Perrinor

Session 52: Rormir Returns (June 30, 2024)

Last session, our heroes settled in for some very well-deserved self-care while they discussed their plans to deal with Hexicon, Sentin Thornwillow, and Kogar Mistwall. They used their coupons to book a throuple’s hot stone massage, and laid down on three tables arranged head to head. The masseur seemed concerned with their haggard and bloody appearances and offered them some vials containing a concoction he had been working on based on what he learned from an Arkos traveler. He called the substance Grace, although Heph recognized it immediately as similar to Wormwood, but with some potential subtle differences. Elias drank his, feeling an immediate calm and restfulness, and sequestered the others away for later.

After some cold stones/ice cubes and talk of murder, the masseur quickly rushed the party out of the room and on to their next appointment. They gathered with a new masseuse, Elias getting a mani-pedi, Maho sitting in a tub of hungry eels with legally-mandated cucumbers over her eyes, and Heph just kinda hanging. They decided to try and leverage Harris Kelner, the dwarf they were given a hit contract for, to potentially gain access to Lucien Dynastic. They also planned to keep an eye on Kogar.

Karrl, who had been acting antsy and agitated, took off to the north and the party followed. This chase took them out of the bounds of Bad Zamdorf into the wilderness beyond. On the side of the road they saw an amulet with “LD” inscribed on it, which Elias grabbed. They also saw an Aarakocra overhead, scouting out the area. With Karrl pulling ahead, Woahdoe Boedough cast Expeditious Retreat and Elias cast Silent Image to hide the hearse, and they eventually arrived at an encampment. There they saw two elves, a number of goliaths tied up and unconscious by a strange device, and a large red dire wolf, on which Karrl landed.

A fight ensued, wherein the device was activated, creating a forcefield that trapped Maho behind it with an artificer elf. The wolf immediately attacked, but Heph suspected something and showed the octopus ring to it. As it bit at him, he recognized Rormir in its eyes.

