Weaver chooses Option B to advance ritual

On the Weaver’s turn, even as he weaves spells and commands, part of his attention is always tethered to the portal. As he concentrates, a second ring of runes blooms around the portal—about five feet wider in every direction. It’s hazy, unstable, like heat shimmer over a fire. The air screams with strain. You get the sense that this ‘new edge’ of the portal is unfinished… and vulnerable.

🎭 Strong Start

Final Battle - Cold Open

🗺 Scenes Overview

• Final Ritual - Encounter Reference
• Portal Phase Descriptions

⚔️ Map

ℹ Source

Czepeku > Ancient Battlefield - Magic Symbol Night

🔑 Secrets & Clues

• Manus might betray the Weaver
• Trius will arrive in round 3 to help the party

🗡 Monster Stat Blocks

• Weaver - Final Battle Stats
• Manus - Chaos Duelist

📝 Session Notes

• Arrival
  • The party entered the ancient battlefield at night as the ritual was just beginning.
  • The portal was 15ft in diameter when the party arrived, positioned near the base of the northern ruins.
  • The Weaver was positioned in the ruined structured to the north.
  • Manus was positioned near the portal, keeping watch.
• Round 1
  • Manus greeted the party, happy that they got his note and decided to come. He taunted the party and fired a couple shots with his bow.
  • The Weaver cast greater invisibility and used option b to advance the ritual slowly, causing a secondary ring of runes to appear around the portal: fuzzy, unstable, ~5 ft larger in diameter than the current stable portal.
  • The party carefully pushed north, trying to avoid the dark pools of water as much as possible. They were difficult terrain and when the party glanced at the water, they saw horrific visions of war.
• Round 2
  • Manus charges towards Skreek, comments on his nice new sword, and attacks him with his pair of elemental blades
  • The Weaver moved from his original location to confuse the party and advanced the ritual again, causing the fuzzy ring around the portal to solidify and the portal expanded to fill the new space (the portal is now larger and stable/locked). He also attempts to use the Suggestion spell on Skreek, but it fails.
  • Shad cast a new spell, Dawn, causing a large circular area of the battlefield to become filled with daylight and inflicting radiant damage on any creature in the light. This revealed the Weaver’s new position when he momentarily caught fire and took damage from the spell.
  • Slumpet positioned himself on the highest perch he could find (a ruined battlement) to give him visibility over the entire battlefield and a wall to hide behind
  • Toby traded blows with Manus, trying to keep his attention focused on her.
  • Skreek approached the Weaver after seeing his position thanks to Shad’s Dawn spell. He attacked with Summer’s Edge and used Shining Smite to cause the Weaver to glow with radiant light, rendering his invisibility useless as long as SKreek could keep concentration on the spell.
• Round 3 + 4
  • Trius arrives, Moonblade drawn, and ready for battle on her unicorn. The epic battle hymn telepathically transmitted to all her allies
  • The Weaver cast the Maze spell on Skreek, banishing him to a demi plane, removing him from the battlefield. Skreek would need to investigate the maze to find a way to escape. The Weaver also continued to advance the ritual and a new fuzzy edge formed around the portal. While Skreek was in the maze, the Weaver’s invisibility started working again.
  • Shad dropped his Dawn spell to cast Confusion on Manus. The spell took hold and Manus was dazed for his entire next round, taking no actions.
  • The party continued to pressure the Weaver with as much damage as they could muster
  • The Weaver lashed out with own Shadowweave bolt attacks, focusing on Shad. He knocked Shad unconscious, breaking the spell that was dazing Manus. As Shad fell, a warm cocoon of divine light enveloped Shad and his body was raised, as if by invisible strings, to a standing position. He eyes opened and his wounds partially healed as he heard the Aribiter’s voice in his head: “You are still needed her, my champion…”.
  • The Weaver, obviously pressured and frustrated, yelled to Manus: “What am I paying you for! This is what we’ve been working towards for so long. It’s time to get serious and earn your keep!”. Manus relented, but said dismissively “Fine, but I’m not sure this ritual is really going to be worth it.”. The Weaver advanced the ritual again and the new fuzzy edge solidified, making the stable portal increase in size again, now 10 feet wider than it was when the ritual started.
  • Summer’s Edge helped Skreek get out of the maze, drawing from its own experience with banishment spells in the past, and return to the battle.
• Round 5 + 6
  • Manus finally summoned two of his shadow clones and used them to tie up multiple party members.
  • The battle continued this way for two rounds, each side dealing significant damage. Skreek and Trius used divine magic to heal them selves and their allies to keep them in the fight.
  • The Weaver advanced the ritual yet again, forming a new fuzzy ring around the portal.
  • Skreek tried attacking the portal after seeing one of Francis’ errant fire rays graze the portal and seem to disrupt it slightly. Skreek’s attacks seemed to be having an effect on the portal, but the fuzzy edge remained.
  • After taking significant damage and seeing his goals slipping away, became desperate. He gathered magical energy to his fist and slammed the ground. Reality seemed to rupture around the blow and a shockwave of force slammed into everyone nearby, dealing a decent chunk of damage.
  • Seeing this, Manus became enraged and screamed at the Weaver: “this is too far, I didn’t sign up for this!”. Manus seemed poised to turn against the Weaver.
  • Trius was too far away from the Weaver to bring her blade to bear, so she cast Moonbeam. A silvery pillar of moonlight slammed down from the heavens and impacted the Weaver. It nearly sliced him in half like a laser and his body fell to the ground, cold and unmoving. The party won the day and made sure Nidhogg could not return to the realm this day.

The ancient battlefield offers no welcome.

