NTWFDND- Team EuroAtlantis!

[Thorn]

D&D tonight! =O In a bit over two hours now.

Will history repeat itself and see Meallan blast two more bandits to heckity? Does Crezonis actually know anything useful, or is he the least insightful warlock to ever warlock? Will party members get shipped with yet more inanimate objects and/or adversaries? Will Anthony run out of killer one-liners?

Will Khamet tell the party the story of his glorious sidequest?

I can only guess at the answers to the above*, but I'm super excited to find out!


*Besides the Crezonis question, because it would be pretty worrying if I didn't know what one of my primary npcs for the session knew...

[Thorn]

Session Six: a lighthearted recap

*Khamet returns triumphant! With a weird spiky, bloodied, decidedly magical weapon.
*NOT THE BEES. Or...wasps?
*Khamet sleep-fights, missing the wasp and almost hitting Anthony with aforementioned spiky, bloodied weapon.
*Giant wasp almost kidnaps Basil.
*Anthony fills an empty wine bottle with wasp poison. DON'T DRINK IT GUYS OKAY IT'S NOT WINE.
*Tally used: Get Information From Prisoners. It's not very effective!
*Tally used: Pounce. It's super effective! Juniper's escape attempt is brought to an end.
*Juniper and Basil hang out eating wasp-nuggets and watching Amani speak to Crezonis. Tally is also watching them as she (poorly) pretends to trance.
*Tally is the mom friend, heating up wasp-nuggets for everyone! Even Juniper. <3
*"What about him?"
*Oh right, yeah. They give some to Crezonis too.
*The party argue over who gets to ride the pretty pony.
*As they cross a river, a familiar demonic corpse drifts slowly past...Meallan manages to retrieve a waterlogged and almost unreadable map from its pocket.
*Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Giant wasps, now demons? Amani wonders if they're still dreaming.
*Tally and Crezonis are those kids in the back of class passing notes.
*Deyn got rekt.
*I tell you, I tell you, the Dragonborn comes!
***

EDIT: Because I did this last time, I guess I'll do it here too!

Names Learned!
Juniper- the party now officially know the name of the halfling druid.

[Thorn]

Hi EuroAtlantis! Posted on discord but thought I should put it here too: next session will be January 31st, 7:00pm GMT. Please let me know if this will be a problem!

[Gelquie]

Session 6:

SPOILER: Click to show

Crez is tied to tree. The halfling druid is unconscious, stabilized, and tied up.

Amani brings up a concern with Crezonis, that if the party doesn't kill him, he'll go right back to the bandits and serving Arcaito, one who's obviously doing bad things and encouraging banditry to themselves and regular people. They argue that the others don't know what they're dealing with, and that he's too dangerous to be kept alive.

The others disagree, and Meallan thinks there's more secrets we can learn from him. Amani doesn't seem to care about the secrets, saying “we know he serves Arcaito; we don't need to know much else.” Meallan: “...No, I think there's still much we can learn.”

They try to compromise. They mention tying up Crezonis by the feet, just enough to walk, but not enough to do more. That if he tries running... the group goes quiet, but Amani finishes with “we kill him?”. There's no resounding disagreement or agreement to this.
Anthony also suggests someone riding Crezonis, “that way if he tries to run away, they can hit him with a tire iron right away!” (Amani: “...Sure, why not.” Meallan: “That sounds like a good idea.”)

They also determine that the Ur needs Crezonis in captivity because of the conflict with the centaurs and elves and territory. (When Amani brings this up during a successful History roll, they sound dismissive of the territorial issue.) Amani also determines that if the bandit “leader” were to have returned to Ur, they would've executed him. And so maybe they'd do something similar with Crezonis.

Amani seems uncertain and uneasy, but they stop arguing.

Meallan puts his hand on Amani's shoulder. “Everything will be fine.”
...Amani shrugs their shoulder away from Meallan.
M: “...Do you trust me?”
Am: “...It's not about that.”
“Regardless. Should we get to work?”
“Yes. The sooner the better.”

--
They start a long rest. Watch order: Meallan, Tony, Tally, Amani

During Meallan's watch, Khamet returns! Khamet asks what's happened in the meantime. Then he asks Crez what happened to them. Crez: “What does it look like?”
Khamet has a very spiky looking staff with them that's roughly key-shaped but otherwise looks like he tore a branch off of a very strange tree. There's blood-stains on it. Khamet carries it without minding the blood and doesn't pay special attention to it.

