[Story] So, my player accidentally became an Archfey.

My party has been playing in Eberron for the better part of 2 years. They reached 20th level a couple of sessions ago, and now they have the end of the campaign in their sights.

Our players are Blade, a Warforged Storm Herald Barbarian with a docent in his head housing three Giant souls. Cazeran, a Shifter War Cleric of the Sovereign Host who has resolved himself to seeing this fight through to the end at any cost. Marvon, a Human Artillerist Artificer who has been framed for attempted murder by House Cannith. Ottilie, a Shadar Kai Shadowmaster Illrigger who was raised by Erandis Vol to serve in her royal guard, but Ottilie disagrees.

Recently, the party traveled to the Last Desert of Mabar in order to find Erandis Vol's phylactery. The phylactery was firmly protected in the possession of her now maddened father, The Emerald Claw, within the desolate ruins of House Vol buried in the sands. After finding the spire and bypassing the arcane dome that protected it, the party was confronted by a set of twin Shadar Kai knights - the Last Knights of Vol. Not only were these knights a tremendous challenge, but their fight was bolstered by the Emerald Claw arriving and aiding them.

From the DM's perspective, they had to beat a duo boss fight that was designed to challenge all of their traditional strategies. Then I dropped a dragon on them and turned the battlefield into a bubbling pool of poison with shifting columns of poison geysers. It was phenomenal.

After they defeated the Knights and, eventually, the Emerald Claw, they climbed up the spire to claim their prize - the phylactery of their archenemy, Erandis Vol. Now they just needed a means to destroy the phylactery, which one of the party members already secured.

Kind of.

The party has been working closely with the Forgotten Prince, the Archfey of the Castle of Lost Things. They've traded deals with him quite a few times - Blade promised the Prince that he would serve him eternally in the afterlife if he would deal the finishing blow to one of their enemies, Ottilie promised him her memory of a potential love interest for the freedom of that love interest's father, and Cazeran swore him a thousand years of his afterlife if the Prince could provide the party with a way to destroy a phylactery. Notably, Ottilie also inquired if the Prince would be interested in giving her rockstar lich friend, Bloom, a place of power in one of the unoccupied domains, all so that Bloom would be safe.

Once they brought the phylactery back to the Prince, he informed them of his plan to destroy it. While he couldn't find a magic item in time, he did know how to perform a ritual that could produce such an item. He just needed Bloom and Blade.

The Prince brought the party to a place called Shae Tirias Tolai, one of the Feyspires of Thelanis that has been abandoned and lost for thousands of years. Once known as the City of Silence and Song, it now is known as the City of Silver and Bone. The party, alongside the Prince and Bloom, entered the city and were guided to the heart of it all. All the while, Blade had a bubble on his head obscuring his vision and hearing. The party was skeptical and tried to ask many times what the purpose and plan were, all the while the Forgotten Prince asked them to trust him.

When they entered the center of the desolate city, the Prince showed them a ritual circle with a set of gigantic manacles and chains resting on top of it. Here, the Prince handed Bloom a common kitchen knife. He told the party that in order to break a phylactery, you must have powerful magic. The kitchen knife acts as a symbol of every scorned woman, a potent fulcrum of vengeance.

Then, he popped Blade's bubble and asked him to forgive him. Blade agreed, and the Prince reached his hand into Blade's docent and ripped out the three Giant souls within. When the Giants were pulled out, they were locked in the manacles in the center of the ritual circle. The party was confused until the Prince explained that this forgotten city was once one of the most beautiful Feyspires in all of Thelanis - that is, until it made the mistake of manifesting in Xen'drik, where it was ravaged, mutilated and desolated by the giants of the Cul'sir Empire, under the guidance of a storm giant named the Titan King. He pointed at the storm giant in chains, who has served as a mentor and guide for Blade for the entire campaign, and revealed that he was the Titan King.