You smell it before you see it — cold ash and something older, something that has no name in any living tongue. The trees thin at the edge of the field and then stop entirely, as if even they refuse to go further. Before you stretches a place where the ground remembers war. Shattered stone. Bones half-swallowed by earth. The ruins of walls that once meant something, now standing only out of habit.

Welcome to the Tempus Campaign

You’re joining the final session of a campaign that has been running since November 2022. The party of four heroes has spent 44 in-game days (and 45+ real-life sessions) tracking down and dismantling a cult that wants to unleash an ancient shadow dragon upon the world. Tonight, they confront the cult’s leader in a battle to save reality itself.

You’ll be playing Trius, a paladin ally who fought alongside the party earlier in the campaign. Below is everything you need to know to step into her boots.

Cult of the Eclipse

The Cult of the Eclipse is a shadow-worshipping organization devoted to freeing Nidhogg, the Great Shadow, from his imprisonment in the Shadowfell. Led by the Weaver, the cult systematically works to weaken the interplanar barrier by corrupting leyline temples, tearing open portals to the Shadowfell, and spreading fear across the realm. Their motto, inscribed on cult medallions: “Darkness will descend once again.”

Leadership

• The Weaver — Cult leader. A wizard and illusionist who orchestrated the systematic weakening of the planar barriers. Operated from a gothic castle stronghold in the Feywild concealed by Mirage Arcane, containing a broken loom infused with dark illusion magic. Originally interested in using Nidhogg’s image as a “fantastic illusion,” but his ambitions evolved into a plan to execute a summoning ritual at the ancient battlefield where Nidhogg was sealed. Killed at the ancient battlefield by Trius’s Moonbeam spell during the failed summoning ritual. His Echo — a spectral remnant of his soul bound to the Feywild castle — was also defeated when Slumpet struck the decisive blow and unraveled it.
• Xolthos — Herald of the Weaver. Black dragonborn sorcerer who observes natural phenomena and twists them into signs of Nidhogg’s impending return, painting doomsday visions to recruit followers. Publicly proclaimed Nidhogg’s return at the Autumn Court’s Aki Matsuri festival. Defeated by the party.
• Serenity — Night hag cult agent, real name “Old Polly Pigtooth.” Over 300 years old. Cursed the village of Tannis using rituals taught by the Weaver and communed with Nidhogg through a seeing stone. Her journal revealed an obsession with sharing Shadicar’s “darkness” with the realm. Permanently killed by the party.
• Manus — Enigmatic elemental duelist and shapechanger (CR 17). Despite cult affiliation, openly mocked the Weaver and was motivated by testing himself against worthy opponents rather than ideology. Stole the Summer Court’s leyline crystal. During the final battle at the ancient battlefield, the Weaver’s desperate shockwave pushed Manus too far — he wheeled on the Weaver in fury: “This is too far — I didn’t sign up for this!” — and appeared ready to switch sides. Current whereabouts unknown. Allegiance remains ambiguous.
• Kharvex, the Shadow Caller — Cult mage who received direct instructions from the Weaver to test summoning magic using residual energy from Nidhogg’s original sealing ritual. Created the Grimoire of the Eclipse. Defeated by the party on the ancient battlefield.

Core Goals

1. Free Nidhogg — The cult’s ultimate purpose. The Weaver planned a summoning ritual at the ancient battlefield where Nidhogg was originally sealed, tearing open a fifteen-foot portal to the Shadowfell to release the shadow dragon. FAILED — ritual stopped and the Weaver killed before completion. Nidhogg remains sealed.
2. Destroy the Leyline Barrier — The interplanar barrier that keeps Nidhogg imprisoned is anchored at four seasonal leyline temples. The cult targeted each temple to weaken the barrier from multiple points. Partial damage was achieved across three of the four temples before the Weaver’s death disrupted the organization.
3. Open Hollow Thresholds — Unstable portals connecting the Material Plane to the Shadowfell, each anchored by a dark artifact. These siphon leyline energy, pull shadow creatures into the world, and corrupt the surrounding land. Four Hollow Threshold locations were identified by Vael of the Chained Library; at least one (the Tempest Gate in Winter Court territory) has been addressed.
4. Spread Fear and Recruit — Through Xolthos’s public proclamations and acts of terror like the Tannis Darkness, the cult recruits desperate followers with promises of salvation.
5. Enhance Summoning Magic — Kharvex’s experiments aimed to harness residual energy from Nidhogg’s sealing ritual to amplify shadow summoning spells, documented in the Grimoire of the Eclipse.

Key Locations

• The Weaver’s Feywild Castle — A gothic castle in the Feywild concealed by Mirage Arcane, appearing to balance on a spire above a sinkhole. Contained a broken loom infused with dark illusion magic. A spectral Echo of the Weaver’s soul was bound here and was defeated by the party. The Weaver’s study, hidden behind a tapestry, held his personal journal, a map of leyline energy, and the Silmirien spell. Accessible only to the cult’s inner circle.
• Order of Seasons Tomb — Site of the cult’s earliest known operation, where goblins and bugbears conducted a dark ritual and kidnapped Winry.
• Greyscale Cabin — Defiled cult site in corrupted woods containing a shadow dragon altar and Serenity’s seeing stone.
• Ancient Battlefield — Where Nidhogg was originally sealed. The Weaver’s chosen site for the final summoning ritual. A fifteen-foot portal pulsing with the runes of Nidhogg’s original sealing was erected here; the ritual was stopped and the Weaver killed at this location.
• Hollow Threshold Sites — Multiple tears in reality scattered across the realm, each anchored by dark artifacts and siphoning leyline power.

Leyline Temple Sabotage

The cult’s central strategy is to damage or corrupt the four seasonal leyline temples that anchor Nidhogg’s prison barrier. Progress as encountered by the party: