Session 005

Session Date: 07/13/2025

Last Time

We learn that the city is pending attack from the empire.

We learn that Salvor Bajj has gone toward a village at the coast, but they haven’t seen him in a while. If he’s been inconvenienced by something, it’d be incredibly powerful.

Zimri learns a song from the local bards: Let’s raise a glass to Our Friend a scourge on all scoundrels and rogues who brings them a swift, vicious end who needs no daggers or cloaks

Over the highlands falls shade From roots all the way to the top Neither deceit, spell or a blade Could get Our Friend to stop

The City

Silver gets a feeling that he isn’t a mage from this - powerful, yes, but not a fighter. He is a very powerful person who pretends to be a mage to put less attention on himself. Silver mulls this over and then asks the group if we are looking for an archfey, and Damaris asks if there are fey here, making Nymnar want to claw his eyes out.

This song is very much a subtle commentary on how the people here are afraid of what he can do, though they are not afraid of him.

We do some shopping. Silver goes through and finds the bare minimum of supplies we will need to move forward. Damaris finds a stall with journals and freezes. Nymnar eventually finds a journal and puts it in her hands for Silver and Damaris pays for the journal and puts it into Silver’s hands. She then finds a fantasy romance novel - about the exotic world of New Jersey, a mob romance. She puts the book at the bottom of her pack.

Damaris looks at Achille and asks if there is anything else we need, and if he wants anything for himself. He says no, confirms we have food, and then says he’s fine and doesn’t need anything. Nymnar gets himself an additional writing set with extra ink and quills.

We decide to leave and the party thank the guards that were escorting us. The nicer guard comments that we need to be careful and look out for the Femorians → a people that gnomes used to have to serve (and why gnomes are so good at hiding), they are not good people and we need to be wary of them. Silver takes a bite out of a chocolate bar and comments that we are fucked.

Leaving the City

She starts handing out pieces of chocolate to each of the party members, calling Achille “kitty,” which he doesn’t love. She shoves the chocolate bar in his face and he bites most of it off. She gives him the rest of it. Achille gives Nymnar the rest of the chocolate, which he quietly takes with a meaningful look of thanks, as Silver comes over to give him a piece. She notices that Nymnar already has some in his hand and is surprised.

There’s a small discussion about stealing better things than simple things that are not so good. There’s a small back and forth with Achille commenting that one shouldn’t enjoy life (sarcastic) and she agrees. She reaches into his bag and grabs his rosary, then bald-faced calls him boring. He demands the rosary back, she refuses, he asks if this is what she wants to do, and she says yes. He scruffs her and it’s clear that he is angry as he demands she drop it. She grows terrified and drops the rosary into his hand, and he drops her. She rushes up ahead and the party begins to move. Nymnar follows after Silver, with no intention of catching but, but remaining a quiet presence between Silver and Achille.

Damaris goes up to Achille after encouraging Zimri to speak to Silver. She asks if Achille is okay and if he needs anything, and it’s clear that he’s quite upset: his anger is still there, and it’s clear he’s upset at himself for being angry even as he says he’s fine. Damaris reaches out to put a hand on him and he flinches, and she apologizes, and he storms ahead after saying “damn it.”

Zimri approaches Silver, catching up quickly. He greets her and she resists the urge to jump. She’s fiddling with with a daggered hat pin that is tiny, she’s flipping it between her fingers. Zimri hesitates then comments that he’s sure Achille didn’t mean to scare her - he admits that he doesn’t know what it’s like to not have anything, he doesn’t understand the need to steal things, but he knows what it’s like to lose things. He comments that sometimes something that looks small and meaningless can mean a lot to people. Zimri comments that we’re a team - perhaps she should talk to us instead of taking things from us. She agrees, but it’s clear she’s not listening to what Zimri is saying. Zimri asks what her need to steal is and Silver just shrugs and says ‘cause, and her attention catches up and she asks what. Zimri comments about the snatching of his journal, the way she took the rosary: if she needs something, she can just ask, she’s not on the streets anymore. She shrugs and says practice?

At this point, Achille walks past Nymnar. Nymnar can tell that Achille is still angry, but it’s different - not that he can tell how.

Zimri can feel Achille approaching and looks back. Achille walks behind them silently for a moment, then he says her name. Silver visibly flinches and then turns and puts on her best air of “I do not care” and asks what’s up. Achille demands to see her hand. He stares at her until she finally does it, and he drops the rosary into her hand. He apologizes and asks for her to return it to him once they leave, his gaze looking away from her.

She notices that the rosary is very old, and very strange: carved from finger bones that are almost ossified, almost like a charm bracelet, with multiple gods represented on the rosary. Notably: Corelleon is not on this rosary at all, which is what is so strange about it. There is a small silver charm of Sehanine on there, worn, and standing out - Silver stares at it for way too long. She seems almost entranced by it, lost in some other world. She gingerly wraps it up and then - without a comment - slips it back to Achille without a word.

Traveling in the Woods

We walk through the woods and in theory away from the empire, theoretically safer than we were.

As we travel, Zimri and Damaris notice that there is no sound - and that is what’s strange: there’s nothing. Damaris asks Zimri if he hears anything, and Zimri listens harder, trying to hear, admitting there’s no sound. Zimri asks if that’s bad, and Damaris explains that in the forest, there should be the noises of creatures. Damaris starts to get more nervous as she feels more uncomfortable.

