litch-campaign

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Factions

Order of the Night Darrio's Exchange Skull Pirates Solonariwan Tofusin The Wardens Tellani

Player Information

After the assassination of Silverside, a power vacuum was filled with war mongers against Andes. The two nations, preoccupied with fighting one another, neglect a silently growing threat; Los, The Scholar of Death. Brought forth from the darkness of ancient history by The Fall, most dismiss his existence. Litch’s are creatures of fable not seen in this world since the destruction of Megh Mell.

Several factions and people do have an interest in Los (The Litch), The Blade (his phylactery), The Sheath (a device that can destroy the souls in the phylactery), and The Darkest of Shadows (the avatar of The Silence, her soul is trapped in the Blade).

An unofficial team has been formed by The Order of the Night to stop this threat while the nations are entangled in all out war. Each player is sent by one of the factions to get The Sheath to The Blade. Find the litch. Kill the litch.

Darrio’s Exchange Garland Thatcher, Darrio’s pupil and now successor, operates a network across the region, collecting and brokering magic items. While few in numbers, there are immense resources behind this faction.

Garland told Fayeth she needed to go help the Order of the Night slay some creature. He was providing a service at a fee, not something Darrio’s Exchange has done before. He wants to see if it’s a viable new branch to the business, and the transaction will ingratiate him to a new network of high leveled people, high rollers, real players. But he’s not sharing the details of this risky venture with the rest of the Exchange, so don’t expect any special favors. Garland doesn’t know where Los is, but knows they will need the sheath to truly kill Los. Tellani has the sheath and is after the blade, but there may be other ways to destroy it. He won’t speculate to her what those means are. It’s too risky. If Fayeth should come across Tellani, it could lead to finding the phylactery, or it could lead to Fayeth being captured and tortured for however long it took for Tellani to accept that she doesn’t know how to destroy the lich beyond the sheath.

Skullcrusher’s Pirates Skullcrusher and his Djinn lead a den of pirates off the western coast. As Andes gears up to defend itself from Zatar, Skullcrusher and Leo have worked out that the pirates are to become merchant mariens; defending the coast while terrorizing Zatar’s navy with the promise of becoming incorporated into the kingdom after the war. Skullcrusher’s men are sturdy for the challenging life they lead.

Skullcrusher told Thano that Los was one of the Shadows. Skullcrusher left the Shadows because he realized the only ones left of the Shadow Army was them, and they were no team. He hated Tellani and Los. Needlessly slaughtering weaklings. When they came upon Skull Island and Azarhal, the djinn, Skull took over Estivan‘s crew and kicked the Shadows off his island. They mean nothing to him, but killing Los would help his case in getting them established as merchant marines for Andes, Leo will make sure of it.

Shaa Thalas Sol and Auroratine have helped the Elistrea drow that escaped the underdark form a colony in the elven ruins under the grand tree in The Deep. Other disaffected elves have made it their home as well, such as survivors from Solar after The Shadows slaughtered most of the divine family. This has attracted the scholar Valar Duskpool to take up residency there for a time.

Auroratine told Kaelith that Los was one of the Shadows. They had traveled into the Underdark where Los attacked Sol when The Vigor was in sight. Tellani stole The Vigor and consumed it while Los picked up the Darkest Blade and vanished. Los may be in the Underdark still, but it’s been so long, he could be anywhere by now.

Order of the Night Led by Vic “Shadowspawn” and joined by many powerful allies of remarkable individuals such as Kriv, Gimble, Nero, and others. This organization, made of individuals from all walks of life, has brought the other factions together to address the threat of the litch.

Vic told Anddos this litch is dangerous to the whole region. Sol, Valar, Skullcrusher, they all attested independently, the risk that this creature poses. The mission is very straightforward. Find the litch. Kill the litch. Doing so will bring together powerful factions, setting them up for more peaceful interactions in the future. With the war between Andes Kingdom and Zatar, this may help end the war, even if in a small way.

Litch Campaign Prologue

Campaign Prologue

For decades, the world has turned a blind eye to the creeping shadow. While nations wage their wars and merchants tally their coin, something ancient and patient stirs beneath their notice. A litch—hidden, watching, growing.

Los, the scholar of death, has laid the groundwork for a nightmare, a legion growing with every life that ends. His power is not measured by land or wealth, but the inevitability of death. As his strength grows, so too does the weight of silence from those who should act.

Andes, weary from war, turns its gaze away from a fabled creature from The Death of Megh Mell. Zatar, blinded by vengeance, is consumed in the war over the assassination of their former leader, Silverside. The world’s great powers are either too broken or too preoccupied to stop what’s coming.

But not all have turned away.

The Order of the Night, has brokered an uneasy truce between untrusting factions. Smugglers, warlords, scholars, and outcasts—each with their own reasons to hunt the lich.

It is within this fragile alliance that you find yourself. Whether bound by duty, vengeance, or something more, you have been sent to join this quiet war. The details were scarce, but your order was clear.

Find the lich. Kill the lich.

And so, you arrive at Noon, a quiet village at the base of the mountains dividing Andes from The Deep. A wide prairie is dotted with farm houses. The town center sits closer to the foot of the brown mountains.

Noon is a place of unassuming charm and humble folk. The villagers go about their lives, blissfully unaware of the looming danger that casts its shadow upon their very doorsteps.

Litch Campaign Session 01

Prologue

You get to Gold Dust Inn. A man in the corner notices you and nods you over.

“You’ve all arrived. Good. If your commanding officer didn’t already, I thank you. You won’t be hearing that much as we’ve all agreed to keep this joint mission a secrete, even amongst your own ranks.

You know your mission. But to succeed, you must know each other, work together, and fight together. May it not happen, die together. That bond is forged over the hot coals of red hot team building exercises.

Before you take after this Litch, there’s some people in Noon that need your help. Go down the way and seek out Eldra. She has some work for you. Then come back. If you are fit to stop the Scholar of Death, I’ll see you soon.”

Eldra’s Roof

The party sought out Eldra.

Eldra: “It’s been raining up in the mountains for a few days, but it’s looking like it’ll come down here any moment. My roof leaks. If you could go up there and patch it up, I’ll be sure to stay nice and dry.”

The party repaired the roof and enjoyed lemonade served by Eldra.

Rats

Returning to the Gold Dust Inn, their contact tells them they must be tested in combat, and to speak to Gorruk Redstaff, the inn & tavern keeper.

Gorruk: “The basement’s been filling up with rats all the sudden. Even the big ones. Whatever sent them here, I want them gone. I’ll cover your stay while your here.”

The part goes into the basement, fighting swarms of rats. After defeating them, Kaelith notices the rats migrated from the mountains, perhaps to escape the rains. Feyeth looks at the book shelf down there, mostly finding recipes and geography books. Kaelith finds a small mushroom growing set up for culinary strains. He notes some improvements that could be made.

Call to Action

Back upstairs, there’s new arrivals at the Inn; a farmer and his small family. They are upset. As the other patrons listen to their story, they compare rumors and now there’s concern. A gang of goblinoids have been raiding farms on the outskirts of Noon. The attacks have been escalating, and people fear something worse may be coming. The villagers are particularly worried about a recluse named Calder Hollowstone, who lives alone in the mountains—the same direction the goblins have been coming from. No one has seen him in lately.

This family has left their farmhouse on the outskirts of town when their kids saw the goblins in the distance and scared them. They left quickly, unable to grab any of their clothes or coins. They are asking to stay at the Gold Dust Inn until the goblins are dealt with.

Anddos asks the townsfolk to pitch in for the family’s stay at the inn, but no one feels compelled to donate, offering instead only trivial excuses. He asks Gorruk to instead cover their stay if he livens the lunch rush up with some music. Gorruk accepts, if his music actually gets customers to spend more. Anddos plays and several villagers stay a bit longer, granting the family stay at the inn.

Kaelith teaches Gorruk a few tips on mushroom cultivation.

As the party is speaking with the townsfolk, a small girl—no older than six or seven—tugs at the hem of Thano‘s cloak. She looks up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

Pippa: Are you going to stop the goblins? Behind her, a boy—perhaps a few years older—crosses his arms and scoffs. Jack: Goblins wouldn’t take your stupid doll. They’d rather cut it up into pieces than carry it around. Pippa: “No! One of them took it! I know it! Please, sirs, can you get her back?”

Thano pounds the table and tells Pippa they will get her doll back.

Their contact stays removed from the conversation but finally speaks up to the party,

Contact: “You show promise. You’ve been sent here to find the lich. To kill the lich. We don’t know what he’s doing, only that he exists and needs to be stopped. Undead sightings have been reported all over the Kingdom, but mostly dismissed as folks just being spooked now that we’re at war. Folks are on edge. Guards have been stripped down to the bones in men and equipment to fuel the battles in the Midlands. You can stop the lich, but what are you saving if you let the abandoned Kingdom collapse? These people need someone. Noon needs someone.”

Goblins

The party searches the farmhouse. It’s been ransacked, the furniture and belongings tossed around. The party does not find the doll, but some stuffing that is clumped together. The doll has been ripped apart, but it’s body is missing.

On their way toward the hut in the mountains, they are ambushed by goblins covered in dry mud. These goblins could have seen the party coming a mile off. One of the goblins has the doll. It’s cut into pieces. This particularly cruel goblin cut it up- and- stole it. It’s covered in goblin blood.

Kaelith and Feyeth use skill and magic to restore the doll and cleanse it.

Talking Doll: Hi! We’re friends!

The party discusses potential uses of a talking doll in their mission. They could possibly train it to alert them of danger. A passing thought, as they decide unanimously to return this magical doll to Pippa when they return to Noon.

Calder’s Cabin

Getting further into the mountains, they enter heavy rains. The ground is soaked, slippery mud.

Xalvakor appears in a ruined manor. He briefly introduces himself as Agent 667- assigned to be case worker for Anddos’s contract and soul. The demon only explains that he is present to execute the terms of the contract, which in this case is presenting a challenge. Having no idea what is meant by a challenge, it is clear Anddos has not read the contract at all before signing. Xalvakor tells Anddos that the bard is to be presented with challenges, and if completed, will be provided gifts. This challenge is to get into Calder’s hut before all of the goblins are slain. The demon then disappears.

A couple of hobgoblins and some smaller goblins are keeping Calder hostage in his hut. As the party approaches the hut, Anddos slips in the mud. The goblinoids open the doors and begin firing on them. As Thano engages the hobgoblins, Anddos makes it into the hut, completing the challenge. There is a totem set up in the hut.

The enemies are dealt with and the party cuts Calder’s ropes as they speak with him. Calder tells them he has been kept as a servant, catching the goblins fish and small game. They captured him as he was returning from a hunt. The totem was already in place when they brought him in. He’s not sure what it does.

The goblin’s armor is more sophisticated then typical goblinoids in this region. It appears they were protecting this totem, but got bored and hungry so started raiding the farmhouses.

Investigating the totem, Feyeth and Kaelith deduce it’s nature as a rain totem. Disrupting the rain prevents a massive mudslide that would have wiped out Noon. Clearly, this rain totem was made by some druid, not these goblins. And what goblins would be doing protecting a totem of a druid is unclear.

Thano crushes the totem, getting blasted by it’s magic but absorbing the impact in his large fist. The rain slows, then stops as the storm clouds depart.

Kaelith looks up at the stars beyond the parting clouds. As he gazes up at them from this elevation, he feels that familiar wonder. Something is different though. A star, faint, but one he has never seen before.

Litch Campaign Session 02

Prologue

You lean back against a wall of the small hut. It’s been a long day. You got to Noon, met your contact, fixed a roof, fought rats, goblins, even a couple hobgoblins. After moving the bodies out into the mud to be dealt with later, Calder, the recluse, invited you to stay the night. Tomorrow you can make the trek back to town.

Calder sighs, staring into the low fire. He’s been thinking quietly a long while. “That rain… it wasn’t right. It felt angry. Like the mountain was ready to let go again.” His gaze turns distant as he tells a painful story. “Reminded me of a storm in my youth. Took our manor, my folks, little Elain. I used to carve her these wooden animals. Bears, deer. A skunk.” He motions to a shelf with a beautifully whittled toy skunk. “My other sister, Mary. We were off hunting rabbits when it happened. Afterwards, she left for Willowood. Started her own family there. Made something of herself.” He looks at the party, weary but grateful. “When the ground got slick, I thought Noon was next. This hut and me with it. You stopped that cursed thing those goblins had. Saved the town. Saved me. Thank you.” He looks around the small hut, the sparse furnishings. He felt nothing for them now but regret. “I’ve been up here too long with nothing but ghosts and bad memories. Mary, she’s got a daughter now, my niece. Never even met her. Time I went down. Time I went to Willowood. See my sister and meet the girl.” He nods again, confirming it to himself. “Aye. Willowood.”

Loose Ends

Challenge Rewards Health potions appear in Anddos’s pack as they get ready to sleep for the night. They were placed there magically by Xalvakor for having passed the battle challange.

Talking Doll Thano has the doll in his pack. As he is getting ready for the night, the talking doll says nasty things the goblins trained it to say. It speaks the words in goblinoid. Kaelith and Anndos look over, understanding the language and the party begins inspecting the doll more closely.

After some testing, they get all the stored phrases out:

• “You’re my friend!” when picked up by a new person
• “You should kill your parents.”
• “Water is poison. Don’t drink it.”
• “You’re ugly.”
• “Dosh is stupid.” - Dosh presumably being another goblin.
• “The mountains are safe.”

The party chose to replace all the phrases before giving it back to Pippa. They filled it with generic, inocious child statements like “You’re my friend,” and “Let’s play!”

Morning The party sees that the grounds have dried up. There is no risk of a mudslide anymore.

Noon

The party arrived back to Noon to return the doll to Pippa and speak to their contact.

Pippa’s Doll Thano returns the doll to Pippa. Fayeth asks the little girl about what the doll said before the goblins took it. Pippa, being so young, gives unclear answers but it sounded generally positive. Fayeth was unable to determine what is true.

Order of the Night Contact The contact walks into the Gold Dust Inn and Gorruk greats him as Mayor. Shocked, the party recalls no one has spoken directly to their contact before now and they hadn’t asked him about himself. Their contact is Randel, the village mayor. A portly man in a cotton vest and an eager expression. He is captivated by this secret mission and being a part in it. This is the most interesting thing to happen in the small town in some time.

Randel confessions, he has asked the party for more than he was supposed to (Eldra and Gorruk, the goblins, and checking on Calder). They were just supposed to meet here and start investigating. There’s no leads, just guesses, as to where Los is. Randel reminds them that each may have heard of Los directly from their superiors.

The contact tells them the rain totem seems to be the work of a druid. There’s a powerful druid near Willowood that the party should speak to about the totem.

Thano suggested the town create a holiday of feasting for when he was in town and saved them from the goblins. Randel politely just said he will think about it.

Travel to Willowood

They run across Calder on the way. He’s leaving Noon to see his sister and niece in Willowood. He’s nervous of meeting them both after a few years. Mary has visited him before, but less and less as they get older, she has family, and more duties in Willowood. He misses her.

Willowood

Entering Willowood

The town of Willowood rests on the edge of a river running from Ravensburg to the Andes Capital. Before The Fall, it had grown from the steady steam of caravans passing through. Now, the quieter town has returned to it’s time before empires and kingdoms and lives off the steady stream of the river for ample fishing. Not all is well, however. A small island in the middle of the river is home to fairies.

“And not the funny kind, neither,” a man grumbles at you. On your way into the town square, you had passed by a table offering fresh fish and odd looking carrots for sale. The man noticed you and began invading your peace with his talking as powerfully as his odor began stinging your nose.

“They’re little demons, I tell ya,” the fish man continued. “Couple years ‘go, this turtle fella and some others went over there and killed a bunch ‘a them. Gave ‘em my lucky coin for their troubles, I did. Good riddance, ya know- but the damn buggers just came right back a fortnight later.”

