Into the Woods It's time to Go

In bear form, Zeal takes the egg on his mighty back before attempting to lead the party forward towards the path deeper to our target. Serafina, in her own thoughts, hurries after him, leaving Sidna and Vorach to bring up the lead - Vorach briefly getting stuck in the mud, though Sidna was able to help him out. Serafina saw this and rolled her eyes, continuing on. When Zeal releases his wild shape, he passes the egg over.
 
However, as we continue, Zeal seems a bunch of cocoons the same size as forearm length maggots the party had seen previously. Vorach's eyes go dark, and he sees Shadow churning inside of the cocoons, and he says that it'll be infinitely worse if they hatch, so he and Zeal dispatch them after Sidna and Serafina get a closer examination of them (they're crunchy near the surface and gooey inside, like the world's most disappointing souffle). They burn, and Zeal notices the black sludge he expected to escape them and flee towards the fountain aren't, instead burning up.
 
As we continue, looking on, Serafina notices a humanoid shadow flitting through the trees and stops the party. When she explains what she saw and Zeal starts calling out in Undercommon, a fungimen approaches and makes motions for him to keep quiet. Everyone is able to tell that this one doesn't appear rabid. As it approaches, Vorach speaks to it in Undercommon (Zeal apparently doesn't know the language, just a phrase) and it offers small statements back in a broken version of the language. He explains there is a dangerous beast prowling in the woods (near the fountain) and that it's not safe in the village. He also gives a grave warning that frost is coming, and that their tribe has nowhere else to flee to; the frost seems to chase them?
 
Vorach urges them to stay safe, and even teaches this phrase to Zeal, who begins echoing it to more fungimen who watch us as we turn our way back on our path. It's very similar to the phrasing of good-bye. Zeal slips as we travel, and manages to land on a rusty spear, but is able to patch himself up without too much issue. Vorach moves to try and offer him a rope harness to tie themselves together and keep them more secure, but Zeal distrusts Vorach would be able to help. Serafina is fed up and stomps over to tie herself off to Zeal instead and say that they need to keep moving. Zeal insinuates that maybe Connie will have a chance ahead to prove that he's a real orc, and Vorach gives him the dirtiest look before calling him something so foul in Anuic it stuns Sidna for a moment before he also stomps off. Zeal seems weary, but satisfied with this, as we're all moving in the right direction.
 
It's barely 5 pm but it's already dark as evening, and we approach a huge bank of fog. Vorach's eyes glaze over with darkness, and his eyes provide sight beyond what he's even used to: clarity and focus offered to reveal a humanoid shape standing atop where the water should be ahead near a mass of darkness that churns and folds in on itself. He snaps back and attempts to make sense of this, saying he doesn't know what he saw, and snaps at Serafina to shut up when she makes a snide comment, shocking her. Sidna steps forward as Zeal ineffectively questions and elbows him quiet, giving a good orcish interrogation before moving everyone forward.
 
As we arrive at the site of the fallen dragon, we discover that only one of its claws remains bound to the rift, which appears to be an almost fourth dimensional churning mass of reality that's painful to look at (and comprehend). The water has frozen over to ice, and standing near the dragon is an extremely pale elf in black robes with a high collar. He looks at us with disdain before sneering at Zeal and saying something in a foreign language with unmitigated disgust, and initiative begins.
 
Vorach wheels around a shadow that the elf thing summons in front of Sidna, attempting to strike it with his own shadow, the necrotic damage that he attempted to deal not as effective as he hoped. Zeal, meanwhile, runs towards the actual elf and screams, "Where is my fother-mudging soul?" "Foolish traitor. You've disgraced your people and you will fall," it responds in Primordial, something that only Zeal can hear. It tries to grasp its head, but he natty 20s a wisdom saving throw, and its arm falls off into shadow before reforming at its side.
 
Serafina lashes out with wicked psychic magic towards the shadow as Sidna and Vorach fall onto it, attacking it in tandem. At least until Vorach falls onto his butt on the ice. Zeal summons Echo and the two begin attacking the elfen figure, but he feels an ache in his chest as the cold begins to spread.
 