“You look like you had quite an adventure yourself.”
“Yeah. I may have had maybe the adventure of half a lifetime.”
Meallan asks about the staff. Khamet explains that the staff is from the demon he fought. He knows it's magical. Meallan asks what it does. “Aren't you supposed to be an expert at this sort of thing? Why don't you tell me what it does?”
Meallan casts detect magic, which confirms there's an enchantment magic on the staff.

(Basil has the halfling's staff, Crez's pike is away somewhere where he can't reach it.)
Meallan uses Detect Magic on the pike too; magical.
There's also some magic coming from some companions.

The halfling starts waking up around the end of Meallan's watch.
Meallan wakes up Anthony. Anthony resists, not wanting to wake up “mom”. Meallan: “I'm not your mother. =| “ He wakes up Anthony, and Anthony takes watch.
M: “Keep a sharp eye out. Don't get disturbed by stupid things.”

Khamet and Basil—who are awake—talk.
K: “Hello!”
B: “Hey, how you been.”
“I've been wonderful, a bit torn, not emotionally mind you, very physically, but other than I'm perfectly okay! 100% okay! How are you, Basil?”
“As good as can be expected.”
Khamet mentions they're tired, and then asks why Basil isn't sleeping.
B:“Well, we have extra guests, and I thought I'd stay awake to make sure they don't get murdered...”
(“That's very kind of you,” the halfling adds as she's waking up.)
K: “Yeah, I know. I don't exactly trust one particular person in our group. I'm not mentioning any names. But I think he might hear voices in his head.”
“Hmm, that's as good a theory as any, really.”
“I won't mention any gender, but I think he hears voices from this tiny box.”
Khamet and Basil talk about how they don't want anyone to be lunatics, and that they don't consider each other to be lunatics.
Khamet then goes back to sleep, wishing Basil goodnight.

Basil asks Juniper if she wants some water. Juniper accepts.

A giant (medium sized) wasp bursts out of the trees during Anthony's turn and descends towards him.
Anthony: “NOT THE BEES! AAAAAAH!”
Initiative begins.

Anthony tries to hit the wasp with a tire iron, but the wasp dodges.
Basil jumps onto its back carapace, grabs its feelers, and now he's aboard the wasp!
The wasp is slightly weighed down. They descend to attack Anthony their stinger reaching closer.

Crez is tied up and useless. Juniper butt-shuffles away from the wasp.

Anthony casts a minor illusion of a large fly-swatter.
Basil pulls its feelers and tries to pull it out of the way to crash it. He manages to start bringing it down!

Meallan wakes up. (Basil: “Good morning.” Meallan: *Confused ear gestures.* )
Meallan casts frostbite.
Khamet starts sleepwalking! Khamet picks up this jagged object and attacks. It misses wildly and lands next to Anthony. “Sorry demons.”
Tally wakes up and tries to attack with her quarterstaff. But it doesn't hit. So she kicks the wasp.
The wasp's bucking and Tally's kick nearly flings off Basil, but he clings on. The wasp starts to fly off towards the edge of the clearing. (Basil: “Bye everyone!”)

Amani wakes up, looks, and asks blearily “what the hell...?”
They don't do much, but they call out to the wasp: “Are you fey?” The wasp doesn't respond.

Anthony hits the fleeing wasp with a tire iron, and it falls, still alive. Anthony readies another attack.
Basil is still gracefully atop the giant wasp. Basil fails to tame it with animal handling, so he hides.
Meallan tries to blast the wasp, but misses.
Tally strikes the final blow and kills the wasp.

Tally suggests eating it.
Amani and Meallan: ...You can have it. (Amani then goes back to sleep.)
Basil: I'll try some!

Anthony and Meallan try salvaging some poison from the wasp. Anthony manages to salvage a wine bottle full of poison (the bottle from the previous bandit cave).
Meallan salvages the stinger as an extra dagger.
Basil settles in near the halfling druid.
Anthony swaps turns with Tally. Anthony sleeps to rest off the sting.

