Campaign:Illuminate

THE SETUP
Princess Millefeuille (Milly) Saint-Valentin of Norfolk’s 20th Birthday party is the catalyst for everything that brings the party to where they are now. Everything that happens at that party sets things in motion to ultimately bring each of the players to the Afterlife and the set of the Trial of Reincarnation. A set of tests that they will undergo to bring back their souls to their bodies on the Material Plane.

During the party Rico St. Christian, an incubus and ex-worker for that layer of hell, leads Milly through the first dance at her birthday party to which the Princess is unfortunately assassinated by Foster who had been pretending to be her servant over the years under the alias Zoe Goldburg who had a hit on her for a long time at the request of the assassin group they belonged to called the Family. During the dance Milly dies in Rico’s arms. Rico, who is indebted to Milly’s mom from helping him after he was cast out of hell and had his wings ripped off, is enraged and chases after Foster.

However, it is during this time that things are already set into motion. The person who ordered the hit on Milly is a woman by the name of Savrina. She shows up on this day because she had a vision from the Goddess Pharasma (goddess of death, fate, and destiny) who she is a worshipper and Oracle of that the world was going to end as everyone knew it by a man called Athan unless these four specific heroes were brought to the Afterlife and pushed into the Trial of Reincarnation.

After Milly is dead Savrina kills Tobias from entering the castle to aid his friend Zoe (Foster)’s escape. Rico nearly catches up to Foster, but is cut off by people who are sworn into Savrina’s service. Foster is shot and killed and Rico follows suit, but dies slower. The last thing he sees is his band members finding him as all four are successfully dead and Savrina has completed her mission to bring them to the Afterlife.

Each of the party members gave me 21 memories that revealed themselves over the course of the campaign once they completed sections of the trials. This is a standard for every single person who takes the trials. I also requested all of the PCs make memories that intertwined with each other and each of them had some sort of relationship to each other.

GAME START
The party wakes up having 1 memory off their list. Tobias remembers his little sister and hopes to return to her, Foster remembers that he is in charge of a hit on Milly, Milly remembers her birthday before she is shot only remembering Rico pulling her up to dance, and Rico remembers a debt he had to Milly’s mother the Queen who saved him.

The area around them is a barren wasteland except for a golden lantern. Eventually the group is approached by a man in skeletal armor accompanied by a smaller man in all robes and a white/gold mask. Thanatos explains to them that they are dead but have the opportunity to save their souls and return back to the mortal world if they complete a series of tasks. If they refuse he will usher their souls across the River Styx. He produces a contract for the Trials. In completing them each of the members is also granted one wish in order to help them restart their new lives as reborn souls. The group can either choose to be reborn as themselves or start over as a brand new person.

Signing onto the task the party is chained and bound to each other. The caveat being that if any of them dies then the entire group dies. The risk of the Trial of Reincarnation is that if you do die while you’re only a soul, you will cease to exist in the records of history. Still the group signs onto the task.

The Contract: Terms of Agreement
By signing this document you are entitled to on the day of XX in the year XXXX a boon by the Mother of Souls; a chance to take the Trial of Reincarnation. In order to complete the trial certain rules must be agreed to as follows:


 * 1) All who sign this document must complete the Trial’s tests within their respective time limit
 * 2) The Trial’s tests will be noted by a symbol along with a time period listed once the symbol is touched
 * 3) Once a Trial test is started it must be completed
 * 4) All who sign this document must stay alive throughout this Trial
 * 5) If one is to die, the rest shall fail
 * 6) The Lady of Graves agrees to provide a place of repose and a guide for your journey
 * 7) This guide will act as an assistant to your journey, he may not complete tasks for you or reveal the trial’s secrets
 * 8) In order to commence with the Trial’s tests, you must prove your worth and commitment to this agreement, and complete the first test without your guide
 * 9) Your word is bound to this contract, and only blood will seal your fate

If the agreed fail in their task by violating the rules and terms of this Agreement, their souls shall be cast down to the void as is customary in the Boneyard.

If the agreed succeed in their task an extra boon will be granted by the Lady of Graves in addition to your reincarnated life:


 * You may take with you two objects from this realm; they will be with you when you awaken in the realm of the living.

Signed,

Foster Burke

Rico St. Christian

Millefeuille Saint-Valentin

Tobias Armistice

The City of Repose
After signing: the test begins: Find your way out of this area and to the City of Repose.

Their first Trial requires a Leap of Faith off the side of a cliff and restores one more of their memories as they enter the City of Repose. A safe city in the world of the Afterlife that is home to the Goddess Pharasma, Thanatos and his brothers who are demigods of Sleep and Violent Death.

The party takes shelter in a tavern and discovers that everything is free in the Afterlife as they have no money, equipment, any of their class abilities or food. They are also introduced to their guide! A nervous and somewhat shy man who goes by Nameless. Nameless is very curious about them and they all get along well.

