Session 45: Into the Aura

General Summary

Summary: 3 points

Sunday, 30th Leafbreak

The group has met a warforged (Sigmand) and is waiting until nightfall so he can determine the current date.

The Concordiat Date

Passing the time and asking questions

As a catchup from Session 44, Sigmand's Additional Knowledge covers items that were not discussed during the last session.

Sundown

Sigmand brings forth his astrolabe and the sighting arms attached to it align with the various celestial bodies. After about 10 minutes, he shares that the current year is 3834 Concordiat, matching the day and month of the known calendar (30th of Leafbreak). The warforged counts up on his fingers that this means he was "in the box" for 274 years, more or less. At Harb's question, Sigmand admits he has no idea how old the Professor is or was - Nogos had definitely used some arcane power to skirt some of the usual rules about getting old, but was displeased by the approaches he had tinkered with.
Saf muses that it's possible the Teleportation Circle (DnD Beyond) preserved him more so than the crystal, and Sigmand considers that there's not usually a between space for that mode of transport. Saf inquires further about the Nogos version of Contingency (DnD Beyond) - Sigmand admits that it could very well have triggered putting him in the crystal and teleporting him here, but the delayed arrival is an unknown element. The wagon holding up indicates that maybe it was the between-place rather than the crystal, and Saf surmises it might be the Astral Sea.

Sigmand's Next Steps

The warforged rolls out his foil scroll of directions and provides it the current date. It directs him to head into Estimarth but to stop by a location nearby for some supplies. After that, he's to check in with Balsifar, head librarian at the Library of Leng. He indicates that the supplies includes something he could pay the group with for accompanying him to the pickup point, and the group decides to join him.

Passing the night

Sunny, for his part, wants to exact some revenge on the Estimarth Border Stone that modified his memory, but the group elects to wait until morning. While Sigmand is willing to take watches, the party at large isn't so comfortable with him that they skip their shifts.
Leucis sets up the Leomund’s Tiny Hut (DnD Beyond) in the ruins as before and pass an uneventful night.

• Maya takes the trouble to gauge Sigmand's watchfulness, and notes that he's in the same general league as the druid.
• Harb engages Sigmand in some small talk to put the warforged at ease, but notes that he seems largely unconcerned by his situation, but Harb can't pin down if that's confidence or naivete.
• Sunny tries to engage Sigmand in song, but the warforged considers himself woefully unequipped for such things. (His whistle produces a kind of chime noise, since he doesn't breathe.) The bard engages him in a jam session.
• Kolvonnin and Leucis determine that teaching Draconic to the cleric would be a good use of time.
• Saf attempts to figure out the astrolabe's operation and relative value. She is able to determine that it's probably possible to operate it without magic if one were sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable, but Sigmand is clearly neither.
• Saf inquires about Maya's feelings on the druid's apparent distrust of Sigmand; Maya says the warforged is unnatural and thus not immediately to be trusted.

Woodday, 1st of Longharvest

A new day dawns, the first of a new month. Longharvest is autumn proper, so the more nature-conscious are expecting lower temperatures and some storms. Maya is pretty quiet at breakfast, and the group knows the dream he had last night may be the reason.

Setting out towards the city

Checking Sigmand and his gear

Sunny uses his Gnomish Gnowledge Gnode to check on the magical properties of the Celestian Astrolabe and the scroll of instructions, a ritual-casts Identify on the warforged himself. While the astrolabe returns standard information, the scroll and the warforged seem to have had their magical details purposefully obscured by Nogos. The scroll only shows the Arcane Mark for Nogos, and Sigmand himself shows that as well as the holy symbols for Selune and Pelor.
The group muses a bit about how Nogos apparently had connections to so many important persons (Pelor, Selune, Waukeen) and how he may be positioned to seize wide power if he were to reemerge.

Cross-country toward Estimarth

Sigmand sets a slightly quicker pace than the group at large - Maya and Saf figure his base speed is likely 40'.
During the trek, Maya confers with Saf about his recent dream - it seems that the Elders of Hearthstone are reluctant to elaborate on contract magic, so they'll have to acquire that information elsewhere. The druid elaborates that it's likely to take some bloodshed, and the rogue suggests gathering allies and communicating clearly with them in the hopes of keeping the list of targets short. They agree to look for more inforation and form what questions the Elders will allow.

