Session 36 - Graduation

**Session 36 - Graduation** is the 36th of the campaign and marks the end of the Arcadium Academy arc trough the final boss fight with Vellyis, in which she gets killed by Ydriss. After the fight Atlanta ends up confessing her romantic interest in Diri, and the two become partners. Additionally, the enchantment fragment is collected.

### Synopsis

#### Navigating the Academy

After the recess from session 34 is done, the girls try to make their way to the archives, however, Vellyis stops them and tells them that, since they're first years, they do not have access to the room. She explains that it can be possible, though, if they agree to a certain deal that she wouldn't elaborate on. Diri tries to question her further, asking what would stop her from simply putting an intruder on them, but Vellyis simply promises she would do no such thing. In the end, the girls realise they don't have much of a choice and agree to do as she asks, which, as it turns out, would be to do a graded presentation on the spell Zone Of Truth. They were given half an hour, and their presentation ended up with a flying passing grade, allowing them to finally explore the archives.

   Once they open the door to the archives, they are first met with a long hallway, framed by urns of questionable decorative purpose. As they walk trough, Ydriss is almost tripped by a slithering ribbon on the ground, nearly knocking over one of the urns, but manages to keep her balance. The hallway eventually leads into a room with a weird, floating essence in the air. Upon stepping inside, the girls realize it represents, or rather retells, memories of a certain person.

The retelling starts with the person whose memories are being projected as a kid, hiding on a vehicle with an older woman, presumably her mother, talking of having to leave the town. The essence continues to show the course of the persons life; school, friends and fond memories. At last, the nice memories are interrupted, as it is shown how the home of the person suddenly got raided and her mother murdered in front of her. Notably, the raiders wear the Solandis crest. The person ends up being fatally wounded as well, and as she lays bleeding, The Emissary of the Moon suddenly appears in front of her, giving her new life. With this, the memories end.

Since there is not much else in the archives, they continue to walk down further trough another hallway, which eventually leads into a big spacious room, in which Vellyis sits in the middle on a swing chair made of ribbons, reading a book.

#### Vellyis fight

Upon entering the room, Vellyis asks them what they are there for, to which Diri replies "bringing you to justice". Vellyis just reponds with a small "of course, of course." She then inquires them about their findings in the archives, and reveals to them that she, in fact, is a bastard child of a Solandis as well as confirming herself to be a hexblood. Her awakening as hag was once she got reborn after being murdered by the Solandis. She then goes on to explain her real motives as to why she helps the Solandis; She wants to take over the project of awakening the Storm in order to be able to meet The Emissary again, claiming that, once she meets it again, she'll be able to take over it's position, giving her control over the cycles of rebirth. With that power, she'd not only be able to have power over what becomes a god, but also what gods they could be.

She concludes her monologue, asking them if they still plan to oppose her after hearing about her plans, to which Diri and Ydriss snarkly respond that they've already killed a god, as well as a wannabe-god before. She, in return, laughs and says that they've never dealt with anything like her before.

> I need to remind you that up this point, i simply chose not to do anything to you three. If you take step forward...That is rescinded
>
> Vellyis, seconds before the Fight, Graduation

Despite this warning, They indeed take another step forward. She acknowledges this calmy, before speaking up again, asking Diri to die for her. With this, she casts Power Word Kill, to which Diri immediately succumbs, barely managing tp cling on to life thanks to her orcish resilience. Vellyis then snaps her fingers, and an Intruder drops from above, landing next to Diri and taking her over. Vellyis speaks up again, saying that she wanted to kill Diri straight away anyways, and that this will make it much more entertaining. She then tells her to capture her other two friends, so that they can all be put on display after the matter. She also gives her her armor back, but also puts her in one of the dresses she crafted. With this, the fight begins.

Diri targets Atlanta first, moving her towards herself trough her flail, casting Divine Smite in the process, essentially electrocuting her. Atlanta in return uses The Clepsydra to break the tendrils of The Intruder burrowing into Diris skin. The damage she does is doubled for Diri, as the removed hairlike wires cause a large amount of blood to spurt out. It is described as if they're pulling at her bones. Seeing this, Ydriss casts cure wounds on her. Vellyis, in return, asks Diri to get rid of the "Snake one". Diri complies, casting searing smite on her weapon before hitting Ydriss with it, partially igniting her in flames. Trough the effect of The Clepsydra, The Intruder on Diri then gets restrained. Seizing this opportunity, Atlanta continues trying to cut her free. She succeeds, and at this point only a few strings are left, however, Diris condition worsens at the same time, as she's bleeding out because of the cut strings. Ydriss then gets restrained by some of Vellyis' magical ribbons and gets pulled away from Diri and Atlanta, to stop her from helping, though she quickly frees herself and puts out the flames caused by Diri. Diri then attacks Atlanta again, using thunderous smite as a bonus to her weapon, though Atlanta manages to successfully evade being knocked away by it. In retaliation, Atlanta uses her bola to restrain Diri herself and pulls her towards her, cutting trough the final strings from the Intruder. Thanks to this, Diri is freed from the Intruder and collapses into Atlanta's arms, still bleeding out and unconscious.

Vellyis looks up, frustrated at that, but congratulates them and tells them to give her a moment to finish the chapter she's reading. Ydriss sees the passed out Diri, and quickly uses Cure Wounds to heal her, which makes her shoot up immediately. Distraught, she holds herself, instinctively using Lay on Hands and healing herself quite a bit.

