The Real Hero

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Session 6 of Endgame, the final episode of the second season of Story of a Lifetime (Overall session #50).

Took place on January 28th, 2026. PCs were level 14.

Synopsis

Session Summary

The party, allied with Tarkanans, skydives via armored suit into Merrix d'Cannith's fortified obsidian tower amid aerial chaos over Machine City. They descend through caverns, and confront Merrix reforging the Astral Throne into a celestial cyst-harnessing machine awakening an imprisoned progenitor dragon from beyond. Epic battle erupts: lightning obliterates tentacles, shields tank solar flares, coordinated strikes bypass adaptive dragonmarks. They reseal the dragon, but Quintus Trevelyan arrives god-empowered via the device, slaying the party temporarily. The hatchling dragon sacrifices itself as the black blood vessel on the ritual altar, purging the cult and consuming Trevelyan in divine flames. Aftermath: Mournland secured, wars blunted, thrones restored, black blood decimated, dragons honor the hatchling.

Bombing Mission

The Sky Siren screams through the air, soaring into a fierce battle above Machine City, where Aundair's fleet clashes with Merrix d'Cannith's forces. Merrix has taken over the city, enslaved the Reforged, and built air defenses to repel any assault. But Tyburn is prepared.

As Cassandra pilots the Sky Siren through the chaos, Tyburn leaps from the plane, donning his mecha-suit and projecting a massive shield to protect the party as they skydive toward Merrix's tower. The skydivers form up, plunging directly toward Cannith Tower. Just before impact, Tyburn's Gravitic Core multiples his mass, allowing him to crash through the tower's defenses, carving a path down to the caverns below. The party hurtles through a shaft of obsidian shards, twisted metal, and chaotic energy, finally landing amid the debris in a cavernous antechamber.

The Astral Throne

Navigating through the caverns, the party reaches the antechamber of the Astral Throne, Gladius and the Prophet remain at rest, powered down and lifeless. The holy shrine created on the resting place of Hana, the Fox Spirit, remains. But the Astral Throne itself is gone, reduced to its constituent components.

The Celestial Cyst

Once, the Celestial Cyst had sat in dark, quiet chamber, unearthed by Merrix the Elder many years ago, and harnessed as a focus for the Astral Throne's power. Now, Merrix d'Cannith has built a massive device around it, siphoning and purifying its energy to power some terrible purpose. As the PCs approach, Ariadne senses the mind within the cyst; no longer is it distant and somnolent, but nearly awake, its thoughts reaching out to her. Through her mindlink, she hears its song: the Draconic Prophecy, the song Creation, the song of all time and space. It tells of the travelers, Eberron, Siberys, and Khyber, and how they formed the very world itself. It tells, too, of a lone wanderer, expecting to herself seed upon an unknown world, and bring it to life in her image. Instead, it landed on Eberron, and began to unmake and remake the world, twisting it to her alien will. It speaks a stupendous war, thousands of years long, with all the world's dragons, giants, and even demons banding together to stop her. In the end, they pushed her back to this spot, and their fire burned every moment for years, until at last she was sealed away within this cyst, buried in molten earth, which cooled around her and trapped her for a million years.

She wants nothing more than freedom, and offers the party power beyond imagining if they will but free her. But Ariadne resists, singing a countersong of her own, empowered the Voice of the Dragon, itself a celestial dragonshard. Perhaps no one on Eberron could have countered the temptation of the cyst, but Ariadne, siren and herald, stands firm, and the minds of all present are freed from its influence. Merrix, who had no expectation of survival or success, had been death-marching onward to give Travelyan his prize; now, he realizes the folly, and tries to undo his work before it is too late. Together with Tyburn, he tries to stop the machine, but it doesn't want to be stopped. The power of the dragon, the power of the machine, the inevitability of destiny itself, are arrayed against the artificers, and they fail. The power bursts forth from the machine, and the goddess manifests.

The Dragon Beyond

Xenoverys, imprisoned for over a million years, finally has an opening. She manifests into the world, a twisted form part dragon, part eldritch horror, with countless tentacles writhing from her form. The party springs into action, battling the colossal entity. Ariadne wastes no time, conjuring all the lightning she can, destroying its helper tentacles in one maneuver. Thora and Nox cut through the Guardian Tentacles that shield Xenoverys, while Selina cloaks herself and prepares a strike of her own. Tyburn projects a massive shield to protect the party from the dragon's solar flares, barely averting total annihilation.

The dragon tries to conjure more tentacles, but is foiled by Ariadne and Selina's countermeasures. While direct attacks against her prove ineffective, due to her living dragonmark constantly reconfiguring to grant immunity to any attack, Thora devises a plan. With her dragonmark, she can control the marks of others; perhaps she can even suppress Xenoverys's adaptive marks. As one, they coordinate their attacks, with Nox's dagger imbued with Ariadne's lightning, and Thora providing an opening, they inflict a devastating wound. But the dragon is not yet bested.

Selina, from concealment, plans her own attack. The dragon's form is made of pure life energy, manifest as matter. With all the power she can muster, she draws its soul energy out of its body and into her soul gem. Her attack weakens the creature, allowing it to be forced back into the Cyst, and for the machine to be repaired. Without Merrix, who was overwhelmed by Xenoverys's power, Tyburn struggles to overcome the dragon's might, but with Thora's help, mimicking the Mark of Making, they finally reseal the beast.

And the newest god makes his entrance.

Quintus Travelyan, God of the Black Blood

In a frozen moment, the device's terrible purpose became clear. This new machine was siphoning power from the Cyst, at tremendous velocity, and purifying it for use in the Genesis Forge. Travelyan had been absorbing the dragon god's power, and now, with the machine complete, he has manifest. With a moment's thought, he annihilates the machine, ensuring none follow in his apotheosis. The burst of force is in the process of obliterating everything in the room, but thanks to his divine power, he slows time to a crawl, so he might properly gloat.

Nearly frozen in time, the party cannot move, cannot manifest powers; they can only think. And through telepathic connection, Travelyan speaks to them all. Firstly, he honors his bargain with the now-deceased Merrix, liberating his daughter from temporal statis and infusing her with the Black Blood. He then makes a peace offering to the party: after all, the petty political games of mortals are beneath him now. He reminds them of their oath to destroy the Black Blood, and oath Kaius died to uphold. He offers them the chance to do just that. With a snap of his finger, he instantly prepares a ritual that may have taken the collected Witches of Droaam months of sacrifice and toil to prepare: a Bloodline Curse. Place a single mortal on the altar and take their life--and so, will the lives of every older member of their kin follow. He himself has nothing to fear; as a god, he is no longer dependent on the Black Blood to survive. And wouldn't you know it, the perfect candidate lies before him: Nova d'Cannith, newest member of the Black Blood, whose sacrifice would doom the entire cult forever.

Naturally, they refuse. He is unbothered, claiming not to care either way. To Ariadne, he offers similarly godlike power: the ability to destroy the Nightmare, to restore Dal Quor for her people. To Thora, the chance to finish the War of the Mark, to avenge her father and her clan's tragic loss at the hands of the Twelve Houses. To Selina, the power to reshape Eberron in her image, to surpass her mother and liberate herself from the witch's manipulations.

Instead, Selina hears an inner voice, bidding her to take the Hellfire in her hand. It will shield her from the ravages of Xenoverys's power, allowing her to siphon it directly, to match Travelyan's divine might. Her father whispers in her ear, promising her she has the strength to kill a god. As she reaches, the soul of Kaius contacts her from within the soul gem. She finds herself on that frozen lake, where he taught her to ice skate under the moon and stars, where they shared their first kiss. Instead of replaying the memory, he warned her of the danger of the Hellfire, that this path is one that would forever separate them. But she is determined, and with a final farewell, she grasps the Hellfire, and reaches for the crystal.

With a sigh, barely even qualifying as dejected, Travelyan snaps his fingers and kills the entire party. Selina's arm falters, her hand falls short of the crystal, and darkness begins to overtake them all.

But the dragon is not done yet. While small, with a feeble song, it is joined by the might of Xenoverys, linked with her divine power. He flaps his wings, surging forth toward his goal. Curious, but unwilling to take undue risk, Travelyan conjures a more powerful spell, sure to slay any being, dragon or no. The death magic finds its target--just as the dragon alights on the altar. Killing the dragon releases the power of the Bloodline Curse. The dragon was born of a breeding program, from which every Black Blood cultist drew their power. With its death, the curse activates, purging the entire cult from existence. Travelyan himself loses his draconic power, and without it, his form cannot contain Xenoverys' essence any longer. After a moment of confusion, he evaporates into ash.

The party is still dead, their bodies ravaged by the destruction of the chamber. But in the Grey Wastes, Selina finally meets her sister Morag, an angel of death, who sacrifices her final power to restore her sister to life. With the power of Xenoverys still in her soul gem, Selina resurrects the fallen.

Aftermath

The Machine City and the Reforged are free. Thora has claimed the Earth's Fist, and uses it to bury the Celestial Cyst deep beneath the earth, ensuring it can never again threaten Eberron.

The Battle of Metrol is won by the people of New Cyre, until the leadership of Ivy, who personally bests the warlords and claims leadership of their clans. The Karrnathi aggression into the Mournland is blunted, and the glimmer of hope for a new Cyran future remains.

With the Black Blood cult destroyed, its influence across Khorvaire rapidly crumbles. No nation was spared their tentacles of manipulation, but Karrnath is especially gutted. Amidst the chaos, Kaius I is finally allowed his rest, and recognition of his deeds. Haydith ir'Wynarn, repatriated from Breland, takes the throne from her "brother" and begins the process of restoring Karrnath's honor and standing among the nations.

In Sharn, Selina meets with Boranel, Aurala, Haydith, Ivy, and the emissaries of Thrane. The Treaty of Sharn is signed, re-establishing the nation of Cyre, recognizing the Reforged and the Machine City as an independent nation, and establishing the right of warforged to once again create new life. Warchief Selina accepts peace with Boranel, with only one sacrifice from the nation of Breland: Sharn, the City of Towers, is given full sovereignty.

In Great Crag, a flight of dragons from Argonesson arrives to honor the hatchling dragon's sacrifice. They hear its song, and echo it for all the world to hear. Its sacrifice will never be forgotten, and its name will be sung for all time.

Ariadne's time has come. She must return to the shoal where she was born, and give birth to her children, the next generation of sirens. Tyburn journeys with her, leaving the name of Cannith, the legacy of the great houses, all behind him. His father's invention, once feared forever corrupted as a weapon of war, has become the key to a new future for Eberron. Heavier-than-air flight is now possible, and with it, a new age of exploration and discovery begins. Aerenal, Argonesson, Xen'drik, and even Sarlona will soon be part of a smaller world, a new world. One he is happy to explore, but one to which he holds no claim.

In Sharn, Selina confronts her mother, who reveals her hand in the events that shaped her life--or lack thereof--with Lyon. She takes full accountability, and acknowledges that Selina no longer needs such "protection", vowing no further meddling, no further secrets. While forgiveness may be impossible, there is at least hope, the first step on a long road to reconciliation. But she is happy to leave Katra in Sharn, to return to her homeland. In Great Crag, she reunites with her family, and begins the first chapter of her true life, one made entirely of her own choosing.

