#its just this small crack. which makes him entirely unresponsive to anything for like 5 minutes max

[oc-cinematic-universe]

i LOOOVE thinking about fantasy disabilities!!!! i love figuring out what people would have to do to accommodate them! it's literally awesome!

[friendshipcampaign]

Session Recap 5/26/2018: “Once More Unto the Breach ”

(Yes, I have decided to start giving these things titles. Yes, they will probably all be like this.)

Moments after the Morkoth made its entrance, Erwyn was able to shake off the hypnosis. Voski, too, experienced a brief moment of clarity as a strange little underwater spider floated past her, but it vanished almost as quickly as it had come. The Morkoth quickly slammed stone cages with tentacle-shaped bars around its apparent captives, with Erwyn only narrowly getting out of the way now that his mind was clear. Voski and Amaranth were both trapped.

Erwyn quickly Messaged Ditto to warn her, saying it might be safer above. The wizard was still dazed by the specter’s attack, really only coming to her senses when Tiktik flew down to join her. The familiar asked if she was okay, saying,  “You look kinda lost” -- which appeared to make Ditto very emotional. She explained to them that something bad was happening down there, and Tiktik tried to press the point that then it was probably good that they were above, on the island. Ditto replied to Erwyn and asked what was happening, and he sent another Message explaining the Morkoth was back, but he had seen the hit she’d taken earlier and was worried about her ability to face it.

Kriv asked the Morkoth if it knew what had brought it back, and the creature simply stated, “Power.” He continued, asking if it thought it had brought back for a purpose. The Morkoth didn’t really care either way. When Kriv began to argue that the same power that had brought the creature back was expanding, and could eventually destroy it along with its collection, it seemed almost amused. The paladin tried to press the issue, only for Erwyn to interject tell Kriv that his strategy wasn’t going to work -- the Negative Energy Plane didn’t harm undead, it fueled them.

The Morkoth seemed amused, looking at Erwyn and saying, “You’re the clever one, aren’t you?” Erwyn instantly refuted this, but the Morkoth pressed on, saying, “Your friend seemed to think so” -- to which Erwyn replied, “A lot of other people haven’t.”

After a bit of this, the Morkoth laid out the terms of its deal. If the party submitted to its demands, it would transform them into “interesting” intelligent undead. If they didn’t, it would kill them and raise them as monsters anyway. As it monologued, Voski also managed to shake off the hypnosis and unsuccessfully inspected the stone cage for weak points.

Floating over to Amaranth’s cage, the Morkoth languidly made an attack at her with one of its tentacles. Erwyn shouted at it, saying he thought it had wanted willing subjects. The Morkoth responded in the affirmative and asked if he was volunteering, but he replied only that in that case going after Amaranth, who was still hypnotized, wasn’t very sporting. It then let her come to her senses.

Above, Ditto was still debilitated by hesitation. She eventually reach out to Tiktik, grabbing them and telling them to get somewhere safe. Her familiar protested, pleading that Ditto was still hurt and they didn’t want her to end up dead. Ditto sighed, telling her friend that she knew how dangerous the situation was, but that she’d “already seen [the others] bring one back wrapped in his cloak,” and she had to be down there.

As soon as Ditto took the plunge and the others saw her, Voski tried her hand at speaking with the Morkoth. She asked it exactly what services it wanted of them, and let her cloak billow nicely behind her as she took up a lounging position in the water. It told her that if the breach were to expand, if would surely result in many interesting specimens for its collection, causing to possibly require some “assistant curators” -- which was obviously its way of describing undead servants.

It was at this point that Amaranth started to loudly taunt the Morkoth, much to the distress of everyone else in the chamber. It whirled around, about to strike her, when Voski interrupted and inspired the rogue by saying, “Now, there’s no need to react like that! What you need to do is to stay calm--”  before casting Shatter on the Morkoth.

The spell hit the creature, and slightly damaged both Voski and Amaranth’s cages, but it also marked the beginning of what was clearly going to be a very difficult combat. Amaranth started to attack the cracks in her own cage with her sword, widening them enough for her to try to swim away while flipping the Morkoth off. It twisted the stone again, however, managing to grab her foot and keep her pinned.

Kriv healed Ditto, who had made a beeline to him, using Lay on Hands, before swimming downwards to join the fray. Erwyn followed him, to the extent that he still could while as exhausted as he was, and hit the Morkoth with a Ray of Frost. Once the attack made contact, he also channeled forth a Healing Spirit near Amaranth -- conjured in the form of one of the Caftner -- before calling out, “See? Even you can’t destroy anything forever.”

Ditto, tapping into the morphic properties of the demiplane, managed to shape the stone away from Amaranth’s ankle, freeing her. She also twisted some of the bars that held Voski back, but the opening was too small for the large dragonborn to escape through. Amidst this chaos, the Morkoth plunged an area of the chamber into magical darkness, obscuring the vision of nearly everyone.

Amaranth was outside of the sphere of darkness and consequently managed to stab the Morkoth several times before darting out of its range. Kriv was in the area of the spell, but could still see with his blindsense scarf. He smashed into Voski’s cage, freeing her, and then found Erwyn, grabbing him and telling him he needed to contain the shard that was keeping the breach open. Erwyn protested, saying he didn’t think he had the strength to get there fast enough, but Kriv told him that he’d rather be the one who remained in the Morkoth’s range, since he wasn’t nearly so fragile. He promised to cast Sanctuary on the elf and Erwyn reluctantly agreed.

