The party
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 5
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 9
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 5(variant)
NPC
Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 14
July 6 continued
The party leaves Phorros Irrendra and teleports to the temple of echoed souls. They quickly realize that there are a lot of scrying eyes on them already.
After a moment of watching the impressive entrance to the temple they ascend from the left staircase. Gallion dryly notes that it is quite the doorbell they have here, when the bells start to chime.
Much to their surprise the doors are easy to open and they enter the temple. Killian had cast a lot of spells that morning, including divine transformation, so when he saw his normal self in the reflection he got a bit nervous, would they be able to bring the spells with them?
Before they don’t have the time to do much before another reflection appears in the mirror, Haathon, one of the old masters of the temple. The old master sounds hard pressed and tense. He warns them not to enter as the current master of the temple, an entity called 41, will slay them.
They tell him, that they have no choice; they have to enter to learn more about the torch.
DM Note: I am unsure of whether they misunderstood that part or just didn’t want to tell the stranger the truth
Haathan tells them that they will find no information on the torch her. After a little more talk they tell him that they need to enter to fix the torch, and Haathon nods, accepting their reason.
He then proceeds telling them of what lies ahead and teaches them to tap each other’s powers, which they set out trying out immediately.
DM Note: In the end they hardly did it, the 2 rounds it takes to attain focus, if you make the DC, and then tapping a power was too much time in the combat situations they found themselves in. They did not think of doing it between the second and third trial.
After playing around with soultapping for a while, the doors suddenly slam closed behind them and Haathor disappears in the mirror, to be replaced by another person, 41.
He studies them for a moment and then in a dry rasping voice tells them that he won’t make a long speech.
He told them, that they might be expecting something dramatic, but he would simply kill them. And regarding their souls, do they even know their own souls? Well not to worry, they would be destroyed as well; they are not interesting enough to keep around for eternal torment.
He finished his speech by saying: “So please, hurry up through the mirror, hurry up to your deaths, so I can have some peace and quiet again.” And then he is gone.
DM Note: In the end, he did speak a lot more than one would expect for someone not wanting to be dramatic and speak a lot
The party looks at each other, and discuss shortly about the course of action, settling on scanning the adjacent halls quickly and looking into the rooms. The only look them over cursory, finding nothing magical. They decide not to spend more time on it and return to mirror, activating the circles and starting the trials.
Entering the trial triggered the first vision, The Fear. They see themselves running, fleeing actually, being afraid in Gate Pass. They are seeing the scene from chapter one where they fleeing from the enormous red dragon
DM Note: I thought it was a good idea to use this vision as suggested in the campaign, since it had a thread to chapter one, and to chapter 9 later on, where they will face the beast again. It has been almost 1½ year real life since they ran from the dragon, so this vision was a good way of making them remember it.
The first trial is a short one, but it did cost them quite a bit of health, even with a persisted divine vigor running. Killian was happy to find that his buff suite still worked. They quickly find out the hard way that sound hurts, so both Shaith and Killian attain focus and start to communicate mentally. They formulate a plan, attain focus again and this time relay the plans to the other two. Everyone agrees and Gallion moves silently towards the brick wall
DM Note: I almost felt sorry for them, it was such a nice plan, they just didn’t have any rogues, so it was doomed from the start.
Gallion never saw the pressure plate and the bell starting ringing and hurting the party. Shaith acted quickly and used stone shape to take the wall out of the equation. Behind it they find two mirrors and a piece of text with instructions for them to say their name, and that blood sacrifice is their salvation.
Killian is the first man at the mirrors; he speaks his name and the right mirror lights up as a portal.
DM note: Since none of them had taken anything from the meditation rooms, they were going to be spit up two and two. I let the dice decide which mirror lit up first, setting the sorting of the party in motion.
Gallion is next, for him the left mirror lights up. He is followed by Shaith who is sent right and finally Wax who goes left.
Once they are all through it is time for another vision; the child.
DM note: At least part one of it, the other two parts followed once they left the trial through the two doors. Since there are three PCs it was best I thought to let them all have two visions with each of them as the focus. I made none for Wax, and they were fine with that. The visions that are not in the book I will write in detail, maybe someone can use them for inspiration for their groups, although I know they are quite tailored for my players.
The vision shows Shaith as a child. He is being pulled along by a man, his father, against his will. The scene shows Innenotdar in flames and Shaith’s father is pulling him out of the house to flee from the devastating fire. In the process of being pulled along forcefully Shaith drops his teddy bear. His father hoists him up on his shoulder and runs away. Shaith is looking back towards his toy, tears in his eyes when he sees the fire consume it. And then for a moment it is like the bear is alive, like a fire elemental dancing, and the scene closes with Shaith looking with wonder and awe in his eyes at the fire.
In their minds they hear 41’s cruel voice: Hmmm formed by fire…
The party finds themselves in two rooms, separated and not being able to see each other.
Shaith and Killian are in the righteous path, facing a monster they have no real words for. In the first few rounds the Chorus is able to use its sonic attack twice, while the players try to get the sword in the hemisphere. Realizing that it is impossible they turn their attentions to the monster. Shiath remarks casually: “I am pretty sure we need someone to die, a blood sacrifice, to get through, I suggest we choose the one”, and points at the monster.
And that is what they did, and killed it.
DM note: Giving up their own lives never crossed the minds of my player’s, they are simply not that selfless. They might have done it if they knew they could save the others as Killian remarked later on, but without knowing, it was never going to happen.
Gallion and Wax find themselves in shallow water looking at Ghaele, that they recognize. At first both Wax and Gallion tries to speak with it, and the Ghaele answers quite defensively: “I am not giving my life for this”.
DM note: I tried giving them hints, but it did not help
The Ghaele starts by casting some defensive spells staying non-aggressive. The water starts to rise, and both the players drink potions of fly to avoid being trapped in the water, while trying to get the Ghaele to talk, but she just replies the same words. Gallion finally just shrugs and fires his bow at the Ghaele.
