WotBS thekwp's War of the Burning Sky Unchained

Session 11 - Jan 25, 2017

Player Summary
Act One: Out of the frying pan...

Scene Five: Infernal Harrier (Continued)

Despite Bosma's intentions, all together proved more difficult than anticipated. As Gath and Ceilthanus tried to close with the devil and force him away from the others, he teleported to the far side of the battle. The bearded devil proceeded to attack Krombholz and Bromsby. The lemures, following directions from the bearded devil, starting working in group, taking serious wounds with attempts to grapple various party members. Ceilthanus was briefly grappled by three lemure, but then managed to break free.

As Torrent and Dom scrambled to heal the party members now bleeding from the infernal wounds, the hell hound recovered from Bromsby's magic, letting loose another gush of flame. Gath charged at the bearded devil and took a blow from the bearded devil's glaive but inflicted a blow in exchange. Now injured and wary, the bearded devil moved closer to the hell hound, allowing the chain of fire to reform between their collars, before both disappeared in another flowery eruption of fire.


The party scrambled to treat the infernal injuries, with several attempts at magic failing. Bromsby used one of Krombholz potions, while Dom and Torrent spells and channels failed several times. Torrent finally fell back on her wand to help, and succeed with Bromsby. Krombholz took the more direct route of binding his wounds, while Dom succeeded on Gath finally. From the fire forest, the bearded devil's voice called out, with admiration "Good Fight!" with another fiery eruption occurring in the distance.

Scene Six: Trial by Fire

About twenty minutes later, as the party proceeds down the Elfroad, Crystin began to twist from side to side staring deeply into the fire around the party. Torrent riding with her attempted to soothe her as she began to sway in the saddle. Crystin then collapsed, and Torrent barely managed to hold onto her. When she recovered a few moments later, Crystin was embarrassed by the episode and apologize for slowing the group down. Bosma asked what she had seen, and Crystin told the group of seeing a pair of flickering draconic eyes in the flames, looking sharply down, especially at her. The eyes appeared constant, never wavering, immune to all that surrounded them. Their gaze was overwhelming, and she began to sway as more pairs of eyes appeared, thousands of them, all around, until finally they vanished all at once.

Disturbed by this, but not having much they could currently do about it, the party pressed on, making good time for about an hour. After traveling a total of about six miles down the Elfroad, the party spotted through the haze and smoke what looked like a stone bridge around a bend in the road a hundred feet ahead, and some sort of structure built atop it. As they peered at it, they heard a loud cracking sound, and several of the trees a hundred feet down the road flared as explosions tore open their trunks at the base. A moment later, a cluster of trees on either side of the road careened inward, falling across the Elfroad and blocking the path ahead.

Crystin suddenly started shouting for Bosma to move, and for everyone to get away from the edge of the road near her side. Bosma dodged to the left as the curtains of flame that licked meekly at the trees at the road’s edge suddenly flared, cinders bursting outward across the entire party. Behind them, they heard a sudden roaring noise. Looking back they saw the road fifty feet away cut off by a furious wall of fire. The sides of Elfroad quickly became hazardous as live flames reach out at everyone, and overhead the ash and cinders begin to swirl, coalescing into a searing spear. Then, with a thundercrack, the spear drove into the ground where Bosma had stood and exploded. Within the smoke appeared five miniature stags whose bodies burned like the inferno, with racks of antlers composed entirely of dancing fire. They pawed at the ground, swung their fiery antlers, and prepared to charge, while the wall of fire at the party's back slowly moved toward them.

The ensuring battle proved a difficult and pressured event. In the first actions, Ceilthanus was set on fire by an attack from one of the stags. Dom would bless him with protection from that fire, which proved a good use, as the fire on Ceilthanus would continued to be renewed throughout the battle. The running battle down the length of the road forced the party to work as a team to control the horses, deal with the stags, and stay away from the oncoming curtain of flame. Other party members would also eventually be struck by fire, including Gath and Torrent, but they would put out their fires by rolling on the ground, before getting up to retreat away from the oncoming curtain. As the party was pressed toward the fallen trees, Gath disengaged from the last stag to begin to assess how the party might scramble over the trees. Ceilthanus keenly judged the advancement of the fire, staying until the last second fighting the stag to pull back only as the fire curtain engulfed the stag he was fighting. It leaped back through the fire to charge again at the party, only to be caught by Krombholz bolt, killing it.


As it died, the current of fire sputtered out, and the party heard whispers amid the trees, snatches of words coming from all directions, growing louder and more intense all around until finally a booming voice shouted from the flaming trees: “Come!” it roared. “Follow the river. Set me free!”

The flames on the fallen trees blockading the road flared as a draconic face emerged, shaped of fire, its head adorned with a massive crown of jagged horns. The image then faded so only a pair of eyes remain. A voice entered the minds of everyone present, deep, fiery, burning with restrained anger. “Know this: I am the flame, and I am a prisoner here. Save me, free me from the prison of this enforced flesh, and you may continue to your destination. Refuse, and never shall you leave this wood. You shall be a prisoner for as long as I. You shall burn forever, and never die.”

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

I kept pretty close to the original story line, except that having missed for whatever reason in the last session Cysrtin's first premonition, I included in this session.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

Kazyk with the hell hound Purvotch proved to be about the right challenge level; very intimidating but as the battle went on they clearly were getting the upper hand. At the same time, the pair inflicted serious injuries on them and forced the party to use a lot of resources. Gath using the alchemical short short helped a lot in the encounter.

Increasing the number of stags also worked well for my group, with five proving to be a fast paced challenge, but not overwhelming. The moving fire curtain provided a focused pressure for the group and forced a moving running battle in a different way than the Black Horse Gauntlet run had done.

Ceilthanus failed every single save to avoid the burn effect of the stag fire elements; he took it in good humor and with the energy resistance from Dom, it did not become an important issue.

Mechanics Issues

Armor as Damage Reduction continues to make a big swing factor in how encounters are handled, and I am really unsure if it will scale well. They way it is right now opponents with high armor or high natural armor values are untouchable by some characters, and then trivial to attack by other characters. I have intended for a while for the group to discuss how much that added to things by the end of this adventure and decide if they wanted to keep it long term or not.

Notable player reactions

Dom's player could not make it to this session being sick. One of the down sides to this is, with him distracted last session and not present in this session, no one really thought to use the Soul Shroud which he caries.

The party is taking Crystin's premonitions seriously, talking with her about them and considering the details in them. They really wanted the vision of Indomitablity watching them to be Kazyk the bearded devil, and a few times confused the description of the eyes as draconic with demonic, but caught themselves and realized it must be something different. The use of draconic here is a nice touch relating to the Trillith origin, that I don't think the party will remember long enough to connect it.

Ending just as the Indomitablity's Offer was being made was fortunate timing, really. It made for a very nice cliff hanger ending. The party immediately leaped to a reflexive "this would be bad" response, but also their chatting about it conveyed a sense of being intimidated by the situation as well. I am hoping for a very interesting discussion this coming Wednesday.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

• Music for this session was:
• Victor Frankenstein by Craig Armstrong
• Backdraft by Hans Zimmer
• Batman Begins by Hanz Zimmer & James Newton Howard
• The Bourne Identify by John Powell
• Casino Royale by Nicholas Dodd
• Oblivion by M83
• Prestige by David Julyan

This was the same list from last session, and it held up well with the ongoing theme.

The map printed out from the 4E module proved really useful. With the fire curtain segment printed on its own page, it made sliding it forward every round very easy to handle. And the players were paying very close attention to the distance and the rounds as a result.



I used the cover image to create the fire stage elementals for Trial by Fire.

Session 12 - Feb 8, 2017

Player Summary
Act One: Out of the frying pan...

Scene Seven: Indomitability's Offer

As Krombholz's bolt killed the last fire stag, the curtain of fire sputtered out, and the party heard whispers amid the trees, snatches of words coming from all directions, growing louder and more intense all around until finally a booming voice shouted from the flaming trees: "Come!" it roared. "Follow the river. Set me free!"

The flames on the fallen trees blockading the road flared as a draconic face emerged, shaped of fire, its head adorned with a massive crown of jagged horns. The image then faded so only a pair of eyes remain. A voice entered the minds of everyone present, deep, fiery, burning with restrained anger. "Know this: I am the flame, and I am a prisoner here. Save me, free me from the prison of this enforced flesh, and you may continue to your destination. Refuse, and never shall you leave this wood. You shall be a prisoner for as long as I. You shall burn forever, and never die."

The party asked several questions of the spirit:

Where are you? "Rest your flesh now in the ruins beyond the bridge. Then you must follow the river down to the singing lake. I lie trapped beneath its surface. Set me free!"

How do we free you? "End the song of the deep, the song of agony and eternal vigil. Silence the forty tongues who hold me here, who doom themselves with my relentless flame."

