ZEITGEIST Cultsbane's bizarre D&D adventure: Zeitgeist - 5Eish

[Cultsbane]

Campaign time: 2 hours, 58 mins, 59 seconds


Everyone is watching out for the RHC spy who is a black cat in a funny hat. To make matters worse yesterday also featured a very horrific murder of a woman, her heart and kidney removed and placed into into her hands as her skin was removed and hanged up.

Rumors are circulating that Kelik is responsible for it because Danor is comprised of those men of science that would never kill someone so brutally and ritualistically, as the murder was crude and not precise

It is 7:30 AM and the train is leaving into the malice lands in 10 minutes. Celeste and Ennis are asking questions about the murder concerned that they as wealth and royalty might not be safe onboard the train, they suggest it is a demonic serial killer vampire. Danor dismisses the entire notion of vampires outright before we remind them that the feywild still exists and we've had incidents at the Holy Britannian Empire

Ennis gets handed her golden rifle as the train car leaves the frozen capital of Danor heading through the malice lands, which we have 4 hours to kill until we arrive.

Victoria moves to second class to find Bre. Bre is looking out the window and scratching at her scars. "How can I help you?"

Victoria mentions that she is unemployed now and is looking for work. Bre is wondering why an elfarian lady is so out in the open and calls her in closer to suggest protecting the wealthy Tiefling clients. They continue having conversations about the various people on the train

Bergeron heads to the lounge. Not really many people there that early as a lot of patients are back in cabins taking naps, he decides to do the same. Seeing Ennis busy with her studies Bergeron falls to sleep for a few hours

The train suddenly stops next to a marching band that plays patriotic songs as you begin crossing into the malice land. Moly explains that this is requirement to set the mood as the atmosphere & even creatures seems to mimic the feelings of the people onboard, so the passengers must always be made to be happy

Now time for the great hunting expedition. Multiple people show up to attend. The train is going to slow down for about half an hour to allow us a few shots after butt scooting across the train for a better shot

Ennis and Bergeron both plan on attending the competition walk on the top of the train. Ennis refuses to disgrace herself by butt scooting, seeing other people walking on the train, she goes to do the same and nearly falls off the train.

Bergeron getting a natural 20 barely saved her from falling off the train. Ennis gets lectured for her lack of care to basic safety protocols

The stylish man with the briefcase unchains it from his hand and now puts it on his leg. Grabbing his rifle and taking aim over the landscape seeing some sort of zebra the size of an elephant covered in horns, a parrot cheetah, and a giraffe with a lion's head.

This place has multiple environments. It makes absolutely no sense. Our target is a rhino with a Venus flytrap on its back as it is charging towards the train. Ennis fires off the first shot, getting a chunk out of it as it staggers back. Everyone starts taking multiple shots, the orc family the worst shots by far. The man with the briefcase does a perfect headshot through the eyes. Boone the gunslinger hits the other eye. The rhino goes down pretty quickly

At this point a loud banging goes over the train. Ennis gets hit in the head square with a frying pan, taking 4 points of damage. She looks down the car seeing some weird lunatic with a grey beard standing on top of the car with a box of kitchen appliances throwing them at us. This guy is throwing these kitchen supplies completely accurate by 12 cars

Moly screams to apprehend him immediately. That they'll deal with this giant superhobo with a frying pan (at least it isn't a hobo with a shotgun) and to not tell anyone about this incident

Joe makes a history check and gets a 21. He puts two and two together that the guy sounds suspiciously similar to that hobo he had a run in with the other day


People ask how Ennis is so good with a gun despite being from royalty, she mentions the HBE is stuck between multiple much larger nations who are always at war and so self defense training is required for everyone even royalty.

Victoria begins belittling Bergeron for going up there without protection. We make another series of rolls within the malice land magic properties and we all manage to successfully get through

Bergeron sees that Elanor is grabbing some very exquisite crab that she hasn't had before. The orc daughter runs up to a piano loudly playing it without knowing how it works and starts complaining that it is broken, Joe walks up to perform a piece on the piano. Playing it absolutely perfectly. Everyone starts clapping as the music starts mimicking a very upbeat song and celebrating begins.

The orc mother introduces herself to Joe, mentioning that they're next door neighbors and that her husband is one of the largest real estate agents in Ber. That her husband is far too stressful and paranoid about everything. They talk about vintage piano styles and how they're superior to the newer nihilistic themes. Joe plays another performance a version of the moonlight sonata

Ennis and Celeste start spreading the rumour that the hobo committed the murder last night.

The trains crosses into another tundra with multi color skies, indicating that they are about an hour out from Orithea. The only safe city in the malice land

The briefcase guy is in the lounge reading some newspapers. Victoria starts up a conversation complimenting his shooting skills. He says that he is surprised that he didn't see her up there, when Victoria says that she prefers close hand combat he shakes her hand talking about how she would love Drakr. Talking foundly about a lot of warlords & hero warriors in the Drake countryside but that they are a lot more relaxed culturally than Danor, but sadly he avoids staying because of dwarf obsessed fanaticism with the end of the world

The man pulls out his dagger, Victoria attempting flirting "you want to see my dagger", he quips back "I should be saying that to you, but I'm on a tight work schedule, maybe after I'm done I'll give you a closer look at my daggers. Which shouldn't be too hard as this is his final job before very early retirement"

We feel the train slowing down as we arrive in Orithea. The entire city is entirely composed of round structures, almost nothing is a straight edge. We arrive at a Danor district, getting told that we have free reign of the area until 7am when we leave tomorrow. We get recommend to visit the night market which has a large section of sorcerers and shows