Tally talks to Basil.
T: “Hey, are you concerned after almost riding off on that wasp?”
B: “I think so.”
“It was scary to see you almost getting kidnapped by a wasp.”
“Yeah, it was kinda scary!”
They talk about it being kinda scary. Basil mentions it would've been nice to tame it. They wish each other good night and Basil finally goes to sleep.

(Meanwhile, Khamet is sleep-fighting while lying down.)

Tally has a peaceful watch. <3
Tally goes to talk to Crezonis while doing push-ups.
T: “So your friend over there, the really pretty halfling. What's her name?”
C: “Why would I tell you her name when you literally smashed her in the back of her head?”
“Why wouldn't you tell her name when I can do one-armed push-ups like these?” Persuasion check.
“...I'm really bored, so if you can guess her name, I'll tell you what her name is.”
“Hmm, it's gotta be a cute name... You think she's cute?”
“...I'm... taken? I'm not... She has very nice hair? Yeah.”
“Is she too young for you?”
“Marginally.”
“Do you know each other, or are you her boss or something?”
He doesn't answer.
Tally tries intimidating by talking about drow techniques. It doesn't work so well.
T: “How long has she been working with you?”
C: “Not so long.”

Tally goes up to Juniper. “I don't suppose you want me to tell me your name or anything, do you?”
“Oh yeah, my name's Juniper! What's your name, drow?”
T: “No, that's not my name?”
J: “What is your name?”
“You can call me Tally. Nice to meet you.”
“That was really funny what you're doing over there. I approve.”
“You mean my push-ups? You want me to do a few for you?”
“Yeah! I mean, I can't do things like that, so that's really impressive.”
Tally does pushups and glares at Crezonis. Crez glares back.

T: “So what do you do?”
J: “I think you saw my wonderful performance back there, did you?”
Tally agrees, though says that her companions didn't seem to agree.
“So that was a clever trick your firbolg pulled.”
“What did he do?”
“He pretended to be Volan!”
“Oh, yeah.” Tally mentions they were too busy trying to kick Anthony.
“Huh?”
“He's a very special man.”
Crezonis is staring at his knees. Juniper is twiddling her thumbs behind her back.
J: “You have any food? It's been a while.”
T: “We have a dead wasp.”
“Ooh, I've never tried a wasp before!”
“Okay, I need to keep watch, but I think I'll bring you a piece of wasp.”
“Are you sure you don't want to keep talking to me?”
“Sorry. I'll be sure to bring you one. It's nice to meet someone who appreciates taste of insects.”
“I mean, I'll try everything once!”
Tally goes back to watch and tells Juniper she'll talk to her later. Juniper just watches her go. Rest of watch passes uneventfully.

Tally notices that Juniper is starting to shake off the ropes around her wrist. Tally tackles! And knocks her down. She yelps in surprise.
“I'm sorry, I just need to fix your bracelet! It's like a friendship bracelet, except not yet.”
“...That's very kind of you!”
She's now bound in an elaborate drow rope harness.

Tally goes to wake Basil up. “Hey...”
Basil: “Hello. I thought I heard a scream. Dare I ask?”
“I had to bind her up again.”
“Ah. My ropes aren't the best.”
“I don't know if you want to stay awake while our sparkly-eyed friend takes watch?”
“Yeah, I'll do that.”

Tally: “Wake up Amaniii, rise and shiiine”
After Amani blearily wakes up, they start talking about the weirdest dream. There was this wasp, it was about Tally's size, everyone was fighting it, and Basil was flying on it...
Tally humors Amani about the dream, and goes “what could it mean?”
Amani: “...I have no idea.”
Tally goes on: “if you're ready for the truth, I'll tell you, but if not, it was a nice dream!”
Amani: “...?” ...Then Amani just takes their watch.

They don't notice anything during watch, except for the giant wasp corpse and Tally doing a poor job of pretending to trance. Crezonis, meanwhile, is staring at Amani. Amani stares at the giant wasp and Tally going “... ...Are my dreams becoming real? I don't think this was part of anything... ...” Amani gives up on understanding and walks to Crezonis.

