Arc V: The Princes' Nightmare

## Arc V Characters:

* Archer Lovejoy [He/Him] (Played by Reagan - He/Him) - A High Elf Arcane Archer Fighter. The 6th child of Gem and Jack Lovejoy, he felt ignored and mistreated by the rest of his family, especially his mother. He spent years wondering if anyone would notice if he left, and when he finally committed and ran away, no one did notice. He changed his name and moved on to find a life of adventure, eventually being recruited by the Mountain-breakers for his incredible skill with archery.

* Nalath Mountainbreaker [He/Him] (Played by Evan - He/Him) - A Goliath Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian. Nalath has gone through a lot in the last 5 years. A few years after the events of Arc II, Lombarghdi left the Mountainbreakers in order to find his own path. Then, less than a year ago, his faithful pet and companion Bobo died of old age. Through all of this, he has become much less headstrong and impulsive, but is still the same goofy guy that saved Lord Varyc, albeit a better team player and leader for his party.

* Vikaal [He/Him] (Played by Kristian - He/Him) - A Water Genasi Twilight Domain Cleric. Vikaal has spent the last 5 years harnessing his own potential for magic, gaining the ability to harness Fey energy and Sorcery. He is still dedicated to spreading the will of his goddess to the world and still acts as the straightforward man of action for The Mountainbreakers. His inspiration of Donovan Alaric plays heavily in his decision to help them find his younger brother.

* Kendel Inagwyn [He/Him] (Played by Nora - She/Her) - A Wood Elf Warrior of the Hand Monk. He is completely obsessed with himself and believes himself to be better than anyone. He originally seeks out The Mountainbreakers because he believes that they need his expertise, not the other way around. He serves as a reminder of what Nalath used to be.

## Arc V Synopsis:

### Session 1: The Mountainbreakers Return

The Mountainbreakers are brought before King Henric Alaric and are informed that Prince Lucas has been kidnapped. The Royal family believe it to be the work of the Vosea Empire trying to provoke Hyranor into making the declaration of war upon them, so they are hiring The Mountainbreakers to act as a third party and rescue Lucas. They interview his bodyguard and survey the last known location of Prince Lucas. Vikaal is able to sense a strange form of Magic within his bedroom, but isn't sure of where it comes from. After probing into the bodyguard’s mind, they learn that he isn't responsible for the disappearance. They set out to find more information, with little to go on.

Thankfully, on their way out of Tyle, Kendal notices they are being followed by the invisible form of Prince Donovan Alaric, who explains that he has a lead on where Lucas may be. He insists on coming with them in order to find his brother and prove himself as a capable adventurer. They make their way out the the city, sneaking themselves and Donovan onto a cart and head for the town of Hollowframe to the East of Tyle.

On their way, they are stopped by a group of guards who were executing orders to check every carriage the goes by to make sure that Prince Lucas wasn't stowed away with them. Despite the efforts of the others, the guards insist on checking the cart until Kendal uses his special magic item, the Ring of “Don’t-You-Know-Who-I-Am” to charm them into letting them all pass by.

Once inside the town of Hollowframe they find it abandoned. Donovan ignores this and leads them to a small shack on the outskirts of town. Vikaal once again senses that same magical disturbance from earlier within the shack as they enter. They find nothing inside, despite the strong magical aura of the place. As the party goes to leave, they step out through the door and back into the shack as the door slams behind them. Though now, suddenly the shack is in complete greyscale, with what look like Embers floating in the air all around them.

While most of the party is in a stunned stupor, Donovan explains in a huff that they have somehow entered The Nightmare Plane, a layer of Reality where those consumed by Bloodlust go when they die. It is also the home of the souls of every Hunter that has ever lived. The group move their way through a dungeon within the Nightmare Plane, catching snippets of information from Donovan as they go. They learn from Donovan that he is one of, if not the only Hunter that is alive in The Material Plane. He also detailed his secret adventures that he goes on to rid the world of Abberations and other extra-planar beings. They also meet the remnants of another Hunter, who has slowly transformed into a Mind Flayer due to the effects of The Nightmare Plane and his Bloodlust.