You are the one who betrayed our queen, and I will spit on your grave.
 
frozen wastes, his hands clean, being taken away. The rest of us see Zeal's skin begin to turn
 
The dragon speaks to Zeal as the battle ends and expresses shock and joy that he's returned, for Jingahar thought we'd be too late. Zeal promises that we're there to help, and then we hear the faint roar of thunder in the distance that grows louder over half an hour, revealing itself to be Ulharst's wings.
 
As it approaches, Zeal confides in us that he's lost his soul, and that all of his memories could be fake. He was just shown in some vision that the fire took him from that place. Although he has no idea who that elf was, he knows that he said he was a traitor to his people, apparently having betrayed some queen. Sidna asks if he knows about joining the cult, and he responds that the memories he trusts the most are the ones from after he joined the cult.
 
While we're waiting for Ulharst, the markings on the egg begin to shift and move around, drawing Serafina's attention. Eventually, Ulharst does land, shattering the ice with his weight, and he greets us warmly, happy that we made it (though he had his doubts). He asks if we are ready, and in one swift motion he seizes the portal and slams it shut with his enormous paw. He asks for the egg, to relieve Jingahar of her pain, and Serafina raises it. As she does, Jingahar's bones, broken free from the ice, have started to move on their own to bind alongside the image of a translucent silver dragon, resplendent with beautiful, shifting patterns, stepping forward to be sccccchhhhhhhhhhhhlllllorped up by the egg. The text fades as it does, and the egg appears to be covered in silver scales rather than the intricate scrollwork from before.
 
Vorach warns him that the surrounding land seems afflicted and there may be dangers, but Ulharst assures him that he's far stronger than anything around and will be fine, that he believes the shadows will come for him instead of the villagers. Having completed our task, he leans close and addresses Zeal first, saying that he's lost a soul, but that is not all he's lost. He is not truly what he thinks he is, and that his soul has lost a body, rather than the other way around. He is a puppet of the Elements, not Shadow. Someone sculpted this body, but it's not the person he thinks it is. Ulharst takes a moment to search, but it would seem the person who took Zeal's soul has already scattered her own.
 
This is the most literal pilgrimage to find yourself ever. --Sonny, 2023
 
Serafina is covered in a layer of shadow magic and her curse can't be broken without either killing the person who put it on her or sacrificing someone she truly loves, just as the curse was placed on her (someone sacrificing someone they truly loved). She doesn't seem satisfied with this and asks if there's any way around this, and asks if there's any other way around it, but if there is it's beyond even him. He advises instead she learn to live with it, which wrinkles her.
 
Sidna, similarly, gets offended when the potion which she is owed for her own, mysterious reasons is insinuated to potentially be squandered, her distaste clear even to the most oblivious of himbos standing down the row. And it was to the slimbo at the end which the dragon turned to last, though Vorach attempted to turn him away. He didn't have anything Vorach sought after, or so he thought. Sidna asked, on his behalf, if the dragon could cure him of his curse. The dragon considered Vorach before saying that he could free him of the ties to the entity, yes, and Vorach stepped forward with disbelief.
 
When Ulharst touched his claw to Vorach's forehead Vorach was internally engulfed in shadow, and his patron pleaded with him to abstain, but Vorach shouted that he wanted nothing to do with him, raging for the being to get out of his body. The patron agreed, he was just a victim, but Vorach was *his* victim, and if he wouldn't suffer for his father's crime, then his mother would. Immediately Vorach lurched away from the dragon, pleading with the shadows to leave his mother alone. Seeing this, Sidna instead suggested that the creature might be destroyed, which the dragon agreed was a possibility - though it would be a greater challenge to Vorach's body, especially in his weakened state.
 
Vorach agreed without hesitation. After all, he's an (half-)orc. If he can kill his enemy, even if he should die it will be an honourable death. Sidna agrees to carry him to Hesjingmajak if he can't walk, and he steps forward again. This time, when the claw connects, a bolt of lightning shoots from the heavens and strikes Garna's spear, surging through Vorach's body and doing EXACTLY enough damage to kill him outright. The spear was left upright as Vorach collapsed, dead.
 