Joe checks into the rumours about the hobo, finds out that no one has been able to find him, but he keeps appearing and disappearing. Joe talks to Molly, mentioning that he has seen the homeless man before. Moly says she has a hunch of where he might be and starts heading to the cargo cars. Joe follows her

The malice land check! Bergeron gets a natural 1 but thankfully he is in his hotel room during it. Bergeron notices that he is now a 2 dimensional creature, Ennis and Celeste suggest he has something to eat as he is looking pretty thin as Bergeron tries to speak but a literal comic speech bubble appears instead. What is this Rohan from JoJo bizarre adventure

Looks like Bergeron isn't touring the city and is forced to resides in the hotel room until he gains his shape again. Everything he touches turns into a cartoon. Ennis and Celeste want Kelik to turn them into a cartoon as well, but he refuses saying that they would get in too much trouble. He isn't wrong

So Ennis and Celeste head off to the night market.

Joe finds the giant hobo inside a box of religious artifacts. The man wakes up as the box top is removed, he gets up looking around that something is here. He climbs up one of the building and starts running across the rooftops. Joe begins to follow him as be heads into the night market

The night market has multiple stands. Many advertising fried foods, buttered cow tongue, pickled turtle soup, gumbo, and chicken butt on a stick. It is an interesting combination of Taiwanese and Louisiana cuisine. A puppet show is going on. The girls both head that way to the high tower where it is being hosted, it's a pretty good reenactment of a Ye island war where Danor and Risur navies both got whipped out by a rogue hurricane

The hobo charges Eleanor. He unfolds a piece of paper saying to Isabelle (not our Isabelle) "there once was a troll and a princess being kept away from the evil Danoran" as he begins telling her a story about being in love with her. At first we're like dawww but after we realize that this is actually creepy as Eleanor begins screaming that she is being assaulted and sprays him with mace. He darts back off saying that he'll free his princess soon by killing the evil (oh boy)

Joe tracks him back to the train cars.

From the play Ennis and Celeste can conclude that the people of the malice land aren't a fan of either Risur or Danor, after being founded during the crusades of Crisillyir. As we all know the crusades have been extremely successful as after launching multiple of them they managed to expand by a few miles, hundreds of thousands of lives for a few border villages

Victoria to go track off the briefcase man who has left in a cartage. As She is following him, she hears a demonic voice saying "bring me a soul" As she sees someone pointing a gun at a lady about to shoot. She manages to push him away the bullet barely gracing the young lady. The man is the gunslinger Boone

Victoria has to roll initiative as it looks like she just found out a serial killer. She strikes at him with her sword, as he points his finger at Victoria to set her on fire Before grabbing his pistol and firing 4 shots at Victoria hitting her twice for 22 damage

Victoria responds back with a branding smite, dealing the same amount of damage. He responds back by firing his other pistol 4 times, one hitting Victoria straight in the forehead (natural 20) dealing 28 damage. Victoria is barely still up (Paladin ftw) as he says gotta make the final 4 shots count.

Victoria uses her bloodied action. She rolls very high for a summoning and out comes LuLu the golden elephant who casts a protective shield over Victoria. He shoots at the elephant, hitting in 3 times. Thankfully though because the protective spell only takes 9 damage.

The elephant LuLu responds back with a bubble blast, dealing 13 damage. Victoria ignites her cape on fire as he gets intimidated running away. Lulu who can travel 150 ft blocks him off shooting the bubbles at him for more damage. Victoria launched her flying dancing sword at him as he is now panicking the sword goes through his throat as he falls dead

She just managed to single handedly stop a CR6 enemy. Victoria dumps him into the lake after beheading him and grabs his pistols

All the lamps across the city suddenly go out turning into water. The lake next to the lighthouse turns into a lake of fire before everything turns to normal

The next day the town is a buzz about this golden elephant bringing forth a lake of fire and bubbles. Though people are kinda used to this crazy noisy bizarre town (Morioh cho)

We board the train, again managing to get through the wild magic checks. As the next hunting adventure begins with now Victoria joining Bergeron, Molly says directly to Ennis to keep her butt down

Ennis takes a shot at a giant crocodile hitting it through the eyes with a natural 20. A horn from the train sounds as the train starts rapidly slowing down, screeching to a halt, everyone trying to brace. Up from the swamp a giant long neck appears, at least three of them, a bunch of people in hoods begin boarding the train as the heads crash into the carts grabbing people as everyone on the top makes wisdom saves.

It's a hydra!

 

[Cultsbane]

Campaign time: 3 hours, 05 minutes, 35 seconds


The hydra looks more like a bunch of giant fingers with snake-like heads on the end. A weird hydra. (After reading so much Else Ring lore lately the fingers made me laugh)

Kelik is familiar enough with the hydra to know that it is actually a screaming malice that preys on the emotions as well as the flesh of enemies. His heads can break apart from the body attacking people as little snakes before reassembling themselves. It is known to leave after eating 80-100 people which would take out at least a quarter of the train, sometimes it goes for more or less depending on how much resistance

The guards are screaming orders at each other, saying that they need to calm everyone down because leaving the train is even worse. That they will defend them and get our pay

The James Boone fellow uncuffs his suitcase and places it down out of sight before disappearing suddenly

The orc family ends up going to their cabin room and locking themselves up.

Bergeron gets told to do the same by Victoria as he isn't capable of fighting

On his way he is thinking of someone who was possibly on the train that isn't now (hmm could it be the gunslinger?)
He disguises himself as the Tiefling. Mr. Boone is back!

