Session 43 - Terr-ential Terror and an Oracle's Omen

Plot points/Scenes

Morning Prayers

• Two prisoners: Crazy Crossbow Lady, Naomi's gal
• Doppelgangers and passcodes: (if there are doppelgangers running around, we'll need secret passcodes to tell if we're really speaking to each other)
• Jalan: Red Mango
• Fritz: Disco Liability
• Drant: Do they have any chips?
• (F: "aw, buddy")
• Calypso approaches Fritz:
• "Aren't you guys forgetting something? Your morning prayers to God Emperor Ragnar?"
• Fritz awkwardly talks her way out of it by saying that we're in such deep cover so often that we can't really do that sort of stuff in the open without compromising ourselves, he understands ("oh! So you just do it in private then-"), Fritz also points out Vincent and that he's a cleric of Heimdall's but he's just a method/character actor and he just gets really into it so don't mention anything to him - Calypso is tickled and goes to ask Vincent if he has an extra prayer mat "for worshiping Heimdall *wink*"
• Discussing how to deal with Calypso - Fritz still refuses to kill him, thinks he could be a great ally between us and the government, Jalan argues he's a liability

Interrogation and Ritual Combat

• Two women, both humans
• CCL: "I won't let you doppelgangers take my persona!"
• Other lady screams in visceral terror at Drant's appearance
• Seems irrationally scared, like someone with a phobia
• Half-face lady says she was fine before Drant came over, before an older man came and talked to them
• Gets a description...Terrence
• F: "remember Terrence had that scare ability?!"
• D: "is he fucking making her scared of me??"
• J: "Terrence is a good guy-"
• Drant asks who told them we were doppelgangers, she says she'll die with this secret...Drant goes 'challenge accepted' and kills her then brings her back
• She's still flipped the fuck out, he slaps her twice, kills her again, brings her back again...she's too shellshocked and now can't/won't talk
• Jalan chews Drant out for pushing too hard too far, "you broke her too early!"
• Voice thundering: "WHAT? The HELL? Are YOU DOING?????" and Vincent hobbles over
• Vincent Lays on Hands CCL and talks quietly with her for a bit, she quiets down
• He then gets up and starts drawing some sort of runic circle on the ground in ash
• F: "...whaaatcha doin?"
• Vincent apparently made a deal that her soul would be saved for herself - she tells us what she knows then he will perform a ritual that will kill her but set her soul free
• Their tribe's oracle foresaw something but the vision was unclear...he told them to come to this place and attack the first group to make camp there because "their future was laden with misfortune and death, and that their destiny was laden with trickery and deceit"
• "He said that many lives could be saved by killing you...I guess we've failed"
• We try to talk her out of killing herself, she refuses: "there is a great life awaiting me on the other side"
• We're curious who her tribe worships, she scoffs at the word 'worship' but says there is a pantheon, comes from the mountains...Goliaths, depending on your interpretation of the ancient texts, it's a wise old warrior or great prowess and strength, or a madman warrior who only cared about who was most dominant
• "Oh my god they worship bigs"
• This tribe worships the second interpretation - the madman
• In the afterlife they challenge their god with a duel, if they win they get to be a part of his entourage
• Win: one of his planes of war, drinking and partying
• Lose: plane of wolves - constantly attacked by wolves, never tired enough to sleep so constantly assaulted by wolves
• We rightfully bring up that there is no way any of their warriors has a chance at defeating their literal god, that's a pretty dreary outlook for the afterlife
• Lady says each warrior you kill/strategic decision that helps your clan/great deed you do, is a boon granted to you in a fight against the god
• Extra strength and weapons and armor and in special cases even powers! That you get to use in the fight against this god
• Vincent does the ritual
• Stabs her in the foot
• Everybody but one must leave the circle of ash, she wants to fight to the death
• Drant volunteers, Fritz loudly protests, Jalan starts taking bets
• FIGHT
• Drant tries to thorn whip the shortsword out of her hand and into his, snags the sword but fails to catch it
• She screams "are you doing MAGIC" and charges Drant while we hear "BUENOOOOOO" materialize out of the air behind her
• "I KNEW it!"
• She rushes and uppercuts
• Drant picks up the sword and stabs upward into her throat, she falls limply
• Drant leaves the sword in her, lets her fall gently, and walks away
• J: "....that wasn't even a good fight"
• Vincent goes to the body, takes out some tinder, and lights the body on fire
• J: "...that's a very flammable body-"
• F: "I was about to say the same thing-"
• Talks to Drant about hoping that his actions don't cause her to be punished in the afterlife
• Quietly mourning the loss of one of our prisoners...
• F: "the good news!....we have another one. Hello-"
• Lady's been screaming the entire time, has even made it onto her side and started rolling away from us
• Talking with Terrence - Terrence claims he didn't do anything, just walked up to them and talked for a bit, doesn't know anything about fear
• Drant takes a walk - when he's gone this lady finally calms down enough for us to have a conversation with her
• Crow-eye (exceptional knack for hitting things with her bow)
• She refuses to tell us where her clan is, and asks that we kill her - we offer to just set her free, but she says that would be a stain on her honor and she could never go back to her tribe because being released as a POW instead of fighting your way out/taking as many of them out as you could would be a sign of cowardice/weakness
• She also repeats what Terrence told us about their conversation - she doesn't remember anything about the fear effect or why she's irrationally terrified of Drant
• We make a bargain: Fritz says we'll let her have her fight for freedom if we can keep her for more questioning later (hoping that stashing her in the pleasure barge well away from Terrence for an extended period of time will get that fear thing to go away and we can get some actual answers out of her)

