#ezra quipped back i lied i didnt miss you and rolled a 20 to do it

[ladyeroway]

Well Unhallowed got pretty messed up last night!

We failed to talk down our parapsychologists brother who has mutated into a horrific insectile thrope. Combat went bad almost immediately with the first hit the brother got off would have killed the parapsychologist if he didn't use his reroll (we all get one per session and we all used them!) Ezra got in the way of the thrope to protect his friend.

Going to pop the rest under a readmore cause it is long and I want to talk about Ezra finally getting some closure.

Thropes have insane vitality so we spent multiple rounds doing damage for him to only heal and degenerate into a horrible fleshy creature. Blood acid, a leech tentacle and a horrific Krang like face. It was rough.

Unbeknownst to us in the room the Medium who was watching the door was fighting off 3 of the people who had multiple spirits in them. Because of again some terrible rolls she decided to open a rift in the veil to suck the souls into it. But she couldn't close the rift and got sucked in herself. As the rift got bigger...

The Dhampir failed her roll not to get sucked into the rift. The parapsychologist tried to close it whilst the Undertaker and Ezra managed to take down the brother.

We rushed to the veil to help the Para close it. Then the Para failed his roll to get sucked in. Leaving Ezra to try physically close it with the spectral energy of his hands. Which turned into a stalemate with Ezra's wound penalty. It wasn't getting bigger but he was failing to close it.

Until he heard a voice telling him to let go. It would help. He refused until the voice told him he did forgive him but he was angry that he never visited the girls. It was Oliver and Ezra let go of the veil in shock and was sucked in with the Undertaker.

We awoke in the Land of the Dead, somewhat aware we were not dead but our souls were out of our bodies. We got to see the Tower up close, it is enormous and breaking the laws of physics, with non euclidean houses bending at the bottom, stacked on top of each other. Spirits were here doing day to day tasks. We were almost attacked by a spirit of a man we killed in the first session. Until a man came to our aid, scaring them off telling us he was a Lieutenant of the Sepulchre Guard to the Lords of Death. It was Oliver, the first thing he did was hug Ezra before telling him he looked like shit. The laughter came back to Ezra like Oliver had never left.

Oliver told us that he was here to guide us to the First Lord of Death and Ezra struggled to look him in the eye. Oliver was as charming as was in life and the group noted how different Ezra was with him before giving Oliver and Ezra sometime alone.

Ezra told Oliver how much he missed him. Oliver fired back at that he missed him too but he thought he would have done more for Oliver's family. They needed him. Ezra argued that they needed their father and not him and he could barely look Oliver in the eye, let alone his daughters and wife knowing he should have done more to protect Oliver.

This angered Oliver further telling Ezra it was never his fault. The only one that could take blame was Mandolin. It was split moment decisions akin to fate. Ezra should be the last person to take the blame. He lectured Ezra that he did not give his life willingly but he wanted Ezra to actually live. Not this half life he had now.

He told him how he visited often and saw how much he hurt himself. Barely eating, working himself too much, not sleeping and how the nightmares had got out of control because Ezra gives himself no time to rest and no time to heal. He had given himself no time to mourn and he saw how close Ezra was to giving up. He wanted Ezra to reach out to his family. Their family, he had support there if he would just take it.

They finished their conversation with Oliver asking Ezra to promise to live. To find people in his life, and regain some happiness. It was the one thing he desired that would make his death worth it. Ezra was honest and said he had thought he would let go after he dealt with Mandolin but he promised he wouldn't. He would live and keep on living even with the way he was now. He would reach out to Clara and the girls even if it was hard.

Oliver also revealed that his dying energy that had leaked into Ezra left him with no hands in this realm, like Ezra he had gloves on. But underneath them was nothing because they are in Ezra. Ezra told him about his experience about eating the soul of a spirit. Oliver explained that was not from him but the veins on his chest and neck. It was a spiritual backlash that caused him to be a half-lifer when he killed the body Mandolin was in. Apparently it also had this effect of destroying a soul.

They headed back to the group, Ezra feeling distraught but with much needed closure. He cracked a few jokes with Oliver as they traversed the weird geometry of this land before finding themselves at the entrance of the Tower to meet the First Lord of Death.

So yeah! It was a lot. Ezras promise is in earnest, he won't give up. The shame and grief is still there, it might always be there but Oliver certainly gave him a talking to. He needed to hear it. And once he destroys Mandolin he can try and rebuild his life and keep his promise.