“I feel like ‘everything is on fire, but not really’ is an excellent description of this entire campaign!”

— B. Dave Walters

Watch Space Pirates | D&D Beyond Heroes Episode 5

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The cast of Beyond Heroes, currently level 8:

• Todd Kenreck as the Dungeon Master
• Keen Dayeprath - Eladrin Eldritch Knight Fighter played by TJ Storm
• Briv Steelmarrow - Half-Orc Oath of Heroism Paladin played by Adam Bradford
• Penelope Half-Pint - Halfling Circle of Land Druid played by Hope LaVelle
• Alyndra Alexandria Garanahil Sarrbarand, Lorekeeper of Rime Spiro, Kinscribe of Clan Monkeymouse, Daughter of Oblivion - High Elf Cleric 1/Wizard 7 played by Jen Kretchmer
• Orkira Illdrex - Dragonborn Light Domain Cleric played by Lauren Urban
• Freely - Halfling Bard 2/Paladin 2/Sorcerer 2/Warlock 2 played by B. Dave Walters

Full Summary

Sailing among the stars deep in outer space is a spelljammer vessel, expertly piloted by hippo-like humanoids called giff. They have graciously picked up Keen, Orkira, Penelope, Alyndra, and Freely from their own damaged ship to transport them to their destination. The tension on the ship is apparent; the Heroes know is that the giff are in possession of an extremely powerful item and are apprehensive about keeping it safe. Which is why the military precision of the crew is disrupted further when a strange ship forcefully docks and begins to slice through the hull!

As the group peer out the windows to examine the enemy ship, Alyndra manages to use arcane lock to stop the intrusion into the hull. It’s a very modern, sleek black ship with bat shaped wings that has no recognizable origin. Using clairvoyance, Alyndra takes a look inside to find soldiers in shiny black armor and helmets completely covering their faces with no holes for breathing or their eyes. They carry large energy rifles and walk among circular corridors that are also an imposing black. The Giff are trying to contact the enemy vessel, but the only response they receive is another attack as an explosion rocks the ship! Smoke and debris fill the hallway as the attackers break through another part of the hull and begin firing on the crew. The shiny black metal soldiers are ruthless, slaughtering all opposition they can see.

As Orkira does her best to pull injured crew to safety she asks if they have seen these attackers before, but the giff have no answers. Keen studies the movements of their enemy to determine these are organic beings. Freely calls out to the attacking force, hoping to find out what they want and avoid further bloodshed, but when the shooting continues Penelope creates a fog cloud to try and block off their vision so everyone can back away to safety. Joining his halfling friend, Keen calls out that they do not have to battle, and finally receives a reply from a voice that sounds eerily familiar. The figure calls himself Soren, addresses Keen by name despite the eladrin not knowing who this being may be,  and demands that the Giff give up the map in order to be set free. He says they have never meet but that he will be familiar, and stepping out of the fog is a deathly pale humanoid with glowing red eyes. The air grows cold around the figure, and his gaunt frame has a twisted resemblance to Avren. When Orkira is concerned this creature is undead, Freely uses his Divine Sense and confirms her fears. Worse yet, Alyndra notices Soren has no reflection in the mirrored armor around him and believes he is some kind of vampire, while Keen can sense the dark energy of the Shadowfell emanating from his form.

The Heroes take a moment to confer with the giff captain, who at first wants them to take the map and flee as the rest of the crew fight back, but everyone is reluctant to run. The captain explains the map leads an ancient temple containing a powerful artifact that could be used to destroy worlds. Alyndra remains to hide the map, a star chart that she does her best to commit to memory, before casting secret chest to hide the map inside the Ethereal Plane.

Penelope, Orkira and Freely return to watch Soren, and despite the obvious warning signs, the three are giving to stay back he slowly approaches with a bemused smile. As the two groups admit they don’t trust the other side, Soren is first to resume the attack by grabbing Penelope to stab her with his longsword. As her friends jump in to defend her, Freely lights up the enemies with faerie fire. Knowing that the giff are masters of explosive ordinance, Keen works with one to quickly create a box that is trapped to explode before returning to the fight and casting cloud of daggers. The eladrin joins Freely in slashing at Soren, though despite the vicious wounds he does not react at all. Penelope casts infestation on Soren, trying to escape his grasp, and while the creature is affected by the fleas his countenance still does not change.

Orkira attempts to figure out what kind of creature they are battling, but she is too filled with blind hatred for the undead that she shares with her god that instead she casts radiance of the dawn to start to melt him and his squad. Her spiritual weapon comes next, but despite the obvious wounds being inflicted Soren still remains unconcerned. Once again he pulls Penelope to his side to be slashed and pierced by his blade, and the druid drops unconscious to the floor. He calmly asks for the map again, “How many more friends would you like to lose?”