What are you? "I am Indomitability. No wound shall ever defeat me. No fire shall ever destroy me. My power can be yours if you release me."

What if we don’t want to help you? "There is one whose blade shall cross your trail. He shall have my boon, and if you do not fall before him, my fire shall turn you to ash and embers. You shall regret your choice."

Several other questions receives replies along the lines of "Your question makes no sense to me. I care for nothing but Freedom, but if you do not release me you shall suffer my wrath."

Though there was some mutters of interest, the party did not react warmly to the offer from Indomitability, and the party did not voice acceptance. The flames roaring across the trees guttered and died, and the fires at the side of the road dimmed again. Within a minute, the Elfroad was safe to travel again.

Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep
Scene One: Defeated In No Battles

With some minor effort, they managed to get the horses across the downed trees. Beyond could clearly be seen a stone bridge crossing a strong river that - somehow - persisted in the unrelenting heat of the fire. The bridge had a small tower atop the side of it, and beyond the bridge through the haze of smoke lay the relatively safe remains of an elvish village. Crossing the bridge, the party took the time to attempt to break into the tower. Gath tried to break the door down, and at first failed, triggering a spiritual weapon that manifested attempting to beat him into submission. Torrent bestowed one of the Strength Surges from the Tidereaver upon Gath, who then succeeded. Breaking through the doorway triggered a Glyph of Warding, releasing a freezing burst cold enough to harm several people despite the intense heat of the fire forest.

Beyond the door way inside the main chamber of the tower, the party found a block of stone with a heatless fire burning atop it, and written in elvish on the side: "The password is 'friend'." Gath called out 'friend' in elvish, saying "Mellon!" At once, the magic assaulting the party ceased, and they entered into the well preserved tower. The heat from the forest was notably lessened here, though still intolerable without magic. With temperatures enough to slowly cook, the two guards found within the tower who had kept their stations rather than flee showed all the signs of death from dehydration and heat exhaustion, but appeared undisturbed since their death. Their equipment remained generally in good shape, in part because of the excellent craftsmanship in its making.

On the second floor, the party found a tactical model of the nearby village, identified as Serni Bui-Duin, meaning "Stones by the River." The model had small carved figures placed amid the miniature buildings, clearly having been used to help plan how to defend the town. A holy symbol with two elven faces in profile lay on the table next to the village model. Dom identified it as belonging to to Alseta, the elven goddess of doorways.

Also on the table, the party found a remarkably well preserved log book. The keeper of the log book had expanded it, especially in the later sections into a journal. The original name of the author was not in the book, but the author had adopted the name Bhurisrava. Translated from the Celestial, it means "defeated in no battles." The journal covers the last few weeks trapped in the tower as his home became engulfed in an unending inferno, and the reflections on faith that this apocalypse brought him. As he faced not only his death but the destruction of all he had loved and cared for, Bhurisrava clearly longed to change to a faith dedicated to healing but did not know how. Interspersed with his personal crisis, he recounts the many refugees who spoke of fires that simply would not go out. Despite their best efforts and strongest magics, the elves of Innenotdar could not put out the flames consuming their home.

One passage mentioned capturing goblins who apparently had helped start the fire by an orc that claimed to be Ragesian. One of them carried something Bhurisrava identified as "dream seeds." According to the interrogation and the information from a speak with dead spell, the seeds create prophetic visions from the Dimension of Dreams. His notes indicated he tried them with no effect, and wonders how they might function in the Age of Lost Omens. However, to side of this entry, written later in a hasty script, he notes "deception within shadows, and misdirection; hide the truth carefully!"

The final passage in the journal reads:


The name of Anyariel sparked some memories, especially from Ceilthanus, who's grandmother used to tell him stories of the hero of Innenotdar. As his grandmother explained to him, she was a holy warrior who died only a few years before the forest caught fire. Well known as a friend of the forest's fey and blessed by the forest itself, many times she drove darkness from Innenotdar's borders with her magic sword. The greatsword Anyariel wielded was carved from living wood, and with it she defeated many monsters including a blackguard from Ragesia and a rampaging golem of white clay. The last foe she faced was a great stag that would not die, no matter how many wounds she dealt to it, so she pinned the creature to the bottom of a lake with her sword, so its rampage would end. In this context, and having heard Indomitability, his grandmother's description of the stag took on a new meaning.

On the doorway to the third floor was locked, and required Gath to break the door down. This took some repeated efforts before he was successful. Beyond that, that found some supplies and house keeping materials. Among them, a pouched had note attached to it in Bhurisrava's handwriting saying "For later study." In it were seven small blackened seeds shaped like claws. Crudely scrawled on the paper pouch was a sleeping face. Written on it in goblin were the following instructions:

Take one for visions of the firemaker. Do not take more. These are poison.​

The party deduced that these are the dream seeds mentioned in the journal. Dom expressed interest in seeing how these worked, but agreed that they should not be tried while the party did not have as secure position. When asked, Crystin expressed that she would be willing to try them, to compare them to her own visions, the party seemed split on the merits of letting their expert on prophecies examine the results versus the wisdom of giving a teenager hallucinogens.

Scene Two: The Shrine of Anyariel

With nothing else of interest in the tower, the party decided to check out the Shrine of Anyariel in Serni Bui-Duin. They found the beautiful fountain in the shape of a grand willow tree with drooping branches. The water had long boiled away, and the entire stone carving was covered with ash, with several leathery and desiccated bodies hanging in the branches of the shrine's sculpted tree. Krombholz pinpointed the stone work that acted as a door easily enough, but the secret stairs leading down beneath the stone willow was sealed. As the party attempted to get close the base of the tree to look for how to open it, three of the bodies dropped around the party, and began to attack.

The fight that followed with the ghasts proved surprisingly difficult for the party. Dom was paralyzed by one of their attacks, but a blessing from Desna allowed him to continue moving long enough to finish the fight. Gath and Krombholz both took nasty wounds in the fight as well, but the party prevailed with Krombholz having delivered the final blow to two of the foul creatures after Dom and Torrent both used the last of their channel energies for the day either harming their undead foes or healing the party in the fight.

Feeling like their resources were running low, the party debated briefly returning to the tower to rest, or continuing on. Having come so far, they felt that should at least examine the shrine before resting, and resumed the search. Something that happened during the fight had unsealed the door, however, and the party had no trouble entering now.

Scene Three: Under the Shrine

Blue luminescence bathed the twenty foot stairway leading down to the shrine. The chamber radiated peace and patience, with soft whispers in the air of a hallowed, distance song. A tall white statue depicting an elven woman plunging a greatsword deep into a rampant stag dominated the chamber's center. The sword, though carved of stone, looked like it was made of wood and covered in vines that entwine the elf woman’s hands

At the statue's fee lay two immobile figures, both elven. The first wore the uniform of a Shahalesti soldier from decades past, and a pale flame wreathed his body, struggling to burn, as did the pale flickering fire on the roots growing down through the ceiling. The man's eyes lay closed, as if in a deep slumber. The second fgure, a young male elf with red hair, wore the robes of a priest, though he bore no holy symbol. Numerous claw wounds marked his face and body, and he did not draw any breath, though his body showed no signs of decay or baking from the heat. His arms lay spread as if he fell in battle, and a heavy mace lay inches from one of his hands. It points to an elaborate glass display case near the wall, which has been shattered, its contents missing. The inscription on the case indicated that hair within were from Anyariel, a gift from her beloved Timbre.

A heavenly figure stood guard over the room. The azata ghaele, Eteranth, challenged the party, and listened to their pleas. Impressed by Bosma's telling of their story and their virtue in their efforts so far, Eteranth granted them entry to the Shrine, and sanctuary within. She began to discuss her presence her as well. The ghaele explained she served Desna, and was dispatched to this area as a favor to Qi Zhong, to grant a miracle and answer the dying prayer of a virtuous elf. Until her duty is complete, she remains vigilant here in the shrine and has little knowledge of the general affairs in the fire forest.

The party asked what they could do to help with her duty. Part of the miracle granted was placing the Shahalesti soldier into stasis, until such time as he may give testimony to the truth of what happened here in Innenotdar. If the party could bring leader or diplomats to her this testimony, and share the truth of what happened, this would go a long way toward fulfilling her duty, and the party responded with a promise to do what they could to bring witnesses to hear the testimony. Until that time, Eteranth will continue to stand vigilant, preserving the memory of the truth until travel is restored through Innenotdar.

Eteranth offered them continued sanctuary in the Shrine of Anyariel, and healing for their wounds. Deciding to accept her offer for the day, the party settled into the shrine for a bit. Several members took time during the evening to speak with Eteranth. Dom in particular sought out a discussion with the servant of his diety, and the two shared a long conversation. Gath and Bosma also talked with her, and Ceilthanus briefly consulted with her as well about Meetima Salka, his sword.

