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[22
Abadius 4708 continued]
In
a recovery room at the Sandpoint Cathedral, Nerissa starts to stir and
eventually comes out of her catatonic state.
Ava is at her side, and explains how she seemed to remember her
mysterious past before collapsing. But
whatever trauma led to her collapse has also again suppressed the secrets of
her past—except for a haunting echo, “Forlorn, Not Forlorn.” Nerissa remains in surprisingly good spirits,
however, but is alarmed to hear that Kang, Salma, and Jinkatsyu have already
set out for Jorgenfist.
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Abadius 4708]
In
the morning, Ava telepathically contacts Kang and says that Nerissa has awaken
and that the two of them are ready to rejoin the group. Seconds later, Salma teleports to Sandpoint
and finds Ava and Nerissa at the Cathedral.
The trio decide to take advantage of their time in the town by
purchasing some additional gear for the difficult trek through the mountains. While exiting a local shop, Ava sees that the
town’s new clerk, Bimmy Beems, is waiting for her. He hands her a scroll and says several
confusing statements about her being a servant, being of service, etc., before
finally landing on the right words: “You’ve been served.” Ava unravels the scroll and can’t make heads
or tails of the densely-written and archaic language within. Salma manages to understand part of the
scroll, and explains to Ava that she’s been sued by Nagol Scarnetti for damages
over the incident a few days earlier outside the Garrison, alleging everything
from assault to the wanton destruction of personal property to seditious
libel! Ava is on the verge of tears as
Salma discerns that she’s expected to attend a hearing on the matter in just a
week’s time. However, Salma promises her
that he can have her back in Sandpoint in time to avoid being held in default.
While
they’re away, Kang and Jinkatsyu rest in the magical hemisphere conjured
earlier by Salma’s magic to keep them warm.
The magic of the hemisphere allows them to easily see out, but others
are blocked from seeing what’s inside.
The two adventurers spy a stone giant hunting party coming down a rocky
hillside in their general direction. The
two prepare for a fight as best they can, hoping their campsite will be
overlooked. But shifting winds carries
their scent to the trio of dire bears that accompany the stone giants, and the
bears roar their discovery! It doesn’t
take long for the giants to spot the strange opaque dome on the otherwise
mundane landscape, and they move up to investigate it cautiously. Kang and Jinkatsyu decide to strike first with
their usual weapons of bomb and rapier, respectively. The battle is a difficult one, but at first
the two heroes more than hold their own.
When one of the massive giants is badly hurt, the other decides that
warning Jorgenfist that intruders are on the way must take priority, and he
runs. Kang unfolds his dragonfly wings
and gives chase, but the maneuver leads Jinkatsyu alone in the dome against the
surviving giant and the bears! The
kitsune fights bravely and skilfully, killing all but one of the attackers,
until a series of missteps gives the last survivor an opening. With a terrifying roar, the bear catches
Jinkatsyu’s torso in its massive teeth and shakes its head back and forth
several times before hurling the swordsman several feet into the air, dead
before he even hits the ground. A
massive crater marks the spot where Kang’s bomb incinerated the fleeing stone
giant, but the master alchemist is too late to do anything for Jinkatsyu except
to destroy his killer.
Seconds
later, Salma, Ava, and Nerissa appear back at the campsite and see Kang holding
Jinkatsyu’s lifeless body. Ava
immediately drops to her knees and prays fervently to her god, Sinashakti, for
the power to restore her friend to life . . . and it works! Jinkatsyu awakens as if from a deep sleep
with no memory of what happened since the battle against the bear. Nerissa chastises the group for going off on
their own on such a dangerous task, and both she and Ava express surprise at
hearing the full story of what had happened over the past couple of days. Kang is unapologetic, and says that death is
simply part of what they’ve all signed up for, noting that every single one of
his previous companions on this epic quest have died in battle. Ava asks the members of the group to make a pact
that they’ll stay together in the future so that what happened to Jinkatsyu
doesn’t happen again.
The
group continues on north. When Ava
explains her legal problems back in Sandpoint, Kang assures her that his
“extensive knowledge of the legal system” (no doubt from encounters on the
wrong side of the law) will be sufficient to have her acquitted of any
charges. Still, Ava is concerned that
the Scarnettis will win the suit and she’ll lose access to the expensive spell
components she needs to perform her most miraculous spells—including bringing
the dead back to life! Once it starts to
get dark, the adventurers camp in another magical sphere conjured by Salma.
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The
party’s reliance on magic for almost every facet of their journey continues
with the application of spellcraft to help them endure the freezing
temperatures of the Iron Peaks. After
about four hours’ of walking, the adventurers realize there’s a problem with
their plan to simply follow the Muschkal River right to Jorgenfist: the river
disappears into underground tunnels for part of its length! Magic again comes to the fore with a spell to
prevent the party from getting lost in the endless rock-strewn terrain. After the spell expires, however, the
adventurers try to push on before realizing that they’re lost. They decide to set up camp and continue on in
the morning.
Little
do they know that their camp, partially sheltered from the wind by being placed
next to a cliff wall, is below the campsite for a stone giant patrol! When massive boulders begin to roll through
the adventurers’ camp, the danger becomes apparent. None of the adventurers are hurt, however,
and they charge the giants’ camp.
Salma’s fireball makes short work of the threat, despite the backblast
harming some of his allies. One of the
stone giants, badly burned, throws down his club and announces his surrender.
The
adventurers’ progress from Hook Mountain to Jorgenfist has been steady, but
extremely slow. Will they make it before
Mokmurian launches his invasion of Varisia?
And how does the potential of having a prisoner change the calculation?
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Director's Commentary (April 14, 2019)
This session had the start of a new subplot: a surprise lawsuit against Ava! It was fun since she's such a likable character, and helped flesh out some of the loathsome Scarnetti kin. There are some fun scenes coming up in future scenarios, but I later realised I had to be careful to not make Sandpoint into too much of a chore to be in--the PCs are supposed to want to save it, after all.
Jinks gets killed again! I had forgotten about this one. With the ready availability of raise dead, death becomes a temporary and somewhat expensive annoyance rather than a campaign-changer. I actually prefer the old rule from previous editions that death permanently lowers your Constitution score by 1 so that there's a hard cap on the number of times a character can die and be raised.
It was interesting having the PCs come at Jorgenfist from a direction the AP wasn't expecting, and trying to adopt some of the outer patrols to a different terrain type.
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