Session Start

• Ashes start
  • Get an update on armies, people, etc
  • Likely talk about vecna and wtf happened
  • Meet up w. Alistair
  • Talk w. the gods?
  • Pain starts swelling up in the people affected with darkvein, becoming overwhelming
  • Swap to Chains
• Chains
  • Clouds fully part, and the mark grows to its final stage
    • Shadowhydra disappears
    • Go back to camp
    • Find mage seizuring on the ground after trying to scry on EA
      • “It’s too late. They broke the seals.”
    • Meet w. commanders, get update on situation and leave for planar tree
    • Head to talk to gods, and get everyone safe in here as people likely realize what has happened.
    • Start gathering leaders for the meeting

The Meeting

• Esta starts everything by letting people know it’s too late, and that Tharizdun is free. They broke the seals.
• Esta has gotten from guild members that Tharizdun is currently staying over Epida Amini, and is seemingly gathering power. He’s staying for the moment at least.
  • “I know you all came here from a victory in Kamos, ready to press on for Epida Amini, ready to stop the demons from freeing Tharizdun… There’s no easy way to say it, so I’ll be blunt. We failed. We were too late. They freed him.”
  • She pauses for a moment to let the realization hit everyone. During this time is when Arcus’ sending arrives.
  • “We’ve gotten several reports of this - Sendings from members of the guild, along with our attempts of scrying. On top of that, the symbol in the sky has grown to what we can only assume to be the final stage. In the time between our obelisk being destroyed and getting here, we found out what it does - any and all teleportation and summoning spells and effects have ceased to function. This means that the Planar tree, on top of being our meeting point and a place of unity for us mortals, is now also vital in that it is our only way to quickly transport around the world.”
  • “What many of us feared would happen has now happened. But we cannot let that falter us. Now is when we have to repel them, or our world will fall. So we need to figure out what to do now. We need to figure out what to do about Tharizdun, and about the demons which we’re getting reports are appearing more and more around the world. For the Tharizdun issue, I believe the Crimson Cloud has taken a contingency.”
  • She steps aside here, and allows for the CC to speak up about the Seal. Right before this, the sending from Jamis comes. After the crimson cloud is done, the final sending comes through.
• Early on, Alexei gets a sending from Arcus
  • “The demons started flooding the material plane. We were sent to cretara to enter to rift to try and st-”
• Later, Jamis also sends to Alexei
  • “We made it into the main rift. Hoping to stop this at the source. There’s so many. Oh gods… Oh g-”
• Finally, Eloweth would send her sending.
  • “We failed. Everyone’s dead. The rift led to Nethrak’s fortress. He controls the source of rifts. We weren’t strong enough. Good luck. Remember Serenity’s Retribution”
• After a brief delay, Rydel gets a sending, from Nethrak
  • “I am waiting.”
• Then comes the discussion of what to do now
• Talking points
  • Who goes where (Parties and NPC’s)
    • When the planar tree is attacked these will stay
      • Esta
      • Metilles
      • Turron
      • Hiserius
      • Varo→Eldoril→Aurelius
        • Depending on who’s alive
      • Andrara
      • Ferwin, Andrik, Ethan
      • Kharis
      • Siblings, likely
      • Hidden Hope ppl
  • Who should be Tharizdun’s vessel
  • Whatever the players bring up
  • Afterwards, there’s some time for talk amongst different groups until the meeting disperses

After the meeting

• • After the meeting is a rest, and in the morning, the parties go to their respective places.
  • As everyone is preparing, there’s suddenly a bunch of commotion as suddenly portals open into the planar tree. Through them, thousands of demons are pouring, and at their forefront is 4 people
  • One of them starts speaking the mean bitch speech of fuck you youll die
    • They then all 4 hold up a soulstone each, and crack it, freeing the 4 elemental lords.
  • After that, all demons charge, and the material plane armies gather to try and fight back.
    • At the same time, from the high branches, light pours through branches as mother and her solars arrive
  • Corellon finds the parties, and explains how they’re the most important right now, and damn the divine order.
    • Long rest for everyone, and pointed towards the branches they gotta go to.
  • The parties can then gather who they can bring with them and leave as the tree burns around them.

