Crimson Sands of Time

( Makes sense.)

(Welcome back all. As far as I know, no notifications on posts and some can only post once, if needed, you can communicate with me on discord shimshon123

(ooc: was anyone near enough to get an AoO?)

Notifications are not working on these forums so if someone could ping me on discord if any new posts appear, or we resume.

@shimshon123

will do

< Now that I have seen some of the new 2024 rules, I can see the potential for a degree of confusion as we move forward. I had not planned to incorporate any 2024 additions to this game, however, there are several in stances where ambiguity has been removed by codifying certain aspects of the rules. one major area of interest is the new actions, which could really change how the game moves. Additionally, most spell changes appear to be improvements to the 2014 versions. So, I am asking all of the players if you want to continue with 2014 or switch to 2024 rules. One thing I do not yet know is how to select which version of a spell is referenced when creating a tool tip. If someone knows, please PM me.>

<sorry for the delayed game. It's entirely me, Hopefully we still have players. I'm just going to write everything in this thread and we'll see where it goes from here. I don't think this is railroading, really it's the opposite. I'm just resolving player intentions and situations cinematically, leaving players to make meaningful decisions and have some roleplay/social time following some heavily combat - focused stretches. If this were a videogame, this would be the cutscene at the end of a Boss fight.>

In preparation for the upcoming adventure, you may, please, increase your Character's level by two. This will bring some PCs to lvI 11, some to 16 and some to 17. We'll have to see how many are still with us to determine APL.

Oh nice. Btw We're still here despite everything (I think. Idk who's left)

( I abide)

Notifications are still not working but I found a fix, kinda. You can click this link and see all new notifications to any forums you are subscribed to!

 https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/subscriptions

Having been transported to a primal world, Captain Sparhawk, along with an amphibious woman named Velisha, and a vampire cleric of the bat god Alkazotz, infiltrates the fortress on the coast the vampiric empire has macke their foothold on this wild continent. 

Alante, a human woman before her entry into the order of five sacraments, escorts Sparhawk bound to join the other prisoners, among which stands the brother of the druid Velisha, as they await their grim fate: ritual execution beneath the full moon. All around the prisoners, vampire conquistadors gather, eagerly awaiting the sanguineous spoils of the humanoid sacrifice.

Vona de Ledo, culler of Sins , the Butcher of Magan, emerges from her Chambers to oversee the ceremony. When she appears,9 hush falls over the courtyard. The crashing waves breaking across the rugged coastline below set the tempo for the proceedings.

With a velvet voice, Vona addresses her audience as she paces before the prisoners, an apes predator, fearless and impatient: "Children of the Night, well met. Again the silvermoon illuminates our world, and by its light our faith is tested. These criminals have sinned against the Dusk coalition and it is our sacred duty to see these trespasses swiftly punished and to preserve the anciend blood right. Sinners, in the name of the Queen and the Church, I sentence you to death." Turning her back to the bound assembly, Vona addresses the gathered vampires: Faithful, drink tonight and revel in the gift of life eternal." to the cheric, she adds, "Sister Alante, if you please." and with a bow, steps aside to watch from the slightly elevated position just outside the center of the courtyard.1

The cleric steps forth, ritual dagger in hand. Its ebon blade gleaming in the moonlight. She says aloud a prayer in a strange language, filled noth dicksand screeching noises. " The damned stand before me, their final judgement passed. Their sentence: death. But, fear not. Though your days are at an end, the night sky will remain filled with the immortal kin of Elenda." 

Standing before Sparhawk, the final prisoner brought to the alter (a long stone slab with a narrow channel carned into the length of its top surface, widening at the center an d opening to an ornately decorated bowl), Alante raises her blade above the kneeling half-orc and says something unexpected, except for the eager ears of captain Sparhawk and a certain bat - one of many perched on the castle's stonework or exposed wooden structures, or flattering through the balmy tropical night air. For this bat was actually the River Folk Druid Velisha, and she, like Sparhawk, has been for Alante to utter this word, "Eclipse." 