Crezonis speaks first. “Lord Arcaito is very interested in you.”
Am: “Is he? Now why is that?”
C: “He doesn't share everything with me, but for some reason, he would like to get to know you better. Your powers intrigue him.”
Am: “As do yours.” Crezonis smiles at this.
Amani semi-changes the topic. “Why did you serve Arcaito?”
“If you met him, you'd understand.”
Amani grills him, talking about how Amani's power was obviously superior, if it defeated him so soundly.
Crezonis looks irritated. “It's nothing to do with Arcaito's power.”
“Then what does it have to do with?”
Crezonis is cagey, but Amani persuades Crezonis to talk more.
Crezonis mentions again how they took the power because of the situation between the centaurs and elves, as explained earlier. And that Arcaito came to him.
“And you agreed to his deal?”
Crezonis confirms.
Amani: “Too bad it wasn't enough.”
Amani pauses for a moment. Then asks: “Has Arcaito Chosen any others?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“So you're the only one?”
"With how much Arcaito has invested in me, I'm not sure if he could Choose any others."
Amani does a little threat, “so if something happens to you, his power would be stifled...”
Crezonis goes: “You underestimate his power.”
“And I don't think you understand the danger you're in.”

Meanwhile, Tally and Basil have kind of been listening in on this. Basil's just ensuring that Amani's not attacking. They don't.

--
The party harvests the wasp for food and feed people.

Juniper asks “hey, if you turn him in, can you let me go?”
Party: “No!”
“I thought we were friends.”
Tally: “Well, I, uh... Eventually.”
Meallan: And you caused us trouble.
Amani: “You nearly killed me.”
J: “You did first!”
Amani: “...Uh, no, actually... I was just after Crezonis.”
Juniper continues arguing, but the others don't budge and decide to turn her in. She's not happy.

Amani whispers to Juniper: “Do you know what Arcaito is?”
“Of course I do, do you think I'm an idiot?”
“I just wanted to know if you're ignorant. That's all I need to know.”

--
They start off.
Meallan: “So, it was a very nice trick you did yesterday. Coming back from the dead so many times. How did you do it? Another gift from Arcaito?”
C: “...Yes.”
“Could you tell me more about it? I just so wish to know.”
“It's not anything you could achieve on your own, firbolg.”
“I'm not alone though, remember?”
Crezonis laughs and talks about how she couldn't do the same, and that his patron (is better).
Meallan talks about the power his patron has, and intimidates him. Crezonis pales, and Meallan smiles at him. Crezonis smiles back.
“So, you want to tell me how you did that lovely trick?”
“It's not something I can explain to you, I didn't do it, I'm his Chosen, he did it for him.”
“Well, is there any way we can speak to your Lord, Arcaito? (Funny name.)”
“I believe my lord would like to speak with you eventually. But perhaps not right now.”
“Alright. Then I look forward to it greatly.” Meallan yanks the rope and continues on.

The party asks at some point: “Would anyone like a turn on the horse?”
Basil: “I'd like a turn on the horse!”
(Crezonis: "I'm not a horse.")
Meallan helps Basil onto Crezonis' back. Meallan: “Careful, he bites.”
“...Thanks for the warning.”

Khamet and Crezonis talk. ((I don't have as good notes for this; feel free to fill in.))
Khamet talks about how he's from ((somewhere?)), and that he's probably never heard of it.
They talk about how they both dislike the cold.
Khamet's talking about how Crezonis can one day not be a degenerate. Crezonis talks about how he's going to die anyway.
Khamet brings up the topic of Crezonis' religion, such as what happens after death, but Crezonis doesn't respond.
(At some point, Khamet says: “At least 50% of us don't want you dead right now. ...Probably 70%.”)

They reach the river. Meallan dips in to look for a pearl. He spends a lot of time trying to pry a mussel open, it's empty, then he goes up to breathe and return to shore, giving the “I meant to do that” look.

A body very slowly floats past. It's clearly a demon.
Amani: “...Whaa?”
Khamet: “Hey, I know that guy!”
Am: “You, do...? ...Am I still dreaming?”
Tally: “I think we might still be stuck in Amani's dream.”
Am: “I need to wake up.”
T: “Please do.”
Amani pinches themselves.
Meallan then splashes Amani with cold water.
“ASDFASDFSDF” Amani wipes water off their face. “Okay, not a dream. You don't need to test it again.”
(Crezonis or Juniper?): “You killed a demon by yourself?” They're obviously impressed.

Meallan inspects the body. They find a piece of paper that's not very decipherable as it's too waterbound. But he determines that it's a map. Meallan takes it and tries to dry it.

