#astroambulance

[kadael]

Fellowship Session #1: "Laid to Rest"

[previous writeups]

"Yes, so we all agree that grave-robbing is bad." --Misaki Inoue

The fellowship has come up with a tentative plan to stop the Machinelord, involving the use of an ancient weapon of mass destruction (which happens to be the EMP-generating device mentioned last session). Unfortunately, this weapon is so dangerous and destructive that the knowledge of how to activate it is a closely-guarded secret--so secret that not even Nayati knows it. Following a lead about an ancient-looking temple that suddenly sprang out of the sands recently, the party has set off across the desert.

(Also: temples that may or may not be made of cactus, tasty sand, and skeletrons.)

The Fellowship's Plans: After Kirga's recruitment, the fellowship stayed with the community of halflings for the night. Nayati gathered the party around the fire and showed them the weapon they possessed, telling them that it had great power and was capable of laying waste to entire settlements--on the ground, at least. In the sky (which happens to be where the Machinelord's stronghold is, because it can fucking fly), it would instead generate a wave of energy that could disable the overlord's robotic forces long enough for the people of the world to gain an advantage.

They also told everybody that this weapon was the least powerful version of its kind, and that a stronger one had created the great desert where the halflings now live. Fucking yikes.

There are two major problems with this plan, as we see it: the members of the party can't fly, and as mentioned before, Nayati doesn't know how to activate the weapon. The first problem is somewhat solved by the fact that the Harbingers dwell in great flying citadels, and presumably have a way to get back up there after they're done with their business on the ground. If we can get onto one of those, that pretty much takes care of that.

There were no leads on the second issue until Kirga mentioned that they'd heard about a strange occurrence in the desert: an ancient temple just appeared one day, and it wasn't of halfling make. It might or might not have been a thousand feet high, and it might or might not have been made out of cactus. Its appearance might or might not have been a coincidence.

(Mai said she hoped Kirga wasn't "telling stories" again, and Kirga got huffy and said that if they'd been telling a story, they'd have presented it as hard facts--and then proceeded to demonstrate, spinning a tale about how the temple had emerged from a sandstorm brought about by frightened goats running around in circles. "You happy now?" they asked. Mai was not.)

Eventually, everyone agreed that finding a group of halflings who could tell them more about the temple would be a good place to start. They would start their journey at dawn's first light.

But before we get into that, let's talk about...

The State of the World: It kind of sucks, really! This map may cover a pretty small area of the planet, but that area is the only space that anyone knows is even habitable. To the north is a frozen wasteland, too cold for even the hardy, fur-covered arags to survive. West is nothing but dead earth and active volcanoes. The seemingly-endless sea stretches to the south, and anyone who has sailed far enough has not ever come back. Strangest of all is the massive wall to the east. No one has ever found a way around it, nor have they been able to see what lies on the other side.

The Harbingers know what's up, of course. But they aren't telling.

This party of heroes is the fourteenth such fellowship in recorded history--formed for the purposes of saving the world from a great catastrophe. The thirteen groups who came before this one were all at least somewhat successful in defeating the threats they faced, because the world's still here, but one wonders if they weren't somewhat responsible for the way things are now, particularly that huge wall. (And when I say "one wonders," I mean that I do, because I love wild speculation.)

The Scroll in the Sand: Soon after packing up and heading out, the fellowship found a curious thing half-buried in the sand: an ancient painting on a scroll, weathered and faded but still recognizable as a depiction of beautiful, green farmland. Nayati explained that this was what the desert used to look like.

Kirga said that they liked the desert the way it was, and (this might not have happened here, but I can't remember so I'm sticking it in the writeup here) Gillidan agreed, stating that sand was tasty.

Everyone else was pretty baffled by this. Kirga asked if Gillidan had heatstroke. Mai recalled a time during her childhood when she visited the coast and ended up with a mouthful of sand, which was definitely not tasty. But apparently it's not uncommon for arags to just eat rocks and minerals.

Seeing that Mai seemed to be the only one dissatisfied with the desert, Nayati gave the painting to her as a gift. She was surprised, but thankful--it's ancient art and it was given to her by a divine entity, so it was a pretty big deal to her. And also just a cute scene in general. Ugh, bury me in Nayati being everybody's Mom Friend.

The Lone Survivor: The painting wasn't the only thing the group found just lying out in the desert: after that, they came across a half-dead halfling, who was heavily wounded and had been passed out under the sun for who-knows-how-long. Kirga rushed over and managed to revive them, as well as convince them to join the fellowship's cause.

Their name was Tasri, and their family had been attacked by mysterious assailants--not the city halflings, for once. "We never saw their faces. They never spoke." Tasri pointed out where it had happened, and agreed to travel with the fellowship so that they could rescue or avenge their loved ones.

When the group reached what had been a rebel halfling campground of Tasri's family, they got a sense that something was... off. There had obviously been a struggle--the torn remains of tents and the mess of footprints in the sand made that clear--but there were no bodies, and no valuables had been taken. A closer look revealed that while some of the prints were clearly from halflings or goats, some of them were much larger and deeper. (Fun fact learned from this discussion: elves don't leave footprints where they walk.) The larger footprints led away from the camp, with marks beside them indicating that they'd been dragging something. Eventually, those marks were replaced with wheel tracks--the assailants had some sort of vehicle.

When the party drew close enough to see these mysterious raiders (five of them, quite large, clad in armor much like Gillidan's) and their cart (moving by itself, carrying a very large sack) off in the distance, Mai went on ahead and snuck closer to get a better look. Curiously, in between the pieces of armor, Mai could see that the attackers had no flesh, just bones and metal. This was 2spooky for her (and not something she was really capable of attacking, since all her weapons were designed to harm flesh-and-blood creatures), so she retreated back to the rest of the group to tell them what she'd learned.

Kirga went up next, attempting to get up onto the cart and open the sack to free the captives. They succeeded! ...sort of, anyway. They went undetected, but when they opened the sack, well...

"What have you found?" Nayati asked, delivering the message through their magic. Kirga's response was simple, but told Nayati all they needed to know: "They're dead. They're all dead. They're all dead."

The party regrouped atop an outcropping of rock and considered their options, watching the fleshless creatures and their cart move slowly across the desert below. Mai tried to sense what magic could have been powering the movement of the cart and the soldiers, but there was no magic involved--it was something else, something perhaps mundane to 21st century humans but utterly alien to our heroes. It didn't really matter, though, because Nayati knew with their sight-beyond-sight that these soldiers were minions of the Overlord, and they had to be stopped before they could deliver the cart of corpses to whatever fate awaited them.

