Oh man, tonight's session was so fucking wild. We met a bunch of fish-people who offered to put us through a ritual to speak to their goddess and we actually fucking did it???? And somehow Carrion, the barb with -1 int, was the only one who passed the DC 15 Intelligence save??? So I actually got to talk to their "goddess".
She’s some kind of eldritch horror eel/anglerfish combo, and I love her so much. She’s so fucked up. She asked his name. He answered. She ask-told him that he hated his body, and he said no, he didn’t. (He was lying. Or was he??) She asked him what he wanted and a dozen different answers passed through his mind but he ended up saying he wanted to help his friends (who were very low on HP and one of whom is suffering from some pretty bad Contamination rn). (BTW, this was a surprise even to himself. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, but asking for help for his friends not on the list.)
She offered him a new body, one that wouldn’t be affected by the city, and he said no, he was done with things being done to his body. She told him he wouldn’t withstand the sinking of the city (probably in reference to the vision that the other two party members (who failed their saves) saw, of the city being consumed by a tidal wave). He said he didn’t care and asked her to let him go. He wasn’t sure she would. She said his friends wouldn’t survive the sinking either. She said he didn’t understand, but she would still help him when she needed it. She let him go. She didn’t help his friends.
It was SO FUCKED, and I love it so much. I'm obsessed with her, and this CERTAINLY won't come back to fuck us up later. But hey, now the Fishlings consider us "family". They let us take a short rest. The warlock CLOCKED both Carrion and the paladin, including providing an itemized list of all the times Carrion has referred to himself as a monster / spoken badly about himself.
The paladin was having a REALLY bad time after the short rest (3 levels of contamination and two mutations will do that to you), and so we left without completing the quest. And so now one of the factions is going to be SO mad at us, hahaha. Our best bet is to try and get the OTHER faction (which the thieves wanted us to lie to) to help, by telling them that we'll complete the quest they originally gave us if they help us get the thieves to leave us alone. But we already know that the thieves hold grudges, so that's not great. But it's our best chance.
And on top of all of that, as we were trying to leave the city, with the paladin still fucked up and me still poisoned from LAST session, we ran into ANOTHER fucked up monster. So that's gonna be a fun fight. We're VERY low on resources, hahaha.
This is a bit long. But to summarize things; slime, 7 critical fails, fails in general and falling.
Read part 1 + character introductions || Part 3 & 4
After the embarrassing battle against the lizards in a cave, the heroes proceed forwards in shame. Soon they notice that the tunnel is getting warmer, and the air is kinda moist and uncomfortable. And they see, not light at the end of a tunnel, but yet another cave. Which looks much like a big bowl full of dead bodies of lizards and humanoids.
The smell is horrible and even plague rats aren't doing so well, legs twitching they just keep munching on the bodies. In the other end of the cave, there is another tunnel and some water-flowing noises are coming from it.
Heljá and Synclair stare at the pile of bodies, but come to a conclusion that it is just a normal pile of bodies. No traps or anything. Sceptical, Petteri takes another look and gets overwhelmed by the disgusting sight in front of him. He starts feeling faint and tries to lean on the nearby wall. But he ends up touching a silver-whisked rat, both get scared, scream and Petteri falls on his ass.
They decide together that Bloodgood should try to cross the sea of bodies since the guy is already pretty sick. He almost makes it to the half-point but something grabs his ankle. It's a zombie lizard.
And then, they proceed in a battle against zombie lizards and miners.
A miner tries to attack Synclair, but falls down in front of him. Bloodgood tries to free himself from the grasp and kicks the lizard below him, getting his shoe forever contaminated. Heroes keep failing to hit the enemies, like for example, Petteri tries to use ray of frost but it just melts in the hot air. The enemies also keep missing their hits and falling over. One miner actually tries to smack Bloodgood, but ends up knocking a lizard & Bloodgood over the lizard holding rogue's hand - and the miner also falls down over them, creating an unholy four-person sandwich.