Keen calls for the map, and is brought his trapped box just as Alyndra arrives as well. As Soren takes the box, Freely and Orkira rush to Penelope’s side to heal her wounds. The undead creature comments that it will be good to see Keen again, before activating the bomb in the box and then turning into mist! Spreading her wings Orkira covers Penelope with her own body, while Freely pushes Alyndra around a corner. Once again taking the bomb, Keen misty steps far enough down the hall to get just inside the enemy ship. The explosion is massive, killing the soldiers and destroying much of the ship's hull. Keen is grievously wounded by the blast, but manages to limp back to his friends and be healed as well. While the hall is now clear of enemies, the Heroes know the enemy ship is still brimming with foes, and can hear the screams of giff where Soren has resumed his assault. Orkira takes a moment to place her guardian of faith down to prevent more enemies from boarding the ship, while Freely snatches an antimatter rifle from the corpse of one of the black-clad soldiers. 

Following the sounds of battle they find a room filled with dead giff, and concerned that these beings might be turned into undead Alyndra pauses to say the prayers over their bodies to prevent that gruesome fate. The rest of the Heroes continue to chase Soren, finding more crew that have been attacked. Some can be stabilized but many are horrifically slaughtered. Sensing that the creature they are hunting is right around the corner Freely rushes into the hallway firing, but Soren is hanging from the ceiling. The halfling manages to burn him with hellish rebuke as he’s magically pulled to the ceiling, and can now see Soren is completely healed from his previous wounds. Using the wall for leverage Keen slashes up with his glaive just as Freely fires once again at almost point blank range, leaving a gaping hole in their enemies' torso. Hoping to prevent Soren from fleeing again, Alyndra casts mind spike, while Penelope creates a flaming sphere to continue to burn it with fire.

Even as she’s attacking with a guiding bolt, Orkira is still trying to puzzle out what kind of being Soren is, and watching as his wounds close she thinks he is a strange hybrid creature; half alive but half dead. He continues to register no pain, and nothing seems to prevent his regeneration from occurring. The creature drops Freely then resumes his longsword assaults, grievously wounding the halfling with cold precision. Retaliating with his new weapon, Freely strikes Soren with a precision blast that would kill most creatures—and leaves a massive hole in the side of his form. Keen takes advantage of his friend’s impressive aim to run across the gun and launch himself at their quarry, making the hole in the creatures side even larger with critical hits from the flaming glaive. Penelope continues to use her flaming sphere to slam into their enemy. The smoking, burning, practically vivisected Soren remains bemused and standing, and once again asks for the map to avoid any further death.

Taking her symbol of Oghma into her hands, Alyndra casts bless on her friends and healing on Freely. Orkira switches her tactics, starting to believe nothing can actually destroy Soren, and intent on getting answers she casts zone of truth. Soren fails to resist the effects of the spell, so the dragonborn breaks combat to ask what he is and why he wants the map. He replies that there’s nothing quite like what he is, but there might be more soon, and he’s looking for the artifact the map leads too. The cleric relays they’ve been told the artifact can be used to destroy worlds, and that leads them to be reluctant to hand it over to someone who will “shoot first and demanding things later.” Their enemy admits this is a valid stance, and causes Orkira to flinch as he says he understands not wanting a world to burn. He continues by saying the weapon is for leverage against anyone who would be a threat, and admits there’s an experiment being conducted that may create more beings like himself, though he doesn’t seem to know why.

Something is bothering Alyndra, itching at the back of her mind about undead beings with the same powerful psychic abilities and what Avren might have been experimenting with, but she can’t quite pull up details. When Penelope asks if he knows Avren, he claims to be aware of their benefactor. As he continues to casually explain things, everyone watches as his wounds are rapidly healing and understand this is partially a stalling tactic. Freely uses message to ask Alyndra to prepare banishment, and the wizard is ready as soon as she believes they have obtained as much info as possible. Soren explains that everything in the Prime Material plane has a reflection in both the Shadowfell and the Feywild, and that a town was built in an attempt to create reflections of people. Soren is one of those reflections, and while he believes Avren was behind creating this monument he admits to not knowing for sure. However he also doesn’t care about Avren, and when Orkira presses again to know who he wants leverage against, he asks if knowing what his grand purpose is will make her feel safer. The cleric replies that she doesn’t know if anyone has a greater purpose, but believes he is his own person and intelligent enough to have a reason for his actions that aren’t just killing for fun. Soren finds this interesting, but with a grin says that destruction is one of his favorite things.

This admission causes Freely and Keen to spring back into action, attacking once again. Soren thrusts his longsword through Freely’s chest, who definitely glares back even as he falls unconscious. Turning to Alyndra he says “Goodbye daughter,” just as she casts banishment and causes him to disappear.

The final episode of 2019 was voted to be "Dragon Wars" so join us Wednesday December 18th at 2pm PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond to watch the next adventure you voted to happen!

Lauren "Oboe" Urban is the Community Manager for D&D Beyond, as well as a professional classical musician on oboe and English Horn. When she's not playing a Bard in real life she's a prolific Dungeon Master and player on a variety of livestreams and podcasts. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband Luke where they spend their free time playing video games and drinking tea. The best way to keep up with Lauren's busy schedule is to follow her on Twitter @OboeLauren