Hollow Hike - Finale: The King in Cinders

Wrath and steel, piety and vengeance. A blackened throne, forged with lies and betrayal. The Fire waning inexorably, burning for no one. The journey's end.

Hollow Hike is available at https://rollforthings.itch.io/hollow-hike

Index

Session 0: Prologue + review

Realm 1: Sanctified District

Realm 2: Defiled Church

Realm 3: Crypt of Undeath

Finale: The King in Cinders

 "The final Realm culminates in the last Ashen Lord, the King in Cinders, who possesses 3 Qualities instead of the normal 2."

Instead of creating a normal realm full of encounters, I created just the boss.  RN = 4
Normal Boss stats are basic foe +1 Strength, 2 Qualities, and double HP. Drops RNx5 souls.

Roll d6 for each Quality: 5+2+4
5) Volatile: deals 1 damage for each die showing 1
2) Enduring - foe has +2 HP
4) Brutal - if a Hollow has no successes in a round, this foe deals 10 extra damage

King in Cinders
HP: 12
Strength: 5
20 Souls

I've leveled up after the last boss.

Aliana Lv:6
HP:5 FP:3 Strength:6(d6)

Powers (cost 1 FP):
- Heal 1 HP

Items (use and discard):
- Sunlight Drink (Heal 1 HP | refills at bonfire | RN uses)
- Furtive Ash (return to bonfire)

A scream cut through the air, long and painful, until Aliana realized with a sore throat it was her own. All the fire consuming her had disappeared. The Bonfire burning in front of her remained.

She stopped screaming and looked all around her. Where was she? What was she doing?

An emptiness inside made her anxious. Breathing in short gasps, she forced herself to calm down with a long inhale.

A wave of peace washed over her. Her vision blurred. There was no more struggle, no more fear, no more pain. Darkness set in.

Without purpose, there was nothing anymore.

Then a spark. A tiny, distant thing stirred inside of her.

There was… something…

Memories came to her, the most recent a flash of excruciating pain.

She was a cleric. A member of The Ember Covenant. What had become of it?

Another scrap of memory. Her death. Her first death.

She and other clerics had witnessed the betrayal of the King in Cinders. They cried when the disciples fractured the Divine Ember and took a piece each.

The faithful clerics did not have the strength to oppose the betrayers, so they left to gather allies and form a plan.

However, Fire Keeper Cain awaited them. His disloyal cleric followers surrounded them and clubbed them to death. Cain thought he had found a solution in replacing Solomon, so he quelled all resistance before it could grow.

But time passed, and his solution proved flawed. The Ashen Lords ushered in an age of madness in the wake of the waning Fire. Cain needed the clerics once again, so he recovered as many hollows as he could from Gadomir the Preserver.

Aliana remembered. The Ashen Lords, the purpose Cain had given her and then taken away, the Divine Fragments of her beloved King in Cinders, the diary pages, her journey, Lirian, her dear friend, and a new treachery from Cain.

Her vision cleared. Her purpose filled the emptiness inside, making her whole. Determination burned within her soul.

A self-crowned king had to be dethroned.

Her hands would topple Cain the Usurper.

She made her way through the smoldering Sanctified District. Cain had burned it all down, finishing the devastation that time, neglect, and the Ashen Lords had started.

No more houses or crumbling buildings on the streets. The Usurper’s powers left no streets behind. The District became a wasteland, a representation of the Covenant, of the world, and of the false king.

The sun hid behind a dark curtain that was more than heavy clouds. Aliana felt deep in her soul the remnants of the Fire pulsing urgently. Cain had done irreparable damage in his attempt to dominate it.

The Covenant church, defiled by Mother Moira, lay in pieces of rubble and dust.

Atop the pile, a portal throbbed with energy, humming louder the closer Aliana got. She felt the Divine Ember beyond it and Cain’s presence smothering it.

She stepped through it.

Choking ash and floating embers greeted her, scratching her eyes, scraping her throat. The overpowering smell of smoke made her cough and stagger. When she could finally see, a dim golden light shone on a blackened seat of bone and slag. The false throne of the Usurper.

Cain sat on it, distracted. A cursed blade rested by his side. “It will wield some time,” he murmured. “I am its Keeper and its Master. The King in Cinders.”

King of nothing. He ruled over silence, death, and oblivion. His demented battle against the Fire was destroying the world.

“It cannot reject me. I will break it with my true faith.”

The Fire burned despite of faith. And so it waned. It was not a creature to break. It was hunger.

Cain noticed her with a bemused expression, as if struggling to place her, then recomposed himself, bearing his usual disdain. “You? Again? It cannot be. I took your purpose.” His eyes burned with a feverish hate. “I am your King and I have taken your purpose!”

Her purpose could not be taken. It had been forged in the fall, warded with the blood of Solomon, her true King in Cinders.

Ash rained over them. The embers formed a whirlwind of fiery specks. They seem to howl in fury, ash and ember dancing madly in the air, lashing out like angry spirits.

Cain the Usurper, that miserable mockery of kingship, crowned in stale smoke and failure, rose to his feet, gripping his sword. “So be it, cleric. I will burn you clean. You will not even be a memory.”