Luckily, the bottom-lizard dies. More enemies keep failing to hit the heroes and one lizard actually steps on the same rat Petteri touched. The rats tail get squished and it cries. Bloodgood tries to hit the top lizard with his knife, but the knife ends up sinking deep into his own shoulder.
Petteri tries to use ray of frost again, but his weak knee fails him and the bolt first flies towards Synclair. But Synclair's sword reflects it back to the wizard.
Meanwhile, Heljá manages to get few hits on some miner guys, but she also gets smacked a couple of times. Bloodgood is still struggling in the sandwich. One miner falls down in front of Synclair once more, and he tries to sink his sword in the middle of the enemy's spine. But sadly, he get's a bit dazed and falls down on his back. Seeing stars for a moment. Petteri somehow manages to hold one lizard down with his staff for a while and ends up breaking the poor guy's spine.Leaving it paralyzed.
Finally, after the exhausting and even more embarrassing string of fails. They finally defeat all enemies and leave the room, now feeling sicker than before. They leave the room and Synclair turns back to look at it. He is frustrated and embarrassed, and a gleam appears in his eyes.
After one failed attempt of Hell's rebuke, he sets the whole room on fire. The methane in the air explodes, shaking the whole cave-system and it burns absolutely everything in the room. His eyebrows get maybe a new trim, but the air feels fresher and his need for destruction is satisfied. The group heal themselves and Bloodgood forgets to remove the knife, so the wound heals itself, but the knife is now stuck.
They arrive in the last big cave, there a pond in the middle of it and the water looks pretty bad. There is some kind of a platform there, and Heljá swears she hears something coming from there. But since they don't see what is in there, Petteri decides to throw a forceorb. It actually hits and sinks pretty well and the gang hears some loud cursing. Synclair is pretty sure that it is an orc and there was some kind of a language barrier between him and the lizards. It wasn't a wizard and a shaman that caused all this, but a wizard-shaman.
After a couple not very successful attacks because of 'a smokescreen', the orc is nowhere to be seen but Heljá hears steps coming towards the group. On a whim, Bloodgood tries to kick his contaminated-shoe at the direction but just makes a big fool of himself. The adventurer's still can't see the orc, but Synclair get's hit by a mace - straight to his face.
Soon Petteri gets a great idea and he uses his magic to grease the floor. Causing the orc embarrassing slip, slide and fall. But even when the orc is on the ground, the heroes keep missing their hits many times. Both Heljá and Petteri just slide to the plague-pond, miraculously Petteri still doesn't catch the plague.
Slowly but surely, the group finally defeats the orc and immediately the cave feels a bit better and healthier. On their way back, they arrive at the room with charred bodies. Something is moving under one of them, it is the same silver-whisker rat. Petteri runs towards it and the rat towards him, they befriend and the wizard gets a new pet.
When they arrive back to the village, they see the mayor burning some dead bodies. He scolds the group for not coming to tell him that they arrived, but thanks them for helping. Petteri sees something that looks like Father Samual in the fire and bolts towards the beautiful healer's hut. Running faster than he ever has in his life, he runs inside and smashes the backroom door open. Meeting disgruntled Samual, who is alive but looking a bit sicker than before. He isn't happy that Petteri barged in like that. The rest of the group arrive at the hut and one last thing Samual tells them before closing the door is,
"Good work."
End of part 2.
Oh lord. This round was something. Everyone, us and the enemies just get missing hits all the time. Our dices must have been cursed.
The party then continued towards the temple district, Yaracen locating a crypt carrying the same symbol as the amulet. The party felt a slight, phantom pain from the scars left over from their resurrection as they entered. Inside, they found a few undead, and a spiral staircase leading down. Yaracen scouted ahead while the party debated whether or not to get rid of the undead lingering in the alcoves. Reassured that there’d be no consequences waiting for them downstairs, they sneaked up and dispatched the creatures with ease. Notably, one skeleton proved remarkably difficult to finish off, and eventually killed itself after a magically-enhanced verbal lashing from Baldomero.