This Mind Flayer, simply known as The Old Hunter, traps each member of the Mountainbreakers in a mental prison, making them each see vivid hallucinations. Vikaal is the only one able to resist the power of The Old Hunter. Nalath is forced to talk to himself from 5 years ago, who calls him weak and cowardly for thinking like a leader instead of like a Goliath should. Kendal is forced to relive the day that his lover told him that she wouldn't be going with him to the Monestary, and that they were on different paths in life. Archer was forced to relive the constant mistreatment by his mother that he withstood until he finally ran away from home and joined the Mountainbreakers.

As they get through the dungeon, they are able to use a shortcut into the chambers of The Old Hunter, who passes Lucas through another portal into the hands of Dispater, one of the Lords of Hell. They attempt to rescue him, but both The Old Hunter and the right hand to Dispater, Titivilus, stay behind in the Nightmare Plane in order to allow Dispater to escape with the young Prince.

After a grueling battle, Donovan taps into his own Bloodlust in order to be the one who kills The Old Hunter. He learns that whoever kills him inherits his curse, to be trapped within that layer of The Nightmare Plane forever. He regretfully accepts this responsibility, creating another portal to The Material Plane with his newfound power, while urging them to save his brother.

Once returned to the Material Plane, Archer claims to know someone who could open them a Portal to Hell. The Mountainbreakers are returning to Glycaria to visit the Lovejoy family once again.

### Session 2: Family Reunion

With everything that happened in The Nightmare Plane, Vikaal takes it upon himself to split from the rest of the group. He will go off and research ways to free Donovan from his new prison, while the others go to The Lovejoy’s in search of a Planar Portal to Hell. He also suggests they get help from an old friend while in town so they are prepared for the mission at hand.

The remaining members of The Mountainbreakers then head for Lombarghdi’s Druid Enclave, which Lombarghdi had set up in the years since his departure from the group. As they enter, he is teaching a group of Eladrin and Wood Elves about healing the natural world, showing off how powerful he has become in the last 5 years. He takes the group into his personal tent to discuss their visit, because he senses this visit is more than personal. Nalath quickly catches him up on what happened and explains that they need help from the only people who are known to have opened a Planar Portal: the Lovejoys. He isn’t excited to return to Glycaria, but is prepared to do so in order to help the kingdom.

Nearby, Lombarghdi performs a ritual on an ancient tree, creating a portal between it and the Lovejoy rose garden, the only plants in the entire city of Glycaria. He warns that they will be teleporting directly into the grounds of Lovejoy Manor, and there will be little time once they go through. Eager as always, Nalath and Kendel both jump through, and as Archer prepares to portal through, Lombarghdi stops him and thanks him, saying that he knows how hard this will be for him.

Once they are all through, Lombarghdi casts Pass Without Trace on the Group in order to help them move through the house without being detected as easily. The group, led by Archer, makes their way to the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor has all of the bedrooms of the Lovejoy children. The party stops at Robin’s room. Archer enters alone, dropping the spell upon himself where the two reunited siblings are able to chat, about their parents, who might be able to help them, and how Penny is their best bet if they don’t want to deal with Gem herself. Archer thanks her and Robin asks him one favor in return, to find a way to get their Mother arrested.

Once outside, the truth is fully revealed as they all put the pieces together of Archers family history. Though they aren’t able to deal with it here as they need to finish their mission, moving on to Pennys room. This time the whole group enters, startling Penny and dealing with her conflicted nature in wanted to help them, but not caring much for the royal family or much else outside of her own family, and she alerts Gem of the intruders before apologizing. Gem swings the door open using her own magic, confronting the group. She gives them 3 options: Archer stays, gives in to the Dominate person spell and becomes a good member of the family. She then summons an injured Goliath woman in chains, and says that Nalath could also just kill this woman. For their final option, Gem pulls a deck of cards from her pocket and says that 5 cards must be drawn from the deck, making it more interesting by removing Lombarghdi from the room.

Kendel draws the Euryale, and takes a -2 penalty to Saving Throws

Nalath draws the Comet, allowing him to gain an extra level in his class if he defeats the next group of enemies single handedly. As well as the Vizier, which allows him to ask and question and gain the answer as well as the Wisdom on how to apply it.

Archer draws the Star, increasing his Intelligence by 2. As well as The Fates, allowing him to reverse any one event in time, but has a one hour timer before he can use it.

Gem is visibly dissatisfied, but allows them to leave, opening a portal behind them. The group quickly leave, but also realize they aren’t in Hell when they are met by Donovan, once again in the Nightmare Plane. He sees Lombarghdi, recognizing him as a Godling, and shows the group a spell within The Old Hunter’s spell book to help a Godling ascend into godhood. Requiring 4 ingredients: the soul of an Archdruid who has lost their way, an act of Forgiveness, an act of Humility, and an act of Acceptance. The group agrees that this is, hopefully, their best option now that Gem has double crossed them. Donovan opens another portal to The Material Plane, and is once again promised that he will be freed from this curse before he is once again left alone within The Nightmare Plane.

On the Material Plane, the group travels to a forest nearby Lombarghdi’s enclave, with him explaining that a lot of his newer recruits were brought in from this forest after their Archdruid lost their mind and started going down the same path that Lembo did. As they go deeper into the forest, they see the normal forest dwelling creatures have all been zombified due to the work of this Archdruid, who they find deep within after following her abominations to a clearing. The Archdruid captures Lombarghdi and summons a Water, Earth and Fire Elemental to fight them.

The group follows their normal tactics of separating and each taking one, but their weapons and skills are not as effective as they would have liked. Eventually Nalath realizes that if the Elementals touch, they will destroy each other. Nalath draws them close to do just , that and completes the rules of the Comet card, gaining an extra level in the process.

The Archdruid then reappears with Archer firing a Banishing arrow, sending her to the Feywild for 1 minute. When she reappears, Nalath captures her in his net and the group are able to kill her, with Lombarghdi putting her soul into a vial. Then comes the 3 acts. The act of Forgiveness comes when Nalath forgives Archer for lying to him for so long. The act of Humility comes when Kendal praises Nalath for realizing the trick with The Elementals. The act of Acceptace comes when Archer comes to terms with the fact that his parents were terrible, but he shouldn’t have abandoned his siblings.

With each of these acts completed Lombarghdi ascends into godhood, looking similar, but more whole than he ever has. He then uses his new power in order to create a portal to Dis for the group, with them stepping through the portal into a desert leading to The Iron City.

### Session 3: Hell or Bust

Finding themselves in the deserts of Dis, seeing only the Iron City ahead of them, the Mountainbreakers begin their long walk. As they cross through the seemingly endless desert, they suffer from cases of madness, the length of which varies from case to case, with some only taking a minute or so, and others seemingly permanent. While all of this is happeneing, Nalath becomes increasingly frustrated with Kendel and Archer, to the point where he declares himself as *the* Mountainbreaker. They still travel as a group, but in Nalaths mind, he is the only one capable of completing the mission.

After 3 days, they reach the edge of The Iron City and realize that it looks frighteningly similar to Tyle. The only real differences are that every building is made of metal, and there are lesser Demons and Devils everywhere, which pay the group no mind, believing them to be lost souls. As they travel towards The Iron Tower, they realize that no matter how far along they get, they aren’t getting any closer. Archer uses his quick thinking skills and creates an illusion of Titivilus who asks a nearby Demon how to get to the tower. They answer, though confused as to why the second in command to Dispater doesn’t know how to enter the tower, that one must share their deepest secrets.

Kendal quickly admits while laughing due to the effects of his madness that he had a girlfriend who left him before he left to become a monk and he hasn’t seen her ever since. After he finishes his sentence, the tower seemingly shifts towards him and the door opens for him alone. Nalath goes next and admits that he was never a real gladiator like he said he was, just a lowly circus performer and that he lied to seem more powerful. Archer goes last and admits that he ran away because he fell in love with archery after his first snowdrop participation and wanted to continue to do so and that he still loves his family and especially his siblings.

Once they are all inside they find themselves on the first floor, decorated like a normal living space with items scattered everywhere. As they explore they find 3 cubbies in the walll, each containing a paper note with a riddle on it, asking them to place the answer tp the riddle inside the cubby. As each riddle is solved, the wall opens up to a staircase to the next floor.