If nothing else, the dead halflings needed to be laid to rest, and Nayati (with Tasri's permission) did so spectacularly: by calling forth their Bhuja to set the sack, the cart, and three of the skeletal soldiers ablaze in a burst of bright, hot light. The spirits of the halflings were freed, and the two remaining minions were alerted to the party's presence.

Ready? FIGHT!: Kirga leapt down to face the armored skeletons head-on, and managed to knock one's armor off with their rope dart before they got grabbed and thrown headfirst into a sand dune. With the armor gone, the true nature of these minions of the Overlord was revealed: they were arag skeletons, held together by metal joints and cables, animated by machinery. As Astro told us later, this is what the Machinelord does to the dead, and this is only one type of soldier in his army: the skeletrons.

While Nayati went to go assist on the ground, Gillidan brought out their rifle, aimed it directly downwards at the unarmored skeletron, and fired with a massive BOOM. The bullet caught inside the skeleton's chest and ricocheted several times, cracking and splintering its bones--not enough to smash it apart, but enough to leave it vulnerable. Unfortunately (or not?) the outcropping that Gillidan and Mai were still standing on wasn't very stable, and Gillidan's shot caused it to crumble beneath their feet.

As she was falling to the ground below, Mai drew her sword, held it out above the skeletron, and used the momentum from her fall to slice through its cables and finish breaking its bones. It collapsed in a useless, even more lifeless heap. (And then Mai landed in that heap and it hurt.)

With only one enemy left and the others in somewhat bad shape (either from falling or from being tossed into a sand dune), Nayati drew upon their power as a Harbinger to demonstrate that this skeletron had only a false-life, and was nothing more than pieces. They did this by placing its pieces very far apart from each other. Very fast. Really, they made it explode.

With the battle over, Nayati fell to their knees, exhausted from channeling so much power (they had half their stats damaged from that ordeal!). Mai rushed over, concerned, but Nayati told her that they would be fine with time and rest. Meanwhile, Gillidan pulled Kirga out of the sand dune, and Kirga spat out a great deal of sand and said that yeah, it tasted great.

And then everybody sat down to have lunch, THE END.

No, Seriously, Lunch: Mai offered Nayati some of her food, which was graciously accepted, and Kirga shared their food with Gillidan and Mai (because halfling lunches are ridiculous and feed three people at once).

"I know you didn't like the cheese," Kirga told Mai, "but there's other stuff in here you can eat."

"...That would be fine," said Mai. "Thank you."

(Context: The rebel halflings keep goats not only for meat but also for milk to make cheese and yogurt. Elves don't do dairy at all, and are kind of "WHY WOULD YOU EVER" when it comes to consuming the milk of another species--milk is for babies! Vida and I had chatted for a while between sessions about how Kirga introducing Mai to the concept of cheese would... probably not go well, to say the least.)

(Also, if anyone in the Fellowship campaign is reading this, consider this an open invitation to come blather with me FOREVER about our respective cultures' dietary practices and how they feel about each other's foods, because the rulebook says FOOD IS IMPORTANT IN FELLOWSHIP and I know that's probably just because it heals damage but I want to talk about our characters bonding over sharing food please)

Stop Hitting Yourself, Kads: After the session ended, we talked a bit about the skeletrons, and I mentioned that it was extra fucked up that Hisato would do that to the dead, considering that he used to be an elf and their funeral practices are DEFINITELY NOT THAT.

"Yeah," said Astro, "he stopped caring about that stuff... a long time ago."

"Oh, Hisato, what have you done?" I asked.

"He's had a bad time."

"IS HE OKAY???"

No response but evil laughter, which is par for the course with Astro, really.

He also told me that the Mai & Hisato relationship stuff was probably going to be "sad, and then confusing, and then sad again." Once again, I have made a bed of distress and despair and eventually I'm going to have to lie in it, but I wouldn't change Mai's status as 'childhood friend of the Overlord' even if I was given the opportunity to. It's a lot of emotional pain, but it hurts so good, even if I end up effectively making myself cry in the middle of a session again.

And Mai as a character is a whole lot less sad than Vitus anyway. Admittedly, that's a really low bar to clear, but I have a tendency towards gratuitously tragic backstories and I will be happy with myself every time I manage to avoid it.

One Final Note: I just want it on the record that I am squinting aggressively at the kanji for "Hisato Hisakawa." It's too early to draw conclusions, but I want Astro to know that I know that he's up to Something.

[kadael]

Fellowship Session #0: "Prologue"

The world ends. The HARVEST begins.

...Thus ends the dream had by every living being in the world three months ago, foretelling an apocalypse brought forth by a great evil. The universe is in great peril, and only an unlikely alliance of handpicked heroes can stop this cataclysm before it arrives.

(Also: eight foot-tall dwarves, #gal pals, and inexplicable EMP generators.)

Session Zero?: Session Zero! We set up bonds between everybody, determined why our characters were chosen to be the world's champions, and drew a world map, but we didn't get any actual playtime in. We're doing that next week.

Our Heroes and their Adversary: In order of recruitment into the fellowship:

Divakara Nayati, the Harbinger (played by Cy), is one of the enigmatic and powerful beings who are remnants of the forces responsible for the creation of the world. Together with their strange companion-creature, the Bhuja, Nayati is capable of extraordinary--and dangerous--feats. The Harbingers are a mystery to all but themselves--even the elves, who believe the Harbingers to be incarnations of the divine spirits they worship, have had as little contact with them as the rest of the world has. When the Harbingers do make themselves known, it is always to guide the people of the world through some disaster they have foreseen. They live within great flying citadels and strongholds, above the world and out of reach by mortal means.

Mai Hayashi, the Elf (played by me), is a performer, entertainer, and part-time spy. Art and battle are deeply intertwined in elven culture, and Mai is as graceful as she is deadly. Long ago, the elves withdrew from the world into perpetual isolation, and their civilization is only half-remembered in legends and folk tales. Their homelands lie in political ruin, with all the lords of the land furiously scrambling for power, and although they all say they have their country's best interests at heart, the people are struggling under this fractured rule.

Gillidan of West Peak, the Dwarf (played by Ivy), is a veritable powerhouse of brute strength and ingenious engineering. Armed with a rifle developed with technology only the dwarves possess as well a huge gilded axe, Gillidan can take on any foe in any situation. Hailing from the frigid mountains in the northern lands, the dwarves (also known as Arags) are protected from the elements by their thick, furry coats and their underground dwellings. They are larger and physically stronger than any of the other races, and their prowess in engineering indicates that they aren't "dumb muscle" by any means. Although they tend to be distrustful of outsiders, the dwarves are not as shrouded in mystery as the Harbingers, nor are they isolationists like the elves. They have active trading relationships with the halflings, and they like it that way.

