System Agnostic/Episode Seven: Karavox Reforged

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The arc’s final chapter opens where it previously left off: at the archivist Aaron Duscalla’s house, with a frenetic pounding on his front door. The door begins to bend inward under the force of the blows, until it  shatters violently.

The camera then cuts back to the adventuring party, as they’re still trying to gain access to the head of Karavox. Kyuri thinks back to the brief moments in the time since they all first arrived at the temple, and begins to wonder if he truly is himself—or if he’s someone else who only bears Kyuri’s memories. After some deep thought, he comes to the conclusion that—while he is indeed Kyuri—there’s either an unknown passenger “traveling” within him, or he’s simply someone playing Kyuri’s part in history.

Domus sets up his immovable rod outside the doorway to the henge as Chonnnk rolls through the doorway. Xen offers to keep watch outside as Domus, Kyuri and Rooney enter together.

Everyone quickly realizes that, while Chonnnk is technically rolling and Rooney is flying, neither of them are going anywhere. A voice addresses them from the darkness, asking them who has come to seek Karavox. They introduce themselves, and the voice demands that one of them relinquish their “place in this world” (the ability to put down roots in a single location) as the price to get one step closer to obtaining the axe head. It furthers explains that Karavox’s head “has been removed from time and space”, and that to bring it back requires both.

Rooney asks if there’s a dragon in the room, and the voice responds it can present itself as many obstacles; it demonstrates by appearing in front of Chonnnk as a snow leopard, then Rooney as a white dragon. But it concludes it has no need for such displays, and evaporates into the darkness again as mist. Kyuri asks what the entity is, if neither a leopard nor dragon, but it simply responds, “I am.”

After some deliberation within the group, Rooney steps forward and offers to make the sacrifice, as he never stays in one place anyway. Immediately, the others are transported outside the henge, leaving Rooney alone with the entity. They strike the bargain, Rooney repeating the words “For Karavox, I give up my roots.” The ranger walks through the doorway with a renewed, much stronger wanderlust.

Xen catches the group up on the current situation: both infernal *and* abyssal creatures are rapidly approaching the area, and possibly “Marileth herself.” The party hurriedly approaches the next door.

Domus sets up the rod again and Chonnnk waddles through first, followed by the others. The Ursin is separated from them and approached by another voice from the darkness. The voice demands that Chonnnk sacrifice “who he is”—that is, his past and his memories—to obtain the final step in reassembling Karavox. Disheartened, the Ursin turns down the deal, saying he has a title back home he needs to defend and must retain his memories to do so. He turns and walks back out of the room. Only Xen is there to greet him.

In the meantime, the other three find themselves in a study. A blonde figure whose face is covered by a mask rises from a nearby chair to greet them. She pulls three ruby-like gems from a pouch and gives it to each of them. Domus asks how she knows them, to which she counters she doesn’t, but that the answer is long and complicated. He asks if she has the head of Karavox, and she replies that she can negotiate to have the third door opened. The paladin casts Divine Sense and picks up a hint of celestial energy from the figure before him, and lingering aftereffects of fiend around her—more from being around them than actually being one herself. He also picks up the fiends Xen warned the group about just through the doorway.

The group takes the opportunity to heal before their next fight. The woman casts a healing spell to help them, although doing so clearly takes a lot out of her and her form begins to flicker. Rooney’s hand briefly touches hers, and he instantly gets the impression he does indeed know her. But he doesn’t know from where, and the feeling rapidly fades.

The woman admits she’s not technically in the room; her presence is a failsafe against “certain problems.” She goes on to warn them that she can negotiate to lower the third door’s price but not erase it entirely. Rather than erase a person’s entire history, either one of the three would have to give up every memory except a single defining moment, or all three of them would have to give up one defining moment for each of them.

Without hesitation Domus agrees to give up all memories save for his defining moment: obtaining his spear. In his own words, “As long as I have that one moment, I can find everything else again.” The woman places her hand against the paladin’s chest, her eyes glowing gold. When she pulls it away, a thin strand from his heart comes with it. She calls upon Brodin and requests that he return to Domus what is lost. Domus repeats the words: “For Karavox, I give up my history.” Once again the light surrounding the door turns iridescent as the strand disappears.

The light from all three doors coalesces and focuses directly in the center of the area, and Chonnnk is nearly knocked off his feet from the tremors. A bone sphere, slightly cracked, emerges from the earthquake, at the same time several creatures arrive.