Joe follows the guards and tries to look for the hobo as well. He finds it weird how oddly calm Molly is throughout all of this

Ennis is going to run on top of the train from the caboose. She notices the first head has smashed into the cargo area and cultist are pouring in

Ennis gets a nat 1 on the dex check to run across the caboose. Everyone notices that the Royal Ennis slips right off the train, one of the heads of the hydra looks in the direction of Ennis and licks his lip.

Celeste ends up getting grabbed by the screaming malice to save her getting a nat 1 (just going to call it a hydra) and tossed her very far away into a nearby island. It'll be some considerable time until she's able to come back

Victoria follows Bre down. Bre has her gun out saying that I am here only to protect the royal family, that Victoria can go up front and hopefully help drive the screaming malice away.

The screaming malice lunges straight at Ennis. Its long head smashes into Ennis, as she takes 10 piercing damage. The head turns into a snake egg and out comes two snake demon abominations

Bergeron now as Mr. Boone grabs his carbine and runs towards the front of the train. He catches up to around car 16 stopping short of the guards.

Victoria looks absolutely horrified that the gunslinger is back because she already killed him earlier.

Ennis puts out a wave of gravity at the snake demon creatures, it does some damage, but they're not stopped. Ennis now gets hit by two attacks even with using silvery barbs getting bitten in the shoulders for 25 slashing damage. Ennis is at 6 damage

Joe casts a chaos bolt from the window at one of the creatures attacking Ennis. He manages to land a hit, doing 19 psychic damage. It is looking very weak

Ennis casts mirror image. Two of them get destroyed, but she manages to hide behind the train car and drinking one of her two remaining potions of superior healing for 31 damage - (yes we do healing potions as bonus actions, enemies can do that as well, nanomachines son)

Victoria goes to get closer to the screaming malice by getting on top of the train. She sees the third head of five is smashing into the car she just came from

Ennis' final copy goes down and the other hits her for 20 damage. Joe opens up a caboose door throwing a rope at Ennis to pull her in before he moves up the train cart.

The final head smashes into train car 13 where Mr. Boone is and the guards yell attack. Mr. Boone shoots it, the first bouncing off the scales, the second attack doing 18 piercing damage with colossal slayer as it falls dead

Ennis drinks her healing potion up to 40 health as she tries getting up the caboose. Luckily the snake demons both miss and she gets up, slams the door, and thanks Joe for saving her. She is now without any healing items.

"You should be more careful princess" - Joe

Victoria now close enough for her to cast a compelling duel spell. The screaming malice sees a tasty brave snack on the top of the train and has one of its heads charge straight for her, luckily Victoria dodges out of the way. As it misses it detaches it's head and drops it on the train, out comes two malice spawn snake demon things

Joe says to Ennis that I'm heading up to the guards at the center of the train. Ennis follows behind her, though slightly slower pace after all being all dressed up as a princess can slow you down

The malice spawn fighting Mr. Boone breaks apart forming this time out comes 4 snake demons spawns. They launch themselves at the guards, two misses, a nat 20, and a hit. One of the guards ends up losing a leg, the other one is instantly eaten

Mr. Boone is now thinking that this hydra is actually a distraction for attacking the cargo train. He gets on top of the top doing an acrobatics check to run to the cargo hold

Victoria who is on top of the train, uses dancing sword. She lands a hit on the weaker one for 20 damage, it slices off its head. The other one absorbs it's friend to get more powerful as Victoria lands a blow with her longsword but this time only for 8 damage. The snake demon strikes back at Victoria hitting her for 12 slashing damage

Joe casts invisibility to see if he can get past the malice spawns without being seen. On the way through he notices two dead guards, as well as two dead snake demon things. Getting out of car 13 without problem up ahead he sees the malice spawns slaughtering nearly every passenger they can find as he continues his way through

Mr. Boone notices that 6 bandits have attacked car 6. Mr. Boone used to working on his own casts dimension door to the top of car 6. Stealthy climbs down to get a peek seeing the bandit captain taking out a large shotgun blasting the hobos in the gut as he falls over dead "we got rid of the trouble she told us about, start collecting treasures boys"

Victoria attacks the upgraded spawn for 17 damage but it is still standing. The spawn responds back by dealing 13 slashing damage. Victoria dancing sword deals another 8 damage, removing one of its arms, and she swings her own longsword down for 11 damage decapitating it as the big screaming malice screams

Ennis gets through to car 13 seeing the guards and snake demons fighting. 3 dead guards, 3 dead spawn. Ennis aims at the last spawn doing a perfect headshot and saying everyone moves up. The hydra screams again

Mr. Boone uses dissonance whispers at the bandit captain. Dealing 13 psychic damage, convincing him that the hobo is attacking him from beyond the grave. The bandit captain in fear runs towards Mr. Boone jumps off the train as he goes for an opportunity attack, hitting him unconscious with the butt of his gun.

Sadly all his bandit buddies have noticed this.

Joe uses his movement to get to the car where he sees Mr. Boone knocks out the bandit Capitan. Mr. Boone grabs the bandit captain putting a dagger to his throat to roll an intimidation check but the bandits are happy because that means more loot for them

Ennis sees two more snake demons attacking more passengers as her and the guards unload multiple shots into them. Getting nat 20s they kill both. Maybe at best 1/4th to 1/3rd of the passengers remaining in this cart, bodies parts falling from the walls

The 5 bandits fire at Mr. Boone with pistols, they fire through the bandit captain body and two manage to hit Mr. Boone for 15 damage

Joe getting out of invisibility casts chaos bolt and gets a nat 1. The chaos bolt upgrades into a weird rainbow of elements it starts chaining hitting everyone including Mr. Boone and Joe dealing 50 damage to everyone. All the bandits immediately get fried collapsing dead to the ground

Joe and Kelik both casts absorb elements. They take only 25 damage

Ennis fires at more of the screaming snake demon malice thing killing another as the big creature screams. The guards see Ennis break down into uncontrollable laughter and tears as her mind becomes fried, she is now in a temporarily stare madness for the next 20 mins, she starts firing wildly at everything actually hitting a snake demon killing it

The malice screams, heading back retreating into the swamp.

Everyone counts casualties, we actually managed to lose only 32 passengers

Mr. Boone tells Joe that he is Kelik and needs to head back to his room before anyone notices Bergeron is missing. He heads back from the top of the train

Joe, going through the bandit Captain's clothes, finds instructions for the attack and other notes saying they had a contact on the train. Joe notices that the hobo's shotgun wound is closing on its own, his gut heading back into his body and his eyes flutter awake as he stares at Joe. Joe tells him to hide quickly as the hobo thanks him saying his name is Mr. Maple, Joe casts invisibility to watch what happens as the guards come through

The train will be immediately heading to Drakr as they're behind schedule and don't want to have anymore malice land trouble. Molly demands that everyone remained seated or head back to the cabin as they head to Drakr

Victoria seeing Mr. Boone running across the top of the train jumps on top of him to kill him as he turns into Bergeron asking "wait why are you trying to attack the Tiefling" and Victoria says I'll tell you later

Celeste returns seeing Ennis infected by madness carriers her off to the cabin as Ennis begins writing cryptic messages about gravitation magic on all the walls and that she must talk to Ranni

Joe makes an insight check on the guards that all of them seem modified of what happened, all but Molly who stays behind. Molly begins checking the box with the hobo and throws up in a bit of panic "I need him gone if I'm going to retire back to Crisillyir"

Bergeron in the cabin with everyone begins discussing that Molly is likely behind this as a deranged Ennis finishes up her madness and collapses

Victoria updates everyone about the lighthouse and Mr. Boone being a serial killer that she chopped off his head.

We have a few people that we want to investigate when we get to the Drakr capital.

Eleanor leaving her cabin invites everyone to the Great coliseum of Drakr as we see the beginning sprawl of the most polluted poorly designed city in the world. With grey smog and acid rain snow falling everywhere. Many people cough constantly and must use masks

Several people are on the street corner preaching about the coming end of days and this attack on the train is another sign

Victoria goes to talk to the James Bond guy. Bergeron is going to find Molly. Joe heads to the storage cargo area to check on his belongings and check for the hobo. Ennis and Celeste go with Elanor to the hotel, listening to the gossip

Joe checking into the cargo box sees the hobo who introduces again, Joe asks if they can talk somewhere else as he jumps on the rooftop saying follow him

"Why is the princess being kept from you, why do they stop your love" asks Joe. He pulls out of his pocket some crumbled paper throwing it at Joe, which is an advertisement for marriage for the perfectly beautiful and obedient Isabella (not our Isabelle) for the low costs of 500,000GP. He says that I was once a prisoner like her and I wish to free her, that he will meet him at the coliseum

Joe asks how did you manage to survive those shotgun blasts? - Joe, It is my curse - Mr. Maple. So you can never die? - Joe. No, I was never alive to begin with as he heads off

Bergeron keeps tabs of Molly in the theater as it becomes a temp morgue. It was actually putting on a play by the very founder of Eschatology, the Doomer dwarf himself, as preachers start talking about the upcoming calamity on every corner. Bergeron makes his way to Molly to pay respects as she complains about needing a bath, seeing Bergeron he apologies to him as a first class passenger

Bergeron looks at her says "someone sold us out, who do you think it was" "I'll have to think about it" as Bergeron walks back to listen to the Doomer dwarf

He starts proclaiming about the end of things. That he doesn't know how it'll happen, but only all paths lead to destruction and the end. That the end of all things is as inevitable as the sun burning out. You all survived today's attack? He points to one passenger the orc "we must prepare for death and the ending, together we can learn from tragedy and prepare"

The orc says "I see death can strike at any time and I must make amends" the dwarf says "death doesn't care about the past, it is not of any value to reflect on past sins but only the future " as they start talking about death, purpose, and vulnerability. You get the sense the orc is into some life threatening trouble as he says he will face his death as his final day is here in Drake

Bergeron asked him about this. He says "I settle my debts, tell my family I love them." Bergeron finds out that he made a deal with the family for a loan to get out of a desperate situation. He took the opportunity, but now his family is in danger. That he arranged a meeting to settle his debt for 300,000 GP and since he doesn't have it, he'll face them with his axe as the warrior family he was raised as and shunned as unnecessary and barbaric in today's modern society

Ennis meets up with Elanor and Isabella who are saying that the arena competition is beginning soon. That Ennis can join the show if she wants, but she declines saying that royalty isn't suited for that. Elanor leaves to enter into a mansion

 

[RangerWickett]

How did the players respond to mass death and tragedy?

 

[Cultsbane]

How did the players respond to mass death and tragedy?

Honestly we are so used to death now, as well as in our backstories, or indifferent that it won't impact the way we do things or operate.

Though occasionally you see us react (especially if named characters) but we got a job to do

 

[Cultsbane]

Campaign time: 3 hours, 28 mins, 21 seconds

The episode was kinda impromptu one late last night. So a lot of us already a bit tired & or drunk

Victoria is following behind Mr. Carter (the suitcase guy) who sees her, compliments her fighting skills before asking about her connections to Risur. Victoria says she absolutely hates that place

Carter reveals that it is actually military secrets from Risur in his briefcase, having worked there as a private contractor. Having gotten it from finangling a Danorian Tiefling who stole some documents

Victoria asks if it was the Tiefling Melissa from the embassy incident . Which is funny because he mentions our involvement offhand, which in specific that we sawed her body in half in front of her boyfriend and asked her ghost crude questions

Carter says the pay from Risur is nice but he hates the unprofessional oversight. They do have no accommodations for a job well done and hire many who prove utterly inadequate and incapable of the job.

That he is going to trade these secrets to a bunch of dwarfs here. He asks Victoria to come along as she knows Dwarvish, which she agrees

The passwords is snowballs are best consumed maliciously.

Victoria sees a dwarf and others in military clothes. Victoria introduces herself in dwarvish

Carter reveals a large project happening in the axis island. Involving witch oil. As well as a few other things; a construction extraction of axis island and attempting to drain something from the area

The dwarf is excited about the information, but Carter demands payment before he gives the rest and more juicy details. The dwarf pulls out a briefcase

Inside the briefcase is a bunch of golden coins. Carter was expecting a trap, so he was happy to get $17000 GP Other jewels including sapphires, rubies, and emeralds

They have a bunch of drink of vodkas, until a dozen armed guards arrive. Victoria begins negotiations, Drakr guards say they're happy to shoot so finish your drink. People should be drunk before a proper ending before asking why we should let them live

Carter spits in his drink. Enjoyment

He asks this about Victoria. She says she has much to accomplish and if a bunch of dwarfs cause trouble, she won't hesitate to show them the strength of her pursuit and will

They back down

Because of that carter hands her over 1000 gold. He gives a bit of lesson about the Danoran and Risur situation

Danor King's daughter is to marry the king of Risur. Risur gives the Monarchy to however that they picked in council by the strongest, so they'll kill the king and get someone favourable to Danor before invading Risur so Carter retiring for a neutral cold country like Drakr

Heading back to Bergeron

Bergeron to talk to companions to help out the orc. Beforehand though he wants to get more information with Molly he disguise himself as the rich Tiefling protected by bre. The royal family member who refuses to engage in any conversation

He starts lecturing about the attack to Molly. Dirty 20 deception. It wasn't good enough and she asks who he is. He manages to get an amazing check after to convince her that he he keeps himself meek and quiet because no one would expect someone like that to hold such power

Molly reveals the train got compromised and they have someone in witness protection. Now we head into the Family-Orc meeting

Bergeron to go as his husband Sebastian as his family is heavily influential in Ber. Joe, Celeste, and Ennis are away separated adventures so it'll be just him and Victoria (the downside of breaking up the party)

They convinced the family that by allowing the orc off the hook they'll have massive connections to Ber. They get two +1 axes of luck, Bracers of Defense, Brooch of shielding (which Ennis gets), gloves of missile snaring

We head off to the coliseum which is more like an amphitheater. We start witnessing the gladiator combat, Ennis and Celeste quickly drink enough alcohol that we're just obnoxiously screaming in celebration

Saber toothed tiger starts fighting people. A warrior kills the tigers. A man offers 10,000 go for an encore with 5 tigers at the same time, the man is clearly exhausted

Victoria says to Bergeron someone should stop me and he says I don't think anyone can. After jumping in there the man offers a hundred thousand pieces to be his wife

She declines. He says fine let's see you against 10 in waves

What happens next is some of the best single person combat we've ever witnessed. Constantly fighting waves with each one going up by 1 until the final was a massive robotic one

Victoria somehow managed to fight then off, although with the help of her ability to bring down a unicorn to assist her and some silent healing from Bergeron

The crowd went absolutely wild

 

[Cultsbane]

Update: DM informed the party that absolutely no way is this campaign going to be completed in two years, to expect at least three year of campaigning, and that is without interrupting. Which he says at the end of acts he wants to take a break to get a better grasp of the campaign and have less complications moving forward

That said it looks incredible likely (fingers crossed) that we'll complete the campaign as everyone is enjoying it immensely engrossed into the story and their characters.

As well as the DM approved of my plans to buy a +3 grimoire from my old mentor Ranni the Witch for $14,000GP, as well as that when I unlock the wish spell I can do the following having my entire background of gravity wizard (I'm thinking sticking just wizard now tbh)

"Your mastery of gravity has influenced not just the stars but that of fate itself. You can now impose your own will on fate during dire situations turning your allies rolls favourable and your enemies rolls cursed. Be warned for altering fate isn't without consequences"

 

[Cultsbane]

Campaign time: 3 hours, 15 mins, 11 seconds


Victoria finds out that the sentences for crimes such as business fraud and trespassing faces punishment such as being eaten by saber tooth tigers or flogged

A Patreon called the necromancer is willing to give Victoria an offer of payment to stay there as a champion, but Victoria declines this offer as she also denies many offers of wifehood

What do you want they ask? Victoria says free all the "prisoners". Can we offer you one? Victoria points to Isabella and says that one and the crowds smiles disappear

Elanor stands up and says I would be glad and delighted to give you Isabella, unless someone else here has an even better offer. She takes off the veil; it is a second eldarian woman, absolutely magnificent and radiant. Pure bliss and a blank stare like a doll

The necromancer says on behalf of the performance of Victoria I will not bid against her

Someone else in a high ranking hat and beard makes a bid, another in a crown of flowers looking like a druidic general grunts saying I am also interested. The 3 most wealthy people in Drakr are all there

Elanor asks Victoria what her bid is and why not ask the necromancer. Victoria says if he offers her freedom absolutely and he agrees

At this point a messenger says something about an 11th prisoner. Victoria is asked to leave the arena

The gates are opened. A cart with a one Mr. Maple chained up inside. Elanor starts listing the reason why he deserves his punishment such as being homeless and many more you can inflict, before asking the guard to shoot him. The bullet doesn't do anything.