A woman walking by rolls her eyes and scolds the man, “Just leave them be and they’ll leave you be.” “Gah,” the man snorts back. “Someone aught’a go over there and pluck out e’ry single one’a ‘em, once and for all.” The woman turns to walk away, waving her hand. “I was talking about your guests.”

Thano inspects the carrots and wonders about them.

Beasts Attack Willowood

A guard captain on horseback charges into the square. Captain Mary, urgency in her eyes, shouts to a startled guard, “We’re under attack! Beasts come from the forest! Hold the square! Save the people!” She rushes off toward the church, leaving the lone guard behind. Amid swelling of panicked shouts, the fish man and a couple other townsfolk are alert and looking around for something, anything to help save the town. The air vibrates with the cries of scared women and children huddled together around the well frozen in terror as fierce roars and vicious snarls are heard in the distance but closing.

The party steps in, commanding those willing and able to set up barricades in the main streets. Others are to move into a secured building. Packs of wolves, boars, and hawks arrived and the fight began.

Fayeth knocked a boar into the town’s well as it breached their hasty defences. Thano set fire to a wagon to repel some of the beasts.

During the fight, an undead Dire Wolf leaps into the village square. The other animals are not undead. However, the party is able to wipe out all the attacking animals and the undead dire wolf.

With Willowood safe, they speak with Captain Mary to ask what could have caused the animals to attack. She says this hasn’t happened before. If anyone knows, it’d be the druid. Captain Mary tells them where the druid grove is in the forest. There used to be more druids out there, but they died in The Fall. Now, there is only one left. She stays out there, not interacting with the village too much except for trading the odd herbs for certain supplies.

The party leaves for the grove.

Forest Ambush

The ancient forest unfolds before you—a realm of breathtaking beauty and eerie mystery. Dappled sunlight filters through a dense canopy, and every rustle in the underbrush hints at hidden dangers. The ground is treacherous: thick underbrush, concealed pits, and an almost magical quality that makes every step feel significant.

The party is attacked by a panther who bites at them then runs off into the thick woods. While pursuing it, they stumble upon an undead brown bear amongst other beasts that attack them on sight.

After putting them all down, Fayeth and Kaelith inspect the bodies for clues as to what’s causing this and why some are undead. They see that the animals were not sick, so perhaps they were being controlled through magic. The undead bear doesn’t provide many leads, it’s just an undead bear.

Hidden Undead

As you are investigating the bodies, you notice something among the gnarled trees. In a small clearing shadowed by oaks, a lone, decaying figure leans against a tree, watching you. Its mottled, rotted skin and vacant eyes speak of decades in the wilderness. In a faint, trembling voice it says, “Please… do not disturb me…” before moving away into the undergrowth.

Anddos magically commands it to halt so they can interrogate it. Thano asks it who it’s master is. Every question is answered with the same plea “Please, do not disturb me.” Kaelith steps forward and attacks the afront to nature. Fayeth, follows his lead and also strikes.

Breaking free of Anddos’s command, the undead begins firing arrows at the party. Thano puts a swift end to the fight now that they are under attack.

The party left for the druid grove without many answers.

Litch Campaign Session 03

Prologue

The moment the sky blazed with eldritch light and the wind fell silent, Sylvia watched her world unravel. In the span of a heartbeat, every blood‑relative she loved—uncle, sister, child, father—was reshaped into terrified beasts: bear, hawk, wolf, elk. Driven mad, they tore apart the unaltered villagers and then turned on one another, claw and tooth rending flesh until only she remained, soaked in their blood and deafened by their dying cries.

Grief hollowed her, yet Sylvia blamed none of them. They lacked the command of druidic power she had mastered. After years of grieving in the forest, in desperation she bargained with the Scholar of Death, pledging any price to see her family again. For that promise she would bring rain that drowned mountains, unleash forests of rabid beasts, raise armies of corpses—She would give armies of corpses for the one that would give her the chance to see them again.

The Druid’s Grove

Xalvakor

Xalvakor appeared as they neared the druid’s grove, monotonously repeating his initial introduction while reading through a contract quickly.

“I am a neutral case worker. Your original devil has been killed in disputed territory but the contract is still held. I am to maintain the clauses of the contract until a determination is made on who assumes the contract.” He looked up from the scroll he was reading from.

“Oh, it’s you. Uhm…” He looked around the forest, then over his shoulder.
”Destroy all the totems before killing the druid. That is your challenge.”

Sylvia, the druid

Following a well‑worn footpath, the party arrived at a secluded clearing dominated by a colossal, ancient oak etched with druidic runes. A pool of water encircled the tree along with four stone totems that radiated magic. Clad in tattered robes and wearing a cloak of green fabric interwoven with twigs and leaves, the druid angrily stepped forward.

Sylvia: “The Scholar of Death had given me my family back, only for you to take them away! I would tear you apart for that – but it will be more fitting to see your corpses shambling about, waiting for his necrotic call.”

Thano raged, and a storm appeared above them and Sylvia used the storm to strike lightening down on them.
Kaelith noticed that the storm appeared before Sylvia began casting her spell.

Thano subdued Sylvia without killing her so the totems could be destroyed.
They destroyed the totems while battling wildlife.

With the totems destroyed, Anddos and Kaelith went to Sylvia, who laid unconscious beneath the oak tree.
Kaelith pinned her down with his pitchfork, disgusted at her twisting the natural order in such ways.
Anddos slit her throat with his dagger, saying the challenge specified they kill her. Kaelith sprinkled mushroom spores over Sylvia’s body so she could truly serve nature once again.

The Amulet

Finding The Amulet

As they searched Sylvia’s remains, they found a heavy amulet hanging from a worn leather cord beneath her robes.

It was a disc of polished black obsidian, cool to the touch and about the size of a palm, set in a simple, almost crude ring of dark iron. Holding it up to the light, they noticed faint veins of sickly green and bruised purple swirling hypnotically just beneath the glassy surface, forming the distinct, unsettling impression of a vast, unblinking eye staring out from the dark depths. Stranger still, tiny beads of an oily, iridescent black fluid welled up on the obsidian’s surface, clinging like cold sweat before slowly seeming to recede back into the stone. The amulet radiated a palpable chill, and looking into it gave them the distinct, uncomfortable feeling of being watched.

Destroying the Enchantment Thano cracked it in half with a rock, taking a burst of energy when it released it’s power.

Fayeth sensed strong Divination and faint Necromancy in the magic.

Willowood

Calder

Calder was on the outskirts of town. He never actually went in. He hadn’t visited another village before and couldn’t bring himself to enter. After the animal attacks, he had feared his sister and niece might be dead and didn’t want to face reality.

Thano informed him that Mary is the captain of the guard and likely survived. This slight assurance gave Calder enough confidence to enter town.

Over by the well, Captain Mary stood surveying the village. Calder gave the party a last glance, a nod of thanks and farewell before he walked over nervously to his sister. The man called out his sister’s name and when she turned to face him, a little girl standing behind her poked her head out to see.

Mary was shocked but glad to see her brother. Calder motioned toward the little girl with a questioning gaze. Mary nodded with a smile.

Calder bent to one knee to greet the child. The girl hesitantly looked at him. From the distance, you only made out parts of their conversation.

Captain Mary: ”… this is Elain.”

The name of their sister they had lost in the mudslide when they were young.

Calder looked up at Mary in approval, then reached into a pocket. The former recluse pulled out the wooden skunk he had whittled for his lost sister long ago. The little girl’s eyes fixated on the cute toy, and she accepted it from Calder’s hands. The three of them stood by the well, for some time before walking off together.

Wrap Up

Anddos thinks they could find where the amulet was made based on the stone it’s made from, but Willowood is too small to have that sort of expertise. The capital is near to the south, they could find someone there that could examine it.

They stayed the night. Anddos found rewards for completing the challenge in his gear the next morning.

Litch Campaign Session 04

Prologue

Thano lay awake longer than he wanted. No matter how hard he punched his pillow, sleep would not come.
Finally, he calmed himself with a simple mental game he played at times like these.
His eyelids suddenly felt heavy.
He lost track of counting farm animals in imaginary pastures.
Darkness rose as he fell.

Awaking within his slumber, Thano became aware of a small gathering in pitch black.

A drow woman in fancy clothes was chanting. There was another there. A hobgoblin.
Its auburn flesh hung from its bones like wet sheets. A frail body, but it did not appear weak as it continued a spell.

The two stood over a third. Another drow woman in thin armor lay between them.

She was forcing herself to look straight up at the ceiling. Not moving. Almost waiting.
A black blade slid across her exposed neck, leaving a seemingly minor cut.
Blood trickled then flowed. More and more as the life in her flesh drained.

When her body started trembling, aware that it was dying, the hobgoblin instructed the chanting drow to begin.
The chanting and spell work intensified as the sacrificial drow convulsed in death throes.
The violent scene calmed as the last droplets of blood seeped out of the small but precise wound.
Her eyes staring up at the ceiling were hollow. An inky void.

Then as the hobgoblin raised his hand slowly, deep red veins of dead blood created a web across her eyes, and she could see once more.

Arriving at Andes Capital

Travel to the Capital

The early morning as the party left Willowood was chilly, but the day on the road only grew warmer.
Not wanting to arrive late in the night, they made camp a few hours from the outskirts of the capital.

They would be able to have nice accommodations at Fayeth’s house when they arrived.

Fayeth, while on watch, noticed Kaelith staring at the stars once again and struck up a conversation.
Fayeth told him of having not seen her family since she left home to study in the Hall of Robes.

Capital Gate

Patchwork farms tightened into weather‑worn cottages whose folk paused, curious yet cautious, while the strange group passed. Ahead, pale‑stone fortifications encircled the river-split city. The hum of busy streets and the smells of fresh bread and less aromatic industries spilled over the outer wall, with banners in many colors whipping above, advertising the temples, guildhalls, and theaters that were on offer within.

As the party approached, they noticed the gate was down. The kingdom was at war, after all. A handful of guards maintained control of the traffic in and out. While they shouted pleasantries with most of the familiar people passing through, they collected the toll all the same. The kingdom was at war, after all.

Fayeth approached the gate, announcing herself as a member of the Kelsatra family. She questioned the guards, saying there hadn’t been a toll last time she was in the city. The guard sergeant told her it started with the war and it was 2 GP. They sent a runner to verify with the family that they were expecting her and if this was a known member.

In the meantime, the guards were suspicious of Kaelith, being a drow. They asked him where he was from and why he was here.
Kaelith said he was from Shaa Thalas. Before he could say why, Anddos interrupted, saying, “She is under contract with me.”
Confused, Kaelith went silent and looked at Anddos. Was the use of “he” and “she” different outside of Shaa Thalas?
As the interrogation shifted to Anddos, it became clear to Kaelith that Anddos actually thought Kaelith was a woman.

One guard picked up on Anddos’s instruments and dress, and vaguely recalled a bard some time ago at a tavern. “Are you a bard?” he asked. Not one to turn down an opportunity, Anddos exclaimed yes, and agreed to play a couple of tunes for the guards in exchange for entry into the city without tolls. The tunes ended as the runner returned. The Kelsatra family said to allow Fayeth in but escort her directly home to verify her identity.

Inside the Capital

Meeting Fayeth’s Family

The party was delivered to the Kelsatra estate and brought inside. The guard was immediately dismissed as Fayeth’s parents met with her and saw their daughter really had come home.

Elarion Kelsatra, her father, was stressed about the war effort. He was glad of her arrival but had to step back into a meeting.

Lyraeth Kelsatra, her mother, was also pleased to see her daughter and asked Fayeth what she was doing home. Fayeth responded rather openly that she had been put on a mission to fight a great evil.

The mother worried about her daughter’s safety but was equally intrigued by her acquaintances. Her attention shifted to Kaelith, the drow. She asked him what it was he studied—thinking he was a fellow student in the Hall of Robes. Kaelith responded that he studied the stars. Lyraeth said he simply must meet a wonderful astronomer she knew—Seraphina.

Fayeth’s cousin, Valerius Kelsatra, had been called and arrived in the room. He immediately picked up on the bard’s presence. “Ah, Andy! I’ve heard of your songs along the circuit but have never had the pleasure to hear for myself. Come, let’s find a suitable establishment for some merriment. The big one should come too—he looks like a man that appreciates a good time.”

He led Thano, Anddos, and Kaelith away so Fayeth could be with her family. Walking through the Capital, his presence placated any issues with the drow being with them.

Fayeth’s Brother

Faelar Kelsatra came to meet his sister, Fayeth.
”Honestly, sister, on a mission to fight some ‘great evil’? I can set you up with a very suitable position within any guild of your choosing. All you must do is put this dangerous work to rest.”

Fayeth stood by her mission, and her brother dropped the topic.
He offered to help in any way he could. She asked him about the stone from the amulet and if he knew any experts.
He said he knew a geologist who worked in the capital these days after advising on mining.
He gave her Wimble Coggranite‘s address.
He reminded Fayeth to greet their grandmother before leaving to attend to business.

Seraphina the Astronomer

Valerius brought Kaelith and the rest to Seraphina on the way to the tavern.
Kaelith spoke with her of not knowing the old stars, only the new night skies. She gifted him a tome, a vast collection of knowledge about the night sky before The Fall. They discussed how the new star’s meaning was difficult to tell. She suggested he look at the constellations surrounding it for potential hints to its meaning.

Fayeth’s Grandmother

Fayeth visited with her grandmother. The grandmother was elderly and said this very well might be the last time they spoke.

“When I was younger than you, I too was quite adventurous. Yes. I snuck into grandfather’s study one night. So many marvelous things in there. I found a pretty little gem. I plucked it off some thing it was attached to and hid it. Oh, how he raged when his thing didn’t work anymore. I kept the gem and would hold it in my room whenever he got angry. I don’t need it anymore. Perhaps it could be of some use to you.”

Her grandmother gave Fayeth a blue gem, pulsating with magical energy. It had no clear function at the moment and would require further study.

Fayeth spoke to her father, who was done with his meetings for the day.
He said she was an adult now and it was up to her to make her own decisions. He wouldn’t hold her to their home any longer.
She left her manor for the Crossed Streams, where Valerius was bringing the rest of her party.

Crossed Streams

Valerius brought Thano, Anddos, and Kaelith to a popular, rowdy tavern—Crossed Streams—for Anddos to play.
Fayeth arrived at the tavern to meet with them, saying she now knew of a geologist who could look at the amulet.

As Anddos was getting ready to perform, Thano was questioned by a small group of soldiers who were rotating out of guard duty in the Capital as the war continued.
They taunted that Skullcrusher’s crew was a bad alliance for Andes—just a bunch of cutthroats with no discipline.
Their lieutenant offered to let his men fight Thano and his party in a tavern brawl.
Thano accepted, and the fight broke out quickly, leaving his friends surprised by the sudden combat they were thrown into.

Anddos performed as the soldiers went after Kaelith, Fayeth, and Thano. Kaelith had been trying to see the stars through the dirty tavern window but found himself being chased around the tavern by a couple of soldiers instead. The Sergeant of the men, a particularly aggressive man, wounded Kaelith. Instinctively, Kaelith reacted with a powerful spell that bored a hole through the Sergeant’s body.

As the fight stopped, Kaelith also cast a couple of healing spells on the other soldiers the party had knocked out before the fatality.

Valerius and Anddos stepped in to prevent the situation from boiling over into lethal combat and reduce the party’s culpability as much as possible. Still, Kaelith, as the one who cast the fatal spell, was to be sent to the dungeon while magistrates determined the culpability of all involved. It was a group of rowdy soldiers who had taken their bravado too far and willingly entered into a fight. While the fatal spell was a gross overreaction, the Sergeant had been fighting furiously, as if with the intent to do real harm.

