TRS14 - Saving Private Ryker

Saving Private Ryker is the fourteenth session in the campaign The Red Star. In it, the party finally arrives at its destination, the Tower of Nethys, and discovers the ultimate weapon that they must use to destroy the Red Star.

Summary
The party still locked in a vicious battle royale, Resmi's celestial giant spider climbs a watchtower to defeat a foe who has gained a positional advantage. The foe, however, smashes the spider with a mighty flail, causing it to disintegrate from existence. But then Flynn hatches a plan - he gets Dovos to throw him to the tower, and Flynn smashes the foe onto the floor.

Meanwhile, Iago, still locked in a Bard Off against Merrius, plays another incredible tune on his ukelele. Merrius plays back on his golden lute in desperation, but is not able to match Iago's play. Confident that he can win, Iago plays another tune, but it fails to meet the bar he himself set. Merrius sneers, with renewed hope that he'd remain Bard Supreme. He begins to play a song on his lute, but some mixture of nerves and overconfidence gets the better of him. Half way through, the golden lute realises that it has been bested. The lute explodes into a cloud of fine mist, throwing merrius backwards. Merrius falls to his knees, and the cloud of fine mist becomes a golden orb, which moves towards Iago before hovering in front of him. Iago places his ukelele in the orb, it becomes a Perfect Golden Ukelele. Iago, pleased with his victory, looks around to see that the rest of the party defeated the remaining enemies while Iago was playing.

Merrius kneels on the floor in despair. Iago taunts him, and Flynn tries to convince him that everything will be okay. But Merrius swears he will not forget this day, and Flynn punches him in the jaw. Flynn tries to intimidate Merrius into leaving the party alone, while Eptol points out that the whole thing is a waste of time, and that pieces of the Red Star are literally raining down from the sky. Flynn then insists in giving the dead adventurers a burial, but Pyrria and the rest of the party point out the foolishness of that idea. Resmi says a short prayer for the fallen, and the party advances through a small forest, coming to a clearing. Looking up, they can see the Tower of Nethys reaching into the clouds.

A minotaur guards the way, however, Flynn easily kills it with a single attack. Looking around, Iago notices that the surroundings are unfamiliar, not resembling their current time period. Metal structures surround them, seeming to serve no discernable purpose. A strange symbol lies on the tower, a blue circle with an arrow-like shape in red on top of it. A low rumble distracts the party from observing these strange sights, and they look up. The Red Star is huge now, a circle of clouds turning around it. As the sun starts to set, a gargoyle comes to life, threatening to slay the party. Flynn, though, makes him a nice meal and he lets the party through. The party enters the Tower of Nethys.

Inside is a large, dark and misty room. The party feels a buzz beneath their feet, and Aranell runs ahead. A loud screech is heard from above, and a huge mothdragon drops down from the ceiling into the center of the room. The mothdragon is a powerful opponent, but the party manages to kill it. Upon its death, two baby mothdragons fly down, squealing at the sight of their mother's corpse. After the party kills these, Resmi heals the group, and they head to the end of the room, where there's a slightly raised panel of metal. Once the party steps on it, it begins to ascend. They arrive in a tiny room with a metal floor. Ahead of them is a strange metal box, with a large window showing images of the sky, the Red Star, and even themselves. A strange metal statue in front of them begins speaking.

It says that the tower is a relic from long ago - from the dawn of the discovery of magic. It introduces itself as Kraft. He says he is technically human, but his soul was transferred into a shell that holds his consciousness. Kraft explains that the Tower of Nethys was built to combat the Red Star, and it succeeded in destroying the first one. He lived in a world before magic, where man and science ruled, but once magic was discovered, the world became noticable to higher beings - beings of the Dark Tapestry, the source of the Red Star. Eptol realises that his question would finally be answered. He asks Kraft the thing he has been wondering for almost the entire journey - what was the meaning behind the numbers 8116?