Nameless explains when the next Trial arrives that they are set to recover important items from their past. The group finds an item of Tobias’s that links him to his druidship in the form of his partner, a hawk named Haw’key and Zoe (Foster)’s sniper rifle first, the rifle was surrounded by ghostly members of the Family to show they’re always watching Foster even from the Afterlife. On the journey to recover Milly’s item they discover that her “item” is actually her familiar, a cat who is actually Milly’s mentor and likes to lay across Rico’s shoulders. Rico’s item is last and it is his guitar Muerte.

In getting their personal items and completing the trial they gain more memories. Most importantly Foster remembers he was well involved in instances where Rico’s band played and the two really don’t like each other (well at least Foster thinks that). Rico remembers his wings being ripped from him, Milly remembers her sister and Tobias remembers that his sister is actually dead.

They traverse into the forest and come across a giant black wolf who Nameless instructs has one of the trials that they will need to complete strapped to his leg. The wolf is named Andreios and has been watching the party for quite some time, but thinks of them as insignificant and to prove their worth engages in a fight with them. Eventually the party proves themselves and Andreios gives them the note.

The note they have points them in the direction that if they have questions to seek out the High Priestess. Nameless instructs them that he knows where she is and leads them back to the City of Repose, and Andreios disappears into the forest but continues to keep an eye on Tobias. Andreios has his own reasons for being there unknown to the party at this time.

The group travels to the high tower in the very center of the City of Repose and discovers Savrina, who they all have forgotten doing a tarot reading with another woman next to her. The party is introduced to Merla who is a shapeshifting crow woman who DESPISES Tobias because he has a hawk familiar and is hawk-themed which Crows despise outright. She picks on him and tells Savrina that she will be in her forge. She tells the party that her services are open to them as she is the City’s leading Blacksmith.

Savrina describes that Trials can sometimes be hidden by marks and when Milly who is embarrassed because she thinks Savrina is pretty shakes her hand their next Trial starts. An enormous purple wurm is threatening to pull down the tower and at the fear of the city turning to rubble the party goes to fight it.

The battle is tough but they gain more memories back as a result and have their powers restored with a heavily anticipated level up. They are angry at Savrina for not warning them about it but Milly tries to cool off everyone and apologies to Savrina. The group decides to go seek out Merla for weapon improvements/armor. Merla welcomes all of them except for Tobias warmly as she is annoyed by another man who is leaning over her work desk.

His name is Athan and the man who will end the world as people know it. He’s a very cheerful Paladin human man who is overly friendly with the party. Rico hates him within seconds of meeting him.

Athan is a fairly tall man, human with crisp golden hair that’s pushed up. He looks to be a fighter with a light elven blade strapped to his side and a cheerful demeanor. He’s pressuring Merla about a weapon that he wanted made, and she’s resisting. Her hands are a little tied, technically in his contract through the Trial she’s required to assist him as is normal with anyone who takes the trial. She’s a part of Pharasma’s assistance provided to Trial goers along with Savrina and Thanatos. All three of them are bound to the contract. Merla will also explain that the Trial is a separate entity from Gods, and it was the Spirits who originally crafted its terms and agreements. The Gods just took the Trial and made it their own and had a small hand in shaping it to what it is today. Even if Merla herself were to die, the contract would stand, same is for any part of the contract, Pharasma included.

Regardless. Athan wants Merla to repair parts of an ancient sword he found while on his travels through the trial. Merla is hesitant because the sword has remnants of evil, but Athan believes he can purify it. Athan is part Paladin so it is fairly possible, but Merla remains skeptical. She knows Athan fairly well, she’s seen both him and Foster many times, and has tried to keep the information to herself, per the request of Savrina and Thanatos: Savrina especially because they are best friends.

If Merla repairs the sword, Athan will use it to kill Pharasma (Merla does not know this). Savrina has seen this future occur, and is incredibly wary of Athan, she won’t let Athan touch her for this reason. He is inwardly evil from the number of times he’s been reincarnated but the party has no idea about this at this point. A side effect to the Trial and facet Viedro originally implemented when he created the Trial. It was meant to add more people to his ranks and also to dissuade people from trying to come back too many times.

Anyone who touches Athan will have a chance for their memories to be corrupted, this is due to the skipping and hacking pattern that he and his best friend/accomplice Marcel have been doing. Mostly Marcel. Anyone who looks at Athan can tell he’s very strong and capable. If the party wishes they could also take him along on the excursion for Merla. He’ll try to invite himself along in order to assist Merla and gain her favor to help re-create the sword.

The party even in the times they do touch Athan never have their memories corrupted by EXCEPTIONALLY good dice rolls lmfao. But Athan still invites himself along on their next two Trial quest which is to help Merla regain her hammar back from a nest of ghosts. Part of their quest is to deal with some nasty monsters that have infected the Dark Forest outside the City. In doing so regains them more memories, but really the biggest part is when they arrive at The Soul Pools, where the Ethereal Hammer (Merla’s hammer)  is said to reside and the party finds it in.

