Session 25 (August 20, 2023)
Last session, our heroes awoke on the day of the expedition into the fog plaguing the Haden Desert. Heph and Rormir discussed Elias’s behavior, and resolved to confront him about not being a team player, which they did upon meeting at the Dune Port. It was unclear whether the discussion had any effect on Elias.
At the Dune Port, among the onlookers there, the party ran into Frederick Ehrhalt and Thom, who had been waylaid in their journey north by the Port closure. On a nat 20 history check, Heph thought back to the story of how Jörnann was trapped in the puzzle box in ages past, and recognized that research into the ritual used could allow them to free Thom from her possession. They also saw other parties set to journey into the fog: the Devotees of the Heavenly Cap, a group of what looked like actors, and a group of individuals in aprons carrying butcher knives that the party had seen some of at the Blue Barrel Inn.
An Earth Genasi woman gave the details of the mission, saying the parties would journey into the fog and that the reward of 1000 gold would go to whoever brought back the head of the strange humanoid carapskit that was spotted during the migration. With that, the skimmer took off under the arcane power of its sails, heading towards the mist.
Aboard, Elias realized the brass cylinder he kept with him was missing. Ana revealed that she had stolen it while he was sleeping, and suggested he explain its purpose (and the message etched inside of it) to the party. Elias stole it back and fired Ana, cutting deep with words about her hypocrisy as a deeply deceptive person. Before walking away, Ana suggested to Heph and Rormir to be persistent about figuring out what Elias was hiding, as it may be more relevant to them than they realize.
Tensions running high, the skimmer arrived at the fog and the party walked into it, attempting to navigate towards its center. After some time, Rormir noticed a shadow nearby that he was certain was Sentin Thornwillow, the source of most of the imbalance he had encountered since coming to this world. Desperately he tried to chase it, only to be met with psychic damage as it looked back at him. Elias, coming back to Heph and Rormir, asked if Heph knew what was happening with the fog. Upon receiving a negative answer, he said he had an idea, cut his rope, and ran off back the way they had come.
- Rormir snaps out of his disillusion with Heph’s help
- The image of Sentin vanishes before his eyes
- They chase after Elias, who has run off
- They are able to track him, but he is much faster with his Cunning Action
- Elias sees a figure and chases after it
- It has long hair which reflects the turquoise glow much the same as the fog itself does
- He loses it, but then gets ambushed by a carapskit, taking 9 damage
- He screams out, and Heph and Rormir head towards the sound
- Elias attacks the carapskit, disengages, and continues running away
- Heph and Rormir see him running away, towards them
- Elias is saying “where is she?” and hides behind Heph
and Rormir
- He looks generally panicked and distraught
- Rormir asks if he’s being chased, Elias doesn’t really respond
- Heph and Rormir ready themselves for something hostile to approach
- The carapskit bounds into view with speed that seems unreasonable for a turtle-like thing
- Heph launches his readied attack but misses, Rormir looses an arrow and hits under one of its legs
- Heph steps forward and tries to get the carapskit to come after him instead
- The carapskit attacks him but he blocks it with his shield, and Elias takes advantage of the carapskit being distracted to run off after the figure he saw again
- He hears more carapskit coming from that direction, and turns and runs off again in a different direction
- Rormir hits it with another arrow, and Heph fails to land a punch
- Elias is frantically looking around for the figure, but is not able to see them anywhere at this point
- He can’t find the figure, but a carapskit tries to attack him, but on a nat 1 Elias kicks it while scrambling backwards and it ends up getting flipped onto its back and is prone
- Heph finishes off the first carapskit, notices Elias is gone, and Rormir and Heph head after him
- Rormir attempts to track him, and on a natural 20 is able to cut the corner and head directly for him
- They hear other carapskit in the area, which all seem very aggressive towards Elias
- Heph heads towards the carapskit on its back, Rormir heads towards Elias and tries to help him
- Elias is in a full-on mental breakdown, and is pointing his crossbow out into the fog
- Rormir calls on shared memories to try to bring
Elias back to reality, it seems to work a bit and
Elias regains some of his senses
- Remember when Elias was confused about him being naked, etc.