They consider how to cross the river. It's about 4 feet deep, so most of them can wade across the river. Basil rides Crezonis while crossing. Meallan picks up Juniper and fireman-carries her. Some of her flowers fall out in the process. Juniper's not happy with this.
But they all get across.
It starts raining while they start crossing.

On the second day, during camp, the rain goes torrential. They work together to build shelter.
Crezonis wants to speak to Tally.
C: “Do you have any paper or writing utensils of various kinds?”
T: “Um, um, do I? Um.”
They ask around for writing stuff.
C: “There's someone I feel I should write to and, I mean, I know we don't like each other, and that's totally understandable. There's someone I feel I should write a letter to and maybe there's a chance you'd deliver it for me.”
Tally leans in to allow Crezonis to whisper, and he does.
She hands him a piece of paper and charcoal to write. Tally wants to ensure it's not secret bandit code. So she has him write it in a language she understands; Elvish.

--
They make it to Deyn, < 4 days from when they started. It's outside the treeline on the plains, unlike most wood elven settlements. Wasn't built in the same way.
A lot of it has been burned down. There's white ash everywhere. The fires have long been gone out. It's been a few days since the smoke has been seen.
Stuff has been dragged out into the street. Sacks have been broken into.
The village is just totally wrecked.
For those with passive perception 14: There's an intact house, with a white dragonborn and 3 other elves next to it. They're all staring at the group.

[Thorn]

I was wondering when we'd see your awesome thorough recap in this thread, Gelquie! =D
I wish I could tell you whether it was Crezonis or Juniper who was all "you killed that on your own???", but it could have been either. My heart says Juniper because she's chattier, but in truth they were both pretty impressed that Khamet took down a demon on his own.

Reading over the different schools, I think the key-thing would have been touched with a combination of Enchantment and Abjuration magic. I think that's probably it...in any case yeah, much magic object, very wow!

[Thorn]

So I shared this in the group chat but will put it here for posterity! I might slowly edit things in until we have one for each party member. =P

SPOILER: Click to show

(excuse all the white, it was a rushed effort in MS paint.)

[Thorn]

Just a quick reminder: one week until next session, guys! Despite a lot of last session consisting of a Travel Montage, you ended it on a cliffhanger, and next session you get to explore the village of Ur Deyn! =D Or...what's left of it. Or...well, there's a dragonborn and a couple elves you can probably talk to, anyway. Or something. Maybe you can loot some valuables and stuff if you're feeling particularly lawless.

Anyway, looking forward to it and hope you guys are too!

[Celestial]

Hey, you know what I said I wouldn't do? Procrastinate on Meallan's recap for session six. And guess what I did? But it's done now, just three days before the next session.

It's short because there's a whole bunch Meallan was not present for but I did it. Check it out.

[Thorn]

Oooh I love it! Next session is gonna be S O G O O D
(I hope.)

In any case, I am so ready to see what Meallan tries to do, and what the other members of this fine party get up to as well!

[Thorn]

Just a reminder that I have been working on a lingering injuries table! But I won't be using options such as 'you lose an eye/arm/whatever', because big things like that seem a bit too crazy, especially this early on.

The way it's looking right now, it's mostly the same model Dael Kingsmill used (with a few different outcomes.) If a character takes more than half their max HP in damage from one attack, or is attacked while unconscious (not yet sure whether this will include asleep, I'm leaning towards yes), they will need to roll a DC 15 CON save. They might also need to roll on the table if they roll a nat 1 on a saving throw against a spell, trap, or magical effect which causes damage, I need to consider that one more (I might create an alternate table for failed spell saves.) If they roll lower than fifteen including modifiers, a lingering injury is sustained, with the injury being more severe the lower the roll.

Most of these injuries can be healed fairly easily, only a few require spells like 'regenerate' to amend (it's possible to lose a finger, that's the only thing on there right now you can actually lose, besides consciousness. =P)

Input from the party is welcomed!

EDIT: The table would also apply to adversaries. It's only fair, after all!

