The group then felt the presence of Moradin come over them, followed by a blessing that would remain with them for the rest of their natural lives. Satisfied that the dwarven mines were now safe, the group moved back up the shaft and then returned home. Upon arriving at the castle, Gwendon sent for the head of the Brothers of Stone and the drow House Drathden. Lady Arlinde then informed the group that a woman was waiting outside the city by her pavilion to speak to the people who killed Umtarathrx the White. The group decided to tackle that the next day and waited for the arrival of the dwarves and drow. Once their delegates arrived, Queen Gwendon spoke with them together to let them know that the creature had been slain and that the mines were open to be populated once more and that the drow homeland could be returned to. Gwendon told the drow that they would be welcome to continue trade in the city, and asked if she could send an emissary to join them in the Underdark. The drow accepted the offer. The dwarves thanked the group and set out to repopulate their mines to once again open the mithril trade to the world.
The next morning, after breakfast, the group took a look at the woman through their scrying device. What they saw was a scantily clad buxom woman sitting in a chair by a pavilion, drinking from a crystal goblet. Sensing no deceptions in her appearance through the use of a True Seeing spell, the group headed out to confront the woman. When they appeared before her and told her they were the ones who slew the white, she told them to summon the god Bahamut or die. Taken aback, Gallandro replied with an illusion. This angered the woman, but before she could react, the beat down began and she was slammed to the ground before Toll could even put the key in the lock. But put the key in the lock he did, right before Gallandro cast a spell, after which the pavilion disappeared, leaving Tiamat the dragon in its place. The wave of breath weapons slammed into the Godhands, dropping three members immediately. In the quick melee to follow, 2 more members died. Toll quickly turned the lock back and shouted to Gallandro to put a barrier between the tent and the group!
This time the battle went a little differently, with the dragon not able to immediately slay the group. Party members still fell in the battle that took place, but blow after blow rained down on the mighty dragon, proving that one opponent doesn’t stand a chance against the combined might of the Godhands. Finally, the five-headed beast fell to the ground, melting into the infernal goop that it was. The group emerged victorious once more, and Toll revived their fallen, none the worse for the wear. Immediately after the death of the demon goddess, Kobort ‘s body began to glow with an inner light. He then received a mental message from his sword, Brialyn, that it was now time for him to fulfill his destiny. Saying a quick farewell to all, he then turned to the wind and moved north with great haste. Lusipher borrowed Diana’s helm of teleportation, and transported himself to Gloesten to make several purchases for the coming apocalypse. The others returned to the castle to prepare for the worst.
It was estimated that Kobort would reach the glacier within three days, and while he had the faith to believe that the gods would intercede to protect humanity, the group felt that an ounce of prevention was worth thousands of lives. The arcane college informed the group that the lady Shanitus Elwynn had left for the kingdom of Shadowfenn to start the preparations to save as many lives as possible. It seemed that she had already turned the worldwide network of Arcane Colleges onto the subject of the comet, and they had been working on what the effects would be if he succeeded. It seemed that the Kingdom of Shadowfenn would be destroyed and the rest of the world would receive severe flooding. The word had already gone out, however, and those in low-lying lands were evacuating via airship to higher ground. To protect the city of Mythrazel, a barrier of force was placed in the valley between the two mountains to the north of the valley. Additionally, the public was evacuated into the siege chambers that were located in the canals beneath the city. Each chamber was already magicked to provide food, water, and air for 150 people, and there were over 600 such chambers in the city.
The day after Kobort left, a weary band returned to the castle. Misha, Rhelvin, and Caeradwyn returned with a very living Acelia, after defeating the witch Baba Yaga in her dancing hut. The four did not seem overly worried about any repercussions from defeating the hag. They were just happy to be alive for the moment. After a lot of rest and food, they then joined in on getting the city ready for disaster. Lusipher was sent into the valley to warn the barbarian clans of the impending danger. It was his plan to then return to Gloesten to await the destruction. Instead, he was proposed to by the now leader of the Bear clan, Ilea, to marry her and become the new Barbarian chief. So, there he remained to assist them in the coming trouble. Soon the day of the comet arrived. Toll and Vheshema took up perch in the clouds above the city so that they could warn the others in time for it to do any good. While they were gone, an envoy from the high temple of Moradin in Urthom arrived to speak with the dwarven cleric. Apparently the dwarves had not a care for the worries of the rest of the world, feeling safe and sound in their underground lairs.
Deep within the glacier, Kobort arrived at the heart of the Wraith and immediately set the Heart of Pelor into the pommel of the sword, Brialyn. A thousand miles away, at that same moment, a crash was heard in the keep as the floatstone that the group had found months before lost its magic and fell to the ground. All around the world, every floatstone that existed suddenly became normal rock, and the tears of Pelor fell once and for all just as the mad scribe Balin had predicted. The Kingdom of Gloesten, built amongst the clouds on those same rocks, crumbled to dust in but an instant. Tens of thousands of refugees, feeling safe and secure from the coming floods on the mighty airships, suddenly found themselves victims anyway. In one instant, the most dominant method of travel on the entire planet was rendered useless, plunging the world into confusion and chaos. The shockwave from the destruction of Gloesten spread outward in the world, threatening to crack it asunder if left unchecked. Unknowingly, Kobort flared with the power of the sun and moved to do battle with the mighty creature. But as powerful as the living iceberg was, it was no matched for the combined might of a true fae Elf wielding the powers of a fire goddess. Even the white dragon guardians that perched on the colossal creature’s shoulder were instantly and utterly destroyed. In a blinding flash and a few moments of intense heat, the Everest-sized glacier was transformed from ice to water and the wave of destruction began. Sweeping outward in all directions, the wave of water destroyed not only forests and wildlife, but erased entire mountain ranges as well.
