Yo, we really need clerics to be real because getting massively ill all through christmas and new year was kinda pants. Anyway; back to your regularly scheduled solo game recap.

Rahm Oru is under attack! The shadow invaders have sent a force roughly two thousand strong, plus a pair of undead dragons. Defending the town are roughly a hundred guards spread out along the walls, and the few Tsethem that call it home.

* * *

After several attempts running huge battles, I’ve developed a simple system for handling them that allows player characters to have an impact without swamping them with enemies:

The main forces are reduced to their lowest common denominator. A whole army of shadow creatures becomes a bunch of Mirlings (custom statblock), and a hundred soldiers become a few mere Guards. The scale is dialled down to where two monsters under CR 1 are duking it out to represent hundreds of troops clashing. Each round is a minute, each unit moves ten times their speed, etc. It’s still regular combat, just scaled up – and subsequently, for the person running the battle, scaled down.

Big players (usually PCs, and in this case the dragons), aren’t absorbed into these units. They roll initiative along with everyone else, but when they attack a unit the macro scale pauses – and switches to usual combat.

Attacking 100+ monsters would be insane, so instead the combat is between the PCs and a few high-CR, thematically appropriate monsters – or even just a single creature. Once defeated, the total CR is deducted from the hit points of the unit. This allows the PCs to to drastically affect the overall battle, especially if their side is outnumbered (such as we currently are).

* * *

Mel and Elion back to their tavern to grab the Feytouched armour (the Ebonguard would take too long to don), then head towards the chaos unfolding at memorial canter. They’re intercepted down the street by one of the blue-scaled zombie dragons, meeting it head on with the bravery of ones who’ve faced hell and survived. But there’s a reason Orthraze survived centuries only to be razed by a dragon: these creatures are immensely powerful, even undead.

They’re forced to run, Elion smashing his way through the surrounding buildings to draw it away from Mel. Without her axe she’s not much use, so she takes advantage of the respite to send a drone to collect it from the gatehouse west of town.

Nothing can run from a dragon for long. Backed into a corner, Elion is downed by a burst of lightning breath. But before the creature can deliver the killing blow, it’s struck by a bolt of radiant energy – Jaysen and Anika fly to the rescue, the latter’s Tsethem mask glowing brilliantly.

Melody also scrambles to join them, now clutching her battleaxe. But even with their combined efforts, the dragon is a tough opponent to take down. Once the corpse is finally inanimate again, Anika has to spend a fair amount of her energy healing up the others.

Jay: Oh, and yeah, *nods to the dragon* there’s two of these dudes.

Anika: *eyes glow blue as her familiar contacts her* Sygna says the town guards are making a stand at the gatehouse.

Jay: We should take out Mr. Flappy’s twin, then. That’ll give ‘em a fighting chance. Come on you lot.

Elion: Yes captain, who I definitely server under. There’s gotta be hundreds of Mirlings out there – shouldn’t we call reinforcements?

Jay: *nods to the girls, both wearing their masks* You’re Tsethem. You are the reinforcements.

They should have called reinforcements. They take on the second dragon near the Piranai gardens, but the sheer power of the thing requires Anika to trap it in a forcecage.

Battered and bruised, the heroes head west to the gatehouse – just in time to help take down a smattering of Mirlings besieging the few guards defending it. The creatures are rallying around one shadowfolk in particular, a spellcaster wearing a black iron cage upon its head and sporting several piercing spikes that glow with evil runes. Jay uses a Sending spell to contact his parents down in Pernep, and they promise their aid given a few minutes.

They barely hold off the Mirlings at the gate, facing down an animated dragon skeleton along the wall. Reinforcements from Zenia Tharth arrive, and together they defeat the superior shadow force. Theo and Ekho Longstrider join them via teleporttion as the battle winds down: Ekho is severely injured from facing down a necromancer Mirling. The thing was supposedly invulnerable to all their attacks.

Exhausted by the constant battling, Elion calls for a rest before they engage the enemy – there’s still a few Mirlings guarding the entrapped zombie dragon. Jay spends the last of his energies to give everyone a quick catnap, but by the time their ten minute power-nap is over the Mirlings have already fled north, away from the town.

* * *

News of the attack reaches Appinamopu Tharth, where Novessa and Toskan are laying out the situation for the various commanders. They quickly summon as many soldiers available to race to the city’s aid – but the teleportation circle connecting them to Rahm Oru was destroyed in the attack, forcing them to fly north instead.

They arrive at Rahm Oru and catch up with guards and Tsethem there, deciding to follow the invaders onto the mountains near Hepthurai. They catch up with them before they reach the air village, and strike from the air with deadly efficiency. The Mirlings have holed themselves up in some ruins that appear to be of Elkore origin. Confronting the necromancer beneath the surface, they’re unfortunately too late to stop her finishing a ritual that corrupts the planar flow, drawing them into the plane of shadow instead of smoke.

Unaware of their predicament but acting on a hunch, Novessa tries Banishing Toskan – which works, and sends him back to Tirkosu. Realising what a tactical advantage they have, the shadow-bound group decides to try and locate the breakout tower, telling Toskan of their plan via Sending.

Toskan heads back to Rahm Oru – where he hears word that the full shadow force has descended upon the island, occupying Tapuk, Paku, and Appinamopu Tharth. They’ve hit every village with a permanent interplanar portal, shutting down the PIPs once they’ve overrun the place. Worried for his element, Toskan pays a hefty sum to get flown out to Pehkeiai. He arrives as an attack is underway, and despite his help and the Mirlings’ reluctance to enter the sea, the shadow creatures break their defences and take the water village. Toskan loses a leg to a giant bat-like creature, escaping death only by falling beneath the waves and letting the tide carry him away.

* * *

Turf has had enough. While the other princes argue about shutting down the PIPs so as to contain the invaders, she calls together Elo and her elite guards, and portals to her island home. Lundal joins her with a train of gnome soldiers, as does Inalak with as many Waitanga as he can spare.

They arrive at Sovu Vapohu, the community Turf herself hewed from the mountain. It’s the second day following what the islanders are calling the Nightfall. D’Okai has succumbed to the shadow, as has Hepthurai and Gokapu. Only the earthen village and Little Orthraze still hold out against the invaders.

Night creeps up on them as do the Mirlings. Turf stands atop the gate, unleashing a roar as the first shadow creatures appear.

Turf: Cease your stalling! You hunger for death – We hunger for glory! For valour!

With their combined might, the allied princes beat back the shadow. But not without cost – Inalak is terribly weakened by an elemental, and Lundal’s Gnomish troops are all but wiped out.

* * *

Back on the plane of shadow, the brave trio has been flying semi-blind through the all-encompassing darkness. They come across a jagged spire that houses a fairly sizeable band of Mirlings. Theorising that the higher up they live, the more power they have, the group flies to the top of the spire and stealthily takes out all but one of the creatures. Upon questioning him, they learn that the tower they seek is only seven rests’ crawl away. Novessa compels him to point them in the right direction, and they set off into the gloom.

* * *

Day three after Nightfall. Little Orthraze is overrun. The Zailan send aid to the princes from between the planes, with Larissa beside them. They need it – the shadows that took Hepthurai are moving across Mt. Tirkosu, bearing down on the village of earth.

The attack is ill timed, however: In their haste to hit the battle-weary defenders, the Mirlings strike just as the sun bathes Tirkosu in light. The allies press the advantage against their light-sensitive foes, decimating their forces.

Alas, there are casualties. When the last shadows lift, the bodies of prince Inalak Onakea and Larissa Lighstep lie motionless upon the mountainside. Turf angrily kicks aside the helmet of the Archomental that had claimed both their lives. There had been far too many primordials on the attacking side. Did they simply have an excess of overpowered elementals on the plane of shadow? Or was something bolstering their power?

* * *

Elion, Nov, and Mel struggle to keep their bearings in the darkness. Novessa dismissed Mel’s concerns at first, but now even she admits it – the feeling that they’re being watched is growing by the hour.

They run into a gate of some sort – the first real structure they’ve encountered on this desolate plane. A genie greets them and attempts to entice them inside – which they straight up refuse. As they’re about to leave, a massive shadow dragons explodes from the darkness and engulfs them in its corrupting breath! Calling upon all their psionics, prayers, and gadgets, they manage to hold the murderous beast off until Novessa can Banish it, buying them time to escape.

* * *

After an uncomfortable night among the rocks north of Pehkeiai, Toskan swims up the coast – partially to avoid the Mirlings, but also due to his walking being severely limited now. He rests on the beach west of D’Okai, discovering shadow-tainted flotsam from an airship in the early hours. It’s unclear if there are any survivors: no bodies are to be found.

* * *

The Longstrider family (now joined by the Tsethem of life and his family) watch in apprehension with the rest of Rahm Oru as a massive group of Mirlings approaches. They’re roughly two and a half thousand strong: the combined groups that sacked Gokapu and Appinamopu Tharth. Thankfully they pass on by, heading north into the ruins of Cosapai and beyond.

* * *

Ala’s massive eyes pick out the details of what the shadow-bound group are flying over: it’s a massive open grave. Mirling bones lie half-buried by time and rubble, and goblins writhe next to screaming souls. A conglomerate of anguished spirits notices them and attacks with horrifying deadliness. It attempts to consume Novessa, stripping away her mental faculties in one fell swoop. She’s barely able to deliver the light-powered blow that disperses the souls, her identity all but wiped.

Elion calls for a break. Finding a clear spot to land is a little difficult, but once they find one Melody shields them with a mental sanctuary. Nov can barely move, let alone talk – or cast spells. Mel hurriedly reassures Elion as he starts to panic: She believes she can cast the Banishment spell with a little practice. They aren’t stuck in the shadow realm.

As Elion scans Novessa, his suit alerts him to a powerful divination spell lingering over the group.

It would appear their paranoia isn’t unfounded: Someone is watching.