Kirga Mentrothi, the Halfling (played by Vida), is a tale-spinning, tarantula-riding warrior-poet and a fighter for freedom. Courageous, quick-thinking, and light on their feet, Kirga is as impressive as the outrageous lies they tell as a form of comedy. Broadly speaking, the halflings are split into two factions: the city dwellers, who live in an oppressive police state driven by the labor of lifelong prisoners; and the nomadic rebels, who have left the cities and seek to liberate their fellows. Out in the desert, the rebels travel across the land on the backs of trained giant tarantulas, and their friends and families are everywhere.

These four heroes (and their companions) have joined together to oppose the Overlord, known as Machinelord Hisato (played by our GM, Astro). Once a young elf with a fondness for tinkering and machinery, Hisato left the elven islands on his rite of passage into adulthood and never returned home. What happened to him is unknown, but he has risen as a great evil with legions of robots at his command, and he must be stopped before he destroys the world. He has stolen the bodies of the dead from the dwarves* and enslaved the city-dwelling halflings, forcing them to mine huge amounts of ore to fuel his armies. Only Nayati knows and has access to his one weakness: a strange device capable of generating electromagnetic pulses. And though she doesn't recognize him, because he has changed and corrupted himself so thoroughly, Mai was once Hisato's childhood friend.

* No, I could not resist making a Captain Barker joke. I am weak.

The Forming of the Fellowship: Though they themselves guide others through disasters, the Harbingers have a guide of their own: some great otherworldly entity, which told them of the device that could weaken the Machinelord and bade them to form a group of heroes to defeat him. One Harbinger in particular was randomly chosen to carry out this task: Divakara Nayati (all Harbingers are actually named Nayati, and "Divakara" is an honorific, but when I say Divakara Nayati I mean Cy's PC unless I state otherwise).

Nayati first went to the elves, who were greatly honored to be visited by a being they perceived as a divine ancestral spirit. (Harbingers don't usually get such warm welcomes, since their arrival pretty much always heralds a catastrophe.) Nayati requested that the elves provide a champion to accompany them on a vitally important task, and things... got a bit screwy. The lords of the land each wanted one of their warriors to go, except for the ones who wanted to go themselves. No one could agree on who was most qualified--everyone believed that they deserved this chance and that everyone else should suck it up. The negotiations dissolved into shouting, and then into outright fighting, and lives would likely have been lost if Nayati had not stunned them all into silence with a display of their power.

Gravely disappointed by the conduct of the elven lords, Nayati refused to take any of their offers and then turned to the crowd of onlookers. They asked if anyone not affiliated with the elven lords would come forth and volunteer themselves.

Mai stepped forward.

(When Mai went to the ship that would take her and Nayati away from the elven homelands, she found her friend and partner-in-espionage Misaki waiting there for her, because there was no way she wasn't coming too. Nayati made some remark about them being inseparable. #gal pals)

Next, Nayati went to the dwarves and was met with a far chillier reception. The dwarves were not eager to leave their home, except for one--Gillidan, who jumped at the call to adventure like the young and perhaps foolhardy dwarf they were. As extra protection, Gillidan was assigned two companions: a skilled blacksmith named Mogul, whose family had traded with Kirga's before, and a berserker named Torpent, one of the fiercest warriors among dwarvenkind.

Last, Nayati went to the desert to find a halfling who could rise up against the Machinelord, and found a community of halfling rebels. The rebels were all quite eager to show off their various skills--mostly combat, although Kirga was quite focused on the art of telling lies and poetry. In the end, perhaps it didn't matter: Nayati chose Kirga because they sensed something about them. While the other rebel halflings were closely tied to their friends and families, Kirga had no such ties, and wouldn't have so many qualms about leaving to go on a quest.

That's All For Now: Yep, that's basically it! We did draw a map, but it's kind of ugly because roll20's drawing tools suck, and we did fill out bonds, but they haven't really come into play yet.

The next session (and first session of the game proper) is coming sooner than usual, though: next week, we'll officially embark on our quest to right the Overlord's wrongs and unite the world against him. Until then, we'll all just be really hyped.

But before I go, a couple amusing things worth mentioning:

--Harbingers have a tendency to call members of the other races "my child," and things like that. While the elves' reaction to this is basically "YES, WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN, THIS IS SO GREAT," the halflings and the dwarves are more like "...uh. :/"

--Astro asked me if, since the elves do most of their building and crafts with plant materials, they make their weapons out of metal. Prior to that, I had just been assuming that Mai's sword and knife and things were metal, but after a little bit of debate I said "Well, maybe they're made of crystal or something," thus ushering in the existence of elven crystalsmiths.

And crystal katanas. Elves with crystal katanas. It's times like these when I feel I am that much-maligned "worst player" complained about in many a forum thread, because oh my god what am I doing who let me have elves with crystal katanas. Like, what, is my next character going to be a lesbian stripper ninja?

...Mai is already one of those things. Aw, fuck.

[kadael]

The Dungeon World campaign has officially ended, in a very bittersweet manner. Azmodan and the legions of Hell were defeated. The world lived to see another sunrise... but Vitus didn't.

Power & Control: With our respective power-ups from Sentinel's catacombs claimed, it was time to put them to good use. Wei shifted into a dragon, but he wasn't prepared for such a drastic change from his usual repertoire, and he forgot that he'd ever been anything other than a dragon. Still, he remembered that he had a mission, and he smashed through the ceiling of the room he was in so that he could accomplish it. Flying high above the ground, he watched as Azmodan personally shot Atticus out of the sky with a beam of hellfire.

On her way out of the catacombs, Zeta met up with some dwarves, who gave her an impressive invention called a motorbeast--a dwarven fantasy motorcycle, really. She sped out of one of the tunnels that led to the surface, and spied the demonic trebuchets at the back of Azmodan's army.

Becca linked with Sentinel's superweapon, Mobile Fortress: Sunslammer Ultra, and rose out of the catacombs through a giant hole that opened in the earth above her. In her giant mecha, she was of a comparable size to Azmodan, and she marched right over to him, shouting "Azmodan! Your fight is with ME!"

Unraveling: Something went deeply, horribly wrong when Vitus was casting the spell that would give him control over the army of skeletons.

The spell was contained in a scroll, which was the only reason he could even attempt to cast it--but it was vastly more powerful than any magic he'd done before, and it would take a lot of mental fortitude to prevent that much raw power from harming him... mental fortitude that Vitus simply didn't possess. First it drained away his life, and then it burned out his soul until there was nothing left.

As he was dying, his tattoos sprang to life and burst into flames, gradually separating themselves from his skin and swirling around him in the air. He heard a voice; one that he hadn't heard in a very long time. It said that it could help him complete the spell. It said that it could sustain his life, but only for a while. It said it was sorry that it couldn't do more.

And then the flames dissipated, leaving a charred, soulless man who was living on borrowed time. Most of his mind was still there, but when his soul was destroyed, his capacity for emotion went with it--he could remember feeling things, but anything he felt after losing his soul was a mere echo of real emotion.

He knew that his past self wouldn't have wanted the other members of the party to see him (I'm not going to go into the gory details, but the tattoos catching fire had... logical consequences for his skin and much of the rest of his body), especially not Becca, so he stayed underground in the catacombs and directed his new skeleton army telepathically, seeing through their eyes.

The Battle: Everyone was instrumental in protecting the people of Sentinel--Zeta snuck around near the back of the horde and began taking out the trebuchets with her new sword, Wei took out large stretches of the demonic army with his draconic lightning breath, and Vitus kept the legions from advancing much further by meeting them with his skeletal forces--but Becca, in her mobile fortress, was formidable enough to stand up to Azmodan himself, which was proven when he tried to block her first attack with nothing but his flesh, and she chopped his arm off.

It wasn't a very long fight, all things considered, especially when Becca decided that her mecha should have a mouth with incredibly sharp teeth, found that it didn't, and used the power of her blessing from the sun god to basically rewrite reality so that it did. And then she fucking tore Azmodan's throat out.

Last Words: With Azmodan dead, Vitus knew he wouldn't have much time left--it was no longer so important for him to keep going, because they'd already secured their victory. But there was something he had to say, even if he didn't quite know why he had to say it anymore.

He had the skeletal dragon at his command swoop down near Becca, and used it to speak to her one last time: "Vitus Mellarne sends his apologies, and asks you not to enter the catacombs when this is over." If he'd had more time, he would have continued: "He wants you to know that he considered you a friend, and that in this way, he loved you."

But there was no more time.

When the power that kept him moving faded away, Vitus's body collapsed into a lifeless heap of bones and burnt flesh, and then began to crumble into dust. In the realm of the dead, Death opened the Black Gates for him, but without a soul he couldn't enter any afterlife--when he passed through the Gates, he simply vanished from existence.

With a panic brought on by the dragon's words, Becca looked around the battlefield for Vitus, and when she couldn't find him, she sprinted over to one of the massive holes in the ground and tumbled out of the mobile fortress to climb down into it. Zeta followed her--she hadn't heard what the dragon had said, but she certainly heard Becca calling out for Vitus. By the time they made it down into the catacombs, there was nothing left of him but dust, the blackened remains of his clothing and books, and the staff he used to carry.

"Where is he?" Becca asked, frantic. "His staff is here, but where is he?"

Zeta bent down to pick up his staff, looking forlorn. "I... I think he's gone."

Dawn: When Becca and Zeta exited the catacombs, they saw a dragon standing in the middle of the battlefield. "Wei?" Becca called out to it, desperately hoping that she hadn't lost another friend. "Wei, is that you?"

Hearing his name finally made Wei remember the human he used to be, and he came back to himself, gradually shrinking down and shifting to his normal form. Becca ran forward and tackled him in a hug, and together, the three surviving members of the party sat down in the grass and watched as the sun finally rose. They reminisced about their adventures, and about where it all began: on Sunstone Island, with a simple request from a wizard.

And in the morning light, the people of Sentinel poured out of the gates to lay their eyes upon the world's heroes.

Answers & Explanations: After all was said and done, Astro laid everything out on the table and confirmed not one, but two things I'd been dreading: first, that Vitus's tattoos had been made of Darius, and second, that Darius's former identity had been the demon lord Azmodan. (Okay, yes, the first one was made pretty blatantly clear when Vitus lost his soul, but it still had a tiny shred of deniability until it was explicitly stated out of character.)

When Azmodan was imprisoned, he eventually worked out a way to split off part of his soul and have that part of himself be reborn as a human infant, to parents who presumably had no idea what they were getting into. Four years later (or maybe even less than that), he was wreaking havoc and destruction across the landscape until he was found by Atticus Levene. They fought until Atticus gained the upper hand and was able to completely erase Azmodan-the-human's memories as well as his soul's connection to Azmodan-the-demon, at which point he adopted the newly helpless, innocent child and named him Darius.

Five years later, the Mellarne family came to Atticus and asked that he take their son on as a wizardly apprentice, in exchange for whatever sum of money he asked for. Much of the rest of the story has already been told: Vitus and Darius became rivals, and then lovers, and all was well until Darius came to realize that some of his memories had been tampered with. He didn't know what they were, but he wanted them back, and he asked Vitus to perform a ritual with him that would restore them.

Neither of them could have known what would happen. The ritual was a spectacular success, enough to undo what Atticus had done, and Darius remembered everything about his former life as Azmodan, and how the man he'd called his father had been the one to take it away from him. A few nights later, he attempted to kill Atticus--perhaps as revenge, or maybe just to get him out of the way--but Atticus was too powerful, and killed him instead.

The thing is, it's hard to actually kill a demon lord, and the split part of Azmodan's soul was as tenacious as the whole thing (and connected to it once again). He contacted a group of cultists who worshiped him and directed them to recover Darius's body, turn it into ink, and capture the wizard Vitus Mellarne for his future plans.

When Vitus was finally released from the cultists after his tattoos had all been completed, he took all the money he had access to and bought land in the small town of Trumbull. It was there that Azmodan used the tattoos to speak to Vitus in his dreams, guiding him to go down to Hell and steal an artifact from Satan's Vault that would allow him to resurrect Darius--but, well, we all know how that actually turned out.

When Azmodan was released from his imprisonment, he had no further use for the split-off piece of his soul or the memories it had made during its time as Darius, so he discarded his connection to it. And even though the soul piece contained in the tattoos still had all of its memories, something... strange happened when it was no longer connected. It gained its own awareness, its own will, and it began to remember being Darius more than it remembered being Azmodan.

When Vitus's tattoos absorbed the tea he spilled on his hands, when they incorporated the hand stamp he'd gotten at Sentinel's gate into their design, when they spelled out his name in dwarven runes for the dwarf librarian, when they caught his tears as he learned the awful truth about what really happened the night Darius died--they were trying to be helpful.

In an utterly horrifying way, Darius had been with Vitus all along.

(Still, I can take some comfort in the fact that for a very short stretch of history, Azmodan was a sweet, dorky wizard with cute freckles who thought Vitus had pretty eyes. For more LOL DISSONANCE, take a look at Azmodan from the Diablo series, whose name and appearance were borrowed by our GM, and then look at Anthony Ramos, the guy I based Darius's current appearance on because he's a fucking babe.)

Final Thoughts: This last session marked my third dead Dungeon World character, and the first time I actually had to mute my microphone because I couldn't restrain myself enough to cry quietly. I knew full well going in that Vitus might not make it, but I'd been hoping that he would live anyway.

Am I satisfied with the campaign's story as a whole? Goddamn fucking right I am. I'm honestly astounded by how Astro managed to pull together a plot like that based entirely on hooks we threw at him. I don't know if I've ever been so emotionally invested in a campaign before.

Am I satisfied with Vitus's story? That's a harder question to answer, and my feelings on the matter are likely complicated by the fact that he's dead and I'm all emotional about it. There are people and things I'm tempted to blame for his death, including myself, but there's really no point in it.

I wanted Vitus to live because I wanted him to realize that returning to his old life wasn't the only way he could be happy--that he could still have friends, that he wasn't inherently unlovable, that his life could still go on even though awful things had happened to him.

The way his story in this campaign played out was more like a redemption arc that ultimately ended in death, and it's not a happy story, but it's the only one that's true.

What Comes Next?: You've been freed. Do you know how hard it is to lead?

The campaign is officially over and done with, but there are still stories to be told. I'll still be writing my pre-campaign stories (the Captain Barker story and the solarium fic), as well as the Wizard Dads AU. I know for a fact that Becca's player is currently writing about the final battle and everything that happened afterwards, and Zeta's player might be doing something as well.

And at a still-undetermined date, our group will be coming back together to have new adventures with new characters in a new world, with a new system we're really hyped about: Fellowship.

(I've written over a thousand words about elven civilization, society, and culture in preparation for our eventual first session, and my favorite part of it is still the bit where they pretend to give annoying foreigners boats so they'll get the fuck off their island. FUCKIN' ELVES, MAN.)

[kadael]

Today's Dungeon World post-session writeup is brought to you by many mind-blowing revelations. And possibly yaoi hands.

[note that pretty much all of the dialogue in this post is paraphrased and not exact quotes because I only remember the gist of things]

The Azmodan Situation: The Hyperion Gate has been breached, and Azmodan has officially entered the mortal plane, accompanied by the legions of Hell. He's even bigger than he used to be, and when I say "legions of Hell" I do indeed mean legions. Fortunately, their method of arrival caused an earthquake so violent that it split the nearby ground apart, allowing us easy access to Sentinel's catacombs. Atticus told us he could buy us time to search for the things we needed down there... but only an hour or so.

The Many Deals of Atticus Levene: And then Atticus was a fucking dragon.

Before going down into the catacombs, Vitus witnessed Atticus doing some awfully strange magic: he was simultaneously casting a summoning spell and dispelling a conjuration, and the target of both those things appeared to be himself. His body was swallowed up by some great maw that appeared, and then in his place, there came a massive dragon seemingly made of glass: wings like cathedral windows, teeth like shards of obsidian, a breath weapon that was literally lasers. "BEHOLD. MY TRUE FORM."

Vitus tore his eyes away, climbed down into the crevice in the earth, and began to question everything he thought he knew. Zeta freaked out a little: "You never told us he was a dragon!"

"I didn't know," Vitus spluttered, reeling from the discovery that two of the most significant people in his life had never been anything resembling human.

Apparently, Atticus had conjured a human body for himself out of magic and put his soul into it; presumably he stashed his dragon body away somewhere safe. Why he did this, I don't know, but his conjuration was good enough that Vitus had never suspected a thing.

The Necronomicon: Before the earthquake, Atticus told us all what we'd need to find down in the catacombs in order to have a chance at beating Azmodan. Becca, of course, would be looking for the superweapon. Zeta would retrieve the dragon's tooth sword she stole from Atticus half a year ago (and hey--guess what dragon is missing a tooth?) and stashed down there. Wei would need to negotiate with the Necronomicon's guardian to gain the ability to shapeshift into it.

Atticus acknowledged that he'd previously told Vitus not to seek the Necronomicon--and he still absolutely did not want him to do anything with it. No, instead Vitus would have to claim a magic scroll hidden in the binding of the book, and leave the tome itself alone. "Don't open it. Don't."

Vitus was still not enthused to see his old mentor, and he wasn't in the mood to be lectured in a manner that he still perceived as self-righteous--especially when Atticus told him that he wouldn't be powerful enough to cast most of the Necronomicon's spells anyway. He spent most of the conversation being rather snippy. "Then what am I supposed to do with the book?"

"Leave it there, or destroy it, if you can. Just don't open it. Please."

Becca gently reminded Vitus of one of the dangers of the Necronomicon--that it requires an exceptionally strong will to resist reading its dangerous magic aloud--and that he had initially sought Atticus out to help him with this danger. If anyone else had said it, Vitus may not have listened.

"I understand. I don't understand him. But I understand."

Fast forward to Vitus and Wei in Sentinel's catacombs, headed for the Necronomicon (according to the maps Atticus had given them--he knew the catacombs quite well, for reasons). They'd fought through a room that held a mere fraction of the 10,000 skeletons guarding the tombs, and when they came to the cavern that held the Necronomicon, there didn't seem to be any in there. Just a lot of miscellaneous bones on the cavern floor.

There was no sign of the monster that Atticus had said was guarding the tome, until Vitus rolled a Discern Realities check and realized that the miscellaneous bones actually all belonged to a huge skeletal dragon, asleep on the ground.

And then it woke up.

"Who dares intrude upon the lair of my master?"

Floundering a bit, I asked the GM if Vitus might know anything about who this dragon's master was, and following a successful Spout Lore check, he told me that the author of the Necronomicon was one Levvattus Tik'ene.

Well. Levvattus Tik'ene, Atticus Levene. Apparently that man was never big on creative pseudonyms.

Vitus stepped forward and gave a grand bow. "Your master's apprentice." He then told the dragon that the demon lord Azmodan had been released (the details of how that happened were omitted), and that Atticus/Levvattus had sent him to retrieve the Necronomicon (and that Wei would need to gain the ability to shapeshift into a dragon). Fortunately, the dragon was a reasonable sort, and allowed us to pass.

(A curious statement from the dragon to Wei: "You're a shapeshifter? I didn't think there were any of those left.")

The Necronomicon was a book, bound in leather (the origin of which Vitus didn't want to think about) that simply displayed its title and author in Draconic script. (Did Atticus teach Vitus to read Draconic? I think he must have.) Astro had me roll a Wisdom check, which I partially succeeded on despite having a -1 to the roll (because Vitus's Wisdom sucks ass and always has). Because of the partial success, I was told that Vitus really, really wanted to open it, but that I would get to decide whether or not he did.

"He's not going to open it," I said, "but he is going to take it with him."