The story of the dragon's lifetime is over. But other stories will be told, other songs sung. When the world needs our heroes again, they will answer the call. But for now, they rest at last.

Transcript

============================================================ The Real Hero June 20, 2026

SESSION SUMMARY

The party, allied with Tarkannans, skydives via armored suit into Merix de Caneth's fortified obsidian tower amid aerial chaos over Machine City. They descend caverns, confront Merix reforging the Astral Throne into a celestial cyst-harnessing machine awakening an imprisoned progenitor dragon from beyond. Epic battle erupts: lightning obliterates tentacles, shields tank solar flares, coordinated strikes bypass adaptive dragonmarks. They reseal the dragon, but Quintus Trevelyan arrives god-empowered via the device, slays the party temporarily. The hatchling dragon sacrifices itself as the black blood vessel on the ritual altar, purging the cult and consuming Trevelyan in divine flames. Aftermath: Mournland secured, wars blunted, thrones restored, black blood decimated, dragons honor the hatchling.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1. Sky Siren arrives over Machine City during Ondair fleet battle; party skydives behind force shield into Caneth tower.
2. Hulkbuster suit crashes through tower, carving shaft to caverns; group lands amid debris.
3. Navigate to antechamber: Astral Throne dismantled; vision reveals Merix's reforging.
4. Celestial cyst chamber: Merix's sarcophagus device channels dragon power; tense standoff and countersong resists psychic temptation.
5. Machine overloads; colossal draconic elder god manifests with tentacles.
6. Round 1 combat: Chain lightning destroys mindbender/corruptor tentacles; Thora rallies, fans knives guardians; solar flare tanked by shields.
7. Tentacles shockwave; Nox flanks, Selina veils invisible; dragon spawns countered.
8. Ionized strikes, soul drains, dragonmarks bypassed; dragon defeated, resealed by Tyburn.
9. Quintus Trevelyan manifests as god, empowered by Genesis Forge; slays party with heart-stop.
10. Hatchling dragon sacrifices on bloodline curse altar, purging black blood; Trevelyan incinerated.

CHARACTERS & NPCs

• Thora Tarkanan - Tarkanan leader Disguised as Evelyn; allied temporarily, captured Melora's soul, took Earth's Fist

• Nox - Tarkanan assassin Attempted to assassinate Siobhan, fought alongside party

• Quintus Trevelyan - Antagonist artificer Manipulated events, stole Merix's daughter vessel, became god-like via celestial power

• Merix de Caneth - Artificer usurper Reforged Astral Throne, allied with Trevelyan via daughter; built machine to harness celestial cyst

• Ezra Lirindar - Ondair queen Commands royal air fleet, storms, Dragonhawk riders

• Leon - Tarkanan captive Known as Ezra Tarkannon the weaver of colors and light; interrogated about Trevelyan deal

• Artemisia - Forgemaster Human artificer who activated Astral Throne; aids in dismantling machinery

LOCATIONS

• Sharn Tower city hosting grand summit in High Council Chamber, underworld meetings in Undercity, site of Caneth martial law and attacks

• Mournland Recently unmade Grey Mist via Astral Throne, target of reconquest and Merix's tunneling

• Machine City Site of Astral Throne, Genesis Forge, celestial cyst; fortified Athenium, airport with airplanes

• Caneth Tower Reconstructed black glass tower outside Machine City limits, access to underground caverns

• Celestial Cyst Chamber Subterranean chamber with skyscraper-sized purplish crystal, reforged Astral Throne apparatus

LOOT & ITEMS

• Earth's Fist Ancient Tarkanan relic reforged by Merix, taken by Thora Note: Used to claim Mark of Making

COMBAT ENCOUNTERS

• Encounter at Celestial Cyst chamber beneath Machine City Enemies: Mindbender Tentacles, Corrupter Tentacles, Guardian Tentacles, Xenoverus Progenitor (Celestial Dragon) Outcome: Party victorious; entity resealed

