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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lykkenthrope" data-source="post: 9800071" data-attributes="member: 7045440">Session 23 The group left Timbre’s grove with the group’s tension thicker than the smoke in the air. No one spoke until the faint melody of the Song of Forms reached them again…its beautiful melody almost cruel since everyone seemed to know at the end of this there was a good chance no one would ever sing it again.Sorian said nothing as they crossed into the village. His expression was unreadable, but something in his posture had changed. The others assumed he meant to follow through on sacrificing himself for the Seela as Timbre had shared might be the only way to save them. Not wanting to witness this, and for Grom the headache caused by the song, Grom, Crystin, and Reshi walked through the village and camped just outside of the song’s range in the direction towards Gwen’s lagoon.Tiljann and Papuvin approached Sorian, Ze, Vic, and Torrent. All the Seela had come to the center of the small village, more hope in their weary faces than the party had ever seen. Papuvin was the first to speak asking if there was any way to save his people.Sorian hesitated. He looked over the faces of those who had sung through fire for a century, the souls who had kept their faith and duty while the world burned around them. Everyone was solelmn (even the DM), expecting this big Marytr hero speech from Sorian, but to everyone’s surprise….he lied.He told Papuvin there was no way to save them, that the fires were eternal and their song, though noble, could not be stopped without destroying them all. Papuvin nearly collapsed from the weight of this revelation (read: the DM was speechless), and the last flicker of hope in his eyes went dim. Tiljann shouted that they were liars and ran off. After Papuvin composed himself he shared that he understood, they all did, but that they would keep singing until the end. They had made a promise to Arielle, so if they wanted to free the beast then they would need to do so with their own hands.The party went to join the others on the outskirts of the village. Vic was visibly upset at lying to Papuvin, but Ze calmed her by telling it wasn’t her fight to pick. That this was Sorian’s ancestral home, they needed to support his decision.Early the next day they headed back to Gwen’s lagoon to return the lock of hair and see about solidifying the promise she had about helping them with Indomitability. During the walk they turned to logistics. Sorian became fixated on the idea of swimming from Gwen’s lagoon straight to Indomitability’s resting place, that he very much did not want to return the village in case the Seela tried to stop them. Vic (thankfully) pointed out the obvious that the party didn’t even know where Indomitabity was within the vast lake, and the waters were full of crocodiles and worse. Grom, tentatively agreed with Vic trying to break the tension with a funny joke about not even know if the lake was 10 Groms deep or 35 Groms deep.In a segue way, Grom reminded everyone of Vuhl’s plan…ending the song. That that would free Indomitability without putting them in harms way. Torrent asked the question on everyone’s mind of realistically, what were they willing to do? Sorian snapped that the Seela would never stop singing, but that he would not harm them nor allow anyone else to.This declaration from Sorian caused Vic’s frustration to get the best of her as she angerly yelled at him: accusing him of hypocrisy and arrogance, of lying to Papuvin and now putting on this performative heroism. Vic shouted that everything Sorian would do for his people, Papuvin would do for his. Why not tell him about ability to sacrificing one’s life force to make the Living Blade into a new First Tree? Vic was angry, angry that Sorian made a choice for himself and took Papuvin’s choice to try that avenue for himself away just because Sorian didn’t want to have to tell the Seela he was choosing his people over them…something they would understand.When Sorian didn’t immediately answer Vic turned to walk away, but as she turned to leave Sorian’s anger boiled over. He shouted at her to not walk away from him, but she told him there was nothing to discuss. In two quick steps Sorian closed the little distance between him and Vic. She felt a rough hand clamp around her shoulder before being roughly spun around. Pinning her arms painfully tight to her side, Sorian lifted Vic a good foot off the ground.Sorian yelled in her face that Vic didn’t get to speak to him like that and then walk away. That everyone in this group looked to him as a leader, understood his connection to the forest and acquiesced to his decisions about what to do, that Vic was being a petulant child and needed to keep her mouth shut.The rest of the party was shocked by the towering barbarian turning his frustration physical against the small, unarmored wizard.