Roadkill

Session Date: 01/10/2026
Game Master: Rew

• Borgoth, Orcish Fighter (John)
• Gwiazdka, Halfling Rogue (Bekah)
• Keeka, Orc Bard (Sheila)
• Psithuris, Circle of Strars Druid (Quinton)
• Rotheon, Aasimar Clockwork Sorcerer (Ace)
• Yuna, Human Cleric of Isva (Jenny Beth)

Narrator:
In a great courtyard that was once the forum of Gloomwrought, Ashriel stands atop a spire of jagged obsidian. Below him, the fascist Shadar-kai legions stand in tight silent perfection, their blades dull grey. Beside them, the undead “Eternal Servants” remain motionless, their hollow gazes fixed upward. Ashriel’s voice is not a shout. Instead, it is a resonant, icy calm that cuts through the howling winds of the Aether.

Ashriel:
My Chosen. My Bound. My Eternal.

The work in this province is done. We came to The Blight with a singular, sacred purpose: to feed the hunger of our philosophies. We have nearly stripped this province of its Shadow Shards, pulling the very essence of the Aetherverse from the rubble to build our very own Demiurge. We have harvested the restless dead to give it muscle.

Look upon our work. Look upon the Dark Messiah.

Narrator:
Ashriel’s voice rings out over the grey square. Standing just below and behind the spire, draped in the tattered remnants of a traveler’s cloak, is the broken silhouette of Dane Shadowstrike. The Tabaxi is a horrific sight. The left side of his head has been partially caved in leaving his skull fractured and matted with dark, tacky blood that refused to wash away in the transition to undeath. His left eye is a hollow, dark crater, while his right eye burns with a cold, slaved violet light. On his hip is the cursed fascist blade Vesperfang.

Ashriel:
This is no mere engine of war. It is a vessel of the Primordial Furnace, a crucible of creation itself. Within its core, controlled only by the volatile torrents of the Monster Energy, it carries the power of the beginning and the end. It possesses the divine right to destroy the obsolete and create the absolute. With this furnace, we shall burn away the frantic, disordered noise of the ‘Whimsicals’ and forge a civilization of order and devotion that cannot be broken.

Narrator:
Dane jolts with a sudden realization. His one remaining ear—notched and frostbitten—twitches. His nostrils flare, catching a scent on the thin, biting Aetheric breeze. Beneath the metallic tang of the Monster Energy and the sulfur of the Primordial Furnace, there is something else. Something warm. Something familiar. Something near. He excuses himself from the address.

Ashriel:
The prophecy is no longer a whisper in the dark, but rather a map. Guided by the careful eye of the Spawn of Chaddrus, as foretold, our path is unerring. We do not guess. We do not hope. We execute a vision that was written before the first star was born.

Now, we turn our gaze toward the Welmet and the soft, drifting realms beyond. They will see our Dark Messiah hurtling through the Aether and they will call it the end. They are correct. It is the end of their era of accidents.

Narrator:
As Ashriel speaks, the right limb of the titanic Dark Messiah swings slowly down toward an approaching shadow shard. A great dark obelisk of onyx rising from the shard that was once Voidhaunt tears through the shard. Green bolts of Monster Energy pull bits of rock and ice into the Dark Messiah’s shadowy form, empowering it even further. Ashriel breathes a heavy, satisfied sigh at the great destruction his will has wrought before continuing.

Ashriel:
We bring a choice to the mortal realms, though it is a simple one. Accept our vision of a world of structure, service, and unwavering stillness – or face the total extinction of your light. We will grind the Hospice of Eliac into the dust of the void and use the ruins of Welmet Station as the first bricks of our new temple. March forth and let the Aether tremble as we bring it to heel.

• The Dark Messiah - A titanic, monstrous facsimile of the shattered Demiurge, Ao. This Frankenstein's monster of stolen Shadar-Kai settlements and necrotic Shadow Shards is animated by the volatile “Monster Energy” once associated with the warlock Caiel. It hurtles through the Aether toward the Hospice of Eliac and Welmet Station,
• Chaddrus - Caiel's infernal father by Chartreuse and owner/operator of Chads-R-Us Voidships in Welmet
• Steve McSword - An ancient Shadar-Kai marshall who managed to stop the murderous wishes of the Shadowfell Warlords. Founder of Flaygallows, and barrister at the Flaygallows war crimes trials.
• General Morvax Umbrahand - An ancient pre-Sundering Shadowfell Warlord who led the attack on the Feywild and later the Prime Material Plane. He is known for his wandering Tower of Death and the fact that he wielded the blade Vesperfang, created by the Raven Queen before she went mad.
• Solon the Wretched - Another ancient pre-Sundering Shadowfell Warlord known for his floating throne and the deadly magic it projects.
• Ashriel the Mourning Saint - A Daeva known in pre-Sundering times as as a Messianic Prophet. He joined the forces of the Shadowfell Fascists becoming one of their most powerful generals. The Shadowfell Warlords praised his work crushing the peoples of the Feywild and his attacks against the civilized folk of the Prime Material Planes. A war criminal sentenced to the Vault of Regret for eternity, he recently escaped and now leads the Shadowfell Fascists to reshape the Aetherverse in the name of his cause.
• Dane Shadowstrike - A fallen Homeshard Hero who has been turned in an undead form to serve the fascist cause.
• Vesperfang - This magic weapon, once weilded by General Morax Umbrahand was thought lost until it reappeared in the hands of Kairon and was recovered by Dane Shadowstrike before he disappeared.
• Delphi - A long, lost shard left floating in the province of The Blight. It was believed that this was the site created by the Demiurge to entertain the requests of the forces of the outer planes. In this case, particularly that of the Shadowfell Fascists.

• The Homeshard Heroes have traveled to province of The Blight to scout on the state of the Dark Messiah.
• As the episode starts, the group is hit by a plot cannon and their ship is reduced to rubble. They are forced to crash-land on a shard in The Blight they later realize is named Delphi.
• They first visit the caverns that hold the Confessionals of the Demiurge. There they communicate with the Primordial Speech that is written on the walls.
• Inside the Confessionals, Ace meets Forsooth a being of rock that looks very much like Klast.
• Forsooth explains that they are a “sliver” of the long destroyed Demiurge. They confirm that the Sundering was caused by an attack on Ao, and that the Demiurge allowed it to happen in order to experience mortality for itself.
• Forsooth explains that the shard of Delphi was meant as a way for at least one of the delegations from the Outer Planes (in this case the Shadowfell Fascists' infernal interlocutors) to meet with Ao.
• The Homeshard Heroes investigate the Planetarium of the Demiurge. It featured a titanic throne. The Homeshard Heroes entertain some theories about the piles of natural rock that is strewn about.
• Finally, the Homeshard Heroes visit the Crucible of the Demiurge where they find some clues that perhaps Gamma Co has visited and stolen some secrets of the universe that could potentially be used for a weapon of some sort.
• They are attacked by a voidship sent from the Dark Messiah filled with undead followers and fascist operatives. They are led by the warlord Solon the Wretched on his floating throne supported by Dane Shadowstrike who continually does his best to taunt and confront Yuna.
• Forsooth is nearly taken by the fascists. They learn that “slivers” like Forsooth are unable to be scryed and are of value to the operation of a cobbled-together Demiurge monster like the Dark Messiah.
• The heroes manage to save Forsooth and fight their way onto the fascists' ship to steal it.
• As Dane is struck down, the undead curse is lifted and there is a sweet moment where Yuna learns truly what she meant to her colleague Dane before he slips away forever.