Skypiercer Part 3 (finale)

Champions and players	Caustic Phoenix as Elusia; stellaluna as Kaja; sensei_suplex as Atalantos
Hosts	Mudcat (Mudcat)

What happens

1. 0:00:13 — Before the battle. The party and Craven wait on a cliff above a lava field facing the Dread Fortress’s orc-skull mouth. A black storm crackling with chaos lightning hangs over the fortress and won’t drop. The army is now in the thousands.
2. 0:02:01 — Elusia thanks Kaja and Atalantos and asks how they face death so calmly. Kaja: “From blood comes life… It is not the end… It is simply a path.” Atalantos: “There is no shame in death. In fact, there should be celebration.” Elusia kisses Kaja on the forehead.
3. 0:07:53 — Preparations. Atalantos keeps his old, worn gear on purpose: beating an enemy with “only a stick” puts fear in them. Kaja has her “death club” acquire a hard-to-refine rock; artisans craft a stone heart (deep onyx, crackling blue veins, worth 500 gp, “I need it for a spell later”). She warns her apprentices: “You cannot cheat death… Don’t make me hunt you down, because I will.” Elusia’s armor: black as night, gold scales down the right shoulder and arm, black cloak with her family sigil. It feels like “wearing somebody else’s clothes.”
4. 0:15:35 — Vythorn arrives. Elusia’s speech from the air: “No princess has come back to save you, but it is an empress… your warrior queen.” “We are the natives of this land.” Craven leads the charge on horseback. Shadow servants pour from the fortress’s mouth, shadow turning into flesh and blood.
5. 0:21:30 — Inside: the Ceremonial Chamber. Vythorn brings them to the room Elusia left from. The Knights of Chaos still stand where they died, petrified statues: Sir Eros, Sir Rickson, Sir Boros. Vythorn: Agdrel comes here “to remember his victory. These statues are his trophies.” Elusia kisses Boros’s feet and asks her friends not to make that sacrifice. Vythorn vanishes to clear the path.
6. 0:27:25 — Elusia doubts Vythorn. “He has always been one to serve my uncle… The most vulnerable time would be when we’re switching power.”
7. 0:37:38 — The Dragon Knights. Shadows move wrong in the hall. Kaja’s bonfire reveals a dragonborn in a metal mask fitted to his face, red cloak, black garb, two blades of pure shadow; they move through walls and shadows. Elusia’s history: when Agdrel was “just Agdrel the Shadow, a great warrior,” he had a loyal horde of dragonborn followers, his Dragon Knights (0:42:04). They fight back-to-back in a triangle. Elusia checks the floor for traps on her hands and knees (Kaja, in her best silk dress, gets down too: “If I’m going to die here, I’m going to look good doing it”). Elusia lights a torch from the magical lanterns to keep them off her; one knocks her short sword away and tries to pull her into the wall. Atalantos bear-hugs one out of the shadows so Kaja can blast it. Atalantos brands one with the symbol of Cor’thun. Kaja makes her kill look like Elusia’s.
8. 1:04:09 — Walking through the old home. Kitchens, chambers, game rooms, servants’ quarters, guest rooms for distant relatives, all empty “like a tomb.” Memory: bright gold decorations, paintings of Faucius and his family, goblins carrying trays, servants and royalty sometimes eating together. The great banquet hall with a magical night-sky ceiling is in ruins. Elusia on her father: “He didn’t have quite the taste for the sword as the rest of us” and liked extravagance (0:29:57).
9. 1:11:28 — A troop of Dragon Knights surrounds them. Their leader: “My king awaits your presence.” They go willingly.
10. 1:13:46 — The throne room. Elusia kicks the doors off their hinges. A goblin bard with an electric guitar and hip amp plays them in (“that’s canon now”). Red banners and skulls where gold used to be. Mages crackling with chaos energy, Vythorn at the right hand of the Shadow King, on Faucius’s refashioned throne.
11. 1:17:07 — Agdrel. Grayer and whiter, white mustache and pointed goatee, long white hair, mage robes, a hooded cape of pure shadow/chaos energy crackling with lightning. Slumped, old, frail. He probes their memories.
