We played our last session of World Ending Game last night
as an epilogue for our long-running campaign that began in January of 2022. While I’ve been separately running non dnd games since 2023, we only switched systems starting in January of 2026. It’s strange mapping out the timeline - we’ve forgotten so many things already and World Ending Game helped us recall all the brightest and darkest moments of our adventures.
The Endings we chose this time were:
- The Earth Swallows Time
We really enjoyed revisiting montages of different parts of the adventure:
- how they fought living (corrupted, evil) trees in the small “starting town” to save a witch, a fallen god and the Phoenix
- a mysterious packet of seeds that was never planted and now they returned to it post-journey - it became a tree that has burning leaves and absorbs magical corruption
- a character’s favorite meal from ancient Dalmatia which they later learn to cook themself - accidentally petrifying it at least once when learning the recipe
- the gift of a golden acorn from a mysterious stranger who was never called upon to fulfill their promise of aid - the heroes found out that they lived very happily because of this
- a meeting with were-ravens drawn to the final battlefield in ancient Rome; they met them again and impressed them with the lie that they were really tight with Apollo
- when the group set off magical fireworks and pretended to have a performing bear (really a shapeshifter) to help out a circus for a day - now the world accepts their magic and their acts can be true to themselves
- when they performed a ritual near an ancient Arthurian castle to restore the Phoenix’s memories and senses to the fullest as she had lost them along with her heart; they had never been loved like they are loved now
- all slowly stepping inside the final dungeon, the imperial palace flooded with Underworld river water….
We decided upon reviewing Apocalypse,
that we really didn’t want an apocalyptic final ending. Instead, I pitched the idea that, now that they defeated the evil deity and cruel empire who hated the natural magic of the world, the world surges with magic anew and over time simply changes in a more magical way, perhaps even to the point we wouldn’t recognize it in the future. Perhaps there are more stories and adventures to be had in this transformed world one day.
(Though I definitely won’t be running dnd! I am very happy to run systems that don’t require statblocks, combat balance, dungeons, hit points, rolling to attack….. etc.)
For The Earth Swallows time, we narrated:
- the fire giant (kept trapped in Odin’s treasure vault beneath the Birch Lady’s London estate) now escapes, fire bursting forth and blazing through the city
- deep within the forest, ivy grows over the remains of a cottage sunken deep within the earth, birds building nests in the eaves
- a shining statue of an androgynous figure, an aura of flames cleverly suggested with a detail here and there, stands tall, an inscription of a long-dead love written to be witnessed now only by the stars
- the stars retreat as the world fades…. the spirits of the stars, uplifted heroes and monsters, look towards new worlds. Orion the Hunter departs first, eager for a new hunting grounds. Ursa Major, once Callisto, leaves next with her similarly transformed son. The others depart one after one. The last to leave, the Seven Sisters, once so closely tied to the earth as nymphs, clasp bright shining hands and walk together into the skies. Other realms await.
We’ll start another (short, short, five-week) campaign next week. While we’re all sad about this adventure ending, and saying goodbye to all of these characters, it’s exciting to think about the next adventure to come.
The descriptions of the stars and constellations reminds me of this Theros art by Jason Engle:
