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Runtime Break start
3h 54m 2h 5m

Episode 98: The Nox Engine

In the long wake of the Solstice, Bell’s Hells find Exandria and their world turned topsy-turvy as Ludinus Da’leth and his cadre of followers (known as the Ruby Vanguard) plan to unleash the god-eating entity Predathos that was long sealed in the red moon Ruidus. After travelling to this very moon, interacting with its people and returning with intel on hopes to stop what they’re doing, they discover that they’ve been sourcing ancient, long-buried Aeorian magical technology as part of their plan. And not just that. Ludinus Da’leth is there right now dealing with a strange wrinkle in his plot with the name Dominox.
Bell’s Hells, escorted by a figure with some experience in the ruins of Aeor, one Essek Thelyss (crowd shouts ‘Hot Boi’) on loan from his ‘partner’, brought them to the strange, northern, frozen realm of Eiselcross where the very fabric of magic is strange and prone to unexpected apparation subforces. They went to these ruins, delved beneath, discovered that the Ruby Vanguard that had been delving within, scattered, killed (not by the terrifying denizens of these ancient dark ruins, but by eachother in strange fits of almost religious madness, carving glyphs into their flesh).
Going towards the darkest depths of the basements of the ruins in the center of the Genesis Ward at Essek’s guidance, they come upon a strange chamber where upon the ancient bodies mingling with the new freshly dead (now dangling by blackened hooks from long chains that seem to have apparated from nowhere, almost grown from the surrounding stone of the crumbled rock and ruin). They heard some of these long forgotten corpses asking them questions through magic: hearing things of a Nox Engine, hearing that Dominox was once (or may still be) a grand demon of ancient times sealed away and harnessed for nefarious magical purpose within this Nox Engine by the mage lords of Aeor long ago now recently running rampant upon the Ruby Vanguard.
Right as they discovered this, strange visions began to come to them. First Chetney Pock O’Pea being overcome with a mystical vision of a familiar darkened wood of the past and the bloodied faces of the children, seemingly called from dark, maybe buried, memories asking why he hurt them, why he killed them. Uncertain if this was real or not, he had to pull himself from the vision before attacking his friends. Right as they began to collect themselves, searching for the source of this strange dark magic, hoping to either find Ludinus or perhaps this Dominox and figure out what or who is the right villain in this instance, poor Dorian Storm fell to his own vision. As they pass between these hanging chains looking upon one of these hung corpses, he sees the face of his recently deceased brother Cyrus, who looks up at him with dead sunken eyes saying,
“Why have you done this to me brother?”
It’s here in these shadows. Dorian Storm, the blood pouring from his blackened sockets here in the shattered expanse, the rest of it just a shadowy dark blur around you, Cyrus looks towards you from that shadow.
“Why? Why, brother?”
As you glance up towards his face to try and make eye contact, his now-somewhat-shriveled corpse arms reach out and grab your lapel and pull you close (where you can smell the early decay on him) his lips curl back with the gums in the early stage of decomposition.
“Not all is lost, brother. I’m not beyond saving. My spirit lingers, haunts this realm now without peace, and I am not alone.”
You see these little sparks glow on the horizon around him, these other souls lost in the limbo, now in the post-Solstice era. The hands no longer grasping you; now just touching your cheek with a sadness and a hopeful longing.
“Within this engine, a curse keeps us, brother. Free us. Let us rest, brother.”
As the body begins to fade, the last thing you see in his shadow are a sparkin flash of a spinning purple crystal before you blink, and the body hanging before you is a long-dead skeleton, withered and armored in that of the ancient Aeorian guard.

Previous Episode: “Ancient Sins”

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    Braius Doomseed

    Why is he monochromatic? (click)

    It is believed that the Minotaur Bard-Paladin Multiclass is based partially upon Social Repose. You can see similar cheek marks on the early sketch.

    Omen Archive Braius Analysis

    We have not yet been made aware explicitly how his 14 levels are distributed between the two classes.
    We know that he is at least a 3rd level College of Tragedy Bard, as Braius used the Sorrowful Fate feature to change the save Dominox had to make against Dorian’s Otto’s Irresistible Dance spell to a Charisma save. Sorrowful Fate does the following:

    When you or an ally you can see forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration to change the type of saving throw to a Charisma save instead.

    Information on this subclass can be found on page 167 of Tal’Dorei Reborn. This particular subclass does not confer any additional spells beyond the standard Bard fare.
    That brings us to the next thing we can suss out: Braius’ possible Paladin Oaths. We know that Braius has both the Misty Step and Moonbeam. There are only two known Paladin Oaths that give access to Moonbeam: Oath of the Ancients and Oath of the Watchers. Oath of the Ancients seems like a likely option, as it also gives access to Misty Step at paladin level 5.
    We know, however, that he must have whatever features are associated with level 7 in his Oath because of his use of Blinding Smite, a 3rd level Paladin spell. Paladins do not get access to 3rd level spells until they reach level 9 in the class.
    All of this points to Braius having at least three levels in Bard and at least nine levels in Paladin, which leaves two levels unaccounted for (as Braius, unlike the rest of the party, is already at level 14).

    • He is a paladin of Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine Hells
    • He is at least a level 3 College of Tragedy Bard, which grants him at least the following:
      • Two Bard cantrips and six Bard spells, with four level 1 slots and two level 2 slots
      • Bardic Inspiration using 1d6, with a total of 4 uses per long rest
      • Jack of All Trades, which adds half his proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check he makes that doesn’t already include his proficiency bonus
      • Song of Rest, conferring an additional 1d6 of healing to the party on a short rest
      • Expertise in two skill proficiencies
      • The Sorrowful Fate feature, which can be used once per short/long rest
      • The Poetry in Misery Feature, which can be used any number of times as a reaction
    • He is at least a level 9 Paladin, of either the Oath of the Ancients, Oath of the Watchers, or a homebrew Oath subclass, which grants him:
      • Divine Sense, which allows him to sense any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of him that is not behind total cover, a total of 5 times per long rest
      • At least 45 points in his Lay on Hands healing pool
      • Divine Smite, allowing him to expend a spell slot to pump up to an additional 4d8 damage (circumstantially 5d8) into a melee attack—that is, 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 4d8 given that his highest spell slots are 3rd level. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend.
      • An unknown Fighting Style
      • Immunity to disease due to Divine Health
      • Two attacks per round
      • Aura of Protection, granting any ally within 10 feet of him a +4 bonus on saving throws
      • Sacred Oath features from levels 3 and 7 in either the Oath of the Ancients, Oath of the Watchers, or a custom Oath subclass
    • He has a Battering Shield, which confers a +3 bonus to AC (an additional +1 over the base shield bonus of +2), and has 3 charges that can be expended when a target is pushed 5 feet to push that creature an additional 10 feet, knock it prone, or both. It regains 1d3 charges at dawn