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Callie’s Journal

Oz slices through the creature in front of him, and apparently reality itself. Out of the rift pops out a mean-looking cow and an angry-looking sheep. They move over to Freki, but not to attack.

Lorelei swings her scythe, and again, reality is sliced. Fire erupts from underneath her and now that area is just, like, on fire. Vondal intuits that if this goes on much longer, the whole area will be lost to the Flux.

Freki shoots at the Demogorgon, who he had previously sworn to destroy. The arrow pierces reality and dammit people, stop this before we all die! REALITY IS WHERE I KEEP ALL MY STUFF!!!

I get a feeling in my head like sand in all my brain’s wrinkles. Thanks, I hate it.

Vondal casts a spell right past Oz’s head. A smell of burning hair wafts by.

Freki wolfs out and takes a giant leap at the flying thing that used to be Megaera. He tries to bite her, but even with two mouths, she’s hard to grasp. He sinks his teeth in and just HANGS there. She makes uncomfortable eye contact with him, but otherwise doesn’t seem too bothered.

The Demogorgon leaps over to Oz, who ended up with a duplicate somehow. But then, the Demogorgon also duplicates himself so he can attack both Ozes! Ozones. Ozzies? The Demogorgons try to snatch the Ozzies’s Ioun stones, but fail.

Suddenly, a huge…I don’t even know, like a pond’s worth of water just washes over me and everyone around me. I’m dragged under! I’m drowning! I force my way to the surface, fighting for my life!!! Once my head’s above water, I can see that most of us fell over, but not Bec and Oz. Note to self: ask them about their exercise regimens, if we make it through this.

The Demogorgons attack with their tails, which Oz manages to mostly avoid.

One of the shadow creatures gets up and savagely attacks Audreth. But, amazingly, the water messes up its aim and it misses. The other fist turns into a snake head and darts into the water to bite Audreth. For a third attack, it opens up its huge maw and tries to bite Audreth. There’s a flash of sacred light and the monster…doesn’t come back up. Uh, weird.

The other shadow attacks Audreth in the same way as the first. doing a lot more damage, and dropping them both together down into the water. Neither of them comes back up.

Holding the Trident of Fish Command, I feel at home in the water. I hop up, getting my head out of the water at last, and cast Control Water. With the Trident, I don’t have to think too hard to just tell the water to flow away from me and my allies and at the bad guys. The bad guys get washed away, sploosh!

Spell: Control Water at lvl 4

As the Demogorgon is washed away, Oz takes the opportunity to stabbinate him SO GOOD, dealing a killing blow.

Audreth pops out of the water, but he’s some kind of weird Flux chimera. He lurches over towards Bec. Then Megaera turns, gazing at the Audreth thing, and says, “Petulant child.” And then to us: “Release him from his suffering.”

All of us who carry the SPI badge can tell that Audreth is still in there somewhere, if only we could figure out how to get him out. Cassandra drags herself to her feet and speaks a divine word. Audreth stumbles back and one of the monsters dissipates. As he stumbles back, Oz takes another opportunity to stab him right through the heart. The body dissipates and the souls of the creature and Audreth spin towards Megaera and she absorbs them. “Good. It has been made right,” she says.

The giant eyeball that eyeballed us before is back, and watching with great interest. Vondal, Bec, and Freki feel like they’ve come home. It’s a wonderful and perfect home. They don’t need to do anything. Doing things is irrelevant here. …I can’t really relate.

“So strong. Yet so weak,” says Megaera. “All is right. Now prove yourselves.” She releases the souls she just captured and Hugin and Munin’s wings spread out over the area. Those of us who felt at home in the Flux feel homesick, like they just lost something and they need to get back to it. Oz feels intense pain because there are two of him and that’s impossible. Not normal impossible, actually impossible. One Oz holds the Hornblade in his left hand; the other Oz holds it in his right. But the relic is singular; the two cannot coexist. As the two Ozes merge into one, the two Hornblades are somehow diminished—still two of them, but smaller: daggers that are meant to be wielded together. That is also impossible, but that’s how things are now.

“It may be your time to die…or not,” Megaera said. The Demogorgon, raised from the dead, gets up and roars.

Lorelei is impressed by the now-undead Demogorgon’s power. Me too, but probably not in the same way.

Oz slices off big old chunks of the Demogorgon. It seems kind of logy, which I guess is understandable for something that isn’t alive.

The angry-looking cow rushes over. Eyes blazing red, it pulls out a greatsword and swings at the Demogorgon. Look, I know how it sounds, but that’s what happened! If you don’t believe me, you try fighting a Demogorgon with a magic cow and see for yourself.