DM note: I guess he got tired of getting nowhere
The Ghaele responds by greater dispelling Gallion, leaving him stranded in the water, without almost all the boosting spells they had cast.
The fight goes on a few rounds, and the water rises. The Ghaele then summoned a huge water elemental, putting Gallion and Wax in a position where it seemed like they were doomed, and hard pressed on hit points.
At this point, in the other room Killian realizes that he can see what happens with the other two.
DM Note: Gallion and Wax found this out long ago, but Shaith and Killian stayed near the far edge of the room in the beginning.
He also senses that he can almost touch Wax… not almost, he can touch wax and all of a sudden they swap places. In the end this is the deciding factor, as the fully boosted Killian, who was also flying, managed to bring down the Ghaele before Gallion got killed, while Wax managed to heal up on the other side.
Having defeated the enemies they activate the portals and step through, and get the next two visions in quick succession.
The second part of the child visions follows Killian as an 8-year old child. He is walking with his grandfather in Gate Pass during the Festival of dreams.
DM note: Again I used a vision to bring up forgotten things. I broke off the vision and asked if they recalled what the Festival was, and they didn’t really. So I told them about it and about the clay urns with the wishes, including the traditional wish for spring, and how the priests used to fulfil wishes. It other words, I used a vision to prepare them for chapter 9, even if it is still a long way off, it will be in more recent memory now.
Killian sees something in the distance and runs off, his grandfather giving chase catching up with him in a dark alley. Killian gets a harsh telling off and is standing with tears in his eyes, when suddenly a group of young men arrive behind them; it is a street gang who is jumping them.
They ask Killian’s grandfather to hand over his money, and when he refuses, they smile delighted and give him a major beating. Killian being a loyal child tries to help his grandfather and gets beaten too; he is after all just a child.
Then someone arrives and chases the gang off, before they get around to actually stealing the money. Killians grandfather spits out a tooth and looks venomously at Killian, before saying: “I wish I hadn’t let myself be convinced; I wished I had gone along with her. Then this would never have happened, and then YOU would never have happened.” Luckily little Killian does not hear his grandfather, for he only has eyes for their savior, a young strong and handsome man with Heironious symbols. He smiles at the young man saying: When I grow up, I am going to be a hero, just like you.”
The vision ends with 41’s voice saying: “hmmmm formed by violence…”.
DM Note: They are between visions and as such could not speak, but I Killian spoke before I could move on. Killian accepted the vision, saying he remembered the day as clearly as it was yesterday, but he never heard what his grandfather said. His memory of him has turned quite a bit sour now, from the loving adoring memory of a grandchild to a more cynic adult.
The vision shifts immediately to Gate Pass, where a younger Shaith is standing with his mother in the street. He suddenly stiffens as he sees a young elven girl (equivalent to a teenager) is walking slowly down the street. She has been beaten badly, and by the way she is clutching her torn dress, probably more than just beaten.
Gallion walks away angrily and purposefully, while the women run to help the poor girl.
The vision shifts to Gallion sneaking along the rooftops. He spies a rough group of humans, a street gang in an alley. One of them is telling a story; much to the enjoyment of the others. As Gallion moves closer they hear what he is talking about; the assault on the elven girl. The one telling the story is the same man who led the assault on Killian and his grandfather in the previous vision. The leader does not get to speak many more words though, as Gallion puts an arrow through his eye. The rest of the gang scatter and run off, and the vision ends with Gallion looked down at the body with an icy expression in his face.
41 speaks again: “Hmmm formed by vengeance… I wonder who the girl was…”
And the party finds themselves in a new room, a lot larger with nothing interesting inside it. Having been through a tough fight, they spend three rounds healing and recuperating before a new vision appears in front of their eyes. First they seem themselves working as a group, and then suddenly they see a strange group arriving at the temple; Katrina, Shalosha, and some other elves along with two inquisitors and a warrior in a crimson armor. They speak a little, not really friendly, and then they enter the temple. The scene changes again. This time they see the ballroom and get their first look at how Coaltongue looked alive, he was incredibly charming and captivating, someone it is hard not to like once you met him. They also get their first look at Lord Shaaladel and Supreme Inquisitor Leska, whom everyone clearly fears. At the end of the vision their enemies arrive in the room, and the fight is on.
DM Note: I had decided long ago, that they never did much to make Katrina change her mind, apart from Shaith bedding her, but that was as much her doing to get information. So Katrina was an enemy. Shalosha I had decided is honorable, and would hold to her alliance. She would not however, attack the other elves, but the fight being as chaotic as it was, she wasn’t able to stop them from attacking the players. I decided that with visions and things appearing everywhere, no one really kept track on who really attacked who (except the players), so the other elves never noticed that Shalosha changed sides.
I had feared that Gallion in his hatred with the Shahalesti would have shot her full of arrows for her betrayel, but luckily he did not and they found that out that she was a trustworthy ally and true to their alliance – most likely even more than the party is and was.
The fight was a major battle. We started the session at around 11 am, and the fight, without including 41, ended at around 10 pm. The many visions made it feel like a lot less, as they gave a fun break to the fighting, and were filled with a lot of information and emotion. In game, the fight lasted about 90 seconds, 15 rounds, and in that time quite a lot happened, but I am not going in to details with it.
During the fight the party went from beleaguered against unreasonable odds, to more reasonable odds as Shalosha turned out to be an ally. Things went from bad to worse fast though, as Nahrem managed to disintegrate Shaith
DM note: Fun fact – I have now managed to actually kill each of the three players once. Killian was resurrected at Castle Korstull, Gallion was saved by the ghost in Phorros Irrendra, and now Shaith was saved by the mother vision.
Suddenly the scene shifted and they see themselves nursing a bruised knee. Mom is running towards them, picking them up and making everything ok. She blows gently on the knee, and suddenly all the pain is gone – and they are all fully healed, having all the spells back that they have cast, except for those they have persisted and thus not lost.