Roll Out!

• For the first hour of the trip, Drant sees the Crazy Crossbow Lady we just dispatched of, well hidden in the trees with a bow, just stalking the caravan staring at Drant, unmoving
• Fritz rolls poorly even with inspiration to guide, Gregory rolls shitty with survival, Drant relieves him and as Gregory turns around a wolf jumps out of the forest, grabs Drant in its mouth, and takes off into the woods
• Fritz, Robin, and Jalan pursue
• DM asks how long we follow - Fritz says until she can't run anymore, 20 minutes of running later...
• Drant Thorn Whips himself out of the thing's mouth, it turns to snatch him back up but sees the trio running after him and turns tail and runs instead
• Smoke off in the distance, and some primitive huts...there's an encampment here

The Tribe

• Barbarian village, standard wooden wall, three entrances with guards, few huts, a fire
• Fritz nudges Robin to approach with her casually, Jalan and Drant hide in the woods
• They mention the unfortunate encounter our caravan had with a band of this tribe's warriors, how it was a tragedy, and how we come in peace seeking answers...
• F: "we'd like an audience with your oracle"
• The dude goes nuts, absolutely no way, they'll chase us out of here and fight us to the death, "the whole village, all of the women and children too!"
• F: "aw come on man, leave the children out of it"
• G: "......no!"
• Fritz mentions that we're the "bringers of death, misfortune, trickery, and deceit" that their oracle foretold and that he'd probably want to decide for himself if he wants to talk to us, the big burly barbarian guards suddenly get very frightened
• Guard shouts out a name (Robin with his fancy new helm of comprehend spoken languages translates for Fritz), a kid runs up, barbarian whispers to him, kid says "okay dad" and runs off, apparently to talk to the oracle on our behalf
• While we wait, Fritz tells Robin to run if things go down, to get back to the caravan - he says he won't leave her, she says "bitch I'll be running too!", he agrees to comply and then points out he's got a new contraption he made for himself, some spring-loaded shoes that'll theoretically make him faster - Mama Fritz is so proud
• Kid comes back, whispers to dad, barbarian reports that the oracle doesn't want to speak
• B: "There's already been enough blood spilled in your name, we'd like to end this here. What would you like in order to leave peacefully?"
• Fritz says we will leave peacefully if there is no other way to talk to this oracle, we never wanted violence in the first place, but urges him to reconsider
• B: "If you asked anything that involved violence, we were not to let you in. You have passed"
• Want to talk to the leaders of the caravan only - Robin is excluded