I realize that I have complete control over the things my character does, with the exception of dice shenanigans, and that I very well could have had him leave it there after getting the scroll (because I really think taking it along is a bad idea!!!), but... it just seemed like what he would do. GOD, VITUS, WHY DO YOU DO THESE THINGS.

The scroll hidden in the book's binding contained a very powerful spell, so powerful that Vitus could only cast it because it was in scroll form. It was a spell that would give him complete control and command of all the skeletons in Sentinel's catacombs.

All ten thousand of them.

MOTHERFUCKING SKELETON ARMY.

But Wait, There's More!: Following the revelation about Atticus's true draconic nature, Astro reminded us that he'd once said that Vitus was the only "regular wizard" we'd seen so far. (There are other regular wizards like Vitus out there, of course--not every mage is a dragon or some shit.) I made a sort of sad remark about how Vitus probably felt very magically inadequate next to Atticus and Darius while he was growing up, because he was an average human wizard next to these abnormally powerful wizards he didn't know were inhuman.

"Yeah," Astro said, "an ancient dragon and a demon lord."

"...Darius was a demon lord?"

Silence.

"Which one?"

More silence.

"WHICH ONE??"

Because Astro is a trolling GM: "You can't see my face, but it's definitely something."

I told him I'd badger him forever about it, but he did say he'd tell us everything after the campaign was over. SIGH.

According to my admittedly shaky recollection of what we know about the demon lords, the unnamed ones were all killed by their fellows (brothers?) Azmodan and Satan in their mad grab for power. (As far as I remember, Satan wanted to rule and Azmodan wanted to destroy.) However, it's difficult to actually kill immortal beings such as demon lords, which is why Azmodan was sealed away rather than destroyed forever. Therefore, it may be the case that the soul of whoever Darius was (before he was Darius) persisted, and either eventually took mortal form or... took a mortal's form. (I mention the latter possibility because Astro made interesting noises when I told him what the name "Darius" means--"he possesses.")

There is, I suppose, another possibility, but I'm not acknowledging it here because: 1) I don't see how it could reasonably be possible, given all that we know, and 2) IT UPSETS ME

In any case, Astro did tell us some good news--after Atticus’s mind-wipe, Darius did indeed grow up believing he was human, and there was no long con involved in anything he was doing with Vitus. That just makes me feel better about the whole thing, even if I suppose that makes it more sad. Darius Levene officially confirmed for 100% cinnamon roll.

One Last Silly Thing: As I was trying to adjust to the sudden (and possibly unintended?) reveal about Darius’s former status as a demon lord:

Me: [holding my head in my hands, addressing Vitus in the way that some writers do with their characters] Congratulations, your boyfriend’s a demon lord.

Astro: That sounds like a manga title.

Me: Well, Vitus is basically a shoujo protagonist...

Astro: Eh, yeah.

Astro: ...Does Vitus have yaoi hands?

Me: NO.

Me: HIS HANDS ARE NORMAL-SIZED.

Me: Ugh, I’m gonna need to put that in the writeup.

Me: The demon lord thing, not the yaoi hands.

Me: ...Maybe the yaoi hands.

[kadael]

Dungeon World post-session writeup: THE HEIST edition

[previously: session two, session three, session four, session five, bonus character profile, session six, bonus tentative answerpost, interlude, session seven, session seven followup]

Current Plans: This late in the game, is there any such thing as a long-term plan? No, things are all coming to a head now, to the point where there might not be a long-term to plan for unless we can stop Azmodan.

The immediate "plan" for next session is to listen to Atticus, because when a powerful wizard comes out of a portal and says "We have a problem," you don't just blow him off. Evidently, his research into the Azmodan problem has borne fruit, or he just looked outside at the fucking sky, I don't know.

Beyond that, we're going to go down into Sentinel's catacombs now that Becca has Festung again, and we're going to get the superweapon and also probably the Necronomicon. Judging by what Astro has said, there's no way Vitus would have time to resurrect Darius before the campaign ends (which is STILL A BAD IDEA), but 1) Vitus has no knowledge of this "campaign ending" thing, 2) he's still on the fence about giving up on Darius, and 3) it might be useful against Azmodan.

And then we fight, and we try not to die.

The Fucking Sky: When we departed from the palace, there was trouble other than the guards who were chasing us. It almost looked like the sun was rising, but the sun doesn't rise in the north, and sunrises aren't "black in a way that light shouldn't be." Vitus' tattoos looked "unhappy," but he himself didn't feel anything wrong (other than a sense of dread, which is A VERY NATURAL RESPONSE TO THE SKY DOING WEIRD SHIT).

Clarifying Questions & Answers: Vitus' backstory is really kind of irrelevant to what's going on right now, but I did get some information before and after the game, just 'cause I wanted it.

1) Vitus never saw Darius' body after he died, which means that all those heartbreaking images of corpse-cradling I was picturing can go fuck off. Why didn't he, though? Did Atticus hide it, and if so, why? Did he just cease to exist after he died, because he wasn't human?

...IS HE ACTUALLY DEAD??? (Yeah, probably. It's canon that Vitus contacted a spirit and it told him Darius had been murdered. Unless we're working with a more figurative definition of the word "murder," that's... really not ambiguous.)

2) Atticus had been checking up on Vitus' location (ever since he disappeared/was kidnapped, or before then?) by using the contact spirits spell to contact the wonderful and useful spirit of all-seeing every couple of days. He had no idea what was happening to Vitus, though, since he could only ask the spirit one question and the spirit only gave his location. After he saw that Vitus was in hell, he assumed he was dead and stopped checking.

I'm a bit curious about his motivations for doing this, though I suppose it's reasonable to worry if your wizardly apprentice suddenly drops off the face of the earth shortly after the death of his beloved.

Other Stuff:

Zeta and Vitus are terribly amusing in telepathic communication and I am paraphrasing them for posterity:

"Hey, you're rich, right? You have experience with being locked in towers?"

"What? I was born into a prominent family, yes, but I wasn't ever-- I did live in a tower, but no one locked-- I was the one who-- My isolation was voluntary."

(how many locks does Vitus have on his tower's front door in the Captain Barker story? TOO MANY)

--

And a little bit later, when Zeta had gotten into the princess's bedroom and convinced her to let Vitus and Becca in:

"I do hope you're decent when we make it up there."

"What???"

"I will be very unamused if we come in to find you in flagrante delicto."

"...I don't know what that means, but it won't be that. I've just secured us a new ally."

"Just keep your pants on. We'll be there in a moment."

(this is doubly funny when you consider the legal meaning of "in flagrante delicto")

[kadael]

Dungeon World post-session thoughtpost. Oh, boy, this one was really something. I was right to be worried.