12. 1:18:16 — The confrontation. Agdrel: “I was more of a father to you than he was… Always counting his coins… I raised you.” He calls Faucius “my brother… a stupid and cowardly man, hiding behind his golden shield in battle,” who “would never even have won the Chaos Wars without my assistance.” He asks Elusia to join him; she refuses (“I have no daughter of yours,” 1:26:50). He throws off his cloak, which becomes two shadow blades, and grows taller and stronger by siphoning the life and chaos energy of one of his own acolytes (1:28:09).
13. 1:30:46 — Agdrel turns on Vythorn: “Vythorn, you weasel, you treacherous snake. I’m almost proud of you. It would be you to usurp me. Always one for a little bit more knowledge. The what-ifs, plaguing your decisions.” Shadows skewer and bind Vythorn, and Agdrel redirects damage he takes into Vythorn.
14. 1:36:27 — The fight. Atalantos draws Defender: “Today, I fight as the sword of the Empress.” Kaja casts Otherworldly Guise: skeletal dragon wings glowing with black light. Elusia sets the throne room’s red carpet on fire; light weakens Agdrel’s shadows. She shoots the tendrils binding Vythorn and frees him. Atalantos’s Tides of Vitality kills Agdrel’s remaining acolytes, so he can no longer feed. Agdrel drags Elusia down into the fire and stabs her unconscious.
15. 2:10:14 — Kaja revives Elusia in her death form: “It’s not your time.” Death Ward. Elusia: “My angel.” Kaja: “Today, I belong to you.”
16. 2:16:47 — The diamonds. Elusia throws the pouch of diamonds from the Plintos estate into the firelight so no corner is left in shadow (resolves the diamonds question). “Mother guide me.”
17. 2:22:18 — The end of the Shadow King. Atalantos spears Agdrel and himself together so he can’t escape, and gives his attack to Elusia: “Shoot him, shoot me if you have to, but he dies here and now.” Her arrow lands; she drops the bow and kills Agdrel by stabbing an arrow into his eye and face again and again (2:25:40). She realizes she has killed the last of her family.
18. 2:29:27 — Vythorn reverses time on Atalantos to undo the spear wound (partly). The strain turns his black wings white: “the black falls away from them until he has nothing but glowing white wings.” “Sorry, I failed you, Empress.”
19. 2:32:43 — Kaja and Elusia kiss.
20. 2:34:21 — Aftermath. Vythorn: the armies will surrender now. He sinks Agdrel’s body into the floor and “transports it elsewhere,” and moves the throne outside.
21. 2:38:30 — Elusia’s coronation speech. “The time of darkness is over… honor shall be our currency… death is never where our story ends… The princess who was gone returns as your empress.”
22. 2:40:39 — The Arbiter. “Vythorn… You shall be the arbiter of all things.” He accepts and crowns her with a black crown. The chaos storms part: “This is the one who pierces the sky! I present to you, Your Grandmaster, Elusia Skypiercer!”
23. 2:42:26 — New Knights of Chaos. Elusia knights Kaja and Atalantos as her Knights of Chaos with her ornate dagger: “My trusted kin, for you are family to me now.” She asks the crowd “to become my acolytes.” They kneel and chant. 23b. 2:44:55 — The crowd cheers and rips their shirts off; some soldiers haven’t heard the war is over and are still stabbing shadow servants. Drew was eating popcorn.
24. 2:45:49 — The first Deathmatch. “We need a day of remembrance for this… From here, we shall always have an arena, a place for us to prove our worth… Arbiter… We shall have a deathmatch.” The Arbiter transports everyone to the arena for the first Deathmatch.
25. 2:46:46 — Epilogue: Gerald. “Sometime later,” in his laboratory deep in the Dread Fortress (Italian leather boots clacking), the Arbiter stands over Agdrel’s body: “There’s so much knowledge within you. Someday you will die. But not until I’ve learned everything. That I might serve the Grandmaster and the people of the Void.” He rips out Agdrel’s soul, writes it as the name AGDREL, rearranges the letters into GERALD, and binds it into a box: Gerald, the Box of Chaos.

