Session Notes: 9/17/2023
We make it to Arcfort, the Orcish capital. It is early morning when we arrive. Bronze is with us, Pratima is gathering her things and coming up, and Edruch is carrying a lot of bits and bobs in his arms. Bronze tips his hat to us in goodbye, and when we look back for him he’s already gone.
Pratima, to Rohan, comments that this was all weird. Rohan apologizes and Pratima says she’s glad he exists, she wasn’t expecting to find a family member that would be nice to her so she’s glad for that, but she doesn’t know how to deal with this so she is going to leave so she can process. Rohan agrees that this might be for the best and admits that what we’re doing isn’t exactly safe and Pratima should stay safe. She hopes that she runs into Rohan again.
Rohan explains to the group that Pratima is headed her own way, and Dia says we should go check out the library and not panic. Edruch is excited to show us the library and his project. The city here is mostly orcs and that we are foreigners draws attention strongly. Iskra and Dia notice a few groups of orcs looking at us with aggression wearing a symbol of a crossed out eye. Dia tells Arythas this and Iskra yells at them, with Inky waving at them. Four orcs come at us and asks what we think we are doing here. Dia explains we don’t want to fight and this guy called us bloodless cowards. Rohan tries to flirt with them and Arythas eventually pulls his maul and asks if they really want to find out if we’re actually bloodless cowards like they think we are. The nationalists go off in a hurry and Arythas puts his weapon away and we start to walk off.
Lufir is shaking like an angry chihuahua and explains that this isn’t it. Dia says we need to get off the street and somewhere private.
Edruch apologizes and explains that the faction of orcs is a group of people who want to always be at war, which is really reductive. They believe that they will go to heaven if they die in battle. Dia explains that sometimes you can’t argue with ingrained ideology and Iskra says that they probably didn’t see much of the war. Edruch agrees that it’s mostly younger guys, but there are some guys who believe that they were betrayed in the last war and Usval was a consolation prize. (This group of people is the League of the Burning Eye.)
We make it to the museum and follow Edruch down. We’ve been sent to Usval for centuries, with many of the orcs here dying. Many sunk into the swamp and bogs to never resurface again. All of their knowledge and culture normally would be lost, but thanks to one of his dear friends, he was able to do something about it. He opens a chamber below the museum and there are tons of mummies preserved by the bogs, chained to the walls, moving. They start talking all at once the moment they see us. They’re speaking gibberish in Orcish.
Dia draws her weapon on Edruch and demands to know what the fuck is going on. Edruch explains that he was given these and that they are just memories trapped in bodies. With some work, he will be able to extract generations of knowledge from them. He explains that the friend explained his people need culture and history and perspective or else the League of the Burning Eye will win. These bodies aren’t important but they are people with experiences they can share with us.
Dia exclaims he was either unwittingly creating an undead army, or he trapped souls in long dead bodies and torturing them. Edruch explains that he needs these in order to create the culture, and Dia immediately starts to rail against him again.
Inky stops and explains that we need more information before we chew this guy out: we need to make sure we understand the context of what is going on before we judge, as the bodies may not be good or evil on their own. Dia can tell that Edruch is desperate and doesn’t want the fascists to win, and she can tell he’s being honest. She can tell that Edruch hadn’t considered the whole torture aspect as the man slumps, wondering what to do because he can learn from this, but it’s obviously a problem.
Lufir is in the middle of the room mumbling to himself about something. Iskra checks up on him and can tell he is praying, though it’s in orcish so Iskra can’t tell what about. Lufir is very focused and is emanating some sort of inner heat. It’s not flames, but something else: anger given physical form, almost. He gets up and rapidly moves through the room, slashing the bog mummy’s throats with a celestial axe, and they stop moving. Their mouths open so far that bones start to snap and from within an energy leaves the mummies and into Lufir, and then he collapses. Lufir is hot as if he has a fever but his life doesn’t seem to be in danger, and he’s grown 2-3” and the clothes that Dia bought him don’t quite fit anymore.
Edruch is in shock and asking what the hell just happened, and Lufir ruined it all. Dia asks if he knows who Lufir is, and Edruch says no. Dia explains that Lufir was chosen by Gruumsh to help the orcish people find their way through this time of transition. Edruch seems to accept this but he’s in shock. Dia touches Lufir again and there is moving under his skin, which makes Dia recoil in disgust. Iskra touches his arm and feels the bone inside of his arm snap, and then immediately grow. Arythas agrees to carry the unconscious Lufir somewhere he can rest, and Inky and Rohan stay back to check for cultural items on the now inanimate mummies.
Rohan and Inky don’t find anything significant such as seals of any deity or cult associated with the revival, all that they found were just normal items such as archeological supplies, the like. They were not warriors, for sure.
We find an open bed and put Lufir on it. Edruch works with Iskra to burn the bodies of the mummies. Iskra goes in where Lufir is and begins to write the Lufir bible. We all sit around and wait for Lufir to wake up.
Rohan asks Edruch about his friend, after explaining he doesn’t judge Edruch or feel that he did anything maliciously. Edruch admits that the friend didn’t introduce himself. Edruch explains he’s desperate and he needs this culture and country to succeed, and that we all have histories, while the orcs only have violence and being servants to the elves. The man was wounded — he had a deep wound — and he knew he shouldn’t trust him, but it was the only lead that he had.
We’ve heard of the wounded man before, in the abbey. There was the corrupted wine, and a wounded man that seemed to cause the undead crisis there. Dia tells Edruch that he was a lucky man to have met such a being and walk away apparently unscathed. Edruch doesn’t feel lucky.
Lufir at this point is rapidly transforming into an orc at this point. Dia takes notes until she can’t manage to take notes anymore, then asks Edruch for help crafting a spell as a distraction. She specifically wants to create a spell to create a safe space for conversation with a djinn of some type, though she has no desire to bind it to her. They work together.
Iskra dozes off in a chair. What is most likely Phoebe seems to gently pet Iskra to help him sleep.
Inky continues writing the Bible.
Arythas writes in his journal of everything that’s happened.
Rohan speaks to Taraaq, asking if Lufir is possessed by anything. Taraaq says no, energy is being constantly beamed into his soul. Taraaq doesn’t speak to gods so he has no clue what’s actually happening. Rohan says he’ll keep an eye on Lufir and he can’t help but worry about Lufir. I went to go get dinner but something about Rohan’s mom is filled with demon juice. More seriously, Rohan’s father might actually be the demon lord from the abyss himself, also Taraaq won’t say the word penis and it’s making this so hard to talk about please just talk about sex like a normal human being. Taraaq agrees to get more information about Rohan’s mother so we have more context as to what’s going on and Rohan goes to stare at a wall and have an existential crisis.
Later, Dia approaches Arythas and asks how things are. He says that a lot has happened today but other than that? He’s been okay. The most awkward conversation ensues where Dia is trying SO HARD to confess her feelings, but she just can’t get to it or get the words out. She eventually winds up so flustered that she gets up and walks away, seeing a mass of the League of the Burning Eye outside of the museum. Dia rushes back in to tell Arythas and Inky, and they agree to gather the others and figure out what’s going on.