- Heph punches the carapskit, and Elias shoots a bolt but misses
- Elias seems a slight bit calmer, and the carapskit is not able to turn itself over
- It snaps at Heph, but he sidesteps the attack
- Heph punches it again, it’s looking pretty injured
- Rormir runs up and attacks it with his dagger and knock-off sapphire sword, and nearly kills it
- Elias flips his cloak around to be the same color as the mist, intending to hide in the mist, but the cloak actually turns into a jungle camouflage pattern in his distress (nat 1 stealth) and he is still extremely visible
- The ridiculousness of the situation seems to bring Elias back to reality a bit more
- The carapskit flips itself over, charges Heph, and trips and falls onto its back on another nat 1
- Heph punches it one more time, and it essentially explodes
- With this, the other carapskit seem to be keeping their distance
- The party regroups, and Elias suggests they leave
- Heph and Rormir want to head towards the center to finish this
- Elias knows he probably won’t survive alone and begrudgingly agrees to go along
- Rormir investigates the dead carapskit, and can’t tell much from it
- He also checks for any wind, and doesn’t really feel any
- They decide to head back the original direction they were going, towards the center
- Heph heals Elias for 8hp
- As the party heads deeper, Heph sees Potion
Pitstop as it was on the day of the burglary, with the
broken window and the flickering of fire inside
- His initial reaction is that it doesn’t make sense, but immediately is sure that what he is seeing is real
- Heph takes off towards it, yelling “not again!”
- Rormir isn’t 100% sure, but Elias is completely sure it’s an illusion
- Elias tries to trip Heph with Mage Hand, Heph deftly avoids it and continues running
- Elias dashes to him with the intent of grappling him down
- Rormir runs up to Heph and tries to tackle him, but Heph slips out of his grasp
- Heph keeps running, saying “I’ve got to save them!”
- Heph runs through the illusory door, and sees a scene of destruction
- Fires are raging, potions are smashed on the ground, and 10 masked individuals destroying things and setting fire to everything
- From the back room, Heph hears his parents yelling for help
- Heph runs straight through the room, heading for the back room and his parents
- Elias tries and fails to tackle Heph, but Rormir is barely able to manage to tackle him
- Heph feels himself break through the door as he is tackled
- Heph wonders why his friends are trying to stop him, and still does not realize he’s in an illusion
- Heph slips out of Rormir’s grasp, stands up, and looks around for his parents
- He sees some gnome-sized skeletons on the far end of the back room, and he drops to his knees yelling “NOOO!”
- Elias hides in the mist and readies a booming blade enhanced rapier attack because he is expecting an attack from following the illusion
- Heph suddenly snaps out of, realizing that he wasn’t sweating even though he was in and on fire
- They all hear the sounds of carapskit nearby, they were keeping their distance but they seem to be closer than they were a moment ago
- Rormir tries to head off towards the direction they were going, while trying to avoid the carapskit as much as possible
- Heph just kind of goes along blindly, still very disoriented and not really sure what’s going on
- Elias kind of trails behind a bit, using his stealth to stay a bit hidden
- Elias and Rormir realize they are using sound to navigate because they also can’t see through the fog very well
- The party gets their bearings again, and heads towards the center
- Heph gets his bearings back, and takes the lead to be ready to fend off any attacks from carapskit
- As the party travels inward, Elias takes stock of any ability to
make noise far away
- Rormir says Karrl might be able to help out, and Elias gives him a bell to fly away and ring and make a bunch of noise
- Karrl wants a pet, and Elias gives him a scratch
- Karrl flies off, ringing the bell as he goes
- They can’t really tell if it’s successful, but they hear an increase in noise in the carapskit; they are clearly reacting but they’re not sure how
- As they approach the center, they see cairns getting taller and actually being
approached, and hear some sounds of water
- Ahead, the light is playing on the fog in a slightly different way than normal
- Elias chooses to scout ahead, Rormir hides, and Heph activates his armor to get some temp HP
- Elias creeps forward, the sound of water getting a bit louder as he does
- Elias realizes the light is slightly different because they’re at the edge of the fog bank
- He pushes out through the edge of the fog, and upon emerging from the fog into a “clearing”, he sees a confusing combination of ruins and structure
- He sees a number of carapskit, some of whom are engaged in battle with other adventurers
- On a throne at the far side, there is a humanoid carapskit sitting as if it was a person, but it is also clearly a carapskit
- It sees Elias, and peers at him with dull animal eyes
- The carapskit not engaged in combat just seem to be wandering around doing their own thing
- Some of them are heading off towards what seems to be the direction Karrl was heading
- At least one of them has left due to Karrl’s bell
- Elias tugs on the rope and the party all steps into the clearing, readying themselves for combat