Zimri asks if someone can climb up a tree and look around. Silver manages to scramble up a tree and she can tell the clearing ahead isn’t a clearing: it’s a scene of battle. Something happened here. It’s a cold and absent scene. Silver climbs down the tree with a strange look on her face. She explains there was a battle, but it happened a while ago, she thinks. She looks at Zimri and hopes he had a light lunch.

Achille and Nymnar both are walking toward the battle field as Zimri begs to walk around the battle field. Zimri realizes we are going to go to battle field.

Nymnar opens his mind to magical auras and it hits him like a bag of bricks. Nymnar recognizes several things:

• Enormous powerful energy from a singular being that has been attacked here
• Netherworld magic is being woven here - someone trained by the same people I have been, perhaps
• One spell cast was a powerful teleportation magic

Silver catches Nymnar as he stumbles back and he explains that there was powerful magic here. Silver asks if it’s our guy, and Nymnar says it’s possible? But he doesn’t know the style of magic that Salvor casts. When Silver touches him, Nymnar gets a reading of a deep seated, ancient, old, malevolent curse - the kind to consume your soul. He can feel that she is on a clock nearing its end.

Achille notices a difficult battle here, one person on one side and sixty or eighty on the other. There are no bodies left, but you see where they fell. The battle was less than a day. Some people left, but the battle included and a teleportation was cast. He did not win.

Damaris can tell that people fought here and no grass will grow here for quite some time: a lot of magic was pushed into the ground. She sees a very distinctive indentation of a clawed foot in the ground, very large. Damaris can recognize that it’s not fey: something different, big, and with claws. Whatever they fought might have started human sized, but it sure didn’t stay that way.

Damaris turns to the party and says that Silver might be right. She asks if he’s a dragon? She starts to question herself. The moment she says it she realizes that she is correct. She asks if Achille has ever fought dragons (yes) and that makes Silver so excited, and Achille comments we likely won’t have to fight him.

The Discussion

Nymnar shares that there was mass teleportation magic and that it was teleportation out, but he doesn’t discuss his own internal thoughts, the assumption that it was people from the Netherworld fighting the dragon. It’s clear that the dragon lost, and it’s hard to tell if the dragon teleported itself out or if the people teleported the dragon.

The footsteps are weird: a deep set pair of feet that wear heavy into the earth as if they are wearing armor, and two pairs of feet that are lighter, shambling.

We come up with the plan for Zimri and Silver to illusion to look like imperial guards. Nymnar uses shared invisibility to hide himself, Damaris, and Achille. Zimri leads the way with Silver behind, following the trail where the enemies are. There’s a voice in the distance begging and then life snuffs out. There is a bandit camp, but the humanoid bandits - elves? - were just disposed of (some ran away) and we see two humanoid beings.

They’re very pale with milky eyes, dressed in what Nymnar recognizes as Netherworld guard. There are two undead beings with holy symbols on their necks now desecrated. A hulking in blood red armor stands there, the one that just killed the elves. One of the mages comments there are people, and the armored man comments that this isn’t our camp anymore. Zimri comments that it’s a bad idea to mess with the Empire and he tries to get information of where the dragon was sent, and the man is annoyed as a child was sent to deal with him.

Zimri’s attempt fails to convince him and Nymnar tries to shifts blame to blame one of the undead mages. It doesn’t work, but he doesn’t realize I tried to alter his memories as the invisibility falls off of us. Achille is already walking toward the stranger.

The man in armor recognizes Achille and goes up to him and kisses Achille, glad to see him. Pyrisou - the man in armor - speaks of something that happened ages ago. It’s clear that Achille doesn’t recall him, and Pyrisou starts to melt and lose his form, and we all realize he’d turned himself into an ooze to extend his life. Achille asks that we talk about this like people, that he help him remember, and Pyrisou explains their warband and they piece together that they’re on different sides of the fight.

Pyrisou admits that Salvor Bajj is in the Shadowfell, and Pyrisou explains that the empire wanted to remove Salvor from the board so that the Material Plane can be the Empire’s. We are about to leave when Nymnar comments that Achille should introduce Pyrisou to his new girlfriend. Pyrisou gets pissed and starts to lose his form, Achille’s head snapping toward Nymnar with a newfound fury.

One of the undead mages finally notices Nymnar and the two start to have a heated conversation in Shadowtongue, with Nymnar telling them to help him get out of here, to get home. They explain that Deathwhisper says he’s turncoat, and Nymnar is pissed at this, asking why they’d believe a failure. The mage comments that Nymnar’s been away for quite a while, and Deathwhisper has power now. Nymnar says it’s not his fault he was abandoned on the material plane, that his jailor was Soldos.

While Nymnar speaks with the mage, Achille challenges Pyrisou and the two of them hash out when they knew each other. It’s clear that the lines are drawn and the two of them are on opposite sides of the fight. There’s more discussion and back and forth with Pyrisou and at one point things start to come to a head, with Achille calling out the conversation in Shadowtongue happening behind them. Nymnar doesn’t bother to give an explanation of what was said before attention turns back to Pyrisou. He ultimately turns to destroy the necromancers, saying that it’s time to save Shadowbane.