Session 49: Where the Were Were Part 3
General Summary
Summary: 3 points
Maya tries out Lesser Restoration (DnD Beyond) on the uncursed, and it causes the human target to pass out in what looks like a deep but natural enough sleep. On a closer inspection, the druid's knowledge of medicine indicates that he should be possible to wake, having been relieved of the stress his experience being cursed seemed to leave on him. Maya attempts to wake the prisoner, and he stirs but isn't immediately, so a quick cast of Create Water splashes him awake.
Sputtering a bit, he regains consciousness but doesn't seem to grasp his situation and is a bit panicky. Maya tries to calm him down a bit with some success, but he doesn't seem to remember much about life before beyond living in a village with a few other people. Encouraged by the improvement, the group elects to cast the same spell on the half-orc prisoner - while he has a moderately similar reaction, he doesn't immediately pass out and moves into the disoriented but responsive state. Over the course of some time the group gathers a little information:
Mia elaborates on the holdup with Herbalism: A Compendium - someone found a piece of parchment tucked in it written in Infernal and it scared off several scribes. It's largely resolved at this point but it's requiring more of her direct involvement as one of the few people who can read several of the languages in the text and especially the notes in the margins. Interestingly, there was one thick page that was actually two pages glued together towards the back of the book - when Mia separated them she found a scroll she Identified as Transport via Plants. After that she made a very thorough investigation of the pages but no other ones were thick enough for that kind of trick. She'll hold onto the scroll until Maya returns for the collated book, now estimated to be complete some time during the winter (Chillgreet at the earliest).
He had no luck in contacting Waukeen. Her faithful were helpful enough if a bit awestruck, but they could not directly contact Waukeen nor determine when or if she might visit the material plane. The Temple of Waukeen has some of her aura and power about it, but she's not fully present there and he couldn't communicate with her.
The library may prove useful but he's going to check in at the Stonebridge Temple of Selune and the Llyrian Moon Facility facility before resigning to that in the hopes that Selune is more available than Waukeen was.
The Prince reiterates his commitment to find a worthy replacement for the Skymaul and will find the party when he has it in hand before signing off.
Heather: I had fun this session just having my weird little Sunny moments pepper in when I could. I really liked that the boarochs was a sweetheart - "Papa is the best papa," like, awwww. This is probably the best outcome for the prisoners, but it sucks that they'll have to fend for themselves. We didn't really have a plan or place to send them when we caught them. It'll be interesting to see how that evolves. This is a good place to end... it's a shame we couldn't get to the potion marker, but y'know... next year.
James: Obviously I had a thing that I thought was cool but the dice fought me a bit. I understand why Saf is a bit skeptical about making the tribe get along. It was nice to put Ishthak in his place, talking with Kagethor was cool. I didn't expect a lot from the boarochs. I imagine K'gruk's leaving confused, like "WTF just happened here?" Pacing was pretty good trying to knock stuff out.
Jeremy: I enjoyed the showdown, it was fun and happened pretty fast. I enjoyed the pace, seemed like we were pushing to try and get to a point where a break made sense. We collectively got there which took effort on everybody's part. With that, I think it's a great stopping point. It's nice to have a formula for anti-lycanthropy - I mean, first we have to take them prisoner and they will resist, but it's attainable and repeatable.
Matt: I have a lot, but we don't have time because we're over time. It feels a little bit like James is taking Saf's actions personally - I don't understand so we'll have to discuss that. I am sorely disappointed I didn't get an answer to the "what if they don't get better?" question before we got to Lesser Restoration. What we're going to do is ok, but we don't have solid guidelines on what we do going forward when we hit more werewolves. During that whole thing, I felt like I got cast as Debbie Downer, so perhaps more completely explaining consequences as DM rather than making a player do it would be good.
Meg: James can't roll for shit. I was surprised how hard I took war crimes, may need to add to the lines and veils. I don't think anyone was trying to upset me, I just took it harder than I would have expected. I liked being FFW'd along to some things. Seven people still, and no one knows anything beyond their names.
