Part 2: The Destiny War
Chapter 1: Battle of Harrow Court
Several days have passed since the clash at the Storval Stairs. You have settled into your stronghold at Harrowheart, expanding the Harrow Court around it by epitomizing the cards from the Deck of Destiny into your new reality. You have had a chance to rest, relax, and recover.
But the peace of the past few days abruptly comes to an end when a woman seeks you out in the midst of your demesne. It is immediately apparent that this woman is alive, unlike the simulacra that populate the demiplane. And while her lower body is the tail of a powerful green-scaled snake, her upper body is that of a Varisian woman. And not just any woman, but one you recognize as the body you discovered in the game store "Three Moves Ahead" where you began your quest to collect the mystical Harrow cards. This is All-Seeing Hajeck, apparently reborn as a lamia!
"Heroes, I know my appearance here is a shock, but you must heed my warning! I’ve come from beyond, drawn to this place like a moth to the proverbial flame, but I could see others approaching as well. A vast pack of wolves is on the approach, fire in their eyes and death in their jaws. Among them, a sleek wolf with golden fur exhales pestilence, an enormous lumbering wolf leads a howling horde, and winged wolves come leaping down from the skies. A giant wolf, with gray fur and scales, lunges for your throats. In a glowing doorway behind them all stands their leader. He seeks to crush you and be reborn from your ruin. Even now they gather at this world’s edge.
"This grim nightmare breaks at a dawning, but others have noticed as well. A four-armed herald watches. They bear cards in three hands and an offer of friendship in the fourth. The door they open leads to warmth and plenty, like an ocean breeze. But there, too, I hear a gathered host, roaring in victory. Allies, I think. Friends we’ll need. But they will not arrive until after the wolves invade."
Visna starts as she recognizes the woman she had previously seen slain, but then quickly sets to interpreting the vision. "Your vision is rich in language and imagery, yet not that of the Harrow deck upon which this realm revolves..." Her eyes hardne. "Save that of your own appearance, of course."
Visna can sense Hajeck's regret as she glances down at her body. "I can understand why you may be hesitant to believe me. This realm has decided to reincarnate me in the form of The Liar. I will admit that in my previous life, I was a charlatan. I lived a life of lies, both large and small. But I have decided to abandon my own ways. I only want to help you now."
It would seem she is telling the truth.
Briar trip has made Pentella more vigilant while in their realm. No more wandering to her kitchen in a long frumpy nightgown. So when Hajeck appears, spoiling sipping of tea at the garden gazebo, she at least has her staff.
Also thanks to Briar, the thought that others might make it into their realm is no longer a new one, so she doesn't instantly disintegrate the woman out of sudden acute fear.
"Then will you submit to a spell to determine the truth of your intentions?" the elf says, stepping next to Visna in case the visitor turns unfriendly.
Hajeck nods and allows Pentella to cast her spells. The true seeing reveals no illusions or transmutations, and the lamia's surface thoughts match what she is telling you. It would seem that there is no deception being employed here.
Pen looks to Visna and nods before stepping back. "How long do we have?"
"Until dawn tomorrow morning," Hajeck says. "You would do well to muster your resources and prepare yourselves now. I do not think your foes will give you much chance to rest once they launch their attack!"
"Thank you for the warning." Pen nods, looking around and worrying about the place that has been more of a home than anything she has known in decades. "Will you be joining us in the fight?"
Hajeck nods. "In my new form, I am bound to to the Harrow Court. I have a vested interest in keeping it safe. I will fight by your side."
Pen thanks the other woman again, "if your visions have shown you anything of their tactics or weaknesses, it would be useful" the mage's mind is thinking of spells.
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Briar nods grimly at the portents being spun in front of them and seeing that her allies are taking things seriously decides it's best to go and set things into motion within the harrowcourt.
