WB2, Session 23: The Legacy of the Drakkins

Session 23: "The Legacy of the Drakkins"

And so the Simphiwe had migrated north, running from the ever growing black cloud. Reaching the cliffs marking the limits of the cavern after four days, Zephriz, daughter of Nozizwe, ordered a camp to be made. They had outpaced the cloud for now, but were out of places to run to.

Sunday 27th, April, 1001 AC
(destiny token 1)

Companions

• Urist, dwarven cleric of Kagyar (level 3)
• Danik, human scholar mage (level 3)
• Rurik, dwarven fighter (level 3)
• Serrin, human bounty hunter (level 3)

Lost companions

• Grom, half-orc druid, went missing during dragon attack.
• Adran, gnome bard, fell to his death after being dropped by a Drahie.
• Zao-rin, human monk who decided to stay with the Simphiwe.

Fearing for the worst, desperate for answers and options, the companions pushed on, to the east along the cliffs, hoping to find something among the rock walls stretching hundreds of feet up toward the cavern ceiling.

As Danik was getting fatigued, they approached what seemed to be the scene of a massive carnage near the edge of a mushroom forest, with bodies of the Grey Apes everywhere, cut open and dismembered....And that's when the forest came alive in a dire cacophony of shrills!

The fight was fast and brutal, as is usually the case. Swarms of shrillers lunged at them on all sides from the cover of the forest undergrowth and soon Urist was overwhelmed, the little buggers finding cracks in his armor multiple times. As Danik was running to reach them in time, Serrin and Rurik moved around the cleric of Kagyar, trying to protect him from the onslaught, clearing dozens of the tiny shrillers, each quickly replaced by even more of them!

desperate battle against voracious shrillers

As the mage finally arrived and entered the battle, he unleashed Thunder-waves after Thunder-waves, remembering that when faced with such an enemy as swarms, wide damaging spells were much more effective than precise striking. With little bodies of shrillers flying around, Rurik and Serrin managed to clear whatever had chewed through Urist's armor, but as the cleric emerged from under the hundreds of tiny blue carcasses that had submerged him, his eyes locked onto the mother of the little beasts, a couple yards away, as it was emerging from it's hiding place.

Immediately, Urist went into shock, as the mind of the Voracious Shiller tried to bore a hole into his. As the fight continued around him, as if in slow motion, he was fighting for his survival in a battle of minds...and lost. His entire body collapsed suddenly as Danik was also overwhelmed before Rurik and Serrin could clear the swarms off him.

The last two left standing immediately went into a battle frenzy and soon dispatched the last swarms surrounding them. The Voracious Shriller, seeing all her children being killed up, recognized defeat and ran off, soon disappearing into the mushroom forest. With two of their companions dying on the ground, Serrin and Rurik didn't argue, quickly patched Danik and Urist as best they could and carried them off the forest, hoping to reach the Simphiwe camp before fatigue forced them to surrender...

The journey took hours. When they arrived, Serrin couldn't stand anymore and Rurik was breathing heavily, exhausted. What followed was a blur for them, as Manelesi, Themba and Zephriz took care of the wounded and the tired. 

It took two rests (equivalent to days, for a place without a sun, counting in long rests basically) for the companions to fully recuperate, Serrin having pushed himself to his limits while carrying Danik to safety.

By then, the black cloud had become visible on the horizon and the Simphiwe were getting very anxious. Leaving them behind, the companions went south to investigate the event occurring and try to determine it's nature and effect.
Closing, the massive cloud, expanding from ground to the ceiling hundreds of feet above, seemed to be slowly, but surely, filling the entire cavern. Not 500 yards from it, there didn't seem to be any actual edge, but a fog made of black tendrils, moving and weaving like ink in water, ever expending, and beyond it, pure darkness.

Unsure, doubting, they moved back to the camp and spent the next couple rests recuperating and training. Serrin and Urist sparred together, sharing fighting tips and keeping busy. Danik was silent mostly, lost in the study of the arcane pages of his spell book and the drakkin one as well. Meanwhile, Urist prayed and focused on helping the Simphiwe best he could, using his divine power to provide clean food and water.

On the third rest, the cloud was now almost in reach and the villagers had now cluttered at the base of the cliffs, when finally, a dozen stood and started walking straight toward the black fog, some with children in hand.

As Urist tried to persuade them to stop, Zephriz explained that they believed the cloud was a punishment from their god, the great black dragon Ziphozonke, for the audacity of the Chosen one Nozizwe to dare question the beast's motives. The young druidess seemed herself doubting, lost about what to do.

The dozen Simphiwe stood waiting, ignoring Urist's plea, and only one ran away from it at the last moment. The cloud drew closer...and closer. As it slowly engulfed them, tendrils lashing onto them and pulling them inside, they disappeared in the darkness beyond and all went quiet for a second. Then screams of terror and pain erupted from within and all was quiet again...

Suddenly, two of the Simphiwe women who had gone in emerged from the cloud, running away, a horrified look on their face. Their bodies were pale, as if drained, and they stumbled, mumbling and screaming incoherently. Instantly at the ready, the companions suspected foul play and prepared for another undead attack, but the women seemed very much alive still, and, ignoring Serrin, then Rurik and finally Urist, just ran as fast as possible away from the cloud behind them, only to finally reach the cliff walls. There, trapped, they stood, almost catatonic, lost in their own terrors as other Simphiwe tried to comfort them.

Another minute passed and the cloud was 10 yards from Urist, as the other companions had retreated to the base of the cliffs. Another minute and just as the dark mass submerged the dwarf, a radiant glow surrounded him, before vanishing in the dark mass.

"Urist!!"

With Danik nowhere to be seen, Serrin and Rurik could only stand and look in horror as Urist vanished.

Another minute, then another. Time seemed to stretch toward infinity as the black tendrils weaved and floated around the companions and the Simphiwe, heralds of the incoming inevitable. The villagers now hugging each other against the cliff walls, Serrin suddenly found himself among them, and barely reacted as Manelesi took his hand in her and Themba nodded at the bounty hunter.

Rurik's stood alone away from the group, as a battle between fear and courage was happening inside him. His dwarven brother was gone, taken by this...black thing. He'd fought goblins and other terrors, why was he paralyzed now? With a roar, he suddenly leaped forward, axe in hand, screaming "Kagyaaar"! as he charged straight into the cloud, resolute that death would come on his terms!

And he too vanished from sight, as whispers of despair floated among the Simphiwe, the cloud not 20 yards from them now...

..Then all was darkness...then all was pain...

Serrin collapsed on the cavern floor as his own life force was ripped from his body. Around him, the Simphiwe were screaming, trying to hold onto their own energy as it was leaving their pale bodies. The screams of hundreds of women, men and children, knives of pure terror, in pain, searing into the hunter's brain as he was fighting for his own life.

Suddenly, as he was on the border of losing consciousness in this new world of gray where all colors and lights had been snuffed, he saw a light in the distance, slowly closing toward him. Urist and Rurik emerged finally, the cleric holding a small divine light ahead of him. Re-united, they contemplated the loss that had occurred...

Out of the five hundreds and twenty Simphiwe, 62 were still alive, barely. Manelesi was dead, mourned by the young warrior Themba who looked pale as a body himself. Zephriz was alive, weakened.

As minutes passed, all walked around the drained bodies in shock. Around them, the world was now cold, shades of gray. Gone was the light permeating the air that had been so useful and intriguing since they had arrived in cavern, gone was the mild temperature that made living in the cavern appreciable. It was now cold, dark...and dead.

More time passed..and survivors, each battling with their own emotions, barely realized that something was still pulling at them from the south, faintly. Something still wanted whatever was left of their life energy...

SESSION NOTES:

• This was a short (well, 3 hours, which is the official time for our sessions, not not that short really) but pretty awesome session. The battle at the beginning was fast paced and a couple good rolls made it quite tense. I used a slightly modified version of the Voracious Shrillers (I'll update later) and it worked better though I'll need some kind of Save check for the adult Mind-Stab ability.
• Not sure if players just didn't know what to do, if the PCs didn't know what to do, if shit's just too big to process or whatever, but the whole "back to camp and rest" was like one of these cheesy and yet perfect montage sequence before the "big thing". Serrin reached exhaustion 4 carrying Danik back to the Simphiwe, and while the cloud was closing, they decided to rest and train, finally reaching level 4 in effect. They could potentially have gotten level 4 many sessions ago, but since I require an actual rest and training for at least a couple days by the PCs to do so, and they never stopped moving, it never happened, until now.
• The black cloud is draining HDs. Not HPs, HDs, as in Hit Dice. Serrin failed his check, so he lost permanently (for now) 1HD out of 4. Yea....and it's still draining. I'm hoping they get the memo here because I used big enough stabilo boss here.
• I rolled for all the villagers and NPCs and ended up with only 62 alive, Manelesi dying (sad face!) while Themba and the daughter survived. I'll keep rolling normally, see how that goes. Fate is sometimes heavy handed indeed.