As they delved deeper into the crypt, they found a darkened hallway with an odd script written above the entrance. Ariel identified it as Celestial, and was able to give the party a rough translation. It described ghosts, how they were souls that clung to their old lives and trapped themselves in an endless cycle for refusing to simply move on.
An awkward moment turned heartwarming as Ariel received their first real hug in roughly 10 years from Xin, and the party entered the hallway, lighting torches to help them see in the darkness.
But after a few minutes, the light no longer revealed anything except the path beneath them, the walls and ceiling vanishing into the darkness. After several minutes of seeing no change in the scenery, Baldomero was able to detect that there was ‘magical bullshit’ at work, and the group decided to test if they were truly getting anywhere. Yaracen and Xin stayed where they were, holding onto the end of a rope (which quickly became several ropes, tied end to end) while Baldomero, Ariel, and Altair held the other end and made their way back towards the entrance.
As soon as they were alone, however, Yaracen heard a familiar voice calling his name. A beautiful elven figure emerged from the darkness, recognizable as his lost love, Rhea, who asked him to come with her. When he hesitated, an older elven figure joined her, this time recognizable as his lord and adoptive father, Lord Ultrist, who also beckoned to him. Still hesitant, Yaracen asked to take the amulet from Xin and put it around his neck to try and ward off the spirits. Immediately, the two figures were slashed in half. As their forms faded, yet another familiar figure appeared behind them, holding a sword and wearing a smug smirk. Yaracen flew into a rage and charged the man, dropping over the edge and falling into the darkness.
Meanwhile, the other group was dealing with a similar situation. Baldomero’s missing mentor had appeared from the darkness, tutting at her pupil’s crass attitude. She answered his questions correctly, convincing him that she was the real deal, but Baldomero refused to go with her when she refused to answer where she’d been in front of his ‘friends’, claiming that he’d gotten sick of her keeping secrets from him.
The group (minus Yaracen) reconvened, trying to make sense of the situation. Baldo was relieved to know that he’d avoided meeting the same fate as Yaracen, who, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, was alive and unharmed after falling a mere 10 feet from the bridge they’d been stuck on. He attempted to get their attention, but the magic trapping them kept them from noticing.
Xin decided to use the rope to lower herself down, tying it to the floating path and leaping into the darkness. She immediately fell flat on her face. After touching base with Yaracen, she attempted to climb back up the rope, only for it to snap and send her back to the ground. The party members still stuck in the illusion heard the rope break, and began to panic as their numbers dwindled.
Xin used a Misty Step spell to get back onto the path, trying to get their attention more directly. And though they could not see her or hear her voice through the illusion, she was able to telepathically inform Ariel of the situation. Ariel trusted her, and leapt down. Baldomero was not so trusting, and needed a good shove.
As the group below got their bearings, they were able to see the illusion’s process from an outside perspective, as a figure appeared before Altair. His long-dead older brother, apologizing for not being there for him. Altair apologized, knowing that his brother would not be proud of the person he’d become. He was offered a hug by the illusion, which he accepted, and fell from the path. Baldomero once again caught him, though quickly dropped to the floor under the tiefling’s weight thanks to his less than impressive strength.
Xin located a magical dagger in the clutches of an old skeleton, hidden in an alcove at the end of the path. After she tossed the skeleton over the edge to spook the other party members, the group found several coins scattered around the room– presumably tossed by other travelers to test how far the darkness went. Baldomero found a secret path that lead back up to the path, while Altair found a magical Gem of Brightness, with several charges already used up. Attempts were made to comfort the members who’d been targeted by the illusion’s ghosts, but Yaracen and Baldomero were unwilling to chat.