• The dire wolf tries to move away, but Heph grapples him by grabbing his tail, then wrapping his arms around the wolf’s belly, at which point the wolf transforms back into Rormir, but now wrapped in a dark light
  • Heph can tell it is Rormir, having just transformed back from a dire wolf, but something is different about him, although Heph can’t tell exactly what, but the light seems fey in nature, and there is a pattern in the light, that looks sort of like a bow or an archer
  • Karrl comes back to Rormir, landing on his shoulder, and prepares to assist him as needed
  • Woahdoe Boedough stares at the bow, flicks his tail like he is swatting a fly, the archer starts itching at his clothes, but seems to brush off whatever the effect was, then moves sideways to provide Elias cover, to which Elias says good horse, and it is clear Woahdoe Boedough understands the words
  • Heph recognizes Rormir as being under the effect of Geas, and decides to pull out a venom vial (#5) and force feed it to Rormir, trying to utilize the Remove Curse side-effect, but Karrl is a bit freaked out and bouncing back and forth between Rormir and Heph, and Rormir knocks the vial away from Heph
  • Heph grabs the vial and tries to convince Rormir to drink it, but Rormir spews a stream of insults at Heph and seems unwilling to play along
• The bow sees Elias and Heph well under cover, and leaps over the river, firing a couple of arrows at Heph, but is not able to land a shot due to Heph being in cover
  • Elias uses Silvery Barbs on the bow and yells an insult at him, giving himself advantage
  • The artificer swears under his breath, disengages, and steps through the force field, and an amulet with the initials LD glows to allow him to pass through, and starts to head to the river
  • The device pulses again, and a chunk of the cliff breaks off and falls into the river, and the tent starts to tip over the edge
  • A fog cloud appears around Elias as he runs over to where Heph and Rormir are and grabs the vial, telling Heph to hold Rormir still, and tries to force feed Rormir again, and as Rormir tries to fend him off Elias once again uses silvery barbs, telling Rormir to “hold still puppy”, which causes Rormir to fail to fend him off, and Elias shoves the vial up his nose and forces it down his throat
  • Rormir uses Absorb Elements to halve the damage of the poison, but the liquid triggers a memory in Rormir’s mind about milking the snakes for venom in the desert, and the venom starts to reconnect Rormir’s mind to his quest for justice
  • Elias runs back to the cart and hides in the fog, but manages to bop into the cart a bit and takes a little bit of damage
  • Maho taps the force field, and feeling it solid, slashes at the machine itself, but the two slashes bounce off the metal of the machine
  • Rormir tries to reconnect with himself, but the pull of the spell is strong, and Rormir is angry and calls Elias a pest and filthy raccoon, and orders Heph to removing his hands from him, then Misty Steps away, yelling at Elias, but fires a couple of arrows a Heph and misses, then orders Karrl to come to him and help
  • Woahdoe Boedough, now surrounded by fog, is confused and scared, but manages to keep his cool and swings the cart around and poke his head out, towards the bow, and neighs an impossibly loud and thunderous neigh at the bow, but the elf covers his ears and avoid the damage
  • Heph implores Karrl to help Rormir break free, but Karrl seems to see Heph as a nasty pest, and Karrl doesn’t listen to him, so Heph tries to cast Message on Rormir, reminding him of when he fell through the ceiling and killed Elias, and he responds a bit confused but calls Elias “Raccoonias”, seeming to make some progress, and then Heph wanders into the fog and ducks behind the tree
  • Elias points out the ground is slick, because that is how he is explaining bopping his head, and Rormir seems a little relieved that the pests are out of his sight
• The bow decides not to murder the horse, and runs around the fog, as he does Woahdoe Boedough kicks at him but misses, and the bow readies a shot for the next person who leaves the fog
  • The artificer sees things collapsing, and Casts Cure wounds on himself, which for him involves drinking a bit of green liquid from a tiny vial, then moves to the edge of the river
  • Elias doesn’t realize the bow has moved, and heads towards the loud neigh that Woahdoe Boedough let out, tells him he is a good horse again, steps out and seeing the artificer shoots a Cupid’s Little Prick at him, dealing some damage, but he saves from the extra effect, and then hides himself against Woahdoe Boedough
  • The machine causes more of the cliff to shake away
  • Maho, still trapped in the force field, sheathes her katana and shoves the whole sheathed thing into one of the whirly bits of the machine, causing some lightning from the machine to pass to her body and dealing some lightning damage, but dealing 25 damage to the machine, causing it to bind up, then she pulls out the sword and slashes through it, completely destroying the machine, and causing the force field to drop
  • Maho then shoves Goliath #1 away from the receding cliff edge, then uses Second Wind to heal up a bit
  • As Rormir tries to resist the new thoughts in his mind, he casts Faerie Fire into the fog cloud, then remembers who Heph and Elias are, and realizes he has been fighting against them, and sees Heph’s outline shift back to a familiar gnomish shape
