A Few Friends and I on Fanfiction.net had decided to try D&D out for the very first time, but since we were all in different parts of the country, we used a chatroom to play. It was my first time playing D&D, whats worse is that I was being the DM for the First Time, and I already had my character made too… In any case, since we were doing 5E, and since we were all playing it for the first time, I allowed everyone to choose a magical item from the dungeon master's guide to give them a small moral boost, and had it that everyone wouldn't have a score below 10 in any of their stats.
After we had decided on everything, we had a small group of characters; John Roland, a Paladin who swore the Oath of Devotion; Nadarr, a Bannerette; Vipera, a Yuan-Ti Abomination (with the traits of a Pureblood, for balance reasons) Raven Queen Warlock; Rin, a Changling Cleric of Anansi, a Trickery and Knowledge Domain God, Star Fire of the Silent Hill Clan, a Tabaxi Thief, and Samael, an Aasimar Sun Soul Monk.
As it was my homebrew world, all Tieflings, Aasimar, and Dragonborn were given wings and a flight speed of 30ft, and Nadarr asked me to use a homebrew rule that would allow him to use his breath a number of times equal to his Con Modifier, and recharge during a Rest Period. As I was already bending the rules a bit, I allowed it, but he would have to roll a d6 to determine how many shots he regains during a Short Rest, and would regain all of them during a Long Rest.
Fast Forward to Game Time, and I still wanted to introduce the character I stayed up all night to make into the game, and so I came up with an idea that appealed to me. I would introduce him as an NPC, and watch to see how things would play out. For those who are wondering who I am talking about, my character's name is Travesty, and he is a fresh out of training Paladin who obtained the powers of a Divine Soul Sorcerer through is lineage. Pin that here, it will be important later.
Anyway, the campaign starts off in my Homebrew World of Anora, and every official Player Race is in this world, and the geography is like that of our own Earth, but 3 times its size. The party began its adventure in a little area in Cimeraas (North America) in a little town in called the Green Dragon Inn, where a Halfling named Bilbo Baggins had set up shop after he and a company of dwarves had tricked an Ancient Green Dragon into a trap where they impaled it with spikes and cut off its head.
Back on topic, the party was made as a group of friends coming back from personal ventures after nearly a year apart, and they were exchanging jokes, telling stories about their adventures when Rin noticed two people huddled quietly in the back of the room. Taking on the form of a female waitress, she went over and introduced herself, finding that one of the two was a blue skinned, completely white eyed Tiefling, and the other was a Warforged. Rin did her best to strike up a conversation, and despite the Tiefling wanting to talk with her, his Warforged Companion decided against it. After a few hours, and a bit of clean up to "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates", most of the patrons left, with only the two strangers and the party remaining behind.
The Party, growing suspicious of the two, all wandered over to the group, and after a few rolls, managed to get them to join them for some drinks before the night ended. They strike up a funny conversation with the Tiefling, who tells them jokes about Paladins and Priests, especially one on how the only cheese that priests eat is swiss, because its Holey!!! XD. This got everyone laughing, only Star Fire to notice that on the wall are a pair of wanted posters for the two with their descriptions; A tailless, hornless tiefling who looks almost completely human, save for his blue skin, white eyes, black tearstain markings, and his two large wings; and a Warforged with a blade incorporated into its right arm and a shield into its left, bearing the symbol of a dragon biting its tail engraved into its chestplate.
The Thief asks about the posters, and the Warforged, who they learned is called Talos, stands, asking them if they were bounty hunters, to which the Tabaxi quickly, and barely, manages to diffuse the situation. The Warforged returned to his seat and the party learns from the Tiefling, named Travesty, that he was a fresh out of training Paladin (aka 1st Level), when suddenly a Cult of Demon Worshippers had somehow managed to open a Portal to the Abyss beneath the city, and he had only stumbled upon it by chance. He had managed to use one of the two Sending Stones he had "borrowed" from his teacher and commander and called for reinforcements. Unfortunately, he was so terrified that his Stealth Check Failed (AKA Nat 1), and he was captured by the cult, to which he was taken to the altar and was about to be sacrificed when his comrades rushed in and saved him. That is when everything went wrong.
You see the Faith of Anora doesn't have a thing against Divine Soul Sorcerers, or Tieflings in general, as they were born that way, but they are really paranoid about any Tieflings being born AS Divine Soul Sorcerers, as, according to Prophecy, it would require the blood of just one Tiefling DSS to awaken the Tarasque, which would bring about the End of the World, and that is the situation Travesty found himself in. Due to a cultist ignoring the "distraction" brought the dagger down on the poor unfortunate soul, only for the blade to stop short as his divine power burst from his body and envelope the area, and, coincidentally, recharging and reactivating an ancient warforged from its slumber, aka Sonny.
The Battle would finish and as soon as Travesty was taken home, Sonny would be given repairs and things would be alright for a few days, but after that, the Faith came for his head because of the Prophecy, but Travesty's entire family, who composed of a significant portion of the Faith's forces, turned on the Faith and bought Travesty enough time to flee with Sonny, with his father simply telling him that "You need to Embrace your Destiny to Defy your Destiny" before charging back into the fray.
