Session Sixty Four: Sickness Strikes the Soldiers

General Summary

The big bluff

  With the group standing in front of the secret door their moth friend is bumping against, Thaen shifts himself into General Len. After a brief discussion between him and Tristan about the risk of this move, it’s decided to go for the big bluff. Meanwhile Griff informs the group about the Valenar hound they’d killed, and catches the moth into his coat pocket. As the guards overhear some noise coming from the hallway, Malak quickly makes everyone who doesn’t currently look like an Eye invisible, leaving just Thaen, Tristan and Piesk visible.   Two members of The King’s Shields are in awe to find none other than General Len on their doorstep. Their captain, Altor, hears the commotion and soon joins as well. The captain mentions he wasn’t expecting Len for another hour, which Thaen dismisses as a ‘change of plans’. Tristan meanwhile deposits Men’al on the table and intimidates the guards into believing their lies about where they find the Elf and why they brought him back.   Thaen questions Altor on how the cleanup of their fuck-up is going. Altor explains that they’ve disposed of the dead ones, but there is one survivor. Someone referred to as ‘Mercy’ is trying to figure out why. Thaen tells Altor to show him, at which point the captain invites the group to follow him, while Tristan instructs the other guards to busy themselves with tying up Men’al. In exiting the previous room, an invisible Malak overhears the guards starting to get suspicious, which he stealthily passes on to Tristan. Stepping into the next room they come across Jossac (as well as some more Eyes and a teleportation circle).  

General confusion

  During a brief conversation, Jossac asks Tristan a question in Elvish. He tries to deflect this by telling ‘Len’ that he’s not in the mood to speak to her, to which Thaen adds in response to Jossac in Elvish that the wine was (passable? good?) and his comrade is a little hungover from it. She seems to accept this, and Altor begins leading us further in, just as we hear a very familiar voice at the entrance: The real Len has arrived!   Meanwhile Griff has subtly made his way to the teleportation circle and sabotages it.   General Len makes his way swiftly into the room where the group is and begins to accuse Thaen of being an imposter (fair enough, really). To create a distraction Griff releases the moth, which promptly flies into the next room and begins its speech. Griff doesn’t manage to keep his chuckle quiet enough, which Jossac hears and recognises but pretends not to notice.   A fight breaks out near immediately. The real Len is launched through the room to the back wall early on by Silmer (in his Hayun disguise). Griff and Malak add insult to injury by pelting him with a Flaming Sphere and a giant Wall of Light. Pissed off (and possibly a little humiliated from this barrage) Len yells at Jossac to ‘do it’.  

Soldiers down

  Jossac makes her way over to Griff (who is in moorbounder form). She tells him she doesn’t want to do this. But then Len repeats his order, and with a tear rolling down her cheek she touches her Soldier’s Mark. Instantly both Griff and Tristan collapse to the ground, each reverting to their true form. Under her breath Jossac tells the rest of the group to get them both to the next room.   As the battle begins to escalate with reinforcements being called in by the Shields, even Piesk makes a move and punches Altor squarely in the face!   Chantilly immediately starts trying to drag Griff over to the next room as instructed, with a little subtle help from Jossac, while Silmer moves to block the entrance so the called reinforcements won’t be able to get in. Len dimension doors to the (broken) teleportation circle and laughs like villains do. Altor turns on Jossac as he’s noticed her telling the group what to do. Meanwhile Thaen is using Destruction Wave to down as many enemies as he can, and Malak focuses his ire on both Len and Jossac.   The reinforcements begin to arrive and, after seeing the very scary half-elf blocking their path, make a small retreat back into the previous room.   Piesk picks up Tristan and joins Chantilly in carrying the two downed soldiers to the next room. They see some sort of medical room with someone lying on a bed.  

Len Silmer get the better of him

  Len gets rather pissed with how the situation is developing and throws a Cloud Kill into the group, catching Malak, Thaen, Jossac, and even his own man Altor in it. Silmer catches this and quickly moves over to Len, laying into him with everything he has in an effort to break concentration before that cloud actually kills someone. This effort goes to spectacular success as Silmer punches Len unconscious!   Altor, now badly injured and properly scared, begins crawling backwards towards the exit. Malak continues attacking Jossac, while Thaen makes his way over to Silmer, casting fly on them both so they can quickly catch up with the rest and bring unconscious Len along. As he moves down, Silmer attempts to water whip Altor back into the room, but this doesn’t work. Altor joins the Shields outside the room and proceeds to brief them on the situation. As they pass Malak and Jossac, Thaen asks Malak to stop attacking her and move into the room.  

The stranger in the cell

  The entire group now moves into the next room, which aside from a couple of beds appears to contain a cell. Although he moved into the room, Malak continues to attack Jossac with Eldritch Blast in anger. Jossac does not resist or retaliate. She tells him that she understands his intent and doesn’t mind dying, but she’d prefer to help first. Malak reluctantly agrees, telling her she deserves a fate worse than death, and by request locks the door behind them.   Chantilly asks Jossac to please wake Griff up. In response, Jossac brings the group’s attention to the cell. Out of the shadows comes a malnourished half-elf in reddish armor, who promptly asks ‘Who are you all and why are you here?’  

Their worst fear

  After falling unconscious, Tristan finds himself in pure darkness. A blood curdling scream and a sickening crunch break through before all falls silent again. After a little while a reddish glow comes in and brings a scene around him into view; a forest with black ashy ground, dead gnarled trees, and suspiciously people-shaped objects dangling from those trees. Vision is out of focus beyond what’s right in front of him, and Tristan decides to start walking, avoiding the trees. Going in circles, he has to bite the bullet and approaches one of the trees. The person hanged from it is his twin sister, and as he looks at her he hears a voice in his ear, ‘Now, let’s go find Grace’.   Griff meanwhile is in the same room where he fell unconscious, though it is likewise out of focus. The only thing that is focused is the other person standing near him: Jossac. She seems afraid, and there’s a tear in her eye as there is a mutual understanding between her and Griff. Looking down, she starts sobbing after she touches her arm. The sobbing however soon turns to laughing, and when she looks up again at Griffs her eyes have gone completely black.