Mother saved them, as this helped turn the battle. Slowly they killed off their enemies, until only Rihalles, Karedan and Etienna remained. Wax had gotten knocked unconscious during the fight, but he still had lesser vigor and thus not in danger of dying.
Karedan proved to be a real threat; the legendary red knight of Ragesia lived up to his name, but in the end he fell too, quickly followed by Rihalles who had stayed unharmed during the fight up more or less up to the moment he died.
DM Note: I thought that Karedan was cool, so I decided to give him a little boost; another blessing from the Heart so to speak. On top of his fast healing I gave him maximum hit points and a little higher constitution, to make him last. He had the respect of the party in the end; both Gallion and Shaith feared him. In the beginning of the fight Shalosha had walled off Katrina with a wall of force in one corner. Katrina teleported away but the wall remained. Shaith teleported himself in to that safe spot to get away from Karedan – it turned out to be not quite as safe as an illusionary elf was in that area as well, but he turned out to be harmless.
Etienna faced a losing battle once she was alone, and even if she fought valiantly she too died in the end. The party was quite impressed with the opposition in this encounter, knowing they only survived because the masters of the temple saved them with the mother vision.
All through the fight different visions kept running in the room.
DM Note: I let the dice decide the number of illusory soldiers and trees respectively that appeared in the map, and had players help placed them with random dice rolls.
Most of the visions were in the campaign and I played them as they were written, so I won’t recount them here. I did change one thing though, I did not let the monks of the monastery appear in Ursus’ vision; it made no sense to me. I couldn’t really argue reasonably for why he would do that at this point of the story. The enemies were coming anyway, one more or less made no difference, and since he is not friendly with the Ragesians, they would not have a friendly talk – at least not at this point.
The first personal vision in the fight is about Shaith. I placed the scene between the vision of the fourth army and the scourge. The second personal vision is about Gallion, and I placed this after Shaaladel’s Purge. The final personal vision was placed just before the vision of the torch. All the visions are going to be somewhat cruel to the players, but that is what 41 does after all. He shows them the truth, just the ugly side, just like with Killian’s vision of his grandfather earlier.
The first vision, not in the campaign, was about Shaith and the origin of the fire elfs. The scene shows Innenotdar on the day of the burning. A man, Shaith’s uncle is deperate and casts a might spell and summons a demon; a powerful balor that the party recognizes by his sword as Hedrenatherax.
DM note: First of all I know it should have been a devil, but I found a way to tie in Hedrenatherax and his sword to the story and I took it. I let them roll a knowledge planes DC 30 and both Shaith and Killian made it, so they recognized him on his legendary sword. I told them that although he is a demon, he is trustworthy like a devil when making deals; he will keep his word, but twist it to his own ends.
In the vision Shaith’s uncle pleads with the demon to save the elves, and the demon agrees. He cuts his own arm and with a wish spell he wills his own blood into the fleeing elves, turning them from normal elves into fire elfs. “My blood will forever run in the veins of that elven people.”
The party realizes that fire elves are born of demon blood and the demon taint is what gives them their traits.
The next personal vision is about Gallion’s father, the hero of his childhood. It shows that most of what he believed to be true was indeed false, and it showed why the dead in Ycengled Phuurst hated him; saying “The dead knows the truth.”
Gallion’s father was indeed taking part of the fight in the forest during the Shahalest invasion, but he was not a hero, he was a traitor. He led the Taranesti princess into an ambush, in return for papers securing the safety of himself and his family. The Shahalesti taunts him as they give the papers and tell him to run like the traitor that he is, and if he ever sets foot in North Shahalesti again, they will kill him.
DM Note: North Shahalesti was a term I used some time ago, at Gallion really hated it; it was an offense to his sense of Taranesti nationalism, so of course I had to use it in this vision.
The scene shifts, this time to a Taranesti village. Gallions father shows the papers to two soldiers guarding a house. The soldiers not and walk off. He enters the house, where a young Gallion and his mother are sitting. He tells them that he had to pretend to bend his knee in loyalty to the Shahalesti, but now he has managed to lure away the soldiers guarding the house, so the chance for escape is now. The three of them gather a few belongings and run off.
Again the scene shifts, this time to Gate Pass. Gallion is standing next to his father and Gallion recalls the day his father said the words that meant so much to him: “What is in the heart is what matters; I did what I had to do to save my family. I am not proud of what I did, my son, but you and your mother were all I had left after the fall of Taranesti. Words that may have a new meaning now.
DM note: I know, that was almost cruel I used the sentence word for word from his backstory, and everything in his backstory is completely true, as Gallion saw it – he believed what his father told him, and never knew that his father was apologizing for his actions, not imparting wisdom to his son.
Gallion’s face was quite fun to watch during the scene and I was looking forward to how he would react. At first he blamed 41 for his corruption, but deep inside he knew it was the truth. He decided later that his father’s crimes were not his own, and he thus did not feel tainted for knowing the truth.
The final player vision is Killian’s. In this vision a much younger version of Killian’s grandfather is hugging a woman, whose face is hidden. When she speaks they feel that they recognize her voice, but cannot place it. Killian’s grandfather of coming with her, but she convinces him not to, she cannot protect them both.
He is not happy, but he accepts the truth and tells her that he will go to Gate Pass and build a farm, so she knows where to find him. He hugs her tight again and then lets her go, wiping the tears from his face. “I wish you weren’t that stubborn”, he says and she laughs loudly answering: “I am an Akto after all, that is just the way we are, brother.”
DM note: Akto is Killian’s family name
Killians grandfather nods slowly before answering sadly: “I know, Leska, I know”.
DM note: Another fun moment for me. Killian was sitting disbelieving for a second while Gallion loudly and happily shouted “BOOM”, glad that he was not the only one with a twisted vision.