Unusual signs

Kolvonnin notes a shift in the lighting conditions - there's an overcast tinge to the light as the group grows closer to the city. Maya notes that there's a few nature sounds, but the noise of insects and wildlife is absent in the direction they're traveling. Sigmand reiterates the expectation that the city has some sort of effect on the living, but folks decide to carry on.
As they proceed, Maya further notes that even the plant life is no longer present heading this way. Looking into the distance seems like looking into a tunnel - it seems to get dark before really encountering anything in the distance. With the aid of a spyglass there's a bit of a hazy effect similar to heat causing some distortion. Some quick testing with Sigmand's glowing armaments seems to indicate that the effect muffles natural light rather than all light - it occurs to a few people that since many undead react poorly to sunlight, the city shielding them from that in some way would make sense.
As the group nears the purported location of the cache, they aren't able to spot it at a distance. About 150' out from it, they get a very uncomfortable feeling.

Encountering the aura

Pain and peril

The party takes some necrotic damage, and the more Arcana-savvy riddle out a few details of the effect:

• There's an aura here coming from a distant source that deals 1d4+2 necrotic damage per round. Undead in the area would be bolstered by this energy.
• Death saves are made at disadvantage.
• Unattended corpses, bones, and the like have a chance of reanimating.
• Every effect mentioned thus far (dimmed light, necrotic damage, death save difficulties and potential reanimation) gets more intense the closer you get to the source, but there may be other effects that the group hasn't experienced yet.
• Effects start having die floors (for necrotic damage) and ceilings (for healing).

Sigmand appears unaffected by the necrotic damage but notes that the party has stopped and turns around. Harb describes his experience of it a bit differently, like muscle spasms or cramps are moving his body despite him not telling it to move. The party muses over whether this means the city is trying to call him towards it, but Harb says it doesn't feel that directed.
Sigmand will proceed towards the cache, and the party will stay behind except Harb, who decides to accompany the warforged. The party at large asks Sigmand to disable Harb and bring him back if he tries to walk further into the city - Sigmand is a bit confused at this suggestion, but when Harb assures him that he's on board with this plan.

Caching in

Harb and Sigmand head into the aura and stop at the specified location. The warforged unrolls his set of directions and places them in the air, as the group has seen him do before. But this time he reaches into the scroll so far most of his arm disappears into it, and pulls out a backpack.
Sigmand waves Harb back towards the party and puts the backpack on. Harb inquires what else needs doing, and the warforged replies that he's got one other thing to do. The old sailor stands by while Sigmand places an amulet from the backpack over his head, and a set of large metallic hands pry open the scroll. A utilitarian metallic humanoid figure of Large proportions emerges from the scroll, then Sigmand rolls it back up and the trio returns to the party.
Harb looks somewhat worse for wear upon his return. Sigmand's new companion says nothing, but Harb suggests introducing his new friend. The warforged seems more fluid and lifelike by comparison with the new creature, which is very utilitarian and plain. Sigmand explains that the Professor made several of these relatively simple mechanisms as a protective measure, and elaborates that they're bad company as they don't speak, but good in a fight according to what he's heard.

Payment for services rendered

Harb politely reminds Sigmand about the backpack, and the warforged explains that he really only needs the amulet since that gives him the hulking shield guardian. He passes the backpack itself and its contents to the party, outlining what the items are as he hands them over.
Saf sizes up how hard it might be to purloin the amulet, but decides against it. Kol, seeing how roughed up Harb is looking, uses Lay on Hands for 10 hp to take the edge off. Harb expresses his gratitude.
See Rewards Granted below for details about the equipment and distribution.

Sigmand takes his leave

The warforged expresses his gratitude to the group for springing him from the crystal, and says that while he doesn't know exactly what he's doing, the party seems unable to come with. There's some discussion about how to handle this, as the group at large seems to want into Estimarth.
Eventually they decide to have Sigmand take the orange end of the Linked Chalk (DnD Beyond) and keep in contact, potentially finding a token that will allow entry for the living into Estimarth. Sigmand agrees to do what he can but doesn't seem optimistic about his odds of success. The group is planning to wait for two days while Sigmand looks around for "guest passes" and figures that retreating to the ruined trading post is probably prudent.