Where the spectre is located. She is nameless, a figure lost to history. Nameless will relate a lot to the spectre and want to help her, but will follow the party’s lead. She’s hell bent on revenge, so trying to speak with her might prove fruitless. Rico attempts diplomacy but is thwarted by a bad take by Athan and they end up in combat. The party manages to put her soul at rest and return the hammer to Merla who joins them as a party member and they gain more memories back. In this Rico discovers he was basically a Knight for the Queen of Vandalia and it shapes more of his image because he has not remembered he’s a Rockstar yet lmfao.

The group rendez-vous back in the City of Repose and Merla decides to take them all out to a strip club run by her cousin as a thank you for returning her hammer to her. They ditch Athan on the way who parts on good terms. Merla tells him she will repair the sword since he did help. The group gets drunk at the club and invites some NPCs, discovering they can invite not only Savrina and Nameless along but also manage to convince Thanatos to come along. Merla explains that her and Savrina have been best friends since forever and Thanatos is exceptionally uncomfortable the entire time.

Rico discovers that Thanatos cannot feel emotions and has never really felt “love” and takes it upon himself to help find Thanatos’s true love for him. Much to the other man’s refusals. The group also convinces Nameless to take off his mask and discover that he’s a partial Dragonborn man. He’s not sure why he looks the way he does but is exceptionally embarrassed and shy about it. The party reassures him that they like him the way he is and he grows very fond of them.

In their downtime between Trials Milly gets up the guts to ask Savrina to hang out with the intention of asking her out on a date. Savrina accepts and the two have a cute little date. Milly gets up the courage to ask but Savrina turns her down gently.

Savrina will say that while she’s flattered by the offer, she can’t accept any forward gestures of affection. She will tell Milly that she doesn’t know herself, that she could be missing something and be making a terrible mistake. That Savrina’s place is here and pursuing anything further would just cause Milly heartbreak if she were to be serious. If asked if she saw it in her future she’ll admit she can’t see any future with herself in it. She’ll try to give Milly a chance to speak, but will say that she feels it would be in their best interest to complete the trial so that she doesn’t get involved with her, and then she can best assist the party’s needs should they require her fortune telling services.

Savrina is especially sad about this fact, but if asked she’ll talk a little about Nameless and her history with him. But Milly doesn’t. But even then Savrina cannot reveal too much, because it is forbidden for her to delve too deep into her own past with Pharasma’s current contract still intact.

Merla collects the group after they’ve rested and allows them to pick out items out of her armory! Tobias picks out a Crowfeather cloak much to Merla’s distaste but he openly flirts with her and she just gets mad about it and tells them to hurry up. Rico gets Boots of Dashing Rescue, Foster gets twin pistols called Vice and Virtue that do radiant/necrotic damage and Milly opts for a new set of heavy armor.

Tobias discovers a box in Merla’s workshop and steals it, inside are four tarot cards: Sun, Death, Fool and Hermit. Rico takes the Death and Sun cards immediately and Tobias gives the others to Foster.

At the end of this the party is pulled into another conflict as they are requested by Merla again to help with a ghost problem. They also encounter Athan’s Trial party as the problem is too big for one Reincarnation group alone. She explains that the Trials are also a set of using the groups in order to help keep peace and order in the Afterlife. During the battle Rico activates the Death Tarot and summons Thanatos to the battlefield turning the tide of the fight much to the death demigod’s displeasure along with the Sun Card. Rico uses this as an opportunity to one-up Athan despite the other man continuing to be over-friendly with the demon after the battle. Foster also activates Fool and Hermit, but the after effects are unclear after the dust settles.

With the ghost problem solved more memories are restored. Thanatos yells at Rico for using the card and immediately heals him, removing any negative effects of the Death and Sun cards that Rico wouldn’t have experienced yet. He says that using the cards recklessly would have eaten away at his life. Rico brushes it off though.

THE TURNING POINT
Nameless instructs that the next Trial is directed by Pharasma herself and is a turning point in their journey but he can’t say much more than that but looks worried. The group returns to the City of Repose to find a new enormous door present in the middle of town. Carved into it are various names in pairs with the title “The Lovers” at the top. The party knows that Nameless also has a crush on Savrina the same as Milly but find out that Savrina and Athan’s names are carved together on the door which gains them some confusion, and in Rico’s case scorn.

They decide to take a break before going through the door, spending time with NPCs and one another. Rico hangs out with Thanatos and asks him about his brothers, Milly tries to do some work with her cat in improving magic, Tobias has a heart to heart with Merla and Foster and Nameless talk about the last fight. Merla is stolen away as Savrina looks nervous and talks to her in private.