To the south, the valley of Mythrazel shook as the tower of raging water swept that way. The great wave eradicated the southeastern portion of the valley and beyond, forever splitting the main continent into two separate landmasses and ending the threat of the Toujin Hoard. In Shadowfenn, the epic enchantress Shanitus Elwynn gave her life essence in a mighty ritual, raising a 1000-mile diameter section of land by over 500 feet. This spared the lives of most of the kingdom that had evacuated to there, as their entire homeland became a massive gulf. The shockwave of the release of so much pressure from the ground also swept outward, striking the impact wave from the tears of Pelor. The two forces neutralized each other, sparing the world of an extinction level event. The worst was over, but the ocean began to rise and rise, flooding much of the coastlands of the world. In the end, the geography of Terral changed in the wake of the Comet.
The Comet received credit for this act, as magic granted all life on the planet the vision of Kobort using the heart of Pelor to power his sword to flood the world and destroy air travel. As he watched in horror the devastation sweep out away from him, Brialyn transformed into her divine form and ascended to the heavens, creating a second sun in the daytime sky. Kobort found himself standing on the desolate patch of mud where his enemy had frozen a beautiful Elven city long ago. Before him appeared the image of Shanitus, who informed him that while he did what he felt needed to be done, she had also acted in kind. Through her great sacrifice, she spared thousands of lives. Through his actions, 1,380,527 inhabitants of Terral perished. Thus as her last breath she cursed him with everlasting life and a single mark on his body for every death that he caused. Every night his revelry would be the life and death of one of those lives. His only redemption would be that a good deed done by him would remove a single mark. With that, the spectral elf faded from sight, leaving the now dark elf lying sobbing on the ground.
Back at the castle, the worst was over. Gallandro teleported out to the wastelands and retrieved their broken friend. In his shame, Kobort decided that he would hide in the arms of his love, Jakkara, for a time. Unfortunately, he had promised her that the gods would intervene, and so she had fled the city after being heartbroken by his lying to her. By the end of the day, the worst was over. The valley kingdom of Mythrazel was now a beachfront valley. The Toujin hoard destroyed, peace came to the Godhands.
In the days that passed, the Order of the Godhands broke up and went their own ways. Lusipher remained with the barbarians, helping Ilia rebuild the Bear Clan back to its former glory. Diana became the Mythrazel Ambassador to the drow, joining them in the Underdark that was theirs for the taking. Gwendon continued to rule the city of Mythrazel. Toll accepted the offer of the High Temple and became the new high priest of the mines of Mythrazel and the guardian of the Kyr’Saluth, replacing the lock of fate on the entrance to the grand piece of history. Kobort left the kingdom to find his love, and to try to remove the horrible marks from his being. Gallandro decided to join Sirrathi in her plans to explore the planes, as the two had grown quite close over time. Vheshema joined her mate Toll in the mines, becoming large with child as she perched on her growing treasure pile. Asgrim took up the mantle of general, overseeing the building of a navy to try to set up sea trade with the rest of the world. Misha left the valley with Rhelvin to accompany him to the mountains across the inner sea where the sky elves waited. Acelia and Caeradwyn became mates and assisted the people of Mythrazel on finally learning how to live with the environment and farm properly. Dart, having been reincarnated once more as an elf, decided that he was tired of dying and started the building of a dojo so that he could stay out of trouble and just weave baskets.
Thus, we come to an end of the rise of the Godhands. Is this an end to the tale? Who amongst us can truly say? However, in the thirteenth month when all the moons align, the mad scribe says that those who lived, died, and lived while dead shall rise from the seas to take the legacy of enchantment. Be warned.
This was the last session of my first D&D 3.0 campaign. It started in November after the release of D&D and went on for about a year and a half. What went REALLY well in the campaign was that I threw in so much forshadowing with my mad scribe and hags that held true nearly two years later. Did the player have to kill the giant glacier with his demigod artifact sword? Nope. They could have entered the glacier themselves and fought and killed it, saving civilization. While it was known that there was a good chance to cause a major flood, it was not known until the end of the campaign that the floatstones would fall when the goddess was released (even though I alluded the heck out of it) – destroying nearly the only means of transportation in the world. They really expected the gods to step in and save the world, without praying or tithing or even trying to invoke the gods names. So you are surprised that Pelor wanted his daughter back enough to let a bunch of mortals die? Mwhahaha!
I went on to kick off an epic campaign afterwards with the Lich Lords of Ichielum rising from the ocean and using disjunction on all magic items except artifacts. Turned out that Lusipher’s sword was a lich phylactery – which fed all the chicken souls he used to power the sword up during the campaign (got a job at a butcher since the swords + depended on the number of souls in it) to the now-angry lich. The lich turned him into a chicken and used a epic spell to pin him to the sky when they eventually met. Unfortunately, as I run my campaigns a the local gaming store in a military town, a lot of players left and so I moved on to another campaign – leaving the Lich Lords incomplete. I recently got another group together with some of the old players returning and kicked off a campaign set after the fall of the comet but before the Lich Lords were due to return, with the intention of merging the two together once the new group advances far enough.
Well, enough rambling. Hope you all enjoyed the write-up. I will try and post some graphics from the campaign in another update. One of my players is artsy, and I can do some graphic work myself.