> I now also have a personal Vendetta against Vellyis
>
> Angel, Graduation

Seeing that she's alright, Atlanta stands up and casts Eldritch Blast on Vellyis, though it disappears due to a Magic barrier around the Hag. Vellyis then asks if they really wish for her to enter the fight, which Ydriss confirms. Immediately, ribbons shoot up all around and try to grab them, though they manage to evade them, which frustrates Vellyis some more. She then gets up from her chair, and tugs on a ribbon that has been lowered from the ceiling. Like a mechanism, the ribbon swing she sits back down on elevates, until she's quite far up. She announces, that they will now begin (implying that the entire fight before that wasn't even worth noting). As she says this, multiple Ribbons shoot out off her dress, resembling a Jellyfish. (Authors Note: Delta's worst fear) Those tendrils then suddenly bring forth a giant pair of Scissors behind Vellyis. To which Vellyis comments: "I can always stitch you back together. So, who's going first?"

The Scissors attack, and while Ydriss and Diri manage to dodge out of the way, Atlanta gets sliced, grappled and hoisted up in the air by them. Ribbons then travel up the scissors and restrain Atlanta instead as the scissors get lowered for their next attack. To free her, Ydriss cuts trough the ribbons by throwing her dagger. Atlanta then falls from about 30 feet, but is successfully caught by Diri. She then casts a Prayer of Healing, healing Atlanta, Ydriss and herself. Atlanta is still partially restrained by the ribbons, but manages to break free. Vellyis then goes for a second attack; this time Diri is the one who fails to dodge as she suffers the same fate as Atlanta the round before. Focusing on Vellyis for now, Ydriss creates a magical construct out of the mannequins Vellyis had standing around earlier and makes it walk over to Vellyis. Though it cannot reach her during that moment, it manages to pull Diri down from her restraints and bringing her back to the floor, where she frees herself from the ribbons. Atlanta then casts Mental Prison on Vellyis, which makes it seem as though she's surrounded by fire. Ydriss then uses Vicious Mockery on her.

> You old Hag! Can't even walk without Ribbons!
>
> Ydriss casting Vicious Mockery, Graduation

Next, Diri casts Moonbeam on her, which makes her lose concentration and results in her falling into the fire of Atlantas Mental prison, causing her a large amount of psychic damage. She holds her head and at them, visibly angry for the first time. Atlanta continues to cast Eldritch Blast on her, to which Vellyis manages to deflect one of them, though is still hit by another. Even more upset now, she drops the Scissors and lets the ribbons attack the girls again, successfully, and they all end up restrained as she pulls them up to her. As they are all restrained, she starts talking to them again, saying that they've been very annoying, and, with a snap of her fingers, wraps them in the clothes she had prepared for them, emphasizing the fact that "this will be (their) life now". She then continues to try and get into their heads, as she points out their identities and insecurities, saying that they won't have to worry about their flaws anymore once they're part of "her collection". While she says this, the scissors come up behind her again and move towards them menacingly, as Vellyis laughs diabolically.

Just in that moment, glass suddenly shatters, as Zeus breaks trough the window behind her, attacking Vellyis immediately and biting her arm off. Due to the shock of this sudden attack, Vellyis drops the girls from their ribbon restraints. Now on the ground, Ydriss quickly retrieves the dagger she had thrown earlier. As she does this, Atlanta casts Fireball with the help of the Evocation Fragment, which burns away her ribbons and makes her fall to the ground as she takes another great amount of fire damage. Ydriss' mannequin construct then attacks Vellyis as well, fracturing her bones with a strong punch. Holding her wounds, she decides to cast Dominate Monster on Zeus. The turned Zeus then attacks Ydriss, engulfing her. Diri, in return, quickly casts another Prayer of Healing, while Atlanta tries to convince Zeus to spit Ydriss back out. Though, when he ignores her, she instead focuses on attacking Vellyis. Vellyis gets hit, but uses her turn to try and attack Diri with her ribbons once again, though Diri manages to dodge them well. Zeus then attacks Atlanta, while Diri goes back to attacking Vellyis with a searing smite added to her flail, which makes her lose her concentration of Zeus, freeing him from the spell. He quickly spits Ydriss out. Atlanta hexes Vellyis, which she retaliates by casting Hold Person on the three of them, though only Diri gets paralyses. Zeus attacks Vellyis again, and as he does, Ydriss moves towards her. Once Zeus lays off, she immediately slices her axe through the Hags stomach, knocks her to the ground and stands on her chest, pointing her axe at her. This was her HDYWTDT.

> **Ydriss**Any last words before i make good on that promise?**Vellyis (grinning)**The Storm...rages earlier than the Ruby Moon.**Ydriss**So you just want to be annoying? Perfect, see you then!— Vellyis' last words before Ydriss kills her

With that, Ydriss kills Vellyis by hitting her head/neck with her axe over and over again, until there is not much but a pulp of blood left and she herself is covered in blood. With this, the fight ends, and Atlanta, Diri and Ydriss gain some of Vellyis' items, as well as the Enchantment Fragment.

### Featured Characters

* Atlanta Gloryweaver
* Cinzidiri Agnello
* Ydriss
* Zeus
* Vellyis Akmeros
* Mirza Solandis (In memories)
* Marigold Solandis (In memories)

### Trivia

* Delta revealed OOC that the mother of Vellyis was Marigold Solandis, who had her with a Tiefling man whose last name was Akmeros
* Delta also revealed that the current Vellyis does not care for the memories in the slightest and only showed it to the girls to make them upset, she apparently even deems them funny