Going to the Paladin order contained within the central region of the court she approaches the commander of the regiment. "Ready your men, we have reason to believe our lands will come under siege soon and we need everyone to be ready. Begin educating people of safe locations within the wall in the case this emergency becomes true." With orders given Briar returns to the group.
"I believe with this new information, we should also seek the council of some of the wisest here within the harrowcourt. I shall go to the carnival, their visions of those that we may yet still face has come in handy before. I believe I'm the fastest among us and as such it only makes sense for me to go gather this information before the appointed hour. Visna, Pentella, Clara I have informed the knighthood but I leave the true preparations of defense to you."
She knows it may be seen as informal to hug them all, but she's never been about formalities of most polite society and gives them all a bone crunching squeeze. "Be safe, I'll return soon."
With that Briar leaves to utilize the Carnival's Epitome traveling as swiftly as she can with her 55(on plains overland travel speed).
When you epitomize The Carnival, assign it to a point of interest in the Harrow Court’s farmland area. This marks the location of a colorful, vibrant, and slightly off-putting fairground where festivals and celebrations are in constant swing. The simulacra who inhabit this carnival never leave and tend to subtly draw appearances and themes from potential foes the PC may face in their future. Once per week, a character can spend 8 hours at the fairground simply observing its participants—those who do can attempt a DC 28 Perception check.
Critical Success The PC observes some of the carnival performers and gains subtle clues as to the nature of a foe they will soon face. The GM chooses a specific, named enemy that the PCs are likely to face at some point in the current adventure they’re playing. When the PC encounters that foe (as long as the foe isn’t disguised), they automatically recognize them. At this point, the GM informs the PC that they recognize the foe from their visit to the carnival, and the PC learns information about the foe as if they had achieved a critical success in an attempt to Recall Knowledge against that target. Until the party encounters and defeats that foe, they cannot visit this carnival again to search for clues.
Success, as critical success, but instead of granting insight into the nature of a specific foe, the GM chooses a generic monster that the PCs may soon face, selecting from standard monsters that might be encountered in the current adventure the PCs are playing. The information gained is equal to what the PC would have gained from a success by Recalling Knowledge about that monster.
Failure Apart from a vaguely unsettling feeling of being watched themselves, the PC learns nothing from their visit to the carnival.
Critical Failure Rather than noticing anything helpful, the PC emerges from their trip to the carnival with paranoid feelings of being watched by unseen eyes, and becomes stupefied 3.
Visna is able to interpret Hajeck's vision. She recognizes the wolf symbolism as likely representing one of the Harrow’s most infamous bits of apocrypha: the “lost” Harrow card called the Prince of Wolves, which typically depicts an armored man lording over six wolves. The card represents duality, along with hidden, otherworldly, or sinister allies that seek to reclaim heritage or something lost. Whoever has taken the Prince's mantle in this vision has done so with no subtlety. The four-armed figure in the vision, however, remains a mystery.
"A Prince of Wolves... It may be that we face one who would seek more than to simply take these cards from our persons, but indeed to force a new thread into fate's weave."
"Heh, yall lead interesting lives, I see. I think I'm glad I stuck around!
"Do we have any idea where this assault will come from? If so, perhaps I can hide in their path and be ready to pelt them with the inconvenient sort of fizzy pops.
"And if we think they will attack at dawn, and not before, I've got some lovely sodas each of you might appreciate drinking. Perhaps one to strengthen the blood versus physical harm? Or one so effervescent that foes will have trouble striking you through all the bubbles?
"Oh, or some goggles that would help you see invisible foes, not to mention to see in the dark? Or some wacky boots I've been working on that help you get around in a hurry?"
Visna beams. "The aid of your concoctions shall surely be accounted as one of the great boons of our time. We may know not from what quarter our foes shall come, but with the aid of the Paladins of our Ulfen Guard, we shall not be long kept unawares."
She considers. "So far as is known, only our cards and these portals grant entry to this realm, yet never when I have attempted to storm a fortress have I considered only what paths are most worn by the passage of unwary feet."
