RB 5-18: Trauma Realms, Then the Cradle of Reason

Mission Report

Wed, Jan 24, 2018 ((Jun 14, 2020))
Party: Lyndi Fletcher (Aslene), Jane Irwin (Cael), Proud Flame (Aunne), Shiro (DragoN), Sylvi (Daewendriel), Kromrak (Sielic), Isabelica (Basil), Farida (Kitsunewill)

The battle in the Chapel of Agontah continues. Bullmog the Dustdealer uses a Wall of Fire and a Fireball, but the heroes eventually kill him. During the fight and immediately after, most of the heroes are cast into trauma realms, in pairs. Lyndi, Proud, Jane, and Shiro re-live horrific memories or fears. As they overcome the challenges of the trauma realms, the heroes shift to the Cradle of Reason. There they witness fragments of Laduguer and Dol'modeen fighting. Raptor Blue moves into the final phase of the fight, as they strive to swing the century-long battle in favor of Dol'modeen and Kotah, the Path of Giving.

The Battle in the Chapel Continues

• Gabriel's inspires the team as an angel
• Bullmog continues using a lair action to imprison different Raptors in trauma realms

• Bullmog rings the team with a Wall of Fire
• Kromrak uses Far Step to get up to the rafters of the chapel and blasts Bullmog
• Gat flies Syl out of the ring, with Farida tossing Sylvi up
• Jane opens a gap in the wall with Tidal Wave
• Jane rides her TRex out
• Shiro rushes through the gap
• Bullmog heals himself multiple times, apparently drawing HP from the monsters in the trauma realms

• Sylvi kills Bullmog
• Farida attacks the throne repeatedly, severely damaging it
• Bullmog expects to return to the Nine Hells, but the throne catches fire and his body explodes, flinging blood everywhere
• More heroes are thrown into trauma realms

Trauma Realms

• Trauma realm: space is weird; sound and light are weird

• Lyndi & random: Proud, then Sylvi
• (Some action here in last episode)
• Mind flayer hatchery
• Perfidy's friends bound; a pool with mind flayer tadpoles
• They kill the mindflayer and its young remorhaz minion
• Lyndi fries the illithid tadpoles
• Lyndi is certain this was only a nightmare: her people weren't given to mindflayers

• Proud & random: Farida
• Rooftops over a park, political rally happening
• Proud had been here scouting for Mr. Smith
• Now sniper teams are preparing for an assassination
• They start attacking the sniper teams
• Proud calls 911

• Shiro & random: Gatriel
• Deck of a destroyer
• Pirates
• Ship being used for piracy
• They kill the pirates, but not before one downs Gatriel
• Shiro realizes that Gatriel needs a god
• He activates the ship's self-destruct

• Jane & random: her TRex
• Chicago zoo, ape enclosures
• Mr. Smith has attacked the apes
• Gorillas, chimpanzees, gibbons, orangutans
• Some are dead, some are only dying, but they're bleeding out fast
• Right now, the other Jane is too busy fighting a dracolich, out there in the snow
• Jane heals the the dying apes
• Through the power of the Chaos Orb, Jane can change the past
• She coaches the apes to escape through the sewers, to the Fort

In The Cradle of Reason

• Kromrak and Belica didn't get swept into trauma realms, so at Bullmog's death, they're shifted to the Cradle of Reason
• There they find two fragments of gods fighting, as they've been doing for 100 years
• As other heroes overcome their trauma realms, they join the team in the Cradle of Reason

• Laduguer is a tall, gaunt duergar (he/him) with rough skin of mottled gray and brown. He is bald, and his grim face has a deep frown. He wears heavy hide armor made from bronze dragonskin and ornamented with rusty studs. He carries a heavy crossbow, a quiver of bolts, and a warhammer with a double head carved to resemble twin screaming dwarven faces.
• Dol'modeen is a hulking humanoid of eldritch horror. Five glowing red eyes lurk beneath a prominent brow-ridge. Below diagonal nose slits, a tangle of long tentacles surround a circular maw of serrated teeth. Her neck has gills that slowly ripple. Her massive, muscular body has rubbery, black-and-purple flesh covered in slime and scales. Her flesh is semi-translucent, revealing alien anatomy, muscles, and organs. She is draped in wavy fronds of bioluminescent seaweed. Her arms end in finger-like tentacles, and she carries a fishing spear of salt-rusted iron.

• Lum, firebird trapped in a bracelet, offers to serve Belica, heals her
• Belica talks to the spirit in the Cradle of Reason, with Daria Blake's help
• It's the Spirit of the Daysahreni people. It bears their deep traumas, going back to their enslavement and abuse by the illithids
• It remains divided, just as the Daysahreni are divided, between:
  • Wanting vengeance and conquest, on Agontah, the Path of Taking, taught by Laduguer
  • Wanting compassion and exploration, on Kotah, the Path of Giving, taught by Dol'modeen
• Daria, channeling her divine connection, says something about freeing the Spirit of the Daysahreni, but needing someone to take its place
• Braid says, "I'm willing to take its place."