The group continued to make their way through the crypt, heading down another floor to find a room similar to the one they’d first entered, including the heavy stone doorway before them. They exited, and were met with the sight of overcast skies, a restless ocean, and a ruined city. The dreary atmosphere weighed down on them all, affecting Ariel, Yaracen, and Baldomero the worst.
Things had gotten.. complicated, to say the least.
Cherry: "I knew I was a monster, but this..."
Rook, snatching the papers out of her hands: "You're not a monster. If you're a monster, then Warren is a monster. Was he a monster?"
Cherry, shocked: "What? No! Warren wasn't a monster!"
Rook: "Then you're not one either."
For context, Rook was talking to the kid who Warren (gunslinger) had adopted, and he ended up showing her more details about the fact that she was a lab experiment created by the BBEG. (Something she knew, but didn't want to believe.)
the cute one
Cherry, moving towards the door: "Okay, I'll let you finish eating now." [she stops by the door] "The cookies are really good, by the way."
Rook, looking up, serious: "Did you tell Canan that?"
Cherry: "... No."
Rook: "Go tell him that right now."
Cherry: "... I will."
Rook: "I'm going to ask him later what you said about his cookies, so you'd better actually do it."
Cherry: "Okay, okay, I'll go tell him!" [she leaves]
(For context, Rook skipped lunch, so Cherry brought him food. Also, Canan (NPC) has tried to make this kid cookies at least 3 times now, and every single time she's told him that she hated them. So Rook was like "You'd better tell this poor man that you like his cookies.")
the "oh fuck, I don't wanna like this NPC" one
Mr. Fox: [describing his plan to turn an entire race of people into Arcanaloths]
Maka: "Why? What's the point of all this?"
Mr. Fox: "I want to wage war on Gahena. Take my revenge against them." [...] "And I would be protected. I would be safe."
Maka: "You fear death." [very much not a question]
Mr. Fox: "Of course I do. I don't know a single soul in this world that doesn't."
Maka: "Warren didn't."
(For context Warren killed himself in order to revive Rook and safe the rest of the party.)
Looking back at the dnd notes, and man, session "thirty-six" (aka the 36th session since Rook joined. the rest have been playing longer) was a wild ride.
I start off the notes with this, and it just gets weirder from there.
[continued under the cut bc this got long]
I roast the wizard and the gunslinger during the fight summary:
This entire sequence of events is both wild and very funny to me:
(yes I Gladiator'd a guy into a pit. Yes I then jumped down on top of him and stabbed him through the back. Yes, the guy I did all this to save turned out to be a puppet of the BBEG.)
We put someone we thought was the BBEG in a hamster ball and gave it to a demon. (But it turns out the BBEG's puppet was waiting in the minivan the whole time.)
(We had this "war machine", but it could somehow fit like 8 people so I started calling it a minivan and couldn't stop.)
We get back to the city and Rook starts playing mind chess with the siblings who rule it, absolutely living up to the "bastard" part of his nickname in the process.
Rook is So Normal About Affection.
This was vague on purpose because the party didn't know yet, but Rook went to go buy a magic ring to hide the symptoms of his demon curse and saw Sigmar also buying an enchantment to hide the effects of the serum Ivan injected him with. And then Rook dissed the chihuahua-that-use-to-be-a-gnome who we rescued without knowing it was the guy who sold Rook to Wolf in the first place.
Also, I didn't write it in the notes (obviously) but we fucking LEFT A VERY IMPORTANT ITEM IN (the equivalent of) THE GLOVE COMPARTMENT OF A RENTAL MINIVAN. It ended up working out in our favor because otherwise we would have had to fight Sigmar in the werebeast labs after what was already a hard fight, which would have been extra traumatizing for Rook and might have ended with someone getting killed, but it's still really funny to think about.