Clara glows with pride. "Admittedly, a life lived without fizzy drinks sounds hopelessly bleak to me." She shudders a bit, involuntarily.
"I'll get up early, and be sure to have a few fizzy drinks ready for each for you. And boots for you, Visna, unless someone needs the goggles."
You finalize your preparations and rest overnight, waking up early to be ready for the attack. As Hajeck predicted, once dawn breaks, the sentries on the walls of Harrowheart blare their trumpets in warning! A crackling red rift opens in the sky, out of which pours a flock of feathered wrath demons! The vrocks descend upon the keep and the surrounding village, ready to wreak havoc!
At the same time, the Arch of Keys in the great hall clears to provide a view of a tangled swamp within the Harrow Court. You can sense that a Harrow card, The Demon's Lantern, lies somewhere on the other side.
Additionally, the Arch of Hammers clears to provide a view of a sandy desert around a small oasis within the Harrow Court. You can sense that The Uprising is somewhere on the other side of the arch.
The knighthood of paladins stationed in Harrowheart immediately sallies forth to engage the enemies! Some move out to fight the vrocks, while others pour through the arches to battle whatever foes may be lurking there.
Defense Points: The Harrow Court starts with 9 defense points. If The Trumpet is epitomized, increase starting Defense Points by 2. If The Paladin is epitomized, increase starting Defense Points by 2 as well. Thus, if both of these cards are epitomized, the Harrow Court begins with 13 Defense Points.
Defense Points can go into negative numbers, which can have significant ramifications. Defense Points are reduced by 1 at the end of each battle round. They can also be lost (or gained) as the result of how events play out, as the result of poorly planned rests, or as the result of any of the following combat developments.
Retreat: If the PCs are forced to retreat from a battle, the Harrow Court loses 1 Defense Point.
Defeat: The first time in an event when a PC drops to 0 Hit Points (but not on any successive instances of this during that same event), the drop in morale causes the Harrow Court to lose 1 Defense Point.
Death: Each time a PC dies, the Harrow Court loses 1 Defense Point.
Resting: The PCs can take up to a 10-minute break between battle rounds without spending a battle turn and losing a Defense Point. To take a longer break, though, the PCs must choose to spend a battle round resting while any remaining invaders continue to run amok uncontested. Choosing to rest during a battle round gives the PCs an hour to spend resting and recovering. If the PCs need more than an hour, they’ll need to take additional battle rounds to add 1-hour intervals. Remember that each battle round that passes results in a minimum loss of 1 Defense Point.
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Having returned from her journey to meet with the carnival Briar readies herself to arms. Seeing the various portals open she makes to the rest of the group.
"It would seem they believe us surrounded. Most of the knights are here in the keep. If we end the stream of daemons here then we will buy ourselves a place to return to and rest before pressing onward."
Pen nods at Briar's tactics. "We cannot abandon the people of the village either..." she knows they are constructs, but it just seems wrong.
Reaching out with her hand, she waits until Briar is ready, grasps her fur, and casts Flight.
"Alright then! Bottom's up? Great-great-grandpapa always said: Never Fight a Fiend Thirsty!"
"Fight a Fiend Firstly?" Pen's ear twitches as she mishears Clara's great-(n)-grandfather's phrase. She does drink as instructed, letting out a tiny burp as she does so.
Then she casts her flight spell on Briar, concentrates on staff to pull that memory back into her mind, to cast the same spell again on Visna. "I'll support from down here." she tells them as they rise up into the sky.
Clara's eyes widen. "You know, I think that was part of it: Never fight a fiend while thirsty: firstly fetch a flavored fizzy.
"...How did you know? Have you read some of his notes as well?"
As she drinks the sanguine sodepop, she feels a whoosh as though all the blood in her body were a bubbling whirlpool, racing through her body at twice its normal speed (giving an under-the-skin tickling sensation that she always enjoys).