She says he will pay his debt to society
If you desire to do medical experiments and finding out more about life and death this one is perfect for you. I offer this one specifically to you Necromancer Nikolai

The necromancer says give me a show first and I'll think about it. Give me a grand show, a finale

And out comes 5 cages with very large direbears.

The necromancer says first what is your name. He points and says "My name is Andre and the world will remember me, but will not remember you and it'll know you (pointing to Elanor) as the one worthy to carry the title of bitch that will get her heart carved out by me Andre to free the prisoners"

Victoria interrupts, "I was offered a prize, what about him?"

Necromancer says "I will give you Isabella, she is an Elfarian just like you, and would be a great house cleaner. That said I unfortunately cannot give up Mr. Andre, he is perfect. I am buying you Isabella for 1.5 million gold pieces and that man down there for 2.5 million but I want a show for my money

At this point the fight begins. Maple does his best against the 5 direbears but over time he is worn down, his body getting carved up, before one snaps off his leg and they start ripping him to pieces. Not much of him remains as they get called back in

His parts are slowly moving trying to form together he gets put back into a cart to be taken up by the necromancer

Elanor asks if Celeste and Ennis enjoyed themselves. They respond absolutely satisfied. She says to Bergeron that you have a fantastic body guard, the best I've ever seen

They present Victoria the prize of Isabella who they noticed is covered in a perfume to specifically cover up the powers of the Fey. She takes her away, freeing both her and the 10 prisoners

Running down is the announcer of the event asking to talk to Victoria and Isabella in private about the Vikish Mystics. Bergeron asks if he can stick around considering he prefers having a bodyguard, he agrees. They go to a private office, and he reveals himself as a regular high elf. I'm willing to take her back to her people, with the Elfarian as he removes the magic perfume away

For the first time in ages Isabella is actually aware of what is going on.

Even with an 18 insight check Victoria isn't able to tell if the man is trustworth or not and asks Isabella what she wants
She says I would like to find freedom for more people like me. I've heard of a legendary figure named Gale who helps the downtrodden such as myself

Victoria and Bergeron drop hints that they know Gale without directly saying it. So now we got another traveling companion as the announcer congratulates Victoria on her power and being so brave as an open Elfarian woman and Vikish Mystics at that

Heading back to the hotel they get stopped by Bre. Bre says that I found your fight immensely interesting, we should have a few drinks. Victoria shows her sabertooth tiger marks and says she needs a few hours

Bre asks "do you know who Andre is? Because he sounds like someone who was experimented on by the same doctor who did this to me" as she pops out her arm in and out of the socket, throwing it up and down

Bergeron says that he'll briefly speak with Bre but to give Victoria 4 hours to rest up and get Isabella safe. Bergeron cuts Bre short on small talk, as she starts saying you're a very talented group. Bre reveals that she is going to go talk to Andre tonight even if it means cutting through the necromancers castle

Bergeron says "we'll help but only if you tell me more specifically about what transpired in that meeting" despite this Bre doesn't want to reveal this information as she is under contracted as a bodyguard to protect the high rank official of the obscuriti

Bre also reveals that they know about the RHC agents on the train and that they won't be here come Noon. She heads off saying I'm talking to Victoria now

Bergeron heads back to the hotel room to get her. Saying that they probably know it is us

(We decided to nickname Isabella as Paula, at Ennis suggestion)

Victoria will meet with Bre in the lobby of the hotel, Ennis and Celeste go there after to keep watch. Though mostly to hit up the fancy hotel bar and sandwich shop

Bre is like "I didn't want to talk to that insufferable man, the last time though he was sexually harassing me, so it is nice that he isn't doing that this time"

Bre says before I do that necromancer job though, how about you do another job for me. We have a few suspects of note who are the RHC agents. Such as the briefcase man Mr. Carter and especially Bergeron. Bergeron had apparently been dead for some time and they knew about it. Don't worry I don't suspect you, you're much too competent. In a way to prove your innocent we will be taken out Mr. Carter together, you in? Btw you better be in for your sake

Maybe I can save everyone the trouble and say it isn't Mr. Carter - Victoria. Tell me about him, Bre asks, wondering about the briefcase. Victoria mentions that he is a petty criminal with a few stolen rail bonds in there. Not even worth it. That said Bre asks at the least she keeps him occupied in his room and unable to leave to get on the train

Victoria challenges Mr. Carter to a drinking game and somehow he out drinks her with a natural 20 before basically doing a bunch of cocaine. Why do you want something? Yeah to sleep with you! Which he agrees before starting to handwalk on the balcony rails yelling imma get laid with Victoria the champion

Victoria grabs him and pushes him into the room. You wanna go on a trip trip trip with rainbows, Victoria hands him some fey pepper and after he gets relaxed begins to choke him until he loses consciousness. She handcuffs him to the bed taking off his shirt and pants (begins all the kink joke) and she leaves having done what Mr. Bre asked of her

We rewind a few hours back to Joe. He sees by the end of the hour it does look like his form is becoming whole, while still dead, he looks like normal dead body and at that point he gets carried off by the necromancer

With basically no spell slots from the train ride, Joe is forced to go back and tells the party about this and we agree to help them. Victoria informs the party that they are onto Bergeron and they do definitely suspect those who've been associated with Bergeron including those in his rooms

Victoria reveals her plan was to basically find some child murderer and turn him into Bergeron to get killed as the real suspect lol

Celeste will stay behind to guard "Paula". While Ennis after waking from her rest volunteers to go with them

Now to sneak past some guards. We got two ways, through a weird door and or the colosseum.