Gath and Dom wanted to try the Dream Seeds recovered from the elven watchtower. Bosma considered is unwise to risk intoxication with a strange drug in hostile territory, but would not prohibit Dom from pursuing something that spoke to his faith, or Gath for go along with it. Others in the party were persuaded by Bosma's stance not to participate, or had no inclination anyway.

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

I derived the name "Serni Bui-Duin" from using Tolkien's elvish language for "Stones by the River" and it refers to the delicate and well crafted stonewood construction throughout the village. I thought the name appropriate, and that the location would be named somewhere in the references the party found for it.

I choose Qi Zhong as the god who answered Bhurisrava's last prayer for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted a god of healing within the Pathfinder setting. However, I wanted it to avoid the use of Sarenrae, because I did not want my players to dismiss the preserving of Diashan Shediell as merely "an act of mercy."

I did a lot of interpretation around the Azata Ghaele, Eteranth, and had a lot of fun placing her here. One of the questions no one asked her was why Desna would send her agent if Qi Zhong was the one responding. I was going to use the answer to that question to talk about this territory now being strongly within Desna's domain of Dreams, and lay the ground work for future reveltions on the Trillith, while tying that to Dom's trait abilities and Crystin. To my surprise, no one has asked that question yet.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

I felt like the party was having an easy time of it, and the heavy exploration aspect of this session left a few of my payers feeling a bit let down (while completely enrapturing others). I decided to add the advance template to the ghasts to increase the challenge a little, and that turned out to make the encounter more challenging than I really expected. Dom's use of his Liberation domain ability after being paralyzed in the opening round made a big difference.

Gath and Krombholz have failed their saving throws against ghast fever, and have contracted it. They will start having to make saves against the progression of the disease in the next session. I have not announced that explicitly, and while some of the players understand the risk from knowledge of the game, those players are doing a good job of not having their characters express any extra concerns.

Mechanics Issues

As the players attempted to deal with what they knew in character with other's abilities, an interesting question came up regarding if player's could tell that the Liberation Domain's Liberation ability had become activated. In particular, Bosma has taken the Saving Finale spell which allows him to let another character reroll a save as an immediate action that ends his bard song. Would the Liberation power to suppress the results keep him from being aware he needed to use Saving Finale? For that matter, could he use use Saving Finale if he didn't realize that an ally had been the target of a spell? I settled on the fact that domain abilities are generally evident when in use unless noted or suggested otherwise, which would open the door to realize such an ability was used by an opponent. However, I am still thinking on how much Bosma needs to do know about an effect to realize it is used and allow an ally a chance to reroll.

Notable player reactions

To use or not to use the dream seeds? That was a surprisingly vigorous party debate. Dom and Gath were interested to try, and Bosma opposed. Dom pulled out the reasons why dreams are an important domain for his religion, and Gath thought the chance for prophetic information was too valuable to pass on. Bosma replied with examples from his faith for Cayden Cailean, and how even the "Lucky Drunk" didn't support getting inebriated on a mission. The argument that under the presence of celestial outsider to help if there were any complications was persuasive that it could help mitigate the risks. We ended the session on that discussion, with me getting a confirmation of which players planned to do so. I then used this to help draft the vision for the next session.

The players are having a bit of trouble keeping the keeping track of the nations and the different factions in play. I have tried to help out when I see the players trying to recall which group or faction was involved which way, when I think such information would be second nature to the character in questions, e.g. someone from Gate Pass is not going to forget which nation conquered them, and someone from Dassen will not forget Dassen.

The party is taking Crystin's premonitions seriously, talking with her about them and considering the details in them. They really wanted the vision of Indomitability watching them to be Kazyk the bearded devil, and a few times confused draconic and demonic with the description of the eyes, but caught themselves and realized it must be something different. The use of draconic here is a nice touch relating to the Trillith origin, that I don't think the party will remember long enough to connect,

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• TRON: Legacy by Daft Punk
• Amazing Spider-Man 2 by Hans Zimmer & The Magnificent Six
• Dances with Wolves by John Barry
• Dr. Strange by Michael Giacchino
• Hamlet by Ennio Morricone
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Pt 1 by Alexandre Desplat

I made a hand out of Bhurisrava's journal's last page from the module. I wish I had time to make more excerpts for the party to get a feel for the last days of Innenotdar. There is a powerful tragedy and sorrow here in the story, and I feel like I have not done enough convey the immensity of the loss here.

Session 13 - Feb 22, 2017

Player Summary
Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep
Scene Four: To Sleep

After some consideration, Dom offered to attempt an augury to judge the results. However, he needed both the carved bones and the incense for casting the spell. Dom speculated that Bhurisrava might have had some, speculating that a cleric of his power might have had the focus item to do augury. The party discussed if that was ethical to use his possessions, as they wanted very much to be respectful to the priest who had struggled so hard, and whose faith was rewarded at death by a miracle. Dom and Bosma talked with Eteranth, asking her guidance in the matter. She replied that she believed a soul so concerned with helping others would be willing to help someone else seeking guidance, and would not begrudge them the use. She also said that the party's expressed intent to bury Bhurisrava properly with honors and rites spoke well of their character.

Eteranth then asked to see Dom's starknife. He told her regretfully that he did not carry one as of yet. She paid him to bring her Bhurisrava'a heavy mace. She then spoke words in Celestial that resonated with the power of creation, and heavy mace began to glow like a brilliant star. When the light faded, she held a starknife in its place, which she bestowed on Dom. One one side, the center was marked with a wagon wheel, the spokes made from water, earth, metal, fire, and wood respectively. The other side held an beautifully etched butterfly. Eternath explained that this represented the twin influence of Desna and Qi Zhong, and bestowed it on Dom.

Upon searching Bhurisrava's body, Dom did find carved bones which he could use as the focus for an Augury, but no incense. Having a little bit of time, the party started to search the village to see if they could find anything that could work. Among other trinkets, the party did recover a damaged carved ivory necklace, that they later discerned held the power to let anyone who wore it understand Sylvan, but only Sylvan while they wore it. A wand of ray of frost made of worked iron was found, as well as a family bond's chord, showing the closeness of a relationship. Bosma found a masterwork lyre damaged by the heat but not beyond repair, and a book of sylvan hymns. Finally, a stash of exotic spices and herbs was found by Krombholz in one of the kitchens preserved in sealed pottery jars though dried out with the heat from the years.

Dom confirmed this would work, and set about with his Augury. Considering the action of Dom and Gath taking the dream seeds, Dom's augury read "Weal." Gath and Dom got ready to take the dream seeds, settling in for the evening, while Krombholz and Torrent made ready to help them if they had any reactions to the exotic seeds.

Intermission: Perchance to Dream

Dom and Gath began to dream, and were aware of each other's presence in the dream. Arising from the secret room in the shrine like incense smoke drifting to the sky, they beheld the fire forest of Innenotdar as though birds above the entire inferno.

Suddenly, the smoke and blaze began to run in reverse, picking up speed, days and nights flashing by faster than could be counted. When events began to proceed again, they witnessed a beautiful elven woman wielding a greatsword made from wood, battling a giant stag. They recognized the woman as Anyariel from the statue, and both men are amazed at the skill with which she fights. Despite both men's experience in battle, and the veterans of wars past that they had known, neither had ever seen a warrior with more skill. Despite the savage wounds she inflicted on the stag, however, she could not bring the beast down.

Deftly, she maneuvered and lead the stag through the forest to a lake down river from the bridge. There, she forced the beast back into the water, until it was swimming to try to get around her. Anyariel pursued it, then with a mighty surge, pinned it to the bottom of the lake with her sword, swimming away while the beast struggled futilely to free itself. During the entire struggle, the pair had heard an eerie song, as though hundreds of fey hidden throughout the woods had sung the melody and let it echo on the wind throughout the forest.

As the seasons changed the color of the leaves on the trees, the song never ended. Snow fell across the forest. Spring came, then summer and fall, leading to the stillness of winter again. Three times the cycle repeated, sometimes with the lake freezing partially, but while the song softened after the defeat of the great stag, it never ended.

Pulled like a cloud on the wind, Dom and Gath flew away from the tranquility of the lake to see the forest again. In the vision of their dreams, they could see the great torrents of power running through Innenotdar, two through the ground of the forest itself and one along the White River. Along the two that ran through the forest's land, they could see the essence of the giant stag slowly creeping out to engulf the forest, while the shining lance at the head of the river and the golden green power in the lake kept the creature's influence from the river. When the goblins crept through, setting fires across the forest, they could see the sparks ignite not just the forest, but the power from the stag as well.