Entities

Elusia Skypiercer, the Grandmaster. Crowned Empress and named Grandmaster (“the one who pierces the sky”) by the Arbiter. Kills Agdrel. Creates the Arbiter’s office, knights Kaja and Atalantos, calls her people acolytes, founds the arena and the Deathmatch as a day of remembrance. Black crown. Her Oathbringer is now burnt and cracked (2:42:13). In a relationship with Kaja by the end.

Kaja. Knight of Chaos. Calls her necromancy students her “death club” and apprentices. Stone heart focus. Otherworldly Guise: skeletal dragon wings. Death speaks through her: “As a servant of death, death also serves me” (1:39:43). “Kneel before my queen” (1:58:07). Kisses Elusia.

Atalantos. Knight of Chaos. Spears himself to pin Agdrel. Saved by Vythorn’s time magic, but left with a large wound. “Today, I fight as the sword of the Empress.”

Vythorn → the Arbiter. Commits treason against the Shadow King. Damaged by Agdrel’s binding; reverses time for Atalantos, which turns his wings from black to white. Named “the arbiter of all things.” Keeps Agdrel’s body in his laboratory and makes the Box of Chaos from Agdrel’s soul. Wears Italian leather boots.

Agdrel, the Shadow King. Faucius’s brother. Fought in the Chaos Wars and claims Faucius couldn’t have won them without him. Was “Agdrel the Shadow, a great warrior” with his Dragon Knights before the coup. Raised Elusia (“I raised you”). Feeds on his acolytes’ life and chaos energy. Killed by Elusia. His soul becomes Gerald, the Box of Chaos.

Faucius Golden Shield. Agdrel: “always counting his coins,” “hiding behind his golden shield in battle.” Elusia: extravagant taste, no taste for the sword.

Knights of Chaos. The old order: petrified statues in the Ceremonial Chamber, kept by Agdrel as trophies. Named: Sir Eros, Sir Rickson, Sir Boros (spellings confirmed by Drew). Elusia calls them “the highest order.” The new order: Kaja and Atalantos.

The Dragon Knights. Agdrel’s dragonborn followers: metal masks fitted to their faces, red cloaks, black garb, shadow blades; travel through shadows; resistant to necrotic damage; their bodies dissolve to shadow when killed, leaving armor.

Shadow servants / the Shadow King’s acolytes. Shadow given flesh, defending the fortress; mages around the throne. Agdrel drains them to heal and grow.

Craven Eldonbridge. Leads the army’s charge on horseback.

The goblin bard. Electric guitar and hip amp; ushers Elusia into the throne room. Declared canon by Drew.

Goblins. Servants of the Dread Fortress in Faucius’s time.

Places

• Lava field and cliffs before the Dread Fortress; the permanent chaos storm above it (it parts at the coronation).
• Dread Fortress: Ceremonial Chamber (now Agdrel’s trophy room); hallways with magical lanterns; kitchens, game rooms, servants’ quarters, guest rooms; the ruined banquet hall with a magical night-sky ceiling; the throne room (large wood-and-iron doors, now broken; red carpet burned); the Arbiter’s laboratory deep in the fortress.
• The arena: founded at the end of this episode.

Items

• Stone heart: Kaja’s onyx focus with blue veins (500 gp).
• Black crown: Elusia’s crown.
• Faucius’s throne, refashioned by Agdrel, moved outside for the coronation.
• Gerald, the Box of Chaos: Agdrel’s soul in a box.
• The Oathbringer: burnt and cracked.
• The Plintos diamonds: thrown to light the throne room.

