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[26
Calistril 4708 continued]
In the
aftermath of the epic battle against the white dragon Arkrhyst, Ava uses
healing magicks on her companions while Kang begins examining the dragon’s
hoard. The massive collection of coins,
jewels, weapons, and other objects have been frozen in a block of ice, and all
the adventurers can do is to begin slowly and laboriously hacking items
free. When everyone is exhausted, with much
of the hoard still frozen, Ava teleports the adventurers back to Sandpoint.
When they
arrive, people in the street run away from them in panic. Erik thinks it was simply their sudden arrival
out of thin air, while Jinkatsyu suspects it’s the dragon blood covering their
clothing. But inside the Rusty Dragon, a
sudden silence falls on the common room, broken only by whispers that “the dead
walk.” The confused adventurers hear a
crash coming from above and race to Yuzo’s room only to find that the gillman
has jumped out of the window and is hobbling away on a sprained ankle! Kang and Erik give chase, and when they
corner their ally, Yuzo babbles that they’re dead—everyone saw their ghostly
remnants just days ago! Erik puts two and
two together and realises that the timeframe Yuzo described is the same day
their errant teleport took them to a Sandpoint that was clearly . . .
off-kilter from reality.
Erik and Kang
do their best to calm Yuzo down as they escort him back to the Rusty Dragon,
but the incident seems to have triggered a deep-seated paranoia within the
gillman: a terror that mysterious creatures of the deep oceans are after him
and are taking over people’s minds to get him.
When everyone has reassembled, Ava tries to reason with him, but Yuzo’s
paranoia is out of control. Yuzo insists
in hiding in his room, so Ava keeps an eye on him while the others go about
various errands in the town. That
evening, Jinkatsyu returns with an invitation for Yuzo to go to Sister Celia’s
house with him for dinner. But Yuzo’s
paranoia has grown even worse in the past few hours, and he jumps out of the window
again! Erik tracks the fleeing warrior
across the stream, where he’s taken refuge up a tree. Erik tries his best to calm and persuade Yuzo
that there’s no danger, but eventually he’s forced to give up. When he reports back to his companions, they
agree the situation has grown dire: if Yuzo can’t bring himself to go to
dinner, how will he accompany them to the dangers of Rimeskull and beyond?
[27
Calistril 4708]
 |
Gillmen
legend holds they are the true descendants of the Azlanti people,
and enemies
of the powerful and mysterious aboleths.
|
In the
morning, Erik knows the group is close to giving up on Yuzo. He makes another effort to return him to the
fold, using everything from rational persuasion to bribery to reverse
psychology, but isn’t able to reach a breakthrough. His companions find their own plans
frustrated, as a windstorm makes it difficult to carry out the simplest of
errands. The consensus is to hunker down
and wait it out.
[28
Calistril 4708]
A group
meeting is called in the morning.
Throughout their months of adventuring, Ava has become known for her
flights of excitement and sadness at equal turn. Although never one to conceal her emotions,
on this day the Heroes of Varisia see a new side of their cleric: a serious,
determined one capable of making hard choices.
Ava is frank with Yuzo: if the gillman can’t get himself together, he’s
going to have to be left behind. Ava
says it’s too risky to take someone with them who is going to fall apart, run
away, or get needlessly killed. There’s
simply too much at stake. Much
discussion follows, in which Jinkatsyu and Kang back Ava’s declaration. Erik works hard to reach out to Yuzo. For his own part, the gillman wavers back and
forth among various paranoid theories of how “they” (the undersea monsters) are
out to get him and how he can never return to Sandpoint or anywhere near the
coast. Ava is staunch in her position that Sandpoint is their home and can’t be
abandoned, and that wherever their quest takes them, Yuzo has to be prepared to
follow. Yuzo comes within a hair’s
breadth of being expelled from the group, but eventually manages to come around
and control his fears long enough to agree to the others’ conditions.
Due to the
limitations of her magic, Kang is left behind for a day while Ava teleports
herself and the others back to Arkhyst’s cave deep in Rimeskull.
---------------------------------Director's Commentary
This was an . . . interesting . . . session. From one angle, it's almost my dream session as a GM: players so invested in their characters that they can spend the whole session engaging in quality role-playing while I just sit back and enjoy. From another angle, though, it clearly brought to the fore some frustration among the majority of the players with how Yuzo's player was handling her character. I think there was a perception she was privileging her PC's backstory/personality to the point where it became a major detriment to the group progressing along the main storyline. Thus, the session is essentially both a real and fictional intervention! With the distance of time, I think they were probably right. In a true sandbox campaign where the only story is whatever emerges from the PCs, Yuzo's behaviour might have been acceptable. But in an adventure path campaign, the players have to sort of keep their eye on the prize--and although I'm always interesting and willing in incorporating subplots (both my own and player generated), there can come a point where the campaign just gets derailed if players make particular choices for their PCs (even if "that's what my character would do").
The inter-personal dynamics of gaming groups are fascinating, and something a sociologist should study!
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