The fight ended with a few visions left to run, and they spent those rounds healing, and restoring skills; Shaith had been hit by Nahrem’s empowered touch of idiocy. Shalosh brought Wax back from being unconscious with a healing potion.
As the final vision ended 41 arrived and starting beating them up. In the first round his psychic blast killed Wax and Shalosha went below 0 HP.
DM note: I was not in the mood of making another new NPC, so I decided that since 41 was fighting them, the old masters could keep them from dying unless they all went down, and that was close to happing. Wax ended stabilized on the brink of death. I had long ago decided that Shalosha would have a contingency that would teleport her home, if she got unconscious – and some elven device to help her survive the fire damage from teleporting.
From the walls they hear a subtle voice “Use the force” or something that sounded close to it. It did not take them long to get it, it was not force, it was torch.
The following round 41 crushed Gallion’s mind, he managed to avoid being killed, but the damage sent him unconscious.
DM note: Sorry… I just had to
This time they see Haathon fighting free of some invisible grip, he indicates that they should go down the new hallway. At the end of his motion he is violently jerked back and he disappears with a finality that makes the players realize that he gave his final life force to give them that information.
DM note: A nice dramatic touch I think and I am sure he would have given his life to free his temple of 41. I let him arrive a little earlier than in the campaign, or the party would have been slaughtered. The price was that he had to die.
Killian tries hitting with the torch, but misses, while Shaith run down the hallway and sees a body on top of the pavilion. 41 goes from taunting and having fun to serious with these two actions. He teleports after Shaith, and manage to bring him down, bleeding to death just as he reached the body on the top of the pavilion.
The following round Killian flies to the top of the pavillon, and even with 41 giving it his best shot, he fails to bring down Killian. With a vengeance Killian brings down the torch with full force on the prone body, finally ending the tyranny of 41.
DM note: 3 men down, 2 dead, who were saved at the brink of death, and the final player with around 35 hp left. I would say they had a tough day at job today.
After the death of 41, the players feel like they are flying into their own minds, seeing the tiny building blocks of what they are made up of, and they face the ultimate existential question: “Who am I really?”
DM Note: The way I read the end of the chapter a character could change themselves if they wanted to, so I decided to take the step completely. I told them to ask themselves, if they were to make Shaith, Killian and Gallion with all the knowledge of both themselves and the world they had now, would they be the same, or would they have made them differently. I even had some suggestions as to what that could be based on what they have said and been through.
The result is basically that I allowed them to change race, sex, skills, feats, classes… everything and remake themselves as they felt like. I am looking forward to see what it ends up with, as they will do that in the time up to the next session. It will allow them to at least change things that they would not have chosen given the choice again.
I am pretty sure Shaith will change a lot. He has become to see himself as more and more of a defender og Innenotdar. He will morph to a Wizard/druid build instead of the Incantatrix, which will suit me nicely, as it will limit the amount of persisted spells.
I also asked them individually if Coaltongue should have his soul back, two said no, Killian said yes, and one yes is enough. I wanted him alive, both for the discussion it will open up for as well as for having him present at the war council in chapter 8.
We played the rest of the session without resolving the players’ personal choices; they were not relevant for that last bit.
After a lot of talking they decide to revive Coaltongue and that Killian will be the torchbearer. The price is that Shaith gets to have the final word on what to do with Coaltongue after talking to him. Getting the torch to accept Killian is tougher than expected, but in the end he manages to bend it to his will.
DM note: After the first failure and level drain, Killian cast Death ward and just kept trying until he succeeded. I resolved it like a take 20, so he ended up speaking to a bone for 90 seconds
After having conquered to the torch they revive the former emperor, having a talk that was not quite what they expected.
DM note: They expected him to lie and say whatever the party wanted as he would be negotiating from gun point so to speak, the way they felt when speaking to Magdus and Shalosha in chapter 6.
Coaltongue is smiling, happy to be free and has no problem with Killian having the torch. He also seemingly had no problems with them having cleaned out his treasure room in Castle Korstull. He even willing told them what the Necromantic Cheese does. It was an item he purchased in case he got tired of being immortal.
Shaith asked him what he intended to do now, what were his wishes. At first he said that he did not know, and then quickly retracted that to “No… I know exactly what I want. I want a long hot bath and a nice glass of red wine “.
In the end they decide to bring him along to Seaquen and teleport by using the torch.
End of Session.
DM musings: This was the best chapter so far. The first act had so much atmosphere that one could only wish to replicate that for all sessions. The second act was intense with the feeling of being hunted and the setup with Rhuarc was memorable. The final act was surreal, for lack of better word, but not in a bad sense. The combination of being inside the mind, having fights and visions mixed in to each other and getting to throw some nice twists at the party made it a very memorable finale.
It has been one of the chapters we have spent most time playing through, but it never felt too much, each act was strong enough to warrant the attention it got.
What could have been better? It is really minor things. As I have mentioned before, sometimes the adventure uses classes I haven’t heard of and as such had no idea about, especially for tweaking.
Also I noticed that the same with the heartsblood vampire. The last part RangerWickett already answered, but would have been nice to have as a sidebar or something. The visions were fine and summarily written, and I guess it is an individual thing. For a guy like me, who wants to play out the dramatic parts and deliver the story in memorable ways it would have been nice with some more extensive visions, but all in all it is minor things and really nothing that made my experience less enjoyable.
My players are going to remember this chapter for a long time and with fun memories. And for me personally it was great to get the feedback from the players on the personalized visions, I had managed to make them spot on both on the first ones, nailing their drives as well as making the twists both fun and memorable. As a DM, that feedback makes one happy, and it is compliment to the adventure, as the visions I made were inspired by the ones already written.
For once I am even writing this very soon after our session, as we played this act yesterday.
Next up will be chapter 8 after everyone has had their summer vacation. I have written up the war council like I did with the first part and I am really looking forward to playing that out.
