Session Date: 10/8/2023
Rohan and Pratima have been kidnapped.
Arythas is asleep and is in a dream. He knows it is a dream but he also knows he’s not in the material plane. He immediately understands he’s in a war camp: there are tents, a palisade in the distance, and beneath his feet is a very fine red sand. He just appears and is standing and there are so many things going on and the place seems to be a well-oiled machine — everything is in its place, everyone’s doing their job, and coming at him is a vaguely humanoid man in a iron armor that seems to be well-maintained in terms of being used, patched, etc, but kept well. It is not for decoration. The man has a spear on his back and a stack of papers in one hand, and a quill in the other. He sees Arythas and slows as he moves past and he says “Ialdethitsh, with me”.
It is Bane. He has bronze (the metal) skin, burning eyes deep in the helm. He clearly expects to be followed and he clearly is making notes, when he’s done he tears off a page and passes it off to a messenger. Arythas jogs to catch up and then walks with him. On catching up, Bane asks how he is and says he knows it wasn’t what Arythas expected, and Arythas agrees, then asks what he’s doing here. Bane says that it is not fully up to him, he’s on a precipice, and that Arythas has been doing well for himself. He won’t say that Bahamut is keeping Arythas back, he’s not, Bahamut is a good general, but Bane is here to make sure that Arythas is living up to his full potential because Arythas — his entire team depends on him.
Bane explains that he recognizes how his image looks on the material plane, and he explains he’s fought next to Bahamut many times, and they fight against beings that are stranger than our petty squabbles. He explains that all of us have been influenced by some sort of deity and many beings from the celestial planes are in contact us as a group, and Arythas needs to consider this. He explains that the dreamscape around us is a mess and our defenses are extremely lacking — Bane was able to bring Arythas here to his seat of power without issue, and Arythas needs to think about this because none of the team will.
Bane explains that Arythas isn’t doing enough and Bane explains that Arythas needs to keep his mind on what’s going on. He says that the group isn’t thinking about all of the possibilities and they are undisciplined. Bane asks if Arythas would like to reach his full potential and Arythas says yes sir, of course sir. He steps before a legion of soldiers and gives a tiny speech, then moves on. Bane explains that he does not want Arythas to abandon Bahamut or his previous vows, but Arythas needs to expand. Bane has bigger things to fight than what we are facing, but we need to deal with what is going on and they are things he can’t influence.
Bane’s armies fight like a lot of eldritch creatures, beings that are too weird or could unravel the material plane if they reached there. He keeps his armies well-trained to fight those kinds of beings. He explains that sometimes he’s too focused on that and that’s why people fight him, as he might ignore other threats. He is a god of war as a concept, and so he forces himself into discipline.
Bane stops and looks down to Arythas. He says that he expects good things from Arythas, and if he needs help from battle he can call upon Bane, but do not overdo it. Arythas says yes sir to show he understands, then Bane slams him back into his sleep and out of the dream.
He wakes up with a handful of that red sand and he realizes it’s rust. He puts the rust particles into a jar and puts it in his bag.
Arythas is an oracle now.
Inky was writing the Bible and hears voices calling out to him. Inky sees the black Inky and the red Inky calling him over. They lead Inky into the library. They say this is weird and they ask if he’s psychic, and Inky confirms. The black and red Inkys explain that real Inky is the most real of the Inkys and the other Inkys are still kind of becoming? But they mostly just want Inky to know he’s not alone: he can call the other Inkys when he needs help. He says that sounds dangerous, and they ask if he would trust himself? He says yes, but how would they help?
Inky realizes that in specific situations, the black and red Inkys can be called upon for help — he would become them temporarily.
Inky wants to learn more about himself and his ancestor and acquire more power so he asks what they do.
- Red Inky is a mastermind rogue
- Black Inky is a wyrmtouched sorcerer (divine spell casting)
- Green Inky is an inventor
- White Inky is a wizard (waiting on the new core)
The other Inkys are higher level than real Inky.
Inky does spend some time to read about his ancestor, and he realizes Shadow Over The Mountains, Bane Of All That Is Wicked is the full name of his ancestor, Shadowbane.
Dia is the first down to breakfast and she has a cup of tea and a book. Iskra shows up to ask what she’s reading, and Dia is reading some fantasy adventure novel of some sort — after a few chapters she realizes she’s reading an adventure book that her brother had written. Inky walks in and says the book is really juicy, and Arythas isn’t too far behind and asks what we’re talking about, as Dia is clearly struggling.
Dia feels very silly as she realizes that R.M. Light is Rafferty Light, Family of Light. She’s clearly struggling about this and she explains the book isn’t a fantasy book, it’s a biography with fantasy. It’s an autobiography with names changed, ages slightly adjusted, but it’s otherwise the same.
The Family
- Dia - youngest
- Rafferty & Bertram - 16 years older than Dia
- Twins (Ailsa, Asher) - 18 and 19 respectively
- Prudence - 20something? 21ish (officially 21)
- August (eldest, never met) - not sure how much older (25 but she doesn’t know that)
- Parents (must be in their 70s)
- Mom (Lorena) is 67 (actually 66) — looks much younger
- Dad is 73 or 74 (actually 73 — Peregrine) — looks late 40s
She looks back down to the book that Rafferty wrote and then explains that he wrote about the family. Iskra points out it’s not true, and she agrees that that is technically correct, but it’s close enough. Dia explains she’s startled by this and she says it’s weird to read about how he sees them and she doesn’t really need to read about his romance thoughts. She explains that human siblings don’t really talk about that kind of stuff, especially with the age gaps between herself and the others.
Dia is surprised that he writes as he’d always seemed so invested in being a fighter. Iskra and Arythas mention that they didn’t feel as if he had much of a choice, and Dia agreed that the Family used everything to its advantage. It’s nice that he has that without the Family knowing. She explains that this is the furthest she’s been from her family and she’s been gone for 2 whole months. She explains the twins are likely upset she’s gone, and the people who have helped her have likely been damned because she’s left. She was working at one of the Family’s hospitals when she left, and when she found out she was getting married she couldn’t take it anymore. A few friends from the hospital helped her escape: she packed her bag with what she thought she needed, and she ran. They helped get her out of the city and one of them gave her the headband she wears. If it’s known that they helped her then they are probably dead, useful or not.
Iskra asks if she wants to check up on them and she asks how. Iskra suggests maybe the Bloodsoaked Banner could check up on them, or maybe we could find someone else that could check. Iskra recommends Phoebe, and Dia explains gods can’t always be there. Iskra apologizes for not being well-versed in the ways of gods, and Dia says it’s fine, she’s spent her life in it, and they are not always able to help even if they want to. Dia starts to explain that the gods empower people such as paladins and clerics in order to help those that are helpless and eventually we realize Rohan is missing, as he hasn’t been participating in the conversation.
Dia gladly uses this as an excuse to get up and go check on him. She knocks, with no answer, then opens the door. The room is messy, but not completely torn apart: his stuff is still in the room, and the bed was overturned. Dia takes the scene in for a second and then she speaks into our sending earring asking where Rohan is, to which there is no response. As Dia asks for Rohan a time or two more, Arythas gets up and starts moving things around looking for evidence of where Rohan has gone: he can tell nobody entered through the door or window, but there is dust on the floor so he can tell there’s more than one set of prints on the floor. We have figured out that people teleported, and Dia gets the impression that an artifact was used for this to make it easy for a snatch and grab.
Iskra can tell that it wasn’t Kestrel St. Clair or Pratima.
We will start next session with Taraaq, confused, in Rohan’s body, with the investigation of what the hell has happened.