Back in the room, the woman declares the trials completed and urges the others to open the sphere and retrieve Karavox’s head, saying “The weapon will know what to do.” She coughs again, and her hand comes away with blood. She assures them she’ll be fine, but again directs them out of the room.

Once outside, Kyuri immediately catches sight of his father, Alistair, surrounded by reptilian-like devils and a flaming suit of armor. Meanwhile Xen stares down a snake-like woman with six arms, each one bearing a blade. The woman is flanked by demonic creatures unfamiliar to the others, including one demon bearing a resemblance to a donkey with crab claws.

Alistair greets his son from across the battlefield and asks where Kyuri’s mother is. He retorts he was about to ask his father the same thing. Kyuri touches the clasp of his cloak, activating his Wings of Flying, and the cloak transforms into raven’s wings.

The six-armed demon general Xen called Marilith turns to Alistair and calls out “Essler! I believe we had an appointment,” before turning to attack Alistair’s entourage. Alistair tells her to wait, as he has some “family business to attend to,” and instructs the devils with him to retrieve Karavox’s head while he goes for the haft. In an instant, he teleports across the field and fires a volley of magic missiles at Kyuri, who manages to cast Shield to block them. In the meantime, the suit of armor begins attacking the bone sphere.

Kyuri summons his dragon spirit ally Iirtem and his shadow hound Kastrinal to harry Alistair. Chonnnk tucks into a ball and rolls over to Alistair, tearing into the man with two great swings. One of the devils retaliates by attacking the barbarian and literally kicking his soul out of his body. The other devil begins attacking the Marilith, and suddenly both Iirtem and Rooney begin to feel uncontrollable rage well up inside them.

Blinded by his anger, Rooney pulls out a short sword and turns to attack Domus. His attacks miss as Domus calmly deflects them; the paladin may no longer remember Rooney too clearly, but understands they’re allies and are here to do a job. After trying to hit Domus, Rooney’s rage vanishes and he drops the sword in shock.

Kastrinal bites Alistair, who is already injured from Chonnnk’s attacks, and takes him down before fading back into the shadows. Iirtem, also caught in an inexplicable rage, tries to snap at Domus, but the paladin shrugs it off. Domus casts Protection From Evil and Good on Chonnnk and attempts to breathe fire at one of the devils. Unfortunately, the devil is unaffected by fire, although Domus’ fire breath does melt the snow around it.

One of the demons attacks Xen but misses. Meanwhile, on of the other demons attempts to bite the bone sphere but ends up breaking all of its teeth. The third demon assists its mistress in charging at one of the reptilian devils and eviscerates it.

Everyone on the field hears a piercing shriek that evolves into a loud roar as a large blue-white dragon covered in ice crystals arrives and stands directly over Alistair, unleashing a breath of ice at the remaining reptilian devil—as well as Iirtem, Rooney, and Chonnnk’s body. After a moment it gently grabs Alistair’s unconscious form and begins pulling him out of combat.

Marilith continues attacking the devils in front of her and the suit of armor that’s trying to pry open the bone sphere. The armor responds in kind, attacking her. Kyuri, knowing Iirtem is still magically enraged and unwilling to take the chance he will destroy Chonnnk’s body, drops the summoning spell. Instead, he uses one of the Scrolls of Death Ward on Chonnnk’s body.

Chonnnk’s soul returns to his body and he awakens. The remaining reptilian devil swipes at the barbarian and Domus, missing the latter but nicking Chonnnk. Rooney flies into the sky and casts Windwall around the bone sphere. The suit of armor is buffeted by the gale force winds, but continues its task.

Xen grasps the demon in front of her and casts Inflict Wounds as it scrabbles to get away. She turns to the party and reminds them if they get the axe head they may not have to fight the Marilith and could end the fight faster.

Domus casts Cure Wounds on Chonnnk from his necklace of prayer beads, then attacks the reptilian devil with his spear. Some of the other demons try to attack Xen, while the one who lost its teeth earlier tries to claw at the sphere but misses. The donkey-like demon rips into the suit of armor, dealing it heavy damage.

The dragon steps back and looks Kyuri in the eye. He instantly understands: the creature before him is his mother, and she’s protecting his father because “she married him for a reason, and it wasn’t devils.” She then tears into the devil before her, leaving it dazed and terrified of her.

The Marilith follows the donkey-like demon in attacking the suit of armor, leaving it far worse off than before. Suddenly no longer liking the odds, the suit vanishes from the battlefield in flames.

Kyuri aims for the sphere, hurling several Magic Missiles at it. The Windwall initially deflects them upward, but they find their target and even more cracks spread across the sphere’s surface.