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Briar grimaces at the strange concoction, reminding her of the awful jungle remedies of her tribe which would look, smell, and taste putrid. She thinks of pushing it off in favor of just toughing things out as she usually does.
But finds herself biting her tongue and gulping down the strange liquid, whining the entire way. "I do not understand how you all can enjoy these... popping liquids." While she handed the container back to Clara for cleaning and reuse, the effects of the elixir quickly became apparent on Briar as her body began to bulge over the course of the next few moments. Scars long hidden under her short fur rose to the surface of her flesh with a red hue as blood surged against her skin.
She shakes her head, "They make me feel strange. But enough talk, we should go meet the invaders before they dig their claws into our lands."
You make your way out into the village to support the paladins battling against the flock of wrath demons! These vrocks are smaller than usual, not much bigger than a human, but they have gathered into a mighty troop and are in the process of spreading as much pain and destruction as possible!
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Knowing ahead of time that the enemy they face will be the vrocks thanks to the swarms of them outside the window Briar draws her large sword as they run. The second they break into the courtyard she soars into the sky to meet them with frothing rage. Her scared tissue already brimming from the mutagen threatens to split as her enraged state raises her blood pressure to a feverish battle high.
The foe must succeed at a Fortitude save against your class DC 30.
Success: The target is unaffected.
Failure: The target is dazed and can barely vocalize. It's stunned 1 and its speech is raspy and hard to understand. It must succeed at a DC 11 flat check to use linguistic actions or supply verbal spellcasting components until the end of its next turn.
Critical: Failure As failure, but the creature is stunned 3 instead of stunned 1.
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Visna makes her preparations as she draws nearer, first intoning a passage from the sagas to inspire her to her own Heroics, then swigging down the sanguine sodapop.
At first she thinks that the effects she feels are a side-effect of the aggravated fizzing of Clara's concoction, then she thinks the odd swelling sensation is an artifact of her blood's increased rapidity as it courses through her veins. Then she realizes that the swelling sensation is far more literal.
Even as she races towards the abyssal troop, Visna casts aside her human guise, cresting and rising as she packs on layers of fat and muscle all changing from flushing peach to glossy black on white on black.
Perhaps I should have more carefully studied Clara's packaging for warnings of similar side effects...
***
Visna hurtles forward, her newly cetacean stature allowing her to strike the vrocks with her feet planted firmly on the ground. With the tip of her finger she traces baleful runes against the wrathsome kettle, and then she strikes.
Clara's eyes nearly jump out of her head as she sees Visna's amazing transformation. She glances quickly at the bottle she gave her.
"Great Bouncing Bulettes, I've never managed to turn someone into a whale before! Amazing!! I'll have to experiment more with that formula."
Rather than run forward, she grabs some new reagents, mixes them together with expert speed, and lobs two bottles at the center of the troop.
Visna knows that the wrath demons will be weak to cold iron, but even more so to area damage. She finds some esoterica to bolster her attacks to take advantage of their weakness. She also knows that vrocks thrive on mayhem, and when members of the throng find themselves facing moments of calm, however brief or temporary, the throng suffers.
Clara hits the throng with an alignment ampoule, the holy energy wreaking havoc among the demons. They avoid becoming clumsy and they do not succumb to the blindpepper bomb. Visna misses with her attack, but Briar manages to slice into the demons with her blade.
The vrocks shriek and dive down to mob Briar and Visna. Visna hews down several with her axe as they surround the warrior, ripping at them with their natural weapons! Spores fill the air, digging painfully into flesh!
Pentalla concentrates on enhancing her teammates, sending speed into their flesh.
Visna emerges from the miasma of claws and venom with scarcely a mark, protected by the luck of her Last Coin. She flings one of the vrocks away from herself as she soars away to find some extra space to do battle, hewing away whenever they dare to get close.
