Yesterday
we run the second and final session for our Godbound demo scenario (first part
can be found here, along with a review of the game). At the
end of the previous session heroes reached Level 2, so they’ve grow stronger
(the game is designed to be easy to level up the first few levels)
Wounded and
drained, the heroes returned to Quetzal. They announce that High Priestess
Painalli has been defeated, but the fight against the dragon god is far from
over. Gathering his divine strength, Harun make the villagers combat skills
permanent by spending Dominion points. Jade and Decimus, meanwhile, spend their
Dominion points to inscribe the stone wall surrounding the village with glyphs
that makes it imperceptible to onlookers unless they know the proper rite
(using Earth and Deception).
A few days
afterwards, Harun uses the power of the sun to see what transpires in the
Eternal City. A funeral for Painalli is performed atop the temple, where a muscular
warrior swears revenge upon her killers. Harun speaks to him across the
sunlight, but the man (revealed to be Painalli’s son, Akumal) isn’t impressed
by the Godbound’s defiance.
It doesn’t
take long to learn that Akumal, the Tempestuous Jaguar as it is called by many
who fear him, is rising an army to march against his enemies and avenge his
mother. Across the region many villages are raided, their inhabitants captured
to be sacrificed at Zyanya’s temple to appease Ilhuitemoc’s bloodlust.
The
pantheon splits. Decimus stays at Quetzal to build an underground fortress by
molding stone with his divine powers, while Harun and Jade, accompanied by the
elder Imari, travel to the nearby villages to get as much people as possible to
safety. Most villagers are afraid, but Harun’s aura and divine words
tranquilizes them, so they all join the cause in the end. When Harun’s words
fail, Jade’s dark nature puts them in line.
On the last
village, the group is attacked by a bunch of farmers, who have become hostile
due to famine and sickness, desperate enough to resort to thievery and murder.
Jade defeats several farmers before the rest are paralyze by fear, only to
reveal that she hasn’t killed them but rather put them to sleep. An old woman
defies the Godbound, for she knows her ancestor’s gods will return to help
them, like they always have. Jade approaches the woman, and with his divine
power infuses her with a blessing of the Night. The woman falls to his knees,
crying and recognizing the Godbound as divine.
Back to
Quetzal, the time for war has come. Harun uses his divine sight to see the
marching enemy troops closing their way. The pantheon rides along their Sun
Warriors into battle.
Both armies
clash in the battlefield, and quickly the jungle turns red with blood. Zyanya
Warriors are exceptional, but the Sun Warriors, men and women fighting for
their home and freedom, have been blessed by the divine, so even when in shorter
numbers their power is superb. At their side, the pantheon fights as well,
unleashing miracles of burning sun, chocking darkness and mighty stone.
Decimus fistfights
with Akumal in a one-on-one duel. Akumal combines the mastery of a lesser
wind-based strife with certain gifts granted by her mother, which makes him a
formidable opponent for the young Godbound, who unleashes the fury of the earth
with each strike. After a few rounds, Akumal is defeated and the pantheon
emerges victorious from the battle, but for as long as Ilhuitemoc is alive, the
war won’t be over.
Next
morning at dawn the group leaves the Sun Warrior to tend the wounded and the
prisoners, and march alone to Zyanya. They reach the top of the temple, where
Harun issues a challenge to the dragon god. Without an immediate response, Decimus
starts punching the temple to rubble, piece by piece. It doesn’t take long for
the sky to darken with storm clouds, from which Ilhuitemoc emerges furious.
As he
descends from the clods, the carvings of warriors across the temple walls come
to life, an army of stone warriors begins to climb to the top. Decimus uses his
powers over stone to control half the creatures, making them fight against each
other. Ilhuitemoc, furious of his defiance, unleashes lightning and thunder
over the temple, burning his foes and imploding the stone warriors. After a few
rounds, even the temple’s ceiling collapses.
Harun is
the first to fall, but not before he triggers his Divine Fury and unleashes a
few sun-burning miracles on the dragon god. At this moment the dragon’s crystal
scales on its chest open, revealing what it seems to be a withered old man
trapped in rune-carved chains, his divine force being slowly drained by
draconic crimson veins. No doubt this is the missing godly protector of the
region, Ohtonqui, he’s ultimate fate now known.
Realizing
that Ilhuitemoc is using the old god’s life force to heal his own, Decimus
grabs Jade, makes an impossible jump and drops her over the dragon, her divine
powers stopping her from falling and granting her full movement while atop the
beast. Ilhuitemoc becomes furious for this, trying to desperately crush Jade
under its wings. Jade runs and dodges, reaching the creature’s chest where
Ohtonqui is imprisoned. The decision is a difficult one, she could either kill
him outright or try to free him. Developing some sort of sympathy for the old
man, she conjures tendrils of pure darkness to break the chains and grab the weakened
god. Meanwhile, Decimus jumps across the city, clashing with the dragon god to
keep him distracted.
As the old
man is freed, Ilhuitemoc screams in pain and fury, his powers now weakened. He
decides to burn all his divine might to crush his foes as soon as possible. His
attacks are lethal, causing both Godbound to activate Divine Fury to gain a few
more rounds.
Decimus launches
a series of his most powerful attacks, before falling unconscious and
defenseless. Finally, Jade conjures her last strength into a last attack fueled
by all her divine strength. Ilhuitemoc seems to be unaffected by this, but suddenly
tendrils of darkness erupt from inside his body, choking the life force of the
dragon god for good from the inside. The creature plummets from the sky and crashes
right into the temple, destroying most of it. Jade manages to jump at the last
second, landing into safety before falling unconscious as well.
A few
minutes of silence pass, as the people in the Eternal City begin to realize
what just happened as the clouds dissipate and the sun shines. Their immortal god was dead. From the rubble, the Godbound
arise once more, their words burning with divine defiance, urging everyone to
break the chains of slavery and unite under a single banner.
The fight
was over, but their saga has just begun…
THE END
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