Episode 4: The Fall of Mirkarkden (2/1/2023)

The Fall of Mirkarkden

It is the Fall of Mirkarken as we know it. Our heroes had to put their skills to the test if they hoped to escape with their lives. The first of the Mirkarden guard fell to Ileana Queen of Crows and her hellish entourage. In her frustration, she exclaimed that it didn't matter that they'd ended up in Mirkarken instead of Glynndarryl as an unknown Cassius had told them. They could take the Sliver from here. After dodging the collapse of The Emerald Inn, Sankara, and the party wisely fled. Lucky's quick thinking redirected a runaway horse and cart from running over a child. Gallogk's insight quickly reoriented the party as more and more portals allowed a deluge of hellish monsters to overrun Mirkarkden. Bjorn's leadership and persuasion redirected hundreds of Mirkarden civilians out of the city and away from danger. After dodging volleys of arrows, the disintegration ray of a beholder, and navigating a city under attack, our heroes found themselves at the main gate of the city nearly overrun by undead. However, the undead proved to be no match for the pyrotechnics of The Incredible Bim. Unfortunately, he was last seen gasping as he was surprised by a beam of energy from behind. The party valiantly took out the rest of the undead and giant crows that surrounded them. Relentlessly though, the undead kept coming. Escape seemed impossible until strangely enough, Michael the Tavern Keep appears with a brilliant portal of white energy. He was revealed to be Michael, First of the Voidborn, one of the galactical beings charged with the custody of The Sliver. As the party entered the portal, somewhere deep in the city the rest of the festival plaza caught fire. Fireworks shot into the air, and what was intended to be the grand finale of the Festival of the King to Come becomes a brilliant mockery juxtaposed against the death and tragedy in the city below.

Michael closed the portal and stayed behind. The party then found themselves in a sub-dimensional space where the secrets of the Sliver were revealed to them by Alexander, Second of the Voidborn. Many questions followed. None of the Voidborn knew this new threat, or how they were able to discover a secret plane designed to facilitate resurrection across the planes of existence. At the conclusion of their time with Alexander, it was decided that their chief task at this time was to continue to try to complete the trials, reforge their souls, and leave The Sliver. Their next step is to meet with Gabriella, Third of the Voidborn and Queen of Glynndarryl for help in identifying the approximate location of the next Trial. The Voidborn will continue to investigate this new threat and try to elucidate the ramifications an invasion like this will have on The Sliver.  At the end of the session, the party once again "awakens" exhausted at a table at the Copper Tankard with the dust of the Doragaen Mine, the Battle with Caldor, and the Fall of Mirkarkden still on their heels.