MEMORABLE QUOTES

"Holy shit. Now that's sexy. I gotta go kill that thing." — Thora Tarkanan

NEXT STEPS

• Ariadne sails to Shoal • Tyburn joins exploration • Address northern evils

============================================================ SESSION TRANSCRIPT

In part. Excellent. Is this the last time you ever hear this opener? Probably not, unless you're like amazingly fast in combat. But we'll see. Last time. Are you suggesting a multi-game battle? Well, no, but there's probably more than one. I can see you guys sometimes can solve problems in clever ways, so maybe not. But, you know, we'll see. Having previously solved the Mournland by using the Astral Throne to unmake the Grey Mist, the land was suddenly open to reconquest, which triggered... An emergency meeting of all the world's VIPs, naturally, to take place in Sharn. As a representative of Dosk, you met with the Boromar clan to determine the underworld's disposition regarding these events, and you resolved that the Tarkhanans should not be allowed to sow chaos and destruction during this sensitive time. Then the Tarkannon showed up during that meeting, brazenly. Thora invited the two clans to join in her chaos and violence, and they said, Nah. And, uh... Then there was a grand summit. The... kings and queens of the realm, and the warchiefs of the realm, met in the High Council Chamber of Sharn to discuss their joint resolutions, if any, to this ongoing development. With diplomacy, guile, and just incredible, like, Putin-esque amounts of leverage, the warchief was able to get a verbal... between the monarchs to work together to secure the Mournland. And no sooner had that been done than Thora Tarkanan attacked the High Council Chamber with a rocket launcher. Didn't get to have a diplomatic win. And... After the explosion, which... didn't directly take the life of Melora, as he found out, she had been assassinated by Nox. But, uh... Others fled, as you would expect, and your party pursued Thora into the depths of the Undercity, where she revealed herself to be Evelyn Tarkannon in disguise. As you were busy fighting her minions, Thora and Nox were still in the Council Chamber, attempting to eliminate the final pretender to the Karnathi Throne, which was Siobhan, in a magical disguise. Elise, Siobhan, and... I think the only other one there was Calista, managed to blunt the attack and save Siobhan's life before the party managed to return and gather everyone before, you know, the building collapsed. You went to a safe house. Selina's personal apartments where you had the luxury of interrogating a captured member of the Tarkannons Leon but you at the time knew him as Ezra Tarkannon the one that weaves colors light he didn't reveal a ton he did tell you that Thor had previously made a deal with none other than Quintus Trevelyan who had met with her and Nox in secret. His tier of the Tarkanans were not privy to the meeting, but he left with something valuable, and she left forearmed with knowledge of how to fight you. Which explains why she did a pretty decent job of it. Having resolved to deal with Thora, the party was once again surprised by the sudden sight of Caneth airships, Titanforged, uh, Warforged Titans and soldiers marching through the streets, declaring a Caneth-centered martial law for the, quote, safety of Sharn. Immediately, the underworld was under attack by this one-man army, this private Caneth paramilitary force. Once again, you met in the Undercity with the Boromar clan. And once again, the Tarkandons crashed the party. But she offered a truce. The same deal as before, despite the audacity of even appearing before you at all. Strangely, She gave you a token of goodwill in the form of the captured soul of Melora, revealing that she had done as Trevelyan had asked and owed him nothing further, and that she has a personal beef with Merex de Caneth and would be happy to bring him down in this moment of his tyrannical uprising. The three underworld factions allied Dosk supplying thousands of doses of dragon's blood to turn ordinary citizens into overnight superheroes. The Boromars pulling their strings to essentially unite the city's legitimate authorities behind your cause. And the Tarkannons just doing what they do best, sowing chaos. It was quite a show. But unfortunately, Merix was a step ahead. You determined that, although he was set back by your antics, he himself isn't even in the city. Thora has learned that the Earth's Fist, an ancient Tarkanan relic, which once leveled the city of Sharn in the pre-Galifar days, has been claimed and reforged by Merix. He used it to carve an extensive cavern and tunnel network under the city and to tunnel all the way to the Mournland, at which point you realized his true objective, the Astral Throne, under the Machine City, which you helpfully informed the world was an object of incredible epic power. Now, granted, an object that you left in a non-functional state, but, well, he is one of the world's greatest artificers. How long has he had with it at the point where intervening in the story? Couldn't be more than a few days, because you published the story, like, I don't know, five days ago. All of this happened very quickly, and it couldn't be, you know, more than, like, even maybe three or four days at this point, unless he... had foreknowledge of what you were going to do. And while it's true that Trevelyan did anticipate what you did, after all, he engineered your involvement in the Mournland in the first place. I'm still fucking mad. By suggesting to the... I don't remember how... Oh yeah, that's right, you were using the phylactery. So, yeah, you got a bunch of insight into him. How he... introduced the idea of your party to the prophet shortly you know before he started the war in drom he's been pulling strings since at least well he probably didn't have much to do with the uh undersea psychic god certainly since you met him back in uh good old carnaff well not that you've ever met him He's always some sort of projected image or simulacrum. Having resolved that Trevelyan is almost certainly going to be a problem, but not a problem that lends itself to any obvious solution at the moment, you can count on his inevitable, cleverly timed betrayal, and probably his cowardice in being unwilling to face you directly. The final nugget of information from Thora is that years ago, Trevelyan hired her to steal something from Merix. A vessel. She thought it was some sort of weird, perverse, warforged creation. It looked like a metal girl. Like someone's version. Someone wanted to make a warforged shaped like an eight-year-old. She assumed the worst, but in fact, Merix made that as a last ditch effort to prolong the life of his only child who had an illness that no magic could cure. Stealing that may have contributed to his moral decline, but, you know, she didn't know, so she takes no responsibility. But that object is exactly what she traded back to Trevelyan a few days ago. Trevelyan now has control of... Merix's only child and only remaining living loved one. And the... hypothesis is that he's offering... a deal. He can... if Merix plays ball... he almost certainly has the means to heal her. After all, the black blood can make any human immortal. And if he doesn't play ball, doubtless Merix will never see his daughter again. So we need to fucking steal back his daughter in order to make a deal with him. Of course, there's no way of knowing. And the fact is, Merix is actively seizing control of the Astral Throne as we speak. And so... there really isn't anything for it but to stop him because as well you know that thing is a weapon of mass destruction whatever he's planning to do with it even if it's to give everyone in the world a nice cupcake simply powering it would itself be a cataclysm oh absolutely not destroy all the hard work i just did god damn it don't forget to destroy my epic spell you fucker Exactly. To that end, you have prepared an assault. Hours later, after an overnight flight at best possible speed, the Sky Siren arrives in the skies over the Machine City. a pitched aerial battle is taking place. Ezra Lirindar's royal fleet of Ondair, the world's most foremost fighting force in the skies, arrived early, having left before the peace talks even began. Having successfully predicted perfidy, she still didn't arrive in time. It seems Merix already secured the city. Anti-air batteries have made the skies around the city untenable for slow-moving airships. Airplanes have been launched from the Machine City's very large and capable airport and are doing battle with Ezra's airships and indeed her winged Dragonhawk riders who are flying at their best speed, hurling lightning bolts and magic as she herself commands the very storms to give the enemy aircraft as hard a time as possible. As you're screaming in, you're all loaded for bear and you've brought help. The Tarkhanans Every one of them have similar power level to you. Surely that's got to count for something. And you give the city a wide orbit as he's looking for signs of changes. Several are apparent. The Athenium, previously the way into the caverns beneath the city, is now heavily fortified, guarded by a small army. The... The site of the old city of making is not exactly where the Machine City is. But the ruins were mostly converted into material for the city. But standing pretty much where it used to be before the war, is a reconstructed Caneth tower made of the black glass of which the plateau is topped. It stands outside the city limits and is similarly fortified. There's... Your scans indicate that there is access to the underground caverns below within the compound itself. said this was going to be easy. The... Did you have a... Yeah. We'll say... Why not? I mean... We'll say... Did we set an actual... I feel like we missed a scene. I was like... There was a very long conversation about what to do. But... I mean, you don't have any leads on anything else at this point. In fact, you're lucky that it hasn't already come to a head. It's hard to say what's going on hundreds of feet below the surface. You can actually tell from here with your various divinations and whatnot, you see Reforged among his troops They seem to be moving with unity amongst his warforged. Why do you turn them into soldiers? Slaved them. Which, of course, is the greatest violation of their moral code that is really possible. But he doesn't give a shit. Nope. Lost all morals. Cassandra has been recruited as a co-pilot. Since Tyburn is going to be a little busy. Alright, here's how it works. I jump first. I can shield the rest of us. We all need to travel as one. We need to make a beeline for that tower. Have you guys, uh... jumped out of an airplane before? Eh, you know. Typical day in Sharn, really. Cool. Well, if you splat, you know, that'll be inconvenient, because that's one less ally. Cassandra, once we're clear, get as high and fast as you can, and get the hell out of here. If we survive, we'll let you know. He, uh... I don't think he can fit the Hulkbuster suit inside. I think the Sky Siren isn't like a military transport with the huge ramp. It's more like a skydiving plane that you can jump out the side of. So... As the bomber... Are we saying he doesn't have that armor? He doesn't have his Hulkbuster armor with him? Oh, it's here. He's just going to have to assemble it in midair. Oh, okay. Okay. As the bomber nosedives toward the tower and then bottoms out to sort of throw you, he leaps out and puts up his force shield, which immediately starts deflecting anti-aircraft flak cannons. You jump behind him. Both of you have pretty solid control of your flight characteristics. In your case, I'm think it's via dragon, but you know, that works pretty well. He's actually pretty big now. Like, going by weight, he's still a medium creature, but his wingspan is like almost 20 feet wide. And he's basically just grabbed you. The Tarkanans are hooting and hollering behind you, just jumping out of the plane as the larger version of the Mecha-Man suit forms around him when the shield widens. You hear the jet engines of the Sky Siren scream as counterfire sprays in its direction. She's doing what she can to evade, but the storm winds seem to be doing even more as Ezra's command of the weather makes the skies friendly, but only for her allies. Extremely perilous for enemies. There is quite a bit of defense waiting for you. Not only ground defenses, a high wall with guns and huge warforged, but vertical defense. The entrance is... Inside the tower. So he has a solution for that. Stay directly behind me. You need to be extremely accurate. He aims right at the center of the tower. And while it does come to a point, you're not too worried about him impaling himself. Because he'd probably sort of deflect off. But, you know, it does seem kind of... Kind of foolhardy. He's hurtling down. His rocket boots blast at full speed. Pushing him well past terminal velocity. And then... He activates the gravitic core. And he temporarily weighs 32 times as much as normal. As he becomes... an adamantium cannonball as he just carves through the obsidian tower, scattering floor after floor. You guys are moving so fast that the shards of obsidian seem to be flying upward past you as you navigate this treacherous descent through Kanath Tower. And at least the four of you follow him successfully into the shaft and blast right through the freight elevator and whatever. You're not sure what else was there because it's all been blasted to hell. Turning the gravity the other way, right before impact, you find your terminal velocity decreases very quickly. When you come to a gentle stop amidst a gentle rain of shattered, twisted metal and obsidian shards that's sort of snowing down in the Gravitic Chorus Field. It's very pretty, but it's also kind of hard to walk because it's like moon gravity. He puts up the shield and then it all just falls. It just sort of arcs around you. Various splats, bursts of magic as the Tarkanans land in the cavern. piece of cake. This looks much as you remember the excavated caverns deep below the city where you found the Genesis Forge, the Astral Throne, and the enormous skyscraper-sized celestial cyst thought to be a dragon shard of cosmic origin that powered the Astral Throne. you remember well enough how to navigate this place. This is where, you know, you fight all the raid mini bosses and stuff, but frankly, there's not much that could stop you at this point. It's just roadblocks. And he has only had so much time to fortify this place. It's been some time getting it up and running again. You make a beeline for the most important objective. The... The antechamber in which the astral throne was housed. The tunnel was bashed open by Gladius and never repaired. What was that character's name who oversaw this place? The Forgemaster, Artemisia. The Forgemaster. Yeah. I'm not sure. Was he a mind? Like, did he have a mind? So, well, OK, so the prophet was a reforged and he was kind of the civilian leader who got everyone here. The Forgemaster was the human artificer who got the Astral Throne working. OK. But when the queen was