[previously: session two, session three, session four, session five, bonus character profile, session six, bonus tentative answerpost, interlude]

The Long-Term Plan: Stopping Azmodan is still first priority, and... may in fact be our only priority, as of now. It depends on how Vitus feels when we go down into Sentinel’s catacombs. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess, but oh man.

The Short-Term Plan: Find some poor sap for Vitus to mimic, infiltrate Sentinel’s Noble Quarter, and retrieve Festung from the royal palace so we can wrest control of the megaweapon from those who shouldn’t have it.

...So, uh. We learned a lot of things today. I’m just gonna try to split them up into categories as best I can.

Atticus Levene, Evil Tattoos, & the Hyperion Castle: As it turns out, there’s a reason Atticus isn’t such a dick anymore (still kind of a dick though). He was kidnapped by presumably the same people/organization who gave Vitus his tattoos, and was put through the same thing. (”They got to you, too?”) Unlike Vitus, however, Atticus actually learned that the tattoos were demonic in nature, and tried removing them through an exorcism.

It worked, in the sense that Atticus doesn’t have the tattoos anymore, but it went horribly wrong because apparently Atticus was “more evil than [he] thought.” The exorcism created an evil double, who turned out to be the wizard Wei’s bear friend was chasing (who was turning nature spirits into ink).

So we’ve learned that the tattoos can be exorcised, if... you don’t mind the chance of creating an evil twin of yourself. Vitus asked Atticus to help him do this, and he said no outright. Vitus is so, so despondent, and on some level, he thinks Atticus is just being self-righteous--here’s something that works, but no, you can’t do it because it’s too dangerous. And I know it’s dangerous (Vitus is an antihero as it is, and he’s a capital-W Wizard, we really can’t have an evil copy of him running around), but Vitus isn’t really in a fit state to be rational about things.

Who the fuck is kidnapping wizards (is it just wizards?) off the streets and forcibly tattooing them? And why? And Vitus was tattooed soon after Darius died, but Atticus was tattooed much later--so why that?

ALSO: the evil copy of Atticus, which Wei confronted, had the tattoos. When he was about to die, the tattoos separated themselves from his skin, joined together with the nature-spirit-ink he’d gathered, coalesced into some sort of being, and flew off to the northwest. Northwest of Sentinel is the Winholt Mountains and Northport... and the Hyperion Castle, where the order of paladins guards and maintains the gate that keeps demons from physically manifesting on this plane. Demons like Azmodan.

Fucking shit. (I mean, Azmodan has to be on this plane for us to fight him with the mecha, but still. FUCKING SHIT.)

Darius Levene, Murder, & the Part Where I Cried: Remember when I said this?

DARIUS I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HUMANNESS OR LACK THEREOF AND I NEED ANSWERS RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY 

Yeah, I ate those words today.

Atticus is not Darius’ biological father, Darius never had another parent, and Darius never had any biological parents at all (unless he was born to human parents as part of the process of--well, see below). Atticus found him when he had the physical appearance of a four year-old child, but his soul was much, much older, and he was powerful. As in, he’d somehow singlehandedly killed more than four hundred people. Whatever he was, in spite of his appearance, he wasn’t human--and he was evil.

For whatever reason, Atticus decided that he would erase the being’s memories and raise him as his child. We don’t know why he did this--presumably if you’re powerful enough to erase such an entity’s memories, you’re powerful enough to kill them--all he said was that he wasn’t a bad enough man to kill a child. Was it a pride thing (see, I can raise this vile and powerful thing and make it turn out good)? Was that the best option he could think of, considering his apparent moral stance on killing things that look like children (even if they’re not)? Did he just really, really want to be a dad?

Regardless of his reasons, the memory wipe (allegedly) worked well enough that Darius grew up never suspecting he was anything but human. He became a powerful wizard, fell in love with Vitus, and was (according to my headcanon anyway) a very kind, very compassionate person. After some time, he somehow discovered that his memories had been tampered with, asked Vitus for help restoring them, and then attempted to stab Atticus while he slept. The ritual Vitus had done had made Darius immune to any sort of mind-affecting magic, so Atticus couldn’t erase his memories again--he had to kill him.

I just have to wonder whether the memory wipe actually worked, or if the evil entity was pulling some sort of long con--because maybe it wasn’t erased, maybe it was just somehow inhibited? Did Darius really believe he was human, or was he just biding his time until Vitus became magically powerful enough to undo Atticus’ magic? And if he really did believe he was human, that he’d always been human, if he really did love Vitus--why/how did he discover the memory wipe, and why did it happen at that specific time?

There’s also the possibility that Atticus is just a fucking liar who murdered his own innocent human son for evil reasons, but even though Vitus accused him of lying, I... don’t think that’s the case. I just don’t. For one thing, it’s established setting fact that incredibly powerful entities do take mortal forms (albeit very rarely) for whatever reasons they may have. And for another thing... astroambulance has told us that we’re coming up on the end of the campaign. It’s too late to introduce new conspiracies, unless this isn’t actually the end, but I don’t think Astro is fucking with us that much (he wants us all to play Fellowship too badly).

The Party, Decisions, & How Very Fucking Not Okay Vitus Is Right Now: Today was an emotional day, to say the least.

Up to this point, Vitus has had very subdued external reactions to bad things happening: he might be viciously upset on the inside, but in response to, say, Captain Barker burning his only residence down, he just grit his teeth and very calmly laid a curse on him. He didn’t display any surprise at all when his tattoos started getting even creepier than usual. He got angry when it turned out that Azmodan had played him, but he didn’t do much more than snap at people before returning to being all business, as usual.

Today, even before he actually met with his old mentor, he was visibly--obviously--nervous on the way there. He talked in false starts and half-sentences, and when the subject turned to the fact that he was responsible for setting Azmodan free--and why he’d done it--he went entirely silent before breaking down in tears, and Becca had to explain everything that had happened. When the truth came out about Darius’ death, Vitus was shouting, making threats and accusations, completely incapable of exercising restraint when it came to his emotional reactions. He was crying, I was crying, I had to break character for a second to reassure the other players that I was okay (I had just gotten really, really into character).

Atticus told us not to resurrect Darius, because he wasn't Darius anymore, and with that, everything Vitus had been working towards since before the beginning of the campaign was no longer an option.

"What am I going to do?"

"Fix this. And then move on with your life."

"I don't know if I have a life anymore."

And then the other party members talked with Atticus for a while as Vitus stared down at the floor. He didn't speak again until he asked Atticus if he really wouldn't help him remove the tattoos--and the answer was no, as before. Atticus left, to do "research."