Merla returns to the party with grave news that Savrina had a vision that the Goddess Pharasma is going to be killed. Rico spearheads the operation under the pretext that fate/destiny is what you make it and that they can save Pharasma. They gather everyone and head in through The Lovers door starting the next Trial. In this trial it states that someone will die. But who it is is up to the party’s actions.

In this mission I set it up where Pharasma, Thanatos or Lovely were options to die.

Through the mission the group discovers there’s an assassin in the mix at this ballroom dance party that Pharasma is throwing as her “Going Away” party because she believes it’s her fate and destiny to go because of the vision. The party discovers this assassin is the demigod Lovely who is a close acquaintance to Thanatos who shows up to try and stop them in a tussle with Foster while Rico distracts Athan on the dance floor after seeing that Merla had repaired the sword and rolled high enough to realize that the sword had God Killing properties. Poor Rico in that despite getting over a 30 on his performance roll to upstage Athan he rolls a nat 20.

They lose track of Athan and he makes a scene in the middle of the floor and tries to kill Pharasma. Despite everything Athan is much too powerful and no one’s attacks seem to connect or do anything except for a lucky nat 20 and he stabs Pharasma through and kills her. Pharasma’s destiny comes true and the whole ballroom falls apart and the group is transported back to the City of Repose and gain more memories. In these memories with Pharasma dead include all of the details of Savrina killing all of them.

The party grills Savrina who looks unregretful for her actions but also Lovely who flippantly explains that they were there all along to kill Athan and have been hunting him for ages. They fill in the gaps about Athan taking the Trial of Reincarnation over and over again for centuries which is a VERY BAD thing to do as it corrupts your soul dying over and over and over again. Thanatos, Nameless, Merla and Savrina under the Trial contact couldn’t have told the party that so Lovely takes the lead on filling them in on a few details.

With Pharasma dead Savrina explains her relationship with Athan went back centuries and also involved Nameless who the party also discovers has also been recovering parts of his memory at the same time the party has. Nameless is upset and more of his memory fits into place as he truly remembers who Athan is to him but keeps it from the party and also is upset that Savrina murdered the party members to bring them here. The party doesn’t end up killing Savrina there because Milly stops them, despite Rico, Foster and Tobias wanting to.

It’s not long after the Afterlife starts to fall apart with the post of the Goddess of Death gone. Enormous rips and tears open up all over the place (this comes up in Disavow as Illuminate and Disavow run somewhat concurrently). These enormous void pillars almost suck Rico in on a bad dexterity save but Nameless saves him.

Thanatos, in order to keep everything from falling apart, petitions for the position of God of Death and is given a temporary hold over it, keeping the tears from getting any worse. However it is exceptionally taxing and takes a heavy toll on Thanatos as he is not powerful enough to hold all of the Afterlife in check. The party goes on a quest in order to fix the tears and find a new god/goddess of Death so Thanatos won’t perish in keeping things stable.

Merla explains that her crow clan has a record of history that they could use to help them locate the next Death Deity also that her family is in charge of knowing who the next person should be. Tobias leaves and thinks about leaving the party for good but is stopped by Andreios who talks to him about it and the mess of memories he’s been going through. Andreios lets slip that he’s looking for someone in the Afterlife and that Thanatos has been the one chasing him all over the place and kicking him out every time. That mortals can’t exist very long in the Afterlife which is probably why Savrina killed them but doesn’t say she’s right in her actions.

Tobias returns to the party to a somewhat thankful Merla (which is odd to him) and the group goes to Thanatos’s house to tell him their plans. They meet Thanatos’s middle brother (he’s the youngest) Hypnos who is a demigod over those who die in their sleep/pass in ways that are not peaceful nor violent who thanks the party for taking care of his youngest brother. Hypnos is different than his brother and expresses emotions but is a narcoleptic and falls asleep on them about four times through a conversation.

Thanatos eventually shoos his brother away and looks exhausted and drained. He gives the party Nightmares from his personal stables (fire ghost horses) and the party names them all emo names, I think one is named Raven Dementia Way. And the party is seen off by Thanatos who in a final scene drops to the ground and has to be helped up by his brother.

The group is joined now by Lovely and Lovely asks them for a favor on their quest in order to bring two ghosts who were lovers in a past life together. During the trip however Rico insists that Lovely cannot just “make” people fall in love and have domain over it and challenges the fact that Lovely has Cupid’s bow and arrow. Lovely, being offended that anyone would say they’re Wrong shoots the entire party with the arrows making everyone fall in love with each other. Rico falls for Foster, Tobias for Milly, etc. Rico is livid the entire time and holds a grudge against Lovely for this.

They end up helping the lovers and discover a treasure trove including an ancient heirloom of Milly’s. The group then resumes travel while watching the Afterlife slowly crumbling apart as Thanatos is losing his hold on everything.