[Gelquie]

Thorn - I love the lingering injuries table idea! Gives more RP stakes to the characters. (Though I understand why you drew the line at losing anything more than a finger. xD )

I do wonder about whether the exact numbers would make it easy to get a lingering injury, though, regarding the rule of someone losing more than half their max HP. Given how many times Amani has gone from full to very little or no hitpoints in most of their battles so far, and given how generally squishy mages are, I do worry a little if they and other spellcasters might get too many lingering injuries because they happen to get hit hard.
(Not that I'm against them getting lingering injuries at all. Muahahaha!)

But then again, if most of them are fairly easy to heal, then I have no issue. ^^ I don't know what you have in mind, so I can't comment on those.
(And maybe the CON save will be easier to defeat than I'm imagining. Amani's CON isn't terrible.)

[Thorn]

Hmmm noted! I did have this realisation last night, when I checked the party's max hp and then the possible damage output of one creature and went "...oh wait, a lingering injury would be likely here."
Especially since you're level three and nobody has over 30hp!

So maybe until you're a higher level (level five perhaps?), we could reserve lingering injuries for if a character falls unconscious or is attacked while unconscious? Because slightly squishy though Amani may be, they do have that neat little trick to keep them conscious a while longer. ;-D

I chose mostly options which give a status effect- disadvantage on a very specific kind of check, etc. Very low saves also knock the character unconscious in X number of rounds, but if we play that lingering injuries can only occur when unconscious anyway for the time being, that's not going to matter very much at all.

[Thorn]

Eight hours to go! What will EuroAtlantis get up to this time?

(Fun fact! BAMKAT is a super cute amalgamation of the party's first initials, it turns out!)

[Moni]

So it turns out, Khamet keeps a journal. It's not your average everyday journal, though, it's an *advanced* journal. A 9001 IQ journal.

also: he is a good righter and even better at cultural sensitivity.

SPOILER: Click to show

The first thing you notice about this journal is that it doesn't seem very personal. In fact, aggressively neutral descriptions of various objects that interest Khamet make up most of it. The things that do reveal anything about Khamet seem to be written *to* someone, but you're not quite sure who would stomach reading this.

... I suppose I should tell you about my traveling companions. They are a most peculiar bunch, but it seems like peculiar lands produce the most peculiar of people. The most peculiar of them is, surprisingly, a human. His name is "Anthony," and he seems to be completely out of touch with reality: he wears black leather, carries a metallic object that cannot possibly have any practical use as a tool or a weapon, and has these delusions about being a hero of the people.

Now, you may think I am judging his personality, and you would be right, but he also has a habit of speaking to a little box. To my knowledge, he believes that other people actually live in this box--perhaps the same "people" to whom he is a "hero." He does tell me that he comes from a very different land--and it is so outlandishly different that I find it hard to believe that all of it is delusion...

The descriptions of the others are nowhere to be found. The next few pages are about the different fish and flora found in the streams of Eaine as well as scattered notes about centuars... he has completely forgotten to describe the other party members.

Oh! And among the various peoples living here are centaurs. I do not believe I have written about them.

Here is a crude sketch of a centaur as well as basic information about their culture.

I have based this drawing off a man named Crezonis, who had been coordinating various bandit raids on the locals. At some point, he was apprehended by my companions. Crezonis the centaur is apparently a warlock, who, as you know, make pacts with various entities, as a warlock does; there are much more of them here than there ever were in our homeland. In fact, another of my traveling companions is one: Meallan. Concidentally, he is also of a strange race:

There is a crude sketch here of Meallan, and his features are surprisingly accurate and unexaggerated... relative to Khamet's drawing skill.

He is a creature called a "firbolg" and is gigantic in stature--and, coincidentally, looks and acts like a cat. A very spoiled cat. I will note that he does seem to genuinely think highly of the entity with whom he made his pact, much like a child thinking highly of a parent. Of course, at least a parent still cares a lot for its child, so I would liken it more to a common donkey thinking highly of its owner.

There are a few pages of scattered notes, same as before, and as you flip through them, you wonder why Khamet is keeping track of any of these things at all. He spends a considerable amount of time describing the soil for some reason. Then... finally... something that looks like a journal entry.

Today, we were escorting Crezonis and his accomplice to be tried for their crimes when we came across a dragonborn. Can you believe it? A real, live dragonborn! Descendants of real dragons, heirs to these mighty beasts! And I got to touch her arm! She doesn't feel that different from other dragonborns, but...

