Session 83: And I Feel Fine

 Session 83: And I Feel Fine

9/15/24-9/24/24, rest 9/25, active 9/26

PC: Miquella, Cracaryn, Basus

Hench: Mulligan, Kushima

#ACKS

We had a lighter table this week with some of our more regular players out for various reasons. Khorne’s advance into the world had developed into occupation of the Butzkrag and creation of a destructive, spreading cloud of corruption. It had already destroyed the natural order in the hex that it occupied and looked to spread beyond.

Redcorn the Crusader and Lord Tyring had both sought out Jolus the Laughing Skull, the strange wizard that lived near Bellport, for advice or aid in combating Khorne. As previously revealed, Jolus was actually an avatar or incarnation or… something… of the God Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40k. This implied an extreme level of power but in true 40k fashion at great cost.

Jolus advised that he could perform a procedure, or ritual, or something to combat Khorne if he had a volunteer of maximum level (14th in ACKS) that would be willing to be consumed by the process. It would also cost half the light of the world to save the world, and it weren’t gon be an eyeball like Matrim Cauthon. Thanos snap, more like.

Word was sent out to the big dogs of the campaign, Issac, Tyring, and Redcorn who were afaik the only ones eligible for the sacrifice. Tyring had specific questions about the what and how. Redcorn set up an in session hook to retrieve sacred water from the Vesve Forest which he memed would give him an advantage during the battle with Khorne. Maybe so? We’ll find out, because that’s what this session was all about.

Some days were spent preparing, with Redcorn footing the bill for magic items and scrolls and such. The plan was to use the portal in the subterranean sanctum of Ehlonna at Tamaris to get to the Vesve. Step two was a little more loose. Step three was to use scrolls of teleportation to get back. Easy peasy.

Generally I’d bop a patron on the nose for handing out as much juice as was given during this session, but honestly they were gonna need it. Only Cracaryn was leveled and they couldn’t pack in a bunch of troops or henches because teleportation scrolls don’t grow on trees. No matter how many magic items you give a first level PC, they still only have 5 hps.

Through the portal, into the Vesve, which holds a special place in the heart of this DM. My first long-time PC in AD&D was a druid that rose to command the circle in the northern Vesve, perpetually embroiled in battle with Iuz out of the east and the other crazy stuff that goes on there. It was nostalgic to return there and flavor the session with details from basically a past life (20+ years ago).

He coulda had a rifle, you don't know.

The first random encounter roll was a unique terrain result that was a magical place. So I figured hell, they popped out right near the Circle. I made a big deal about how unwelcoming the forest was to outsiders and how hard it was to travel but the dice saved the group from a long search to find any local aid.

The party was welcomed by a council of elder druids in a smoke tent. After their story was corroborated by the sigil of Khorne marring the sun on this side of the world too, the druids took them more seriously. While their tangible resources were tied up in the stalemate against the demigod Iuz, the druids could offer some magical assistance by way of the Safe Travels spell, which aided in evasion and getting lost checks, and a ritual I made up on the spot to aid in travel time.

With a rough map to a once-sacred location lost to the enemy, a mystical waterfall that the group was supposed to collect actively falling water from in a special vessel supplied by Redcorn, they set off. Cracaryn’s ranger abilities and the extra magic allowed the group to evade several very dangerous encounters, but they were caught by a lair of strixes, the ACKS version of stirges. Cleaving is such a great mechanic for fights like this, with a bunch of little things that die easy. The group made short work of it and didn’t even bother to look for treasure. They were laser focused on the mission.

Eventually the tracker located the waterfall, but it was fouled and corrupted into a disgusting oozing ichor instead of the idyllic scene of old. They scaled it to try and locate the source of the corruption, finding a dark cavern where the spring was supposed to be. A rotting unicorn’s head was suspended above the spring by three iron chains covered in runes, dripping what appeared to be fresh blood into the spring steadily.

Mingo Falls

Clearly this wasn’t right. Planning how to interact with it took a while, with a pretty heavy handed strategy of shooting fireballs at it and trying to pull it down with ropes. Eventually they attacked where the chains were anchored into the ceiling, releasing the imprisoned entity that was powering the ritual. A body of synthetic flesh grew from beneath the unicorn’s head and arms sprung out to lash about with the freed chains.

The fight was pretty tough, with the mage hench and the only member able to use the teleportation scrolls nearly killed. Basus the Paladin was bewitched and turned against the party, but it was near the end of the fight. As any experienced DM can tell you, rarely does a single powerful enemy fare too well against a determined adventuring group. Need minions and extra targets to distract/dilute the party’s power.

Once the creature was destroyed, the spring slowly began to correct itself. They camped, collected the pure water in the AM, and teleported back to Millon. A quick ride got them to Jolus’ tower where they met Redcorn. In an augmented reality scene laid telepathically over the vegetable corpse on his throne, Jolus imbued Redcorn with crazy powerful psychic spiritual reality altering magic and everyone present had to roll a 50% chance to fuel the endeavor. Unfortunately, both Miquella the Bard and Basus failed and were consumed by the spell. The rest of the region, if not the world itself, also has to make that roll. Juiced up and ready to throw down, Redcorn will be off to combat Khorne as soon as I figure a way to run that.

Musings:

I still have the war going on in the background with some loose threads that could be interesting. Ultimately, this is a reset for the campaign. I want to give someone else a chance to DM and I want a break after 2 ½ years or whatever it’s been. But I want a chance for folks to engage with their legacies in interesting ways. I appreciate all the work and time we’ve had in the game, but it’s time for something new.

I will DM again. I may come back to Oberholt after a time skip and extrapolation of the fallout after the Snap. I may do something completely new. I may tie into the new DM’s world. Who knows? I’ll have an after-action of the whole campaign and my findings as a DM when it’s all over. It was an experimental endeavor for me and my table of players that taught us all a lot about running a truly open game focused on player agency.