As the elves fled Innenotdar, the fey continued to gather around the lake, singing the song continuously. Their numbers dwindled into only forty remained, their shadows cast long and flickering from the fire forest around them. While all their faces were concealed, one of the shadows cast by the singers behaved far differently than the others, moving independently of the one who cast it, visibly drawing a knife and preparing to strike down those next to it.

Expecting to see a fight breakout among these fey, Gath and Dom were instead blown north, across days and nights and across the mountain's pass, to come to rest over Gate Pass. Outside the west walls of the town, the 2nd Army of Ragesia spread out, with their great siege engines being put into place. The gates were opened, and a long march of masked Ragesian Inquisitors were lead into the city. Subtly, and carefully, the inquisitors were split up and lead into different sections of the town. When the Spire Clocktower rang, hidden Gate Pass soldiers and militia sprang from hiding places -- some veiled by clever illusions -- along with wizards from Gabal's School, and assaulted the overconfident Inquisitors.

The roar of an explosion pulled Dom and Gath's attention back to the West Gate. There, they could see Gabal himself raining destruction down over the siege equipment of the army. Rapidly, the weapons of war were brought down by the archmage. However, a great dragon launched from the rear of the army, wearing a giant bone Inquisitor's mask. Gabal turned his immense magical might upon the Inquisitor Dragon, but much of it failed to reach the dragon at all. The elderly wizards soon fell to the claws and flame of the wyrm.

With their weapons destroyed, the army slowly begins to entrench for a long siege. Forces spread across the surrounding countryside, gathering up people who had not retreated behind the city walls. Gath's direct family had stayed behind, and he and Dom watched as Ragesian hobgoblins and goblins gathered them up and harassed them while marching them to the prisoner camps.

Before the pair could see the fate of Gath's family, they were pulled by the winds southward. Flying over the mountains, and then across Dassen, they arrived quickly down the peninsula to Seaquen. High above the city, they could hear many different voices arguing with each others. Floating over the city, you can see refugees from all over arriving, seemingly carried by the wind. Many strangers and unusual people speaking in different tongues, but even among this crowd, a few truly strange creatures stand out. As they watched more and more people arrive at the city, ships sailing from different corners of the land, the swirling of winds and pressure became greater and greater. An ominous wind from the north east blows in, across the city and over the water, fomenting a terrible storm. None can stand against the strength of the wind, except Dom and Gath, who feel the winds fully, but stand unmoved by them.

Leaving the storm behind, they fly to the north over Dessen to Bresk, the home of King Steppengard. A great serpent with many heads curls around the king and whispers in his ears. As the king leans in to listen to the serpent, its many other heads rise up to strike his children from behind. As the king weeps in sorrow for his children, you are pushed further north still to Gallo's Fend. There, Dom watches as his uncle desperately tries to stop a wave of madness from the south while glancing over his should at a river of fire approaching slowly through the frozen Alydi Gap.

As Gath and Dom which Dom's uncle try to stand alone against what seems an overwhelming situation, a pair of silvery blue serpents appear in the dream realm. They flew toward the pair and lash them with a whip-like tail, damaging their dream projections, which causes both Dom and Gath to cry out in the waking world, though they remain asleep. Moments later, the coiled draconic spirits leave the Dimension of Dreams and manifest in the physical world, ready to attack the other members the party.

As the rest of the party began to respond to the threat, Eternath responded to the intrusion of her sanctuary, lashing out with chain lightening destroying one and badly damaging the second. Within moments, Khrombolz and Ceilthanus took care of the last one. Not wanting to risk anything else, the party woke the two sleepers up, and worked to help them with their psychic damage, while they in turn shared their visions with the party. Bromsby identified the flows through the earth and the river as ley lines, and he and Ceilthanus speculated that two forces seen in the dream must be working to stop the creature's influence on the river, explaining why it and the lake survive despite forty years being boiled away in the fire.

The party debated how much was real, how much was history, and how much were visions of the future. After much consideration, the party decided they cannot risk not warning Gabal about the dragon if it was a vision of things to come. They asked Eternath to try a sending to Gabal to warn him of the dragon if possible. She agreed, and attempted to use Far Casting to contact Gabal, but he could not be reached. Either he was protected by wards too powerful for the Azata to breach, or more likely the azata warned, he was already dead.

The party made ready to camp for the evening. Several people sought discussions with Eternath, including Dom, Bosma, and Gath. The remainder of the night passed peacefully. In the morning, Eternath conjured a marvelous feast for the entire party, a Hero's Feast for their day.

Scene Five: Going Against the Flow

The party discussed their directions for the day, debating the merits of the options available. They part wanted to find out where Bhurisrava took the people he rescued as well as what the shinning spear that lay at the mouth of the White River, keeping it pure. In addition, they had no wish to following the wishes of the demanding fire spirit.

As the party travelled northeast along the edge of the river, Bromsby rode on the back of Krombholz horse and attempted to attune to the ley line running along the river. He was able to identify and feel its power, but in the course of the time he spent meditating trying to tap into it, a powerful wind below a tsunami wave of fire and cinders across the party. Krombholz spotted it coming before it hit, and alerted enough of the party that most members of the party dove into the river before it rolled over the party. Ceilthanus, however, caught on fire briefly before being able to extinguish it in the fire. Twice more as the party continued upriver, a similar cinder storm swept across the party, but the party responded with the same tactic of diving into the river if they could react in time, or immediately diving into the river after the wave of flame passed if they could not.

After the third wave, Krombholz and Ceilthanus spotted a hideous flying monstrosity, looking a red skinned goblin head with saber tooth tusks, attached to spider like body of taloned legs. The creature moved in quickly on the party as they began to recover from the third cinder storm. Bromsby identified the creature as as rast, a predator native to the elemental plane of fire, and warned the party to avoid its gaze. Gath did not, and was soon paralyzed by its gaze.

As Bosma attempted to keep between the rast and Gath, Torrent called down a fog cloud while Bosma worked to pull Gath out of the water before he drowned. Ceilthanus closed his eyes entirely, and asked his blade Meetima Salka to guide him toward his foe. Bromsby averted his gaze, but successfully cast a color spray on the rast. With the creature stunned, Ceilthanus and Dom attacked it successfully in melee, while Krombholz shot at it from range after guiding the horse he and Bromsby rode away from the shore.

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

All the notes in the module background are unclear of this point, I decided that Indomitabilty was not ablaze before the fire was set alight. His essence was infused with the forest when the fire started, I think, though one could take it the other way, with the history of the Dream Seeds suggests that prior to seeting the forest afire, Indom was not in fact a fire spirit. As long as he is infused into the burning forest, though, he will remain on fire as well, though, so the issue is only of importance for the history seen by the party, and if they encounter Indom after the fire burns out.

The source material never really defines what the azata ghaele will or will not do to help the party. I may have been generous with the aid, but I took the stance that any reasonable request that she could offer the party that would not endanger her ability to stand sentinel or defend the shrine would be granted. Thus, her agreeing to the sending request and the offering of Hero's Feast, which in turn took care of two developing cases of ghoul fever in the party as well as giving them a bonus for the rest of the day. I also had her change Bhurisrava’s mace to a starknife to match the player's ideas for his character. Marking the starknife with both Qi Zhong and Desna's emblems recognizes the dual heritage of the blessing.

I expanded the details within the vision considerably. I did this in part to give the party some focus on events within the fire forest, but also to give more context to the rest of the world events. Other game masters here will undoubtedly recognize Deception among the Seela, the hint of Diogenes's role inside Gate Pass, Vorax-Hûl at the death of Gabal, the hint of Two Winds Monastery's involvement for the hurricane at Seaquen, and then finally the role of Madness in Dessen. I tried to be as literal in these visions as possible, such that when the plot unfolds in that adventure, the party will recognize the elements when they see them; while at the same time, I don't expect the information in these visions to make much sense at all to the players now. Likewise, I tried to give more details for those elements that involved one of the two dreamers than the general information of the campaign adventure. Thus, revelation of Madness and the details about Dom's uncle, Duke Gallo, while much less information is offered for the events to happen around Seaquen. If other characters had joined, I would have called out other details to link to them and their backgrounds.

I came across the treatment of ley lines in Occult Adventures when reading up on the Dimension of Dreams within pathfinder. It fit my concepts of how magic was working in the setting, and I brainstormed from there to use as an explanation for the river being kept free, and for how Indomitable spread his influence through the forest. The White River ley line provided a +4 caster level bonus to those attuned to it, with an additional +2 caster level for any spell with the water descriptor. While this is a significant boost, it actually does not provide that much bonus to Bromsby; as a 3rd level sorcerrer, he only has 1st level spells, and the damage output for his spells cap at 5 dice of damage. The most benefit he gets is for duration of spells. Still, it is a boost, and would recommend anyone else using this judge for the particular characters in their party on a case by case basis if that much a bonus will be too much.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

Once again to adjust for the larger party size, I increased the number of opponents, this time from one to two dream elementals. As the two creatures were going to invade the sanctuary of the ghaele, I knew this would not be much of a threat for the party. However, it gave the party pause about using the Dream seeds, as they wondered if one dream elemental was called for each use of dream seed.

