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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 8262836" data-attributes="member: 11">It was our first in-person session, now that we are all fully vaccinated and waited two weeks, and it was great! The only issue was getting used to the logistics of in-person play again and losing about the first hour to BSing about life and stuff (which was frankly needed after so long just communicating electronically).We took up where the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-was-your-last-session.667468/post-8238921" target="_blank">last session ended</a>, and finished exploring the temple's lower level. This included finding Sister Ottie as a prisoner in a torture chamber (remember her <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-was-your-last-session.667468/page-34#post-8203914" target="_blank">from two sessions ago</a>?), who joined their cause, Father Abramo the former elder priest of the temple who have been driven mad by being fed drugs and dominated multiple times (they had to fight him, but they defeated him with some ease), and a young girl being kept in a cage, who was to be fed to some monster, after her own family of cultist converts turned her in for only pretending to be charmed by what she called a "beautiful woman. Terrible. Infinite."They saved the natural tunnels they discovered leading away from the temple and into the side of the bluff for last, certain that way led to danger and not being sure what to do with the girl or their prisoners (they were still carrying around a tied up and unconscious priestess - Misha- that  they fought on the ground level). They spent a lot of time bogged down trying to decide what to do.But things got complicated before that. In one of the chambers they discovered a stone orb, crystal ball thing. It was covered in a sheet and when the tiefling ranger/sorcerer uncovered it, she heard a voice questioning her from within, so she covered it back up. Later, when the druid and bard/wizard decided to check it out, Thron the druid touched it. From the gnome's PoV he just heard Thron talking but no one answered, but from Thron's PoV he was being drawn into the LOAF and was now dominated by some mysterious power with a woman's voice.I took the druid's player into the next room and explained what happened. The being dominating him instructed him to not alert his companions but to encourage them to come to her (even if it meant leading them into an ambush to be captured) so that they too might learn "the glory of the LOAF." I also explained that he need not attack his friends, but just encourage them to leave the temple or slow them down if they try to make a choice "against the ways of the LOAF." "We will all be family in the LOAF soon."The players knew something was up of course. But as their characters, they began to get suspicious when the druid began to advocate for the opposite of what he argued for before to get the party to leave. But since he didn't do anything outright evil or detrimental, they let it go for now. The gnome wizard/bard covered the stone back up and put it in his pack for now.It was decided they would bring their prisoners back to the upper level and leave Abramo outside to be found in the morning (remember, at this point it is about 2 am) and send the girl to safety while the party explored the lower tunnels (still carrying Misha Devi). Unfortunately for them, the prefect's guards, his daughter and the constable (about 10 people total that they could see) were waiting for them out there. Rather than surrender as ordered (and despite the druid in dog form getting in the way "playfully") they barred the doors and ran back for the lower levels (though not before throwing Abramo out to them).Oh and one other thing that happened was that Misha the priestess started to come to, but before they could question her, Thron hit her in the head with his staff and nearly killed her.  He claimed to not want to hear the priestess's voice defiling the temple anymore, but in truth he wanted to keep her from being questioned. This led to tensions with Ottie, who was very upset about striking (and nearly killing) a bound prisoner.In the lower tunnels they fought more trogs including a <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/stats-for-different-kind-of-trogs.677618/" target="_blank">Troglodyte Meatseeker</a>, and after defeating them found tunnels out of the temple that let out beyond the temple walls. Dropping the prisoner girl with a family they trusted, the party found an abandoned farmhouse to hole up in. The druid is still dominated, so there will be some between sessions shenanigans as he tries to alert the bad guys as to where they are, but I did award XP and everyone hit 5th level (except the NPC, who remained 3rd).</blockquote>

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