The group decides to rest a bit, they're exhausted from the battle and from well... Plague. Synclair gets well pretty soon and as they wait for Heljá and Bloodgood get better he decides to learn three languages; Abyssal, Giant & Deep Speech. Father Samual also removes the knife from Bloodgood's shoulder, rather violently.
When the group is finally ready to leave, a big message-bird appears. Screaming, screeching it gives the group their new mission; they need to travel to a big city and find a specific caravan to guard. The bird leaves as fast as it came, and leaves behind a big mess the group has to clean. The group packs up and leaves, but before disappearing behind the hill Petteri turns back and sees Father Samual. His heart skips a beat as he thinks that the man is blowing him a kiss. Sadly it wasn't the case, Bloodgood saw that the healer only sneezed, but he decided to keep it to himself.
A month passes by as they travel through forests and nasty swamps. They finally arrive at their destination and it indeed looks like the wanted posters have been removed from this city. Happily, the group marches in and the first thing they do is finding a bathhouse and go to clean up.
Synclair and Petteri lay back and relax, cucumber slices over their eyes. The wizard managed to sneak Sakari to the pool too. The rogue doesn't find the situation as relaxing as the other two guys. Being around so many other men are making him a tad bit nervous, so Bloodgood just sinks deeper into the water. Which was a mistake because he accidentally snorts water and almost chokes. Meanwhile, Heljá is being pampered in the women's side, her beard gets beautifully bearded and decorated.
After the trip to the bathhouse, the group finds an inn and goes to look for information about the caravan. Apparently, it's not a regular one, but people know that it will come to the city in few days. So the group decides to go to the marketplace.
They sell their loot, or at least try to sell. Bloodgood has many problems finding people to sell his loot. So the rogue tries to be more assertive, so he marches to one merchant, strikes a knife to the stand, puts his stuff on it. The merchant isn't very impressed by it, refuses his deal and just slowly dumps the stuff on the ground. Distraught, Bloodgood admits his defeat and decides to ask help from his teammates.
Synclair prepares himself to help the poor rogue, but instead of going to him - the younger man heads to Petteri and asks him to help. The bard is mildly insulted but decides not to offer any help. Watching the old man help Bloodgood is most likely going to be very amusing.
And Synclair wasn't wrong. Petteri makes a compleat fool of himself and almost refuses a very good deal because he didn't understand marketplace slang. He also almost tripped and hit his head on the stand. But they somehow did manage to sell their loot to the merchant. So now that they (well everyone 'cept Synclair) has some pocket money, they go to the local wizard tower. There is a bigger door and one smaller door, both are locked. They knock it and a bit gruntled wizards answer it and decide to let them in.
He soon notices that most of the group isn't very rich, so he suggests a deal. He will "give" some cool items to Heljá, Petteri and Bloodgood, if they will bring something back for him. They decide to agree to this deal and they have to sign like a hundred contract papers. Bloodgood also keeps staring some astral cats and sees a pixie. Meanwhile, Synclair is just staring at magical armours and ends up buying nightmare ward armour, ebony songblade and floating lantern. The best part is, that he still has over 4500 gold pieces.
After shopping, they go back to the tavern and just rest for few days. Petteri ends up seeing the local wizard in Heljás "Sexiest wizards"-calendar and also sees a nightmare of the same wizard stealing Father Samual's heart.
The last day the group decides to have some fun, Petteri straight marches to the gambling corner. But he ends up losing 20 gold pieces Heljás good luck spits didn't help at all.
Heljá decides to show how the gambling is done right, and the gamemaster just says "does grandma even see the table?" , she did and she also saw herself losing 20 gp as well.
Bloodgood kinda snickers a bit, and the gamemaster calls him out by "Is the boy even old enough to play?". Few throws later, he too looses 20 gold pieces.
So all eyes are on Synclair, the gamemaster turns to look at him, "So what about you longears? Are you gonna play too?". The bard looks him dead in the eyes, "Yes, but let's make it 50 gold pieces."
