Dungeons and Dragons ("DnD"): The Rise of Tiamat: Season 4 Episode 34 Adventure #66
Date of Session: October 3, 2020 (8:30 pm to 10:30 pm)
Number of Players: 3
1. Eira (Male Variant Human, BARD) Level 6
2. “Ray” (Male Human Fighter-Rogue) Level 6
3. Chibi (Male Feline Paladin) Level 6
Series Regular NPCs:
1. Mas O (Male Dragon-born, Menos’ older brother, former teacher and current Head of EDC Agency)
2. Kya Charisma (Female Human, EDC Agency’s Secretary)
Recurring NPCS:
1. James Blondie (Ancient Vampire, Gilgamesh’s First Son, EDC’s “Prisoner”)
2. Twenty the Goblin (Male Berserker, Pilot and Technician)
3. Detective Kruger (Male Dog Humanoid, GCPD Police)
4. Lord Eggza (Male Aarakocra Super Humanoid, Resurrected Hero-Villain)
5. Demon Zora (Male Demon Human Hybrid, XerX’s foster brother, for-hired member of the League of Whispers and Cult of the Dragon)
New NPCs Introduced:
1. Frank (Male Human, Wolfram Hart’s Doorman)
2. 3 Unnamed Kin-Slaying Orphans (Male Humans, Kin-Slayers)
3. 2 Unnamed Lawyers (Male Humans)
4. 5 Unnamed Wizards (Unknown Gender and Species, Cloaked)
Season 4 Episode 7 changed the course of the campaign. After the events of the last episode session, the players—Team EDC—are on route back to Got-Ham City from the Pro Hero Tower Resort to save their hotel building. More realistically, they were going to punish those who burned their home and business down to the ground.
Feeling the weight of his dead familiar on his shoulders though, Digit decided to leave the team to give him a proper funeral. Everyone accepted this, but they went on the way to pick up another hero who had just left a mysterious tower. Mas O didn’t look too deep into his background, but he heard he was powerful.
The mysterious “Paladin”—Ray—immediately ate the food on the plane and wanted to fight. He didn’t talk much about his past. Eira and Chibi accepted him on the team on a trial basis anyway, given the gravity of the situation. Mas O wanted to use this opportunity to see if he’ll officially hire Ray on the team. James Blondie was chilling on the plane and smoking cigarettes, trying not to get electrified.
Once everyone lands back on Got-Ham City, the pacing of the session went into overdrive. The plane starts getting attacked by magical missiles the size of torpedoes, so Ray jumps out of the plane—using James Blondie as a board—and obliterates all the sorcerers with a fire spell. The sorcerers rolled a NAT 1… they all burned in epic hellfire.
Mas O immediately wanted to know Ray’s salary. After this, everyone arrives at the destroyed hotel. Mas O heard from Detective Kruger—earlier on the phone—that the fire was contained to the lobby area, but the damage was extensive on the main floor. Eira cleared the rest of the fires with his Orb of Tonami, revealing Kin-Slaying Orphans—a subgroup of the Kin-Slayer Cult dedicated to Kai-tick the Kin-Slayer—still inside.
A fight broke out, with Chibi killing an Orphan with a NAT 20 fire blast. Ray broke another’s arm, and then Eira snapped a finger off—this guy hadn’t forgotten that Kya was kidnapped by Wolfram Hart. The crippled Orphans begged for mercy, telling everyone that Wolfram Hart was preparing the sacrifice ritual to resurrect Lord Eggza from lack of existence.
Mas O wondered where James Blondie went after Ray used him as a diving board, but the players didn’t care and ran for Wolfram Hart headquarters. The players did zap him with their zappers for good measure in case they didn’t see him ever again.
After taking out the guard—Frank—and Chibi assuming his identity, the players + Mas O infiltrated Wolfram Hart. The lawyers and other personnel staff whispered—given Mas O’s infamous reputation—which quickly broke apart the players’ clever ruse; they didn’t account Mas O being well-known among Wolfram Hart despite being a former conqueror of the multiverse during the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and having an ongoing legal issue with them.
They fought their way through the elevator, but Mas O fell into a trap floor and vanished along the way. When the players eventually make it to the rooftop, they spotted wizards and two lawyers—and Kya tied to a pole—preparing for Lord Eggza’s Revival.
The players also encountered Demon Zora—XerX’s adoptive brother—who was hired to ensure Lord Eggza’s Resurrection went smoothly. Chibi thought he could handle the demon alone, but he wasn’t prepared for his Anti-Magic Sword Techniques. This made a lot of the players’ attacks utterly useless; they realized how heavy they relied on magic as a result of this tough battle.
When Demon Zora rolled a NAT 20 and absorbed Chibi’s transformation through his Anti-Magic Sword, the scene went darker than expected. Demon Zora began to see the helpless feline person as a “XerX”—someone who gave him a good fight. Just when Demon Zora prepared another Nat 20 for a super punch—there were many Nat 20’s being rolled in this session—Ray used a replacement technique to take the hit for Chibi—saving the feline person from certain death.
