The session opens with the party in the midst of combat against Crang and his controlled ravers. Crang, a powerful entity channeling Helisana’s patron, proves to be a formidable opponent with devastating attacks and high saving throws that make crowd control nearly impossible.
Combat Chaos#
The battle quickly becomes desperate. Crang’s attacks deal massive poison damage, and the ravers’ psychic assaults begin draining the party’s intelligence scores. Ohma takes the fight to Crang directly, landing several stunning strikes, while Brew attempts various crowd control spells—most of which fail against Crang’s exceptional saves.
The situation deteriorates when Helisana’s patron takes full control. Despite Olivia’s attempts to protect her with magic, Helisana fails her saving throws and begins attacking the party with her full Eldritch Blast arsenal. She downs Olivia multiple times, and the party struggles to maintain focus between dealing with Crang, the raver mobs, and their possessed companion.
Silus, blinded and with his intelligence drained to nearly nothing, fights instinctively. Elspeth focuses on destroying the sound panels powering Crang’s abilities, correctly identifying them as key to ending the encounter. Her dedication to this strategy, combined with Brew’s well-timed Shatter spell, proves crucial.
The Speakers Fall#
When the final speaker is destroyed by a nearly mindless Silus, the battle shifts dramatically. The pulsing music stops, and an otherworldly presence fully manifests through Helisana. Her patron, identified as Ach’uk (or “Ruthalk” in Dwarvish)—an ancient primordial entity associated with dark, melancholic music—offers Helisana a final choice: resist, submit, or try to overpower the entity.
Helisana chooses to submit.
The Split#
In a burst of psychic energy and reality-warping power, Helisana literally splits into two people. The drugged, goth rocker version carried away by adoring ravers, and a new figure—Liliana Goldspring, a cheerful, nature-loving bard with blonde hair and a sunny disposition.
Liliana explains she was the original personality, trapped inside a prison within Helisana’s consciousness for years after refusing to accept Ach’uk’s pact. She’s witnessed everything the party has done but has been powerless to act. The darker Helisana was apparently born from accepting the pact.
Theological Research#
Using her extensive knowledge of Dwarvish folklore, Elspeth (with Brew’s Flash of Genius assistance) recalls ancient stories about Ach’uk. The entity is one of the oldest primordial beings—not a god of a domain like hills or lightning, but the spiritual embodiment of sad, dark music itself. Part of an ancient “orchestra” of primordial forces, Ach’uk represents percussion and drums, and has evolved with music through the ages, now drawn to electronic and industrial sounds.
Key facts learned:
- Ach’uk doesn’t have will or desire as mortals understand it—it spreads like vegetation seeking fertile ground
- The weakened barriers between planes have given it unprecedented influence
- It historically lured people (especially dwarves) into the deep earth, never to be seen again
- It can potentially be countered by promoting joyful music, strengthening planar barriers, or through direct divine intervention (god-killer methods)
Difficult Choices#
The party now faces several dilemmas:
Regarding Helisana/Liliana: Are they two halves of one fractured soul that should be reunited? Is one the “real” person and the other a construct? Can Liliana’s positivity overcome Ach’uk’s influence if they merge? Or should they simply eliminate the corrupted Helisana and protect Liliana?
Regarding the City: Helisana has left to prepare the ravers for the attack on Hilda’s forces, but she’s now fully under Ach’uk’s influence. The party fears this could lead to genocide rather than liberation. Can they trust her to follow through with the plan, or will Ach’uk use the ravers to “party the city to death” as the ancient legends describe?
Regarding the Timeline: With less than two days before the planned uprising, the party must decide whether to proceed with overthrowing Hilda while Helisana/Ach’uk controls the ravers, attempt to “fix” Helisana first, or evacuate the city entirely.
Silus proposes using Liliana to either merge with and heal Helisana, or to use her positive energy to vanquish the dark half entirely. Elspeth leans toward saving Helisana, seeing her as a friend despite everything. Brew sees it more pragmatically—kill the bad one, protect the good one. The party remains divided on whether Helisana ever truly cared about them as friends or only saw them as tools for fame.
Session End#
The party is left in the aftermath of the battle, with Crang and the ravers departed, an unconscious Ohma sleeping off his compelled dancing, a confused but friendly Liliana offering to help, and the looming specter of an even larger conflict ahead. They must soon decide: save Helisana, destroy her, or find some third option—all while racing against the clock to prevent either dragon tyranny or eldritch catastrophe from consuming Little Haven.
The question of whether they were ever truly Helisana’s friends, or merely convenient stepping stones to stardom, hangs heavily in the air.