Maya explains his concerns about Hearthstone

Maya sums up a few things he's gleaned from the Elders of Hearthstone about how he needs to make "some changes" with his homeland. To wit:

1. Maya wants to end the Hearthstone Deal With The Fae.
2. Some elders are on board, but a few others are against the idea of bringing Hearthstone out of the shadows.
3. Maya has friends at home that may be able to help.
4. There's a need for more information about contract magic but the Elders are unwilling or unable to provide it.
5. Maya presumes that it will require some bloodshed to get this done over the will of the Elders.
6. Saf suggests potentially splitting the village along isolationist lines (letting those who want to integrate leave) and Kol throws in the Stonebridge has a ruined half of the town that would make for relatively easy settling.
7. Maya has doubts that the Elders are going to be on board with splitting the town.
8. Saf raises the possibility that the Elders may not be able to discuss the contract due to terms of the contract itself.

Next steps:

Overall Next Steps

1. Scheduled:
   • James: Fresh set of questions for the Elders
2. Communications with Sigmand on his search for "visitor passes" (first in Hangouts, then in WorldAnvil)
3. Head towards the potion symbol, and along the way:
   • Smash the stone that modified Sunny's memories.
   • Cast Remove Curse (DnD Beyond) on potentially affected people of Sohmweyr to see if they remember anything useful
4. Between session tasks:
   • DM and interested players: Ruling article for magic item limitations (how many of a given kind, etc.)
   • DM: Ready smashing the stone
   • DM: Ready un-cursing the folk of Sohmweyr
   • DM: Investigate easier spell preparation tactics
5. Out of Character tasks:
   • PCs: Discuss next course of action.
   • Potential out of character discussion around "trusting the DM" vs "trusting the NPCs" as that seems to be causing some inter-player friction. I may post my thoughts on it to a Discord thread so we're all on the same page about it.

Feedback

Eddy: I liked the roleplay moments. Now that Sigmand is stepping away, even if it's briefly, I kinda wanna have him in the party. Aside from that - pace is the eternal struggle since everybody wants it different. I really did enjoy the more revelations and seeing stuff unfold. I'm really interested in if we're going to get into Estimarth, or if some bad happens or they chase us off, or what. If we get in, it will be cool as fuck. I think the slowness perception might have come from the lulls - we had actual dead air, which can really ramp up perception of slowness.
Heather: Overall it was a good time. I enjoyed interacting with the robot some more and getting to use my doodad. Sunny's a little bummed about not getting revenge on the stone. Interesting to see if we can get day passes - something tells me probably not.
James: What about that second punch? Things are progressing; we hit something that indicates "Estimarth bad" finally. We didn't move very far, sort of disappointing. But we got some cool stuff, we're waiting on more info and we have a plan. I liked everyone coming together for my RP moment.
Jeremy: Loot, money, always fun. Once again, a new magic weapon intoroduced to the party, and everyone was kinda meh. (This one wasn't as cool as some of the other ones, but still, it stands out.) Sigmand was super cool, I hoped he was going to stick around longer and maybe we could go do some things with him. It won't take much for us to pivot next session, and it feels like we have a direction - that's encouraging and I like it.
Matt: It was more "not without an invitation" on the Estimarth question. If we don't find out about Estimarth and going there next session, I'm going to riot. I am very disappointed I couldn't take the money or the shield guardian. If wecan't get into Estimarth, this guy's gone, which is less good for Saf, and she's gonna be unhappy about that since he's likely to bring back someone powerful enough to ruin the world. That being said, it seems like we're making decisions faster and getting along better, which I definitely like. Even though it felt slower, we got more done, so it's a bit odd that it felt slow and I'm not sure what to do about that.
Meg: The session was slow. Is Moonhaven (a Sunhaven-ish analogue for the moon-folk, perhaps on the other side of the continent) a thing?
John: Second part of the 1-2 punch lore drop is still coming. Folks inquired about the ruined side of Stonebridge and other places the Llyrian Sect or the Sons of Dawn might have set up shop, but there's nothing concrete about it at this point. I agree that it felt slow but we got a lot done, so I'm not sure what to tinker with on that score.

Rewards Granted

Divided among the party

• A small bag containing 50 platinum pieces
• 1 share = 7pp, 1gp, 4sp, 3cp

Claims

Claimed by Ol'Harb

• HeadOn

Claimed by Sunny

• A Ring of Free Action (DnD Beyond)

Claimed by Kolvonnin

Claimed by Leucis Darkstar

• The blue end of the Linked Chalk (DnD Beyond)

Claimed by Saf

Claimed by Maya

• A Necklace of Fireballs (DnD Beyond)
• A Heward's Handy Haversack (DnD Beyond)