After three rounds they're even, so the fourth round will decide the winner. Others are cheering Synclair's name and he actually manages to win 40 gold pieces. Bloodgood tries Petteri's shrooms and is pretty high like one second later.
Moments later they find themselves playing spin the bottle, truth or dare style. Heljá is made to wear one pair of Petteri's silky panties till breakfast (over her normal clothing) because she didn't go to egg the wizard tower. She and Bloodgood are also made to confess why they're wanted by the law. Petteri tries to make Synclair admit it too, but he just says "I just disturbed the home peace". The wizard insists that the bard should wear the panties too because he didn't answer the question. But the half-elf gets himself out from the problem my insisting back that he didn't lie, he just answered to one question and the specifics of his crime can be asked next time. But the next time doesn't come.
Petteri ends up going to egg the wizard's tower, he grabbed some eggs from the kitchen and eagerly started throwing eggs at the tower. The other three followed him and just stared at the scene from afar. Things probably would have gotten smoothly, if Petteri didn't accidentally egg the pixie.
It doesn't take a long time for the wizard to get out, scold the whole crew, drag them inside and give the roast of the year. He is very pissed and just shouts at the group for like 10 minutes straight, turns out that the shrooms Bloodgood tried were just chanterelles and the pixie is his lover. Luckily the wizard doesn't kill them but makes everyone write three apology letters. One for him, one for his lover and one for the tower.
Synclair's letters are beautifully written, Heljá maybe says beautiful things but it's hard to say because her handwriting is crap. Bloodgood made a very long letter for the pixie and Petteri only felt sorry about egging innocent creature. After they were done, Synclair (rolled first nat 20 history check) explained how they could make it up for the pixie. He knew how they're known to like flower wine, unicorn milk and moondust.
When the wizard comes back from healing his lover, the group tries to explain the whole Samual situation. Trying to 'justify' Petteri's actions by just telling that he is a tad bit senile and desperate old man. They assure him that "their" crime didn't have anything to do with being against different species relationships.
Synclair promised that they would bring something for the pixie when they bring the other stuff for the wizard. He accepts the offer not-very-happily and throws the group out.
In silence, they return to their rooms and try to get some shuteye after a night gone wrong.
Picking up where they last left off, the party chased down the fleeing cultists with an order from Tracia to not kill all of them as she went to inform the rest of the guards of the situation, and hopefully prevent them from escaping.
The chase first took the party through the crowded bazaar, filled to the brim with citizens who had been evacuated into the market district for their own safety. Half the cultists shoved their way through the crowd, while the other half took to the fringes and dodged around several market stalls that had yet to be taken down. Yaracen and Ariel were able to just barely keep pace with the first group, while the other group began to topple the stalls when they noticed Altair, Baldomero, and Xin tailing them. Altair was unfortunate enough to be caught entirely off-guard and slipped on some fallen fruit, while Xin and Baldo managed to easily dodge the hazards.
The cultists then fled into the tight alleyways between the myriad of shops surrounding the more open bazarr. Yaracen and Ariel kept to the ground, while Xin, Altair, and Baldo took to the rooftops. Unfortunately, the tight corners and unfamiliar location caused Yaracen to lose track of his quarry entirely, and Ariel was only barely able to keep track of them. Up above, the remaining party members had no trouble keeping track of their quarry, and managed to keep an even footing as they leapt across the narrow gaps between buildings.
The cultists exited the alleys on the other side, knocking down several crates to block the path and slow down their pursuers. Yaracen and Ariel had no trouble avoiding this, however. Those following by roof were forced to jump down if they wanted to keep up. While Xin and Baldo made excellent landings and avoided injury, Altair was not so lucky. He landed directly atop Baldomero, slowing the bard down, but also avoiding taking any damage from the rough landing.