The edge of his sword trailed flames as he raised it and lunged. Cain moved with a dogged intensity, leaping in pursuit. His sword, long and jagged, arced wide and brutal, cracking the air like thunder. Heat shimmered around it, leaving behind a spiral of cinders.

Aliana responded with precision, each sidestep calculated to avoid Cain’s scorched weapon and make him pay. She angled narrow dodges to counter quickly, putting in two or three strikes to every one of the Usurper.

They danced in the half-light, wrath and steel, piety and vengeance. The embers whirled in a frenzy.

His sword swished down. Aliana tripped, but rolled away from the sizzling slash. Even so, her shoulder burned in agony. She looked at it.

A seared stump. Her arm lay on the ground.

Cain barked a laugh. “Kings and Lords rise and fall, but I remain. You think yourself worthy of the Fire, Aliana? I burn in its glory. Here, try it.”

He waved his hand, and Aliana felt the Divine Ember pulsing, desperate, calling to her.

A ring of fire erupted around her. It leaped up her legs, caught her clothes, blistered her skin, and shrank her hair as it burned. She floundered and screamed as the flames consumed her.

As the Divine Ember thrummed.

The unwavering devotion lingering inside her club surged through her soul. Not only a ceremonial equipment, not just a crude instrument of war. It was both.

Aliana burst from the inferno with a bellow, aflame, club held high. Cain widened his eyes and reacted, but not fast enough. Aliana pummeled his chest with a bone-cracking thud, flinging him backward. The Usurper skidded across the ground for several paces before stopping.

At his feet, a piece of the Divine Ember, fragmented once again. He stared at it in disbelief.

As Aliana charged, Cain bent down to pick up the shard, but it was gone. It merged with the whirlwind of ember and ash, slowly taking shape. It settled as someone in a heavy-plated armor carrying a colossal maul.

Aliana struck, and the form of Inquisitor Wulfred hammered Cain along with her in one single blow, sending him flying.

The attack broke another piece of the Divine Ember that dissolved in the wind, taking shape as a tattered, bloody vestment of the clergy.

Aliana made for Cain as he scrambled up, and the ghostly revenant of Mother Moira healed her blisters and burns. With her one arm, she unleashed another powerful bash.

Cain cried in pain as he expelled the last Divine Fragment. It billowed into a hooded figure clad in robes, wielding a censer mace.

The next assault came with the aid of White Reverend Gadomir, aimed at Cain’s head. Club and mace swung strong. The Usurper’s false crown evaporated in black smoke.

She could feel the disciples’ souls alive for a moment, free from madness and terror. Now, they carried shame, regret, and acceptance.

Aliana nodded, acknowledging their redemption. They disappeared with a shuddering sigh.

She approached Cain panting, tired, spent. He stared at the blackened sky. “It burns for no one. It is silent like your prayers, cleric. You will see. You will rot in it.”

Aliana remembered Lirian, dear Lirian, a memory so distant and hazy that could be a delirium, if not for the mark her friend left in her own heart.

Even ash dreams of fire. What if that was all the Fire was, a dream?

She delivered the final blow, and Cain the Usurper, former Fire Keeper of King Solomon, fell.

KING IN CINDERS VANQUISHED

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the player rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana's strength: 6 = 6d6
Boss's strength: 5

Aliana's HP: 5 FP: 3 | Boss's HP: 12
6+4+3+2+3+3 (2 damage dealt, 3 damage taken)
I use Heal x3
Aliana's HP: 5/5 FP: 0 | Boss's HP: 10
5+2+2+4+3+2 (2 damage dealt, 3 damage taken)
I use Sunlight Drink x3
Aliana's HP: 5 | Boss's HP: 8
6+5+4+3+4+1 (4 damage dealt, 2 damage taken [Volatile])
I use Sunlight Drink x1 (last one)
Aliana's HP: 4 | Boss's HP: 4
2+5+3+2+4+3 (2 damage dealt, 3 damage taken)
Aliana's HP: 1 | Boss's HP: 2
6+6+5+3+4+4 (5 damage dealt)
Boss dies

The whirlwind of ash and embers subsided as the sky cleared, letting a pale sun shine on the kiln. The blackened throne, forged with lies and betrayal, dissolved.

The Divine Ember became whole in her hands. It restored her severed arm and healed her wounds.

The Primordial Fire burned before her, fading inexorably, facing her decision.

Aliana could choose to merge the Divine Ember with her soul and sacrifice herself to the Fire, bearing the burden of kindling. Hope and life for a time.

She could absorb the Ember and crown herself Queen in Cinders, bending the Fire to her will. Obedience through strength.

Or she could refuse the throne, shatter the Divine Ember, and let the Fire finally die out, ushering in the Age of Ash. Faith and peace under darkness.

Aliana closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and set her mind to purpose.

She made her choice.

Notes

That was a close battle! Even without grinding much, you can see how the Strength stat scales fast. Each point gives you one more dice to roll. Maybe this could be balanced by giving a dice every 2 points, I don’t know.

Also, rolling so many D6s starts to get unwieldy. Still fun, though.

Like in the souls games, I left an open-ended finale where you choose the conclusion through Aliana’s eyes.

That was my journey in Hollow Hike. I really hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The game and its expansion are available at itch.io. Support the creator.

Thank you very much for staying. I’ll see you in the next adventure!