The rast is an interesting challenge. A series of bad roles could really hurt the party here, as multiple paralyzed characters for a four person party could really spiral down quickly. In my party, recognizing what the creature was before it got into range gave my party choices on how to respond. A failed skill check there would likely have resulted with a few more characters paralyzed by the rast. The best option for the party is to spread out and deal with the rast from range, but when the open round leaves someone paralyzed who is already in the water, that did not prove a very viable option for my party. I did not make use of the rast's flyby attack feat, and under different circumstances that could have proven interesting as a tactic.

Mechanics Issues

When dealing with the cinder storm and rast attacks by the side of the river, my party immediately made use of the river, either wading out into it or swimming.
I would have benefited from more details on the depth of the river or the flow speeds to help estimate the swim DC. I settled on a maximum depth of 15 ft, 25 feet wide river, and that it was a Calm River (DC 10 Swim check) despite the name "White River" which suggested more the idea of rapids to me.

I addressed the issue of ley lines above.

After this session, there was an extended email discussion regarding the Armor as Damage Reduction variant rule. While as the game master, I had been the one to introduce the idea of this variant rule among the other ones in use, I had been watching as it really began to skew the difficult of encounters in odd ways. I finally decided that this variant rule is not really a good rule to use in general, and would not recommend it. By 3rd level, I could already see how problematic it was going to be much later in the campaign while the way that it changed the feel of combat was not satisfying enough for the complications it was causing and would cause. A campaign journal isn't really the place for a detailed mechanics break down and analysis, but if anyone is interested I can post that separately, focusing on examples from the campaign already and what I projected going forward in future War of the Burning Sky encounters. After a lot of exchanges, including several from my players asking to make sure that they understood what I was trying to get from the variant rules and others commenting more generally on the variant rules and how they were impacting them, we decided to revert from Armor as Damage Reduction to traditional Armor Class rules, starting next session.

Notable player reactions

Krombholz was not present for the game. Dom was late, and that caused a slight delay in getting going, as I did not have the visions readied as hand out for the session, and did not want to repeat it after he arrived. I thought his suggestion for a augury before using the dream seeds was a really good in character way to settle the discussion about the use of the dream seeds.

The party actually spent a modest amount of time discussing the uses for the "broken" translation necklace. For example, the party is thinking of keeping it so that they may place it on a prisoner, and then keep a prisoner from learning any information about them while they are held.

Once the vision was shared, they discussed the events about Gate Pass tactics and status in detail. I had Torrent offer the observation that by violating truce with their ambush of the Inquisitors, Gate Pass would not find it easy to negotiate any other terms except for total surrender. The players were split, with some thinking that Gate Pass had taken a risky but dedicated move that would let them hold out longer, while others was appalled at the violation of a "truce" or "settlement" realizing how angry it must make the Ragesian army. I do plan to have this play into General Danava's view of Gate Pass, and the protracted nature of that fight there.

I had more requests for discussions with Eternath than I expected, with many players wanting to spend time talking with the celestial being.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• Bram Stoker's Dracula by Wojciech Kilar
• Vampire Hunter D by Marco D'Ambrosio
• Hero by Tan Dun
• House of Flying Daggers by Shigeru Umebayashi
• Dead Again by Patrick Doyle
• Dragon Age: Origins by Inon Zur

I had no hand outs for this session, and only an image from the bestiary for the rast.

Session 14 - 2017-03-08

Player Summary
Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep
Scene Six: Kazyk's Offer

As the party recovered from dealing with the Rast and readied to proceed up the White River again, the bearded devil teleported before the group again in a blossom of fiery chrysanthemums. Bowing to the party, he placed his glaive on the ground, and backed up a few steps, then called out to the party in greeting.

"Hail, champions! It is sad that we meet in such a vile place, and under such cruel conditions. You flee Gate Pass, under the descending fist of the Ragesian Empire, toward a temporary safety. You and I both know Ragesia won’t let you escape as easy as that, but we don’t have to have this come to blows."

He pointed to his neck with a gnarled, green finger, showing off an iron collar. “Indeed, I am one of their dogs, leashed and collared by one of their inquisitors. You may call me Kazyk. I am bound to their letter, but I bear them no respect. You, though, you have my respect. You fight well, I’ve seen. I have no desire to throw more lives than is necessary, particularly not my own, and I share with you the desire to escape this place as soon as possible.

"I think we can work together, to find a way out of this fiery wood. As nice as it is for me, I do not think you like it so much. Well, do I have your ear? Are you interested in alliance?"

The party briefly listened to Kazyk's proposal, which would be to find the fey he described as "wicked and twisted" at the lake downriver, and end their singing, thus freeing the creature trapped by their song in the lake. Doing so would allow it to leave; after its departure, the fire would burn itself out. With no fire forest to remain within, the part of his contract compelling him to kill the party before they leave the fire fores would not apply. The party questioned if he had been approached by Indomitability, and the devil granted that he had. Bosma declined the offer of an alliance "for now," saying that they did not know enough to commit at this point. Appearing to accept this, the bearded devil picked up his glaive, and teleported away.

The party discussed the offer in more detail, trying to determine if ending the burning of Innenotdar would be more strategically helpful or not, concluding that while Gate Pass still withstood the 4th Army, no serious change in the overall strategic map. Torrent did point out that it would make pursuit by small forces from Ragesia possible, but conceded that this would be smaller forces that could work their way through the mountain in some manner. If Gate Pass fell, though, it would offer a new avenue for the invasion of Dassen, rather than just Alydi Gap in north western Dassen.

Scene Seven: The Mouth of the White River

Continuing upstream for another hour they finally came to mouth of the White River in the forest, where the it feeds from the mountains into the valley of Innenotdar. Here, a beautiful waterfall cascaded over the sheer side of a tall cliff face. The water poured off the roof of a small shrine built on an island in a small lake at the base of the waterfall. The area around the pool, the cliff face, and the pool itself, all held burning vegetation on them, but it remained very thinly spread. Strong winds formed from the confluence of cold mountain air and fiery draft, creating a constant haze of steam and fog.

Through this haze the party managed to spot an elderly unicorn watching them from the island. The party waded across to the island, some riding the horses, others holding their breaths for the deeper section of the lake. On the island they called out to the unicorn, and were greeted in return. The old unicorn introduced himself as Nelle, and his white coat had turned gray by ash. He seem emaciated with age, his horn chipped and burnt, but his patience and dedication appeared undimmed.

The party discussed at length with Nelle the history and current situation of the fire forest. Nelle explained to the party a bit more of the history behind the legend of Anyariel: that she had been beloved by the forest of Innenotdar, and in particular the rivalry between the dryad Timbre and nymph Gwenvere. Timbre had bestowed upon her love a weapon made from the living wood of the First Tree. Anyariel wielded this sword for many years, until finally the great stag came to Innenotdar. The beast had ragged across Innenotdar disrupting the natural flow of the forest, until Anyariel had confronted it. No matter how many wounds she dealt it, the beast would not die. Realizing this, she lured the stag to the lake at the end of the White River, and then forced it into the lake. There, she pinned it with the sword of the First Tree, and trapped it at the bottom of the lake. Nelle confessed that he too believed that was the end of the matter, save for the need of the fey to keep singing their song around the creature.

Years passed, Nelle told the party. Anyariel died from her injuries, and Timbre felt great despair at her loss. The elves of Innenotdar built Shrine of Anyariel in her honor at the village of Serni Bui-Duin, and Timbre gave a lock of Anyariel's hair to be kept there. Then the goblins and orcs came, setting fire to the forest. And the burning never stopped. Since then, Nelle explained, he has stayed mostly here on the island under the waterfall, somewhat protected from the never ending fires. For a while he was visited by Bhurisrava, who's faith was troubled by the apocalyptic inferno consuming his home. When the party told them of finding his body in the Shrine of Anyariel, Nelle was extremely saddened to learn that his friend has died violently rather than escaped. However, he took comfort that Bhurisrava's last call was answered by the ghaele Eteranth as sign of new faith, hoping that this meant his friend has found comfort in the next life.

Gath and Dom asked about the Shahalesti elf kept in stasis and kept secure by Eteranth. Nelle confirmed that Bhurisrava had told him of the elf, a soldier for Shahalesti named Diashan Shediell, who has been caught in the fire. Bhurisrava had tended to him, despite the suspicious circumstances under which he found the elf soldier. Nelle believes both the torment he endured from the unending fire and Bhurisrava's continued efforts brought the soldier to repentance, and he had confessed to Bhurisrava that Shahalesti had set the fires intentionally, attempting to frame Ragesia. Nelle had told the party that Bhurisrava had intended to bring Diashan to the island as well for Nelle to watch over, as he had the other refugees from the Shrine of Anyariel, but had never returned from that last trip.