Chonnnk stands up and charges at the Marilith, but she parries one of his attacks and the other doesn’t hurt her as much as he’d assumed it would.

Rooney unleashes a volley of his Angry Hornet arrows at the bone sphere, widening the cracks. With his second arrow he pierces the shell, splitting it until it crumbles and melts into the snow like water. The head of Karavox lies atop the ground, and Domus’ bag begins humming as the haft vibrates: Karavox wants to be whole again. Rooney flies down to pick up the head and Misty Steps next to Domus.

One of the remaining devils attacks the dragon, while Xen casts Inflict Wounds yet again on the demon in front of her. She tosses it to the side and runs up to Rooney and Domus, telling them to put Karavox back together. When Domus pulls out the haft, the axe head in Rooney’s hands flies away from him, cutting his fingers as it reattaches itself to the handle.

Once whole again, Karavox gleams so brightly it nearly blinds everyone on the field as it declares, “Free at last.” It then asks Domus, “Who must fall?” Domus responds “devils,” and—with the command from Brodin to help the genasi being the only memory still clear in his mind—he hands the axe to Xen.

Xen clutches the axe and murmurs, “You know who must fall.” As she does so, the remaining demons go after Kyuri, poisoning him with their claws. The donkey-like demon attacks Chonnnk, but the death ward prevents him from falling. The dragon flies across the field and rips apart the demons that attacked Kyuri.

The Marilith downs Chonnnk with a melee attack, then runs her blade through his body again, killing him.

Kyuri glances up at the dragon and says “Let’s do this,” before casting Raulothim's Psychic Lance at the demon in front of him.

Rooney calls out for Domus to use one of their remaining Scrolls of Revivify on Chonnnk before flying up and attacking the Marilith with his Angry Hornet arrows. His first attack misses, but the second does a bit of damage to her. Sensing the battle’s been lost, the remaining devil jumps into the ocean and disappears.

Xen briefly gazes at Karavox in contemplation before closing her eyes. Rooney and Domus feel enormous power emanating from the axe in waves, as though the weapon’s magic is being released and coming undone.

Kyuri feels his mind splitting apart, now certain there’s another presence—or at least a “passenger” as he ascertained earlier. He views the events from two perspectives: the way things were, and the way they are. Like the other two, Kyuri sees Karavox being unmade, but knows that’s not how it was supposed to happen.  

Historians don’t know how the devil incursion was stopped, although Karavox certainly played a part. According to history books and what Kyuri saw, an earth genasi cult member sought a way to escape, and met up with the party to “briefly” use Karavox and make amends by driving back the demons.

However, what the real Domus and Rooney see in the present is Xen stabbing herself with Karavox and falling, followed by the Marilith collapsing and dying—Xen’s connection to the demon general serving as her downfall.

The few remaining demons flee the battlefield. Domus casts Revivify on Chonnnk, bringing him back from death itself. Kyuri stands with his mother, who is still in dragon form, and casts Cure Wounds on his father. Upon waking, a panicked Alistair tries to attack, but the dragon’s claw firmly pushes him into the ground. Kyuri tells him Marcella just saved his life and not to ruin things now. His mother tells him in draconic she and Alistair will lay low so the devils don’t kill them, and they will find him later. She flies off, her husband still tightly gripped in one talon.

Rooney flies down and pulls Karavox from Xen’s body, trying to heal her in a panic, but she’s already dead.

In pain but alive once again, Chonnnk pulls a book out of his bag and gives it to Domus as thanks. Domus asks what the book is about, to which Chonnnk responds it’s “Speed Rapping for Dummies.”

The world itself appears to unravel, and three of the adventurers are pulled away. For a moment, only Kyuri and Xen remain as the world crumbles. “Kyuri” recalls this scenario happening before, with a Titan-sized version of the genasi now at his feet once ripping the entire world apart and screaming to be released. As history—or some version of it—seems to repeat itself in front of him, Xen opens her eyes and looks in his direction, saying:

“Find me when you understand; then it can start.”

Before “Kyuri” can ask any questions, Xen is gone. Then he's gone, too, as reality falls apart at the seams.

The camera breaks away, back to the house where the chapter first began. The house is in disarray, with drawers overturned and debris scattered about. A figure steps through the shambles and comes across a poster advertising a new collection featuring Karavox in a nearby museum. The figure moves away from the poster towards Aaron Duscalla, who lies on the floor with a bloodied gash across his forehead. The figure extends a hand downward, but the camera moves to their other hand—which reaches for a familiar eye-shaped holy symbol that glows a violent, violet light.