Scarlet Citadel Session 64 – Void of Annihilation

Here’s the write up from the penultimate session from our Scarlet Citadel campaign as the characters descended to the Howling Halls again to deal with the voidling and sphere of annihilation at the heart of the level.

You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.

---

The party return to Redtower after their meeting with Gellert and an exhausting expedition through the blinding sandstorms of the Howling Halls.

Clairmont casts commune to find out more information about the dark sphere and the voidling at the centre of the level, and learns that stepping into the sphere would be a very bad idea. He scries the chamber and sees a tendril of darkness lash out from the sphere.

He casts two more commune spells the next day to learn more about the voidling and the chaos magic that permeates the level.

---

The characters return to the Scarlet Citadel and head down to the icy chambers on Level 6. Maya hammers a piton into the wall so she can secure a rope before entering the corridor north of the Black Ice chamber. Clairmont goes first but is blown down the corridor towards the bone-strewn chamber to the west. 

As Clairmont flails around on the end of a rope like an armoured kite, Tunde is also swept down the passageway and flies past into the bone chamber. She casts misty step and escapes into the sheltered alcove. 

Maya is the third to shoot down the corridor, landing amid the bones of the fallen. As she gets to her feet, the bones and dust coalsesce into the undead shape of Morgaryv, a bonepowder ghoul (Tome of Beasts). Morgaryv attacks with Gravedust, but Maya is able to escape into the Wind Demon’s Foyer. 

With everyone inside, Clairmont casts stone shape to seal the chamber off from the wind, but a chaos magic surge reduces the wall to half the height of the corridor. 

Securing themselves to the walls of the room with ropes and pitons, the characters attack the voidling inside the sphere of annihilation with ranged attacks and spells, triggering multiple chaos magic surges. 

Clairmont positions a guardian of faith between the characters and the sphere in case the voidling moves out of the sphere. This is triggered when Tunde successfully uses power word fling on the aberration. 

Meanwhile lightning bolts shoot out of the sphere, striking the adventurers. One causes a fragrite (Creature Codex) to appear when it strikes the wall, giving the characters something else to worry about! The voidling’s Necrotic Burst sends a fragment of the sphere into the walls, creating new pathways through the dungeon. 

Clairmont summons a fiery angel of Khors, but is pulled towards the sphere and finds himself “circling the drain”. Tunde casts power word fling again to rescue him, but loses her footing and is pulled towards the sphere in Clairmont’s place. 

Maya attacks the fragrite while the other two characters concentrate on the voidling and sphere. Clairmont summons a second angel after the first one is killed by the voidling, triggering a chaos surge that conjures an open barrel of fish that swirls around the sphere along with poor Tunde.

Tunde casts misty step to escape into the chamber to the west beyond the portcullis, growing insect wings thanks to a chaos surge. Maya kills the fragrite which explodes, dropping her to 5 hp. When the angel of Khors delivers the killing blow to the voidling, the sphere of annihilation collapses in on itself with a loud pop!

The victorious characters make their way back up to the Crystal Garden on Level 5 and take a short rest. While they ponder their next move, a furious Gellert the Gruesome appears, screaming “What have you done?!”

As Gellert begins to cast a spell, the clay golem in the centre of the room stirs….

---

If you’d like to keep up to date with my Scarlet Citadel campaign and other posts, please do join my mailing list – there’s a sign up form on the home page and subscribers receive a free Parsantium supplement. 

---

Main image by David Auden Nash