But Becca offered him a hug, which she probably wasn't expecting he'd reciprocate, and Zeta apologized for being such a dick. I hope this points towards good things in the future. Moving forward isn't easy. Having people who will be there for you makes it easier.

And I hope that, if Vitus ultimately decides to go against everything Atticus said and try to use the Necronomicon to resurrect Darius--I hope they can talk him out of it, I really do. There are no happy endings in that direction. For a variety of reasons.

[kadael]

Dungeon World thoughtpost, regarding some things that came to light when my GM and I were chatting at the bus stop last Saturday. We didn't play, but he told me some stuff that my character would know about, so I'm calling this notes from session 6.5.

[previously: session two, session three, session four, session five, bonus character profile, session six, bonus tentative answerpost]

Established Facts About the Setting: Because a "wizard facts" post would apparently be too short. Still, wizard facts first:

The ability to cast arcane magic is rare, and it might or might not be genetic. (We have one example of a wizard having a child who is also a wizard, but I am... not sure that Atticus and Darius are/were very biologically related? I have suspicions about Darius' parentage. And humanity, or possible lack thereof. astroambulance is very mean and could have been trolling me to distract me from The Truth, though. More on this later.)

For whatever reason, wizards tend to dislike each other. A lot. Rarely, however, wizards might actually fall in love with each other and spend the rest of their lives together, being all inseparable and devoted and shit. This has been referred to in the past as "wizards don't like each other, unless they really like each other." (I asked Astro if this meant wizards were magnets, and he said "god damn it," which was really the only response I was hoping for.)

Because of the above two points, there is no such thing as wizard high school an educational institution run by wizards, for wizards. (No wizard academies, basically.) However, very experienced wizards may choose to take on an apprentice (usually it's only one) to repay some sort of debt, or in exchange for a lot of money. Teaching magic purely out of the goodness of one's heart is not typical.

Learning too many spells in too short a period of time is somehow "bad for you," which was stated by Vitus in... session 6, I think? This was actually just me handwaving the level-up system.

Male wizards around these parts all have names ending in -us (Vitus, Darius, Atticus, Fredulus), which was a coincidence, and then a joke, and then serious. We don't know if their parents are oddly prescient or if they get renamed or whatever. We also don't know if this naming convention extends to wizards of other genders, or if they have their own naming conventions, but we do know they exist! It's a big continent. Supposedly.

Magic keeps you looking and feeling young-ish--physical aging stops (or at least slows significantly) when you're about forty. (Unless this is just an Atticus thing? I should have kept better notes.)

Facts about anything and everything else, setting-wise:

There are gods. Many, many gods. We don't know anything about any of them (except that Helion is a sun god), but they sure do exist, and they all apparently blessed the helm of the legendary hero Herculina. No one knows where that thing is, though.

Elves are from space, which might be one of the best things to ever result from a joking remark. They make up the Empire of the Fallen Sun, and they attempted an invasion of the halfling-and-dwarf city Sentinel long ago. They were repelled by Sentinel's megaweapon (which is a giant mecha).

The physical forms of demons are incapable of manifesting on the mortal plane because-- okay, what the hell, I literally wrote "because Hyperion Paladin Order something something" in my notes. They made a gate or something. Whatever. Anyway, their souls can come up to party if they're given a body to pilot around. This process is conjuring, not summoning, so everything I've said in the past about "summoning demons" is technically incorrect.

Atticus Levene: Astro said that Mr. Levene has, like, three deals (as in, "what is that guy's deal??"). I said, "oh shit, that's too many deals," then said, "Well, I guess you would have that many deals if your son died." Astro then stared down at the carpet with an amusing/troubling expression of horror on his face.

In the last session, it was established that Vitus remembers him as a dick, so I asked what sort of dick Atticus was. Apparently, he was your average "insufferable magical genius"-type: the kind who clearly thinks he knows more than you, and probably does know more than you, but you still want to punch him in his smug face.

Darius Levene: They met when Vitus was maybe nine years old (they're both roughly the same age) and disliked each other instantly, as wizards often do. It didn't help that Darius was always better at magic than Vitus was, and, well, kids don't tend to like it when some new thing swoops in and takes up their parent's time.

And then they hit puberty and things got kind of weird, but they didn't stop being belligerent and actually get together until they exited adolescence and calmed the hell down.

If Darius had another parent aside from Atticus, Vitus never saw them. I suppose this means he also never asked? But, you know, there are all sorts of totally reasonable reasons why somebody might be raised by a single parent, nothing to worry about.

...Except that Astro said, "yeah, a person [normally has two biological parents]," and then I yelled at him and he laughed at me. "Am I trolling you or am I actually hinting at something? You don't know! I know." DARIUS I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HUMANNESS OR LACK THEREOF AND I NEED ANSWERS RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY

Also, Murder: So apparently, Darius came to Vitus one day with an odd request--he said he suspected his memories had been somehow tampered with, and that he wanted Vitus to help him recover the lost memories magically. "Because there's no way that could go wrong."

As far as Vitus knows, the memory recovery worked, but shortly after all that happened, Atticus told Vitus that Darius had fallen down the stairs.

This seems strange to me, because Vitus himself stated in session four that Darius was murdered, and falling down the stairs is an accidental death, not murder. (You might say that someone fell down the stairs if you were the one who murdered them, though, which is... a distressing thought.) Did Vitus come to the conclusion that he was murdered later? Presumably he didn't actually witness what happened. Or was I not supposed to take that stairs comment literally??

Vitus also hasn't seemed suspicious of Atticus at all when talking about him (even though I am now so, so suspicious), but I think I'll keep playing him that way, because I don't think he'd want to acknowledge the possibility that a man he respected greatly would do something like that--to him and to his own son. Also he has 8 WIS so whatever.

The Fucking Goddamn Creepy Tattoos: WHY. GOD, WHY.

So apparently, the tattoos haven't always been as alarming as they are now--they didn't always drink things. This punches a hole through my answer to that one question, but I guess I'm 0kay with it, because the reason they're getting all creepy is that Azmodan's awake.

(They still moved on their own before that, though. Still creepy. Also, they could talk, but not audibly. "Where do you think you got those dreams from?")

Also, Astro seems to enjoy creeping me out:

"I haven't even told you what they're gonna do when you cast mimic."

"If they make the spell effectively useless, I'm gonna fight you--"

"No, they won't! They'll go down your throat. :D"

insert sadly nonexistent gif of me actually covering my mouth with my hand in horror, leaning back in my chair, and making distressed noises

And he told me they're going to get even worse than that. And then he grinned at me for too long. 8(

888888(((((((((

[kadael]

astroambulance is a ruiner who ruins things and causes me distress over fictional gay wizards and then laughs at my distress