THE AKAASHIC RECORD
They arrive at the crow's enclave and Rico charms them all into believing that he is a possible lover for Merla in order to get them all in. It also helps that the two of them are very good friends and manage to pull it off.

There are very few of her kind that exist in this town, for reasons harkening back to the gods’ war. But it is nestled into the mountains, where the homes are treehouses and a lot of the food is very bizarre. Merla feels very uncomfortable around her family that is very traditionalist. The tradition of Merla’s family is that you have a pair bond, and that only they have you in body, mind, and heart. Her family has great sixth sensory powers and also that of weapon-shifting. Only your pair bond can wield you as you decide through ceremony that they are an extension of yourself. Most of her family only take one pair bond in their long lifetime. It is rarely heard of for you to take more than one. Her family also has a pact with death to help keep balance between the land of the living and the dead.

Merla’s grandmother will tell them about the Winter Solstice and that the choice of the next death god will be something to keep in mind. As per their tradition, normally what happens is it is her family that helps decide who should be the best to take up the new position. They do have a candidate listed, Caspian Nexus who gained power of the dead and used to be a cleric of a sun goddess. But if the party has a candidate they had in mind, Lacina would be willing to hear them out.

An old letter comes for them in the form of a prayer from the angel Altair. He brings the prayers of those deceased to those who can save others. Altair is a bright angel with light blue and blond hair in a fade. It rests about medium length  and part of it is tied back in a ponytail. He’s a bit easygoing, but pretty business-like, not flippant like Lovely. It is a prayer from Savrina’s younger brother Valeri who is dead, but has not passed on yet, due to his soul being captured in an object on the material plane. He cannot leave, but his reflection has sentience in the Akaashic Record due to this. His letter is beautifully scripted, old and yellowed at the edges. It describes that he wishes to meet with those that would save the world and to express his gratitude. He wants to share why the party of four is the reason why they’re the ones to help save the world. He’s a blind man, but with amazing divination and abjuration powers.

His memory sharing ability shows visions as he has similar divining power to Savrina. He shares the reason why all four of them were picked. Pharasma had a vision of those who would save the world from decaying and if a vision doesn’t have all of the four in the vision then the world cannot be saved from Athan:

If Milly is missing:


 * The team falls apart, the rest of the team isn’t able to muster through and morale dissipates. The pressure cracks and there is an insurmountable amount of negative energy and the party can’t fight at full strength with it there. In addition to protection, Rico falls without her watching her back.

If Rico is missing:


 * There isn’t enough strength to pull the party through, his martial strength is powerful and so is his spell resourcefulness. Without him Milly definitely dies on the front lines and the party has to fall back, they can’t get close to Athan. His natural charisma helps all of the party gain allies to help in their fight and allow them to focus on their goal.

If Foster is missing:


 * His resourcefulness is a definite loss and the party is overwhelmed before even getting to Athan. A lot of Marcel’s mind tricks are negated and Foster helps keep the heat off of the party so they can fight Athan at full strength. All of their allied help falls without his help.

If Tobias is missing:


 * Loss of useful terrain spells and cunning that Tobias contributes to the party is sorely missed as the party falls prey to a multitude of traps and tricks. His nature-based skills help him employ a multitude of ways to lead the enemies the party fights to their end.

In addition Valeri shows them Nameless’s past and Nameless is overcome with all the knowledge of this.

However due to the memories that have been collected at this time turmoil starts to set in Foster and Tobias. Foster takes it upon themselves that there’s just no time left to go after Athan and decides it’s best if they leave to kill Athan themselves.

(After the game’s year long break - Introduces new party members)
Foster decides during the night to leave the group in order to pursue Athan himself on his own. A day after Tobias discovers he’s left he decides to leave as well and tries to go after him but is stopped by Merla. They have a fight and Merla is knocked out and Tobias chases after Foster. The rest of the party wakes up to find Tobias and Foster gone and a knocked out Merla who is angry and emotional about the whole thing.

She tells the party that she knew Tobias because he was also someone who had taken the Trial of Reincarnation multiple times and had fallen deep in love with him. But he always ended up leaving her to chase after Foster who was in a similar situation. So she’s sad and miserable because Tobias is chasing Foster over her yet again and swears him off her life forever.

“Session recap of what happened before Players Left:

When last we met you took a journey into the Akaashic Record, guided by Merla’s grandmother Lacina along the request of a letter from the past from Savrina’s younger brother Valeri. This was brought to you by the chipper messenger angel Altair. Valeri once inside the dreamlike memory records of the Akaashic Record told you the tale of Nameless’s struggle between the Gods and Spirits’ Great War and how Athan came to hate the powerful beings because of what happened to his friend. Valeri had nothing to say about how Athan kept himself alive after all these years/be able to take the trial of reincarnation multiple times. He asked after you that if you ever found a vessel that had the ability to read memories of the past that you would take it to someone to get purified. Whether or not you decide to do so depends. After that you exited the Record and, exhausted, sent you all off to bed. When you all awoke and headed downstairs it was clear Foster was gone, having taken all of their things as well as Tobias and you see Merla unconscious nearby.”