Then the sheep flaps over on its wings – YES, WINGS, I KNOW – and gores the Demogorgon with its horns.

The Demogorgon screeches a scream that seems to go on forever, whipping its tentacles around. Shadows appear where the tentacles lash, and then creatures arise from the shadows.

“Death for life. Choose.” Megaera’s words reverberate throughout reality.

[GM’s note: “Who should die, in exchange for life?” Each player secretly wrote down the first character who their character thought of.]

Almost all the shadows rush up and over to descend upon Cassandra, stabbing her with dark blades.

Oz stabs what’s in front of him, as he is wont to do. Freki continues to harry Megaera. Then the Death Cow lets out a primal MOOOOOOOO and I feel like that could have deafened me if I weren’t so tough! The concussive force of the epic moo breaks pieces off Megaera and the shadows. Freaking bone-chilling, that Death Cow.

Dolly the Battering Ram is less effective, ramming the Deadogorgon but not doing much damage.

Lorelei casts a spell and a noxious cloud of gas descends over the mass of shadows, but also catches the Battering Ram.

I stop concentrating on Bless, and instead throw out an Aura of Life that surrounds all my teammates, including Cassandra. Erathis lets me know that Megaera will give us all boons if I let Cassandra die, but will react with fury if I try to save Cassandra. Avandra really wants to see what happens if I reject this deal, and honestly? So do I. I sculpt the spell so that Cassandra’s life is saved.

Spell: Aura of Life at lvl 4

Megaera reaches out to take Cassandra’s soul, but she can’t. Hah! Megaera booms, “No!” and sweeps up all the shadows instead. Cal notices that one of the shadows – the one farthest away from Megaera – runs off and presumably escapes. Megaera drops the cloak and it goes back to Freki. Flux washes over us again. Ugh, it’s horrible. But wait…is it…home? I was wrong about how it felt bad. It feels perfect! I feel suffused with ancient power. A powerful being has taken my body as a vessel, although my body can’t contain its majesty. I feel brittle, like a glass sculpture. But also extremely powerful! …As long as nobody throws anything at me.

When Megaera takes the shield away, a huge wave of Flux unleashes various effects all around us. Bec notices some abjuration prismatic effects. There’s also a spot that’s just…nothing. No Flux, no reality, no time, no space, just null. There’s a crossroads of reality, that could lead somewhere else or just to madness. There’s also a real Fluxy spot that looks like home. What if I just, like, went in there a little? For a treat?

Bec, Vondal, Oz, and Cal are caught in an anti-magic field. Their artifacts are fine, but they can’t cast spells. Though also, other magical effects are dampened.

Lured by the Flux, Vondal gets up and steps into the Fluxy area. Then he uses his Rod of Wonder to cast Slow on Megaera. Her body cracks in half and falls to the ground. Freki is now hanging on to half of her. The Flux waves continue to pummel us, and we all fall unconscious.

As my consciousness fades, I wish that whatever happens, we all stay together….

We all wake up and we can feel a cloak of protection around us. Our SPI badges are pulsing. We’re all SPI, and everyone in the SPI is protected. But as we look around, we’ve also all changed.

• Thorns – Bec – Her eyebrows are green and bushy, and her skin is slightly green. Spines protrude from her body and through her clothes. [GM’s note: Your unarmed attacks do piercing damage, and those striking you with natural weapons take 1d6 points of piercing damage per successful hit.] Her eyes are bright green and now she now sees everything in shades of blue, but she can see in the dark. Disadvantage on stealth checks.

• Ferocity – Cal – He now has tusks, which is awkward, but also feels full of stamina, like he could keep fighting even after being disabled. His skin itches and there are stinky mushrooms growing there. His brain feels fuzzy and his Wisdom is now halved.

• Swiftness – Oz – He has grown a huge rack of antlers. His land speed is doubled. Every time his feet touch the ground, sparks fly up, so that’s disadvantage on stealth checks.

• Grace – Callie – Something hurts. I’m lying on my new pixie wings. I can now hover up to five feet off the ground, and glitter sheds from me everywhere I go. I’m graceful! I get +2 bonus to reflex saves. But the glitter cauases disadvantage to all Dex saves for stealth.

• Senses – Vondal – His ears are now huge and bat-like. He can echolocate! All his senses have sharpened. He now has double proficiency on perception and blind sense out to 30 feet. Also bats are attracted to him and keep landing on him. He has disadvantage on stealth because the damn bats are always around.