From there, the cultists had a straight shot to the still-open gates into the city’s Harbor District, and catching up was only a matter of the party pushing themselves to run faster. Ariel fell behind, too tired from the other obstacles. Xin fell back a bit to throw her spear, and though she failed to hit anyone, she was able to quickly dash ahead and use it to trip up one of the cultists. Baldomero managed to tackle a second to the ground, Altair stopping to help secure him. The two remaining cultists fled through the gate just as it closed, Yaracen stumbling into the gate mere moments afterwards.
A well-placed Eldritch Blast from Xin and a crossbow bolt felled one of the cultists through the gaps in the gate, but the one remaining cultist continued to flee until he was entirely out of sight.
The party restrained the cultists they’d caught, who turned out to be incredibly panicked about something. Baldo was able to determine that they were not possessed, and even got them to answer his questions with an impressive threat. The more coherent of the two revealed that that they were just mooks who’d joined up with the ‘Followers of the Sleeping One’ at the promise of payment, and that they’d been uninformed of exactly what they were getting into. He admitted they’d gone down into a crypt with a larger group in search of some kind of amulet, but was unable to describe what he’d seen, growing horrified at the realization that they’d left the others– including their boss, a man named Jeremy– to die while they’d made off with the amulet and fled for their lives. He also noted that the cultists who’d gotten away was the one with the amulet in hand, and warned that, even though it had gotten the undead to ignore them, something about the thing felt wrong.
The party turned the cultists over to the guards, who scrounged up a few healing supplies for them as they took some time to rest, catch their breath, and discuss their next step.
They tracked down and cornered the remaining cultist, who’d surrounded himself with a small group of undead bodyguards as he searched for a small ship to escape on. The rooftop group failed to sneak up on him, thanks to an impressive harmony between Baldo and Altair giving them away, but a Shatter spell from Baldomero easily made up for this, causing massive damage to the entire group. A few Magic Missiles from Xin were able to take out the cultist himself, while the remaining party members cleaned up the undead.
Ariel and Yaracen investigated the fallen cultist’s body, discovering that the man looked practically undead, himself, and was still twitching despite his fatal wounds. Ariel found the amulet and took it off the cultist’s body, which finally stopped moving. After some deliberation, the group made their way back to the market district. They were unable to convince Tracia to leave her post and join them, thanks to the undead hoard rapidly piling up against the Market District’s walls and gates requiring her attention, but she was able to provide them with a map and gave them directions through the city. The group carefully rappelled down the wall and into the hoard, the amulet apparently doing its job and making the undead ignore them.
They made their way back to Madame Eveline’s shop, but found it empty and apparently long-deserted. Ariel took a moment to set the amulet aside, it’s aura already making them feel ill. Xin held it instead, saying that she would probably have an easier time handling it. Meanwhile, Altair stumbled across one of her Tarot Cards (XIII - Death), along with a note:
This is the first step.
I apologize for leaving, but I know you will succeed!
Good Luck,
- E
After meeting their various violent and bloody ends, the party suddenly awoke, armed and remarkably unmarred, to find themselves in a strange place filled with nothing but fog and mist.
Ariel, Baldomero, and Xin were able to deduce that this location was, in fact, the Astral Plane– a vast, empty dimension that held little interest to most mage studies, due to the amount of power needed to astral project far outweighing the benefits of actually doing so.
Soon, the party was met by a floating figure swathed in old, ragged robes. This figure introduced itself as the Vestige. She explained that she was an ancient god who had pulled away from the mortal realm when her powers were used to wreak destruction upon the world, and willingly allowed herself to be forgotten. However, she recently felt her remaining power being sapped away, but her self-isolation prevented her from doing anything to investigate the cause. So, she sought out the recently-deceased souls of a select few mortals, offering to resurrect them if they did her the favor of investigating in her place, and putting a stop to it.
Ariel sought guidance from her patron, the Raven Queen, and was reassured that the circumstances were dire enough to warrant a bit of rule-bending. The rest came to agree for their own reasons.
