05/19/2024 -- Operation Endure Pt. 1

Date: 9 Knewidi 715AR. Starring Ari, Bee, Elise, George, Guy, Koilos, Nobi, and Seth.
We begin with Seth making his way toward the command building, hearing bells sounding. He makes a physical check [1 success] and gets a glimpse of someone in the sanctum – he’s not sure if it’s real, but he thought he saw Damon for a second. He’s whisked into the command chambers of Commander Makai Stone, where everyone has already gathered. We see some unfamiliar faces.
- Nobi (Dalton) – A 6 foot tall firbolg man, carrying a staff of burnt wood, long grey hair, slightly on the heavier side, the staff still has some live embers.
- George (Keenan) – A chimp, giant crossbow, leather armor, nothing impressive.
- Charniywal (Jamie) – An itty-bitty robot in the corner of the room, hip-height and enormously fat. He looks very uncomfortable and out of place, shifting side to side, and keeps bringing out a small deck of cards from a drawer in his stomach and awkwardly shuffling them.
Makai tells everyone they’ve been assigned to the first group, though he doesn’t have a mission for them yet. He tells us we must not allow the Impure to breach the walls and access the civilians, barracks, or the tree. The archfey and those powerful individuals among us have already taken up positions. The Mithril Hand is guarding the canopy, and we’re told that if the bubble shielding the fortress were to fall, the Impure could rain down artillery indiscriminately. Our goal at the moment is to protect the canopy and keep them away from the main wall for as long as possible, until we beat them or aid arrives.
- “This is a battle of attrition. Know this. And if we are to die, let our deaths have meaning.”
Since we’re mostly aether souls, we’re being held back in reserve until it’s time for us to be employed. He tells us to stay close to the room, as we’ll likely have an assignment shortly.
- Ari spends 1 recovery to heal a health block.
- Guy goes to talk to Ki. He says he finds it funny he chops down trees, and now at the end, he’s here protecting one. She says she’s glad he’s still there with them, and he thanks her for getting him out of here. He’s glad he could still help. Ki says of course, and that we can get through this one as well.
- Elise sits off to the side, holding a little Golden Devil symbol. In this moment, she’s feeling… sad. She didn’t choose to be here, but at the end of the day, they were her family, and now they’re gone. But there’s a sort of resoluteness to it, as well. She doesn’t want it to be meaningless. She’ll see them again one day. Maybe it’s today.
The waves of enemies are uncountable as the hobgoblins try to make a defense, striking up mithril weapons to catch fire. The Impure have bodies to spare, and are crushing and killing hobgoblins by sheer weight of numbers. In this moment we look high up, and at the person watching it all in the storm. Zolona. She looks down at the small speck below, Widowstone Keep. As red lightning begins to crackle around her, lightning that is not her own strikes her, and she tumbles a few hundred feet down before flaring her wings, her many eyes focusing on a woman standing upon a high tower. Zolona lands on the tower, looking upon one Lavatera, standing amongst crackling blue lightning.

Lavatera says Zolona will give her her sister back, and perhaps she’ll let her live. Zolona smiles, and says Lavatera may be an archfey, but not even that, really. She cannot command a queen. Lavatera says she doesn’t submit to queens. Besides, Zolona’s kingdom fell long ago.
- “We do not need to fight, Lavatera. Besides, simply consider what is ahead. Even if you beat me, this is a world that does not love you.”
- “Obviously you don’t know me. I don’t need to be loved. I am loved enough.”
- “Right. Right. But what about when your son James is dead?”
Lightning crackles behind, and Lavatera asks if that was a threat. Zolona cracks her knuckles, and shrugs, saying all is fair in love and war. She tells Lavatera to bend the knee, and it will all be over soon. Lavatera thinks, considering. Maybe just for a moment.
- “I cannot wait to return you to the dirt, you raggedy fossil.”
Inside Widowstone Keep, Ki and Bee feel the crackling of lightning and thunder as the battle between Lavatera and Zolona begins in earnest above. The battle is reaching greater heights, and we feel a shockwave. As Nobi is leaning against a wall, he stumbles, the entirety of the command building sent shaking by some sort of impact. Makai pokes his head out, and says we have contact. A mission. The Impure have released one of their aces, a dragon made of Firmin’s iron, covering what once was a drake. It’s attacking the canopy, and will soon crack through. Our mission is to dispatch this dragon.
He tells us to come back alive – there will be more waves. We head out, seeing along our way a massive 10-limbed beast Cordell is trying to subdue. Doaa and the Speakers are also fighting enemies. As we make our way forward, we see flashes of bright energy, something slamming against the canopy protecting Widowstone. Upon each strike, a small patch turns red and cracked, as if it’s about to be punctured, but it holds at the last possible moment. We slowly make our way through the canopy itself, and recognize the dragon, Typhax, as the creature from the other mission. Also creeping over piles of rubble is another familiar beast, Callix the Ripper.
Combat begins. Seth attacks first, and takes a health block, but his Spirit is unnerved by the enemy. Ari takes a health block with his dagger, but discovers the dragon has Resistance I to magical weapons.