Kaelith went willingly to the nearest holding cell, usually reserved for drunks. In his view, he was treated with cruelty as they offered no food and handled him roughly in chains. When the opportunity presented itself, the druid changed shape into a rat and scurried back to Fayeth’s manor.

Valerius brought the rest of them back immediately after Kaelith was taken away. While the others went to their chambers, Fayeth was held back to hear the wrath of her father and brother. She had only just become old enough to begin her own life and was immediately involved in a bar fight that killed a Sergeant in times of war. This directly put their entire family’s reputation on weak footing. She’d be nothing more than another Valerius, a mark against their name.

As her father and brother left Fayeth to reflect on her mistake, Kaelith returned to his natural form in their manor.
Fayeth spotted him and quietly brought him to another spare room to wait until morning.

In the morning, a magistrate arrived early. Not only had the Sergeant been slain, but the drow prisoner had escaped. Kaelith and Fayeth decided total honesty was the moral, and thus right, approach. Anddos interjected, justifying Kaelith’s use of such force as defense because the Sergeant was in a drunken rage, trying to kill the drow. Elarion was bewildered at her continued rapid collapse of judgment in harboring an escaped prisoner but spoke to the magistrate in private. Given the murky circumstances of the incident, Kaelith was ordered to pay an exorbitant fine, wiping the party of most of their gold, and was exiled from the city permanently. The whole group was ordered to leave by noon.

Geologist

On their way to the gates, the party stopped by the home of Wimble, the geologist Faelar had told Fayeth about. The neighbor said Wimble was visiting a nearby remembrance park. There, they saw long rows of short stone markers, each with a single flair of the person underneath.

Wimble Coggranite

Wimble knelt before a cleverly carved geode serving as a marker, polishing a specific crystal facet with his thumb. Hopping up as the party neared, he adjusted his spectacles, peering at them intently. He gestured towards the rows of markers with a flick of his wrist and stated matter-of-factly, “Stone and death are very similar. The weight. The certainty. Name’s Wimble Coggranite. I’m here to see… an old friend. And you?”

Fayeth asked him to examine the amulet the druid had—which was seemingly scrying on them until Thano broke the unique obsidian within it.

He looked over the necklace and gave the location the stonework must have come from. Obsidian with such unique, shifting veins was said to be found only in the high, treacherous peaks of the mountain range separating the Andes kingdom from The Deep. The craftsmanship was great but lacked pride in the details not normally on display.

Falmore Grove

Traveling toward the mountains led them to Falmore Grove on the way.

Falmore Grove had become just a small village after The Fall wiped out most of its inhabitants. Nearly every person in town now was a survivor or a child of one. It was a mournful village.

There were no more taverns or inns or shops, only people’s homes and overgrown paths to the abandoned buildings of a previous life. As they entered the town, a few women were preparing vegetables while some kids chased a chicken. When they noticed the party’s approach, one called out a name. A man with broad shoulders and a scar running up his arm approached.

Jonathan

“Vic said you folks might show up. He’s not here right now but said you are friends. Good enough for me. That man saved my life when the devils poured in, so it’s not much from me, but you’re welcome to my home. What brings you here? If it’s information or supplies, I’m afraid there isn’t much to go around. But I will have Sara add some more to the stew. Hope you like boiled vegetables.”

Fayeth used a slight spell to enhance the flavor of the stew, which was seen as a slight to what Jonathan and his wife could offer.

The next morning, the party left for the mountains to hunt down Los.

Litch Campaign Session 05

Prologue

Jonathan was a good host for the party in Falmore Grove, offering a hearty omelet and some advice as they awoke the next morning and began gearing up for the trek into the mountains. After laying out a less hazardous path to get into the region, he warned them the region they’re going to is dangerous. It’s mostly tribes of orcs and goblins.

Drow Assassin

On their way to the foot of the mountains, where the footpath begins to fade, they spotted something up ahead just beyond a slight bend. They encountered a lone skeleton. Engaging with it, they were ambushed by an undead drow assassin. They took heavy damage, with Fayeth nearly dying if not for Anddos and Kaelith’s healing magic.

Night Activities

Fayeth’s Blue Gem

Fayeth studied the gem her grandmother gave her from Fayeth’s great grandfather with the help of an identify spell. It reacted to the magic, shimmering in the direction of Fayeth’s spell hand. Fayeth deduced it is sensitive to magic. More, it needed to be inserted into a device with additional enchantments to be of any use

Tome of Skies

Studying the book of the Old Sky, Kaelith noted he should get a telescope. There was also a spell in the Old Sky chapters that could help him visualize and track the night sky, but he had to interpret the old ways and update it to the new. This would be a project.

Studying the star, is looked at the region it was in. The Scar War’s Price, reminder of the power of mortals

• A jagged, angry gash across the heavens, a dark rift nebula tinged with dull, blood-red light. It seems to absorb the light of nearby stars. This is where the climax of the mortal war against the gods is visually represented.

Looking into his tome, he figured the Old Sky region it’s position is in. The Fields of Concord Enforced unity, peace

• A broad, serene expanse of sky filled with evenly distributed, moderately bright stars, creating a sense of peace and harmony.

Dosh

While wondering the mountains, a lone goblin approaches them cautiously. He was Dosh, the one the Noon goblins programmed the doll to say is stupid.

The goblin peered at the party from behind a rock, hands raised warily. He steped out, his clothes tattered, a crust of dried blood on one ear, but a wide, toothy grin cuting across his dirty face. “Don’t stab me, yeah? I ain’t got nothin’ worth stabbin’ over. Name’s Dosh. I ain’t with nobody now, alright? Not Los. Not the orcs. Just Dosh.”

He glanced behind him, eyes scanning the trail nervously. “Been up here a while, dodgin’ patrols and eatin’ dirt. I ain’t askin’ for much—just a scrap of food, maybe a splash of water?”

Kaelith dropped some rations and water down for the dreary goblin.

“Was with Los’s camp—bugbears, orcs, whip-crackin’ types. Workin’ us all to death buildin’ armor and blades. Didn’t like that much so I got smart, played dumb. Slipped up just enough to get outta workin’ much but got tossed in with the slaves instead of shipped off to Noon.”

“Promised the others in the cells, I’d find help if they helped me get out. Promised I’d find someone—_anyone_—who might care what’s goin’ on up here. Look, I ain’t askin’ you to go savin’ nobody. That’s your business. But if you’re thinkin’ about it, I might know a sneaky little hole in the rocks they ain’t watchin’ too close.”

Slave Camp

The party traveled to the camp, which was a small series of mountain caverns, and took the secret entrance Dosh told them of.

Entering, they fought a small group of resting goblins. In a side room, Xalvakor appeared offering another challenge. “Kill an enemy with a goat.” There was a small pen of goats just outside the side room. Anddos entranced the largest goat with his music, urging it deeper in the cavernous camp. He named the goat Grot the Giant Goat.

Down a tunnel, they came upon a chamber serving as the huts for the more elite hobgoblins. During the fight, Anddos attempted to have the goat gore an enemy, but Kaelith dropped them first. A half-orc in black plate armor burst into the room, shifting the combat.

Thano managed to take down the armored half-orc, but mearly beat it into unconsciousness. Kaelith, Anddos, and Fayeth all used their spells to strengthen the goat and goad it into making the killing blow. The goat, having now drank from the alluring goblet of violence, attacked Thano and had to be put down.

In the room the half-orc had come from, the party found a key. Deeper into camp, they found it unlocked a door to a special prisoner.

Murf, a half-orc blacksmith stood in his cell, wondering who the party is. In their talks, he says he is from the Treecracker tribe to the south. The tribe was overran months ago. He’s been enslaved since, having to make armor and weapons for Los’s army. The tribe is here along with some random others as slaves. He said his chief was taken away they were told if they don’t follow orders, she’ll be killed. He wasn’t sure if she’s just been killed anyways. Los has taken over nearly everything in the mountains.

When the party says they are there to kill Los, Murf wants to join them to try and save his chief. He could be of some help, he argues. He revealed he’s put a weak spot in the armor he’s made and knows Los is north.

The party and Murf release the rest of the prisoners. Murf tells his people he will go to find their chief, but they must stay behind and live on even if he should not.

Grot the Giant Goat - a Poem by Anddos

In pastures green where wildflowers grew, Lived Grot the goat with eyes so true, His bleating laugh would fill the air, A gentle soul beyond compare.

He’d bound across the morning dew, With hooves that danced and spirit new, His whiskers twitched at every breeze, Content beneath the shading trees.

But time, that thief of all we hold, Called Grot away when spring was old, Though gone too soon, his memory stays— Our cherished friend of golden days.

Litch Campaign Session 06

Prologue

Awaking from a deep, restful sleep, Anddos saw Murf packed and waiting to leave. The half-orc blacksmith saw the slight motion, walks over not-so-quietly, and kneels down. “When my tribe was attacked, they came from the north. When they dragged my chief away, it was north. I’ve heard them talking while they forced me to smith their armor, they talked about north. Los, and my chief, is north.”

“Are,” Fayeth said, rolling over in her sleep sack. “They ‘are’ North.” Kaelith walked in from outside as the last of the stars faded into the warm ocean of the sunrise. “Toward The Court of Silence.”

Thano had not moved. He laid still atop his roll until his head jerked to the side. As the party turned at the sudden movement, Fayeth gasped at Thano’s eyes, white and clouded.

Thano stood atop a ledge overlooking a hobgoblin village. Fires tattered the settlement, shouts of pain and rage echoed off the mountains. A robed figure stepped toward the center of the village where a large orc had been nearly slain.

“One chance, Korgol. You will serve either way, but you can retain your crown and dominion over your people.” The orc bellowed defiantly, “And if I stomp you into dust right now?” Unphased, Los lifted the hood of his robes, revealing his rotten features. “Death is an opportunity for more.”

In his hands, the litch held a crystal, glimmering the harsh sunlight into deep black and purple shafts. The great orc king, Korgol, lowered his head. Los reached towards Korgol’s chest. The screams of pain and rage echoed in Thano’s mind as he awoke to the others staring at him.

Leaving Camp

Thano told the group about his visions of Los. They decide to head North to continue their search. As they were packing up, Anddos found a slew of potions and a couple of minor magic items from

Entering the Pass

While traveling north, Kaelith spots a stranded cloth, left on accident by someone, perhaps. They entered a lower area to get around some terrain. The path was hazardous, with loose shale and steep drops.

On the opposite end, Korgul and his minions enter the region, searching. Korgul was the former Orc King, turned undead by Los. His heart was ripped out of his chest and in it’s place: a necrotic crystal.

The party came upon the undead and quickly engaged. Kaelith Starglade changed forms into a large spider, climbing a tall ridge to see the enemy positions and find a good attack point. While up high, he spotted a dwarven woman across the pass, watching them.

Korgul was at the other end of the pass and directed the second half of his minions to circle back around to flank the party. Another half-orc in black plate armor charged after Thano, knocking him off a ledge. Moments later, Thano came swiftly vaulting back up and angrily eviscerated the half-orc by exploiting the weak-point in the armor that Murf had told them all about.

With the undead seeming dealt with, Kaelith looked again to the dwarf, who was signaling them. He deduced she was telling them there were more undead just west of them. Thano and the rest began treading that direction, leaving Kaelith to wonder if she had also motioned that some were coming around to the North.

Stray skeletons attacked from isolated positions but Fayeth and Anddos cleared them, leaving Thano to round a corner first. Korgul leapt at him, laying in with a massive axe. Thano registered how hard this undead orc was striking. Korgul leapt up to a platoue a couple dozen of feet up, then dropped back down, landing with an impact that knocked some of them over.

When Anddos caught up, he came near Fayeth. Korgul, had them in a line and unleashed a beam of necrotic energy from his heart crystal, enveloping Thano, Fayeth, and Anddos. The undead orc king leapt back up to the platform to survey the battle situation.

Kaelith had summoned a cosmic wolf spirit that was chewing through the ranks of undead that had been meant for their flank. However, a living hobgoblin of Los’s army was keeping the drow busy as the rest of the bones clattered around.

Wounded, Thano, called on an ability of his goliath people, growing in size to match Korgul. Thano scaled the platue in pursuit of Korgul.

As the two giants clashed in the rays of the blinding sun, Fayeth poured over her spell book, finding an incantation that grew an ensnaring web over Korgul.

Anddos, recovered from the beam, lobbed a fire spell, igniting the web stuck all across Korgul. Thano swung his sword, striking the necrotic crystal, shattering it and bringing the burning orc king corpse crashing to the ground.

Kaelith, finishing off the last of the flanking swarm, looked back over at the dwarf. She was motioning them to come speak.

Litch Campaign Session 07

Prologue

Korgol’s body smoldered. The molten webbing burned through his rotting flesh like napalm. Leaving the bodies, bones, and stench of battle behind, the party climbed over to the other side of the pass to meet with Dagna, the dwarven woman. She had tried to warn them of Korgol’s position and the flank attempt. She also wasn’t undead, so they reasoned she may actually not try to kill them.

“These mountains are our home where we lived proudly and productively within the safety of our fortress. We took little note of which brute claimed themselves king or which faction was squabbling with which. In our ignorance, his influence over the various clans of goblins, orcs, and others grew- so long as he was no threat to us. We were blind to the threat from within; the catacombs of our ancestors.

He is a master of undeath and never needed an army to lay siege to our fortress. Only a way in from under us. Once he had a few of our resting brothers and sisters, their numbers grew like a wildfire. Few of us made it out alive.

He did not care much for the clans, taking only what he needed until he could claim our home as his own. For many years, he stayed relatively quiet. He didn’t need to conquer as he could do it at anytime.

A couple dozen of us escaped to the wild mountains. Avoiding clans and finding refuge in caves. Over the years, the caves grew quieter. Fewer and fewer drow were spotted. A few months ago, things have changed. Undead drow push us to the surface where Los has now begun swallowing the clans with ease. His patrols search for any life or death not under his control.”

Dagna and the Dwarves

Dagna led them to a desperate camp hidden in a narrow canyon. Twenty able-bodied dwarves remained, their faces gaunt from years of hiding. These were isolationists to their core—they would rather die than leave the mountains and join outside society.

As the party traded supplies and information, one of the dwarves approached Fayeth with a curious artifact after hearing of her family name and lineage.

A broken artifact as a thanks for stopping the patrol from finding them. She studied it, unaware of it’s full power as the Thaumic Sextant. The dwarf tells her Ornthalas Kelsatra commissioned it many decades ago. He never came back to collect once it was complete.

Dagna offered herself and the rest of the able-bodied dwarves to escort the party through the mountains to their former fortress.

Tome of Skies

That night, as the camp settled into uneasy rest, Kaelith found a moment of solitude to study the heavens. The strange new star he had been tracking seemed brighter tonight, and as he consulted his tome, he noticed it was near a constellation he knew well. The Lost Voyager - searching, exile, uncertainty. A faint, meandering line of stars that seemed to wander aimlessly through the sky.

But this new star was also near another constellation from the old sky, The Firstborn or as some call it, The Progenitor. It represents self, identity and mortality. A large, sprawling constellation depicting a vaguely humanoid figure with smaller star-groupings representing different limbs or aspects.

What did this new star portend?

Travel to Fortress

The next six days were a trial of endurance and will. The party, along with Murf and their dwarven escort, faced danger after danger as they made their way toward the fortress; a sudden landslide that Fayeth blocked with a protective barrier, aggressive bone-tipped vines that lashed out from canyon walls, and an enchanted, wailing mockery of the dwarves’ war-chant that required Anddos’s arcane music to break.