  • Rormir’s vest is flickering between white, red and blue, portraying a mixture of confusion, anger and sadness at attacking his friends, and slowly becomes more blue and white, showing sadness and confusion
  • Rormir calls out to Heph, and they have a brief conversation, Heph, explaining that Rormir has been under a curse, and explains to Rormir that Maho is part of their group and isn’t a monster, and Rormir calls out to Maho and asks her to take off the mask and show that she isn’t a demon, which she does
  • Meanwhile, the bow fires his readied shots at Heph, but misses
  • As Rormir decides to help his friends, the light around him turns white and starts glowing, and he turns on the elves, and shoots at a magical arrow from the light at the bow, dealing some damage, causing the bow to turn to Rormir and express confusion that Rormir has turned on them
  • Elias asks Woahdoe Boedough to get him closer to the artificer, which he does, with the hearse in tow, through the river, and kicks at the artificer with his hooves glowing in green flame
  • Heph runs out of the fog, and punches at the bow, but misses both punches
• The bow moves away, and Heph tries to punch him again but misses, and then the bow fires two arrows, missing one, but landing the second
  • The artificer pulls a gnarled root with muddy reddish leaves out of a bag and takes a bite out of it (casting Haste), and runs to the goliaths, Woahdoe Boedough missing an opportunity attack, and the artificer grabs a goliath and holds a dagger to his neck, telling Maho to back off or he’ll kill him, and he readies an action to slice the goliath’s throat
  • The last bit of crumbling ground falls away, and the right tent falls off the cliff, but the ground stabilizes
  • Elias creeps forward a few steps and misty steps behind the artificer, says “nothing personal kid” and stabs Jarles, through his head, which proceeds to explode
  • Rormir recognizes Jarles excitedly chuckle, and sees that there are now a pair of googly eyes on Jarles which seem to be looking around
  • With the artificer thread removed, Maho spots the bow, and rushes towards him
  • Rormir looks at the bow, launches a volley of arrows at him, and absolutely eviscerates the bow, and a Sending Stone falls out of the cloak
• A voice comes out of the Sending Stone saying “Lython what is it? … I’ll come back soon”
  • Heph recognizes the accent, which sounds similar to the bow and artificer, and Rormir recognizes the voice but cannot place it
  • Heph pockets the Sending Stone, adding to his collection
  • The group decides to free the goliaths and hide them in the remaining tent, which the rest of the group hides in as well, then Elias uses minor illusion to recreate the artificer, seemingly kneeling by the machine
  • Heph takes some alchemical objects from the artificer, and notices he also has some scraps of burned paper, and Maho takes the bow from the archer, and a small number of arrows are recovered
  • We drag the artificer and archer into the tent as well, and hide Woahdoe Boedough under a tree
  • Rormir prepares to cast Pass Without Trace when someone shows up, and Karrl is hiding out in a tree to keep a lookout, and the group settles in to wait
• While we’re waiting, Rormir starts to ask what is going on, and seems to think Maho is Jeremias
  • Heph clarifies that it is Maho, and Rormir thinks she is a sibling of Elias
  • Rormir asks what happened, and Heph explains he was under the influence of a spell, and Rormir is really sad about what he has done and who he has killed, his vest turns blue and the light surrounding him dissipates
  • Rormir says he needs some time to process
  • Elias asks about the stars, and Rormir explains he had to train and get stronger, and he learned to call on the powers of nature, with druidic powers
  • Heph mentions that Elias has learned magic, and Rormir pulls out a staff and turns it into light, and says “like this?”
  • In response, Elias pulls out Jarles, who greets Rormir and says he left him by a tree
  • Rormir remembers and asks how he’s been, and Jarles says he’s been good and Elias is taking good care of him
  • Jarles complains about not getting more eyes, and Elias sticks another googly eye on him, which is disorienting but he’s excited about it
  • Rormir decides to help by carving out the artificer and archer’s eyes, and tries to give them to Elias, but Elias doesn’t take them
  • Jarles doesn’t really want the eyes, and Elias Mage Hands them to the river and drops them in
  • Rormir is still feeling rather guilty, and Heph tries to make him feel better by telling him that Isabella is taken care of and dead
  • Maho is very conflicted about Rormir, because he seemed to be hunting her people, but he was clearly confused about the whole situation
  • Rormir suggests we eat the elves, and Maho draws her sword a bit threateningly
  • Heph hands Rormir some rations, trying to get him off of eating people, and he seems to eat it like he hasn’t eaten in days
  • Maho looks to Heph and asks if he trusts Rormir, and Heph and Elias jump in to try to defend Rormir, explaining that his world view is really odd due to his background
  • She is eventually convinced he isn’t an immediate danger, but is keeping a close eye on him, and sheathes her sword again
• After a couple of hours, Karrl spots the Aarakocra approaching, and a carriage drawn by two beautiful white horses, and the carriage is beautifully carved
  • It is being driven by one person in a baggy black cloak, with a porcelain mask over their face
  • Embroidered on the fabric covering the cart is the words Lucien Dynastic

Referenced in

• Calendar