John: When I was writing what Kagethor was going to say, I considered what the most interesting thing a giant horned boar could be like, personality-wise. Him being just the biggest daddy-fan seemed like the way to go. I could rain on parades more if it feels like that needs to be how things get handled. WE ended not exactly where I expected, but that in itself is not unexpected. Despite that, we did hit a reasonable stopping point in that we can pick up without being in the middle of something next year.
Sunday, 12th of Longharvest
Post combat, the party deals with their orc allies and the prisoners after a short rest (wherein the orcs largely recover from their wounds). The dead boars have been hit with Gentle Repose (DnD Beyond) so the meat won't spoil quickly. Leucis puts his Vigilant Blessing on Harb. During the break, Sunny inquires about whether K'gruk's blessing from Gruumsh might have saved him the worst of the lycanthropy - the cleric deems this plausible enough but it's hard to be certain.Afternoon
Boarochs training
Maya chats with K'gruk about his mount. The orc warchief explains that his people raise many boars, but one occasionally comes up that has the horns (even from non-boarochs parents). K'gruk explains that a boarochs would eat almost anything, and Sunny takes a few notes to pass along to Drazhan. Kagethor specifically has a fondness for eating rabbit, but has trouble catching them on his own.Orc culture in the tribe
Sunny attempts to pick up on some more songs orcs would be into, but there's no one among the band with leanings in that direction. K'gruk explains to Maya that his tribe follows much of the "old ways" of marauding and acquisition through strength, but he's making an attempt to bend the tribe away from that due to his own change of perspective. The druid wonders if it might be possible to change how the tribe lives toward hunting challenging prey around a central friendly location. K'gruk isn't sure how that might go down, but admits that the party's actions move him to give the idea the benefit of the doubt. Maya suggests that he might be able to quell some of the dissent in the warband by challenging Ishthak, and K'gruk is moderately on board (despite not feeling Ishthak is much of a threat).Evening
Dinner
The orcs are cooking the boar meat across several cookfires. Maya passes some seasoning along to them in the form of soy sauce and ginger. While some mingling occurs, there's still a bit of distance between the two bands. The orcs deem the boar meat too good for the prisoners, but a compromise is reached where the prisoners are fed some of the cuts that would have been left for the scavengers. The uncursed prisoners chew food put in their mouths; the werewolves require a bit of careful treatment avoid bites while they're being fed.Planning for the morrow
Maya puts forward his plan to challenge the orc lieutenant as a means of nudging the group towards K'gruk's approach. The druid has the hope of potential future allies, both for the party and potentially even Hearthstone or Sohmweyr. Sunny offers to play Maya some good battle music, but a few others in the group counsel not going overboard in using magic for this purpose.Restoration and Information Gathering
As regards the prisoners, there's some talk about killing the prisoners outright versus letting them go (which would likely have very similar outcomes). The group considers reincarnation if they do feel like killing the prisoners is the best solution, but it both expensive and out of their current array of powers.Maya tries out Lesser Restoration (DnD Beyond) on the uncursed, and it causes the human target to pass out in what looks like a deep but natural enough sleep. On a closer inspection, the druid's knowledge of medicine indicates that he should be possible to wake, having been relieved of the stress his experience being cursed seemed to leave on him. Maya attempts to wake the prisoner, and he stirs but isn't immediately, so a quick cast of Create Water splashes him awake.
Sputtering a bit, he regains consciousness but doesn't seem to grasp his situation and is a bit panicky. Maya tries to calm him down a bit with some success, but he doesn't seem to remember much about life before beyond living in a village with a few other people. Encouraged by the improvement, the group elects to cast the same spell on the half-orc prisoner - while he has a moderately similar reaction, he doesn't immediately pass out and moves into the disoriented but responsive state. Over the course of some time the group gathers a little information:
- Most of the time as a werewolf leaves only violent memories that they feel somewhat detached from, as though it happened to someone else or as a very vivid nightmare.
- They remember their names, but little else about the time before they were cursed, as though it were a distant dream with fuzzy details.
- They seem moderately harmless villagers or travelers that encountered a bad situation; they recall hearing about werewolves in their former lives but not how they came to have the curse.
- They don't seem evil by nature, but could perhaps be led towards evil acts due to a lack of strong moral convictions.