The fourth day brought their second encounter with an undead assassin. A drow warrior attacked while they crossed a natural land bridge, with bone-tipped vines blocking their way forward. The undead assassin leapt through the air, shooting rapidly at Fayeth, then fell into a dive as a razor-thin strand of high-strength silk tied to the bridge caught her, swinging her below the bridge. Before she could complete the acrobatic stunt, Thano rushed toward the advancing vines and severed the strand. The drow was launched down the canyon by her own momentum. Anddos quickly cleared the remaining vines with a powerful exploding ball of flames.

The day before their arrival to the fortress brought the cursed rain. The skies boiled red as acidic precipitation began to fall. Exposed skin burned and blistered, causing confusion and panic as dwarves scrambled for shelter. The day was made worse as a phalanx of undead dwarves marched in formation, their armor still bearing the sigils of the fallen clan. They fought with chilling discipline. Fayeth was dedicated to ensuring not a single dwarf in their own ranks died.

Finally, they made it to the fortress gates. The massive stone structure loomed before them, guarded by a corrupted mining construct as well as another platoon of undead dwarves. The construct’s once-mechanical movements were now jerky and unnatural, its purpose perverted by Los’s dark magic.

The party stood at the threshold of their enemy’s domain. They had found the Litch. They knew that beyond these gates lay their final objective; Kill the Litch.

Litch Campaign Session 08

Prologue

Kaelith, the drow druid of the moon and stars from Shaa Thalas; Thano, goliath pirate under the command of Skullcrusher and the djinn; Fayeth, the wizard apprentice of Garland; and Anddos, a tiefling bard operating with the Order of the Night for a chance to redeem his lost soul. The factions had formed a team sharing one clear mission: Find the litch. Kill the litch.

The dwarves had brought them this far, through the halls of the fortress. Here, the company divided; each force taking one of the two great wings in a desperate race to find and destroy the scholar of death before the fortress had time to rally its full strength.

Murf, the blacksmith half-orc, went with them. His jaw clenched with tension whenever he spoke of his tribe’s chieftain, which was often. He chose to believe she had been taken here after her capture.

In the days before their arrival, Dagna, the dwarven refugee leader, had drilled the wing’s layout into their minds; every stairwell, optimal kill-zones, every narrow choke. It was their only advantage as they cut their way toward the throne room.

They still had chambers to take. Blood to spill.

The chieftain sat in her cell, alert but bored. And hungry. The past few days, the normal routines had changed. The guards had stopped coming around. So no food. She’d even take another one of those disgusting crackers the litch had forced her to eat when she first arrived. It gave her horrible aches for days, but at least it’d be something. Her stomach growled once more, so loudly it echoed in the empty cells. It even shook the locked door to the prison antechamber. She did find it odd when the door shook violently a second time.

On the far side of the door, Murf bounced off the heavy door once more, muttering in frustration. Anddos placed his and on the half-orc’s shoulder. “It’s ok, big guy. Let Thano try. His head is thicker.” Pleased with the compliment, Thano lowered his stance and charged. The lock screamed as it tore free of its setting, braces splintering into the stone. Heavy wood splinters and planks exploded into the cell hall.

Through the settling haze, a lone figure rose to her feet.

Thighs thick with the strength of a hundred climbs. Straps of tanned hide clinging to juniper skin. Elegant white hair spilling over broad, scarred shoulders.

Murf stumbled forward over the shattered remains of the door, voice breaking in shocked recognition.
“Kronka!”

Kronka

They broke Kronka out of her cell. Crossing the threshold sent a lance of pain through her—no wound or sickness that Kaelith could find. It wasn’t an enchantment; his magic slipped off it. A curse. The only way to end it was to kill the one who laid it: Los.

They armed her with a serviceable blade and pushed deeper into the fortress.

Lava Rooms

The company stepped into a cramped, stifling chamber. Heat rolled in from somewhere ahead, carrying a faint reek of rot. Doors stood to left and right, but before them loomed a massive stone portal carved with dwarven scenes—defaced by a deep-cut skull that seemed to swallow the light. Around it: “Truth lies beyond.” The door was far too heavy to force; somewhere nearby a mechanism waited.

In the side chambers they found valves. Each room’s dwarven carvings were marred by scrawled phrases—“Brilliant Rainbows” and “Shadows Remain.” Pots brimming with severed hands waited in alcoves. Locked stone doors stood beside the valves, but turning the wheels opened the great portal in the central room instead.

Beyond lay a chamber crossed by channels of molten rock, with a narrow walkway to a central platform bearing a larger valve marked “Thinnest of veils.” Turning it triggered a distant clunk, then the thick gurgle of draining lava as one side of the room drained away to reveal a path to a side door.

That passage ran long and narrow, a single lava trough cutting its center. At the far end a fourth valve read “Darkness the same.” Another clunk. More lava draining. A new path from the main chamber opened to a second side hall dotted with scattered lava pits and, at its end, a small valve room marked “Light in Array.”

With five valves located, they would have to turn them in unison to drain the last of the lava barring the center door. Kronka and Fayeth took the southern routes beyond the great stone doors. Thano and Kaelith covered the hallway valves. Anddos remained at the central wheel, ready.

As they split, Xalvakor appeared—approaching each of them except Kronka, whom Murf refused to leave. The devil made the same offer: “You are about to enter a fight that may kill you—and the subject of this contract. That would make my work…untidy. I will grant you a boon to aid in the battle, but only if you complete a small challenge.”

Thano agreed. Kaelith and Fayeth declined. Anddos had no choice; his contract bound him to accept the devil’s trials.

Los

On Anddos’s shouted signal, they turned their valves together. The lava sank to its lowest channels. In the southern valve rooms the locked doors slid open—and ghouls spilled out. In the lava halls, dwarf ghosts enslaved by Los and infused with fire leapt from the pools.

In the central chamber, Anddos watched the lava settle into a maze of wide, glowing arteries. The center door shuddered and began to rise. Undead dwarves crawled beneath it to swarm him.

Kaelith and Thano sprinted toward the center as planned, dodging most—but not all—of the ghosts’ fire bolts. To the south, Kronka and Fayeth scrambled out of their ambush rooms with ghouls in pursuit. The pots overturned; the severed hands skittered to life and joined the chase.

Thano and Kaelith reached Anddos and cut down the first wave. The door crept higher—enough for two orcs in black plate to shoulder through with another cadre of undead dwarves. Fayeth, a few steps ahead of Kronka, burst into the chamber to reinforce the line while Kronka slammed the ambush doors, trapping the ghouls behind her.

When the portal finally rose to full height, the dead poured out. Beyond them stood a hobgoblin in fine dark robes, his flesh thin, leathery, and torn.

Los, the lich—the scholar of death—spoke. “Your deaths will not be in vain.” With a sharp gesture, his minions surged.

Los’s commands crackled across the field. Orcs and undead dwarves moved in grim concert. Fire‑ghosts coursed over the lava into the main hall. Kaelith and Anddos conjured otherworldly beasts that tore through the ranks. Given a moment of clarity, the southern ghouls wrenched open their doors and flooded the hall beyond the great stone gateway. Kronka pivoted to hold them back, buying the others the space they needed.

Los taunted Fayeth as she fought to counter his spells.
“Wizard. You stink of the boy. You will meet his love soon.”

The conjured spirits, Kaelith, and Anddos cleared the orcs and dwarves and turned their full attention to the lich. Annoyed by their persistence, Los stepped forward and blasted the summons back to whatever plane birthed them.
“Drow. Your future is written in the stars. They spell a single word: ‘Death.’”

Thano called on the might of his people, swelling to twice his size. With a single bound he cleared the lava between them. Locked in his duel with Fayeth, Los failed to shield against the charge. Thano seized the bony hobgoblin from behind, pivoted, and hurled the necromancer into the lava.

Epilogue

Los grunted in frustration, then screamed in agony as the lava began swallowing him. His heavy robes the last to ignite in a gyser of flames leaving just charred remains that sunk deeper in the molten material. No surge of magic, no desperate final spell—just death, and the heavy, breathless quiet that followed. A search of the throne room and Los’s body yielded little beyond a telescope and a few magical trinkets. No dagger.

From beyond the chamber, the distant snarl of undead echoed—still moving, still hunting. The factions look toward each other in confusion, the undead should have fallen with their Litch. Pressing on, they found Dagna and her dwarves, who reported nothing of value save for scattered goblin huts and endless, roving dead. With no reason to linger, the factions parted ways with the dwarves, Kronka, and Murf, hurrying down from the mountains as the restless dead shadowed their retreat.

On the first night in relative safety, Kaelith walked to the edge of camp with his newly claimed telescope. The night sky stretched endlessly above, cold and clear. He adjusted the lenses to find the peculiar star he had watched for weeks. As the sight sharpened beyond what his eyes alone had seen, his breath caught. It was not a new star. It was two.

Litch Campaign Session 09

Prologue

The Litch of the Mountains had been slain, but he was a mere simulacrum. His undead remained standing under the control of his lieutenants. They wouldn’t stop until Los was truly destroyed. The locations of the Black Blade, the tomb binding his soul and the Darkest of Shadows, the sheath that could destroy them, and Los’s true form all still had to be found.

Xalvakor, infernal case worker of Anddos’s lost soul and contract, left the factions to recollect, awaiting the right moment to offer the next challenge. Fayeth took stock of her grandfather’s broken sextant, listing the components and work needed to restore some of its functionality. Thano slept proudly after melting the litch in lava, his burned legs slathered in ointment. As Kaelith pondered the meaning of the two stars, word arrived to him in an arcane message from Auroratine. “Your mission continues in Shaa Thalas.”

Arrive in Shaa Thalas

Kaelith led the factions to Shaa Thalas, his home after their people fled the underdark. After The Fall, an intense urge to be under the open night sky consumed them, leading them to push through the Lolth drow chambers out to the surface world. They lost much, but Sol and Auroratine arrived, helping the Eliestria drow begin to re‑establish Shaa Thalas as a home to all elven‑kind. Refugees from Solar and Zevorus swelled their numbers into a small city rebuilding the ruins of the ancient elven capital that the Shadow Army had destroyed.

Fayeth picked up rare materials to partially complete her grandfather’s Thaumic Sextant. It flashed with arcane sparks, then hummed to partial life. With greater sensitivity, it showed her a network of magical ley lines crossing the world. Nodes along the lines were wellsprings of magic, offering opportunity to any wizards located near them. Thano paid a local to enchant his longsword. The goliath grinned as he swung it through the air, seeing the faint trail of energy in its wake. Kaelith noted an uncomfortable distance in how the elves regarded him. While he was never one to socialize with them, they seemed eager to move the factions along quickly.

They guided the group to a great hall ruin that was being restored slowly. Valar, Auroratine, and Nero gathered with Kaelith and the assembled factions. The air hummed with tension as Auratine addresses Kaelith with grim news, “Your family had taken to restoring a farm in the upper chambers. They were brave to take on the project, it would have served Shaa Thalas greatly. However, waves of undead are pressing up from the Underdark. Your mother and father were there when the farm chambers fell under attack. The site has been abandoned by our forces. The surface defenses stand ready for a surge, but by every measure, we are outnumbered.

Nero spoke, “I’ve sent Peteran somewhere the litch cannot find.” A futile bit of reassurance. Auroratine continued, “Even so, Shaa Thalas cannot weaken its walls to mount a rescue; every shield and spell is needed to hold the line.”

Valar walked closer to Kaelith. “We know there is no stopping you, so go. Descend into the underdark. Find your family. We hope dearly that they yet live.” “And that you will, to return them,” Nero interjected, missing the mark on social graces. Auroratine added, “On the way out, destroy the passages that lead back. Seal the tunnels before the tide can pour through. When it is done, Sol will see you.”

On the way to the underdark entrance, the factions passed the surface defenses. A myconid stood near the entrance, off to the side. Unable to live under the sun, it would not step out of the shadow of the great tree. But it also did not want to go back to its colony. Myconids were intrinsically passive lifeforms of no use to the defenses.

The myconid emitted a faint cloud of spores as Thano approached, carrying with it his voice. “Gloam,” he introduced himself before barreling into his despair, two words at a time. He was away from his colony when the drow came to the farm. He could not go through them, only up. There were no myconids between the surface and the farm, where his colony lay.

Thano told Gloam of the hostages at the farm, and their intent to save them from the drow. Gloam lifted a black slate and dusted it with drifting spores; a gentle wave scattered them into silver filaments that caught, clung, and bloomed into a living map of tunnels, chambers, and other cave features. With a slow fingertip, he traced a route that threaded hazards, naming the paths in his spare way: “Down spiral, salty wet, under arch, bitter crumbs, stale breeze, crawl low.” He went on, almost excitedly, through a long sequence of turns and tastes the factions would experience on the journey. The lines shimmered and shifted, showing winds the fleshy humanoids could not read as he could. Gloam inhaled, gills flickering, tasting the air and the doubt it carried. He hugged the slate to his chest, eyes settling on Thano. “Lost beetles,” he called the group. Then he rolled his head. “We go.”

Mushroom Valley Encounter

The upper chambers under the great tree had been occupied by dark elves in the ancient past, then the drow they became, now more recently small groups from Shaa Thalas as they sought to reclaim territory safely. Past the built‑up chambers, they left the final paved walkway down into a valley of mushrooms. Large tracts of multi‑colored caps blanketed the moist cavern floor. Gloam indicated the farmhouse was just past the valley, but the air was off. “Air, bitter.”

Traversing the valley, they came upon roaming drow undead and myconids. The myconids were corrupted and fought alongside the undead. Gloam, a peaceful being, did not engage, staying away from the infecting spores.

Farmhouse

The farmhouse was a series of narrow paths leading to sleeping chambers and a common room built into the cavern walls. Corrupted myconids and drow zombies roamed the halls, and the beds were found to be either empty or containing only pools of blood.

In the common room, Kaelith found his parents, Selron and Maelith Starglade, bound and gagged, panic in their eyes when they saw their son. As he moved to free them, a side door opened and an undead drow assassin ambushed them. It slipped past Thano, opening more doors with undead drow spilling out. As Thano and Kaelith held back the assassin as best they could, Fayeth was overrun by a drow ghoul. It slashed her as it ran past, but its target was the hostages. It relentlessly bit and clawed at Kaelith’s father, diverting the druid’s attention to rapidly healing him. Fayeth cast a spell of slowing on the assassin, giving Thano the opportunity to take it down. The young wizard’s attention turned to the gnashing ghoul, and she brought it down.

Kaelith ensured both his parents were healed of any wounds they sustained in the fight, freed them, and asked what had happened.

The family, having been held hostage, explained that the litch and drow had devised a way to corrupt the myconids to fight for them. With that power, the underdark must have been heavily infested with Los’s influence as they were rising closer to the surface.

Gloam and Kaelith, inspected the remains of the infected myconids. There deduced there is a cure to the corruption of the colonies. A particular mushroom cap would be nessicary for Gloam to produce the cleansing spores. Undersky. A deep blue black mushroom with bioluminescent flashes under the cap, like a twinkling starscape. It was revered by Eliestria drow as a token of the surface world. As such, a healthy colony was planted in the plaza after Shaa Thalas was re-established.

The factions and Gloam secured Selron and Maelith as best they could, then took off for the plaza.

Plaza

More roaming undead drow and myconids blocked their way to the Undersky patches, but the factions also faced off against living drow. Once Gloam saw the Undersky, it rushed in to begin synthesizing the inoculation. The factions slew the drow but heeded Gloam’s cries to spare the myconids, which he called “Night friends.”

As Fayeth pushed the last of the living or undead drow into a nearby chasm, Gloam released a spore cloud that calmed and cured the infected myconids. Soon after, they too could produce the Undersky spores.

Like a wave, Gloam cleansed more and more myconids, releasing the litch’s hold on them. The freed mushroom creatures, while passive in nature, defended their territory from hostile invaders. Further, they spread the Undersky spores to deeper and deeper colonies, cleansing them and stamping out drow, living or dead.