finally set free and allowed to die, all of her reforged, well, her elite warforged, including the Prophet, were automatically ordered to stand down, and they powered down and have remained in that state. In fact, you see in the room where the Astral Throne was, the quiet form of the Prophet and Gladius just standing there like statues. They're Oh, so they haven't come back online. He does a quick scan. You do a magical scan. The Queen's programming must have been pretty damn effective. They're not just offline. They are no longer animate objects. They are... If Warforged can die, that seems to be what happened. But absent... is Jeremy, Artemisia's personal bodyguard and companion. Also absent, more pressingly, is the Astral Throne. Or rather, what it became. That shrine still exists. It's a little pond with a beautiful cherry tree that's somehow lit from above by a shaft of light, despite the fact that you're deep underground and it's overcast. That's still alive. But that was more like the resting place of the fox spirit. The astral throne, as Tyburn sort of takes over the narrative, gone. Reduced to atoms. I'm going to use my ass to see the last relevant event in this room, to see exactly how he got you. You frickin' Eye of Agamotto just... Days ago, Merix entered. He briefly tried to reanimate the fallen Warforged, but found that they were little better than animated objects, not true Warforged, and gave up on them. His... Dragonmark... shines from halfway underneath this massive stone gauntlet, which he sort of carved like a continuation of his dragon mark into. And it's become like this Thanos, like the gauntlet of making. Thor is looking at it. He didn't just get it working. He completely reforged it. This is not how that used to work. Seen it in action, have you? Is Artemisia in this vision at all? No, nor is Jeremy. Okay. So that must have happened before. But you see that sort of silicon-like, soft metal tracery that was everywhere, almost tentacle-like, that sort of glorped together into the throne. It's like peeling itself off of the walls. He's rolling it up. You've seen Tyburn do this. Very few people have seen any can to do this because it's like the top tier power of the Sybaris Dragonmark. You saw him convert a fully functional Titan Warforged into like a bunch of bolts and nuts and slabs of steel ingots. So too did Merix, the younger, convert the Astral Throne back into its components. And it wasn't just made of iron and bolts. It was made of metals you can't readily identify, crystals galore. It was an epic artifact, and it shows in the materials. Okay, question. Now I'm going to go to the prism chamber, where the thing that was igniting the engine was. Yeah, this was where the throne was housed, but its power source, or rather, its power reactor was the astral cist, or the celestial cist, I should say. You rush down the caverns to see what's become of it, and you, Ariadne, you feel this far before anyone sees it. That cyst was always unsettling and weird, but now it's awake. Oh, shit. Not fully. Somnolent. Like a sleepwalker. It's like realizing that you can see a hungry tiger... looking right at you, and then you panic, and then you notice that he just keeps looking as if he never saw you. Active, but somehow not noticing you. And the magnitude of this power... You've only sensed it once before. The nightmare was as powerful. It's no longer bound strictly You can see tracery, that silicon-like metal, new traces eking out from the the celestial cysts chamber, heading into other corners of the subterranean complex. He's got the shield up just in case. And he rounds the corner and stops. Selina, you see the magic auras, like, indirectly. You see them reflecting off of things, which isn't normally how magic auras work. And you know to sort of shade your perception from full aura sight before you look upon it. This chamber, big enough to house an uncomfortable Tarasque, or great Wyrm Dragon, was hewn from the stone where it abuts the edge of a skyscraper-sized purplish crystal. A broad face of said crystal was excavated, and the crystal was tied into the Genesis Forge under the Astral Throne last time you saw it. But much has changed. A massive installation has been... The crystal appears to be intact. However, the astral throne has been reforged into some sort of... Picture a standing sarcophagus, like the ones you might find in an Egyptian tomb. Built into and of a piece of with a sort of dais. And... I don't know, like, the thing that you would put... If you wanted to put an alien xenomorph in, like, a glass cylinder, you'd put that glass cylinder in this. Something that can contain it at the top and bottom and then link to all sorts of stuff. But instead of a glass cylinder with an alien in it, It's a solid, morphed, organic-looking sarcophagus that looks vaguely feminine. What? Like, if you had a woman wrapped thickly like a mummy, slightly bent, but still not wrapped so thickly you couldn't see the shape, and then just frozen into solid metal, there's glowing... purple light, almost like running lights, traceries of mana as this device is channeling incredible amounts of power through this whatever, this avatar, this something. And instead of being a deep, dull, blackish purple, the crystal is a glow, vibrant, unearthly violet and all of that is flowing through this apparatus into that nexus through it like both directions somehow but then like it's somehow transforming in that sarcophagus object and then flowing into like pipes and stuff and turning into some motive energy is this a tarkana's sarcophagus object this isn't the This isn't that object. This looks like it was made from the same material as the Astral Throne. And if you have any questions about its construction, its maker stands by, monitoring its use. Impassive. Come to admire my handiwork, Madrigal. What the hell is this madness, Marex? I knew you were insane, but not like this. You'll notice a distinct lack of millions of souls drained from their hosts. My predecessor's work was sloppy. He could have accomplished exactly what he set out to do, and more. without costing a single life. A traitor, then, through his epic incompetence. Which is, I like to talk shop. I'm examining this more from the magic perspective, where it's actually the magic transitioning into the machine as opposed to the actual machine itself. There are... auras to every type of magic that give you clues as to sort of what it does. Blood magic looks different than death. It looks different than fire and water, et cetera, et cetera. This type of magical energy is not one you see often, although you've spotted it in cathedrals of the solar flame. She has to go out to go potty. Of course she does. Yeah. It's celestial energy. She asks the door out. Yeah, she does. What does she do? She came over and looks at me, and then she brings me back over to the door. I don't know, Ariadne, what a direct experience you have with this, but I feel like even without direct experience, something about this speaks to something deep in your DNA. Dragon or Sion? The draconic prophecy is a song. It's the song of creation. It's the song of history. And will be the song of the story of dragonkind, of Eberron, Sybaris, and Kyber. When all is said and done and the book of the universe is closed, only then will the song be finished. But in that thaumaturgical way, every small part of the song... resonates with the whole. Including every song you've ever sang. The songs the little dragon sings and the more abstract apparatus of the Draconic Prophecy. The fact that it's a living, unfolding record of the future. The design of the universe revealed, manifest through cause and effect. And through your deep and mostly abstract understanding of the song, with the benefit of some hypercognition and the point of view of thousands of Kuwori who studied this planet for 30,000 years, dragonkind owes its existence to the progenitors, Eberron. whose body forms the crust of the world and the air and the sea. Sybaris, who forms the stars, the moon, the celestial sphere, and Kyber, whose fire burns in the heart of the world, warming it. But don't go too far down there, or the fire will burn you. Those three in their interesting dance, their give and take, their equilibrium, are the very firmament of which this world is built. And it is... The word dogma is not strong enough. Dragonma? The draconic race understands that these are the three progenitor dragons. Their song is the beginning and will be the end of the prophecy. But this energy... This feels like something else. It sings to you, distantly, not purposefully. Almost like somebody just absently humming a tune, psychically. And it sings a part of the prophecy you've never been fully conscious of. Drifting in the void for eons. Cold, cocooned in stone, meant to seed a world as Eberron did. She crashed into this one but she was not well. The race of lesser dragons that had spawned from Eberron warred with her. Her attempt to conquer this world and turn it into something different, ultimately, fundamentally different than what Eberron is. Maybe a different planet, maybe not even a planet at all. They had to stop it. It was an existential threat to all life. The entire assembled dragon race warred with her for thousands of years. They allied with the demons and the giants. And finally, she was returned to this place the sight of her final stand. Dragons kept the flame burning. At no point for years on end were there not hundreds of active dragon breath weapons constantly blasting her and the earth she stood in, which was continually molten. until at last enough energy had been spent. At last, the stars were right, and the race of dragons could rest. The earth cooled, and she was attuned. This was over a million years ago. He is a progenitor dragon. A celestial being. Comparable to gods in the way that you are comparable to mid-tier jazz lounge singers. Was this the psychic vision she was getting? This is what the psychic vibe she's actively getting in real time. Okay. The song, the... It all blends together into one... hole for her. This energy, all this purple stuff, that's all her. She's not in that device. She's not even fully in the Celestial Cyst anymore because she's spreading. And you alone understand the depth of madness that it would take to unleash her from this prison. Listen, bud, I think I know what you're going to say, but I got to say this anyway. Turn it off. Walk away. Or you know what's going to happen. Assume that I'm interested in prolonging my life. Maybe, maybe not. More interested in Saving your daughter? Have you already made a deal with him? Quintus. Nothing any of you can do to make that happen. Oh, really? I've been after Quintus for a while, and I'd be happy to take your daughter back and heal her, because I know how to heal Black Plight as well. So you really want... Do you suppose he awaits you in some dungeon ready for a grand last stand? Well, I'm sure you could help me find him much quicker. I already have a demon on it searching for him. Her neck is under a sword of Damocles. No doubt, many times redundant, dead man switches. Not just for her, but all that I might ever have held dear. If you don't do this for him. So you're willing to be manipulated by that piece of shit. I'm just going to use it. I don't love those words, but he is quite a piece of shit. I cannot wait to kill him, but... Many have trapped. Oh, believe me, we will be the ones who kill him. He gives the eye to Thora. He seems to try to conjure hot contempt, but even with all she's done to him, it seems he's almost entirely drained of emotion. This wouldn't have happened if not for you. This wouldn't have happened if I'd killed you when I was supposed to. It's too bad our king... was a giant pussy. No doubt she'll get your chance. But it isn't me you have to worry about. This machine, it has a purpose, much as the throne did. And it wants to be interrupted in that purpose. just as little as the throne did. Well, you saw how well we did that, so if anybody can do it, we can. I took that throne down, I can take this thing down. The moment you try, my daughter's life is forfeit. I will oppose you. If you have a better proposition, I'd much rather get your daughter from Quintus. I'm sure you have the resources to find him in a snap. Can you turn back the flow of time? Snatch her from this thief before she's given away? What was the price, Tarkanan? Well, I probably should have asked for more. That belongs to me, too. This old thing. I dare say this predates you by a thousand years. You know so much, huh? So this is what you do. You like talk people to death or can we like kill him? He's trying to like he does that delay, that gesture like like like his hand is going to find him as he looks that you like diplomacy. You guys are charismatic. I've been trying. That's what my efforts are. We're not rolling fucking diplomacy on this guy. It's just immune. Ariadne, you can't get this song out of your head. And it's... I countersong it? Well, maybe you can't get it out of your head. But until you do, it's not overpowering you. It's not, like, dominating you. It's... It's like an advertisement. You know, it's there, it's loud, but it's not in your head. You still have to look at it. The power that this promises. It's transformative. The power of creation. Such is the power of these creatures. Eberron was literally shaped by the three dragons. It could have been something entirely different. Maybe a different thing of earth and fire and water. Maybe an abstract construction of astral power. The limit is your imagination. It wants to be free. This isn't even the creature so much as it's animating essence. The song itself. It doesn't want to be imprisoned. It wants to be freed so it can change things. Write new verses. And it's tempting on some animalistic level. Your draconic nature is tempered by a wealth of mental discipline. but it's difficult. Do you want a countersong it? I do. It is a silent song, so I suppose the countersong can be equally silent. And while this is a god tier effect, so... is your song amplified by the voice of the dragon the conch shell that you wear is also a celestial dragon shard maybe not as big and probably not from the same specific being but your voice can't be silenced nor infringed by any magic knot of divine origin. And your countersong can, in fact, oppose even divinity itself. I should probably start my map tools here. Yeah. Okay. I did. Roll... It's not working. Hold on. Okay. On the token repository, you are the correct level? Question mark? No. Let's bump that charisma up. Oh, it's too high. Okay. Well, I guess it doesn't matter. It's going to be the same. Plus two. I guess I feel like I have to ask it. Is she communicating any of that back or are we in the dark on the song? It's up to her. That's what I'm asking. I'm asking her, not you. Exactly. Well, I mean, I might be able to share some of the emotion with you through the mind link, but I don't think I can tell you anything if I'm going to be singing. If you heard this song, would you tell us about the content of the song you're hearing? This prisoned female in the stone as being a celestial dragon? Charisma. I don't know how fast it's happening. So I don't know for sure if she would have time to tell you. It's real time. It's not compressed time, although you do have that ability. I will share as much as I can through the mind link. Do you want me to roll a charisma jack? A performance? So perform. So you get advantage and you also get an additional bonus. That's 16.8. Okay. So on the token repo, your charisma... is up to date, but you get plus eight and you also have advantage. So roll charisma twice, not performance. There are no skills. Okay. I mean, there are, but they're just, whatever. Okay. Well, let me roll charisma. Eritrace, charisma, token, area. I can roll it. Okay. What is, is it still, let's see, you have ownership. Am I not on the right map? Token repository? Yeah, that's where I am. I'm in Ariadne. Charisma focus. I don't see anything particularly... Let's see. Roll5e. Does that work? Someone is saying it's a global thing. Where is roll5e? That's on... Yeah, that's right here. That's the master token. I hate map tool. So... Add system 8 macros. So it creates roll5e. Yeah, define function roll5e roll at token. Apply to selected tokens. Allow players to edit macro. Are you selected the token? Yeah, I have this token selected. I don't know why it's not letting me I guess I'll try this. I can attack with psionic, but I can't roll any of the strength, charisma, constitution. So roll. I only have one. I only have attack psionics. Why can't you use the roll macro? Can you paste the error message? I want to actually fix this, if possible. Add system. Okay, so... Chat GPT, fix it. Rated said macro. All right, J2P, fix it. Faster. Function is in the right scope, the player token is selected. Yeah, I know, we covered that stuff. Use apply to select a token. Yes, allow players to edit macro. Auto execute and find a selected demon. Define function, roll 5e. This is not a campaign-wide billable definition. So only the person who ran it. So don't use define faction. Interesting. Put roll of define faction on a lib token. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, so here's the quick fix. Try your charisma roll again. Oh wait, it doesn't even work for me now. Try anyway. It wasn't working at all. I'll add this. Just call the tokens role macro directly. Actually, here, I'm going to put this macro here. Do you see add systemate macros? Reselect your token if you don't. OK, please. Can you run that? Do you see numbers? Yeah. All right. Hit OK. OK. Now try to run them. I don't see any difference. Did you run it? Yeah, I ran it. Let me delete all of these. I'm deleting all of your macros. Do you see the macros deleted? It's just your attack. Okay. Run add system eight macros again. Now it just has one role, but it's not still not letting you roll. Was there an error message? Why didn't it make all of the other ones? God, I hate fucking Maptool. Okay. Has macro strength. I don't have permission to define function, to call the define function function. On your own token? What is wrong with Maptool? That's so weird, but I wouldn't do something like that. That's how I create a token named. Why would we just roll a d20? Because it looks like I can see I can roll a d20. I'm trying to do purple cat stuff, and it's still not working. All right. Ace of hearts will be the token. All right. Live token. Live master token. Roll 5e, roll, outlet, dice. Create a token, put a macro on it, roll, same time as you now. Okay. I need that roll macro. Okay, good. Put that macro on this one. All right, cool. Make it roll. God, this is dumb. All right, then change your macro Define the function pony, the lib. Okay, define function roll 5e. But wouldn't you have to execute that? I guess I can change it here. Define function roll 5e to roll lib dice. But it's not called lib dice, it's called lib token. Lib token, yes. All right, so I'm gonna run out of systematic macros again. Booyah. Now, when I run it, it rolls. What happens when you run Charisma? Yeah. I can see the things, but it's still not letting me... It's that same error messages? Yeah. Interesting. Is it one of those weird ones where you need to do the simplest thing first and she should just click on an app tool and come back in? Drop and fix. I can restart map tool. I mean, that feels like the first thing IT always asks me to do. Something to do with the permissions for the token. All of this used to work, though. This is really fucking annoying. I hate map tool. Alright. Yeah, just roll a d20. Fuck it. She already did. She rolled a 15. Yeah, well, I wasn't perfect. Here, I'm gonna roll on purpose. Potentially. Potentially. Oh, I rolled a natural 20 and I have advantage, so I'll just stick with that one. I mean, you did already roll, okay. There is a deep resonance in the voice of the dragon, the artifact to carry your throat. It's like a conch shell. It has that resonance, except if the conch shell were the size of one of the larger oceans. Your song is so... It's clear. It's a countersong, so it's not just the opposite. It's like a single clarion call that just cuts through the that sort of rumbling warble that this being song was. And yours is different. Peace. Tranquility. And not just as understood by humans. Your forebears... refugees from their home world a bizarre place by your standards made of astral constructs not matter but they found themselves on your world it wasn't their destination but it was where they ended up a world as alien to them as theirs is to you But they adapted. They found a home not amongst the land, sea, or sky, but amongst the dreams of the little meat creatures that lived on the world's surface. And these little meat creatures created a world more vast than the one they'd left behind. A dreamscape as varied the imagination of every child the old rusted dreams of every adult the treasured memories of the elders and they found peace they found a home it so changed them that when the militant forces of their home world came to reclaim their number to arm them in their conquest of the astral plane they didn't identify with them anymore those kawori were not the same they would eventually be swept up into the nightmare Your ancestors made a life here among the minds of the humans and humanoids and came to peace with their loss and their changed nature. The ones who bond with those known as the Kalashtar, the peaceful K'wori, the dreamers, not the nightmare. And the idea of a dream is so alien to the dragon. It's disarming. It's perplexing even to a mind of such vast complexity. And the non-psionics wouldn't have realized what that song was doing to their minds. You have a natural defense against anything psionic. They don't. They have the non-psionic buffer. It's more of a muting, you know, scrambling field than it is a shield. Specific, you know, psychic assaults domination, any sort of complex psionics just becomes a blunt force to them. And to them, it's manifested as this anxious force, this ambition. It's maddening. To anyone ambitious, it's It's impossible to expect a mortal to contain. To anyone else, it's just exhausting. It's... It's impossible to believe. Not everyone wants to hear the Faustian bargain. Hey, I'll make you a god. You can do anything. It's like, that sounds like a lot of work. Merix is not one of the ambitious... His mind isn't a raging forge with a million fires and a million projects working all at once. It's a solitary candle. One last light in the darkness. A single mode of hope. A final reason to live. The Others aren't that different, the Tarkhanans, stained as they are with every carnal sin imaginable. Their weird, unique lights flicker in tune, each connected only to the Others shunned by the rest of society. You feel a strange resonance between Thora that fist. There's a longing there, but not for its power. You felt this before. When Tyburn took you to his home, there was this prolonged moment of mad, irrational hope. Maybe he'd throw open the door and there they would be. And if not them, then... maybe a note saying they'll be back soon. The madness of being 100% sure that they're gone, but... maybe. You feel other minds, too. Selina's mind from afar looks like one of those infernos... ambitious and multi-talented person trying to expand in every direction at once, but looking closer, it's many flames, a ring of thirteen fires, a coven and a covenant. three guiding stars, dark, brilliant, strange, but everlasting. A single bonfire of hope, of burning desire to regain what was lost, a much fresher loss than the others. And yet, confusingly, Another flame rekindled where the other was a red hot. This is purple and pastel and octarine. Marvelous and unknown and still just as bright. She does It does want things. It does want power. But it isn't power that motivates her. It's... connection. Just like the... two little minds... growing inside you. For weeks now, they've been aware of each other. And of you. Even to some extent of Tyburn. laying in their little space, not knowing how small it is, not why the world is about to become. In Tyburn's mind, it's one of those forge fires. So many ideas brewing, so many projects, but it's changing. The work tables are being swept away wood planks are being erected. The workshop is becoming a home. Weapons of war can be reforged into instruments of peace. And there's one more mind here. It's not at all like any of the others. It's... Nope, not that one. This one? This one? Yeah. Everyone in this room would do anything for the ones they love. Merix is selling out a city. His name. His legacy. His house. A nation he once knew. Maybe even the world. Just for that flicker of hope. Thor is stained in blood. But never was it Satisfy some dark passenger. Always for some reason, something dear. You have taken lives and given them. Tyburn never thought he would, but here he stands. Selina, well, she might have gotten her hands dirty a few times, but probably nothing on the scale of the last few months. All of you are driven by the same thing. is different. The power flows into him. His mind isn't a factory full of projects in motion. It's a chasm. Like the wounds in the earth under Isengard. A project meant to split the world You felt this kind of umbrage once before. The madness of the nightmare. He's had pain. He's known inship. But there's something wrong with him. He's never thought the way all of you do. He's killed, but not for love. Not for the safety of his family. Not for... even something as simple as a nation, a cause, but because he enjoyed the power. A human mind shouldn't be able to crave so much power to be impossible to slake. But if such a mind existed, you can't think of a worse place in all of space and time than at the receiving end of a fire hose of celestial world-destroying power that itself wants to be wanted, wants to be used, wants to be set free. Damn the consequences. Even now it fills him. It fills his empty heart. It finds a basin that it can't quench. And in this moment it becomes apparent, a pregnant moment of realization as the non-psionics are suddenly and without warning thinking more clearly. You see it in the eyes of the two artificers, their eyes moving and darting across the channels, all the devices, the capacitors and all the circuitry of this machine calculating. And you see that same emotion you've seen. You've seen plenty. what your other self has seen countless times over 30,000 years. A human knowing death is inevitable, knowing the beast is unstoppable, briefly entertaining the thought of somehow defying it anyway. And Selina, the last thing you remember was proposing An alternative to battle. And not really expecting much. Merix just stops here, forget what was being said just now, or who was saying it. And with a silent act of will, flares his dragon mark until being amplified to the fist. And you hear this sound like... Like if you cast a million telekinesis spells on every single moving part in an enormous iron Rube Gold machine. Every gear straining. Every mechanism fighting. as he pushes against this thing and Tyburn joins him commanding with the power of two amplified Siviris dragon shards commanding this device to stop. And it doesn't want to. Tyburn, what do you got? Eh, not bad. Even better than that 28 how about Merix? Pretty good There is a Psychic scream that but for the fact that you were already countersonging might itself have taken the lives of every non-sianic being in the vicinity through sheer intensity bursting neurons overloading your central nervous system even through the countersong even through your non-sianic buffers you still hear it an anger that doesn't fit into a mortal mind or even that of a lesser god as the machine does as its bid and the energy stops flowing through that nexus and just gets stuck there and it intensifies it begins to hum and vibrate and glow and its rage It screams in anger at those who would defy it. There's a Thora. I don't know if I have the other Tarkanans. Oh well, these are the most important ones. Oh no, where's the... Oh, I didn't name the map because I'm dumb. I have a macro so you don't have to. Okay, I'm a little confused. It was... Psyonics are like that. She's psionic-ed. And... And then I just... Merrick took your suggestion. And is... So... That's what I was confused about. Yes, okay. Here's what you... What you see. That device, that sarcophagus... explodes and that purple energy just roils like it kind of looks like boiling flesh made of some sort of purple fire that like cools into flesh but also burns the flesh back into fire and it's this Akira like mess until it resolves into a colossal form that could best be described as draconic Elder God with just a hint of a feminine form. Fucking fantastic. And its many tentacles plunge into the ground and emerge throughout the chamber. And Tyburn is... somewhere, Quintus watching and laughing. He's somewhere. She sensed him. But that's it. He's somewhere. He's observing. He's a fucking pervert. He's a fucking pervert. Another word that insults I'm going to use for him. You don't... He was standing right next to the device. You were all standing plenty far from it. You don't see Merix right now. And there are more urgent issues than where he went, because now it is the time of stalling. OK. Wait, that's not the right one. Is it? Oh, OK. Great battle to be last on. That's just fantastic. Thanks, initiative. I suppose it's fitting you kind of set this in motion. You're perhaps the least surprised. The creature has manifested using its raw power to create a physical avatar. In a sense, this is just a protrusion of the celestial dragon. You know, somehow, through the magic of the Draconic Prophecy, name Xenoverus Progenitor the void the dragon beyond and now you're fighting her what do you do um perhapsy She's technically not doing anything yet, although no doubt she's planning to do stuff. Yeah, I probably want to protect my friends. Let me get you a... Let's take care of a couple things. I'm glad you're so confident in that decision. Let's take care of a couple things we never do. One, you just use Bardic