Discussion on what to do with the recovered
Dealing with the initial pair
The party muses about what to do with the prisoners now that they know they can break the curse and more or less restore the people after to a functional state. Anything other than bringing them with the party seems like a pretty solid death sentence, fast or slow. Conferring with K'gruk, it may be possible for the half-orc to join the tribe, but there are no other settlements nearby that the orcs know of that have residents. The half-orc doesn't seem thrilled with is options of going south to the river and on to Sohmweyr or joining the orc tribe.Restoring another pair
Leucis casts more Remove Curse (using a level 4 slot for one of them), then Maya and Kolvonnin each use Lesser Restoration (DnD Beyond), bringing out another human and another half-orc.Woodday, 13th of Longharvest
A new day dawns. Maya wakes from a dream with Wisdom of the Elders of Hearthstone, informing them that lycanthropes can be cured and boarochs can be trained if you start early enough (but that the traits don't breed true). Leucis doesn't prepare Sending as no one expects to need it.Morning tasks
Talking with Kagethor
The druid collects K'gruk for the conversation as a precaution; the war chief advises against trying to touch the mount. Maya ritual casts Speak with Animals.- Kagethor starts off a bit confused, as Maya is "not Papa" and "not like-Papa" - he wonders if Papa brought the halfling here to feed to him.
- Papa feeds Kagethor really well. He likes eating rabbits (they're both soft and crunchy!) and K'gruk brings them to him sometimes.
- The boarochs is a big fan of his "Papa" but doesn't recall much before him.
- Kagethor asks Maya to tell K'gruk that he's "the best Papa."
- When Maya asks what Kagethor thinks he smells like, the boarochs doesn't have any outstanding insights about the druid's scent beyond being edible.
- Other things Kagethor can smell nearby are Papa, things that are like-Papa but not-Papa, and some other strange creatures, and some things that smell "bad, or wrong."
- Kagethor things Papa rolled in some of the bad/wrong scent, because he has some of that smell about him.
Removing remaining curses
The group removes lycanthropy and uses Lesser Restoration on the remaining prisoners, revealing a few more humans and half-orcs. This gives a total of seven prisoners altogether.Starting trouble
Maya asks Sunny for some bardic inspiration and casts Enhance Ability (Constitution) on himself. He then walks up to Ishthak and purposefully gets in the way, eliciting a comment about his lack of height from the orc ("Do you leave your foes alive because you can't reach their throats to cut them?") When Maya retorts that Ishthak is a coward, the orc grabs at the Gnomish SlingStaff and inquires if Maya stole this crutch from an old man. When the druid uses his telepathy to speak directly into the orc's mind, it unnerves him, but Maya's challenge is something he feels able to answer.A formalish challenge
K'gruk intercedes momentarily and speaks to Ishthak in Orcish - Maya can't make out what was said but knows it ended with "Kagethor." He fetches his greataxe and presents it to Ishthak, saying "Let it not be said you weren't properly armed."Fighting words and fighting actions
Ishthak connects but doesn't deal any damage, and the druid turns into a horned rabbit. The orc and the druid trade a few blows, but Maya ends up knocking him senseless. Maya gives him a hand up with a Cure Wounds, admonishing the orc that "strength isn't always about muscle, it's about spirit." Ishthal responds that Maya is a "worthier foe than he thought, but that doesn't mean I like you." He then picks the greataxe back up and presents it to K'gruk.Moving on and moving out
Discussing the fate of the prisoners
The party elects to lead the prisoners south and part company with the orcs. Sunny sends a Paper Bird (DnD Beyond) to Sohmweyr to explain that they have folks coming in, and the party will (in theory) get the prisoners as far as the river and decide whether or not to walk them the rest of the way at that point.In transit
In the Borrowers' Satchel, a pair of letters appear. One is handwritten and clearly from Mia. The other is a tightly folded piece of parchment with a seal, a silvery wax in the shape of a plain shield, likely from the Prince.Letter from Mia
She mentions that the Prince showed up with the satchel (obviously). She might have mistaken him for merely a very convincing con artist, except he knew things he had no way to know (which she does not elaborate about at all). For a god, he sure seemed lost in the world, and he seemed pretty disappointed with Grayhill. He gave Mia a letter to send with hers (and sort of pulled it out of the air, sealed and addressed, so she doesn't know what it says). The Prince left but said he would likely return to pore over the Frosted Library if he could find no better leads.Mia elaborates on the holdup with Herbalism: A Compendium - someone found a piece of parchment tucked in it written in Infernal and it scared off several scribes. It's largely resolved at this point but it's requiring more of her direct involvement as one of the few people who can read several of the languages in the text and especially the notes in the margins. Interestingly, there was one thick page that was actually two pages glued together towards the back of the book - when Mia separated them she found a scroll she Identified as Transport via Plants. After that she made a very thorough investigation of the pages but no other ones were thick enough for that kind of trick. She'll hold onto the scroll until Maya returns for the collated book, now estimated to be complete some time during the winter (Chillgreet at the earliest).