After parting ways with Gloam, the factions brought Selron and Maelith back to the surface, collapsing the path leading to the underdark as they went.

Leaving Shaa Thalas

Under the light of the moon and stars, Kaelith spoke with his parents.

Maelith said, “Kaelith, thank you. You and your friends saved us. We worried all those nights you spent laying in the fields instead of weeding them.” His father, Selron adds “Wasting time. Lazy hands, I said. But I was wrong.” Proudly, his mother tells him, “You’ve grown to be such a remarkable young man.” With an accepting smile, Selron pats his son’s shoulder and looks around at the assembled factions. “You and your crew here… if anyone can stop the litch, stop these horrors down below, it’s you.” “Then come home,” his mother ordered.

Reporting back to Auroratine, Valar, and Nero, the factions were escorted to Sol’s bedchamber. The aasimar lay in sweat‑soaked sheets, his eyes glassy yet darting.

Sol told Kaelith the deal that was made when he was a young man; a deal with a lord of the Shadowfell. The Litch’s presence distorted that plane, and its effects increased as Los gained power. The Fell Lord gave Sol a share of his own power and a mission to find and defeat the source of this planar disruption. By the time Sol realized it was Los, it was too late. The only chance he had to complete his pact, he abandoned to save Auroratine. The pact’s payment was now due and the penalties severe. “Find Los and kill the fucker,” Sol rasped as he took his last breath, then exhaled in death. The darkness in his chest spread across his shoulders and up his neck. His soul belonged to the Fell Lord.

Auroratine and the others grieve while Kaelith and the factions make preparations to return to their mission. Before they leave, Valar tells Kaelith of a star druid near Megh Mell that may know more about the twin stars.

Litch Campaign Session 10

Prologue

“Skullcrusher. King of the Pirates. Shadow of the Sea. Crusher of Skulls.” General Quantsy’s voice dripped with contempt as he leaned across the table. “Your men are as likely to pillage our people as they are to defend them. One of ours lies dead after a brawl with yours in the Capital.”

Skull C. Usher released the small stone tucked in his pocket, smoothed his vest, and leaned forward. “General Quantsy, in our culture, a word is a bond. Your sergeant accepted a test of strength. The terms were… differently understood. Men will be men, and we’ll make it right. But for now, let’s focus on the strength that men such as mine bring to the cause.”

Leo sipped his wine to conceal his amusement as a messenger slipped Skullcrusher a sealed note. The pirate’s eyes darted across the parchment. Drow had entered his quarters. Several of his men were dead. Azarhal was missing. The bottle was gone.

The chair scraped back with a harsh screech. Skullcrusher surged to his feet, dinnerware clattering to the floor. “Get Thano. Find me these thieves. I’ll tear their arms off!”

Shaa Thalas

Nero presented the factions with an exquisite canoe crafted by his people, though it would require portaging to reach the river that flowed southwest toward the Midlands. Shortly after, Valar offered a magical folding boat. The factions gratefully accepted the folding vessel and set off down the river.

Messenger

Messenger As the factions departed Shaa Thalas, gliding down the river, a messenger paddled up to meet them. He explained that Skullcrusher’s network had sent him to bring them to the Solar Delta. Their presence was urgently needed. That was all the information he had.

Character Beat Thano reflected on Skullcrusher’s plans to join the Andes forces permanently. While Thano enjoyed pirating, he had decided to follow Skullcrusher’s lead in this decision, trusting in his captain’s judgment.

Travel to Caspin The small boat with the messenger carried them down the river and through the Solar Delta. The journey revealed the grim aftermath of war: camps scattered along both banks with weary soldiers, battlefields where matted grass was stained crimson with blood. The boat remained politically neutral and refused to venture beyond the delta. Leo Rowtree met the factions there and escorted them north to Caspin, briefing them on the developing situation.

Azarhal, the djinn, had been stolen in his bottle by drow operatives working along the coast under the cover of war. Skullcrusher sent for Thano, ordering him to find and recover the bottle from the sea stack dens where they had taken it.

Skullcrusher’s men had been patrolling the waters while Leo mustered whatever guards he could spare to observe the surrounding land. No one had been detected entering or leaving the sea stacks. Skullcrusher’s men excelled at sea battle, while Thano was better at… killing things. Leo couldn’t spare the men either logistically or politically for such a delicate operation.

Rockways Approach to the Quay

Fayeth used her Thaumic Sextant to help locate the correct den among the treacherous sea stacks.

The sea stacks loomed like broken teeth against the horizon. Surge channels breathed in and out with the tide, spraying cold foam across slick black rock. The only way forward was over the treacherous rockways, a series of leaps, crawls, and narrow ledges, while the surf boomed ominously in the caverns below. Dark pockets of dens dotted the jagged walls, barely visible through the mist ahead.

The factions relied on their magical gear to navigate the various hazards: a daring leap over a surge channel, traversing a barnacle-bladed ledge along the cliff face where shoulder-high waves crashed against the rock, and crossing a ripping lateral current that split the rockway.

The Flooded Umbral Vault

The chamber was partially submerged, centered around an glowing umbral cage. Floating stone and wood platforms drifted on the water’s surface, creating shifting, unstable paths between the dais and the cage.

Living drow emerged from the shadows to attack the factions. In the ensuing battle, Kaeilith shape-changed into a squid, dragging an enemy beneath the water’s surface, while Thano engaged in a deadly one-on-one duel with a drow operative. The drow was lightning-fast, striking without warning and always seeking a quick, lethal kill.

Freeing Azarhal in the Drow Cave

![[Azarhal.png|500]]

With the drow defeated, Fayeth worked carefully to deactivate the cage by manipulating the intricate glyphs on the cage’s podiums. After some trial and error, the magical bindings finally released their hold.

Azarhal explained that the drow were going to transport him to Megh Mel through the Underdark, but they had encountered problems with the myconids below, making the passage unsafe for them. They had been forced to wait here, biding their time. Other pockets of these operatives were scattered across Edous, each with their own mission. More could now be isolated due to the myconid interference.

Azarhal thanked Thano for saving him from the fate of being enslaved by whatever awaited him in Megh Mell. He granted Thano one favor, a semi-wish. The djinn urged him to take time to consider his options carefully before making his choice.

Drow Belongings Toward the back of the caverns lay a very deep, sheer drop-off that likely led to the Underdark. The area contained rough living quarters stocked mostly with equipment and rations.

The factions discovered a bolt of heavy fabric with deliberate and intricate stitching. Thano initially thought it might be enchanted clothing, but Anddos corrected him, “No, my friend, it is a map.” Fayeth examined it more closely and found it reminiscent of Gloam’s map, though written in a different system of notation, like a different subteranian mapping language. It was a map of the Underdark beneath Edous, showing several known caves leading to the surface where operatives where now stranded. However, since it was written from the Underdark’s perspective, it was difficult to determine the distances and surface world directions between the various locations.

Litch Campaign Session 11

Prologue

Caspin The factions emerged from the vault with the bottle, and Leo escorted them to Caspin where they returned it to Skullcrusher.

Skullcrusher expressed his gratitude to Thano for the bottle’s safe return. The pirate king took a moment to remind Thano of their mission’s purpose and importance.

Thano brought the map to Skullcrusher’s attention, and the pirate king had the djinn examine it. After deciphering the intricate icons, Azarhal revealed that there was a nearby operative whose mission was to steal the sheath.

Thano proposed targeting the operatives to slow the lich’s progress. The factions would travel to this operative’s location and recover the sheath if it was there.

To celebrate both the djinn’s retrieval and the discovery of the sheath’s location, Skullcrusher invited Thano and Anddos to a sailor’s tavern. The two drank heavily and engaged in an arm wrestling match, with Thano emerging victorious. Skullcrusher accepted his loss gracefully, remarking that he had chosen the right goliath to send out to kill the Lich.

Fayeth skipped the tavern festivities and instead began collecting the materials and components she needed to restore her great grandfather’s Thaumic Sextant.

Andes Capital The target lay to the south, just outside of Summergate. Along the way, the factions skirted Andes Capital. Kaelith, exiled from their last visit, remained outside the city walls.

Fayeth attempted to return home to continue restoring the Thaumic Sextant. Her parents, concerned about what had happened during her last visit, advised her not to enter at this time. However, her grandmother secretly brought her into her great grandfather’s laboratory and allowed her to work through the night.

Summergate

The factions needed to cross Summergate to locate the stranded drow operative who had stolen the sheath from Tellani.

As they approached the city, still a day’s walk away, the homesteads became increasingly frequent until they formed what was essentially a continuous village population. Along these village-like streets, the hostels were packed to capacity, while tents filled the fields. Upon entering the more formal district of the city, they found structures walled by low but treacherous mountains, covered more in moss and patches of small plants than by rock dust and undead.

The city was magnificent. Its great stone architecture was of vastly superior quality compared to cities twice its size. This was a grand city of sunlit markets, enchanted gardens, fruit breweries, and small eateries offering light snacks for leisurely strolls through the city. Stone golems, now at rest, were scattered across the gardens. Lush gardens and pavilions spread the buildings apart so that the space never became too crowded, except in the gate district. Anddos had played many times in this delightful city, but was disappointed to see it lose some of its luster due to the presence of soldiers.

The city was packed with military troops and equipment from throughout the Andes Kingdom. Summergate served as both the kingdom’s primary southern defense and its deployment base toward Zatar. The gate was both a practical tool and a symbol of the kingdom’s mood. It had remained open for many years until shutting during The Fall. They had reopened it as life continued. Now it was shut again for the war. The Captain of the Gate Keepers had to grant permission for anyone to pass.

The factions were determined to speak with the captain of the gatekeepers. They claimed to have news of drow activity in the area, and Captain Merot met with them immediately.

He explained that he had sent his son out on what should have been a fairly easy mission to gain experience before his return. The young man had been gone longer than expected. Merot was reluctant to send any of his men to rescue his son, as it would make both himself and his son appear weak. However, he could allow the factions to pass free of charge if they would check on his son. “There were reports of peculiar arrows found up in the eastern mountains,” he said. “A passing hunter had come across what she claimed were poison-tipped arrows, the sort of poison only drow make in their cursed caves.” Merot handed the factions the sharp half of an arrow. They inspected it carefully and confirmed it was clearly of Lolth drow origin.

The factions agreed to the arrangement and were allowed through the gate under the pretense of having received higher orders from Caspin to let them pass.

Trail to Drow Hideout

They quickly located the trail left by Merot’s son and followed it to a cave entrance. The cave had mushrooms growing at its entrance. Kaelith identified them as common, easy-to-farm mushrooms. While not the most flavorful, they served as a staple crop due to their hardy nature in imperfect growing conditions.

Xalvakor’s New Deal

Xalvakor materialized in a chamber of the cavern, announcing that the legal winds were blowing and there was an interesting opportunity. If the rest of the faction members created new contracts with stipulations binding them to Anddos, it would create a legal basis for challenging the finer points of the agreement. The case workers could maintain the contracts without interference from the three devils. A marketplace solution would likely be instituted, allowing their bundled souls to be sold to the highest bidder. They could then try to leverage their position to dissolve the original contract on the basis that it was unenforceable. However, the players would each have to sell their soul to Xalvakor.

Every member refused immediately, and Anddos agreed this was a terrible idea. Xalvakor presented Anddos with his next challenge: do not get hurt in the next combat. If Anddos failed, Xalvakor would enact the punishment clause for failed challenges, subjecting Anddos’s soul to 10 years of torment for each failure of a duly presented challenge under the terms of the contract Anddos had signed.

![[Xalvakor and Anddos Threat.png|600]]

He urged Anddos to convince his “friends” to take the deal, or he would make things very, very bad.

Further into the cave, they encountered a drow operative accompanied by a drider and a phase spider. Thano drew the attention of the operative and drider to himself, while Fayeth stayed close to Anddos, engaging the phase spider. A small, common house spider descended onto Anddos while the tiefling was desperately trying to avoid any harm whatsoever.

The phase spider blinked in and out of existence, biting at Fayeth who held up her magical shielding. Between barrages of pincers, she formulated a plan.

Thano engaged the drider and drow operative, holding his own in the fierce combat.

Anddos stepped on the spider as Fayeth transformed the phase spider into a small whale, while Thano swung his sword through the drider and then thrust it into the operative.

After clearing out the enemies, they noticed that the operative’s arrows did not match the arrows found by Merot’s son.

Wrapped in a cocoon of webbing, they discovered the sheath.

They searched for further evidence of Merot’s son and found another trail leading away from the cave, deep into the woods where they discovered his charred body holding a couple of the arrows Merot had given them.

Summergate

Captain Merot took the news poorly. He retired from his duties exactly on time and no later, then headed home to spend the evening alone in his chambers. As Anddos walked down the street toward the tavern, he spotted Merot’s balcony. A flicker of familiar devilish red painted the balcony archway as smooth, black smoke rolled off the ledge into the night air. Stunned, Anddos watched as Xalvakor approached Merot from behind, but paused to look down at Anddos. The devil gave a subtle shake of his head to his subject, a command not to interfere, then disappeared into the darkness of Merot’s abode.

Litch Campaign Session 12

Prologue

![[Garland on the hill.png|500]]

Garland sat on a hill just outside Farfield, watching the people move anxiously between buildings below. He pulled a strand of grass, twirling it between his fingers.

The grass was spring-green, one side soft and smooth. They were peaceful people who had lived here for generations. Fair weather, rich soil, and simple lives. He and his wife had raised their son in this village.

The other side of the blade was sharp, barbed, clinging to his finger. While recovering from The Fall, Los’s undead had attacked their village.

This particular grass was considered a nuisance due to its thorns. Garland pushed his fingers into the earth around the plant, breaking through dirt. He had awoken that night to a rotted corpse slamming through their door. Before he could rise, it was on him, mashing its teeth. He was just a child then, changed by The Fall. Jean, his wife, had become younger as well, but remained a couple dozen years his senior. Without hesitation, she leapt awake and pulled the monster off him. It turned on her.

Garland wrapped his fingers around the taproot, feeling the resistance as he pulled. Roots drew taut, creaked, then snapped, spilling their milk into the soil. He watched in frozen horror as the corpse ripped Jean’s throat open, its hand jerking between her ribs, breaking bones and its own fingers. Rancid teeth tore into the gaping wound as rich, red blood soaked the mattress and pooled on the floor.

One after another, the roots snapped as the plant lifted toward the surface. Soil collapsed into the void as Garland extracted the plant, roots and all, into the blue sky. The great orc reached from the darkness. He scooped up the undead, slammed it to the ground, then crushed its rotten head beneath his boot.

Killing the townsfolk was not part of the agreement the orc had made with the necromancer he was traveling with. Out of a sense of guilt for his role, Skullcrusher brought the boy to Dario to raise.

The grown man inspected the plant to ensure he had destroyed enough to prevent it from spreading across this grassy knoll. Dario had taught Garland everything he knew and given him everything he had. It was enough to fund deep investigations across the lands to track down the truth behind the Shadows, to locate people and information about the nature and history of what had become The Litch. Dario had given him an empire of artifacts, weapons, and armor that had fueled every major conflict or vanity project across the globe. It was enough to equip an elite battalion. Perhaps, maybe even enough. Garland tossed the weed into a bush to die and walked back to his tower.

Intro

The factions traveled to Foot on their way south through Farfield toward Megh Mell.

Zatar had recently taken over Foot, and Fayeth’s brother sent word that if she were to help reclaim that location for Andes, it would sway the climate in their family’s favor, absolving the incident with the sergeant as simply soldiers being soldiers (especially if Skullcrusher ended up as merchant mariners).

Foot

![[Foot Detail.png|500]]

Upon entering Foot, the factions decided to take the town by eliminating the Zatar soldiers.