The battle commences:

Rat

There’s the final meeting of all the generals, NPC’s and PC’s. Outside are the thousands of soldiers, all around the planar tree, ready to march forward into the next fight. Towards the end. The tension, both between the characters gathered and the soldiers outside is clearly felt.

As the parties leave the meeting, there’s suddenly a deep hum that reverberates all across the planar tree’s realm. Then, one after another, all around the planar tree and the armies gathered, portals open. The hum changes, turning into the rumble of thousands of demons charging through the portals, as the armies of mortals scramble for their weapons.

Above the demons surging through portals, four more open - one on each side of the planar tree. Out of each of them steps a single figure. The ones closest to the parties are Solithos to one side, wreathed in blackened, stone armor, wielding his topaz greataxe. To the other side is a humanoid. Bronze skin, fiery red hair. Wearing a distinct mask forged of obsidian, veined with burning embers. Dark crimson robe, embroidered with golden flames.

Solithos starts speaking, his voice magically enhanced to bellow over the sounds of the armies clashing below

“Behold, mortals, the reckoning you have feared but could never outrun! For too long, you have clung to your fragile world, ignorant of the power beneath your feet, the fire in the air, the storm on the wind, and the tide that hungers to consume all!”

Solithos, along with the 3 other people floating above the armies, raise one of their hands. In them, you see each carries a stone

“You fight for a world that is already lost. You raise your pitiful weapons against forces beyond your reckoning. But it is futile! We are the true inheritors of this world, and today, the age of mortals ends!”

Then, with a single pulse of raw energy, they all shatter the soulstones in their hands. In front of Solithos, Ogremoch, a walking mountain of jagged stone of dust appears, moving with the weight of an earthquake, each step crushing the ground. To the other side of the parties, a pillar of flame erupts as the air itself ignites, blistering skins and turning weapons red-hot around the form of Imix.

Across the battlefield to the opposite sides, everyone sees the forms of Yan-C-Bin, gliding across the battlefield as a raging cyclone, and Olhydra, a crashing tidal wave crushing all in her path.

All four of them appear, and immediately just start destroying all in their path - demon and mortal alike.

Trym

• Imix dude goes ”watch as your last hope turns to nothing but ash”, and imix goes burn
• The battle commences between the armies and the demons. Esta and Asger speak with the party and tell them to go. the party can briefly speak with the other if they wish.
• Sehanine calls down dozens of moonbeams continuously
• Aerdrie makes a blender.
• Corellon finds the party as they try to make sense of the chaos. He tells them that they can’t afford to fail and fully restores everyone despite the consequences of breaking the divine order. tells the party to head for the branches of the planar tree.
• Rilifane elevatorleafs the parties to their respective portal branches
• As the party gets to the branch with their respective portals they briefly see a radiant light shine down from above in the cover of the foliage. coming down in formation are mother and her solars.

Epilogue Session

Start Chains

Immediate consequences of last session

• Seal in the sky disappearing
• Rifts closing, demons losing
• Death :/

Pelor appears to bring the party to the planar tree

Switch the Ashes

Same thing

• Assumedly talk about what happened with Thena, heal Aurelius
• See seal disappearing, make assumptions
• Ilmater appears to take party to planar tree

Planar Tree

• See the results
  • Dead people and demons and elementals
  • Planar tree charred, burning and unraveling
  • Survivors working on the corpses
• Silvanus, Ilmater and Pelor gathered
• Tell players, Asger, Maeve and Esta that they will shunt out all fiends on the material plane, and they will cut the planar ties between the material plane, and the abyss and the hells
  • The parties may have killed tharizdun and sealed the rifts, but demons still run rampant
  • The gods didn’t do enough when the world was ending, this is their “penance”
• They will leave, and after a bit, all the demon corpses start disappearing in radiant light.
• Afterwards, Esta will direct everyone to the meeting tree to get the full after battle report.
  • Prolly insight to see her sadness
  • She specifically puts a hand on arani’s shoulder as they leave.

Meeting

• Quick update on the battle
• Who died
• Players do what they want
• After that, small timeskip

Order

• Player driven mostly now.
• Funerals for those needed, and where to next.