The deal struck, the Vestige asked them to pass a small test. A way to prove to her that they could learn from their mistakes, and would not waste this second chance she was giving them. The party then fought a strange, blank figure, studying it closely to notice that it had weak points corresponding to the wounds that had claimed their own lives: The Throat (Altair), the Neck (Baldomero), the Chest (Ariel), the Back (Xin), and the Abdomen (Yaracen). Xin and Yaracen took care to hit their own, while Altair hit both his own weakpoint, and Ariels. Baldomero made the final blow, slicing the creature’s head off.
Their test passed, the Vestige congratulated them, and told them she would do her best to set them on the right track, to a pair of islands in the center of the continent, whose current name was unknown to her after centuries of isolation.
The party felt their wounds burn white hot, and were knocked unconscious.
This time, the party awoke in an empty room, freshly scarred and lacking their equipment. Xin was able to deduce that they were in a basement of some kind, and found the way up as the others took a moment to introduce themselves. Xin’s eldritch blast was not enough to smash open the heavy trapdoor, but it was enough to knock Xin off the ladder, and was certainly enough to catch the attention of the occupant upstairs.
An older woman, introducing herself as Madame Eveline, helped them up and said she was glad to see they had finally awoken, as she’d been watching over them for several months. Eveline immediately began to shuffle some tarot cards, asking to give them some readings so that she could at least get a better understanding of the people she’d been babybsitting, agreeing to hand over their equipment afterwards. Altair pocketed a small, unknown potion from one of the shelves while she did so.
Baldomero - 7 of Swords | 5 of Swords (Rev) | 4 of Cups (Rev)
Xin - Page of Swords | Queen of Cups (Rev) | 7 of Cups
Altair - King of Cups | 3 of Coins (Rev) | 6 of Cups
Yaracen - 4 of Wands | 10 of Swords | 5 of Cups
Ariel - 3 of Swords | 8 of Cups | Page of Coins
She was about to do a more complex reading to divine what their next step should be as a group, only to be interrupted by screams from outside. The group was asked to investigate. Outside, they found three commoners being cornered by undead skeletons and zombies. One fell to a pair of arrows, while another fearfully made a break for it.
The party tried to get to them as quickly as they could through the cramped alleyway, Xin taking a rooftop shortcut. Ariel ran ahead, casting Sanctuary to protect the remaining commoner and ordering them to hide in the alley behind them. Unfortunately, this put them in sight of all the undead in the street, and they took quite a beating. After a city guard appeared to assist them, the party managed to emerge victorious. Xin, who had accidentally(?) killed a fleeing commoner with Arms of Hadar, quickly hid the body by kicking it into a basement window (with Ariel’s disapproval).
The party asked the guard, a Tracia Reyes, about the situation and where they were (claiming drunkenness to explain their ignorance). She explained that undead hoards had been pouring out of the temple district since sundown, and that the city guards were currently shepherding the townsfolk into the more secure Market District. Tracia was also able to give them a lead on some shady folks who might have been the cause– robed figures with religious symbols that Tracia wasn’t the type to recognize. Ariel, however, was able to deduce that the symbol described was not one she’d ever encountered in her own clerical studies.
Locking onto this group as the ones responsible for the undead invasion, if not their own quest for the Vestige, the party decided to follow Tracia towards the Market District, to avoid jumping straight into an undead hoard in their unrested state. During the trip, however, Baldomero, Xin, and Altair (thanks to a boost from Yaracen) were able to get onto a roof and get a lay of the land. Baldomero and Altair were able to spot some figures making their way through a hoard remarkably unmolested, and the group set out to head them off.
As they approached one of the Market District gates, they spotted a group of five robed figures being rushed inside by the guards. Tracia yelled for her fellow guardsman to stop them, but the figures immediately took off running. One fell to a well-placed Chill Touch from Xin, while two others were targeted by a Faerie Fire spell from Baldomero.