There is a single pedestal with a button on it sits in the middle of the room. When pressed a timer starts to count down in Infernal, restarting once it is pushed and stopping completely when held down. After exploring the options of what the button does, Nalath tells the others to head outside to see if anything had changed while he waits. When the timer reaches zero, another door opens, letting them pass. Nalath takes a moment to himself and then class the others back in before continuing.

The next floor has 3 paractoi with an image of a bear, wolf and eagle on its faces. Looking around, they notice that th reflection in the puddles on the floor is different, so they splash and find teh correct solution for 2 of the paractoi and guess correctly on the third, allowing them to access the final room of the tower.

As they enter Dispaters throne room, they see Lucas chained and gagged on the throne. Nalath approaches and removes the gag while the others lag behind. Lucas questions who they are and what they are doing before Titivilus reappears and demands that Nalath step back. Nalath refuses, which angers Titivilus enough to start fighting them once again. He is much more powerful this time around since he is on his own Plane of existence. He gives the group a little bit of trouble but in the end they are able to kill Titivilus once and for all.

Once the fight is over and Lucas is freed, the question of how they get back to The Material Plane is brought up, but Nalath simply pulls out his Vizier card and uses it, transporting his soul to Elysium, the home of the gods. Lombarghdi greets Nalath and asks if he’s done it. Nalath just nods while sitting on the ground, a single tear rolling down his face. Lombarghdi nods and tells him that he can get them back to The Material Plane before opening a doorway back to Nalaths body. He waits for a moment before entering, but as he does, he finds himself back in the same moment, with the card missing. Lombarghdi’s also stands with them, and destroys Titivilus’ vessel, claiming that he didn’t deserve what was done to him. With that he opens another portal for them back home

As they get back to The Material Plane, they chat about their next steps, and whether Archer should use his Fates card to free Donovan so they an return with both Princes. Lombarghdi agrees that it seems to be the only way, unless someone could replace Donovan as The Keeper of The Hunters Nightmare. Hearing this, Nalath volunteers himself, much to everyone’s surprise. Nalath says that he wants peace and quiet, and that some time in The Nightmare Plane could give him just that. He says goodbye to both Kendel and Archer before going with Lombarghdi into The Nightmare Plane, where Lombarghdi performs a ritual to pass the curse from Donovan to Nalath. Donovan thanks him profusely for taking this burden on, being the only person who understands it. As the two princes leave, Lombarghdi asks Nalath what he’d like to do next. When Nalath hesitates to answer, he just smiles and says “we could start with one of your stories?”.

Back in the Material Plane, a portal is opened that leads directly into the throne room of The Ember Keep in Tyle, surprising King Henric Alaric with the suddenness of their arrival. His anger is quickly quelled when he sees that both of his boys have been returned to him. He notes that Nalath isn't with them and questions Archer about it, who says that he is doing what he wanted. King Alaric then offers Archer and Kendel a counteroffer to the original deal. Since they returned both of the princes, he wants to name The Mountainbreakers as the Chosen Heroes of Hyranor, a title that hasn't been given out since the Reign of Benril. Archer accepts the offer, appointing himself as the new leader of the group, and asks that he could have both his, and the Mountainbreakers name changed. King Alaric happily agrees, proclaiming them as The Chosen Heroes and giving them the keys and deed to the Ash Keep, where the Chosen Heroes traditionally make their home. Archer and Kendel set off to take claim of their new home, and start to think about the recruitment of new members into their group, because you can never have enough adventurers.

### Epilouge:

A few hours later, Prince Lucas Alaric changes out of the clothes that he had been wearing and into much more well fitting black and red suit that has been delivered to his room. He looks around to make sure no one else is watching him and says "See I told you it would be easy." As the image of Dispater stands before him.

The Devil smiles, thanking the young prince for his help. He gives Lucas a quick belt of instruction: "Remember what I've said. Lay low for now, and when I give my signal, the King dies."

Lucas smiles, his eyes turning blah as he repeats "The King dies".

## Arc V Trivia:

* The theme of this Arc is change, and how a lot of sudden change can easily overwhelm someone.
* Despite the stakes being seemingly so high, this Arc, more than any other is a character study
* This Arc began online over discord and was finished off in person, similarly to Arc IX
* Vikaal was removed from the story due to scheduling conflicts with Kristian, and it is unsure if or when Vikaal will return