The Real Hero
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.