OttD Session 28: Surprisingly Violent "Downtime"

General Summary

The players have been told in advance to expect downtime. Plans were made for various idle shenanigans. For the most part, none of these things actually happened. The party makes idle banter for a bit, and then decide to take Tyr(person:d492fee8-e0d2-4631-addd-6282ba3cb7f7)'s body back to @[Ysgard personally before they go spend their downtime. Tornac will not help carrying the body, but between Zerrof, Vun Roade, and Mazu they manage to get it there. Adoven Woodsoul helps guide them through the doors, and the people of Sigil , while disturbed, have grown jaded enough not to actually question the party about their activities. Pestle goes back to rainy grove to "Have an epic training montage with barry the bee". Upon arrival in Ysgard, they find themselves standing at the top of a mountain. The landscape is gorgeous, but down below there is a war brewing between those dressing orange and others in blue. Dragons can be seen flying through the skies. While the party is marveling at this, someone sneaks up behind them and taps Zerrof on the shoulder. The person doing the tapping turns out to be Olidammara, come to receive the body and see that it gets to his followers. He also explains that the chaos down below is a war over which kind of beer is better, "stormstout" or "thunderbrew". Olidammara is busy reassuring Zerrof that the followers of Tyr(person:d492fee8-e0d2-4631-addd-6282ba3cb7f7) would not have simply exploded when @[Tornac decides to shout at the warring combatants. He gets the attention of Nader, the same black dragon they fought in Polaris near the beginning of the campaign. She explains what the fight is about, then demands an opinion from the party. She and Tornac are on opposite sides, and so naturally a fight ensues. Adoven Woodsoul flees to a nearby tavern to buy an ale, while the rest of the party engages the dragon. Tornac opens the fight by stabbing her with Dénouement, but it does not have the same result as it did against other immortal beings. Instead, it feels like the spear gave something to her, and she becomes ill. The fight proceeds, and goes poorly. Tornac runs out of spell slots. Adoven Woodsoul, while watching from the sidelines, hears a loud, unfamiliar humming. None of the other party members hear this, and so on his next turn Adoven Woodsoul attempts to rid himself of the buzzing with Dispel Magic. This results in a bright flash, and Adoven Woodsoul disappears. At this point, his player is also kicked off of the discord call and does not return. Shortly after, the person playing Vun Roade also has to leave for outside commitments. This turns out not to matter much, as the fight ends before his next turn as both Zerrof and Tornac go down. With all conscious players dead or otherwise incapacitated, Tornac and Zerrof make their remaining saving throws. Zerrof fails his saves and dies. Tornac crits his third save, managing to stand up at 1 HP, but has no spell slots with which to revive Zerrof. Thankfully this is Ysgard, where the dead come back to life at the break of dawn, so Mazu takes this as a chance to talk with Tornac. She asks him why he does what he does, and about the spear, but Tornac pretty just does Tornac and does not have deep reasons for the things he does. After this, Mazu casts revify on Zerrof and they go drinking. Bar shenanigans ensue. Tornac finds a dwarf from his mountainhome and has a drinking contest with him. He also receives a Sending from a voice he fails to recognize, speaking with a thick accent:

Nihilo hears that a brave band of adventurers has slain a god today. Is that you, God-slayer? If so, Nihilo is very pleased indeed.

Tornac, very confused by the voice, merely responds "OK". While this is happening, Mazu takes Zerrof outside to talk alone. She says the burlap sack she got from Penguin earlier was full of papers he referred to as "market research". Among other things, the papers claim that she and Zerrof are both cowards who do not speak to each other about what is really on their mind. Zerrof claims not to know what this is referring to, even when pushed about how he judges the other gods more harshly than Mazu herself, so she drops the issue. For her part, though, Mazu has been holding back. She confesses to Zerrof that their initial examination of Dénouement during Session 15: The death of a demigod was not her first time in contact with the spear. She is actually a mortal herself, having previously been struck as punishment for the abandonment of her people. She says they did not chase her down, but when push came to shove, none stood to defend her. She explains that she struggles to move forward because she does not know how to support a populace that does not want her. Zerrof pledges to take her back to Neprius to see how much of their old homes remain intact. The two return to the bar, where Tornac is drinking and doing very impressive goat impressions. He casts lesser restoration on Tornac, to enable him to drink even more, and while this is happening decides to send Mama Bear a sending:

Mama Bear , Tyr(person:d492fee8-e0d2-4631-addd-6282ba3cb7f7) fell to @[Tiamat today during Penguin's ascension. Are you ok? Can Mazu or I help you?

Response:

I noticed. Probably not, unless you intend to come over here and join us.

Olidammara also comes in, and says there will indeed be a funeral tomorrow. Zerrof asks him for advice, and Olidammara says he believes in letting people make their own bad decisions. He says the party could either retire now, as heroes, or do something stupid and charge into Vigrid. He does not seem opposed to them entering Vigrid, and in fact almost encourages it, but warns that it would be very, very dangerous. When asked about Mama Bear, he reveals that she had actually prayed to him recently asking if she could enter his service. He told her to get drunk first and ask again. At the time of their conversation, he was still undecided about whether or not he should take her on. He thought that perhaps he was "not the right god for her".