Joe and Ennis are in favour of a more aggressive approach, going in loud but disguised as Mr. Maple for more confusion. Victoria and now Boone actually suggest sneaking in and freeing Maple first. Afterwards we will run off as a bunch of Mr. Maples. Boone says his pass without a trace will give the party an extra +10 bonus to stealth to sneak in

We all easily sneak through. We hear someone from outside the cell, a semi familiar voice, says "I haven't met your master in a long time, you are a wonderful creation, shame you had to disobey Wolfgang. I should speak to him again" inside the cell is Mr. Maple as the necromancer asks him questions

Joe hands signals to the group that he doesn't see any guards. Boone gives Victoria a golden rope to grab the Necromancer

Joe runs out as Mr. Maple right past yelling. He gets an intimidation check with advantage getting a 26, necromancer gets startled. At this point Victoria runs forward but feeling something invisible almost trips over it, saying naughty word. It is a body

Everyone roll initiative. DM says We get a full surprise round!

Joe gets the first move, realizing that the necromancer is so distracted he runs back to tackle him. Running through this invisible servant trying to stop him with a nat 20 tackling him to the ground. Boone Misty steps into the cell with Maple and opens up the cell. Mr. Maple looks dazed like he only recently finished healing, Boone says we're uniting you with your beloved just follow us

Victoria wraps him up with the golden rope (prevents teleporting) he starts screaming I'm the richest person in Drakr. I am the necromancer Nikolai. You can't do this to me or you will all hang, she puts it around his neck. Freya puts immovable object on the rope and it chokes him out

DM just goes "there goes that encounter lol"

But the question is if Necromancer saw Boone, but he did saying I'll get you Boone as he loses consciousness. So now he can't disguise himself as Boone

Ennis hands Mr. Maple her ring to disguise himself. Finally she is temp back to being Freya again, she ducks into the crowd using her cloak of protection to hide out

Joe says to him "told you that I would help you out"

And Mr. Maple transforms himself into the doctor Wolfgang. Which they beg him to turn into anybody else, which he transforms into one of the train staff. We tell him to come with us to our room for his special surprise

It is Isabella, now known as Paula! Although she is passed out asleep with a tired but still awake Celeste watching over her

Mr. Maple cries thanking us all for helping Paula, that she should pursue her destiny with us to Gale. We offer him a chance to join the group, saying maybe and he'll be in car 4 of the train

Ennis is back again.

Mr. Maple asks Joe if he helped him because he knew his father, which Joe says I help all those in need (except apparently train cars full of people lol) and reveals himself as Hops. Mr. Maple smiles and in exchange gives Hops some amulet that can autoheal some insane blows such as beheading which will allow Hops to heal them with Eschatology

Now what to do with Bergeron? We think that maybe we kill Bergeron and revive him. Boone just looks and goes "I would rather just help you put a shotgun to some criminals head at 6AM"

Now to look for criminals. They both roll nat 20s and At this point they see a criminal stabbing someone nearby saying "your family deserved that too I'm a mass murderer" and Boone points his shotgun at him and Victoria pulls out the demonic pistols not thinking being exhausted +3 and still drunk, it says "the new master has been decided" and she pulls the trigger at the man's heart as it explodes out the back onto the wall. The gun demands to absorb the blood for more power (this is major Hellsing vibes) and Boone turns his head into a gray and red mist with a shotgun. They put Bergeron clothes on him

All aboard the train! Bre asks Victoria where Mr. Bergeron is, Victoria says she took it into her own hands after he attacked her. Bre says that she'll informed her boss, shaking her head and boarding the train. Bre is definitely suspicious of Victoria now, but says Ennis is the more sus one as she was with Bergeron in his room and she can't find this so called Holy Britannian Empire and Celeste also sus because of this

Ennis borrows 2000GP as when they arrive to Crisillyir she is going to purchase the +3 Grimoire from her old mentor Ranni the witch and inform her of all she learned in the battle against fate

Victoria tells Ennis about how they're onto her, which she says don't worry I got a plan if something happens. Which everyone is terrified to hear

At this point Celeste and Ennis go into there room and get engulfed by a dark cloud, the rest are fine

 

[Cultsbane]

So we're going to cross the hundred hour mark for Zeitgeist during the next session!

 

[Cultsbane]

Campaign time: 3 hours, 1 min, and 5 seconds


Got new D&D dice today, although used the old reliable character dice


Lamp light turns blue, sky turns gradually dark, and all the two of us can see is purple. The sound of rain fades away and the atmosphere becomes ethereal and unreal like the bleak gate

Celeste asks Ennis if we're tripping, must've been something in the Fey Pepper

Joe passed out in his cabin after two days up, same with Victoria. Mr. Boone makes his way back to the room

Reality for the two keeps getting dimmer and dimmer as they're getting tired. Like a filter over the entire world of negative colours. Ennis suddenly feels herself fading away, her max hit points draining, she gets drowsy

They start to slip in and out of the dream taking wisdom saves. Mr. Boone heads to the room, when he is outside, he noticed marks above the door. He is familiar with these mark of shadow, he transforms back into Bergeron slipping into the orcs room. Asking if he can in exchange for helping him earlier help him out now

Asking if he heard anything strange sounds, he says no, having only seeing a purple light. Now as Bergeron he cannot hear anything coming from inside the room, but the two of them can hear him knocking. He goes outside the window of the cabin to try to get into Ennis & Celeste cabin

Ennis opens up the door to see the entire train empty, oh no! This is some JoJo level insanity

They hear a knock at the window but see nothing. Meanwhile Bergeron sees the two girls fast asleep, he uses a slight of hands check to get in through the window. The two of them can hear Bergeron shouting and what looks to be a phantom opening up the window