Immediately, the party rushed forward, cries of disbelief spilling from their lips and magic from their fingertips as they attempted to stir their friend, but it was for naught. Nor, it seemed, could the dragon do anything about this course of events - to restore life to this creature was beyond his power, especially when it was his power that fried him, and Zeal hurriedly floated the idea of a fae bargain, which the dragon said could potentially work. Zeal wasted no time and grabbed Vorach's body, running back the way they had come, with Serafina grabbing Garna's spear and Sidna shooting the dragon a particularly rancid look as they ran towards the entryway to the Faewild they had passed not so long ago. He runs so quickly and with such focus he does not realise that he no longer is treading through the water, instead freezing it and running atop.
 
--
 
In death, there's no more black void. Instead, Connie wakes up in his childhood home. He, for a moment, is sad...as if he knows something bad would happen. But that can't be possible, because it's his birthday! His 18th! He's a man today, in his father's culture, and he's agreed to go into town to learn more about his side of the family business. He races downstairs, past the descending portaits of his family's growing homestead and indeed a gallery of his own life, from a bump in Garna's belly to the smiling boy in the portrait from last year in matching cloaks with the other occupants. His father is making his favourite: griddlecakes with slightly overripe blueberries. His mother is working on some leather contraption at the table, carefully shaping it to repair something for his father. It is rare that a child is appreciative of all the good in his life, but Vorach has been raised well, and he is grateful and happy for his peaceful existence. Nothing could ruin this.
 
--
 
The party races through the archway, Serafina turning once more into an elfen woman. Sidna hesitates for but a moment before chasing after, and Zeal runs up to place Vorach's body on the altar. But...he's moving. Constantine opens his eyes, his healthy, large frame stands up, and he smiles happily at his friends, though he's confused. Where's Serafina? The party interrogates him, but his confusion over minute details, such as his own death and the fact that he had magic, are enough to convince them that he is an imposter. He's confused, but follows them to a nearby altar, in front of which there is a ring of unlit candles.
 
Zeal lights one, which sprouts a flower rather than a flame, and that flower entrances Serafina, who sees a little mouse on her shoulder. Only she sees this, and when she talks to it, she's actually doing it in her head, although she thinks she's speaking aloud. They agree to smell flowers together, and spend a great deal of time doing that, until Connie manages to shake her from her reverie. Unfortunately, his appeals to Zeal while she was tripping balls were not met, and he seems deadset on making a deal with the fae entity which has manifested in the form of an enormous oak beyond the altar (sorta like the Great Deku tree).
 
He bargains his beauty, at last, for Vorach's life - although Vorach again pleads with him to reconsider making any sort of magical deal with an entity he doesn't know, saying that everything in his body said this was wrong. Zeal continued, regardless, and Constantine vanished in a puff of smoke after he walked into the gaping mouth of the tree entity. Sidna turned, realising that Vorach was instead laying face-down on the threshold to the fae realm, and as she and Serafina rushed over they were relieved beyond measure to discover some of his colour had returned to chase out the grey, and that he was breathing far faster than he did when he was cursed.
 
Zeal exits the tree, looking...awful. He's got a hunch, he's got mussed teeth, his hair is barely there, and his unearthly elven beauty is gone. But, seeing Sidna and Serafina with Vorach, he smiles and pulls out a silk handkerchief before beginning to carefully clothe himself, covering his new features before approaching and healing Vorach with a spell. As the man stirred, his eyes no longer a shadowy grey but a soft pastel green the colour of mint. "I own your ass," he said, before pulling the half-orc into a hug.
 
Vorach, in disbelief, looked down at himself as Serafina approached and told him that if he ever died again, she'd kill him, kissing him on the cheek and drawing a hard blush to his face that threatened to send him unconscious.
 
However, in the moments before, there was something that almost went unnoticed. However, Sidna is well aware of orcish emotions, and caught a rare insight into Vorach's mind, and saw a sadness in his eyes that was quickly dashed away by his embarrassment over the kiss. For some reason, she felt a deep cold in her stomach, and that's where we ended the session.