All that was required was for Bloom, with her vengeful knife, to cut down the Titan King so that the city's story can continue forward after vengeance was enacted. Doing so would imbue the knife with vengeful magic so potent that it could pierce the unbreakable shell of a phylactery. What the Forgotten Prince did not divulge is that by advancing the story of this place, the person responsible would become the Archfey of this city, now responsible for the city's story as the two became intertwined. The players assumed as much, as they knew about Ottilie's desire for her friend to ascend, but it was never confirmed.

What they didn't anticipate was for the roof of the chamber to explode at the exact moment that they wouldn't want it to. The Emerald Claw (the organization, not the guy) invaded the room and immediately bee-lined for the Bag of Holding with the phylactery in it. Before anything could really happen, a massive battle with two objectives was forced on them - keep control of the phylactery, and complete the ritual to destroy it. The fight was hard, as all of the power players from the Emerald Claw that had showed up over the course of the campaign arrived. A psionic vampire knight, a death knight, a whole host of Necrotic Warforged, undead minions, the works. The vampire began breaking the chains of the Giants, setting them free one by one, and the minions swarmed on Marvon while he activated his augmentation to go invisible and his winged boots.

The players were doing pretty well in the fight. The vampire got banished, but not before the Frost Giant and Titan King were set free, allowing them to target Bloom. Things started to take a major turn when Erandis Vol arrived, and for the first time, the players were met with the main villain in combat. They all panicked, especially when she was flying and had true sight to see through Marvon's invisibility. On the other side of the arena was the Titan King, who was dealing major damage and nearly killed Bloom, all while Erandis collected the Bag of Holding with her phylactery and she was beginning to escape.

It looked grim, but the party had to work together to turn things around. Marvon and Cazeran bombarded Erandis with crowd control effects, Ottilie pulled the bag away from Erandis and tossed it to Blade who held onto it with his barbarian strength. Then, in a brilliant move, they chose to cast Banishment on Blade to send him back to the Material Plane. Erandis started to play a game of patience, deciding to just try and kill them all with Disintegrate and Chain Lightning while waiting for Cazeran to lose concentration on Banishment.

Ottilie raced back across the battlefield to try and help keep Bloom alive, choosing to burn most of her Infernal Conduit to sacrifice her hit points in order to heal Bloom back up. Then, she turned her attention onto the Titan King. She attacked him with her daggers, which were gifted to her by the Queen of the Dead to support Ottilie's revenge quest against Erandis Vol. Using her Invoke Authority, she placed all of her seals on him, trying to do enough damage to get him to leave her friend alone.

564 points of Piercing/Necrotic damage. She did over double his hit points on a critical hit, and she tried to declare that it was gonna be nonlethal.

I told her that I don't think I could justify that, and she agreed. I was flabbergasted. All of the conditions were met for the ritual to be complete - a weapon of vengeance killing the Titan King and progressing the story of Shae Tirias Tolai. She kept declaring "I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!"

I put it to a vote at the table, and everyone unanimously agreed that she met the conditions for the ritual to succeed.

So, I calmly described (as best that I could) the Titan King dying and the power surging into Ottilie. She felt herself grow with power that she's never experienced before, as she became an Archfey. Ottilie immediately apologized to Bloom, "I didn't mean to!"

Bloom, panicked, asked her "Are you okay?"

Ottilie said yes, and Bloom kissed her on the cheek for saving her.

Erandis, who had just tried to disintegrate Marvon for annoying her with multiple crowd control abilities, stared at the person that she created and claimed as her property ascended beyond her own power level.

Erandis shouted "Bitch, you didn't...!"

Ottilie said "Bye." and banished her and the rest of the Emerald Claw forces from what had just become her domain.

The party then collectively held onto Ottilie's daggers as they plunged the blade into Erandis' Phylactery as a group. The phylactery broke, the session ended. We all lost our collective minds. It was absolutely beautiful, and really embodies the absolute magic that Tabletop RPGs can be.

Thanks for reading.