The ground shakes and more tears open up destroying parts of the crow’s home and ripping a hole in the sky, the party tries to help but is finally helped by Archaeon (or Arc)! Arc explains that Thanatos has been neglecting his duties as the peaceful shepherd of souls and Hypnos cannot keep up therefore he’s losing his hold on things. Arc is a warden who keeps souls from escaping the Afterlife to the mortal realm and is kind of a cop in that manner but had heard there was a group going after Athan. He wants revenge on the man who killed Pharasma who he served faithfully.

Lacina, Merla’s Grandmother, asks Arc to go with them to help them find Shali/Caspian since that’s who Milly and Rico settle on to replace Pharasma. On the way to find Shali/Caspian they find a very familiar scene of the place where Milly and Rico first ended up after their souls were transported to the Afterlife. There they are confronted by Viedro who repairs one of the rips and gives them a newly dead Rel who Viedro asks if the party would look after since he owes Viedro a BIG favor that can only be accomplished in the Afterlife. They also see the toll of Thanatos not shepherding souls has on the landscape with a million souls wandering aimlessly across the Afterlife.

Rico and Milly negotiate with Viedro to change the names on their Trial of Reincarnation contract and since Viedro was one of the original architects of it it’s an easy job for him to replace the names and also grants the party more of their memories, and in the same swipe pushes their progress along on the Trials to get Rel closer to completing the favor he needs to complete for Viedro. It gives them nearly all of their memories back, including Rel’s.

Joined by their new party members they end up seeking out Caspian who is helping wayward souls that have been injured, making them whole again in the depths of an intricate cave system in the Afterlife. Caspain is helping a person called Avery, who can talk to spirits and is an Oracle of ghosts. Alongside him is an elven monk by the name of Xanthus who has a deep connection to the world’s balance. They are attacked and the party helps them while Caspian heals Avery’s wounds. Inside the caves they find all of Foster and Tobias’s equipment and take it with them.

After the fight the party petitions Caspian to take up the mantle as the new Death God. He’s unsure about it but with Xanthus and the rest of everyone reassuring them he accepts. They go back to the crow’s home and Caspian is sworn in to replace Pharasma. Rico prays to Thanatos to summon him and tell him about the news and things are at peace but Athan is still out there. Avery suggests that if they are looking for Athan to go to a place that he knows really well where travelers between the Afterlife and Material plane reside.

On the way to Pentacles’s Domain at Avery’s insistence they run into Marcel (Athan’s tiefling right hand man) and end up bringing him down along with the other two members of Athan’s crew. They implore Thanatos to throw Marcel in prison and loot everything off his body and convince the other members to turn against Athan since he is trying to end the world’s free will. Once they get to the designated area for Avery to bring them to Pentacles’s place Avery brings out a special key and takes them to Pentacles’ Domain.

DOMAIN OF PENTACLES
Avery is well liked by Pentacles, the dapper looking skeleton who owns the place which is a hybrid storefront/bathouse. Pentacles is assisted by Ruth who is a man who is essentially owned by Pentacles. Ruth explains it’s a refuge for people who don’t quite fit or belong but really it’s a storefront above all. Pentacles questions the party if they have anything they’d like to trade or barter with. That his door is usually for those lucky few who would bring him some benefit. Pentacles will explain that he won’t mind if the party stays for the night as long as they have something to give him (he’ll take any of the objects they looted off of Marcel, otherwise Avery can give him something), he gives them open access to the bar and says they’ll be entertainment later by a performer known as La Lune.

The party has a fun time at the bar and the bath, and La Lune is a beautiful Bard Tiefling woman who goes by the name Moon. She sings like P!nk essentially. They are also briefly introduced to a wizard woman named Daria who gets along well with Arc and are told by Moon that her friend Tower lives in the basement room and is an exceptional wizard who is moody and doesn’t really get out much. But is the leading expert in most magical things here besides Pentacles.

Pentacles as a welcoming gift to all of the party offers them “one item of their choosing from behind the counter”. Rico, having been given a bell to summon Ruth to do whatever he wants, considers asking for Ruth but puts it aside for the moment as the rest of the party decides on different objects. Arc takes the gloves that remind him of his past lover, Rel takes a black whistle of unknown power and Milly takes a laurel of commanding.

After a fun night at the bathhouse the party decides to seek out Tower who lives in the basement. The wizard lives in a state of literal disarray with books towering all over the basement room and a slew of coffee cups all over the place. Different tomes are in a multitude of different languages as Rico, Arc and Rel inspect them upon entering. Tower will explain he’s grilled past workers of Pharasma and the ideas of the different trials that others have gone under, he’s even tracked down various people who have taken the trials before and interrogated them. He even found this room that Pentacles “bought” from Pharasma over a game a long time ago. It’s a more, traditional way of going about things. Around the room has pedestals all lit with a soft white-blue glow. It has numbers of all the tarot trials in a horseshoe pattern.

Tower is a grumpy wizard and isn’t really that friendly, and says he can help the party by essentially giving them ability to “speed run” the Trials since he has also been keeping an eye on Athan and tells them that he’s basically almost done and when complete he’ll escape to the material plane and complete what he sets out to do. Which Tower knows well, having monitored him for a while. Athan is planning to change the world to fit a lawful state after having been consumed by pain and revenge driven tasks against the Gods during the Gods Vs. Spirits war for killing Nameless. Athan didn’t know about Pharasma’s deal to make Nameless a permanent part of the Trial of Reincarnation to make sure he wasn’t erased from all of history as was negotiated by Savrina, but still.

Tower explains that he’s helped other Trial goers with this but clumping trials together makes the difficulty SKYROCKET. And he’s worried about it because if they fail he’ll forget them altogether. The party discovers why people don’t know Nameless in reading a book on Tower’s previous attempts to help people; they just immediately forget them as soon as they read it and get bad headaches. Rel is the only one who manages to remember some of them with a nat 20. They get some information on Tower by looking at him, seeing that he only has one arm and a starge blue mark that creeps up his neck but don’t know what it means.

The group takes on the task of moving their trials up and tacks on a big number of them to take a reasonable gamble. Tower using his magic clumps them all together and sends the party to the site of their next mission and they decide to take Merla with them, leaving Savrina alone with Tower. This takes them to the country of Norfolk where the royalty and nobility are busy preparing for the Funeral of Princess Millefeuille Saint-Valentin and Rico St. Christian.

CRASHING A FUNERAL
The party’s main goal is to protect their bodies long enough for them to return to them! To do this they are granted special ghostial abilities to help. There is a deadly game of intrigue happening in the palace, but most importantly the party gets a chance to see the NPCs they’ve been missing so dearly for so long. Specifically Rico’s bandmates and Milly’s family!

Rico has a touching moment with Twilight, a vampire member of his band and he tells all of them that he’s coming back from the dead in a grand display with the help of the other party members. They discover someone is trying to kill the King of Sorthan in order to stop a royal engagement between Milly’s sister and Prince Riordan Sorthan. Mostly because Rico finds out that Wolfgang has a huge crush on Milly’s sister but also because Riordan offended him in some way I don’t remember lmao.

They discover that Rel’s arch nemesis The Marquis had been working with Savrina to put the hit on Milly, tying Rel and Milly together. Also they find that Milly’s eldest brother had a hand in it as well as Milly was set to inherit the throne but Prince Dariole wanted it. With Milly’s sister being married off to the Sorthan prince the throne would be empty for Dariole to take. The problem is also that Rel’s body is also here somewhere that no one knows about.

They spend most of their time haunting their various NPCs and also tormenting The Marquis. Rico and Rel and Arc decide to haunt his nightmares and cause the main exorbitant distress. Eventually they find out that The Marquis has hired two hitmen, a Soul Eater named The Hunger and her partner Shrew who is a Black Blood Barbarian. Before they all rejoin to help stop the proposal Rico blows the mysterious black whistle which summons One Big Black Nightmare Horse that runs in through the castle gates and stomps on The Marquis severely injuring him. (the party had been joking the whistle summoned a thousand black horses)

In a scene that happens in the middle of Riordan trying to propose officially to Milly’s sister Palmier the party interrupts Shrew poisoning everyone’s cups to spur war and also Rico steals the engagement ring. They chase The Hunger and Shrew down to the lowest levels of the palace and find the room the two had been staying in. A battle erupts as they discover Rel and his lover Kiv’s bodies in two coffins, Kiv’s having been mutilated quite horribly to Rel’s distress. He still doesn’t remember how he and Kiv died.

The battle resides and they set up the bodies in a way that is safe. The party completes their mission and Rico tells his band that he’s going to be back soon with a tearful farewell from Twilight, Jaxx and Wolfgang. Milly ends up staying behind to watch over her family with her cat, leaving the rest of the party to continue their hunt for Athan and finish the job. (This is my personal narrative reasoning for Ethan leaving the party).

THE FINAL TOWER
Unbeknownst to the rest of the party Marcel has escaped from prison and gotten in contact with Rico’s old Incubus boss who sends assassins to “finish the job” in killing Rico. The party has to work together in order to defeat the assassins who have taken Nameless and Savrina hostage, Tower also has gone into hiding but leaves an escape route for the party. They manage to rope Ruth into it all and Rico gets some much needed anger out on the succubi and incubi who attack them. They manage to save everyone.