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Briar surrounded by the harrying forces of Vrock swings wide and furiously attempting to cut her way out of the swarming throng. Stabbing one Vrock throwing it's body into it's companion to daze it, back handing another as it attempted to get close enough to scratch her. She was a whirling ball of destruction in the air. Due to the excess blood in her system their talons rend open wounds that bleed greatly. But the magic from her aeon stone causes the rip to seal immediately.
"Briar, duck!" Clara calls out, moments before throwing two more fizzy drinks. The first the same she hit the troop with last time, generating a glimmering burst of goodness.
The second--shaken vigorously before she throws it--explodes in a burst of flame.
Then, with the extra speed that Pen has granted her, she looks to see if there's a place nearby that she can get a bit of cover or a spot to hide.
While Clara doesn't score any direct hits on the throng of demons, the splash damage from her bombs proves quite effective, eliciting shrieks of pain from the fiendish throng. Briar scores a particularly effective strike, though is unable to follow-up on it. Fortunately, Visna is there, her enormous axe sweeping through the remaining fiends and cutting down the stragglers!
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Briar returns to the group carrying the quickly deteriorating corpse of one of the Vrocks. Her breathing begins to slow as she lands, then she lets out a final huff as the battle high leaves her for a moment.
"I will eat the heart of the leader of this damned army, mark my words."
Clara isn't sure but something about the light makes Briar's fur look like it's got a metallic twang to it that shook off the effects of her fire bomb, keeping her mostly flame retardant. There is a few more seconds of pause before she gazes to Visorcna with worry. "Are you injured dear tale speaker?"
"Scarcely. Let us fall upon these fools before their own weighty follies crush them and rob us of that delight."
Pen arrives moments after the two warrior's feet touch the ground again. "We have a long battle in front of us." she says to the towering lycanorca "Would you accept additional protection magic?"
The wizard holds out her hand, not touching, until permission is given, then chants out other magic, hardening Visna's skin to polished marble.
Another chant follows that links all four of their minds together, in case distance or interference makes communication impossible.
Clara is relieved to see that she guessed right and Briar wasn't bothered by the fiery fizzypop.
She turns to Visna, "I say, you're taking to your whaley transformation rather well. I'd say it becomes you!
"And if you don't care for it, I'm sure it'll wear off. Fairly sure, anyway. This is a first for me."
You quickly return to the throne room of Harrowheart and pass through the Arch of Hammers. You find yourselves in the desert on the outskirts of the demiplane, at a small oasis nestled within the expanse of sandy dunes. Here, a tangled mass of assorted lesser demons has gathered, a chaotic mix of dretches, quasits, and abrikandilus, with a handful of more powerful babaus swept up in the mayhem. A much larger demon whips the rabble into a frenzy, a corpulent, four-armed fiend covered in yellow-orange dragon scales with draconic wings sprouting from its back. He promises them a glorious march to violence once more troops have gathered.
The demon turns towards you as you appear and gives you a toothy grin. "Ah! You have come to me! Saves me the trouble of a long march. Surrender yourselves and hand over the Harrow cards, or we will tear you apart!"
The demons don't wait for a response. The leader smirks and brandishes a Harrow card--The Uprising. It gleams, then a mob of shadowy figures rises up from the ground to grab at you! "Glory to me, Torgral!" the demon chortles as he flaps his wings and rises into the air.
Meanwhile, the demon throng surges forward. It pauses long enough to gather up debris and hurl it at you!
Pen fails to pull away from the shadowy figures before the demons start to pelt them with rocks. Seeing the trajectories of the incoming blugening tools, she instead ducks under the horde, letting them soak up some of the harm.
Knowledge is power so she spends a moment recalling the various demons.
And then she tries to escape the shadows grasping hands again... and fails.