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 5
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 9
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 5(variant)
NPC
Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 14
July 6 continued
The party leaves Phorros Irrendra and teleports to the temple of echoed souls. They quickly realize that there are a lot of scrying eyes on them already.
After a moment of watching the impressive entrance to the temple they ascend from the left staircase. Gallion dryly notes that it is quite the doorbell they have here, when the bells start to chime.
Much to their surprise the doors are easy to open and they enter the temple. Killian had cast a lot of spells that morning, including divine transformation, so when he saw his normal self in the reflection he got a bit nervous, would they be able to bring the spells with them?
Before they don’t have the time to do much before another reflection appears in the mirror, Haathon, one of the old masters of the temple. The old master sounds hard pressed and tense. He warns them not to enter as the current master of the temple, an entity called 41, will slay them.
They tell him, that they have no choice; they have to enter to learn more about the torch.
DM Note: I am unsure of whether they misunderstood that part or just didn’t want to tell the stranger the truth
Haathan tells them that they will find no information on the torch her. After a little more talk they tell him that they need to enter to fix the torch, and Haathon nods, accepting their reason.
He then proceeds telling them of what lies ahead and teaches them to tap each other’s powers, which they set out trying out immediately.
DM Note: In the end they hardly did it, the 2 rounds it takes to attain focus, if you make the DC, and then tapping a power was too much time in the combat situations they found themselves in. They did not think of doing it between the second and third trial.
After playing around with soultapping for a while, the doors suddenly slam closed behind them and Haathor disappears in the mirror, to be replaced by another person, 41.
He studies them for a moment and then in a dry rasping voice tells them that he won’t make a long speech.
He told them, that they might be expecting something dramatic, but he would simply kill them. And regarding their souls, do they even know their own souls? Well not to worry, they would be destroyed as well; they are not interesting enough to keep around for eternal torment.
He finished his speech by saying: “So please, hurry up through the mirror, hurry up to your deaths, so I can have some peace and quiet again.” And then he is gone.
DM Note: In the end, he did speak a lot more than one would expect for someone not wanting to be dramatic and speak a lot
The party looks at each other, and discuss shortly about the course of action, settling on scanning the adjacent halls quickly and looking into the rooms. The only look them over cursory, finding nothing magical. They decide not to spend more time on it and return to mirror, activating the circles and starting the trials.
Entering the trial triggered the first vision, The Fear. They see themselves running, fleeing actually, being afraid in Gate Pass. They are seeing the scene from chapter one where they fleeing from the enormous red dragon
DM Note: I thought it was a good idea to use this vision as suggested in the campaign, since it had a thread to chapter one, and to chapter 9 later on, where they will face the beast again. It has been almost 1½ year real life since they ran from the dragon, so this vision was a good way of making them remember it.
The first trial is a short one, but it did cost them quite a bit of health, even with a persisted divine vigor running. Killian was happy to find that his buff suite still worked. They quickly find out the hard way that sound hurts, so both Shaith and Killian attain focus and start to communicate mentally. They formulate a plan, attain focus again and this time relay the plans to the other two. Everyone agrees and Gallion moves silently towards the brick wall
DM Note: I almost felt sorry for them, it was such a nice plan, they just didn’t have any rogues, so it was doomed from the start.
Gallion never saw the pressure plate and the bell starting ringing and hurting the party. Shaith acted quickly and used stone shape to take the wall out of the equation. Behind it they find two mirrors and a piece of text with instructions for them to say their name, and that blood sacrifice is their salvation.
Killian is the first man at the mirrors; he speaks his name and the right mirror lights up as a portal.
DM note: Since none of them had taken anything from the meditation rooms, they were going to be spit up two and two. I let the dice decide which mirror lit up first, setting the sorting of the party in motion.
Gallion is next, for him the left mirror lights up. He is followed by Shaith who is sent right and finally Wax who goes left.
Once they are all through it is time for another vision; the child.
DM note: At least part one of it, the other two parts followed once they left the trial through the two doors. Since there are three PCs it was best I thought to let them all have two visions with each of them as the focus. I made none for Wax, and they were fine with that. The visions that are not in the book I will write in detail, maybe someone can use them for inspiration for their groups, although I know they are quite tailored for my players.
The vision shows Shaith as a child. He is being pulled along by a man, his father, against his will. The scene shows Innenotdar in flames and Shaith’s father is pulling him out of the house to flee from the devastating fire. In the process of being pulled along forcefully Shaith drops his teddy bear. His father hoists him up on his shoulder and runs away. Shaith is looking back towards his toy, tears in his eyes when he sees the fire consume it. And then for a moment it is like the bear is alive, like a fire elemental dancing, and the scene closes with Shaith looking with wonder and awe in his eyes at the fire.
In their minds they hear 41’s cruel voice: Hmmm formed by fire…
The party finds themselves in two rooms, separated and not being able to see each other.
Shaith and Killian are in the righteous path, facing a monster they have no real words for. In the first few rounds the Chorus is able to use its sonic attack twice, while the players try to get the sword in the hemisphere. Realizing that it is impossible they turn their attentions to the monster. Shiath remarks casually: “I am pretty sure we need someone to die, a blood sacrifice, to get through, I suggest we choose the one”, and points at the monster.
And that is what they did, and killed it.
DM note: Giving up their own lives never crossed the minds of my player’s, they are simply not that selfless. They might have done it if they knew they could save the others as Killian remarked later on, but without knowing, it was never going to happen.
Gallion and Wax find themselves in shallow water looking at Ghaele, that they recognize. At first both Wax and Gallion tries to speak with it, and the Ghaele answers quite defensively: “I am not giving my life for this”.
DM note: I tried giving them hints, but it did not help
The Ghaele starts by casting some defensive spells staying non-aggressive. The water starts to rise, and both the players drink potions of fly to avoid being trapped in the water, while trying to get the Ghaele to talk, but she just replies the same words. Gallion finally just shrugs and fires his bow at the Ghaele.
