On the Road: End of the road

[marsden_online]

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Authors' note: it has now been some years since this campaign ended but the need to complete this final chapter has stayed with me. Tonight I find myself inspired (and rested) enough to finally put it down.

Scrying for Anthony, even with the aid of the most powerful spellcasters of the kingdom was only able to narrow his location down to somewhere within a magical storm which had raged over a particular area of the ocean since time immemorial. Of course.

So it was that the party acquired a sturdy ship and stout-hearted crew and set off for the malestrom. Reaching the edge was easy enough, it was well marked on all the charts. With deep breaths all round and everyone tied to something firm the captain spun the wheel and set course directly into darkness.

To begin with Markos, Zediz'r and Zenon were able to ease passage through use of magic, even when the ship reached some sort of reef and began running aground, tearing the hull on unseen rocks. Sa and Val stood by and aided the crew as bet they could drawing on all the strength, agility and stamina gained through the party's many adventures. But as the time spent fighting the storm passed from hours into days time rapidly lost any meaning, casters were unable to rest and recover spells and even the strongest aboard began to reach the end of their endurance.

It was with great relief that on the third day the expedition abruptly broke out of the storm to find themselves on an inside edge of the donut of black clouds and whirling winds, looking at the remains of a greater-than-giant scale city rising out of the waves. Mooring was quickly taken in the calm waters beside the remains of a tower and although watches were set everyone was eventually able to fall into an exhausted sleep.

Once rested the party explored into the tower, finding on the upper level a mosaic apparently depicting two giantish brothers who had come through a portal from another world, possibly one of the hells, then fallen out. The mosaic traced their separate adventures until they finally slew each other in a final battle.

Though interesting this provided no clues to Anthony's whereabouts so leaving the ship and crew in their safe (for the moment) mooring the party set off towards the centre of the city by rowboat. Here what would once have been a towering aerial causeway remained mostly intact leading to the entrance of a massive central building.

Inside a large courtyard prefaced a huge, decorated and runed marble door flanked by larger-than-life statues of the two giants featured in the mural. From casual inspection the runes depicted the gate as being an entrance to Hell, but as the party approached they were paused by an apparent conversation about the "visitors" between the two (unmoving) statues. The true source of the voices was revealed when two decapitated giants leapt down from behind the statues to attack, each bearing his shrunken head mounted on the pommel of his sword.

The two, one deeply red of hue and one deeply blue, were no mean warriors but the most damage was inflicted by the exploding magical grenades they threw. Eventually one was backed to a wall and disarmed to leave his body flailing until collapse and the other was destroyed by Markos smacking one of the exploding devices back at him; right down through the stump of his neck. [Hero point spent!]

As healing was done and preparations made to continue the heads on the swords (Agni and Rudara) cried out praising the party's battle prowess and pleading to be taken along, offering their aid in the trials beyond the gate. This offer was met with some suspicion, but after some information up front about the nature of the challenges ahead (including apparently a labyrinth of traps where undead roamed, a cerebus and a leviathan) and also ascertaining the last group to come this way was "the guardian" (Anthony) who had come and gone several times over the years since he and his companions defeated the giants and passed through the gate. The last time was quite recently ... eventually the two were included, although they were of little further assistance.

The gate itself was not difficult to open, and beyond indeed stretched a maze of passages and traps. Knowing someone had passed this way recently however it was relatively easy for the party to combine their skills and follow a trail of disturbed dust, recently dis/armed traps and secret passages to the point where a great rift had split the building apart revealing many passageways on multiple levels (and the sea below) and no obvious trail to follow. Markos bestowed a Fly spell on Sa and the unfettered was dispatched to scout the nearby entrances while the others kept a wary eye, not least for any leviathans which might emerge from the depths.

Dark figures could be seen to lurk down some tunnels, but a promising entrance was found and the journey continued until reaching another massive door, this one guarded by a gigantic Cerebus, possibly the source material for the smaller cerebi the Anthonys often used as guards and trackers. This one however had a much nastier bite, a breath weapon of freezing cold, [and some other ability which resulted in the party being split up during the fight?] but was susceptible to fire and sonic damages and like it's smaller cousins eventually defeated.

Beyond this door were cambers sized for much smaller (ie human and giant scale) beings which appeared to once have been some form of barracks. There was a wall scribed with names, the oldest carved in draconic and a myriad of other languages since until the most recent group (relatively speaking) included Anthony. After some debate some number of the party added their names the wall [I forget exactly who did and did not] before continuing.

By this point sea level had easily been reached if not passed below so no one was surprised when the path ended at a chamber containing an ornate pool opening to the depths below. Water Breathing spells were invoked and the descent began, with no other pointers directly down in as straight a line as possible. It did not take long for the presence of outsiders to draw the attention of the local denizens and a great serpentine leviathan, more curious than anything else, looped itself loosely around the falling adventurers to investigate. The party in no way wished to have to fight a beast which could have engulfed them all in one swallow in it's native environment so concentrated on descending as fast as possible and making no aggressive moves; Zediz'r's Tongues spell enabled a certain amount of (bubbly) conversation with it to pass the time and keep it on good terms ... until an even larger leviathan of a different variety (more whale-shaped) appeared on the scene. With a cry of "Aha, a challenger" the smaller broke away from the party to engage the newcomer in battle and everyone else focused on descending even faster if possible, before becoming collateral damage.


There was no natural light at this depth but to the keener-eyed a vast hemisphere beneath the muck was emitting a slight radiance. The descent ended at a much smaller, less muck-covered hemisphere which pushed aside to reveal a tunnel of clear water heading in the right direction, and this ended below the surface of a pool in what was clearly an air- or at least gas-filled chamber. Sa's trusty stone broom was thrust above the water to test, and promptly ripped from his hand. The party piled out of the pool ready to pile onto whatever waited, to be greeted by a calm, smiling Anthony welcoming them and inviting them to sit and join him at a low table covered with simple foods. Above flew and coiled five serpentine dragons, one holding the broom and looking quite pleased with itself.