This goes on for a few pages. He compares every instance he touched a dragonborn to every other instance and compares the texture differences of each one. The conclusion he reaches is that they're all pretty scale-y.

The dragonborn was hostile, but seemed reasonable enough. Our insane bard, Anthony, put her to sleep--actual sleep, not a euphemism--anyways. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing that he decided to sing a song that lulled her to sleep, because the entity inside Crezonis decided to resurface again, illuminating the space around the centaur with terrifying darkness that instilled terror in the unfortunate souls standing within this space.

It seemed impossible to help them, but our drow companion attempted to cast some real illumination over the area--fairy lights! How ironic is it for a drow to bring literal light into the world? Not only this, but Talsindra--as is her name--brings quite a bit of metaphorical light as well. What is more is that she fights the darkness within herself each day, so it certainly does not come to her as easily as it does to us.

(I attempted to call upon Anhur to wreak a divine smite upon Crezonis, but unfortunately, he didn't even seem to react to my pleas. Too busy, I suppose. I do wonder if there is some sort of conflict our order is participating in.)

Arcaito, the entity within Crezonis, seemed to insult Malka, who was the entity that Meallan was so attached to. I am not sure what the insult was, for all it said was:

"You lied to us. She's no fey. Do you know who she is?"

The question seemed to make Meallan exceptionally angry. I did not understand most of this argument, but it ended the the darkness disappearing, and Crezonis making a run for it to get away from us. Meallan jumped on his back, held a dagger to his throat, and threated to kill Crezonis if he kept running. Meallan did, after all, have quite an advantage, because many major veins do run through the neck, and the threat worked. He stopped long enough for me to deescalate the situation: I promised him that we would not harm him, and if any harm did come to him, Meallan's face would get smashed in by unknown parties.

Crezonis complied, and we questioned him again. Meallan was fixated on the methods of gaining more power from Crezonis: he kept asking him--or the entity possessing him--how he could be "more powerful", as if the power given to him by his powerful patron was not enough. Arcaito replied that it could make him powerful... if he would recognize it as his new patron, to which Meallan refused. It was one of the most useless conversations I have ever heard. Getting power from an entity required making a pact with it; it wouldn't give it away for nothing.

I must admit logic of the request was not really what bothered me, nor really the fact that it was a waste of time. I do not trust Meallan. He'll simply gorge himself on power while swearing fealty to his "lady" given the chance. Typical warlock. I never quite agreed with the goddess Isis--but I do admit that warlocks are admittedly off-putting.

Finally, I had the opportunity to speak with Crezonis. I told him that his dear patron, Arcaito, was only using him, without any harm to itself; of course, warlocks are generally not receptive to being told that they are mere puppets. If seeing the Paladins of Isis in action taught me anything, it's that they dislike this idea. I think any person would dislike the idea, really. So I also asked him about his religion--perhaps I could convince him to let go of his evil ways if I knew about his religion and ideals.

There is an overlong summary of the centaurs' religion, with quite a bit of white space given to fill in the blanks, eventually. It is so dry that you almost mistake it as instructions for ... chopping wood, or whatever. He doesn't actually get back to this story for... quite a few pages. I do hope you enjoy reading about the various types of cat he has found in Eaine.

... Crezonis, unfortunately, did not want to speak much with me, as he had abandoned all hope, and was left, for a while, to the mercy of Amani (a sorcerer of whom I do not have much of an opinion), who decided to show no mercy at all. It wasn't like those icy, silvery eyes of theirs really showed any inclination to mercy. They wanted to "defeat" Arcaito by "defeating" Crezonis, even though that would not have done anything, physically, to Arcaito. Instead, what they did ended up putting the man in such agony that it was well overdue to simply hand him over to his own people in order for him to be judged.

I wanted to simply hand Crezonis to the proper authorities, but then Amani made the counter-argument that Arcaito would resurface eventually, and nobody would be able to contain him. He should be killed, they said. Killed!

I tried to ask if Crezonis could simply abandon Arcaito--after all, if Arcaito was no longer in possession of Crezonis, then he wouldn't be a threat. Surprisingly, both Amani and Meallan tried to do the same, though for the latter seeing if Crezonis could adandon Arcaito seemed to be motivated more by his grandstanding than anything else. Unsurprisingly, the answer we received was that no, he couldn't.