Nelle then took the party to the small shrine directly under the waterfall, where the eighteen elves he guards over lay moaning and cursing in unending suffering. There also they could see a small sculpture of an eagle and dragon chasing each other in a circle, located near the back of the shrine, formed of clay, feathers, scales, and many other small beautiful items. Khrombholz asked first why they did not just take the elves out of the forest to which Nelle replied that Bhurisrava did. Unable to travel the roads, he had climbed the sheer cliff bearing one of the survivors on his back the entire way, but once free and out of sight of the forest, his life had guttered out like a candle snuffed out in the wind. Khrombholz asked why Nelle didn't just leave then, and Nelle asked him if he, like other Dassen warriors the unicorn had known, carried some of his home's dirt in his shoes, so he would never loose touch with his homeland. After Khrombolz admitted he did, Nelle asked him did the dwarven stonesmiths and craftsmen still spend their time and attention carefully building and creating works of great skill, which they in turn defended with great zeal and vigor. So too, Nelle said, did he love this forest, did he care for it as his home, as had his ancestors for generations.

Bromsby asked what Nelle had meant by "the First Tree" that the dryad Timbre belonged to. Nelle said that it was, quiet simply that: the first tree that grew in the world, and which had been cared for ever since. Upon hearing this, several members of the party who had felt sorrowful for Innenotdar's fate, but felt that they had other higher commitments began to reassess their priorities. Bromsby also asked what Nelle knew of the stag trapped in the lake. Nelle explained that he knew the creature called itself Indomitablity, but that it also sometimes called itself a "Child of Trilla," and the occasionally, he heard the world "trillith" rumble through the forest, but did not know what these meant. Bromsby was able to recognize that name as having a draconic sound and style, but did not know anything else.

Dom and Gath volunteered what they experienced under the influence of the dream seeds. Nelle confirmed that the channels of power they had seen flowing through the forest were powerful ley lines, and that these were the avenues by which the creature had spread its influence through the forest. Currently, of the three great lines, only the one that ran along the river remain free from the creature, and only by the efforts of himself and Gwenvere. Twisted by her jealousy and her guilt as she was now, she still protected the forest from the other end of the river's run. Crystin spoke up mentioned that she and Bromsby had felt the purity of the line here but been able to atune to it. Nelle offered to assist. Before settling down to guide them, Nelle bade Gath go and pull three feathers from the eagle, and three scales from the dragon; that these might help them in there efforts. Gath did so, and felt the magic that lay within them. Meanwhile, with Nelle's guidance and Crystin's help, Bromsby finally attuned to the ley line here.

Nelle pleaded with the party to find some way to help the forest, some way to save it, though he did not know how. If any did, he thought it would be Timbre. The party left, heading down stream with the intent to find Timbre, and pass along Nelle's greetings as well as see if she knew a way to save the forest.

Scene Eight: The Trouble with Tiljann

Unlike moving upriver, the party found little conflict as the traveled down river toward the Seela's Lake. Bromsby and Ceilthanus speculated that this was because they moved in the direction that Indomitablity wanted them to go.

As they approached the bridge crossing the White River by Serni Bui-Duin, wisps of song emerged from the ever-present roar of the forest fire. Sung in a mournful minor key, but with a discordant trace of hope in the voice, the strange melody sounded like something from the swallowing depths of an endless dream. For a moment the party thought they saw images of tragedy and history at the edges of their vision, but then their attention snapped back to the real world as they realized the song was real, and its singer close. Through the ever present haze and smoke, Khrombolz spotted a young woman with deep, vivid eyes full of fey mystery and cautious curiosity. Emaciated, she looked as if she had never had a full meal in her life, and light leather armor clung to her waifish body. Dark green hair floated around her shoulders almost gray with the ash in the air, and faintly glistening wings twitched behind her back, withered like a dragonfly that got too close to a flame. She was climbing out of the river bank onto the bridge, and approaching the tower. Before the party could call out to her, six male fey of the same variety appeared out of thin air surrounding her, and attacked brutally.

Uncertain if they were aiding the right side, but unwilling to let a viscous ambush go down unopposed in front of them, Bosma called for the party to move in and help her. The battle was swift, with Bromsby unleashing his strengthened magic to great effect. Dom healed her, while Gath moved to keep the young fey from being killed. Torrent moved to give Ceilthanus some cover, while Bosma backed up Gath while disrupting the fey's attacks on Khrombolz and Bromsby. Clearly unprepared for combatants with the party's skills and coordination when they had planned to attack a single figure, the attacker's morale broke, and a few attempted to run. One fled across the bridge to Serni Bui-Duin, only for Khrombolz's carefully placed shot to drop him in his flight. Another fled down the river bank, only to be run down by Ceilthanus.

With the battle over, the young female fey cheered for the group in Sylvan, then switched to a heavily accented Common when the party spoke back to her in a different language.

To be continued

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

In accordance to include the mythic elements, I changed the definition of the "First Tree" from being the first tree of Innenotdar, to the First Tree of the world.

Why would Nelle not have visited the Seela village over the decades? He can teleport anywhere with the forest, and would know the lake itself would not be aflame. Conversely, Tiljann came up river to the village. Why wouldn't the seela travel the full length of the White River to come visit Nelle periodically? A unicorn's healing powers alone would give reason for the visit, even if not just to see the beauty of the aging guardian. I decided that they had visited each other, albeit irregularly over the decades, and only recently with the incendiary augmentation to teleportation had the visits stopped.

I skipped the "Fiery Rapids" fire elementals on the river encounter. To me, the encounter felt like just an extra wandering monster encounter and not something that add to the story. I probably should have included it after they talked with Nelle and began down the river, just to increase the number of encounters and emphasis the risks of the fire forest. However, I think that getting to Tiljann in this session proved more important, and helped move the story along.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

I did not increase the number of fey attack Tiljann. Nine became too large a number to make sense from a village with only forty. Leaving it as six made it an easy encounter relatively for the party, with the only challenge being if they party could defeat the seela attackers before they had done critical injury to Tiljann.

Mechanics Issues

I'm not handling the multiple NPCs well here as I want to. I keep thinking of things later that I wanted the NPCs to say or do, and missed out on the chances for them to contribute to the interactions. I am going to start trying to prepare a few key pieces of dialog for each NPC with the party before each session, to prompt me to have them contribute and interact with the party. I envy the ability of a few other GMs I know who seem to effortlessly include voices and interactions for their NPCs. I am writing this review after Session 16, so the impact of my efforts will take a few more sessions to show up in these summaries.

The encounter with the seela rebels in "The Trouble with Tiljann" was the first encounter post the reversion to normal AC rules. The encounter went very smoothly. It did give Bromsby a moment to shine a bit with casting "burning hands (electric arc version)" with the boosted dice of damage.

The party had gotten to the point in this session where they earned the experience points for 4th level. I did not have them level until the next session during the rest at the seela village. However, it did cause me to look at the experience points for the party, and it does not look like they will have enough from the last third of the adventure to earn 5th level. I am debating if I want to leave them as for this adventure, and supplement the travel to Seaquen to bring them up the expected experience level, or add to this adventure's final encounter run.

The check to identify Trilla almost succeeded, surprisingly enough; Bromsby came very close failing by only 2, so I gave him the bit of information about the name sounding draconic, and familiar, but not being able to place it exactly.

Notable player reactions

Bosma's player was out for this session, which lead to a moment in dealing with Kazyk's offer where the players called him to make sure they had his buy in on what his character would do. Krombholz enjoyed teasing the party, pointing out that he did seem to offer a possible solution that would work for the party's goals. The player did this more out of enjoyment with provoking the other players and suggesting actions he know will provoke the more heroic members of the group. Still, it was interesting to see the players express their reasons to reject the devil's offer. Some, like Bromsby rejected it out of hand as a Ragesian agent. Others, because it was from a devil, and some, like Ceilthanus, rejected it most firmly because of the implied slaughter.

What was not discussed in the player summary was the great amount of time spent in game with player's reconnecting the dots that other players had already drawn in previous sessions. Most of the players seem to now being current on the mystery of the fire forest and the factions involved so far.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• Kubo and the Two Strings by Dario Marianelli
• The Abyss by Alan Silvestri
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Fernando Velazquez
• Captain America: Civil War by Henry Jackman
• Legends of the Fall by James Horner

The image of Nelle, with the burning victims in the background, was used, and the party commented how thin he looked. I wish I could have come up with something for the shrine, to show the dragon and eagle statue.

