Chapter 10, Session 9: The Musical Theatre Episode!

General Summary

If you die, I'll find and kill you again!

• Olympia's slightly terrifying song to coax Fen back to life.

The session started with Thordak cradling the cold, weatherbeaten and bloodied corpse of Fen and rushing down to the lower floor cabins to find the party as it seemed that, wherever Fen was sent, he did not survive the experience there.
Thordak rushed Fen down to the rest of the party and woke them to check him over which was when the group realised Fen had a fist-sized hole in his chest and his heart and ribs were completely missing, as though they had been ripped out.
In a moment of fear and panic, the party tried to heal him before Ez told them Fen was dead... but that he could return him.
Ez revealed that he knew the Reincarnate spell and that, if he was allowed to rest and prepare, then he could attempt to bring Fen back that way, however, he also warned the party that Fen would likely be altered in his physical appearance and there was even a chance the ritual would not succeed and, so, Ez needed the whole party to be willing to offer either words, gifts or other such encouragement to help coax Fen's soul back to it's body.
With that, Olympia cast Gentle Repose on Fen and the party completed their long rests, fitfully flitting in and out of sleep.
The next day, the party sombrely went about their business and prepared for the reincarnation ceremony, with Olympia constantly making notes, Thordak repairing and finally naming the Skyship and Mimsi holding a vigil over Fen's form.
The night came, and Ez prepared the reincarnation, with a flower grove growing under the starlight of the evening and wrapping around Fen, he insisted that the party begin to give their offerings and, as they do so, they do not allow the ritual to be interrupted under ANY circumstances.
The party acquiesced and began their offerings for the ritual.
Firstly, Mimsi took Fen's hand and begged him to return so that she did not have to lose her 'drinking buddy', offering Barallas' flask that Fen gave her as a gift to coax back his reincarnation.
After that, Thordak stepped forward and reminded Fen of their brotherly bond and explaining that he and Fen have had far too many good times and still had their lives to enjoy, it was simply too soon for Fen to return.
Finally, Olympia sang a song she wrote; asking Fen to return and musically threatening him with death again if he failed to do so, as well as draping a friendship bracelet of 'love' around him.
The three, completing their offerings, watched anxiously then as the vines and grass around Fen formed a detrital cocoon around him and, from within the cocoon, they watched a rainbow of colours begin to emanate before Fen broke out of the cocoon at first seemingly the same before the party noticed his alabaster pale skin had taken on a paler hue and they had grown a pair of pointed fangs instead of canines as, in a moment that served to only enhance the #edgiestboi, Fen had reincarnated into a Dhampir that now craved blood over any other food (leading him to even disregard rice balls as a food source).
Fen then, after being reunited with the party, told them what happened to him with The Chaos. Fen explained that he was sent to the underdark mountains and specifically was sent to the cult of the Chaos centre to use their distraction from the attack of Archania Weave to find the 'piece' of the Chaos that was missing and thus give the entity their power back.
Fen explained that he went to a central tower there and managed to reach it's top before discovering the 'piece' (a half ossified lung) and discovering that a black dragon was guarding over it. Fen took the piece and escaped the dragon before he offered the Chaos to share it's power... which led the Chaos to, in response, mirror Fen's form and force Fen to rip his own heart out and plunge the ossified lung inside his body. 
So far, this has been seen to lead Fen to walk with a faint rainbow aura around him whenever he is resting or relaxing.
Fen then revealed to the party that he and the Chaos had, in essence, taking on their next step and were joined in form and being through Fen becoming a 'key consumer'.
This led to the rest of the group being exceptionally upset with the Chaos and many of them claimed they would take vengeance against the Chaos if they had the chance. 
However, with Fen saved, the party set their next destination to the Utrunks camp and finally began making their way to their showdown with the group, with 4 days before Xan Prayerkeep arrives.
The group decided that their approach would be to leave their skyship behind and, instead using Ez' 8th level spell slot, they all transformed into sassy eagles and flew into the Utrunks clan incognito. 
The group eventually (after Ez was forced to stop their flight in order to teach the party how to actually fly as eagles) reached the Utrunks and got a scout of the area, noticing it was entirely burned and scarred and dug into the ground like an archaeological dig site. The party also noticed there were a couple of human stalls set up on the outskirts but the clan artifice and crafting area had been destroyed beyond repair, the party also saw the temple of the Stringed  on the outskirts of the city, with humanoid forms hung from the roof of the temple with string tightly wound around their necks. 
Thordak also noticed the pits on the western side of the space as always and the home of Vraxan and Vola, the former chieftain's fort. 
The party settled for a short time and bantered as eagles before deciding to move towards the temple of the Stringed, the party moved nearby but then found that their strange actions (including slaughtering and eating other birds and attackng the Strings holding up the forms of the still living hung victims of the temple) had drawn the attention of a group of orc guards. 
The party, after various shenanigans, eventually settled on a plan to kill the orc guards... doing so with ease using a surprise round ambush and high level spellcasting and eventually killed every one of them. Notably, Thordak emerged to announce that their death had arrived but that, if they apologised for what they had done and swore themselves to Thordak, he would spare them... however, each time he spoke to them, they simply repeated 'the runt of the litter returns'.
With the enemies executed and the party wearing their armour as a disguise, they continued to the temple of the Stringed where they ran straight into the smiling and unsettling form of Vola. She spun on the group and commanded them to move with more urgency unless they wanted to join the hung forms around the temple (who were clearly still alive and DEEPLY suffering), the party moved to then act as guards until she left and they watched as Thordak dashed down a nearby alleyway and went into MELTDOWN. Nearly vomitting with anxiety and, in a panic, yelling that the party needed to leave as they had made a mistake coming here in the first place. 
The party took the time to calm him before then, with themselves held together, making their way into the temple as it's doors opened for them to enter. 
The party entered to find the space was actually a puppet show theatre, set up with strings, cogs and wires at work to help a production start. 
The party investigated the space to find there were several different types of puppets:

• Teddy style Orc puppets
• A mannequin of an orc puppet with a huge unhinged smile
• Several mannequins of Persicorum that notably they recognised had been made aboard their time on The Mistwalker when they interacted with The Puppeteer, however, new party arrivals had blank dolls in their place. 
• Generic puppets to represent the 'masses'

The party then noticed that, in front of the stage, there were 4 levers. They were each labeled with the show they represented: 1. The Runt of the Litter Returns 2. Don't you ever touch my sister again 3. They all Fall Away 4. Happily Ever After
The party watched each of these shows, watching the misery induced origin of the death of Thordak's family first, then they watched the Stringed seemingly be abandoned by the other entities (notably the Hunt seemed to disapprove of the Stringed's weakness, the Chaos tricked the stringed into not leaving for an extra century and the Wanderer walked straight past stating that they did not have any interest or care about the Stringed or it's issues).
The next 'show' was a playthrough of Mimsi's actions and life which ended with the Stringed having Mimsi state a variety of different quotes from across the campaign, notably modifying every quote to end with 'that's why the Stringed and I belong together'.
The final show then was the Stringed continuing it's excessive loneliness followed by other puppets being brought in to boo and scold the show before an orc with a deep smile (the party identified them to be Vola) entered and notably summoned a crystal ball to control their destiny it seems. The Stringed then showed the next vision of Persicorum assaulting puppets of Vraxan and Vola but notably comedically failing and slowly their bodies were ripped apart and their stuffing was removed, signalling their loss at the hands of Vraxan and Vola. 
The party stopped there and began to question the area, only to find that the theatre and stage itself WAS the Stringed, not a humanoid or object to speak to but instead the whole stage. 
As the party yelled they saw the stage become drenched and mildew covered as they realised the thought of Perrsicorum losing made the stage miserable. 
The party questioned this and began to experiment with the stage, these experiments included:

• Rebuilding the Persicorum puppets and telling the stage to play the final show again (no change)
• Mimsi placed the threads around her own body and allowed the stage to lift her when the lever was pulled, this allowed Mimsi to feel tremors and emotions from the stage and let her establish communication with it.
• The party paid more attention to the crystal ball possessed by Vola and saw the stage was able to show it appearing and disappearing at will; implying that Vola can summon it.
• The party tried asking the stage to imagine them winning but the stage was incapable of doing so, becoming upset and frustrated as it had no 'creative' skill. 
• Olympia ripped the crystal ball out of the Vola Puppets hands. This garnered an enraged response as the stage tore apart the Vola puppet and crushed it's forms... it has realised it was tricked and the party discovered that they needed to remove the crystal ball from Vola. 

Mimsi then spoke to the stage, the Stringed, and she expressed her fears and anxieties around meeting it but found that the Stringed was like her, lonely and feeling incapable of change... the Stringed expressed it's true terror at this statement; it didn't want to let Mimsi down. Mimsi shared this fear and told the Stringed that once the entity was free of Vola and Vraxan they could be together. 
With that, the party formed a plan, they knew they had to get the crystal ball away from Vola and destroy it as that was allowing them to manipulate the Stringed into making them 'destined' to win. The party first discussed breaking into the castle but realised it was INCREDIBLY well fortified and, if they were caught, the entire Utrunks clan would fall on them which would be disastrous for both sides. 
Instead they realised they needed a distraction and Thordak offered them that chance with him acting as bait, he could challenge Vraxan for the rule of the Utrunks and Vraxan would be inclined to respond. A fight like this would draw incredible attention and all Thordak would have to do would be to survive long enough for the party to steal the crystal ball from Vola. 
Though Thordak admitted that he would be forced to fight fair but Vraxan wouldn't so he would need the party to back him up whilst they also dealt with Vola.

Report Date

02 Mar 2024