Myriad: City of Tiers Campaign Report - Session #7

What: Myriad: City of Tiers, an adventure for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons

Premise: Originally created for magical research, Myriad disappeared and has been lost to civilization for centuries. Its recent reappearance has spurred interest in creating trade relations and exchanging information to learn more about its absence and possible hidden powers, dangers, and struggles.

Notes: I’m writing this in the 1st person, from my character’s perspective. This will not be a bird’s eye view of all information in the campaign.

Characters

• Talullah Rynn Bahk (Rynn) (Me) – Orc Monk
• Palamandrix (Pal) – Gnomish Fighter/Ranger
• Louise – Tiefling Druid
• Lady Jackie Sintara – Halfling Bard
• Greer – Goliath Rogue

Read Session #6

Character Description & Backstory:

See session #1 for backstory and character details.

Previously: 

My name is Talullah Rynn Bahk, of Clan Bahk. I have been assigned as an emissary of Baldur’s Gate to the city of Myriad, a magical city lost to time that has recently reappeared. We are to create trade relations with them, and my role is also to protect the group from threats that it may encounter in the city.

Previously, we infiltrated a lair of Baneite cultists and rescued hundreds of freed captives. But now Louise and I are cut off from the others with several hundred people who are all blind, wandering down a cave carved out by a river.

Session #7 – Caverns & Crystals

The people are endlessly nagging, and they try my patience and equilibrium. They do not understand that we are doing this for their own good, to free them from the cult who was enslaving them.

After some failed attempts at persuasion, I resort to threatening them. They do not know that the threats are not legitimate. If I must be hated to protect them and see them safely from these caves, so be it.

Those that refuse to cooperate, I try tying together with a rope and pulling, but Louise suggests that this is too forceful. We slowly navigate forward and come to a waterfall, past which there is no walkable cave, only the river which leads into darkness.

Louise takes on an animal form and jumps into the water to investigate. I fear she may be dead, and she is gone for a long time. I fear we have failed these people, and I begin to despair.

Then, a water elemental springs up and heads directly for me. I attack it!

It does not attack back and offers me a rock. I sense that this is not an aggressor. The rock has some writing on it. It is difficult to make out, but I intuit that it is from Louise or the others. It seems to be signed by Lady Jackie.

I convince several people to enter the water and hold their breath. Others need to be thrown unwillingly, but there is no other way that I see.

Moments later, we are spat out by the river just outside the city walls and land in a pool of water. The others – who successfully navigated back to the surface much more quickly than we did, are waiting with some dwarves and priests to tend to those we rescued.

They seem to want to get away from me. This is expected. I do not need their thanks.

We find the Bards leader again, Fendra, though she seems sullen. We tell her of our findings with the cult. We believe their efforts are greatly hindered with the loss of slaves and the cave-in and fire in their fields, though the cult itself may not be stamped out entirely.

She informs us of other dire matters. The crystal palace adjacent to the main political building, from which the wizards control elementals that help to power the city, has been breached and attacked some time ago. None have seen Dolan, the head wizard.

We are too tired and injured to investigate immediately. Rest may cost us precious hours, but there seems little other option.

Once rested, Fendra provides us with a flying carpet to investigate the crystal palace. Apparently her network of informants lacks those with the power we possess. It is a wonder this city survived for centuries before us, though I understand that much of the recent tumult with elementals was not previously the case.

The palace is breached and there are dead bodies in it. Eventually we find Dolan’s corpse among them. In the floor, a hole likely created by magma elementals, the same type that we saw in the Baneites cavern that caused the fire. The hole leads down further than we can see.

Ascending the tower, we’re hit with an emotional wave of desire and sadness. We reach the zenith and find an enormous crystal to be the source. It is flanked by hybrid elementals of various types. Sand, storm, and others.

It seems to want to consume elementals, and we gather that the summoned elementals of the wizards are what gave it sustenance. We also learned from open tomes in lower levels that the crystal is what hid the city for centuries, and apparently stores vast magical power, but only when powered by elemental energy.

It seems to have turned on the wizards, though, and the deaths are consistent with wounds from various elementals that seem to surround it.

We do not see a purpose to the crystal at this point, and it becomes increasingly demanding that it wants to consume elementals. Rather than risk further destruction to the city, we attack it with the intent of subduing it or destroying it.

Palamandrix runs up to the crystal and manages to wound it consistently via psychic attacks. I cannot attack the mind, but summon my own elemental powers and channel the power of thunder. This seems effective against both the crystal and its guardians.

However, the guardians hit harder than expected. Pal is knocked unconscious swiftly, and my initial plan of gathering their attention to me to absorb damage seems ill-advised before long. Though I may be the hardiest of the group, I cannot sustain the damage for long either.

We agree to focus on the central crystal to see if we can neutralize it before being forced to flee. Lady Jackie keeps Pal alive while the others harass and engage as they’re able.

The crystal cracks and shatters eventually, not being able to stand up to our combined attacks. Thankfully, this neutralizes its guardians as well, which seem to have spawned from the crystal.

Exhausted and battered, we take stock of the scene and plan our next steps.

Post-Session Player Notes

Hey, a tough fight! I had gotten a bit too comfortable, and quickly regretted it in this fight, which was excellent. I actually wish the elementals had remained alive after the crystal was defeated. It would have made for a more harrowing fight, though one I think we were ultimately equipped for.

Though that undoubtedly wouldn’t have been true if we had decided not to rest first!

Palamandrix shined in this fight, which was fun to see. I think he did over half the group’s damage, though it was also at the expense of his safety in the fight. None of us could just wade into this fight and expect to stay up for long.

The implication following the fight is that we’re at or near the “wrapping up” part of the campaign. The city will have a power vacuum and will be in some chaos, but the immediate threats to it are neutralized.

The crystal, it turns out, was the source of the magma elementals, sent to investigate the Baneite cult since that area was cut off from magical scrying. It seemed semi-sentient, but also vitriolic enough that destroying it was likely the correct decision, particularly with the wizard handlers killed by it.

And earlier, the bit with the captives in the tunnel was high comedy, since we have characters in the party who are great at skill checks and diplomacy, but Louise and Rynn are NOT them. It may have legitimately been the toughest thing I had to navigate in this session. The roleplay during it was dreadfully amusing.

I’ll have more to say about the campaign as a whole once it officially ends, but it was a satisfying session.

Session #8 (Forthcoming)