In the chaos of battle, Anddos found himself alone with a soldier and a choice. Xalvakor challenged him to betray Fayeth’s effort by letting a soldier escape. Anddos cast a spell that caused the soldier to run away terrified, but alive.

They continued heading toward Megh Mell by going to Farfield next.

Farfield

The factions arrived at Farfield and went to the tower to meet Garland.

Garland told them he would like to make the tower known to the village so they could seek refuge there should the war spill over. While they were there, they should help the village and unite them behind the plan that the tower would serve as a sanctuary in case of emergency.

They helped Hal clear a wagon that had broken down in front of The Tired Mule.

They helped Francis at the temple by hoisting and hanging a new bell.

They were unable to convince Thorben to stop wasting time perfecting items when they lacked basic pieces.

They helped Mars Sands negotiate trade agreements with Zatar and Andes in a way that kept Farfield neutral.

They helped Deputies Calob and Ty Agle round up some goats that had wandered off right before a flash flood.

Eliza, the healer who had taken over the apothecary after Jean and Garland, had built out a large garden to fuel her more extravagant alchemy. Some of the plants had gotten out of hand, and a flock of aggressive geese had been eating them, which made them even more disorderly. Eliza hadn’t been able to leave her home to tend to the garden. The factions slew a flock of geese, then returned to the tower.

Garland housed them for the night, giving them a meal. He told Fayeth more about his true motivations for wanting to kill the Litch.

Litch Campaign Session 13

Prologue

Highridge was designed to prevent large forces from entering the confederacy. Giant metal gates sealed the only sensible path through the rocky terrain, protecting the small mining city beyond. Mining had resumed under the command of the party that had grown into power after Silverside’s assassination. Several interesting developments had occurred since the events of The Shadows, but the Factions didn’t see any of them. As they traveled south toward Highridge on their way to The Sump, it became abundantly clear that the Zatarian armies knew of their presence. The soldier who had escaped the siege on Foot had run to tell his superiors of the wails his cousin made as Anddos fried him for target practice. Going straight to the gate of Highridge would have been suicide, or mass murder.

A small, highly motivated and well-equipped special team could get around the ridgeways without needing to pass through the gates. The path was dangerous, though. Hazardous terrain and predators with razor-sharp claws and piercing horns lurked everywhere. But what was more concerning was the distinct feeling Kaelith had that they were being followed. Faint odors carried on a breeze, and strange sounds whispered in echoes across the ridgeways. Someone, or something, was behind them.

Zatar Soldiers & The Quest

Hazards

As The Factions traveled through a narrow pass, the ground began to shudder. Rocks and boulders tumbled down the cliff face, and they sprinted forward. Debris crashed behind them as they cleared the passage, barely escaping the crushing stone. The faint flap of leathery wings was lost in the air.

Later, the stench hit them before the sight did. Fresh carcasses of Zatarian soldiers lay torn open, slashes and spines covering their bodies. But as The Factions tried to approach, giant bloated fly swarms poured from the wounds. Aggressive, hungry things that forced them back. A few well placed spells cleared the swarms enough to pass and the Factions moved on before considering what had done this to the soldiers.

Encounter with Chasers

![[Highridge switchback Trail.png|500]]

While climbing a switchback, soldiers approached them from the rear. The soldiers looked weathered, as if the ridgeways had not been kind to them. But they remained focused on capturing or committing justice to the butchers of Foot.

Anddos’s fireball engulfed much of the pursuing soldiers in flame. As the smoke cleared, Thano leapt down from a ledge to engage the remaining soldiers below, while the others maintained the high ground with spells raining down. Just as the last of the soldiers fell, manticores swooped in from above. One caught Anddoss with its wide paws, sending him tumbling off the ledge, but Fayeth’s quick spell lightened him, allowing him to land safely.

Thano lassoed a manticore, pulling it to the ground and beating it. The beast rolled away, getting just enough distance to take flight. Thano threw a spear, knocking it out of the sky. The Factions quickly dispatched the other manticore and moved on south.

The Stipulation

As they reached the next crest, the familiar red glow of Xalvakor materialized before them.

“You’ve grown stronger,” the devil observed, examining Anddos with unsettling precision. “Strong enough, perhaps, to be made aware of certain stipulations.”

There was an escape clause in his contract, Xalvakor explained. If Anddos ever hoped to get his soul back, he needed to know what the contract truly said. Complete a morally neutral challenge and the devil would reveal the full details.

The task was in Zatar Ul. Xalvakor needed an exchange of soul contracts with another auditor who had refused the trade. The party was to go to where this devil kept his contracts. As long as they put another contract in its place, they would be within certain legal specifications—Xalvakor wouldn’t be breaking fundamental devilish law.

The target was an amateur’s contract gone horribly wrong. A demon, barely bound by the contract’s minimal terms, had twisted the agreement to its advantage. Unrestrained by proper penalties, it terrorized the area around the contract without mercy. The wretched thing served as both trap and guard, and Xalvakor believed he could untangle it—thereby publicly shaming the incompetent devil who’d created such a mess.

The Replacement Contract’s Subject

Fayeth read the replacement contract, and her expression shifted. The contract was for the soul of Volmere, a scholar from the Hall of Robes, where she had studied.

“He sold his soul in his youth,” she said softly, “for money to fund his research. He thought he was destined to be the greatest wizard ever known.”

Volmere had devised a process to maintain knowledge without decay, but the power supply required constant replenishment and was a resource difficult and expensive to obtain. He had never been able to figure out how to produce it cheaply. He had self-funded his research for decades, providing positions for countless scholars through the endless flow of money. That flow had made him a permanent fixture of the Hall without contest. Though the work never amounted to much more than training and Volmere’s dream went unrealized.

Zatar Ul

![[Zatar Ul.png|700]]

The Factions used their folding boat to sail up the river toward Sump and Zatar.

The Zatar Confederacy had essentially become run by Tir na Nog. Zatar Ul, the founding city of the confederacy, had degenerated into a small ring of gambling dens, brothels, and merchants, barely a full city of its own, living within the larger abandoned city that had existed before.

There was a force within Zatar Ul that made indulgence feel inevitable. The urge to partake in games and nightlife came on like a spontanous bout of fun.

Thano was excited to play, throwing himself into the games with enthusiasm, but the cards were indifferent and he broke even. Kaelith watched his gold slip away hand after hand, his expression growing more grim each round. Anddos, distracted by the company of women, lost steadily without seeming to notice.

Then Fayeth, in an uncharacteristic turn of fortune, won decisively. The sudden windfall snapped them all back to reality, and they left while they were ahead, leaving toward the manor Xalvakor had given as the location of the contract.

Entering the Manor

![[Zatar Ul Manor.png|700]]

The Factions followed the directions to the manor out in the abandoned areas. The house was well crafted and overlooked the twinkling lights of the pubs down below. What may have once been a beautiful estate was unsettling as the ruins of Zatar surrounded it. Some of the windows cast a faint glow.

As they entered the home with a loud creak, no one was there to greet them nor stop them. The furniture appeared well kept but unused. A candle here and there burned smoothly, with no wavering. Their meager light showed no tears of wax.

The Creaking Staircase

![[Creaky Staircase.png|500]]

The grand staircase leading to the upper floors groaned ominously with each step. Several boards appeared loose or cracked. The wood seemed unnaturally brittle, as if it had been aged decades more than the surrounding architecture.

Thano, sensing the danger, tied off a rope and climbed the side of the stairwell to reach the next floor. The rest of the party used spells to fly or teleport over the treacherous steps entirely.

The Whispering Mirrors

![[Whispering Mirrors.png|500]]

Mirrors, polished silver, even window glass, every reflective surface in the manor, showed distorted reflections that refused to match reality. The images moved with minds of their own, lips moving in silent words that resolved into faint whispers when the party drew too close.

With great effort, the mages of the group dispelled the enchantment, watching the reflections finally return to normal.

The Chilling Draft

![[Chilling Draft.png|500]]

Deep in the manor, the temperature dropped dramatically. Their breath misted in the air, and the cold seemed alive. The chill dark halls gave an oppressive atmosphere that made their skin crawl.

This was the contract’s doing. Fayeth investigated the source and consulted with Anddos, who began firebolting the regions of the halls that radiated the unnatural cold. Fayeth followed close behind, smoothing out any errant flames with practiced efficiency.

The cold slowly dissapated as the two cleaned up the lingering frost magic. With the haunting draft neutralized, they finally reached the hall where the scroll awaited.

Demon Contract

Quasit fight

The Factions encountered several demons in the halls, one of which was a small quasit. Thano knocked it over the head, putting it down but not killing it. He scooped it up and put it in a makeshift cage. The rest of his party reinforced the small demon’s capture with spells.

![[Thano and Quasit.png|500]]

The Swap Fight

Finally they found the scroll. The demon that had been orchestrating all the manor’s hazards was present, guarding the contract to his soul.

During the battle, the devil of the manor appeared.

Anddos had already swapped the contracts. They could have left then, fled with their prize. But Thano and Kaelith had torn through the demon, and its soul went into the contract as it died. Seeing an opportunity to end two threats at once, the party decided to stay and kill the devil too.

The devil fought hard, and several of them took grievous wounds. But in the end, they brought it down.

Anddos’ Contract

Xalvakor appeared as they left the vicinity of Zatar Ul. He didn’t thank them, but took the contract with visible satisfaction.

When they mentioned the devil that had been killed, Xalvakor was silently alarmed, though he only said, “He was a weak being. Just as well. You got the contract.”

Then Xalvakor told Anddos of the contract’s terms. He made it clear that he kept the contract on him at all times. Anddos would never see it, nor would anyone else. There were no copies and it wasn’t in any ledger, because none of the three supreme devil lords in Hell could rightfully claim it yet.

Xalvakor told Anddos of the terms of the contract. He kept the contract on him at all times and did not let Anddos or anyone else see the contract. There were no copies and it was not in any ledger because none of the 3 could rightfully claim it yet.

The devil could not lie about the contract or any of its language. The devil smirked when saying this with a glint in his eyes. He reiterated that on failing a challenge the devil could subject Anddos’s soul to 10 years of torment for each occurrence. Xalvakor launched into a long, winding review of every stipulation of the rest of the contract. His only reason for being so meticulous was to irritate the group, but he finally got to the most important clause; Exit via Replacement. Anddos could find another soul to take his place but it had to be more valuable. The value was determined by the devil. The soul must be given willingly.

Litch Campaign Session 14

Prologue

The first thing anyone thought of, approaching Sump, was Megh Mell. Beyond the mists lay its ruins: the rotted bones of a once-sprawling grand city that had rivaled Tir na nÓg, struck down in a cataclysmic attack by the necromancer Eckdar. No one lived there now.

Before the city proper lay the Gulch—marshes where the slums clung to hummocks and slick boardwalks. These were the people who had lost their foothold even from the lower district. Relentless night bugs filled the air alongside calls from dangerous wildlife. The furthest paths vanished into fog; the brave—or the desperate—pushed no farther.

A bit inward rose the lower quarter, the floodplain housing. There, blue-collar workers did with brute force and blunt intelligence what the wizards either couldn’t—or wouldn’t—do. Life was a grind; another rotted beam on the stoop drove many toward gods of despair and misery. For some, grit and pride kept them upright. For others, hard lives hardened hearts, and strength was found in hatred.

Ringing the Hall, a scatter of stone buildings served the Robes and their students. There was money in the shadow of great power; thugs and thieves bled for the scraps, and the city’s governance turned over with grim regularity.

At the city’s center stood the Hall of Robes, the reason The Sump existed at all. The Hall spanned a raised island above the muck: great buildings connected by grand walkways where students strolled, mingled, and debated. Founded by refugee wizards saved by the Wardens after Megh Mell’s fall, the Hall was powerful and largely isolationist. It was a “school” as much as a recruitment engine for new blood to replace aging elders. These Robes led demanding lives of study and administration that left little room for families. With so little life beyond their walls, inter-faculty rivalries and administrative strife simmered constantly.

Arrival in Sump

![[Sump 1.png|500]]

When the factions arrived at The Sump, they went straight to the Hall of Robes. Fayeth had once studied there before being sent to Garland on her internship—part mission, part favor from the Hall to Garland.

![[Gorf.png|500]]

Upon arrival, Grof approached Fayeth and the factions. He explained that he now worked under Volmere, one of the Hall’s higher figures. Volmere’s influence came not from magical strength but from immense wealth—he funded students, projects, and facilities within the Hall. Though his research had yielded few results for years, he had recently begun recruiting students and faculty for a new project: preserving knowledge indefinitely by preventing its natural decay. He sought a sustainable and affordable power source capable of maintaining magical information.

Separating

Anddos

Xalvakor instructed Anddos to perform at the Soggy Boots tavern and leave the others to their dealings at the Hall. Anddos complied—a character choice where he obeyed his devil instead of sticking with his friends, who were making dodgy decisions to split up. He performed a rousing show until a brawl broke out. He subdued the chaos with his music and returned to the Hall of Robes soon after.

Thano

![[Veyne.png|500]]

An enchanter named Veyne noticed Thano’s Moonlit Greatsword and approached him, intrigued. She invited Thano to her workshop to further enchant his weapon. There, she enhanced the greatsword and mentioned she’d heard of his ability to crush magical items—absorbing their essence and embodying their power. To test it, she produced a weightless glass egg with a green gem floating inside, suspended in liquid. She asked him to crush it.

When Thano crushed the egg, the gem shattered and its shards embedded into his flesh, crawling up his arm. The power he absorbed was cursed—his size began fluctuating wildly during the ensuing battle as several students stormed the room. Thano’s familiar, a quasit, rode on his shoulder throughout the fight. It leaped from him to sink its fangs into nearby foes, punctuating the combat with bursts of infernal mischief. Veyne attempted to magically charm him, but Thano resisted. With a few decisive strikes from his greatsword, he brought her down and fought his way free of the tower.

Kaelith

![[Eldrin.png|500]]

While Thano followed Veyne and Fayeth walked with Grof, Kaelith spotted a massive telescope atop one of the Hall’s towers. Eldrin, the resident astronomer, greeted him warmly, saying he’d been waiting to speak with Kaelith since hearing from an old acquaintance of his studies.

Eldrin led Kaelith up the tower, speaking about the stars. He claimed that the stars were the Factions, growing stronger and brighter with time. When they reached the top, Kaelith noticed wards activating around an anti-magic field, which Eldrin said protected the telescope from interference. Remembering a similar setup from the blind astronomer in Andes, Kaelith accepted the explanation and peered through the telescope. He saw the heavens more clearly than ever before.

Eldrin then pulled a lever beside the telescope. The chair Kaelith sat in suddenly tilted backward, flinging him out of the tower. As he plummeted, Kaelith instinctively wild-shaped into a giant wasp, saving himself from the fall. Eldrin, who expected a spell-based defense, was stunned by the natural transformation.

Fayeth

Back at the Hall, Grof continued to pressure Fayeth in the library of her old study tower. He insisted Volmere could free her from her duties and that her growing power could help perfect the project to preserve knowledge forever.

Fayeth began to suspect something was wrong—perhaps magical coercion. She cast a detection spell and saw that Grof was maintaining a defensive barrier, ready for combat. The instant he realized she had discovered this, Grof attacked. The two wizards clashed in a fierce exchange of spells.

Fighting the Robes

The separate fights converged into chaos across the Hall. Fayeth and Grof’s duel continued until she was grievously wounded. Grof fled the tower toward the courtyard, where Kaelith—now a wasp—spotted two armed students waiting below. Anddos, returning from the Soggy Boots, saw Kaelith’s transformation and hurried over. Together, they fought and defeated the students.

Then they saw Grof fleeing. Kaelith swooped down, reverted to humanoid form, and dispelled Grof’s flight, sending him crashing to the ground.

