec are too filled with rage at the sight of Eskaren to talk, so it is up to Feely to do the talking. He asks about the nature of Exaka’s descension. Eskaren admitted that he had just killed Exaka and her descension was just a matter of course.

Next up was the Shadow who brought us to her dimension. There she explained that she could not keep her word and if the opportunity should arise she would kill Karn. We told her about dissension, but she refused to take part because she wants to deal Karn’s killing blow.

Sered was the one to swear us into Karen's court. We picked him because of a recommendation from Vesbra. To thank him Hess gave Sered the two stones of attraction and confusion. Sered is going to use these stones to split the enemy forces.

Lastly we constructed a battle plan. 3.5% of our forces would be advanced scouts. They would be sent out to map the dragon's cave for better covert action. 17.5% will be attacking the cave mouth to distract long enough for the entrance of party into the cave. 10% are reserves. Which leaves 69% of our forces to make up the main assault on the entrance at top of the mountain. Our main force will be lead by Eskaren with a doppelganger masquerading as Karn and Rothas with a scroll of disguise self in place of the Shadow.

We are camping close to the entrance of the dragon's cave and plan to move out at 0600 hours.

Vaden Vilepaw — 08/06/2018

We go over last minute details and begin the attack on Althudair's lair. We were made invisible and proceeded towards the entrance along with the Shadow and Karn who were also made invisible.  Our first obstacle was two wyverns and a dragon gaurding the entrance. Hess pointed out that the dragon was only a projection so we felt safe that it wouldn't detect us.

Once inside we proceeded further in and came to a walled off and well gaurded fort. Several of our members were made able to fly or teleport while Hess, Vaden and the diplomat made to climb the wall, the diplomat fell and Vaden slipped trying to save him. Luckily, through Alspec's abilities we did not fall the whole way though we did make some noise alerting a patrol.

We continued onwards and into a corridor that had runes which shut down many of our abilities including the invisibility bestowed to us. After a period of discussion and light experimentation we decided to turn the diplomat into a dragon and have him cary the rest of us in the bag of holding.

He made it through the first room just fine and proceeded down what we determined was the likely path, there we found the war room where he was quickly discovered, the dragon there destroyed the bag of holding, spilling us into the room and starting the fight. Hess colapsed the way behind us as the fight started to block off any reinforcements. The fight progressed and we slew two of the dragons, we ended the session there with Raiwyn and a bomb in the jaws of one of the dragon's while submersed in Alspec's water sphere.

Hess — 08/07/2018

In which we continue down into the tunnels and reach the ritual room.

The dragons died, except for Adriel (who, at this point, had always been a dragon for less than five minutes). Reckoning that the ritual room wouldn't be in a library, we took an unmarked door instead. Through it was a weak old dragon who did not put up opposition, but hinted that there were terrible things to come.

Past him, we rappelled down into a shaft filled with thick darkness and watching eyes. At the bottom, we were threatened by the boneyard keepers, and warned away from their domain. Here Hess asked if the ritual was being held in their boneyard, and was told that the ritualists had in fact taken the route through the library. We flew right back up and took the other door, suffering from the old dragon's mockery as we did.

We then entered into the library. Hess entered right into the books, and was punched by the librarian for her audacity. This librarian was not hostile though, and showed us to the reference section for the deep, all the while keeping some rowdy dragonborn at bay with a stern look. We did not have the time to read up, so we went onward into the forbidden archives.

In the forbidden archives we found librarians attempting to seal an eldritch abomination. The less wise members of the group were stricken by a madness, but were promptly corralled by The Empath and Adriel. We then managed to negotiate our way past the head librarian almost without combat.

After passing through a hallway that stripped our temporary magical effects (Adriel had now always been a half-elf again), we came into a vast chamber where Mirtasha was chained in the middle and three circles of three mages were conducting the ritual.

And then we formulated Our Plan.

Adriel — 08/14/2018

In which we executed Our Plan

Theodore — 08/14/2018

We were given several boons by the alternate reality versions of various gods: (In no particular order) Feely had all his spell slots restored and temporarily doubled; Alspec  was given access to wild magic; Hess had all her power points restored and doubled also had her teleport range limit removed; Vilepaw was given 100 shadow wisps; Adriel was given the ability to have always been a dragon or have always been a half elf at will; Raiwin had his bond with Dedric restored. I had all my wands recharged and their charges temporarily doubled.

We descended to the cavern to defend the mages casting the ritual, we fought off several waves of increasingly tough eldritch abominations. We successfully defended the mages and the ritual went off. All of us except Adriel died and he used the negation marble. the ritual appeared to have failed as the seal was still cracking.

We have enacted our failsafe plan allowing Karn to cast his consecration, however Mirtasha claimed the ritual had not been cast properly and claimed she could cast it properly. We are proceeding by allowing both Karn and Mirtasha to cast their rituals, as we took position to defend them.

Me-Me Feely boy — 08/28/2018

As the group began to defend Mirtasha, and Karn..., from the deep tendrils while they cast their rituals it became apparent that some members of the party were attempting to disrupt other party members.  After some disruptions Mirtasha informed us that it would be 30 seconds until her ritual was complete.  Karn started pouring sacred fire down the hole which ripped our essence out of our bodies.  At which point a large head emerged from the inky blackness and cause multiple members to have one goal, Kill the gods.  Too many of us were manipulated but thanks to Raiwyn we turned our attention to him rather than the gods.  Hess dropped him on the head of the deep and Mirtasha's ritual complete sealing Raiwyn in the inky blackness with the Deep.  Each of us awoke without memories of who we were or what had happened to us.  Adriel however was not affected by this and was able to always have been or always not have been a dragon.

DM — 08/28/2018

End of Godfall campaign