Amani, after having tortured the poor man for no good reason, made the case that it was more "humane" to kill Crezonis and be done with it already. Meallan agreed.

You don't know how, but the last paragraph's handwriting reminded you a lot of a forced grin. There are faint blotches of ink onto a glued layer of parchment that go on for quite a while, and you swear you could see some expletives, but you've no interest in ruining the journal.

Thankfully, there was a hero in the guise of a halfling thief, who did not agree at all with this plan, and who simply untied Crezonis's binds, allowing him to escape. Talsindra spotted him in the act, but decided to say nothing, and neither did I. Basil, as his name was, is incredibly skillful in the matters relating to thievery and sneaking, and I admit I do have a soft spot for him. He may not be an outstanding citizen, but he has a good heart that is bent on collecting as many things as he can, but still, he has a good heart. And it would have worked swimmingly, too, had a hex not been placed on Crezonis. As soon as Meallan found Crezonis escaping, he landed a strike upon him, and that strike activated the hex, making him unconscious.

They were going to kill him, and I wasn't going to let them do that. So I called upon Anhur and laid my hands upon his head, healing him by the power of Anhur until he was conscious enough to speak. The others were furious with me in a kind of impotent fury, but I wasn't going to be lectured. I told Crezonis that everything he did mattered--if he at least tried to be better, he could have a good shot at the afterlife with his loved ones. That may have uplifted Crezonis, but it didn't do much beyond that, until Talsindra came in to speak.

She told Crezonis that the drow struggle with forces attempting to controlling them every single day, and that she may know people who could help him. She said that drow never really stop struggling against those who wish to control them, and that she would consult with experts to make sure he had the help he needed. I never quite considered that about any drow, really, but it made sense that Talsindra would be able to help somebody who also struggled with something that wished to control them.

Could you imagine that it reminded me a bit of you?

She managed to convince even Meallan and Amani to stand down, and that was... impressive. I had little idea of what I would do after inviting the ire of three of my companions, so I suppose I am glad to have somebody so knowledgeable at our side.

There are many, many, many, pages of more assorted notes, none of them interesting. A few more facts about the centaur religion seemed to have found their way between passages describing the local food, as well as how giant wasp tastes like. Very different to regular wasp, it turns out.

I said that Anthony may have been the most peculiar member of my party, and I do stand by the notion that he is the most peculiar of the bunch, but I believe Meallan to be the most deluded. It now occurs to me that he wanted to threaten Arcaito into giving him the secrets of power or he would hurt Crezonis. He--and possibly Amani--genuinely believed that threatening Crezonis would be a threat to Arcaito, because he genuinely believes these entities are capable of love and attachment. There is no evidence that they feel love and attachment, in a similar way that there is no evidence demons are capable of feeling pain. They may say nice words to make you feel like they care, similar to a way a demon might artificially scream and show "pain" when you slay it.

The last thing he did to threaten Crezonis was to threaten Crezonis with death if Arcaito were to threaten his "lady" again. I asked him why he would punish Crezonis for something Arcaito did, and he replied, "because Arcaito cares about him." He thinks he can harm it emotionally!

Arcaito had shown no love or indeed anything for Crezonis. Indeed, every time Crezonis was near to death, he simply up and left! It did not fight until Crezonis was at his last breath, he would simply abandon him. I wonder if it is not the case that Crezonis couldn't leave Arcaito, but if it were, instead, Arcaito that was incapable of leaving Crezonis. In that case... if you were such an entity... why not let your servant die, if you could get a better one? There's always someone who is theoretically better, and if your chosen is disappointing you, why not let them go?

It also occurs to me that Meallan did harm Crezonis after we captured him. Hm.

[Thorn]

So I'll write a new 'lighthearted recap' a bit later but, for now, have a summary of sessions 5-7...as seen by the archfey Arcaito, Lord of the Wild Spaces.
As Khamet mentions above: the Wild Spaces have been poorly defined at best. You don't sell yourself well, Arcaito, dude.

SPOILER: Click to show

Party: LET'S KILL THIS WARLOCK.
Arcaito: Wow shoot that's my cue gg. *leaves *
...

...*returns several days later * WHOAH WHAT'S UP WHADDA I MISS?

Party: We're killing your 'warlock' for real this time.

Arcaito: Well uhhhhh....
Arcaito: *leaves *