Inspiration. Two, Tyburn uses Scan. Okay. Okay. Let's start with the weakest creatures, the Mindbender Tentacles. They have no special defenses. They are immobile, but they do bend your mind. The Corruptor Tentacles are also immobile, and they corrupt things. He can't really tell because they haven't done anything yet. I can chain lightning all of those, probably. The Guardian Tentacles are much larger. They're spiky and armored, and they're clearly meant to fight. They have 300 hit points each. And the other tentacles are quite a bit softer than that. I'm going to chain lightning all of the lesser tentacles. Is there a hard mode? Is there a hard mode to explain? I mean, not specifically in terms of reward, because what is treasure anyway? But I can definitely think of hard ways to do this, like not killing any of the tentacles. I'm going to kill all of the tentacles. So you are using Electrokinesis, which I have a link for. You're using Chain Lightning. OK, so you can cause your Link Track to chain up three times to different targets in range. So your Focus, you're rank four, so you have four Focus. You can expend up to four Focus to hit 10 targets. which will leave you unfocused. But that would hit... Let's see, there's six, three, four. So there's 13 targets not including the dragon. Ten would conveniently hit all of the weak tentacles. Yeah, that's what I want to do, is hit all the weak tentacles. You storm as you levitate off the ground and your eyes start streaking electric blue lightning. And you... Gather all of your psychic focus from each arm. A full strength deafening lightning bolt strikes and forms an electric ring. Roll your psionic attack. You inflict heavy damage plus stun. Actually, oh, that's alternate. Do you have ionization? I did. That was like one of my first powers. Yeah, you could, because you have an unused feat. Yeah, I did have ionization. OK. In case this doesn't kill them. So 52 with ionization. So yeah, whenever they get vulnerability to lightning the next time they get hit by lightning. But that's not the end. So you have several other things you can do. Once per short rest per rank, also known as four times per short rest, you can empower a spell adding plus 100% damage. You can use an empower charge to also cast a second spell as a free action instead of empowering. How about I twin and do a twin chain lightning then? Essentially, it's the same thing. It's either double damage or two single damage. But double cast is like, well, actually, I'm going to cast two different spells. But if I casted a second spell, then they're vulnerable to it. Well, that's a good point. You're right, because that's actually 250% damage. Exactly. Your spell damage rolls have advantage, so roll again and take the higher damage roll. OK. And I don't know what rank four does, but let me look it up real quick. System A, enchanting. I hope I came up with something. At rank 4, TBD. OK, shared rolled twice. So 52 is the higher result. But you hit, and let me make sure you're doing plus 30. Yeah, no, that's right. OK. So double-trade. OK. Okay. Technically, there's no stopping you from empowering the double cast as well, but you don't need to. They don't have that many hit points because a regular old double cast is going to do 130 damage, which is just enough to destroy all of the Corrupter tentacles and all of the Mindbender tentacles as they just burn to a crisp where they stand. Zora was just pulling her weapons out and saw you do that. Holy shit. Now that's sexy. I gotta go kill that thing. And I thought I opened her carrot sheet, but I didn't. All right. Oh. Oh, that's right. character sheet is in Purple Cat. It's not in Google. Stupid Google sheets. Thoratarkana, level 14 Fighter Rogue. She can fan of knives. That might hit all three of these guys. Alright. Well, I don't think she's going to get a sneak attack on this thing, but she can power charge. And... What does Rallying Cry do? Oh. Well, she's going to do it anyway. Rallying Cry. You all get temporary hit points. Equal to... What does her... Plus... Fuck. Plus... 14. Okay. Quick chance. I'm just going to say that's a ridiculously low number. Okay. 14... Okay, that's 21. Alright. 37. Alright, you all get 37 temp HP. Write that down in your copy books now. Fan of knives! That hits Guardian Tentacle 1, Guardian Tentacle 2, and the Celestial Dragon. And as her attack bears down on the Celestial Dragon Guardian tentacle one intervenes and takes that damage instead. So she does 140 to the guardian tentacle that intervened and 70 to the other one, except not because this was a power charge. So what do you mean? No detailed information. These feats are fully listed in the wiki. program this thing. Alright, 50% bonus damage. Alright, so this takes an additional 35, and this takes an additional 70. Zenovares. I'm an elder god of death. I will kill someone at random. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Okay, we'll roll a d6. actually not random. You guys are all standing in a big area. So she's going to use a solar flare. How did nobody move during this round, guys? It all happened so fast. That's okay. You have Mr. Shieldman standing there. He can block this for all of you. Solar flare. We need to play. Where is her damage macro? How do you plan for this? It is a plus. Does it even have a plus? Sure. All right, base damage, no. Doesn't apply. Bonus damage, 72? I mean, I already know what it is. I'm just going to roll a 72 plus 72. I just have to roll it manually. 72 plus 72. 115 radiant fire damage. a cone 50. Did she roll a 15 or higher? Nope. It's not a crit. Thora says, Oh! Dex. Evasion! It blasts you with what appears to be a literal solar flare as you're assailed not only with intense heat, but high high energy photons, gamma radiation, etc. How much can Tyburn block? Overload! He's going to block as much as he fucking can. Artificer? Artificer. There we go. Shield. Shield protector. Overload force barrier. Oh, it's 200% heavy damage. Okay. Yeah. Because his shield wall is a max heavy? Okay. Well, maybe. Maybe that's enough. 4012 plus 30. What is that? 478? Yeah, fuck it. He's going to overload. Close burst 3. That will get everyone... even Thora now that she moved. And... Aha! Maybe not. He has regenerating shield, so he can just block this normally. So what did I say? 78. Alright, so his shield HP... Here, I'm going to put it next to him. Shield. His shield HP is 180. 56? 66. And it just took 115 damage. As it puts up the massive shield, the energy is blinding, but it curves around the shield, which visibly degrades under the stress. With a scream of rage, she decides which of her two swift actions she wants to use. She's going to spawn tentacles. She's going to spawn tentacles. No more. No, no, no, no. One additional guardian tentacle. I want to count for that. She is going to roll her charisma. Oh, she rolled a four and got a 29. You have advantage to counterspell attempts as you use reactive counterspell. OK. As she's basically opening. No, this is a area. Selena is using reactive counterspell. Oh, you said countersong, so I thought you were targeting me. She's basically opening a portal to the far realm to get more tentacles. I just see the attack roll, right, for my counterspell or spell craft? Wait, why does it say Cyanix? Why does it say Ariadne? I can't select your token because it's moving. Selina's in mid-motion. Okay. So you have Reunion and the Skull Rod of Dominance. Reunion crits better. The Skull Rod hits better. So the Skull Rod is probably the better thing for counterspells. Okay. Roll with advantage. Oh, God. Okay. You have a plus 12... Plus, well, hold on. You're level 14. Did you maybe bump up your charisma? No, it's still plus 12. OK. So you have plus 15. So that does look correct. Bardic Inspiration. But you have Bardic Inspiration. 2d10. Wait, 4, 6, 8. Yes, 2d10. And that's just dash roll? Yeah, you can just roll. You can slash roll. Or you can do a bracket or just hit the d10 twice. Well, that's all you needed because... Well, okay, you need two twos. Okay, you're good. That is more than 29. She was going to summon one additional guardian and four additional mind benders. But she doesn't. No, thank you. Grrr! The guardians go. Guardian tentacle, how close are you to Tyburn? it reach three or reach five reach three bad news no target within melee range he uses his raid attack instead shockwave close first 10 78 bludgeoning damage the shield only has 51 left And you're going to get another shockwave from the Guardian tentacle, so it's time to use that overload. He creates a new shield. This one has 332 hit points before it takes the damage from the two shockwaves. 332 minus 91 minus 78. This is a circle three, so it's a shared barrier for all of you. And this doesn't crack his main shield. And then Thora is going to have to dodge both of those shockwaves. Flang! No problem. The Guardian tentacle then slams her at a 37. Well, what is she... Actions? Evasion again? Nope, she just evaded. Pocket sand? Dragon mark? Nope. She's going to just try to dodge it. 16! Well, she can take a hit. Hey, where's her hit points? She probably should have some of those. Fighter 7. Okay, goddammit. That's important to put on the character sheet, I suppose. You know, hit points. Oops. Con plus eight, so that means she has 191. She can take, what, 75 damage? Whack! It's pretty much just a giant bludgeoning slam. No other tentacles are alive, so they can't go. Alright, who else can tank? Dragon? Alright, good. Go tank that other fucking tentacle. Nox is going to do what he knows how to do. Flank. 216 damage to the tentacle. Bye, tentacle. Blood sprays all over him, and he licks it. And then he disappears. Vanishes into shadow. Except he's still there, but he's shadowformed. Tyburn! How much does his shield regenerate every round? 25% of its maximum. Its maximum is 166. 25% of that is 83.542. Ah! one heals 84. Okay, I guess I need to keep taking this thing. Stay behind me. I don't know what else this fucker can do. And I guess, uh... I kind of have to go around it to do what I was thinking of doing, Ty, so that might be a problem. Well, if you have a way to defend yourself, that's cool. Here, you know what? I'm going to give you a power shield. Uh... he has... oh he's also in purple cat so he has slam, he has overpower, he's got a bunch of fighter feats now but I don't think he needs any of them to kill this thing 54 damage? well fine it can live. Powerward shield is going to be... how much? level. Absorb 100% limit heavy damage. Alright, he has to roll it. 58. And is it just one person? Yeah, unless he overloads. Alright, you have a power shield, Selina. 58. In addition to the temp HP that you have of 37. Okay. Alright. And it's the dragon's turn. Don't worry, this will be fast. Block, block, block. Man, those fucking... Those... Very much out of date. I'm just going to do a 90 damage. Okay, sounds right. Selena. Okay, so. Veil of the Weaver before I blink behind the dragon. You turn into a pink puff of smoke with an instant demon teleport. You are invisible, inaudible, and scent-free. Interesting. Now I'm glad I specified her exact senses. I don't think she can sense you. So... That's the point. Sneak attack? Well, that's the intent after. I need to set up because I want to essentially get her into a trap, like a ritual soul... thing and channeled the soul into my necklace. Oh, boy. I mean, it's a powerful necklace. Okay. It's kind of a drain-fill setup, so I'm going to have my... I don't often say this, but you still have a standard action. With my standard action... Man, let me get your ragamot. Yeah, very useful. It doesn't make much sense. Ready. By the way, you can do a Cognosticate. And then you can get a reaction to the next thing she does. I can also ready the... Can I just ready my Counterspell? That way I don't have to use the reactive then? Yeah, exactly. And you're standing right next to her so you can either absorb magic or just mana burn. I'm intending on mana burning this next one. I'm readying mana burn on this one since it will leave me invisible. You zapped real good last time. Yeah. And there's only two tentacles standing, although no one has hit the actual dragon god. Yeah. You have no focus. You could get your focus back by spending a standard action, or you could do several other things that would reestablish focus. Uh... Lecture Psychic Assault. Yes. Yes. That would give you, no, that doesn't. OK. Mind control, adaptation, schism, mind link. How can you not have any of the focus builders? I guess it's not required, because you can always just charge your focus manually. That's probably what I'll have to do then. Scion. It's a little boring. So, if I'm trying to focus and meditate, you gain focus, you start with concentration. You can use the meditate action. Okay, here's the one. So, you don't have key strike, you don't have speed of thought. No. Oh, mind link can gain focus. By using steel focus, you telepathically siphon focus from a target. If they're currently concentrating a power, this causes them to roll or lose concentration. If not, they must pass the same save the next time they attempt to use a power. Either way, you gain focus. So instead of just gaining focus, you can gain focus and preemptively counterspell the next thing that a target does. There's only one target on the battlefield that can cast spells. Yeah, I guess they will catch it on the dragon. It's hard to find the focus in this thing's mind. but you're used to dealing with weird abstract alien minds. You restore your focus. Any swift actions? Put on a banging concert? What was I going to do? I was going to ready something. Oh, I was going to ionize again. Ionizizing. As a swift action. Well, it happens automatically when you hit them with Electra. Okay, so you can do a static charge. That's what I meant, probably. With a swift, so you can ionize basically that, but you then have to deliver the static charge with some sort of touch. So you might as well gather that up. All right, let's kill this one. 222 damage. Not a crit, huh? But she has advantage. There we go. 300... No, 370 damage. Yeah, yeah, it's fucking toast. Splat. I'm angry! Now, it doesn't know that you're close, so I don't think it would use its push ability because it has no idea you're there. Which means it's going to use spawn tentacles. Both of you have a counterspell, essentially. Do you want to... So hers is probably less likely to succeed because she's not as specialized in it. You could let her give it a go and jump in if it doesn't work. Ariadne, roll a Sianic attack to set the DC, which it rolled a 29 against, because it only ever rolls 29s. 20 is almost right, 21. Except, if you want to, you could pump that up. Oh, I don't have any focus. But you are a bard. Oh, I guess I gave myself a D8. Add 2D10 to that. instead of a 21, it's a 36. And... So distracted is this Elder God that it fails to... I mean, I'm treating this as a spell. I did say it's literally just putting its own tentacles in the ground, but somehow it failed to do that, and it doesn't summon three more Guardian tentacles, and it doesn't summon six more Mindbender tentacles. Fucking man. You don't realize how good of a first round you had there, because each one of those lesser tentacles can basically crowd control a piece. Well, exactly. That's exactly what I knew they were going to do. So that's why I took them out. I was like, you are not mind controlling my friends if it's the last thing I do. I metagamed. I designed it. Instead of having one creature cast chained fuck you, I'd have 12 creatures individually cast targeted fuck you Because every one of those is a counterspell. And there's no way she can counterspell 12 spells at a time. To which you say, how about I just fry their fucking heads up? Exactly. So this guy's fucking dead. Or fry their suckers off. Tyburn looks around. Like, well, I don't see anything else. Time to fight the god. What do I have? Dragonfire gauntlet. Ty. Can you repair the prison it was in? Is that an object that you can repair? I could probably put the soul back in there if you can repair the prison. I mean, it was working before. Fuck. All right. He finds the nearest part of it. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. She's pushing pretty hard. We're going to have to beat her down a little bit. And if we can weaken her enough... basically shove her into it and then close it behind her between the punching and the soul draining. Because, I mean, you're absolutely right. Soul draining her is probably much more likely to hurt her than punching. Yeah, it's true. He'll get a quick punch just to, OK, just to demonstrate as he's down there. He's like, oh, yeah, missiles. There is this pattern. It's been just a pattern of energy, but as you look at it, you realize what's actually happening. She has a living, moving, constantly evolving dragon mark just coursing through her body at all times. And as the missiles bear down on her, the dragon mark evolves into the mark of being immune to missiles. And they bounce off of her. And then it immediately evolves into something else. The dragon is like, wait, the fuck? All right. Experiment time. Adaptation. Blast of dragon fire. And her dragon mark evolves into the dragon mark of being immune to fire. dragon being consternated. Thora gives the creature a look. Okay. I've got one, too. Time stop. Selina, you're going to steal its soul? Well, you prognosticate that stealing its soul might be countered by the dragon mark of being immune to soul-stealing. Yeah. about being stabbed by a radiant weapon you do have a radiant weapon I do and it does suck out Vitae exactly the and actually you could use some Vitae and this seems like a pretty good experiment so I'm gonna have the ragamuffin do it so I don't ruin my cover that's a good point And can you... I guess you can't claim the crit bonus because this is its own implement. But it's more about gaining the mana. Let's see. Weapon of Radiance, Dex to hit Charisma to damage. So roll... Dex. I don't know if your character sheet is correct, but you have a plus seven and she doesn't have an armor class. So don't roll a one. And your natural crit is actually still pretty high because of the sharpness of the talon. But I don't think it's eight. So that still hits. Your damage is the equivalent of a heavy damage from your... Well, from this, I guess. Just roll the rod. Is it Reunion? Reunion might crit if it does roll it until it doesn't crit because this wasn't a crit. Okay. No, that's a crit. 45. But OK, so it's heavy. OK, yes. And it grants Vitae. OK. As the sword plunges in, the Dragon Mark attempts to evolve. But you were correct in surmising that she can't adapt to radiant damage. And you gain, yeah, each type is out of date. You gain four Vitae. Never. of whatever type you want and she takes 45 damage oh that's convenient hey psychic lady so yeah if you time it just right here's the thing I have the dragon mark of controlling other people's dragon marks I might be able to stop this know if you want to get zappy. So, Thora can ready an action to work with you to counter the Dragonmark defense, which can otherwise make her immune to literally anything but radiant damage. And you two are going before the alien if you want to work together. Since you already have a static charge, you could deliver that albeit in person. Or you could transfer it. Except Nox doesn't... Oh, you know what? Nox is going to reinsert himself into the initiative. He holds out his hand. And you get the gist of what he's thinking. Static charge on his dagger, which he can do an insane amount of crit with. Yes. Thor will run over here to flank. You don't even have to use an action. You already static charged. I gently fondle his dagger. Actually, he has two daggers. So you can put static on one, and then you can put the ionized blast on the other, which will then do double damage. I need to do some math. Just how much fucking damage can he do? So... Nox. Okay. Okay. he has Poisoners of Preparation. He's got Death Attack. Soul Blade. God, fucking Rogues. So much Rogue stuff. So he has regular Rogue stuff. He can do... Oh, God! So Death Attack that does... Okay. Plus 100%. Sneak Attack damage. And the Sneak Attack damage is Crit, which is plus... 250. Five, no, it's plus 200, so it's triple damage. Plus he can Oath of Murder? Will that help? No. Plus anything else crazy? You'd think he would take Slam just in case. No, that's just not his style. Plus that should probably require a strength weapon. It is called Slam. Okay, so he tactically inserts himself, changing his initiative. I don't think that's gonna do anything. All right. You time it together as Thora grabs her weapon and faint dragon mark. She dragon marks real good. And... You, Ariadne, roll the damage for your static charge. knocks rolls death and blood a 15 is a crit so I don't know why that didn't say it was a crit okay so we'll go with 96 well 80 but on a crit he does triple so he does quadruple damage and then you rolled I rolled a natural one, but the damage is what matters. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Where is your... I can't see your damage. What's your heavy? Where did it go? Yeah, I rolled a bunch of Noxes. Okay, I see. It's 56. 56 heavy. Okay. So his attack will deal 544 damage. Here's the problem. Thora isn't all high enough. She only got a 28, got a 33. So it's time for 2d10. Roll a 5. She got a 14. As the dragon mark tries to form the dragon mark of being immune to getting stabbed with static charge lightning, it doesn't take that form. And for just a moment, Thora gets the dragon mark of being immune to getting stabbed with static charges. And the dragon has... nothing. As Nox sinks the dagger in and there's no guardians to stop it. And it doesn't have any of those bullshit legendary resistances. It plunges it in. Lol. And does 544 damage. The soul blade just saps an enormous amount of soul energy. The creature literally shrinks like two steps. it's just sort of a mass of soul energy. And you can see now it's like projecting out of that sarcophagus part of the machine. But it's technically still up. And speaking of technically, Ariadne still has a standard action. And the creature has been ionized. All right. So now I'm going to, I guess, just lightning blast it. You can... Where is that? cast once per short lightning strike and lightning strike does heavy lightning damage but yes you can burn your rank for sorcerer's implement power to triple cast lightning strike i shall so roll a psionic attack strikes at 63 each which all do double damage gives you 378 damage as you just go full storm on this thing Tyburn just immediately as more of the machine is revealed he's immediately trying to seize control of it and get it working again in its capacity of imprisoning this creature no sign of barracks though and now so well before that I assume you're going to steal some soul It's not quite ready to be put back in the cage as you... It's essentially disabled. I'm going to do some crit drain soul. Soul drain. It can't see me coming. You do essentially... I think you're doing four levels these days. Drain soul. Yeah, one level per rank, right? Yeah. But your crit... is plus, is it rank four now? So that's, that is triple. So yes, you can do 12 negative levels with a successful spell sneak attack. And is there, that's just a spell sneak attack. Like what else can it do? Okay. And you get critical bonus damage. without a crit. So technically the critical damage is the plus eight. So you can do 20 negative levels. Oh, and are we counting my Rage of the Alpha too? What does that do? Let's see. Proficially bonus. Well, technically it's not damage, but if you were doing damage, yes, you would do seven times damage plus Rage of the Alpha's bonus underneath that, which just for shits, we might as well. Let's see. Um... I need a crit roll for you. So, okay, so 90. Yeah, that would be effectively 630 necrotic damage and 20 negative levels. As the gem glows with a brilliant, brilliant violet, and it's like humming with power. It's only a fraction of this creature's power, but it's enough to shrink that entity down as it's like, it looks like a ghost being captured by the Ghostbusters. Like, it's just getting sucked back into the machine. And he... he powers through. He repairs the damage. And it seals back over. And... as the energy is contained, you see Merix's body having been overwhelmed by the initial blast. He's not moving. But Tyburn alone... He's struggling. And Thora walks up. Gives Merix a little tap. And now she has the mark of making. She has the dragon mark of dragon marks. Of copy dropping and marks. The machine finally answers its call. it begins reversing the flow even against the will of this creature and then there's an explosion another explosion you're not it just happened like a millisecond and you're okay so the floor is gone It looks like the floor was shattered and the walls were shattered. Well, the crystal's fine. And you realize that time has almost frozen. This blast came from behind you, and it's so powerful it shattered the stone. And you look back... I'm not even sure anyone can look back, but you're already looking in the right direction. Walking into the room, you see Quintus Trevelyan, but he looks a little different. His veins no longer glow with the black blood, but with brilliant fiery violet energy. I was barely done feasting. You seem to have taken something that belongs to me. You sense his power as everything's flowing so slowly. Like normally, AuraVision comes up in like a fraction of a second, but it's been slowly loading because a fraction of a second would take... in this subjective time but his power is off the charts and you realize the combination of your minds mind linked tyburn thinking about the device the artifice ariadne sensing psychic impressions. You analyzing his magic. The purpose of this device was to funnel power into the Genesis Forge. A device that imbues spiritual energy into a host. The host was his body. The energy was this god's power. The maniac was trying to become a god. he is of course of course Nepathe is this motherfucker let it not be said that I'm not a man of my word well a god of my word oh don't he snaps his fingers somewhere the vessel with Nova to Caneth shatters and as he'd set it up she's immediately infused with the black blood will rest easy. Well, isn't this a predicament? I'm sure you were expecting some sort of grand battle. No, I was expecting you to do something deceitful and despicable, just like always, because that's how you behave. You are a sadistic piece of shit, and you will die. You don't deserve prison. ...unlikely now. I was functionally immortal before, but I could still be killed. My spirit could be wrested from my body, trapped in a magical dagger, perhaps. Why don't we shorten the conversation? He... gestures to Nox, who is led almost by his soul knife, which glows hungrily. He plunges it into Trevelyan's chest, and the soul drain explodes. Nice try. What would you like to try? The soul drain, or maybe some blood magic? Try that phylactery. anxious to see how this works you still have a phylactery of him which you'd already prepared ready to do whatever horrible torture death whatever magic you want penetrating all of his defenses he seems to be inviting you to try oh no not when he's expecting it Isn't this all just so boring? It is. You really are so predictable. I saw that happening. I'm going to heal her. He's going to get his daughter back. You are going to get whatever satisfaction you get out of being a god that nobody knows. I hope you enjoy that. Listen, I've spent decades at the mercy of the Black Blood. I'm no more a friend to them than you. What would make an acceptable peace offering? I've got it. With a gesture of his hand, you see something happen that's absurd. He just cast a ritual spell that would normally take, well, let's see, If all three of the Mothers and the Coven were working together, and you'd picked the right place, a place of power, at exactly the right time, and had been conducting sacrifices and dumping mana into it night after night for at least a month, you could prepare this ritual. He just did it as a standard action. A simple altar. A knife. But you recognize the spell in the teeming depth of your book of secrets. A bloodline curse. All you need do is take the newest member of their wretched family. Take her life on that altar. And the Black Blood is gone forever, as you swore to your lover as he died in service of that oath. Don't worry about me, that blood has long since purged from my veins. Why, I just happen to know who the youngest member of the Black Blood family is. Peering on the altar. Tied down as the eight-year-old daughter of Merix. Newly immortalized. Newly some sort of vampire creature. Ultimately under the control of the Blackblood cultists. Ethnia is just the beginning. I don't expect this to work against the dragon herself, but it'll take some of her power. You know how long they've been planning this? Since man first stepped on the shores of Korver, the elves planned his downfall. Our race. Just... insects to be exterminated. Caius would not want me to take out the black blood like this. No. I can cure her individually. I can't take out the whole thing through her, but I've done it before and do it again. Well, I'm a generous god. I can grant wishes. You're a sadistic god. Is there any other kind? Thora, still, like, this conversation has been largely psionic, as you're all, like, experiencing about one second per ten minutes that pass. Your bodies aren't really responding. He looks at Thora. So much pain. Those wonderful gifts. Why do they have to come with a curse? I can lift the curse. The scion of House Caneth sits at your feet. You could take his power. You could rule his house. It's not like that one's going to try to stop you. She glares at him. Or is it something more personal? Oh, even I can't turn back time. Daddy's going to stay dead. You can have your vengeance. That mark of yours could be even more powerful. All the barons would grovel at your feet. The second war of the mark could be short and swift, with your house emerging victorious. It's all the same to me, of course. just glowering at