DM note: I guess he got tired of getting nowhere
The Ghaele responds by greater dispelling Gallion, leaving him stranded in the water, without almost all the boosting spells they had cast.
The fight goes on a few rounds, and the water rises. The Ghaele then summoned a huge water elemental, putting Gallion and Wax in a position where it seemed like they were doomed, and hard pressed on hit points.
At this point, in the other room Killian realizes that he can see what happens with the other two.
DM Note: Gallion and Wax found this out long ago, but Shaith and Killian stayed near the far edge of the room in the beginning.
He also senses that he can almost touch Wax… not almost, he can touch wax and all of a sudden they swap places. In the end this is the deciding factor, as the fully boosted Killian, who was also flying, managed to bring down the Ghaele before Gallion got killed, while Wax managed to heal up on the other side.
Having defeated the enemies they activate the portals and step through, and get the next two visions in quick succession.
The second part of the child visions follows Killian as an 8-year old child. He is walking with his grandfather in Gate Pass during the Festival of dreams.
DM note: Again I used a vision to bring up forgotten things. I broke off the vision and asked if they recalled what the Festival was, and they didn’t really. So I told them about it and about the clay urns with the wishes, including the traditional wish for spring, and how the priests used to fulfil wishes. It other words, I used a vision to prepare them for chapter 9, even if it is still a long way off, it will be in more recent memory now.
Killian sees something in the distance and runs off, his grandfather giving chase catching up with him in a dark alley. Killian gets a harsh telling off and is standing with tears in his eyes, when suddenly a group of young men arrive behind them; it is a street gang who is jumping them.
They ask Killian’s grandfather to hand over his money, and when he refuses, they smile delighted and give him a major beating. Killian being a loyal child tries to help his grandfather and gets beaten too; he is after all just a child.
Then someone arrives and chases the gang off, before they get around to actually stealing the money. Killians grandfather spits out a tooth and looks venomously at Killian, before saying: “I wish I hadn’t let myself be convinced; I wished I had gone along with her. Then this would never have happened, and then YOU would never have happened.” Luckily little Killian does not hear his grandfather, for he only has eyes for their savior, a young strong and handsome man with Heironious symbols. He smiles at the young man saying: When I grow up, I am going to be a hero, just like you.”
The vision ends with 41’s voice saying: “hmmmm formed by violence…”.
DM Note: They are between visions and as such could not speak, but I Killian spoke before I could move on. Killian accepted the vision, saying he remembered the day as clearly as it was yesterday, but he never heard what his grandfather said. His memory of him has turned quite a bit sour now, from the loving adoring memory of a grandchild to a more cynic adult.
The vision shifts immediately to Gate Pass, where a younger Shaith is standing with his mother in the street. He suddenly stiffens as he sees a young elven girl (equivalent to a teenager) is walking slowly down the street. She has been beaten badly, and by the way she is clutching her torn dress, probably more than just beaten.
Gallion walks away angrily and purposefully, while the women run to help the poor girl.
The vision shifts to Gallion sneaking along the rooftops. He spies a rough group of humans, a street gang in an alley. One of them is telling a story; much to the enjoyment of the others. As Gallion moves closer they hear what he is talking about; the assault on the elven girl. The one telling the story is the same man who led the assault on Killian and his grandfather in the previous vision. The leader does not get to speak many more words though, as Gallion puts an arrow through his eye. The rest of the gang scatter and run off, and the vision ends with Gallion looked down at the body with an icy expression in his face.
41 speaks again: “Hmmm formed by vengeance… I wonder who the girl was…”
And the party finds themselves in a new room, a lot larger with nothing interesting inside it. Having been through a tough fight, they spend three rounds healing and recuperating before a new vision appears in front of their eyes. First they seem themselves working as a group, and then suddenly they see a strange group arriving at the temple; Katrina, Shalosha, and some other elves along with two inquisitors and a warrior in a crimson armor. They speak a little, not really friendly, and then they enter the temple. The scene changes again. This time they see the ballroom and get their first look at how Coaltongue looked alive, he was incredibly charming and captivating, someone it is hard not to like once you met him. They also get their first look at Lord Shaaladel and Supreme Inquisitor Leska, whom everyone clearly fears. At the end of the vision their enemies arrive in the room, and the fight is on.
DM Note: I had decided long ago, that they never did much to make Katrina change her mind, apart from Shaith bedding her, but that was as much her doing to get information. So Katrina was an enemy. Shalosha I had decided is honorable, and would hold to her alliance. She would not however, attack the other elves, but the fight being as chaotic as it was, she wasn’t able to stop them from attacking the players. I decided that with visions and things appearing everywhere, no one really kept track on who really attacked who (except the players), so the other elves never noticed that Shalosha changed sides.
I had feared that Gallion in his hatred with the Shahalesti would have shot her full of arrows for her betrayel, but luckily he did not and they found that out that she was a trustworthy ally and true to their alliance – most likely even more than the party is and was.
The fight was a major battle. We started the session at around 11 am, and the fight, without including 41, ended at around 10 pm. The many visions made it feel like a lot less, as they gave a fun break to the fighting, and were filled with a lot of information and emotion. In game, the fight lasted about 90 seconds, 15 rounds, and in that time quite a lot happened, but I am not going in to details with it.
During the fight the party went from beleaguered against unreasonable odds, to more reasonable odds as Shalosha turned out to be an ally. Things went from bad to worse fast though, as Nahrem managed to disintegrate Shaith
DM note: Fun fact – I have now managed to actually kill each of the three players once. Killian was resurrected at Castle Korstull, Gallion was saved by the ghost in Phorros Irrendra, and now Shaith was saved by the mother vision.
Suddenly the scene shifted and they see themselves nursing a bruised knee. Mom is running towards them, picking them up and making everything ok. She blows gently on the knee, and suddenly all the pain is gone – and they are all fully healed, having all the spells back that they have cast, except for those they have persisted and thus not lost.