I used the color image for Tiljann from the 4E release of the, which caused Bosma when he saw after the session it to note that her hair color in the image didn't match her hair color in the description.

Session 15 - 2017-03-22

Player Summary
Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep
Scene Seven: The Trouble with Tiljann (cont)

With the battle over, the young female fey cheered for the group in Sylvan, then switched to a heavily accented Common when the party spoke back to her in Common. Because of her accent, most of the party realized that she had very little experience speaking Common with native speakers. She introduced herself as Tiljann, and started to pepper the party with questions. The party was unsure if they wanted to keep the downed Seela alive, but at Bosma's urging and with Tiljann's vocal support, they stabilized all six of the attackers, including bringing back the one that had run across the bridge toward the village.

When asked about why she was attacked, Tiljann seemed genuinely confused and concerned by it. There must be some sort of mistake, or they much be overwhelmed with despair to point of madness for them to try to hurt her, she said. The young fey could not understand a real motivation for them to hurt her.

When asked what she was doing her, she explained that another seela, Vuhl, had told her that there was something beautiful to see here. She did not really trust Vuhl, but this time he appeared to be telling the truth as coming here had brought her to the party. Vuhl had recently had some sort of revelation, and since then been espousing the idea that their life in Innenotdar was meaningless. She explained that the party members were the first new people she had met in the forty years since the fire started, and that she was young enough that she barely remembered that time. She readily agreed to take the party back to her village, and so they could talk to Papuvin, the leader of the seela.

As the party followed Tiljann downstream, Bosma asked her about the song she was singing earlier. The Song of Forms, she explained, has been sung for centuries by the seela, and often used for holy occasions. She was quiet willing to teach it to Bosma or anyone else in the party who wanted to learn. Bosma and Bromsby both expressed interest in learning. According to Tiljann, the Song of Forms can only be properly performed in Sylvan, so Bosma wore the magical necklace recovered from Serni Bui-Duin that allowed him to speak Sylvan. Properly performed, the the song could give body to the native spirits of the forest, or evoke in listeners a nearly real image of the events told in the song. The lyrics can change, and should change to reflect the purpose of the song, but a particular series of eight refrains must be repeated as the song is continued As part of this, Tiljann pointed out the purpose of the song was embodied in an early stanza:

In the example that Tiljann sang for Bosma and Bromsby, one of the repeated stanzas that stood out told of the origin of the seela:

As they talked, Tiljann told Bosma and Bromsby that she truly hoped to find a solution to save the forest and her people, something more than just singing forever or dying in the fire. She had started practicing new magic, hoping to develop the skill to do something, like her hero Etinifi from the Tale of the Longwalker, but so far her meager efforts had not produce much results. They asked briefly about the tale, and Tiljann excitedly told of a bard who escaped the fire forest when the blaze started forty year ago on a mission to help. He had never returned, but occasionally on the darkest saddest nights, echos of his song would reach the lake for the seela to hear and know he was still out there.

Act Three: Out of the Fire
Scene One: The Seela Village

After about two hours, the shores of the river widened, and the banks slowly rose to about ten feet or higher. Fires still crackled with resilient fire atop the cliffs at these distant banks, but this wide area was itself free from fire. The ever-present ash thinned here, and the party could see the gray surface of a murky lake a mile ahead, appearing to stretch away for miles more. Krombholz and Gath were the first to realize that where the party walked now was once part of the lakebed, which must have burned away slowly over many years. The heat here was weaker, but still sweltering without magical protection.

From down the river and around a distant cliff, a haunting chorus pierced the sounds of the forest's inferno. Magic echoed tangible in the air, and its song was like a dirge. The flames of the tree overhead dimmed and flickered as the song swelled, but the voices singing it were weary, and the fire seemed unquenchable.

About a dozen huts, apparently formed from mud, lay on the lakebed in front of several caves in the cliff-face. Near the edge of the lake, a fifteen-foot tall stone watch tower hosted a platform with a clear view of the ash-coated water of the lake. From there, four seela stood singing, projecting the Song of Forms out across the lake. One of the singers then beat a wide drum upon seeing Tiljann and the party with the prisoners they brought. Tiljann was quick to assure the seela who started to gather that she was fine, and the party came as friends.

Papuvin came from a cave on the upper level, and glided down to greet the party. After listening to Tiljann explain the fight at the bridge, he invited the party to come back to the cave out of the heat to tell their story. As the party was being lead back to Papuvin's cave, Dom noted a seela making meaningful eye contact with him, and gesturing that Dom interpreted as wanting to speak with him. Making a note to seek this fey out later, Dom joined the rest of the party in the cave to speak with Papuvin.

After listening to the party's entry into the Fire Forest and encounters with the spirit of the fire, Indomitability, and the unicorn Nelle, Papuvin spoke to them of the seela's duty to continue to sing the song. He had no hope that there was a way to end the fire and save the forest, but did concede that Timbre might understand more than he did of such things. However, he warned that between the loss of her love Anyariel and the fire that burned her and the First Tree, she was lost to despair and suffering. He knew of no way to reach her.

Bromsby indited Papuvin on his fatalism, and pointed out that his way was failing. He called upon the Seela leader to be willing to accept new efforts brought by the party to find a solution, since he has no alternative himself to the slow ongoing destruction of the seela. Papuvin accepted Bromsby rebuke with good grace, appearing to agree that something must change for there to be any hope. Being late in the afternoon, Papuvin offered them shelter for the night before the party made its decision on what actions they would take.

Scene Two: Unacceptable Offerings

After speaking with Papuvin, Bromsby decided to try and speak with Indomitability. Heading to the edge of the lake, he called out to Indomitability. The fire near Bromsby roared more intensely, and the spirit of Indomitability answered him. Bromsby explained that if Indomitability would agree to keep the forest alive as the fire exhausted itself, he would get the seela to stop singing the Song of Form. Indomitability refused, saying that he wanted freedom, and how could he be free if he was not allowed to leave or do as he pleased. Irritated as Indomitability's refusal of the logical answer to save everyone, Bromsby then turned to taunting the spirit instead, actively seeking to antagonize it. Crystin seemed entertained by Bromsby's creative taunts and cheered him on, but then suddenly collapsed.

Torrent and Krombholz responded immediately to her, and Bromsby stopped taunting Indomitability to see how she was. The fey that had attempted to speak with Dom earlier was approaching, and he asked if the young human was suffering from the heat. Crystin awoke, and seemed fine, but could not remember what she saw when she collapsed. She wondered if the Song of Forms was making her weak. Seeing that Crystin appeared to be alright, the seela introduced himself as Vuhl. He implored the party to speak with him privately, and brought them to a different cave on the lower level to talk quietly.

Vuhl attempted to explain his ethos and vision for the seela. The seela, according to Vuhl, have always supported the natural order of life. The reason they first acted against Indomitability was the disruption to the natural order of life and death he brought to Innenotdar. Now, however, it is they the seela who prolong the breaking of the natural order. Once the seela stop singing the Song of Forms, the great stag will not longer be bound, and the spirit will leave. The forest will burn, and all within it will meet their long delayed natural death. Vuhl argued that the seela should embrace this natural death, not fear it, and welcome the return to the natural order. The forest will reseed and regrow in time, a new forest upon the nourishing ashes of the old, as is the natural cycle of life, death, and rebirth. By doing so they will end the prolonged suffering of all involved. All that they need to do, Vuhl concluded, is stop singing.

Wary of the vision Vuhl presented, they inquired how Vuhl thought that might be accomplished. Something shocking, and a bit disturbing was Vuhl's idea. Presenting something shocking abruptly to the village, and the shock would disrupt the singing long enough. The corpse of dryad Timbre would do the trick, Vuhl suggested. Vulh seemed perfectly sincere in his desires, and in his regret that such a cost would be required; besides, she had suffered for forty years in the fire, and thus her end would be a mercy. Vuhl and his ideas repulsed the party, but they played along asking how they could get to Timbre.

This is when Vuhl explained that he thought the best way would be via Timbre's old rival, Gwenvere. Vuhl explained that Gwenvere had stolen the lock of Anyariel's here that Timbre had donated to the Shrine of Anyariel for the elves of the Innenotdar. Bringing that would certainly grab Timbre's attention, Vuhl argued. Failing that, they could resort to violence, and bring proof of Gwenvere's death, but Vuhl urged that be used only as the last resort. She had been beautiful beyond compare once, and though twisted into repulsive ugliness now, Vuhl spoke of the good she had done, seeming to suggest that he would understand the necessity of killing the nymph even as he hoped it would not come to that. When asked how he knew of the lock of hair, he explained that he had seen it in Gwenvere's grotto.

