Our Land of Azurth 5e game concluded last night with our heroes facing down a shadow creature of immense size. Every bite attack it made threatened to swallow one of the party, and it periodically emitted bursts of necrotic energy. Luckily, they have Dagmar to keep throwing out the healing and two energy weapons they obtained long ago from visitors from the future (or perhaps past?). Erekose drained his energy rifle attacking the creature and was forced to go back to his sword. Ultimately, they destroyed the monster, but it went out in a blast of negative energy.
Dagmar checked on the emaciated form of the Wizard. He was alive but barely and not saying anything useful. Waylon tried shooting the black, anti-glowing orb over head with his energy pistol. The blasts seemed to burn it, but it didn't take it long to heal.
A group of Gloom Elf priests in tall hats emerged from the shadows (naturally!). They didn't attack but suggested the party's actions were futile. The Anti-Sun was already beginning to manifest in this world. It had provided the power that allowed the Wizard to manifest a giant shadow to fight the machine of the rebels, though the effort had drained him. They did not care. The Anti-Sun was here!
The party's response was to attack them. In a few rounds, they had killed the elven priests, but the avatar of the Anti-Sun was still hung above their heads. Luckily, they remembered (with a hint from the DM!) that they had previously defeated a shadow dragon by overloading one of the energy weapons. They did so again, and the resultant explosion put a ragged hole in the black sphere. Dagmar gave her all into a blast of radiant energy that finished it off, closing the portal.
The party heard noises in the chamber outside and prepared for another fight, but it turned out to be the soldiers of the rebellion led by Queen Desira of Virid and Warrior Princess Bellona of Sang. They related that once the giant shadow of the Wizard was defeated, and the Gloom Elves mysteriously withdrew, the city fell quickly. Their forces were just mopping up.
The party debated saving the dying Wizard but ultimately decided to let him die rather than risk it.
The princesses suggest the party return to the camp and get some food and rest. They do, and the first person they know they run into is Kory Keenstep. He talks circumspectly about a trip back in time that he chose not to take, but his sone Kully did. When queried further, he suggests the party talk to the Clockwork Princess, Viola.
The party finds her in the command tent. She reveals that defeating the Wizard might have likely led to the destruction of Azurth, as his existence constituted a causal loop around it. The only way to protect against that was to stabilize Azurth's history.
Instead of using a children's story to serve the evil ambition of one man, Azurth needed a new story to sustain it. So, the princesses sent back a storyteller, Kully the bard, to tell the faeries, the proto-goddesses of Azurth, a new story. One not subverted by the wizard.
The world would reset in about 14 hours.
The party asked if they would remember. Viola said she wasn't certain. Possibly they would since they had been to the beginning of Azurth themselves. They'll just have to find out.
The following morning, the party awakened in their residence, the former Dove Inn in Rivertown. There were no signs of war or occupation anywhere. The statue in the town square is not of their rivals the Eccentrics, but of them.
The End
The Masters of Mayhem are:
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