The Oracle

• Scent of sage, beads for door, slow stream of smoke
• Escorted by huge barbarians
• Coughing in smoke, pointed and ordered to sit
• Across the room, clouded by smoke, individual in a goat skin cloak, hard to get a read on their physicality
• Like 5-10 minutes of silence, waiting to speak until spoken to
• Jalan gets high from the secondhand smoke, Fritz/Drant are fine
• Fritz: "your people approached us, yelled concerning things about us, then attacked us, and we feel terrible about the tragedy that occurred and are searching for answers."
• Drant is privately asked: "do you believe this was a tragedy?"
• Jalan and Fritz hear Drant: "Natural life is normal. You need to be more specific"
• Oh shit - we're all being asked questions privately on discord, answering them out loud, and our answers are being filtered back for the other two to hear in a less-than-flattering light
• Jalan is asked...
• Jalan answers: "if there is danger or wealth to be found here. Also, what are you smoking?"
• First physical sound we've heard from this person, a deep throaty gurgly laugh
• Drant: "I regret a lot of things. I do what I need to to protect my family"
• F: "I seek to find where my path turned away from what's right, and turn it back to what should be"
• J: "where is the wealth?"
• D: "the two here with me, as well as my followers"
• F: "By chance at first. Then I truly thought it was the best way to do the most good. Now I do so out of responsibility to protect those our gravity has drawn in"
• Something about "using the gravity to protect something..."
• J: "because it will bring me back to where I was before. I'll be whole again. It'll make it better"
• D: "they are the ones who accepted me for who I was and what I've become without question"
• F: "I've seen more atrocities committed against fellow people by those I trust. That to me is more painful than indifference"
• J: "Well, I sold out my family basically. I sold out almost everyone"
• D: "I'm a monster and I don't know how to stop"
• "I will gift you one reasonable request...but you must all ask it simultaneously"
• Nobody wants to be the first to talk, but on the second take...
• F: "protection for the innocents who travel with us"
• J: "to protect my friends from myself"
• D: "why do the wolves want you dead?
• Because our requests were selfless in nature, he will let us go in peace
• Pulls down the hood - this oracle dude is an eyeless watcher
• "Do you understand now, bug?"
• Says something about he believes now that the leaders of our band are relatively pure of heart, and he will let us go on one condition: "you must find the one within your midst that will cause the prophecy to come true"
• Sends us with his blessing
• Guards give not-so-gentle shove as we leave
• Return to caravan
• Decide not to talk to them about this really, just claim that we caught up with the wolf that stole Drant and killed it

On the Road Again

• Wandering peddler, sweet older lizardfolk with horse and cart
• Jalan buys armor upgrades for his mercenaries, Fritz buys a shield for Robin
• Peddler doesn't want to sell his super magical scale mail (+1 AC, no stealth disadvantage, use it to retaliate enemies somehow)
• Wants to sell to besieged nobles in Stonedeep...surely they'll pay a pretty penny for some armor in these trying times!
• F: "uh...you've heard about Stonedeep, right?"
• He hasn't, we explain the sitch, but he still doesn't want to give it up - still wants nobles with that sweet sweet cash...there's no way we can afford it
• F: "you happen to be speaking to a noble, you haven't even named your price yet!"
• J: *taking his cue* "Ah yes! I am Prince Jalan Kendith"
• Akocho
• Couatl Herald's Scales - Jalan buys and gives to Fishfingers McGee
• Travel on
• Group of 'high schoolers' shooting the shit, notice us and then approach menacingly punching their fists
• "So...you guys are travelling with a knife-eared ash-face"
• Gregory looks to Fritz for permission
• F: "no, you cannot throw them off a cliff"
• Their fathers are in the inquisition
• One tries to pull Jalan from his saddle
• Fishfingers: casts shocking grasp with a literal eel
• Gregory tosses two more out on their asses, they all run away
• Discussing "Inquisition kids" and how welcome we'll be in Streamwalk after this unfortunate incident
• The ghost of tragedies past...
• Gregory stops the caravan, there's some kind of ghost in the road...
• Drant jumps down to check it out...it's a tosculi. In fact, his former best friend from the hive, who he had to kill or something
• Drops to his knees
• F: "Drant? Buddy?"
• Fritz follows and sees Treve, her gnome friend from college that she believes she either killed or maimed him
• Fritz grapples Drant who tries to run towards the ghost, returns to the people, Gregory says he just saw like a stereotypical sheet-ghost, Jalan goes and sees nothing
• Jalan detects Abjuration magic
• Jalan goes to shoot it but can't even see it
• F: "ask fishfingers, fishfingers has regrets"
• Fishfingers approaches, then starts screaming dramatically: "Captain Fishyyyy! Nooooo-"

Plot type

Session

Parent Plot

Act 4: Untitled