Scene Three: At Gwenvere's Pool

The next morning, the party set out to find Gwenvere. Following the shore of Lake Seela around, they traveled to the far side of the lake on the southwest side. There, following the directions they were given, they approached they area where Gwenvere lived. Here, amidst the fires forest was a beautiful place, with the shallow water filled with delicately burning reeds. A small island in the middle of the pool has blossoming flowers on that are on fire, the flames dancing delicately along the blossoms. The scattered bones of dead animals scattered through the area were the only clue as to the more serious nature of the area.

Calling out for Gwenvere as they approached, the party acted politely attempting to call her attention. She lifted her head from the murky water, partially hidden by the reeds, and spoke with the party, cautiously at first. Bosma spoke first, opening with appreciation and gratitude for her long effort on keeping the ley line free, and preserving Lake Seela and the White River. He then asked her what they might do to help her in this effort, and what the party could do to save the forest. Gwenvere lamented her lost forest, complaining that her beauty too was gone now. Grudgingly, admitted that she did not know of a way to help the rest of the forest, or ease her own burden, but that her old rival Timbre might. Bosma asked if there was anything that Anyariel would have appreciated Gwenvere doing to help set things right with Timbre, reminding her that it was never too late to do the right thing now. Gwenvere turned away in shame and guilt, but seemed struck by Bosma's words. Dom followed up with asking what dreams Gwenvere had; what did she want now. Again, Gwenvere told of her lost love, and her lost beauty; both she felt were lost forever. Dom countered that miracles happened, and he personally had seen the results of miracles granted for those who earnestly called for them. He brought up Eteranth's presence at the Shrine of Anyariel, and the granting of the last wish of an earnest priest who's questioned his own faith at the time. He called upon Gwenvere to have hope. Moved by guilt and by the words of Bosma and Dom, Gwenvere told them she still had the locket of Anyariel's hair, and that she thought this would call Timbre's attention. She dove under the water and return a few moments later, with a coiled locket of blonde hair, bound with a gold locket.

Thanking her profusely for doing the right thing, and promising to do what they could for the forest, the party left Gwenvere's pool, and marched around the Lake again to the Seela village. From there, they followed a dry gorge for almost a mile toward the First Tree, and its dryad Timbre.

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

So, I made a mistake in presenting information. When the party asked about the number of seela in the village, I quickly referenced my notes, and used the 39 number instead of the 40. Of course, there are supposed to be "40" if you count Deception. I covered this when the party wondered about there be only 39 instead of 40 tongues by having Tiljann explain that one person took their own life a couple of days ago by walking into the forest. I expanded this change to be someone who had refused to go along with Vuhl's plan to kill Tiljann, and so he in turn had been killed by Deception before he could reveal anything. If the party had pressed for details, they would have found this missing "40th" seela was a close associate recently of the six they had beat. The party accepted the explanation offered by Tiljann at face value, however, so this did not come up in the game.

No one has asked the name of the Seela village so far, which is a bit unusual for this group, but good for me, since I don't have a name for it.

So what does Papuvin do with the prisoners? He can't really keep them under armed guard permanently; the village is too small to keep 15% of its population locked up constantly. The party will resolve the situation with Indomitability before it really does become an issue, but in my campaign, Papuvin is debating between trying to reform them and exiling them.

Vuhl in my campaign -- or rather, Deception -- has indeed seen the lock of Anyariel's hair, but not with Gwenvere's permission as he implied in the discussion with the party. Rather, he had crept in and spied on her and the Shrine of Love without her knowledge. His tremendous stealth skill makes this practical. The party never asked Gwenvere explicitly for the lock of hair, and therefor Gwenvere never had reason to challenge them as to how they knew. I had thought this might be an opportunity for the party to gather more evidence to support their suspicions and dislike of Vuhl, but the diplomatic way the actual discussion worked out it did not let it come up.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

In most of the other encounters in the adventure, experience rewards are noted for peaceful negotiation of encounters. However, none are noted for dealing with Gwenvere. Since the goal of this encounter is not to defeat Gwenvere, but rather to do what is needed to reach out to Timbre next, I awarded the party full experience points for CR 4 encounter.

I wish the maps for Gwenvere's Pool did not include her caves, or at least that there was one view that did not. I would like to have shown that to my players to give them the feel for the area, but did not want to reveal to them the two different chambers without them at least getting into the water. Since they never did get into the water, using a good combination of diplomacy and guilt on the former nymph, they never did learn about the two areas, and I never did share the map.

Mechanics Issues

Do the Seela fly? They have no flight stats, but the descriptiong for P mentions him gliding down. I adapted them with the Pathfinder glide ability, like the Tengu alternate racial trait, and a racial bonus to the Fly skill, but no actual fly ability.

Do the Seela reproduce? No children are described in the village. I decided their numbers can increase as the forest grow, so no children while the forest burns, and Tiljann youngest. The party picked up on this, and discussed it briefly, learning that the seela can only increase and grow as the forest grows.

My party found the location of things in relationship to each other a little fuzzy, and they keep trying to understand the distance to each area so they can judge time, feeling the pressure of their Stand the Heat running out. That map does not make this explicitly clear, though there is sufficient information in the module. I recommend having the travel times and distance for your group worked out and available for your games, should your party have the same concerns.

There are no boats on the lake described for the Seela. I find this unusual, and interesting, especially given that the party recovered the Boat Feather Token from the shrine at the Mouth of the White River.

The party leveled up to 4th during stay at the Seela Village. I'll post their 4th level sheets soon. Bosma multiclassed to cleric, based on his devotion to Cayden Cailean and his encounter with the azata ghaele Eternath; however, he has decided that this will be a slow revelation to the their character that he can cast spells and channel energy. I look forward to seeing how he plays this out during the final encounter with Indomitability.

Notable player reactions

Gath's player was out for this session; his mother was in the hospital. Ceilthanus was out of town, but connected remotely.

I wish I had done better with communicating the scene of the Seela Village. I made a point in the recap presented above to highlight details about the village, because I felt I did only a moderate job in describing the scene to the players in the game, so I wanted to reinforce that where I could. The feeling of devastation seems to clear to me when I read the full description of the setting, and I wanted my players to have that awareness as well.

Bromsby's attempt to negotiate with Indomitability was good, and he tried a reasonable proposal to let everyone get a bit of what they wanted. Unfortunately for him, he botched the Diplomacy check, and got a challenging response from Indomitability. In my mind, Indomitability is like unto a petulant and strong willed child, unwilling to yield and not easily persuaded by logic alone. I was ready to use Bromsby's proposal as a path to a non-violent resolution of the issue, if someone had supported Bromsby with another diplomacy check or if the party had tried to persuade Indomitability that doing something for a short while to earn his long term freedom was a trade worth making. I wanted to use this to help bring out the difficulty of the Trillith in dealing with the material concrete world rather than a realm or pure concepts and abstractions. The player's response, however, at having this "logical proposal" rejected was to turn around and directly antagonize Indomitability, determining that if it would not accept a logical proposal than it must be intractable and likely selfishly evil. The "Rampage" final resolution is all but assured at this point in my game.

The players immediately took a disliking to Vuhl because of Crystin's reaction. Upon hearing his proposals, they did not trust him at all; high sense motive checks that came no where near matching Deception's Bluff checks were meet with "I still don't trust him." I tried to make Vuhl's proposal as reasonable at possible, but am still pleased that the party rejected his path out of hand.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• Ah! My Goddess! The Movie by Shiro Hamaguchi
• Ant-Man by Christophe Beck
• 007: A Quantum of Solace by David Arnold
• The Rocketeer by James Horner
• The Legend of Tarzan by Rupert Gregson-Williams

The "Ah! My Goddess" movie soundtrack has some nice pieces that my players do not recognize, but also some tracks that just do not match all; I used a reduced selection. Likewise, the other albums have a vocal track which do not fit, and were excluded.

I was going to try recording this session, so I could take better notes, but didn't have it ready to integrate with the Skype client used for the remote player.

I used the images for Papuvin, Vuhl, and Gwenvere's Pool from the adventure. I did not have any additional art or supplements for this session.

Characters at Level 04

Links to the party's fourth level character sheets.

Bosma Caladen, a human Bard 2 / Cavalier 1 / Cleric of Cayden Cailean 1, played by Rick: View attachment Bosma.04.pdf

Bromsby Tarken, a gnome sorcerer (Elemental Air bloodline) 4, played by Steven: View attachment Bromsby.04.pdf

Ceilthanus, an elf magus (bladebound) 4, played by Alex: View attachment Ceilthanus.04.pdf

Damier Westgard ("Dom") a human cleric of Desna 4, played by Chris: View attachment Dom.04.pdf

Gath Finherum, a human fighter (Martial Master) 4, played by J.T.: View attachment Gath.04.pdf

Krombholz Berryman, a dwarf gunslinger (Bolt Ace) 4, played by Kirk: View attachment Krombholz.04.pdf