Mother saved them, as this helped turn the battle. Slowly they killed off their enemies, until only Rihalles, Karedan and Etienna remained. Wax had gotten knocked unconscious during the fight, but he still had lesser vigor and thus not in danger of dying.
Karedan proved to be a real threat; the legendary red knight of Ragesia lived up to his name, but in the end he fell too, quickly followed by Rihalles who had stayed unharmed during the fight up more or less up to the moment he died.
DM Note: I thought that Karedan was cool, so I decided to give him a little boost; another blessing from the Heart so to speak. On top of his fast healing I gave him maximum hit points and a little higher constitution, to make him last. He had the respect of the party in the end; both Gallion and Shaith feared him. In the beginning of the fight Shalosha had walled off Katrina with a wall of force in one corner. Katrina teleported away but the wall remained. Shaith teleported himself in to that safe spot to get away from Karedan – it turned out to be not quite as safe as an illusionary elf was in that area as well, but he turned out to be harmless.
Etienna faced a losing battle once she was alone, and even if she fought valiantly she too died in the end. The party was quite impressed with the opposition in this encounter, knowing they only survived because the masters of the temple saved them with the mother vision.
All through the fight different visions kept running in the room.
DM Note: I let the dice decide the number of illusory soldiers and trees respectively that appeared in the map, and had players help placed them with random dice rolls.
Most of the visions were in the campaign and I played them as they were written, so I won’t recount them here. I did change one thing though, I did not let the monks of the monastery appear in Ursus’ vision; it made no sense to me. I couldn’t really argue reasonably for why he would do that at this point of the story. The enemies were coming anyway, one more or less made no difference, and since he is not friendly with the Ragesians, they would not have a friendly talk – at least not at this point.
The first personal vision in the fight is about Shaith. I placed the scene between the vision of the fourth army and the scourge. The second personal vision is about Gallion, and I placed this after Shaaladel’s Purge. The final personal vision was placed just before the vision of the torch. All the visions are going to be somewhat cruel to the players, but that is what 41 does after all. He shows them the truth, just the ugly side, just like with Killian’s vision of his grandfather earlier.
The first vision, not in the campaign, was about Shaith and the origin of the fire elfs. The scene shows Innenotdar on the day of the burning. A man, Shaith’s uncle is deperate and casts a might spell and summons a demon; a powerful balor that the party recognizes by his sword as Hedrenatherax.
DM note: First of all I know it should have been a devil, but I found a way to tie in Hedrenatherax and his sword to the story and I took it. I let them roll a knowledge planes DC 30 and both Shaith and Killian made it, so they recognized him on his legendary sword. I told them that although he is a demon, he is trustworthy like a devil when making deals; he will keep his word, but twist it to his own ends.
In the vision Shaith’s uncle pleads with the demon to save the elves, and the demon agrees. He cuts his own arm and with a wish spell he wills his own blood into the fleeing elves, turning them from normal elves into fire elfs. “My blood will forever run in the veins of that elven people.”
The party realizes that fire elves are born of demon blood and the demon taint is what gives them their traits.
The next personal vision is about Gallion’s father, the hero of his childhood. It shows that most of what he believed to be true was indeed false, and it showed why the dead in Ycengled Phuurst hated him; saying “The dead knows the truth.”
Gallion’s father was indeed taking part of the fight in the forest during the Shahalest invasion, but he was not a hero, he was a traitor. He led the Taranesti princess into an ambush, in return for papers securing the safety of himself and his family. The Shahalesti taunts him as they give the papers and tell him to run like the traitor that he is, and if he ever sets foot in North Shahalesti again, they will kill him.
DM Note: North Shahalesti was a term I used some time ago, at Gallion really hated it; it was an offense to his sense of Taranesti nationalism, so of course I had to use it in this vision.
The scene shifts, this time to a Taranesti village. Gallions father shows the papers to two soldiers guarding a house. The soldiers not and walk off. He enters the house, where a young Gallion and his mother are sitting. He tells them that he had to pretend to bend his knee in loyalty to the Shahalesti, but now he has managed to lure away the soldiers guarding the house, so the chance for escape is now. The three of them gather a few belongings and run off.
Again the scene shifts, this time to Gate Pass. Gallion is standing next to his father and Gallion recalls the day his father said the words that meant so much to him: “What is in the heart is what matters; I did what I had to do to save my family. I am not proud of what I did, my son, but you and your mother were all I had left after the fall of Taranesti. Words that may have a new meaning now.
DM note: I know, that was almost cruel I used the sentence word for word from his backstory, and everything in his backstory is completely true, as Gallion saw it – he believed what his father told him, and never knew that his father was apologizing for his actions, not imparting wisdom to his son.
Gallion’s face was quite fun to watch during the scene and I was looking forward to how he would react. At first he blamed 41 for his corruption, but deep inside he knew it was the truth. He decided later that his father’s crimes were not his own, and he thus did not feel tainted for knowing the truth.
The final player vision is Killian’s. In this vision a much younger version of Killian’s grandfather is hugging a woman, whose face is hidden. When she speaks they feel that they recognize her voice, but cannot place it. Killian’s grandfather of coming with her, but she convinces him not to, she cannot protect them both.
He is not happy, but he accepts the truth and tells her that he will go to Gate Pass and build a farm, so she knows where to find him. He hugs her tight again and then lets her go, wiping the tears from his face. “I wish you weren’t that stubborn”, he says and she laughs loudly answering: “I am an Akto after all, that is just the way we are, brother.”
DM note: Akto is Killian’s family name
Killians grandfather nods slowly before answering sadly: “I know, Leska, I know”.
DM note: Another fun moment for me. Killian was sitting disbelieving for a second while Gallion loudly and happily shouted “BOOM”, glad that he was not the only one with a twisted vision.