< all the stories are interconnected, so this will link directly to what all the other PCs are doing. If @Shimshon123 wants to write the rest of the scene , they are welcome to. As I said, it is a cutscene, so cinematic and not adhering to 5e mechanics, as such. Alternatively, I can finish the scene, but first (tomorrow) I will address the resolution of the battle of the Phylactery Vault and the Fate of the Doomvault and its inhabitants. >

As the intreped Sparhawk, paladin of Marduk hears the agreed on word, the druid and allies create an explosion with the cannon balls and ammunition at the edge of the castles port.

Seeing Vona and others react, Sparhawk springs into motion. His ties and binds, easy to break with the pre-arranged cuts. He grabs the second prisoner, a man, (Velisha's brother), throwing him over his shoulder, and dashes for the docks. "I am a friend of your sister, and we are here to rescue you."

With his strength and will, Sparhawk reaches the docks and overturns a cask of oil, igniting it to further block enemies. In almost any other circumstance, the skilled stubborn swordsman would have faced Vona and fought her to the death, having faced many tyrants before, and not standing for the abuse of others. In a rare instance and in taking an oath, Sparhawk had agreed to save Velishas brother and help the Vampires under Alanta to break an evil ritual. Taking all of his will, he avoided the battle and sails away, knowing that eventually, Vona will likely seek him out, although he did not reveal his identity to her. He is a man difficult to not find. An over 6 foot tall half-orc paladin, in full plate, but what stands out the most is his crooked nose, ever broken. 

He jumps onto a ship and releases the ropes from the dock. Further distraction and fighting between some of Alante's vampires and Vona allow him to escape, with Velisha and here brother safe.

(Still to understand, how did the captain get separated from his group, and how can he get back to his reality and rejoin Cha!il and Tess Tomescribe to complete their mission.)

<this is the result of combat using normal 5e mechanics. It is a summary of the whole boss fight in the doomvault front the perspective if Tess, who enters late, behind Cha!jil. Please, feel free to add anything your PCs are doing, thinking or saying as these events unfold.>

Tess Tomescribe dashes through the portal behind Cha!jil to find the dwarf locked in battle with a hideous lich. As the pain trade barbs, Tess notices the other people in the strange tetrahedron: battling a huge shadow Creature with tiny arms: an elf woman, a couple of humans and a little girl, but most notably, Tess sees her brother Tetrevess! the dark Creature seems to ignore Tettveness, for the mouse part. without thinking, Tess runs towards her brother as a massive plume of brown water gushes up from each of the pools to form a blob in the cure of the space. with a howl, a floating shall reveals its position in the room as the harmers andelf recoilat the sound. Tess presses on, climbing over the rubble at the edge of one floor only to find herself under the influence of a completely orthogonal gravitational force when she makes it to the floor where her brother stands. As he and his allies pulverize the demilich into dust, Tess notices the familiar appearance of an abjuration about the dessicated horror that presented herself as Valindra Shadowmantle just miles ago within the Heart of Ubtao. Though Chai!jil continues her melee assault on the wizard, she looks more worried about the environs after the brothers Randy and Ethan, along with a Shadow elf wizard, disable the magic of the sepulchers on that floor. The entire space begins to pulse with ripples of barely felt pressure, which grows into a tremble and a shake as the physical dimensions of the space distort and contract, the walls moving nearer the center, slowly at first. but gaining speed as Valindra teleports to the sepulcher where her phylactery is located. Before she can cast another spell to depart the imploding demiplane, Valindra locks eyes with Tetrevess. Each knows the other sees them and hnous they are both ready to cash an offensive spell. Valindra speaks a dark word with the power to kill as a portal opens up behind her.

Elsewhere in the collapsing tetrahedron, a sea hag emerges from a writhing pool and summons a shimmering swirl of glittering sparkles, which spin faster and faster blurring together to form a lustrous disk. The elf girl near Tetrevess, amid the chaos, suddenly changes her demeanor. Her reserved, waifish posture now gone, she lumbers forward, shoving her way past the Shadow tgrand blocking her path to the portalopened by the hag. In a reckless dash for survival, the Chosen grunts with each stride, holding nothing back as she attempts to force herself into whatever distant land the hag calls home, lest she should be crushed by the collapsing wells of the pocket dimension That has stood a century or more as home to the phylacteries of Thay's most powerful liches, including the Zulkir of necromancy: Szazz Tam.