Demon Zora didn’t even acknowledge Ray until his helmet broke off upon impact—revealing himself to be Kai-Ku / Kai-tick; the character who went missing at the end of season 2 in search of his White Sword and father. Apparently, his full name spelled out Kai-tick similar to Roxas spelling Sora with an “x” included. There was a lot of payoff happening in this session too, with story elements from the previous campaign coming back into play, with Kai-tick’s return adding fire to an already lit flame.
Demon Zora went into pure anguish, having held a grudge against Kai-tick for taking XerX away from him 400 years ago. Chibi—beaten and defenseless from having his magic absorbed and countered—made comments about Zora having serious brother issues, knowing Demon Zora could kill him easily for the smack talk. The reunion made Demon Zora reawaken his loud “Asta from Black Clover” voice.
Meanwhile, Eira was negotiating with two lawyers. Eira was trying to stay alive with his music. All he wanted was a nice music career. He pretended to sign a contract with Wolfram Hart saying he’ll join the company—having used minor illusion to fake his signature—and then went to help Kai-tick and Chibi fight against Demon Zora. He wasn’t willing to sell his literal soul to Wolfram Hart, but he did good work on distracting them from continuing the Lord Eggza revival ritual.
However, Eira didn’t anticipate Kya—their kidnapped secretary—being the lead Psychic in Lord Eggza’s resurrection. Turns out, Kya betrayed Team EDC because they—the players and Mas O—treated her like absolute crap throughout season 4’s first half. Kya Charisma was a willing sacrifice—knowing she’d resurrect as a ghost as written in the Wolfram Hart contract she signed—for Lord Eggza’s resurrection. She burst into flames—along with all the other wizards and the two lawyers—to bring Lord Eggza back to the world of the living.
Floating in the night sky, Lord Eggza greeted Kai-tick first upon waking up. This was a crazy and tense reunion between Kai-tick the Kin-slayer and Lord Eggza—given their last encounter was during the Hoard of the Dragon Queen’s series finale. They had also killed each other during that climatic fight, so them both returning in this episode was quite epic. Kai-tick and Chibi tried to run inside the building, but then Lord Eggza heat-visioned the Wolfram Hart building—destroying and leveling it with the great intensity.
Eira offered himself to Lord Eggza, preferring to become his servant than die. Kai-tick and Chibi had to roll saving throws to stay alive in the collapsing building. Then Mas O showed up to save Eira from Lord Eggza, but he was easily flicked away by Eggza’s might.
Mas O crashed through the building, making it start collapsing faster. As Kai-tick and Chibi were about to die, Kai-tick’s “Ha-Thor mark” began to glow, and everyone was transported on Twenty the Goblin’s plane heading out of Got-Ham City. Ha-Thor originally offered to give everyone full health for another round with Lord Eggza, but the players knew even at full strength they had no chance at winning against the evil incarnate.
Ha-Thor—the Goddess of the multiverse—gave them a Deus Ex Machina out of the situation, putting them on a path back to the Waverider; the same spaceship NGO (K-Krew) used for their adventures. As they all escaped Got-Ham City, they witnessed Lord Eggza destroying the place with his heat-vision looking for them. They hated abandoning the city, but they needed to survive and fight for another day.
Mas O gained more information about Lord Eggza—from an informant in Wolfram Hart—and his situation with Wolfram Hart. Apparently, Lord Eggza is bound to the will of Wolfram Hart in exchange for his resurrection and true immortality. This means no weakness to kryptonite anymore.
The downside is Lord Eggza has bounded himself to serving Wolfram Hart, so this prevented him from going after Team EDC and the Wave Rider across the multiverse. The players were relieved to hear this, feeling worried that Lord Eggza could easily fly across dimensions after them. But then they started worrying about Wolfram Hart having control over Lord Eggza and their plans on using him.
Mas O feared this as well, in addition to Wolfram Hart having his Dragon Egg. The gravity of the situation made everyone realize they needed help.
Once they boarded the Wave Rider—meeting Cent Kelsier briefly—the players decided to seek out Pro Hero Captain #2 Menos at Hero Society; he is also known as the Great Menos, Mas O’s younger brother. Thus, a course was set for the Hero Society—a Pro Hero version of Soul Society from Bleach. For next session, my players have decided to change up the characters for the time being.
The characters for next session:
1. Eira is returning to the Great Menos
2. Chibi is returning to Gundam, Model K
3. Ray is Kai-Ku / Kai-tick
We’re officially heading into the Avengers: Infinity War portion of the campaign, with a “Thanos-level” character—and an old foe from the previous campaign—officially entering the narrative. The Quest for the Dragon Eggs is about to go underway. My campaign is officially about to get more interesting with higher stakes. I’ll see you all next time for season 4 episode 8.