Kraft reveals that 6091 years ago, magic was discovered. In the calender of his time, the current year would be 8116 A.D. Flynn asks if they are the only ones who know the truth. Kraft says that the only people who ever find out are the people who make it to the tower - the Star-Cleavers. He says that the 'ultimate weapon' is the Tower of Nethys itself, a weapon of science built to destroy a magical enemy. He explains that the Red Star is not only a meteorite, but a vessel that the Dark Tapestry uses to send down aberrations, to start an invasion. The current Red Star is the 30th. The first Red Star was destroyed too late, and that caused the apocalypse of the Old World. The magic from the Red Star bled into nature, and helped humanity to survive.

Kraft says that the tower's weapon can only be activated by organic material, hence the need for adventurers to travel to the tower every 200 years to activate it. Kraft assures the group that the process is safe, but the Red Star had already gotten too close to be destroyed fully. Flynn, having seemed particularly quiet and shocked by the truth so far, volunteers to activate the tower. He looks oddly happy. The rest of the party find his behaviour strange, but ultimately trust him. Flynn takes the truth in, saying that him and the rest of the party have been through a huge amount of suffering. He wonders... why not just wipe the slate clean? Flynn proceeds to drive his sword into the computer. Resmi and Iago, on reflex, try to cast Burning Disarm and Grease respectively on Flynn's sword, but are too late. The old technology made of glass and metal sends a jolt of electricity up through his sword, burning his hand. The terminal has been completely destroyed.

Resmi, in a storm of rage, smashes Flynn with her staff, her strength fueled by severe desperation. Flynn says that he has seen may things in his life - war, death, pain. It's a vicious cycle, it neve- SHUT THE HELL UP. Resmi interrupts his ramblings. Resmi, Iago, Eptol, and Pyrria stand before him in anger. Flynn tries to strike Eptol and Iago in one strike, but, prepared for it, they dodge the attack easily. Flynn continues rambling insanely. He just wants the pain to end, he says. He admits that he's not been a paragon since Ellaria became the Blood Queen. The four attempt to argue with him, but it is no use. A deranged mind cannot be swayed by logic. Their fight continues briefly, but soon Flynn slumps at the broken terminal. Flynn's regular sense of morality returns to him. He can fix it, he insists. The party angrily demand him to explain how exactly he intends to do that. He admits he does not know, but there has to be a way.

The party, for now putting aside Flynn's evil, wish on the wish stone, but  the gods do not help them. Kraft says that there is another way - blowing up the Tower of Nethys. It would destroy the Red Star, certainly, but it would also wipe out all life on this part of Allaria. Resmi begins to lose hope and starts a final prayer to Apsu. The rest of the party desperately try to think of a plan.

All hope had been lost.

Trivia

 * Introductions: This session introduced the character Kraft.
 * Deaths: In this session, no notable characters died.
 * Notable Events: This session saw Iago finally winning a Bard Off with Merrius and becoming Bard Supreme, the party arrive at the Tower of Nethys, the party meet Kraft and learn the truth behind the world, and Flynn reveal his insanity and destroy all hope for the world.

Quotes
''"I... I have nothing! You have ruined me!" ''- Merrius

''"Hey. At least you still have your nice, clean cloak." ''- Iago

''"There has been something I've been wondering for a long, long time now. I think you can finally answer it. ...What is 8116?" ''- Eptol

''"I'm always happy, Iago. I just wear a mask most of the time." ''- Flynn

''"SHUT THE HELL UP." ''- Resmi

''"I want it all to end." ''- Flynn

''"Lock him up. Let him weep in the world that he created, tortured by the sight of others dying, in the pain that HE caused. Death is too quick. Too easy." ''- Iago

''"But what is good? What is evil?" "I AM GOOD, YOU ARE EVIL. SIMPLE." ''- Resmi

"I thought I had a chance to change my fate when I met you all. For the first time things were not so dark. You shall pay for taking the light away from me, Flynn Ryker." - Pyrria

''"Adventurers, I hope you have a good plan. The world ends with you, I leave you to change the world's fate." ''- Kraft