Eldrin descended from the tower, firing arcane bolts at Anddos and Kaelith. His poor eyesight caused one of the bolts to strike Grof instead, killing him outright. With Grof down, Kaelith and Anddos turned to heal Fayeth, then confronted Eldrin.

Thano, still fighting the size-shifting curse, made his way from the tower and regrouped with the others in the courtyard. Anddos and Kaelith grounded Eldrin by disrupting his flying spell. Anddos finished the old wizard with a burst of fire magic.

As the chaos subsided, the factions regrouped. Students fled in terror as the Hall burned and crumbled around them.

Volmere

![[Volmere.png|500]]

Before they could piece everything together, robed students surrounded the courtyard. Volmere descended from a nearby tower, wielding both sword and spell.

Fayeth raised her shield while Thano, Anddos, and Kaelith prepared for battle. Volmere proved a dangerous opponent, mixing necrotic spells with expert swordplay.

The telescope reoriented itself toward the courtyard, unleashing bursts of arcane energy—Volmere’s doing. Fayeth’s shields absorbed much of the blast while the others counterattacked. Despite his strength and infernal blessings, Volmere was ultimately overwhelmed.

After the battle, Fayeth examined Volmere’s spellbook. It contained his incomplete research and notes revealing he had been serving the lich Los. Volmere had been coercing and deceiving others to consolidate power within the Hall for Los’s purposes.

Marginal notes told the rest of his story: he had sold his soul to fund his work, then discovered the process required an impossible resource. Unable to deliver, he broke his contract and sought refuge from damnation by allying with Los, hoping undeath would spare him eternal torment.

Aftermath

During the fight, Fayeth sensed a leyline node that could have magnified her power—but she chose to stay by her allies instead, a defining act of loyalty.

With the Hall’s leadership dead or fled, a power vacuum remained. Searching Volmere’s chambers, the factions found evidence confirming that Los now resided in the ruins of Megh Mell.

Among the fallen robes, they also discovered enchanted necklaces—the same kind once crafted by Val for the Salt Mercenaries, allowing safe passage into Megh Mell’s poisonous mists.

Now equipped with these relics, the factions would need to descend into the ruins to confront Los, destroy the lich’s phylactery blade, and end his hold over the Hall of Robes once and for all.

Litch Campaign Session 15

Prologue

Deep in the swamps of Megh Mell, dark bones of an ancient city rattled under a fierce storm. Endless rain fell as the litch was busy in the heart of the rotted ruins. He was studying. He was building. And he was planning.

He’d been working on this for only two decades. He wished there were more time. But in his twisted mind, this was the last chance.

He had to unleash something horrifying unto the world. Something dark and bleak. Those that knew it to be true would welcome the death Los promised everyone.

Outline

![[Los’s Fortress.png|600]]

![[Megh Mell Dungeon Enterance.jpeg|500]]

The Factions left the Hall of Robes and The Sump with the necklaces that would help them navigate the toxic lands of Megh Mell. There, Fayeth used the Thaumic Sextant to track down the location of a powerful magical presence in a small castle or manor ruin on the outskirts of Megh Mell’s central necropolis. They had to follow a rough trail through the forest but they reached the outer gates of Los’s Fortress.

Two archways stood open to enter through. One marked with an eye, the other with a skull. Thano used his magic rope to slip over the top, wanting to avoid whatever it would be. Anddos entered through the skull archway and was struck with a bolt of necrotic energy. Kaelith crawled over the top of the archways. Fayeth used a spell to bypass the archways without crossing under.

They entered a clearing with stairs to their left leading to some gardens, another archway to the north but this one had an iron bar door, and to the east was a rotted hut. Thano inspected the gate, finding a small lock on it with a series of letter dials that offered a selection of letters to use in writing a 4 letter word. As he began seeing what words they could try, Anddos and Kaelith saw Kronka step out of the hut.

Kronka explained she was waiting to join them in their final battle against the Litch. She said the necklaces from the Hall of Robes were cursed and that they should take them off immediately. As the two questioned how she got there, and how she would know about the curse, Thano settled on a word. It was four letters, as needed. Only used the available letters to choose from. But it made no sense to him why the Scholar of Death would choose this word; “Life.” He had begun spinning the letters into place, but was interrupted.

Kronka’s story wasn’t adding up to Kaelith and Anddos. They urged her back into the hut, saying to wait for them there as they explore more of the territory quietly. With the half-orc back in the hut, Anddos dumped a flask of oil over the building, and demanded she confess her secrets or he would burn the hut down with her in it. Kronka’s face melted, revealing a green hag who screetched horribly, and a troll burst from the hut and attacked Kaelith.

Thano left the lock to hold off the troll as the others dealt with the hag. After slaying them, they returned to the locked gate and tried the code word “Life.” The lock clicked open and revealed the path to the manor’s courtyard. Undead and a few lower ranking Robes guarded the way in.

After wiping them out, the Factions decided to walk the perimeter of the property to ensure they wouldn’t be closed in on from behind. As they entered a side pavilion, Thano noticed a group of dark, shuffling figures in the distance. “There, he pointed out to Anddos. Unleash a ball of fire!”

“Where? I can’t quite see them,” Anddos squinted into the dark.

Kaelith stepped forward. The drow pointed a finger that crackled with electric energy. “There.” A bolt of lightning shot forth, illuminating the undead down the dark path.

As the lightning began to brighten, Anddos unleased his own magic spell. Fire swelled and electricity danced in an explosion, sending chunks of zombies and broken skeleton bones hurtling through the air.

The pavilion grew quiet once more and was lit only by the simmering embers of destruction.

Litch Campaign Session 16

The Fortress

The Factions entered the Main Entrance, fighting through hoards of undead throughout the halls. Some undead were screaming out, pleading for true death, warning that they were “everywhere.”

In the chaos of the hoards, Fayeth and Anddos are in a northern hall while Kaelith and Thano are south. Divided, they are set upon by a small squad of drow. Killing the drow, they descended stairs along the cliff face behind the fortress.

The Swamp

The Factions lowered into a swampy field. Los’s figure a dark outline in the distance. Los shouted across the bog; “Your death is the only chance of survival.” Then, speaking to unknown others, he commanded, “Rise!” Several undead abominations lifted themselves from the muck.

Trying to clear the field of these creatures, the factions each focused on the nearest to them. Los launched a necrotic bolt from the great distance he was at, hitting Thano with surprising power. They realized they were fish in a barrel for Los as they fought against his minions.

Fayeth looked toward Thano, who had turned her direction as the thought dawned on them. The wizard said, “Are you ready?” Thano motioned for her to start, “Waiting for you.” Fayeth charged across the knee high water, dodging attacks from skeletons. As she got to Thano, she cast a spell and the two of them were teleported right to Los.

Kaelith and Anddos began unleashing their heaviest magics to crush the bone naga and undead orge that were meant to be locking them down. Without Los’s long range death bolts to worry about anymore, they were able to maneuver around and mount an offence.

Thano slashed at Los with his greatsword, his blade only deflecting off the Litch’s magical barrier. Los goaded him, “Roar all you wish, beast. Flesh withers, muscles fail. You are a mountain of meat waiting to rot.”

Fayeth launched a spell at Los that circumvented the barrier, “I know your tricks, monster.” But Los had anticipated this offence and negated the spell. “Little scholar. There is much you need to learn about death.” Thano broke through the barrier, slashing the Litch’s rotten chest.

Kaelith and Anddos finished off the undead creatures, just as Los teleported himself toward the fortress. Anddos was able to block his path, however and Kaelith rushed in, his celestial powers shredding at Los. Los projected another magical wave that disrubted the celestial powers. “Your stars scream as their lights die one by one,” Los told the drow. But Los was running out of tricks.

Before long, Fayeth and Thano stepped out of a portal, further cornering the Litch. Los made one last ditch effort to evade the onslaught, using the difficulties of the swamp to aid in his escape. But a shot of fire from Anddos hit him in the back, exploding into a nova.

As the cloud of fire dissipated, a swirling black mist was pouring out of the dying litch. “You’ll never find the blade,” he said, as his body disintegrated fully. The black particles errupted, blinding The Factions. As their sight returned, Kaelith could swear he had seen it stream toward a specific direction, but in the chaos cannot recollect in which way.

Fayeth uses the Sextant, and it leads them to a literal maze of plant matter.

The Blade

In the center of a maze, a blade is found. If inserted into the sheath, the blade begins shaking and making a noise with increasing frequency. The blade will explode in 1 round. Necrotic explosion will deal damage to any creature’s number of HD d12 - 4d4 per 60 ft. distance from explosion.

Be sure to say “The first is always a decoy.” The sheath remains, but is cracked and leaking it’s arcane power. It’s magic will run out in a fortnight. Fayeth can repair it with a great Arcana roll and 1,000 GP of materials.

Litch Campaign Session 17

Prologue

Documents throughout Los’s fortress, including his log, spell book, orders half-written, or responses stored, reveal a much clearer picture of what has been going on in the shadows of Edous.

3702 - The Tribes ![[Los and Bugbears.jpeg|500]] After leaving Shaa Thalas, Los originally found bugbear tribes in the mountains between Treecrackers and Falmore Grove. He built a presence there, able to play the clans against one another. He learned of the dwarves to the north. They were the only real threat to him within the mountains.

3704 - Undead Necromancers ![[Los and first vassal.jpeg|500]] Los found a way to raise the dead through vassals, and developed a plan to have a pool of undead under his control across the world. This pool would grow with every death and in just a few years, he would have more bodies than there were living people.

3706 - Dwarven Fortress ![[Los and Undead dwarves.png|500]] After planting his seeds and waiting for them to grow, Los launched a surprise attack on the dwarven fortress, taking over the fortress and slaying almost the entire clan in one vicious attack. Some survivors came together further south, and mourned their loss.

3709 - Simulacrum ![[Los in the Underdark.png|500]] Los built a simulacrum to continue his work in the mountains as he moved on. His tribes safely moved him near Summergate by using a system of caverns.

3709 - Lolth War Begins The litch and his traveling army discovered Lolth drow in the caverns below the old clutch. He began establishing undead strongholds, waging a total war against the drow.

3717 - Phylactery Los built the seed of his phylactery stronghold in a hidden location, leaving the Blade there- should he be killed while working in Megh Mell.

3718 - Megh Mell The litch appeared in Megh Mell, where he began recruiting wizards in the Hall of Robes. By 3723, Volomere joined the litch’s ranks in a bid to prevent his soul from going to hell in payment to the devil contract he had signed for his vast wealth.

3722 ![[Los Turning a Drow.png|500]] The conquering litch nearly broke the entire Lolth civilization through conquest. The drow were desperate. Their deity, shattered in the fall. Los offered an arrangement; make some of the best remaining drow warriors undead, but keep their soul very attached to their body. They were minimally rotted but it eliminated their sunlight sensitivity. Their priestesses imbued them during the transformation- making them elite assassins for the surface world with the mental capacity to follow complex orders over long timescales.

![[Silverside assassination.jpg|500]] The living drow were now working for Los, wrecking havoc on the surface world. Silverside was murdered via poisoned wine during The Exchange in Caspin. This sparked the war between Andes Kingdom and Zatar Confederacy.

![[Zevorus.png|500]] Los formed an alliance with Zevorus. A drow cleric accepted Los’s offer to stay near the surface, creating undead Peteran’s. The Dragonslayers killed the undead drow cleric, saved Peteran, and slayed Zevorus.

3724 The Order of the Night convened the factions. The Factions destroyed Los’s simulacrum in the mountains. They freed the myconiods which led to the undoing of Los’s conquest of the Underdark and isolated the drow operatives on the surface. The factions secured the lamp from one cell of drow operatives.

They found a sheath that another cell stole from Tellani. Drow arrows at the scene gave them the suspicion that something was off. They disrupted the Hall of Robes, slaying Volmere and many of the heads of the institution. They slay Los’s true body in Megh Mell. The Blade found there exploded when inserted into the sheath, which cracked and would loose its magical properties in a fortnight.

The litch was still out there. Reforming. If Los reformed before they could locate the phylactery, they may never be able to stop him.

The Contingency ![[Los’s Rise.png|700]] Los was not just a monster in a fortress. Throughout Andes, he had given numerous lieutenants orders to remain hidden, infect the burial grounds of cities and villages. Pollinate their influence over the lands, undetected. Hidden. Waiting.

Los, being the progenitor of this vast undead network, was the keystone. If his soul was to be destroyed, they would all fall. But the Scholar of Death was planning for eternity. His orders to his lieutenants contained contingencies. If only his physical form is brought down and he is forced undergo reemergence at his phylactery, a command executes automatically.

Centuries of bodies hiding in the forests, waiting in the catacombs, buried within the city walls. The entire hoard would burst forth, overwhelming society from within. Maximum chaos and carnage. Cover as Los reforms. Any sort of organized force against the sudden waves all over the lands would be hopeless. Choked out by the endless hoards of clawing hands. When Los arose from the depths of his phylactery, it would be to an undead empire waiting for him to give the next order.

Spell Book

Additional documents written in the same language as his spell book revealed Los’s deeper perspective. He viewed life within this reality as an organism unto itself, ebbing and flowing through time as peace and calamities played out. If he killed it entirely, he reasoned, he could raise it as his own.

Kaelith noted star charts featured heavily in the writings. The new star the drow had been tracking appeared frequently in the recent notes, though Los’s text regarding it was coded. Deciphering the text would take some time.

Using the Thaumic Sextant

Fayeth finished the Thaumic Sextant, which pinpointed the phylactery’s location: Farfield.

It became clear that Los had orchestrated the war to occur in the Midlands intentionally, aiming to create two armies’ worth of bodies ready to be turned right at the doorstep of his phylactery.

Tellani’s Offer

As Anddos separated from the factions to find a tree in need of watering, he felt the hair on his neck stand up. A cold shiver ran through him.

He was in danger.

Small ripples radiated across the surface of the muck. A frog croaked. A dense waft of air passed over him, smelling foul and rotted. Carefully, he listened and watched, but nothing appeared—until a dark flash of magic. A blade was pressed firmly against his throat.

A pale woman in dark leather armor parted her lips.

Tellani: “The blade was a trap. Do you not know by now, the first is always a decoy? I know your soul is still bound to that devil. You want out. You’re desperate. The Silence can spare you. Kill your devil. Take your contract from his body. Then place this warded ring over it. When the time comes, I will activate the required spell and you will be free.” Anddos: “Who are you?” Tellani: “I am Tellani and you are a means to an end. Do your part. Get your everlasting reward.” Anddos: “What reward?” Tellani: “An afterlife of freedom, wherever you choose, for however long your soul remains.” Anddos: “What if I destroy my own contract?” Tellani: “The gods will pick at your soul like vultures to a carcass. Whoever gets the biggest chunk will determine what they want to do with you. You’ve let others dictate your fate your whole life. I offer you the chance to take your fate into your own hands.”

She released Anddos and disappeared.

The Journey to Farfield

The Factions knew they had to reach Farfield immediately. The journey would be long, but urgent; they had to arrive before the Lich reformed fully. Meanwhile, Los’s lieutenants would begin to activating their undead pools inside and around settlements as the arcane signal from Los’s death made its way to them.

The Factions weighed their options. They could rush straight there to prevent Los’s reformation, or delay to save cities along the way. Kaelith found a third option: he could use druidic magic to walk the factions into a tree in Sump and emerge from a tree he’s seen and remembers anywhere else, so from the tree in Ezra’s garden in Farfield.

From the moment Los’s true body died, every second was costly. After slaying Los, the factions had sheathed the false blade, searched the fortress, compiled the documents, and traveled back to the Hall of Robes. Fayeth had spent over half a day rebuilding the Thaumic Sextant. Before departing, she asked for one final delay to prepare a contingency spell, ensuring that if a hostile cast a spell on her, a protection ward would erupt around her and her allies.