The fight ended with a few visions left to run, and they spent those rounds healing, and restoring skills; Shaith had been hit by Nahrem’s empowered touch of idiocy. Shalosh brought Wax back from being unconscious with a healing potion.
As the final vision ended 41 arrived and starting beating them up. In the first round his psychic blast killed Wax and Shalosha went below 0 HP.
DM note: I was not in the mood of making another new NPC, so I decided that since 41 was fighting them, the old masters could keep them from dying unless they all went down, and that was close to happing. Wax ended stabilized on the brink of death. I had long ago decided that Shalosha would have a contingency that would teleport her home, if she got unconscious – and some elven device to help her survive the fire damage from teleporting.
From the walls they hear a subtle voice “Use the force” or something that sounded close to it. It did not take them long to get it, it was not force, it was torch.
The following round 41 crushed Gallion’s mind, he managed to avoid being killed, but the damage sent him unconscious.
DM note: Sorry… I just had to
This time they see Haathon fighting free of some invisible grip, he indicates that they should go down the new hallway. At the end of his motion he is violently jerked back and he disappears with a finality that makes the players realize that he gave his final life force to give them that information.
DM note: A nice dramatic touch I think and I am sure he would have given his life to free his temple of 41. I let him arrive a little earlier than in the campaign, or the party would have been slaughtered. The price was that he had to die.
Killian tries hitting with the torch, but misses, while Shaith run down the hallway and sees a body on top of the pavilion. 41 goes from taunting and having fun to serious with these two actions. He teleports after Shaith, and manage to bring him down, bleeding to death just as he reached the body on the top of the pavilion.
The following round Killian flies to the top of the pavillon, and even with 41 giving it his best shot, he fails to bring down Killian. With a vengeance Killian brings down the torch with full force on the prone body, finally ending the tyranny of 41.
DM note: 3 men down, 2 dead, who were saved at the brink of death, and the final player with around 35 hp left. I would say they had a tough day at job today.
After the death of 41, the players feel like they are flying into their own minds, seeing the tiny building blocks of what they are made up of, and they face the ultimate existential question: “Who am I really?”
DM Note: The way I read the end of the chapter a character could change themselves if they wanted to, so I decided to take the step completely. I told them to ask themselves, if they were to make Shaith, Killian and Gallion with all the knowledge of both themselves and the world they had now, would they be the same, or would they have made them differently. I even had some suggestions as to what that could be based on what they have said and been through.
The result is basically that I allowed them to change race, sex, skills, feats, classes… everything and remake themselves as they felt like. I am looking forward to see what it ends up with, as they will do that in the time up to the next session. It will allow them to at least change things that they would not have chosen given the choice again.
I am pretty sure Shaith will change a lot. He has become to see himself as more and more of a defender og Innenotdar. He will morph to a Wizard/druid build instead of the Incantatrix, which will suit me nicely, as it will limit the amount of persisted spells.
I also asked them individually if Coaltongue should have his soul back, two said no, Killian said yes, and one yes is enough. I wanted him alive, both for the discussion it will open up for as well as for having him present at the war council in chapter 8.
We played the rest of the session without resolving the players’ personal choices; they were not relevant for that last bit.
After a lot of talking they decide to revive Coaltongue and that Killian will be the torchbearer. The price is that Shaith gets to have the final word on what to do with Coaltongue after talking to him. Getting the torch to accept Killian is tougher than expected, but in the end he manages to bend it to his will.
DM note: After the first failure and level drain, Killian cast Death ward and just kept trying until he succeeded. I resolved it like a take 20, so he ended up speaking to a bone for 90 seconds
After having conquered to the torch they revive the former emperor, having a talk that was not quite what they expected.
DM note: They expected him to lie and say whatever the party wanted as he would be negotiating from gun point so to speak, the way they felt when speaking to Magdus and Shalosha in chapter 6.
Coaltongue is smiling, happy to be free and has no problem with Killian having the torch. He also seemingly had no problems with them having cleaned out his treasure room in Castle Korstull. He even willing told them what the Necromantic Cheese does. It was an item he purchased in case he got tired of being immortal.
Shaith asked him what he intended to do now, what were his wishes. At first he said that he did not know, and then quickly retracted that to “No… I know exactly what I want. I want a long hot bath and a nice glass of red wine “.
In the end they decide to bring him along to Seaquen and teleport by using the torch.
End of Session.
DM musings: This was the best chapter so far. The first act had so much atmosphere that one could only wish to replicate that for all sessions. The second act was intense with the feeling of being hunted and the setup with Rhuarc was memorable. The final act was surreal, for lack of better word, but not in a bad sense. The combination of being inside the mind, having fights and visions mixed in to each other and getting to throw some nice twists at the party made it a very memorable finale.
It has been one of the chapters we have spent most time playing through, but it never felt too much, each act was strong enough to warrant the attention it got.
What could have been better? It is really minor things. As I have mentioned before, sometimes the adventure uses classes I haven’t heard of and as such had no idea about, especially for tweaking.
Also I noticed that the same with the heartsblood vampire. The last part RangerWickett already answered, but would have been nice to have as a sidebar or something. The visions were fine and summarily written, and I guess it is an individual thing. For a guy like me, who wants to play out the dramatic parts and deliver the story in memorable ways it would have been nice with some more extensive visions, but all in all it is minor things and really nothing that made my experience less enjoyable.
My players are going to remember this chapter for a long time and with fun memories. And for me personally it was great to get the feedback from the players on the personalized visions, I had managed to make them spot on both on the first ones, nailing their drives as well as making the twists both fun and memorable. As a DM, that feedback makes one happy, and it is compliment to the adventure, as the visions I made were inspired by the ones already written.
For once I am even writing this very soon after our session, as we played this act yesterday.
Next up will be chapter 8 after everyone has had their summer vacation. I have written up the war council like I did with the first part and I am really looking forward to playing that out.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