him. You can sense her disdain. I mean, she doesn't know this guy. I mean, she knows him well enough to not trust him, of course. She's been wanting to kill Merix for years. And beneath that, the fury at the dragon-marked houses, the fresh pain, as he mentions, Halas Tarkanon, a man who died 1,600 years ago. father. But then again, that explains the name of the dragon mark, doesn't it? How about you? Haven't you ever wished you could put the genie back in the bottle? Watching your father's invention turned into weapons of war. All for what? Mere days ago, You touched godhood. You healed the Mournland. You gave hope to a dead people. And what has happened? The kings, the barons, they rush to claim it. I had a peace agreement made until your involvement. It all seems so petty now. It is. It should come off as petty. There's greater things at work. I don't need to manipulate the five kingdoms. You've done a perfectly good job of that yourself. If that dragon goddess can be imprisoned, I can imprison you. I'll figure it out. I'm tenacious. So was the rage of thousands of dragons that put her in that over the course of decades. But I do appreciate your ambition. You see... We're not so different. You... You're given a flame, and you ask for a bonfire. Your meteor has risen, and yet... You see yourself becoming a star. of juice in there for the both of us well he's busy with her i'm gonna just mind blast him you it's slow and clumsy as you can but you are focused you're like and you feel like it feels about as effective as if as if you tried to punch him at Super slow motion. Oh, but as soon as she gave him that idea, she's right next to this crystal. She's going to put her fucking hand on it and start trying to take that power herself so she can start countering him. You want to start playing? Let's play. As your hand is moving toward it. Ambitious, but foolish. Don't you think this apparatus had a purpose? One doesn't simply absorb... Well, it's your funeral. Oh, I'm not made like you though, so... No, I was a mortal before I started this. You're not. But you have to learn that sometime. I don't think you know my ancestry as well as you think you do, because you don't know who my parents are. You know my moms. And your father. And their mother. and everything your mother has been doing with you and your predecessors, I believe there's been about 27 of them. Including the seven that are still alive. But surely you are inexpendable. On the mention of your father, actually, you... hear that voice within that you've heard before but it's it's different you heard this seductive feminine voice that reminded you of your mother offering power and secrets this voice speaks plain the power of this god will burn you that cannot burn Hellfire. Victory is in your grasp. Killing gods is your birthright. It makes you my daughter. You feel the wellspring of Hellfire, the infinite power of Kyber, the power of the dragon below. equal to this dragon from beyond. Greater than some trumped up demigod for the fraction of its power. It's so simple. The hellfire can protect you. It can shield your soul like a suit of armor. Like a love for handling heat, except it is heat, and it protects you from hotter heat. There's a strange symmetry in there somewhere. And as your hand is extending toward the crystal, the fire starts to lick. Trevelyan has a moment of contemplation as the fire is loading your hand, it would be so easy. Do you reach for the dragon's power? nice to have him in Bullrush for the psionic mind blast. I would have loved that going. It was like, there's a Bullrush from the sign. It was like, you're like a nightmare. Psionic rage. As you're thinking, just the mere thought of that, he shifts his attention to you. The nightmare is... but disorganized stupid if you will a beast the power of the inspired is impressive but none are my equal perhaps your home plane could be made safe once again within my grasp. It's like half an offer of Faustian bargain and sort of half him just musing on how powerful he is and how powerful he may yet become. God, I laugh at him. I laugh at him. It's up to you. After all, the nightmare is coming for all death finds us all. Even God. You wish for death. If that happens. Selina, you're just molecules away. Do you... Do you reach for the hellfire? Yes. Use it. Yes. Reach for the Hellfire and use it to... As your body is wreathed in flame inside the fire, something cold, something touching your skin close to your heart, defies that infinite searing heat of Kyber. It pulls some part of you down even further into your subconscious. Even slower time flows in this inception layer of your mind. You're not here anymore. You're standing on iron blades. help you glide across a frozen lake. As snow gently falls under the dark moonlit sky. This night, this was the beginning. The perfect romanticism. The inevitable clumsy stumbling as you learn how to walk on ice on blade shoes as the Karnathi do. The inevitable catching your fall and having that pregnant moment. His face wreathed in the moonlight. This isn't a memory. This is... This is real. Oh, he's doing a mind trick on me. In this place, your vision isn't light. It's not eyes. This is the place of the soul. When Caius's eyes are locked with yours, In real life, this is the moment he brought you close. Your first kiss silent and sealed forever in that ray of moonlight. But in this moment, he hesitates. My love, I cannot speak of what lies beyond. But it is And I await you there. I need you back with me. If you go where I can't follow, then we will never again be one. I know it's tempting. Have no suggestion, no path out of your predicament save one, faith. If not in the powers above, faith in yourself, faith in your friends and those you love. who love you. That fire burns brighter than all the fires of Kyber. It is more powerful than any slumbering god. It is the dawn that breaks the darkest night. You're drifting apart, unable to move on this ice vision fades and in this pregnant moment you're mere millimeters from touching the crystal do you I mean, I guess the question is, is he still commenting like it's a threat? I mean, have multiple natures. The hellfire calls to you. It promises unlimited power all on its own, let alone the power to absorb this energy more than him, to become greater than him, to become a true god, to claim your first divine life. On the other, you have... faith and hope against an impossibly powerful enemy with no specific plan to achieve victory. Perhaps not the most balanced of scales. She thinks of all the good she can do with that power. I think she ended up going for it because she is so Like you feel the wall of all of that doubt, all of the stories, all of the second guessing, and you push. I have to. It may not be right, but I have to do it. I could do so much good this way. Everyone just takes power over. hellfire sheaths your hand and it's so close. You can already feel the electromagnetic force of the stone beginning to interact with your electron clouds. Well, I suppose this conversation was only ever going to end one way. And with a snap of his fingers, of your hearts stop beating. You feel sudden stab of cold. Your nervous system just fails. Your vision starts to tunnel. Fire starts to fade. And disbelief. There's... There's no other word for it. You can't lose. But as if answering that thought, he looks to you, well, he certainly cannot win. Pity. Only now you understand the difference between a powerful mortal and a god. It took me a long time to... Your brain, even thinking, is becoming slow. Your body starts to feel like a heavy thing that you're carrying around. You just have... Your eyes aren't even darting around. You're just sort of noticing the things already in your field of vision. You see Ariadne starting to collapse. You see even the Tarkhanans are in freefall. And... see the eyes of the dragon locked with yours, wordless as ever, intelligent as ever. He makes his decision. In this frozen timesicle, It feels like your body is going to take an hour to reach the ground. The heart of the dragon doesn't falter. And its eyes are set on its destination. Its wings gather all the air they can. Its small muscles recall the strength of dragons the size of mountains. In its blood, the strength of the elder race. That strength which has been siphoned by evil elves and wicked men to give themselves a fleeting taste of a dragon's lifespan and power. It remembers that first moment, confused, bursting into the world which was so cold, so wide, so alien, and the first eyes it saw were yours. It remembers soaring through the skies of Sharn, learning to fly, no dragon mother to teach, but magic of Sharn was forgiving. The silly human with his flame boots. He thought it looked like a dragon, but shooting fire out of its butt instead of its mouth. He laughed. And he flew again, faster than any dragon. His head out the window of the taking in the wind, leaping out and soaring higher than his little juvenile wings could have taken him. He remembers battling with you, fighting like a fierce protector. He fought undead monsters, wicked men. He dove to the bottom of the sea, went into a war zone and into the strangest the most broken realm in the world in real time he's rocketing forward Trevelyan takes notice and his human mind takes a couple moments to work it out He begins to gather his magic, but the dragon's cry rings out. It's small song, feeble against a god. But it's joined by the mother dragon in her magnificence, in her titanic power. His song reverberates. His magic, a death spell that could end the mightiest of beings, washes over the dragon who lands on the stone plinth. And it was a ruse. The death spell lands. The dragon lays on the table. The youngest member of the bloodline of the entirety of the Black Blood and everyone who ever supped at the blood of dragons. Oh, and it's Callie. Thanks to Callie. I get to come back to Rectify the wrong. It takes some time. You did die for a moment. And that's always unpleasant. Yeah. There's... you didn't know about. Well, there's a power you did know about, I suppose. But the Phoenix power isn't quite... That's just when you hit zero hit points. For just a moment, you glimpsed the other side. And while a distant voice immediately started calling to you to hold on to the hellfire, don't give in to the darkness, don't let the gods have their way, woman all in white floating in this gray realm of despair your sister takes your hand and guides you to the world of the living i always hoped i'd get to meet you there's no words just understanding you and the magic has expended the power that remains it it's a good thing you had all that soul energy on hand you don't have enough bodies but you do have enough life energy all of them gasp for air. Even as Quintus is stammering like, wait, he takes a step and his skin starts to burn. He could only contain this power because he was stronger than a mortal man. stolen the power of dragons. That power has been denied him. I thought... And his body is consumed in purple flame. Oh, looks like you didn't play two steps ahead on this last move, so checkmate, my friend. The... The aftermath will take some time. There were so many, especially in Karnath, but in every royal court, in every great house's inner circle, the Black Blood had its talons. The Power Vacuum is going to attract a lot of attention. you tackle first things first you see the dragon he lies still he's gone no and no so silent as you experience the moment. The Reforged are free of his grasp and all too happy to dismantle the he did to their home. Artemisia never did figure out how to revive Jeremy, but she uses her power together with Tyburn to dismantle the Genesis Forge and all of this infernal machinery. Thora takes the fist sinks the celestial cyst as deep as it will go in the earth collapsing the caverns bearing the legacy of shame of temptation and Karnath conflict rages but The warlord's clans have been gutted. The Battle of Metril is won by the defenders of New Seer, by Ivy, who bests the warlords in single combat and blunts their advance into the Mournland. A small repayment of her debt to Seer. Korth, Caius's memory is finally allowed to rest, his life to be honored, and his true heir repatriated from Breland to restore the lineage of the throne. The barn is safe, but there's much rebuilding to be done. And though mistrust was sown, there's still need of a guiding hand. You may be a war chief, but right now you have the power of peace. When peace is signed, your nation is recognized as one of the six nations of Galifar. Seer is reborn, if a little bit sparsely populated. The weapons of war feared by the madrigals are put to rest. As the legacy of their family becomes a new tool for exploration, a way to make the world smaller. The elves and the dragons are forced to reckon with a world where oceans no longer isolate them. by the deaths of so many blackblood cultists, Aranol must face the reality of the corruption of Aranol. Their failure to contain her avarice and lust for power. The scars will live on, and the bad blood will take time to heal. Dragons come. They knew. No words needed be spoken. You felt it one morning, sitting on the Pyre of Honor, where once you burned out the corruption of your own body and mind, the dragon has lain in repose. hundreds of his kind arrive in great crag to bear witness to hear his song he can't sing it but Ariadne can he was born in a strange world He knew who he was. His life was short, but his song was truly the story. There will be other stories. much work to do. Ariadne has something more urgent. You say your goodbyes or not. Yeah, so the story ends like a goodbyes, but she goes off on her ship to fucking try and save her. She's going to the shoal for a time. Tyvern's coming to naturally. as you like to remind me. The world is going to spin and there's still going to be villains to fight evil gods. There's still something brewing in the north in the demon wastes. Your mother still has grand designs. But at least this time... get, you know, a pat on the back. Good job. Uh-uh. Well, I have to go, guys. It's way too late for me. I've got lots of things I have to do tomorrow. And my Logan-y boys got up. Good night, Colehead. Good night. I love you. Good game. We'll probably have time to get something like a nap tomorrow. I have so much work to do. Doesn't all have to be during the day, but I understand. Oh, God. Nibbler's in there with him. Poor Nibbler. Oh, God. Oh, hi, Logan. Oh. I didn't realize you were out here. Do you need some help? Pictures? I'll give you pictures. You kind of wandered off, but I got your pictures for you. Nibblesworth, I don't think you might stay in here. Well, maybe you do. Here. We're here. Should I give you your blanket? It's OK. You're a good boy. Oh, I have another cat who also wants to go. Fine. You better come back in later. Go. Stand on the threshold. Really? All three of you? Good night, Logie Bear. You're a very good boy. I don't know if he's actually going to go to bed. We'll see. Well, it's worth a try. He might put himself in there. I've got my baby cam, so...