• Jaws of Death – Freki – His mouth feels weird and he has way more, larger, and sharper teeth. Also, the teeth can be venomous if he so chooses. The ground beneath him is scorched and dead, nothing but dust beneath him. [GM’s note: Your canine teeth exude poison. If you hit with a bite attack, your target must make a Constitution save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Constitution modifier) against poison. Initial damage is 1d2 points of temporary Dexterity damage; secondary damage is 1d4 points of temporary Dexterity damage. Plants die everywhere you walk, becoming brittle and turning to dust.]

Lorelei, who is not part of the SPI, has been lying in the Flux and is changing: her fingers are claws now. Cassandra runs over to her and hugs her, stopping her from changing further. Vondal also comes over to Lorelei and asks Cassandra if these changes are permanent.

Hugin and Munin are on Freki’s shoulders. Hugin has ram’s horns. Munin has an udder. Hugin says, “We have all been changed. We flouted the lady’s offer.” HOLY CRAP, THE BIRDS CAN TALK!

Munin says we could always hear them, they just chose not to speak.

“Unhand me!” says Lorelei. Vondal tries to explain that she was Fluxing out, like coming apart at the seams.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle!” Lorelei protests, trying to squirm away from Cassandra, who is stubbornly holding onto her.

This whole place seems to be deteriorating, even worse than before.

Freki has a vision, sort of, from before sight existed. He sees a center, where everything comes together in equilibrium. He feels close to this point, like it’s nearby somehow. Seeming lost in the memory, Munin says, “We can find it.”

Cassandra tentatively lets go of Lorelei.

Cal thinks that Hugin is now undead. Just Hugin, not Munin. Freki asks if Hugin is okay. Hugin responds that life and death need to be in balance, so now he and Munin are balanced. Munin is focused on finding the “center” and “stopping the tear,” whatever that means.

Freki says obviously we’re going to save the world, but at the same time maybe not. Freki himself is a crossroads, one path and the opposite.

Vondal can tell that we aren’t completely to the center, although we’re close. He announces that we have to go further up and further in.

But he’s kind of too late, because Bec and Oz have already stepped into the rainbow and can’t breathe. There’s no air inside; it’s very well protected! Anyway, Bec casts Dispel Magic using a crystal of subtlety so she doesn’t have to expend the air to cast the spell. Bec drags Oz out of the square, but they’re both still covered in this rainbow stuff. She quickly casts Dispel Magic on him too, but he’s not especially grateful to be breathing. He doesn’t want to live in this state. I mean, it’s literally called “Flux,” maybe wait a few minutes before giving up on life.

We follow Vondal “up and in” to a semi-circular chamber. It has very smooth walls. A divine gate opens up as we walk into the chamber, and there’s a person through it, sitting on the pedestal in a meditative pose. It’s another Vondal!

Vondal – our Vondal, not the other one – senses that this is a portal to the Afterworld. The real one, not the fake one we walked through before. He had thought the Afterworld would be protected and free of Flux, but no. It’s just as wrecked as out here!

Cal tries to catch the other Vondal with his whip, but he effortlessly glides out of the way, and Cal barely hangs onto the whip in the process. Oz tosses a dagger, hitting him in the chest. Then Oz goes to teleport (his daggers can do that), but nothing happens. Something has prevented the teleport, but not this other Vondal. [GM’s note: It’s the planar border.] Freki leaps through to bite the other Vondal. When he gets into the portal, Hugin and Munin disappear, and he’s wearing the cloak again. He bites at the other Vondal, but NotVondal deflects him with a poke in just the right area.

Freki tells NotVondal that he wants to see the world restored to its natural balance. NotVondal asks whether the world’s balance is really natural. Freki says it isn’t now, but it was. “Balance is in the eye of the beholder,” says NotVondal. “What makes you so certain that your will is correct?” Freki tells him that we only have our own experience to go on, and we have to be able to trust it. Freki says he’s spent his life trying to deny the two sides of himself, only to find out they’re the same thing. “I want my friends and the world to be healthy.”

NotVondal takes the knife out of his chest and hands it back to Oz. Then he puts his palms together and heals the wound. He radiates patience…but also pity for us, who have no idea what we’re talking about. Also, he doesn’t smell like anything, and Freki will not stand for it.

NotVondal says he came for power over death, and he got it. Freki says power over death is unnatural, and NotVondal seems slightly amused at the idea that Freki of all people would say such a thing. NotVondal tries to go, but Freki stops him. NotVondal says he expected more out of this interaction.

Oz spots a tattoo of a white crane on his ankle.