Ennis throws a book out the window at it. The book is back immediately. Bergeron throws a bunch of ball bearing at Ennis. They pass through her into the couch, Ennis can feel it though

Ennis and Celeste another wisdom save. Ennis again fails, feeling herself getting lighter, loses another 5 hp. Ennis is now far more panicked, she makes an investigation check, she notices whenever she moves something it returns to original space

Ennis smothers the purple fire but a few mins later it comes back. Down the hallway she hears some light screams, whaling, frightening unhappy sounds. Ennis makes her way down that way, Celeste following behind

The next car door opens and in walks a familiar man. A Tiefling. Two pistols. He points it at Freya, it's the serial killer Boone, and it's initiative time. His eyes bloodshot and head not fully connected to his neck

Meanwhile Bergeron goes to get Victoria, Joe as well if he can. Ennis shoots off her grease spell at him. Drenching him in grease. She can see spirits down the train, she now realizes that from her spirit medium background that she is on a ghost train. A plane of undeath on the far side of the bleak gate. A thought comes to her (nat 20) that things don't work the same way, the train isn't actually her, her real body is moving further away and if she is too far away she loses her body forever (this is some chainsaw man naughty word, epic)

Celeste strikes at him with her flaming necrotic sword, but misses. Gunslinger fires at Celeste but completely misses. The flare back comes back his arm on fire. He misses Ennis as well and his second arm catches on fire. His form disappeared. Ennis fires a fire bolt at him and he jumps aside. Guess everyone is missing attacks today

Boone's arm is on fire. Celeste points her crossbow at Boone, shooting it through his chest, hitting him for 8 damage. Instead of blood she sees it leave a formless hole through his chest

He returns fire at Celeste hitting her directly in the shoulder for 10 damage, and it begins to disappear. Ennis informs her that she doesn't want to die here because she'll disappears into an inescapable super hell lol

The second bullet hits Ennis for 5 damage. She feels nothingness. Ennis now finally ignites him on fire. His entire body erupting in flames.

Celeste casts an ice knife spell, just barely hitting Boone. It explodes on impact. Boone clutches himself saying one last opportunity, we both get blasted. Celeste for 10, Ennis for 9. Ennis uses magnify gravity, collapsing him into a pile of nothingness

We noticed we're at the very back of the train. 60 dead spirits on the train all facing us, very angry. Ennis suggests getting on the roof to Celeste.

We cut to Bergeron finding Joe asleep on a couch. Having had a sleep rest, which isn't good for him, but excellent for Victoria. He finds her too. He describes the room as a room of shadows, both of them completely asleep. Joe pulls out a sunrod that helped dispel the shadows around the bleak gate

They try breaking into the room. Joe distracts people with blue clues songs. Victoria smashes through the door, never knowing subtlety

Cutting back to the two girls. They hear a large smash, a giant hole in the wall. Ennis and Celeste are now on top of the ghost train, seeing something unmistakable in the distance. Shadows are closing in. Looking at the way down she sees an extremely bright purple light from the front car, like a purple lunar eclipse. Ennis' curiosity is about it compels her to come closer, she takes Celeste and fey steps across the train until she reaches the engine. In exchange for breaking the laws of spells her body starts to disappears

They feel waves of powerful energy. On top is a purple lantern of light. Ennis smashes through it, the purple fire envelops around her.

We cut back to the real world as the rest of the party threw the sunrod to the room. At the same time Ennis and Celeste travel back to their body shielding their eyes from the blinding sun. They're now awake

They meet the others in the orc room, going through the large hole in the room. Bergeron apologizes, Ennis immediately asks to borrow $2000 GP so she can get that book is Crisillyir. Bergeron is saying it is time to capture Bre, but Joe says not and keep watch on her. We make our way to the lounge putting up a painting on the wall lol

Bergeron now disguises as the other serial killer they killed in the last town. We nicknamed him Mike, Killer Mike.

They can see the outskirts of the capital of Crisillyir. Ennis and Celeste change disguises as night walkers, they're going with the Archer reference as Cherel and Charlene, they go with Victoria to the next room. In there Charlene makes an ocelot transformation, another archer reference

You're not my supervisor!

We're now discussing Victoria meeting up with Bre before the big secret obscariati meeting. Victoria finds Bre at her usual spot, she says hello to her And they talk about the meeting and how she got rid of the threats laughing that the holy britannian empire wasn't a thing and they always knew this

The next meeting is at an isolated isle ih the Yeezus island chains called Odiem

The train arrives at Crisillyir, stopping at the train station. Everyone exits, this is the last stop before the final stop. Recommends avoiding the cursed harbour, that the souls of the damned are there. I guess they use trains and boats too

We have a contact down at the harbour

Killer Mike looks around seeing if anyone followed us to the harbour. Doesn't see anything

Joe waits on the train in order to find the box of Mr. Maple. He is about to leave. Joe says to Isabella that this is the man who got your freedom and she is free to talk to him. Dawwwww!

Cherel heads to the Crisillyir university to talk to her old mentor and trainer, Ranni the Witch and order a grimoire. It'll take some time to prepare. After she heads to the harbour

They see a merchant ship at the harbour who is our contact, we board the ship and inform them. We buy some truth serum

We get told if we're caught that the RHC will deny our existence

 

[Cultsbane]

Freya is a long ways off, but I'm realizing just how insanely deadly the reverse gravity pristimic wall combination actually is

Like if somehow you manage to do max rolls with everything you can get like almost a thousand damage.

The hail Mary of spells (besides Wish, which I got plans for)

Anyways y'all have an amazing week and I'll see you next time!