Charniywal pulls out a small blade, stabbing it against himself a few times to show it’s fake, before transforming it into a greatsword and attacking into the dragon. Charniywal reaches into the wound, pulling out a 5 of hearts, and asks if this was the dragon’s card. This counts for his Dramatic Entrance power, and all of our dmg ratings and powers increase by 1 for the remainder of the session.
Elise launches a lightning bolt at Typhax, and we find out that Typhax has Resistance III to magic damage from powers.
Bee catches Callix in her lure, and yells for everyone not to hit it.
Typhax uses its cannon power, and everyone caught in it (Charniywal, George, Guy – all failed their save) takes 250 magical necrotic dmg at Sheer I, and is presented with a choice – take an additional 2 Sheer, or gain 5 corruption. They all choose corruption.
Typhax flies up into the air, and George shoots it, removing a health block. Guy holds his action for when it comes back. Seth scrambles up on a pile of rubble, and launches himself at it, taking a health block.
Ari removes a health block from the dragon with a dagger. Ki uses her Torvian to remove Typhax’s cannon power, and the green light omnipresent within it dies out.
Elise uses her Magical Transformation, flying up 30 feet. Nobi launches another rock, taking a health block.
Bee apologizes to Callix, before stuffing her hand in whatever orifice of its she can reach and using Storm Strike.
George shoots Typhax again, taking another health block. Elise notices the energy repositories on its back, which seem to control the wings, and shouts to aim for them. Guy attacks into Typhax with his ax, and takes out 2 health blocks.
Seth feels the earth tremor as the serpent approaches. He climbs onto Typhax, and attacks the battery pack, taking 2 health blocks.
Callix moves past Ari to attack Ki, and takes 2 of her armor blocks. Cleave transfers onto Charniywal, taking 2 health blocks from him. Ki runs up the dragon’s tail to get to its back, and takes 6 more health blocks from Typhax (taking 3 on one attack, then 3 more after activating the second mountain). We’re told that if he loses 1 more health block from that area, he won’t be able to fly anymore. Charniywal scurries up and takes out the battery packs, and the wings do dark, no longer powered. The Weakness/Sheer bonus in that area disappears.
Ari attacks Callix to distract it from Bee, and Bee hops down from the pillar she’d scrabbled onto, kissing Ari on the head and thanking him before hiding behind some rubble to hit it with Storm Strike.
Charniywal is crushed in Typhax’s hand.
Typhax attacks Charniywal and Ki, taking an armor block and a health block from Ki. On top of Typhax, Seth sees the serpent coming, and his Spirit urges him to kill it. He looks out toward the canopy, and sees his brother beckoning him. He begins to make his way toward the sanctum, leaving the battlefield.
Ari loses 2 health blocks on the first strike from Callix, and then loses his last health block on the following attack. He tries to use his Thalagar, but it can’t save him, and Callix rips out his heart and one of the eyes on his chest. The Cleave from Callix strikes Guy, removing his head from his body, and in Guy’s last moments, he laments Seth leaving them. Callix gives a bellow of what Ki can only assume is happiness, standing in the blood of two of her oldest friends.
Ki attacks a weak point in Typhax’s mouth, taking 4 health blocks, but has to end her turn there, stuck in its jaws. Elise uses her action to grab Ki out of the mouth, and they make a combined check, half-succeeding. Only of them can get out, so Elise throws Ki out, and smiles at her.
- “Remember the Golden Devils, please.”
Nobi launches a rock, taking another health block. Beautiful green lightning arcs out from Bee’s palm, taking out the dragon’s last health block – we watch as the lightning finds a small hole in the core, and there’s a mini explosion within. It roars, beginning to fall apart, and Elise calls upon all her speed to zip out, tearing the head off with her. The dragon explodes into parts.
Callix bolts away with Ari’s heart and one of his eyes, toward a shape rising from the battlefield itself – the serpent. Ki chases after him to take Ari’s organs back, and gets 5 successes, ripping them out of its claws. She heads back to the party, grabbing Ari’s body.
Seth follows his brother into the sanctum, both he and his Spirit unsure of if it’s a trick. The specter of Damon pats the tree, nods, and disappears. Seth walks up to the tree and touches it, feeling its energy. The GM asks if he’s going to try and use it. He asks what the Spirit thinks, and the Spirit says it’d help, but he’ll die if he’s not strong enough.
- “I can do that. You chose me for a reason.”
Power surges forward in Seth, unlike anything he’s felt before. He sees memories of his past, and the memories of others. He continues to focus, wrestling with the power, and his body begins to flicker and change, healing and growing more wolven. He has a mission, something he needs to do. The serpent must die. He must protect his mother. As he keeps focusing, the energy of the Primordial Tree fills the air, and his form shifts, he enters that white wolven form. He begins to stumble out of the sanctum, and his body does not stop growing. His tie to the tree continues. Intent, purpose.
Seth is now towering, and his eyes focus on the serpent as it rears back. He has the power – the time is now, Seth. Time for you to fight a fucking serpent.
Act I ends here. The survivors all gain a level. We are told that in Session 2 or 3, Marcus must play Seth, and 1v1 the snake. Keenan must be present in Session 2, as any of his characters.