[SPOILER="DM Note. Pvp Clarification"]I paused the session at this point. Unlike the Ze vs Vic where everyone was laughing, no one was laughing here. I confirmed Sorian’s intent to actually grapple (so an attack roll) vs a roleplay grab, and he was insistent he wanted it to be an aggressive/attack grab. As Vic’s player had opened pvp in a previous session, I allowed it.[/SPOILER]Grom immediately stepped forward calling Sorian out for his outburst, that using his size and strength to silence someone smaller was no show of honor and if Sorian needed to fight, he could fight Grom instead. Torrent and Ze backed him quietly by positioning themselves behind Grom and hands moving to their weapons, even Reshi looked up from his journal long enough to note that human and elf tempers seemed far less civilized than rumored. As Sorian put Vic down and let her go, Grom ended with what might have been a joke on another day: they were all too tired for kindergarten brawls, and this was exactly what Ragesia wanted from them.Sorian, still not wanting to back down or let anyone else have the last word on this issue, explained that he was beyond worrying about his honor. He was only worrying about his people back in Gate Pass. That Timbre had said to save the Seela the Living Blade needed to bind to a soul born within the forest—obviously a Tananesti, as the Seela were born of the First Tree and Sorian didn’t think their souls would qualify—and if he did that, then his life and soul would be forfeit in exchange for the Seela’s. He spoke of Gate Pass again…his home, of the Taranesti refugees he had sworn to protect, of his people who still needed him beyond these cursed woods. The Seela were ghosts whereas his people were alive and in very real danger. So no, he could not and would not sacrifice himself for the Seela. He declared that someone else would have to free the blade, that he was not willing to risk even touching it.The others listened in silence, the divide between personal duty and a collective morality laid bare. No one challenged Sorian’s resolve and Grom thanked Sorian for finally explaining his position. When planning next steps it is important to know how everyone can be used in battle. Tensions were still high, but everyone at least turned back towards developing a pragmatic strategy.Sorian believed the best route was to remove the Blade from Indomitability and things be ended that way. Grom said he would only agree to that plan in Gwen could help them have safe passage to Indomitability, he did not want to risk fighting a Giant Croc in its preferred domain. Reshi then proposed something a bit more…inventive? He could potentially use Thunderwave to drown out the Seela’s song for just a moment, long enough to free Indomitability without killing the singers.[SPOILER="DM Note. Reshi's Exact Quote"]“want me to go thunderwave them?[/SPOILER]Ze supported Reshi’s plan and she Vic discussed the likelihood that the magic of the song was proximity or did those affected have to hear it? Which lead to the very helpful conclusion that Indomitability was more than likely close to the Seela village and very near shore.By the time they reached the outskirts of Gwen’s lagoon a fragile plan had formed. They would return Arielle’s hair to Gwen, seek her help in swimming in the lake if it came to that, and they would return to the Seela village and give Papuvin the option to come and pull the Living Blade himself and attempt to bind with it himself. Even Sorian had to admit that even when it didn’t work they would feel like that had a hand in their fate.Session ended as they walked towards the lagoon.Whew.[SPOILER="DM Reflection (Spoilers)"]This session was difficult. I had purposely made Timbre’s (my new Deception) explanation of the Living Blade being able to save the Seela in exchange for the soul/life force ambiguous as to if it needed to be a Taranesti in hopes that it would create this dissonance of Sorian thinking he was the ONLY one who could save the Seela and everyone else seeing the option for the Seela to potentially save themselves. Mechanically it worked out exactly the way I hoped, but I was just sad to see the tension/heated feelings it caused. Sorian’s aggression definitely marked the lowest point in in game party cohesion so far.On another note, as the session was coming to the end I pointed out to my players that their plan and ethical boundaries mirrored Vuhl’s almost exactly despite spending the last few sessions writing him off as “The Villain”. My players did NOT like the comparison which made it all the more fascinating to see them faced with this version of the trolly cart problem, come up with mechanically the same solution and yet they were adamant Vuhl was “evil” and they were “heroes”.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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