After the story, the party would agree to help Travesty out and help keep him out of the clutches of the Faith, all the while searching for the reason why they want him dead. Fast forward several months into the campaign, the Party Stumbles upon an old temple built by the Ancients, which housed decayed murals which, with several History and Religion checks of High DC, they learn what the murals mean, and it reveals the Backstory of the Tarasque. Its too long to put here so I'll just say that the Tarasque, in this Homebrew, is not just the most powerful Monstrosity in the World, its actually the Weapon of the Gods against the Forces of Evil should they threaten the World, and it was originally created by a Divine Soul Sorcerer named Mustakrakish, who was also a Tiefling. The Murals depicted Raziel sacrificing his life in order to bring the Tarasque into Existence, but to prevent it from being manipulated by anyone, he had his Bard ally cast Modify Memory and Geas on him (both with a 9th Level Spell Slots and intentionally failing), to completely erase his memory, and to only allow it that one just like Mustakrakish, and those who knew the song that was played to summon him, in which it would then be in the Hands of the Gods on the Destruction he would wreak upon country he was summoned on.
Everyone at the table is absolutely stunned, especially when I reveal to them the song to summon and control Mustakrakish is the song "Awaken" by Dethklok, specifically the last part of the song, and with a few high roles, Travesty learns the Lyrics himself after the cleric cast Commune with the Dead, which they all learn must be sung in both Abyssal, Infernal, and Celestial at the exact same time, which would require several High DC Performance, Arcana, History, and Religion Checks to perform, with no assistance at all.
Fast forward once again to near the end of the Campaign, and the Cult that had originally attempted to sacrifice Travesty before has returned, and this time, they had gone to the same place they had gone to before, as the barrier between realms was weakest there, this time to intentionally summon the Two Strongest of the Demon Lords of the Abyss (aka Demogorgon and Orcus). However, thanks to Travesty's Memory being a bit shawdy from the last time he was here (meaning a Nat 1 on History with a Severity of 1, meaning anything below 50 is bad), he got lost due to being understandably panicked and having been on the run for over 4 years in the game's time.
However, due to a Detect Magic Spell Travesty cast, he not only found where the cultists were, but not far from them was an even bigger magical source, and the group decided it would be wiser to find out what this force was before the Cultists did. Through several traps that our Thief nearly got herself killed undoing, the party discovered what was causing the magical signature, a powerful set of Abjuration Runes that were keeping in place the sleeping Tarasque, Mustakrakish himself. Unfortunately, the temple began to shake as everyone realized that taking this detour had unintentionally bought the cultists enough time to open the portal, and everyone could feel a hint of madness reaching into the skulls. Demogorgon and Orcus were breaking through the barrier, and they had only one option left…
Travesty, realizing what needed to be done, bid a tearful farewell to his friends, thanking them all for the journey they had made. So, using the last of his Spell Slots, Travesty cast Antimagic Field upon the runes, and began the ritual to awaken Mustakrakish. As I began to "Awaken" on my Iphone, everyone began, both ingame and out began chanting alongside with the lead singer of Dethklok as I make the necessary rolls… It seems the Gods are on my side as I roll ever die roll I need to with several high rolls between 17 and Nat 20 and complete the ritual. Unfortunately, the Blood needed to be shed to awaken Mustakrakish has Travesty fall unconscious, but he is able to make his Death Saving Throws and command the Tarasque to fight Demogorgon and Orcus, in which the Party eagerly gets to healing their sorcerer and join the battle.
It is a long and arduous fight, requiring a several hours to get through the encounter, but it is worth it in the end. As everyone begins to celebrate the Victory, and the Demon Portal Closes (thankfully not being open long enough to become permanent), the Cult, the one who attempted to sacrifice Travesty in the First Place, manages to land a sneak attack on him and kill the already severely injured Tiefling with one successful sneak attack. The soldiers in the area manage to kill the man, revealing it was the Leader of the Faith this whole time.
In the Epilogue of the Game, I have it that the Faithful are informed about the Tarasque's history and its mission to the world as a whole, and the reason why Tiefling Divine Soul Sorcerers are needed to ensure it awakens when the time is right.
For my players, I had each of them decide the epilogues for their characters: John Roland was made the Leader of the Faithful; Nadarr continues on his adventures; Rin vanishes from the world, never to be seen again, of her own accord of course; Vipera, having freed her people of her uncle's corruption, settles in to being the leader of her clan and leading it into a golden age; Star Fire becomes a spy for the government; and Sonny returns to his slumber, his mission fulfilled for now.
As for Travesty, I have it that in the Afterlife, he was given a choice between serving on Mount Celestia or Mount Baator, either as a servant to the God of Stories, Anansi, or to continue his war against the Demons as a Baatezu. Travesty chose to flip a coin, saying that he had embraced his destiny, now it was time to see if he could defy his destiny. I flipped a coin myself to help illustrate it, and wouldn't you know it, the coin somehow landed on its edge. I didn't expect this, and so I came up with a Secret Ending for Travesty, in which he would neither join Baator or Celestia. He had already embraced his destiny to awaken Mustakrakish, and defied it by choosing not to give into the Faith's Provocations to destroy the World and prove them right, so now it was time for him to Choose his Destiny, and so, he chose to reincarnate, and the rest… Well lets just say my fans on Fanfiction.net are going to be getting a new story… Its time to Role the Dice!!!
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