Missive from the Prince
After a formal greeting to the party at large, the Prince expresses concern for the state of the world. The other gods seem to be absent in most of the ways that matter and he's not sure how to deal with that.He had no luck in contacting Waukeen. Her faithful were helpful enough if a bit awestruck, but they could not directly contact Waukeen nor determine when or if she might visit the material plane. The Temple of Waukeen has some of her aura and power about it, but she's not fully present there and he couldn't communicate with her.
The library may prove useful but he's going to check in at the Stonebridge Temple of Selune and the Llyrian Moon Facility facility before resigning to that in the hopes that Selune is more available than Waukeen was.
The Prince reiterates his commitment to find a worthy replacement for the Skymaul and will find the party when he has it in hand before signing off.
Feedback
Eddy: I liked that we did try to move forward with the big break coming up, but despite all that we were trying to hit the pedal to the metal. I appreciate James and everyone else spearheading that effort, Harb is kind of on cruise control. The roleplay we did, I enjoyed - after the fight ended in particular where James tried to make nice. Thought I was just doing regular dark humor for the war crimes bit. If there's a thing like that, chime in or message or something.Heather: I had fun this session just having my weird little Sunny moments pepper in when I could. I really liked that the boarochs was a sweetheart - "Papa is the best papa," like, awwww. This is probably the best outcome for the prisoners, but it sucks that they'll have to fend for themselves. We didn't really have a plan or place to send them when we caught them. It'll be interesting to see how that evolves. This is a good place to end... it's a shame we couldn't get to the potion marker, but y'know... next year.
James: Obviously I had a thing that I thought was cool but the dice fought me a bit. I understand why Saf is a bit skeptical about making the tribe get along. It was nice to put Ishthak in his place, talking with Kagethor was cool. I didn't expect a lot from the boarochs. I imagine K'gruk's leaving confused, like "WTF just happened here?" Pacing was pretty good trying to knock stuff out.
Jeremy: I enjoyed the showdown, it was fun and happened pretty fast. I enjoyed the pace, seemed like we were pushing to try and get to a point where a break made sense. We collectively got there which took effort on everybody's part. With that, I think it's a great stopping point. It's nice to have a formula for anti-lycanthropy - I mean, first we have to take them prisoner and they will resist, but it's attainable and repeatable.
Matt: I have a lot, but we don't have time because we're over time. It feels a little bit like James is taking Saf's actions personally - I don't understand so we'll have to discuss that. I am sorely disappointed I didn't get an answer to the "what if they don't get better?" question before we got to Lesser Restoration. What we're going to do is ok, but we don't have solid guidelines on what we do going forward when we hit more werewolves. During that whole thing, I felt like I got cast as Debbie Downer, so perhaps more completely explaining consequences as DM rather than making a player do it would be good.
Meg: James can't roll for shit. I was surprised how hard I took war crimes, may need to add to the lines and veils. I don't think anyone was trying to upset me, I just took it harder than I would have expected. I liked being FFW'd along to some things. Seven people still, and no one knows anything beyond their names.
John: When I was writing what Kagethor was going to say, I considered what the most interesting thing a giant horned boar could be like, personality-wise. Him being just the biggest daddy-fan seemed like the way to go. I could rain on parades more if it feels like that needs to be how things get handled. WE ended not exactly where I expected, but that in itself is not unexpected. Despite that, we did hit a reasonable stopping point in that we can pick up without being in the middle of something next year.
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