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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oginme" data-source="post: 9518521" data-attributes="member: 7042120">Next Session:Waking up in the underground section of the shrine, they argued on the direction they should head.  A couple of the members thought they should head north, following Bhurisrava’s notes while the rest were more pragmatic and wanted to follow the directions from the fiery face and go south.Griff attuned to Bhurisrava’s mace, happy to receive the ability to heal without expending a spell slot. They discussed once again if they should try to do anything about the elvish soldier in some type of stasis, despite the presence of the deva, but gave that up, not knowing what to do with the body afterwards if they could not revive it.They continued discussing their options as they headed back to the bridge to follow the river. They had finally come to the decision to go south with the agreement that they would follow the river north once they had freed the trapped creature.As they approached the bridge, they observed a thin, winged figure peeking down the walkway which led to the tower. As they drew closer, a few more similar figures appeared, sneaking up on the slender female fey creature.They stopped, confused, until the first of the ones sneaking up on the fey creature, who was now approaching the door of the tower, attacked her. At that point, they started racing towards the group which now closed in on the wounded woman.Haravandiir arrived first, placing himself between the rest of the group and the two fighting fey creatures. Ragna ran in and grabbed the assailant, pulling them off of the wounded woman who retreated to the door of the tower. Chenum moved up next to Harvandiir to keep the rest of the attackers from reaching the fey woman. Zander and Griff came up and started questioning what they were doing. The group of assailants broke out into a chorus of reasons, with most being centered on the victim, named Tiljann, was encouraging the rest of the village to continue singing, against the will of someone named Vuhl.They explained that they were being forced to sing everyday and Vuhl has suggested that they stop singing. Tiljann was one of the Seela who insisted that they continue to sing, pointing out that she was singing the song of forms even as she left the village herself to explore up the river.Tiljann was asked about this by Chennum and she responded that there was a creature trapped at the bottom of the lake. The Seela needed to continue singing to hold the creature, because if it left, the Seela would perish as the fire consumed the trees and their lives were tied to the trees.The four antagonists cut in to insist that there was no proof that the Seela would die if the fires were allowed to burn freely.When the party asked for more explanations, Tiljann told them they should talk to Popuvin, the Seela leader. Several more minutes of discussion between the three parties ended with them marching downstream with Tiljann leading and the party acting as a barrier between her and her four assailants.Arriving at the lakeshore where a long beach of sand and ash separated the burning forest from the lake.  Small shelters dotted the beach on both sides of the river. A three story tower was set on the edge of the lake and three Seela could be seen on the top singing a repeated song. Stepping out to greet them was a young, vibrant Seela who introduced himself as Vuhl.He quickly dismissed the actions of the four assailants, taking the responsibility for talking too metaphorically in his discussions of stopping their plight and gaining freedom.As he was telling the party about the history of the Seela suffering and the lack of evidence that they would die if the creature were to be let free, Haravandiir grew suspicious of the young looking Seela.He mentioned this to Chennum and Griff in short whispered conversations, causing them to start questioning the smooth, silky voice of Vuhl.They were interrupted by a strong but much older Seela who introduced himself as Papuvin, the Seela leader. He told Vuhl to stop spreading his lies among the Seela and causing dissent.Vuhl stalked off, throwing evil looks at Papuvin.  Papuvin told the party of the Elven warrior Anyariel and her fight with the beast who invaded the forest. He described how the creature could change his appearance and took the form of a mighty stag.The stag and Anyariel fought with the Elven warrior coaxing the creature to the shoreline. There the Seela joined together to sing the song of forms, locking the creature into its chosen form as a stag and Anyariel impaled it using the weapon given to her by her lover.With the creature held captive and pinned to the earth of the forest, its influence soon became apparent, as living things connected to the forest were unexpectedly prevented from dying. When the fires were started in the forest by the goblins, the creature again prevented the forest from being consumed by the fires, but that also trapped the other creatures within the forest, burning.Split in who to believe, the party was offered to spend the night on the beach with the Seela. That night, they were approached by Vuhl who told them that the only way they could escape the forest was to free the creature at the bottom of the lake, and the first step to do that was to kill the dryad who protected an old tree about a third of the way around the lake.He assured them that they would be doing her a favor by putting her out of her misery. These comments elicited another examination by Haravandiir and again, he saw signs that Vuhl was playing them false. As Vuhl slipped off into the night, Haravandiir addressed the others, saying that he noted a few times when Vuhl appeared to be lying.He suggested that they go see this dryad, but keep an open mind and listen to what she had to say, which was quickly agreed upon by the rest of the party. The next morning, they received directions from Papuvin to visit the dryad and he told them that she protected the one tree which enabled the Seela to be bonded to the land. Without her protection, he warned, the Seela would die.At this point, everyone is making an insight check and no one detected any sign that Papuvin was being honest in his statements.  Confused, they talked as they waded along the edge of the lake towards the Dryad’s refuge.DM notes: This was a very RP heavy session, with the party talking through what they had encountered. They questioned the Seela for a long time before drawing any conclusion.  Haravandiir’s insight into Vuhl’s nature was interesting, as he mostly kept the information quiet, talking to each character as they were able to withdraw from the party conversation.I had changed the image of Vuhl, making him a younger, more likeable figure, which led to much consternation over Haravandiir’s comments that he was trying to deceive them. My changing the image is not unusual, as I searched around for images which I think fit each of the important NPCs and many of the minor NPCs. For the most part, I keep the images to match their descriptions, but this was one case where the image I found reinforced Deception’s abilities.</blockquote>

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