Events and lore

• The Chaos Wars: a war Faucius won with Agdrel’s help, “centuries ago” (1:22:48).
• The founding of the Deathmatch: a day of remembrance for the victory; “an arena, a place for us to prove our worth… to tell our story.”
• Origin of the titles: Grandmaster, Arbiter, Knights of Chaos (renewed), Acolytes.
• Origin of Gerald / the Box of Chaos: matches DM_NOTES (Agdrel’s soul; Gerald is an anagram).
• Origin of the Arbiter’s white wings: the time magic used to save Atalantos.

Quotes by character

Elusia

• 0:17:13 “No princess has come back to save you, but it is an empress that will lead you… No little girl will help you, but I, your warrior queen.”
• 0:18:12 “We do not fear the chaos. We shall embrace it and make it our own… We are the natives of this land.”
• 1:19:40 “My father may have loved his coins, but your greed has you loving power.”
• 1:24:14 “A monster corrupted by your own greed.”
• 2:25:40 “The kingdom is no longer yours.”
• 2:38:51 “Honor shall be our currency from here on out… death is never where our story ends.”
• 2:40:39 “You shall be the arbiter of all things.”
• 2:43:46 “I demand not that you follow me, but I merely ask of you all to become my acolytes.”
• 2:46:20 “From here, we shall always have an arena… We shall have a deathmatch.”

Kaja

• 0:04:32 “From blood comes life, and death is no stranger to us. It is not the end… It is simply a path.”
• 0:10:26 “Remember, you cannot cheat death… Don’t make me hunt you down, because I will.”
• 1:07:58 “Willful neglect is a type of death in its own.”
• 1:39:43 “I’m not the only one that serves the Empress. As a servant of death, death also serves me.”
• 2:10:36 (death’s voice) “It’s not your time.”
• 2:11:52 “Today, I belong to you.”

Atalantos

• 0:05:03 “There is no shame in death. In fact, there should be celebration.”
• 1:36:27 “For my life, I have always fought as the spear of Cor’thun. But today, I fight as the sword of the Empress.”
• 2:24:12 “Shoot him, shoot me if you have to, but he dies here and now.”
• 2:36:40 “Remember where you’ve come from… Remember what you have done and anything can be accomplished.”

Agdrel, the Shadow King

• 1:18:35 “I had always hoped that you would return home… and that you may serve at my side. For the good of the Void.”
• 1:19:20 “I was more of a father to you than he was? Always counting his coins? … I raised you.”
• 1:22:48 “Your father. My brother. I loved him. But he was a stupid and cowardly man… who would never even have won the Chaos Wars without my assistance.”
• 1:25:01 “It is true that many are dying. But they are not dying in vain. Their sacrifice fuels the chaos.”
• 1:30:46 “Vythorn, you weasel, you treacherous snake. I’m almost proud of you… Always one for a little bit more knowledge. The what-ifs, plaguing your decisions.”
• 1:42:56 “You may court death, but I am death.”
• 1:48:11 “These are my loyal servants willing to give their life for me… How to sacrifice the lives of those around you.”
• 2:08:54 “Wouldn’t want your face to get ruined for the funeral.”
• 2:19:30 “I will never kneel to any of you.”

Vythorn / the Arbiter

• 0:26:13 “Your uncle, Agdrel, he likes to come down here and remember his victory. These statues are his trophies.”
• 2:31:33 “Sorry, I failed you, Empress.”
• 2:41:58 “This is the one who pierces the sky! I present to you, Your Grandmaster, Elusia Skypiercer!”
• 2:46:46 “There’s so much knowledge within you. Someday you will die. But not until I’ve learned everything. That I might serve the Grandmaster and the people of the Void.”

Dragon Knight leader

• 1:12:19 “My king awaits your presence.”

Craven Eldonbridge

• 0:13:58 “Well, it’s almost time. Assuming Vythorn is going to live up to his word.”