The food did not detect as poisoned so warily the party sat down to eat and talk, in hopes of finding out just what had been going on. Anthony was happy to oblige.

(Aside: the dome also contained hundreds of smaller glass enclosures each containing in miniature one of the differing environments found throughout the world, from desert to arctic and everything in between, and an ornate throne.)

Many years previous Anthony and his companions had found their way here to the city of dragons (dragons have not been seen in the world since the time of legends) and to the portal beneath it (controlled from the throne) which leads to a plane of demons. The dragons created the portal and chose to pass through it on a crusade against the occupants of that realm ostensibly in order to protect this realm from them; but never returned. Passing through the portal also transforms one, irreversibly, into a dragon as evidenced by Anthony's companions who continued to hover over the party excitedly if a little too close for comfort.

Giving up his personal quest for wealth and power Anthony took on guardianship of the portal, gradually purging himself of his "darker selves" by putting those bits of his personality into cloned copies of himself to undertake tasks in the outside world. So much of his flesh had been sacrificed to create these clones that although he now resembled an elderly human - he had originally been a fully grown giant.

As a giant he in fact had a very personal apology to offer to Sa - for not staying with his mother after Sa was born. But the task of preparing another group of adventurers to take his place as guardian of the portal was greater. Anthony claimed to have handpicked all of us and orchestrated our beginnings - except for Val Mai. Although he did feel that Val had proven an acceptable substitute for Aiu's having broken free from his plans.

Not really wanting to give up their lives to this cause the magically inclined members of the party (Markos, Zenon and Zediz'r) plied Anthony with questions about the workings of the portal. He had gleaned much from studying it over the years, but it's ultimate secrets were still unfathomable to him, lost to time with it's draconic creators.

Markos thought back to an earlier occasion where the party was able to pull together knowledge "lost to time" from the akashic memory and came up with a bold, probably crazy plan.

A ceremony was drawn up and guarded over by the five dragons all present linked minds
- Anthony, the one living being who has dedicated (most of) his life to studying the portal
- Markos, Zenon and Zediz'r, all powerful spellcasters in their own right
- Val Mai, joining and leading them to the Akashic Memory
- and Sa, by nature and personality completely tied to the present and the physical world as the vital anchor to draw the others home again
... they delve deeper back into the akashic memory than any other human, giant, verric or litoran has ever gone in search of the memories of those who created the portal and could have unmade it if they had so chosen.

The ritual was perilous, and draining. At times great events (best) forgotten cut through the memory space like storms, and glimpses of other interesting things tempted individuals to break absolute concentration on the goal. As the wash of so many years, centuries, millennia pressed down everyone faced the possibility of forgetting who they were and returning to their body as a fragment of their former self; if at all. And at the time of dragons the sheer alienness of their thoughts threatened to snuff everyone's minds out like candles.

But together [and burning hero points like it was going out of fashion] the mission was accomplished. The vital piece of knowledge was identified and snatched from a passing mention and Sa's steadfast presence was able to guide everyone back to themselves. All that was left to do was

- prepare the ritual to destroy the portal
- bid farewell to Anthony and the dragons as the passed through it one last time (the actual first time for Anthony himself)
- complete casting of the the ritual
- realise that the magic supporting the hemisphere above ... and the remains of the city far above that ... had also been snuffed out and try to get the heck out of Dodge before being crushed by rushing water and sinking masonry.

Several near misses later and a desperate dash between the two still-fighting-but-weary leviathans clear water was reached and the exhausted group made their way back to the ship which immediately struck into the still raging storm to get beyond the pull of the whirlpool being caused by the city's final collapse. Leaving the storm meant simply running with wind rather than fighting it every bit of the way, and took only a matter of hours but by the time port was reached so had agreement - no one wanted anyone thinking too hard about the possibility of opening portals to demon realms so the details of what had occurred could never be publicly shared, possibly even to the party's closest confidants.

Epilogue
Markos founded a College of Magic and spent the rest of his life accumulating powerful and dangerous items. His final act on this world, as death approached, was to gather all of these and use the Cloak of Stars taken from a certain Grand Vizer to move himself and them to the astral plane.

Sa-Dagget had statues of himself erected throughout the kingdom and spent many years adventuring and carousing before eventually settling down and raising a family (two of his great-something-grandchildren appeared in a later campaign).

Val Mai brought her new knowledge of the Akashic memory and a pardon from the King himself to her guild, who had no choice but to reinstate her and eventually achieved GuildMistress. Somehow a very old Val Mai also appeared in aforementioned later campaign (set 500 years after these events)...

Zediz'r had a large area of forest set aside for himself and his descendants to maintain as a wilderness in perpetuity.

Zenon took his rewards and became a recluse, tracking down locations of magical power and establishing ever more complex lairs which the other members of the party made an annual event of getting together to find, break into and hold a reunion.

Aiu-Deimare became royal historian and librarian, eventually marrying into the nobility and establishing a family dynasty of her own.

Through the influence of the Scroll of Life which they had been exposed to Eric and Kita were able to conceive (as were many other cross-species couples in the area) and this led to their own dynasty. By the time of the next campaign Eric had also gained a religious following worshiping him as "The Many-Armed god" after his development of the Mass Animate Weapons spell (see above link).

Fin.

Thanks to Niall (DM), Sam (Zediz'r), Josh (Zenon), Laura (Aiu), Lucy (Sa), Izzy (Val) and Kristiana (Daggakorian) for memories which have stuck with me so long.