After that they take a much needed rest. Arc is given a Crystal Ball of True Seeing and uses it to discover new information about Ruth and Pentacles, discovering that Ruth is actually the long lost son to the Great Spirit of Wind that Pentacles has been keeping trapped under his thumb as a prize. Rel gets fancy new Rosewood armor and Rico discovers it is Thanatos’s Birthday (September 23rd)!

They throw him a big birthday party and end up giving him the black whistle which contains the ability to summon One Big Black Horse. He rolls 100 on a d100 and openly cries about being given a horse as a gift. He spends the night with Rico after that. In the day that follows the trio accompanied by Savrina, Merla and Nameless travel to the Final Tower, guided by Nameless having completed all the Trials they need. Tower explains that Athan should be waiting for them at the very top.

The Tower is more formally known as the Nettle Spire. This prison is used for keeping the worst of the worst locked away or those whom Swords is in charge of. All four suits, Swords, Wands, Pentacles and Cups do take orders from even higher powers that created this trial in the first place. They have been keeping a watchful eye on things, curious about how this all is playing out.

The party travels up the Nettle Spire, and it’s there that Viedro reveals the favor he asked of Rel. The Nettle Spire is technically Swords’ Domain and he needs Rel who is a master phantom thief to break him out of it. They fight their way to the near top and into Swords’ Domain, they’ve collected a few Tarot along the way and were warned by Tower that with improper use can have devastating side effects, but there wasn’t enough time to really instruct them on their use.

Rel tries to use a tarot to give him an extra boost in getting a Shadar-Kai by the name of Riven out who has been waiting for Rel to come and break him out as he is a devoted follower of Viedro. Rel doesn’t manage it and the party narrowly escapes Swords if not for Nameless distracting them, to which he barely manages to escape to the rest of them. The party decides to go fight Athan and then can always come back for Riven to fulfill Rel’s quest.

Endgame is here as the party walks up the stairs to the very top of the Tower where they see Athan consolidating power with Marcel off to his right.

The group takes the fight in three phases. First is getting Athan’s god killer sword Arcanum away from him. Rico and Rel run distraction as Nameless and Arc take care of Marcel. Those on Marcel duty cast him off the side of the tower while Rico engages Athan in a brawling match after an enormous, flashy fire show to get his attention. Rel tries to take a chance at grabbing the sword from where it has gotten stuck in the ground, but a powerful swing from Rico knocks Athan back into Rel and the sword, snapping it in two.

Athan, angry at the whole thing, throws Rel off the side of the tower in a fit of rage before turning on Rico. There is some back and forth, but Athan gets the upper hand and grasps around Rico’s throat. Meanwhile Arc and Nameless have collected the pieces of the sword and returned them to Merla and Savrina waiting on standby. They set to work making the sword whole again to use it to kill Athan once and for all.

Rel, while falling from the Nettle Spire, tries to grip onto the side but slips off. Just when he thinks he’s dead and all is lost he feels a warm comforting hug from behind him and the amused tone of his wife. She lends him her wings and flies him up to the top of the Spire. She had been inside of his body watching over him in the Afterlife the entire time. Arc joins Rel with Nameless as the sword is continuing to be fixed. They survey the situation and discuss options. Nameless is looking to the group to spare Athan in some manner, but they have all decided he is better off completely dead.

In the last few moments before Rico can get the killing blow in with Muerte after wrestling away from Athan’s grip he flies in between Rico and Athan, taking the blow. Rico tells him he’s a fool and this man who was once his friend has lied to him. Nameless dies. After he dies Athan confirms that Rico was right and Nameless, although he was once his friend, was betrayed by him. He grabs the small vial Nameless always carries around his neck and downs it in one go and undergoes a transformation.

Athan’s body starts to turn black and gold with an eerie air and gets bigger. Suddenly a gargantuan dragon is before the party. Arc and Rel collect the newly fixed Arcanum as Rico tries to engage with the new Dragon Athan. He is scooped up in Dragon Athan’s hand and life is slowly crushed out of him. Rico’s Death Tarot activates on its own and Thanatos rushes to the fight, freeing Rico and uses his power to merge with him. Rico now in a skeletal death armor stands and fights Dragon Athan back as the rest of the party joins in.

They manage to find a weak point in Dragon Athan’s scales and altogether use the magic in the sword to stun him. Then with all hands on the sword together they shoot a beam of magic held within the sword to run Athan through. He reverts back to a human form and lays dead on the ground. The sky above them transforms from pitch black to a sunset as the door ahead of them unlocks.

Viedro and an Angel carrying an enormous book walk up the stairs. The angel brushes Rico off immediately as he tries to ask for his name and asks the three of them what they would like their wish to be. Also if they would like a new life or to pick up from their old one.

Rico wishes for Thanatos to be able to be free to make his own choices. Arc wishes for Nameless to live again and be able to live the life they deserve.

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