Farfield

The Factions arrived through the portal in Ezra’s garden. The geese the team had cleared out previously had returned, now undead. Swatting them away, the party looked out to see Farfield overrun with undead from the graveyard.

They rushed to usher the last of the survivors toward Garland’s Tower.

![[Garland’s Tower.png|500]]

The tower was surrounded by the horde, including Broghen Mayweather, who had turned into a zombie.

The Factions engaged the horde and Broghen. Suddenly, Kaelith detected movement from the tree line. Grot the Goat leaped out, fueled by the enchantments imbued in his goat form, now raised as a minotaur-like creature. Bleating in rage, Grot sought revenge.

![[Grot the Goat.png|500]]

The horde swallowed Thano, but the goliath began tearing through corpses with his greatsword from inside the mass of bodies. Fayeth and Anddos distracted Broghen while Kaelith blocked Grot. Thano broke free as the horde collapsed, pulling Grot toward him and freeing Kaelith to blast Broghen Mayweather with an energy spell.

Broghen fell, allowing Fayeth and Anddos to finish off the rest of the horde. Thano sliced through Grot, ending the beast.

Inside Garland’s Tower

Garland’s Tower stood defiant against the gloom, a magical barrier flickering weakly around it. Inside, Garland sheltered the survivors.

Garland: “I’ve got them safe here for now, but I can’t hold off all the undead soldiers for long when they arrive.”

He explained he was using a crystal artifact to generate the shield, but it required constant concentration. He urged the Factions to get to the phylactery quickly.

While the others spoke with Garland and pinpointed the blade’s location, Anddos stepped outside. Xalvakor appeared.

Xalvakor: “A new challenge. Disrupt the shield. Ensure it falls after you leave.”

Anddos rejected the challenge. He opened the door to the tower, calling out to the others.

Anddos: “I’m about to kill Xalvakor!”

The devil proved a challenge, but Thano knocked him to the ground and prevented him from deflecting the party’s spells. As Xalvakor died, Anddos seized his contract from the devil’s body.

Anddos: “Fayeth, the sheath.”

Taking the sheath, Anddos walked to the edge of the treeline, away from the others, just in case. Anddos tried shoving the contract into the sheath.

Litch Campaign Session 18

Prologue

Thano had lived under Skullcrusher at sea, and adventured across the realms on land with The Factions. He had the wish of a djinn at his disposal, but uncertainty plagued him; did he even know what he wanted? Whatever he desired would have to wait. The hour was late, and his mission came first.

Kaelith had traveled the realms, learning much of the surface world. He had gained more wisdom of the heavenly bodies than he ever could have hoped for in the underdark. Yet, the meaning of the new constellation eluded him. Tonight, clouds blocked the night sky and the world was shrouded in darkness while he contemplated the gravity of his mission.

Fayeth grew up in the capital city, the daughter of a noble family. Descended from a great wizard with a grand legacy. She had fixed his device, proven her worth, but now that the device has led her here, she paused with doubt and fear. Did she truly have what it took to complete her mission?

Anddos’s songs were known across the lands. He had entertained guests, gate guards, and even goats. One could say Kaelith shouldn’t have been concerned with the clouds, when he need only glance at Anddos to see a star. But Anddos felt like a fraud.

He had exchanged his soul for talent—a depraved act made on a whim. That easy manipulation attracted powerful forces seeking to use him as a tool. With what little willpower he retained, he waited until the eleventh hour, now making a desperate attempt to free himself by forcing his contract into the sheath of all things.

Desperate. Pathetic. Unsuccessful.

He grunted, twisting the paper, trying to shove it into the priceless artifact meant to save endless lives. Fayeth stepped toward him, concerned for him but mostly for the sheath as he hunched over it. “Anddos, please. You don’t know what that will do to you or the sheath,” she pleaded. But he knew; it was time to move forward. He had a mission to complete.

Find the Litch. Kill the Litch.

Just as defeat loosened his grip on the contract, the sheath sucked it in, pulverizing it to dust. The infernal ink was violently stripped from his soul, but the process deformed it, flattening his emotional spectrum. His wonderous sense of life began to fade. He became an observer. As a Bard, his music remained technically perfect, but the performance felt hollow. The magic in his music began to fade with every spell.

Descent into the Vault

With the townsfolk relatively safe and Garland holding the shield, The Factions turned their attention to the true objective. Following the Sextant, they entered the cave system containing the loop. A side tunnel had been intentionally collapsed—a hasty measure by Los to seal his phylactery. He was confident his victory would be absolute before anyone could disturb it.

Experienced and capable, the Factions cleared the rubble without trouble. They descended into the cave system, navigating a winding network of rough, dark tunnels. As they pressed deeper, the air turned acrid, stinging their lungs. Puddles on the ground hissed and bubbled, pools of concentrated acid eating away at the stone.

Finally, the jagged cave walls gave way to smooth, black masonry. The chaotic natural tunnels transitioned into a place of cold, refined order. They had entered the Litch’s lair.

They entered a workspace filled with stacks of books, journals, and notes. One book detailed the anatomy of various great beasts, dragons and the like, filled with more lore than there was time to read. A list of random musings lay to the side, capturing stray thoughts about the nature of eternal life, spirals, and the dispersal of “The Book” to titans.

As they neared the door to the next chamber, the faint outline of a phrase shimmered: “All Emotion”. Inside the chamber, several metal contraptions resembling altars held bodies within their banding. Plates on the outside identified them: a 30-year-old female human, Jenny Thatcher; a mid-30s shapeshifter named Kayla; and Silverside, an older male high elf with green-veined skin. These bodies, linked to people of power throughout the region, remained in stasis—potential tools to be used if the need arose.

Fayeth noticed the Sextant humming with signals coming from a wall marked “All matter”. She found a stone mechanism that slid the wall open, revealing a small storage vault. A hoard of goblets, jewelry, artifacts, and family heirlooms filled the space. Chests overflowed with coins and gems, all pilfered from thousands of graves. They had no time to sift through the mountains of wealth, though Thano gripped a quick handful of gold.

Moving on, they entered a dark chamber lit by torches. Written on the wall were the words, “All things divine”. The center contained a meditative area littered with loose papers, notes, and poorly written poems. One slip of paper read:

“Twinkle twinkle little eye In your socket, wet and shy

Stars so bright, Eyes so white Rip them out to watch them die

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star …”

It was crude, but the intent was clear. Pushing deeper into the complex, the group discovered a massive room, its ceiling painted to mimic the night sky—but the stars were wrong. They moved, shifting like living eyes. In the center, strapped to a copper table, was Seraphina, the blind Royal Astronomer Kaelith had met in the Capital.

She was dead, her body eerily preserved. The top of her skull had been replaced with a crystal dome, her brain pulsing with frantic light inside. Her empty eye sockets were filled with the same “iridescent black fluid” found in Sylvia’s amulet, projecting a muddled map of the stars onto the ceiling.

Kaelith approached a lectern holding a journal of star sketches. He looked from the crude poem to the projected map, realizing the sketches didn’t just show the stars—they showed the order in which they were to be extinguished.

“He’s not just mapping them,” Kaelith whispered, horrified. “He’s hunting them. Mortals, Titans, Gods… they’re just noise to him. He plans to silence them all to experience the ‘true’ world beyond.” The realization settled over them: Los wasn’t just a madman; he was trying to conquer the gods themselves.

The Gauntlet

Satisfied that they understood the stakes, they pressed on. Along the floor of the next corridor, the lettering continued: “All spawned from darkness”.

A thick, magical fog consumed the path deeper into the tomb, rolling between black and bone white. The field was hazardous; any magical gear carried into it would act like a lightning rod and be destroyed. It smelled of taffy. Fayeth realized the sextant could detect the fog’s natural frequency. She used detection magic to temporarily shift the frequency of their gear, allowing them to time their crossing. They traded items to create the best chance of getting everything across intact.

Beyond the fog, stacks of disjointed mirrors lined the stone hallway. Fayeth tried a thunder spell to clear them, but it was amplified back, knocking her over. Anddos played a tune, matching the echo that resonated with the mirrors. They began with small internal fractures that propagated outward until the panes splintered and shattered.

The hallway terminated suddenly at a cliff overlooking a larger chamber. Gaping holes in the walls and floor had filled with a pool of greenish water, polluting the air with a stinging odor. Thano found the water too acidic to cross on foot. Fayeth pulled him through a limited portal, Anddos used a flying cowl, and Kaelith crossed as a small bird. Under the trickling water, Kaelith spotted the words “For which is owed.” When Thano stepped onto the land opposite the pool, the gold coins he had snatched began to magically eat away at his flesh. He quickly tossed the cursed sack away, brushing off the pain.

“Darkness assured”. The words were smeared with blood trailing down the hallway to a supply room filled with basic necessities Los would need upon rebirth.

Finally, a large stone door blocked their path, impossible to lift or destroy. It whispered a simple puzzle: “In the dominion of what, what prevails?”

Thano and Fayeth guessed incorrectly and were punished with a thunderous boom. Kaelith, recalling the words from the mountain fortress, stepped forward. “In the dominion of light.”

Anddos finished the line. “Darkness prevails.”

The door slid open.

The Inner Sanctum

The hallway opened into a large, rough cave chamber flooded with acidic liquid, where only a few rocky outcroppings stood clear. On the far wall, grafted to the stone, was an organic aperture—tightly closed but leaking bile. The ever-present sting in the air failed to mask the smell of vile rot. Los had built an organic chamber to place the dagger in the stomach of a purple worm zombie, rearranging its body to produce corrosive acid that dissolved everything but the blade.

Squeezing through the sphincter, they entered the internal tract of the great beast, horrifically altered to meet the Litch’s specifications. Around a corner, a set of stairs rose above the bile trickling into the pouch where they stood. To their right, sewn into the wall, was the great worm’s mouth. A guttural belch brought a wave of rotten odor and a fresh gush of bile.

The Factions ran deeper into the chamber to escape.

The stairs were steep and slick. At the top, on a platform, the blade rested. A half-formed figure floated above it—Los, the scholar of death, drawing mass from his phylactery. He reacted to their presence without words, moving as if fighting in a dream state. “Mine! Only me! Me! Die. Die! Diediediedie!”

He raised his hands to protect his last link to this world. The tongue of the worm erupted from the side, drenched in juices, and lashed at them. Los’s reforming body blasted necrotic bolts downward, pushing the Factions back as they struggled to reach the top.

The blade was locked physically and magically; these locks had to be removed before it could be sheathed.

Thano pulled on the blade, but touching it sent horrific pain down his arm, blasting him down the stairs. Fayeth rushed in, straining her powers to break the arcane ward. Kaelith, shape-changed into a giant lizard, wrestled the blade but was snatched away by the worm’s tongue. Thano returned, enlarged, grabbing the blade again. Necrotic damage withered his arm as he pulled with all his strength.

Anddos blasted Los with fire, disrupting him. Kaelith, wrapped by the worm’s tongue, lashed out with tremendous jaws, biting down hard until it released him. Finally, Thano cracked the blade out of its lock, his arm turning black with necrotic force. He turned to face Fayeth.

She held out the sheath. He pushed the blade in.

It snapped into place, drawn by a magnetic hunger. Viscous black smoke erupted from the seam, but the artifact flared with blinding light, dragging the darkness back in and incinerating it. Los’s reforming vestige dissipated with a final, mournful wail. A pale white mist drifted from the steel, lingering for a moment before floating away. Los was gone.

The room fell silent, save for the dripping of bile. The Factions stood amidst the carnage, catching their breath. Fayeth checked her wounds, Kaelith slithered back toward the group, and Thano gripped the hilt of his sword, nodding to Anddos. They had done it. They had eradicated Los. But the sheath remained heavy. Another presence stirred within.

At first, it was just a distortion. Particles of shadow coalesced around the weapon, bleeding outward like ink in water. The momentum built into a vortex of silence and cold until a figure stepped from the void. After three millennia of imprisonment, The Darkest of Shadows was free. She wasted no time.

She sliced through Thano and the others as she rushed toward the exit. Anddos blasted her with fire; Kaelith blocked her path. Thano swung his sword, and Fayeth cast a force cage, funneling her toward Kaelith. As Thano lashed at her, she deflected his blows with her glaive, forcing him back. Kaelith snapped her up in his jaws, pulverizing her before spitting her out.

The Avatar of Silence collapsed into the bile, her form sizzling.

The world was rid of two ancient evils. The Factions stood victorious.

But before relief could settle, Anddos’s hair stood on end. Kaelith sensed a violent tear in the Weave. Fayeth felt the magic in the room invert. Thano saw her first.

![[Tellani and Darkest of Shadows.png|500]]

Tellani erupted from the empty air, her blades sinking deep into the Darkest’s sternum and collarbone—a predator claiming its kill. There was no speech, no gloating. The black smoke that once formed the Avatar spiraled out from the corpse, and Tellani inhaled it in a single, terrifying breath. She offered the party a brief, wry grin.

Exhausted, they raised their weapons for one last impossible fight, but a tunnel of inky darkness enveloped the new Avatar of Silence. In a heartbeat, the tunnel collapsed, and Tellani was gone.

Epilogue

Jenny Thatcher & Farfield

Hesitantly leaving the silent chamber, The Factions heard a cry echoing from the darkness. Following the sound, they found Jenny Thatcher, alive and weeping, locked in one of the metal cages.

The sheath had done its work—trading the energy of Los’s destruction to resurrect the first innocent slain by his hand. Garland had ordered Alaric to craft the sheath but the legendary enchanter realized that Garland didn’t need revenge; he needed his wife back.

They guided her gently into the gray light of dawn.

![[Garland and Jenny.png|500]]

Farfield was ravaged, but the Factions’ earlier efforts had saved countless lives. The dead would be buried, and peace would slowly return.

Fayeth & Andes Capital

Widespread annihilation was averted, but scars remained. Fayeth mourned the destruction of Andes Capital for the rest of her days. Yet, she pulled herself from grief to do what the Hall of Robes never could.

![[Fayeth building Mage’s Guild.png|500]]

She established a network of academies across the continent, built upon key Ley Line nodes to harness their natural power. These schools existed to teach not just the casting of spells, but the responsibility they entailed. Never again would ignorance be an excuse to dismiss the threats that lurked in the dark.

The Kingdom of Andes fractured. Without the capital, Summergate and other settlements were left to forge their own destinies in a brave new world.

Anddos & Zatar

With the sheath in his possession, Anddos worked to free others from their infernal contracts, though the price was high. He saved their souls, but left them wondering if the cost was worth it.

He traveled the southern lands, seeking a song that could make him feel… anything.

![[Anddos Plays.png|500]]

Thano

![[Thano Epilogue.jpeg|500]]

Thano returned to Skullcrusher. Without the Kingdom to serve, Skullcrusher and his crew did not become merchant marines. He didn’t spend his wish.

Kaelith & Valar

With gold, magic, and the aid of Fayeth’s new guild, Kaelith constructed an observatory in the ruins of Shaa Thalas.

![[Kaelith and Valar.png|500]]

One night, Kaelith peered through the lens while Valar translated another obscure passage. The litch had mapped the powers of reality reflected in the stars—flashes of light and color across the cosmos. They formed a higher life form and it was this the litch sought to kill and resurrect. To be the only true conscious being.

Los considered his dominating the life form as necessary to protect himself within it from the things he saw coming from outside.

The words hung heavy in the air as the stars in the scope swelled, brighter and closer, consuming the light around them. Kaelith backed away, the blood draining from his face. He now knew what the stars were. They were something from somewhere else, beyond the planes of reality.

Kaelith turned to Valar. “Grab your hat. And your whip.” The two vanished into the night, on another adventure.