< with the phylactery vault imploding, what do you want to do? you can maybe counterspell power word kill. It might be possible to kill Valindra. the demilich has been reduced to a pile of ash and a handful of gems. The shadow tyrant has been reduced from gargantuan to huge. It probably won't survive the collapsing space, but corporeal entities, such as yourselves may fare better. Mostly, I want to know if your specific PC wants to go through a portal or take your chances with the weirdness of instability in extra planar space. In the case of T, that woyld mean bith Tess and Tetrevess. It wint have any mechanical impact, just sets the next scene where you can actually decide what you'll do next.>

Seeing the vault collapsing and healing Cha!jil, the tiny girl Piccolo dashes and teleports to her interlocked companion, Trisk. 
on route she assures herself that Shazz Tam is done for. 
She plays a few quick notes on her instrument

He and the rest all see an image of them leaving the vault through the portal. 
Then she grabs Trisks hand with her tiny hand and smiles. For some reason, he feels like she is saying goodbye.

Taking Piccolo's tiny hand in his, Trisk will take her with him through the portal. Hand in hand they venture out of the collapsing tetrahedron by means of the portal.

As Trisk travels through the portal

He feels a weight lift and the curse break through their bond. 

then he emerges, but the girl is not there.

he thinks he hears one fading note: thank you

Sparhawk wills himself to his world, a world where he must destroy an evil. He steps through the portal.

As Sparhawk, Alante, and the merfolk siblings sail away from the coast of Ixalan, the dark water glistens with the silvery light of the full moon. The sky is cher and the winds favorable but gentle. On the starboard side a pod of dolphins leaps along the surface beside the ship. "Looks like we have some company," Alante notes. "We have those back where I come from," Sparhawk replies, "we call them dolphin." Alante derides their antics. "Fish should stay in the water, for their own good." 

 "Actually," Velisha corrects, "those are icthyosaurs. They're reptiles."

"Fascinating," Alante answers, dryly, "I think the sunrise will soon be upon us. If you'll excuse me, I must retire, for obvious reasons," the vampire adds before heading below decks.

To the East you see a faint light on the horizon, a bit later than Alante's keen eyes allowed, but without fear of a coming dawn you can study the light a bit more closely and almost instantly it's clear this is not the hyperion light, but rather a bright light fliating just above the water, and it is not stationery. Despite the wind at your back, the light is moving at a decent clip towards the ship. As it draws nearer, the anomoly is even more odd, as it seems to be a riot of prolate spheroids all lumped together like a cluster of grapes on the vine, but the way they distort one another and the edges deform to define new shared planes is more akin to bubbles of seafoam. Sparhawk turns the ship hard to port, and the luminescent pharynx adjusts course in response. Whatever this object is, it is aiming to make contact. Velisha calls out, "We can't outrun it ...' before Sparhawk can reply, in a blink, the distance separating the cluster from the ship was gone, and the spheroids were floating above the deck.

How does Sparhawk react?

"Alante, Velista, it has been my honor to have met you these last few days.
The power or magic brought me here is calling me to return to my own destiny.

I will remember you and our time together."

Sparhawk then walks to the highest point on the deck and tries to "jump" into the bubble" (If he sees anything in the bubble, he will try to pick the one that is his homeland.

"Farewell."

The Flash of blinding light briefly casts in silhouette the figure of a robed woman.  Her sickly-sweet voice bears the hallmarks of one wizened by time. "Now that you've said your goodbyes, Dearie, you can rest easy. you've proven an inconvenience to someone who can't let you keep running around changing history.  You can run from those bloodsuckers, but liberating that chalice has sealed your fate." At this moment, the figure becomes clearly visible to Sparhawk: a crimson-skinned old hag. It is the last thing he will see for a very long time.