Visna clears her throat politely, the actual coughing noise emerging from somewhere behind her head. "Ah, Clara, despite your brilliance of your hues and perspicacity, I fear I have deprived you of a firm foundation from which to extend your suppositions. My family walks and swims upon this world in many skins, yet we have learned hwaet that truth may be viewed as a deception, a threat, or as a challenge to be claimed by the grasping as a trophy. Therefore, by morning waker's oath and by my own habit, I most often wear a smaller skin."
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Visna weathers the assault stoically, her variegated skin repelling the debris with the dull thunks of stone on stone. She tears herself free from the surrounding swarm of shadows, soaring up to square off with Torgral from just outside his reach.
"Have a care, fiend. Despite your hubris, your foul might does not stand unopposed."
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Visna clears her throat politely, the actual coughing noise emerging from somewhere behind her head. "Ah, Clara, despite your brilliance of your hues and perspicacity, I fear I have deprived you of a firm foundation from which to extend your suppositions. My family walks and swims upon this world in many skins, yet we have learned hwaet that truth may be viewed as a deception, a threat, or as a challenge to be claimed by the grasping as a trophy. Therefore, by morning waker's oath and by my own habit, I most often wear a smaller skin."
"Oooooh, neat!" Clara nods along.
After a moment, she turns excitedly. "Say...you don't by any chance make any particularly unique secretions, do you? Maybe something that could be tested as a reagent in fizzy drinks?"
As they walk and talk, Clara downs her next fizzy drink. This one's a cerulean blue that's overflowing with bubbles, and even as she drinks the last sip-with a joyful burp--the bubbly fizz starts to flow out of her ears, nose, and mouth; then out of her bellybutton and up from the tops of her boots, and within moments she's surrounded by a frothy mist of swirling blue fizz.
Clara gives a startled "YEEP!" when the shadowy foes grab her, but she manages to wiggle free (and to twist so that the hurled stones miss her entirely). Then she quickly mixes up a batch her spiciest fizzypop, and hurls it at the advancing troop.
Visna blinks in honest surprise. "Secretions? I-" She looks to Pen for help. "None that have garnered approbation or acclaim from any of my intimates."
Back then, Pen's head had been beginning to tilt, interested in the answer (for data analytical purposes), but sees the request for help in Visna's eyes. Somehow seeing that despite their change. Her mind pauses on that for a moment, having spent just a few moments in Visna's presence in her true form, she can still see the strength and life in those eyes.
'Intimates' was said, and Pen's head stopped its tilt and exploded in a reddening color. "I... um, yes, nothing has been recorded, as such. But I can..." she was about to say, 'review her notes' but stopped.
"Demons are attacking." She decided it was a safer subject, pointing them to the Hammer portal.
Hajeck and Pen struggle in the shadowy figures' grasp, unable to escape on their own. Briar can't quite get her friends free.
Visna demoralizes Torgral as she breaks free and flies up to confront the fiend. Clara slips free as well and then hurls a bomb at the troop of demons!
"Foolish mortal! You think stand a chance againt me and my master, the Prince of Wolves?" Torgral shouts, though his voice wavers a bit. "Have a taste of destruction!" The demon opens his mouth and spews forth a torrent of corrosive flame!
Meanwhile, the demon throng continues to hurl debris at those still within the shadowy figures' reach! The alchemist's fire burns out.
Pen cannot escape the grasping hands.
"Foolish mortal! You think stand a chance againt me and my master, the Prince of Wolves?" Torgral shouts, though his voice wavers a bit. "Have a taste of destruction!" The demon opens his mouth and spews forth a torrent of corrosive flame!
"Oh yeah? Well, um, howabout you have a taste of overly-shaken fizzy drinks! OK?"
Clara yelps as she gets burnt and battered, but keeps lobbing fizzy drinks at the horde, trying to cause as much damage as she can.
Visna's lucky Last Coin shines like a falling star as fortunately she and her two more vulnerable companions are shielded from the demon's wrath.
With her baleful runes attuned to the tyranny demon's loathsome frame, she hurls Maiden's Smile whistling past his ear as a challenge.