All Hell Can Break Loose on Its Own, We Don't Need to Help.
Wow, I am so drained it's insane. However, since I was paged to help with a work problem (as soon as I got home!), I'm going to take this opportunity to give my thoughts on today's extra (special) session.
Firstly, I'm glad that I gave
phirefly some time off. You're welcome, Phirefly! :) Normally, Wednesdays are for her game, so it's a change.
Secondly, I finally understand some of the backstory behind Tabriz the Necromancer. I'm going to lob plot at him like there's no next session now; hopefully this will give him a chance to completely dominate a session (as others have in the past).
However, since it was a long session everyone had a chance to shine.
Things started with the party finally getting on the road. Xundar and Lilit were spending time practicing Warlock power-sharing exercises, while the rest of the group wondered why this was causing the death of small forest creatures.
Lilit got back into the game in a big way with her crisis of faith, brought on by her father the Angel admitting that he's going to trial, and while he's in a magical jail isn't going to be able to provide her with cleric spells. She reveals to Adorai that she doesn't really know how to handle this, and it told that she needs to think about what she really wants to do.
Adorai was intending for Lilit to find another, stronger faith, but Lilit takes this advice to heart and decides that she really doesn't want to be anyone's servant in the first place. Unintended consequences strikes yet again!
The party reaches a waypoint Village a bit into Sosaria (after crossing the border). The party has a good old time chatting with the woman that runs the only Inn, and encounters a mad Druid, who claims to be trying to solve the mystery of the exploding animals.
Lilit disoriented the poor Druid with her stark and blatent apologies.
He simply couldn't comprehend that someone like Lilit, an obvious half-angel, would be destroying wildlife in fits of dark energy. He eventually wandered off thinking that he would find "the real story", since he was distracted from Lilit's confessions by a (clearly lying) Eshana.
Later that night, hundreds upon hundreds of dead (zombie) woodland creatures stormed the Inn, waiting for Lilit to give them a command. They were clearly animated by warlock energy, and Archibald (Mark II) even paraded a undead badger around for a bit, after Tabiz had "tamed" it.
The party enounters the Druid once again, and he is quite dead, his eyes self-extracted and sitting at his fire, and his (crucified) Squirrel companion is barely hanging on. Eshana shows some initiative and puts the squirrel out of its misery.
Lilit gathers the animals at a mass-grave site outside of the village, and commands them to "cease", resulting in lots of no-longer-undead exploded animal corpses. (She and Arch the Second are quite splattered).
They discover the Druid's undead form attemping some sort of corrupted summoning, and put a quick stop to this (and, once again, the squirrel).
Once again on the road, the party questions the severed head of the Druid (Speak with Dead spell, Go!), and discover that the Druid was attacked by another version of himself, and the Blind Man taunts Lilit during the questioning, asking her if she enjoyed the gift of little undead minions.
They also start to discuss the nature of the Blind Man, and Adorai reveals to everyone that the "dreams" he sends are actually sendings of a different sort altogether. Since it's easy for him to reach between worlds, all of the "dreams" are actual happenings... just in different realities then the current one.
The Blind Man takes this opportunity to cause pain to Adorai by pulling Grunty from the world right in the middle of their discussion! This bothers Eshana quite a bit.
It bothers Xundar even more - so much so that he takes a mirror and some eye-goo and blasts the Blind Man to kingdom come (by way of counter-scrying). This is on top of Grunty's struggles, and he is almost done in right then and there.
All this and they haven't even gotten to Silencia yet! But since my support call is over I'll be trying to get some sleep now. :)
Firstly, I'm glad that I gave
phirefly some time off. You're welcome, Phirefly! :) Normally, Wednesdays are for her game, so it's a change.
Secondly, I finally understand some of the backstory behind Tabriz the Necromancer. I'm going to lob plot at him like there's no next session now; hopefully this will give him a chance to completely dominate a session (as others have in the past).
However, since it was a long session everyone had a chance to shine.
Things started with the party finally getting on the road. Xundar and Lilit were spending time practicing Warlock power-sharing exercises, while the rest of the group wondered why this was causing the death of small forest creatures.
Lilit got back into the game in a big way with her crisis of faith, brought on by her father the Angel admitting that he's going to trial, and while he's in a magical jail isn't going to be able to provide her with cleric spells. She reveals to Adorai that she doesn't really know how to handle this, and it told that she needs to think about what she really wants to do.
Adorai was intending for Lilit to find another, stronger faith, but Lilit takes this advice to heart and decides that she really doesn't want to be anyone's servant in the first place. Unintended consequences strikes yet again!
The party reaches a waypoint Village a bit into Sosaria (after crossing the border). The party has a good old time chatting with the woman that runs the only Inn, and encounters a mad Druid, who claims to be trying to solve the mystery of the exploding animals.
Lilit disoriented the poor Druid with her stark and blatent apologies.
He simply couldn't comprehend that someone like Lilit, an obvious half-angel, would be destroying wildlife in fits of dark energy. He eventually wandered off thinking that he would find "the real story", since he was distracted from Lilit's confessions by a (clearly lying) Eshana.
Later that night, hundreds upon hundreds of dead (zombie) woodland creatures stormed the Inn, waiting for Lilit to give them a command. They were clearly animated by warlock energy, and Archibald (Mark II) even paraded a undead badger around for a bit, after Tabiz had "tamed" it.
The party enounters the Druid once again, and he is quite dead, his eyes self-extracted and sitting at his fire, and his (crucified) Squirrel companion is barely hanging on. Eshana shows some initiative and puts the squirrel out of its misery.
Lilit gathers the animals at a mass-grave site outside of the village, and commands them to "cease", resulting in lots of no-longer-undead exploded animal corpses. (She and Arch the Second are quite splattered).
They discover the Druid's undead form attemping some sort of corrupted summoning, and put a quick stop to this (and, once again, the squirrel).
Once again on the road, the party questions the severed head of the Druid (Speak with Dead spell, Go!), and discover that the Druid was attacked by another version of himself, and the Blind Man taunts Lilit during the questioning, asking her if she enjoyed the gift of little undead minions.
They also start to discuss the nature of the Blind Man, and Adorai reveals to everyone that the "dreams" he sends are actually sendings of a different sort altogether. Since it's easy for him to reach between worlds, all of the "dreams" are actual happenings... just in different realities then the current one.
The Blind Man takes this opportunity to cause pain to Adorai by pulling Grunty from the world right in the middle of their discussion! This bothers Eshana quite a bit.
It bothers Xundar even more - so much so that he takes a mirror and some eye-goo and blasts the Blind Man to kingdom come (by way of counter-scrying). This is on top of Grunty's struggles, and he is almost done in right then and there.
All this and they haven't even gotten to Silencia yet! But since my support call is over I'll be trying to get some sleep now. :)