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thekwp's War of the Burning Sky Unchained
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<blockquote data-quote="thekwp" data-source="post: 7083572" data-attributes="member: 56444"><p><strong>Session 15 - 2017-03-22</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Player Summary</em></p><p><em>Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep</em></p><p><em>Scene Seven: The Trouble with Tiljann (cont)</em></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">"Life is a dream that has found its form.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">I sing these dreams, these tales, these legends</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">that they might born."</p><p></p><p>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:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">"So as we were born from the First Tree,</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">so as from our homeland’s breast was cut the living blade,</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">as this our lives are bound to thee,</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">the forest’s heart in Timbre’s glade."</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><em>Act Three: Out of the Fire</em></p><p><em>Scene One: The Seela Village</em></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><em>Scene Two: Unacceptable Offerings</em> </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><em>Scene Three: At Gwenvere's Pool</em></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p><strong>Story Deviation & Extra Details</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Tactical Notes and Conversions</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mechanics Issues</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Notable player reactions</strong></p><p></p><p>Gath's player was out for this session; his mother was in the hospital. Ceilthanus was out of town, but connected remotely.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc</strong></p><p></p><p>Music for this session was:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ah! My Goddess! The Movie by Shiro Hamaguchi </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ant-Man by Christophe Beck </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">007: A Quantum of Solace by David Arnold </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Rocketeer by James Horner </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Legend of Tarzan by Rupert Gregson-Williams </li> </ul><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thekwp, post: 7083572, member: 56444"] [b]Session 15 - 2017-03-22[/b] [I]Player Summary[/I] [I]Act Two: Rivers Flow to the Deep Scene Seven: The Trouble with Tiljann (cont)[/I] 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: [INDENT]"Life is a dream that has found its form. I sing these dreams, these tales, these legends that they might born."[/INDENT] 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: [INDENT]"So as we were born from the First Tree, so as from our homeland’s breast was cut the living blade, as this our lives are bound to thee, the forest’s heart in Timbre’s glade."[/INDENT] 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. [I]Act Three: Out of the Fire Scene One: The Seela Village[/I] 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. [I]Scene Two: Unacceptable Offerings[/I] 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. [I]Scene Three: At Gwenvere's Pool[/I] 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. [HR][/HR] [B]Story Deviation & Extra Details[/B] 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. [B]Tactical Notes and Conversions[/B] 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. [B]Mechanics Issues[/B] 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. [B]Notable player reactions[/B] 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. [B]Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc[/B] Music for this session was: [LIST] [*]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 [/LIST] 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. [/QUOTE]
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