“I’d rather be the one taking the hits,” Kriv said, giving him the Bag of Holding. 

“Just don’t take too many,” Erwyn replied.

Voski escaped her cage and cast Dispel Magic, freeing everyone from the darkness as Erwyn set off in the direction of the vein of pearly rock. He kept his healing facsimile of the Caftner up, sending it after Amaranth once more, but spent most of his energy trying to get as close to the breach as he could.

Ditto spun her Rhymer’s Ring, attempting to cast “Hesitate” instead of  “Levitate” and get the Morkoth to pause with indecision. A wave of rippling force shot out towards it, but was deflected off and headed back in her direction. It disappeared after she braced herself and managed to avoid it.

Immediately after that, the entire party was struck by a draining force of necrotic energy. Ditto was immediately knocked unconscious, and Erwyn lost concentration on his healing spell, the illusory Caftner disappearing. This was followed by ominous splashing sounds, as some of the skeletons from above started jumping into the water.

Amaranth struck the Morkoth once more, but it seemed unfazed, plunging the area around the breach into darkness and catching Erwyn up in it. Kriv dashed over to the limp Ditto, only reaching her in time to try to bodily shield her from the advancing skeletons. Voski headed in the direction of the darkness, making a very literal shot in the dark as she managed to grab Erwyn and drag him along with her. She startled him, but then attempted to impart another bit of inspiration, saying, “If we fix that, we kill it. So you’re going to fix that.” He nodded, though it was imperceptible in the darkness, and pushed forward -- proceeding to painfully crack his head on the rock above.

The Morkoth hit Amaranth with another vicious attack and she shouted out to Kriv, “What’s happening?” -- prompting him to shout back, “What does it look like?! Ditto’s unconscious, I need help!” She swam in his direction, not nearly so limited with her speed as the others thanks to her significant experience in and around water, and begged Ditto to hang on before shattering one of the approaching skeletons. Kriv was hit with attacks from two more of them, but still had time to turn around and revive Ditto with his Lay on Hands. She clung to him tightly.

Voski Dispelled the darkness around herself and Erwyn once again, swimming  to catch up with him and brace herself against the rock with the gauntlet she’d found, trying to get between him and some of the approaching skeletons. He reached out and grabbed the shard that had broken from the heart, feeling dark, necrotic energy pulse through him. He was almost consumed by the same emptiness that had filled him when he’d probed the breach before, but pushed it off, managing to get the shard into the Bag of Holding before it overwhelmed him with a final necrotic attack and he fell unconscious. But the shard was contained.

At this point, Ditto was crying. She spent long looks on Kriv and Amaranth, but cast Expeditious Retreat on herself and managed to make it back to the island above, away from the fight and everything else going on. As she vanished, Kriv took a massive amount of necrotic damage. The party members who were still underwater heard even more splashing and turned to face the surface nervously -- only to see that it was the animated exoskeletons of the Caftner, coming to assist, lead by the returning Zikt.

Tiktik had been flying alongside them and pealed off as soon as they saw Ditto on the island above, zooming into her and snuggling her tightly the moment they realized she was safe. As the pair were reunited, the Caftner started attacking the skeletons. Amaranth pumped a fist over her head, shouting, “Yeah! Bug friends!” 

Voski noticed some of the microportals beginning to blink out as soon as Erwyn shoved the shard into the bag, and saw the breach itself slowly closing. She grabbed Erwyn, who remained unresponsive, and swam them both to the surface. Amaranth looked at Kriv and told him they had to hold off the Morkoth until Voski got Erwyn to safety. Kriv agreed and swam to position himself in front of Voski and Erwyn as they escaped. When Voski saw Ditto, she deposited him on the shore and said, “Fancy seeing you here.” Ditto rushed over to Erwyn, managing to, if not heal him, then at least successfully keep the damage from getting worse.

The Morkoth advanced on the still-escaping Kriv and Amaranth, and, finding Amaranth closer, struck her with another successful attack. 

She saw everything in greyscale.

It had killed her.

The world around her faded to white and she found herself in a strange place filled with thick fog. It wasn’t long before she heard a familiar voice call to her.

“Mensi,” said Raenon. “I’d hoped it would be longer.”

They reunited tearfully, but Amaranth told him that she at least felt she’d accomplished what she’d needed to. She told him she felt like she was ready to go with him. Raenon, however, didn’t seem to believe her. “Are you? Is that what you want, ‘Ranth? Are you ready to be done? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“I’m so tired of fighting, though,” she said. “That’s not the captain I know, Fury,” he replied. And they talked, about what she had left. Who she had left. He didn’t seem surprised to hear she’d found herself another family. In the end, when he told her she could come if she wanted, Amaranth decided she would stay -- on the Material Plane, that was. She had other people to take care of, now. Raenon closed the conversation by insisting that what had happened to him, and the others, wasn’t her fault, saying she needed to stop blaming herself for it. She laughed tearfully, saying, “Of course you would say something like that.” Finally, they parted and Raenon let go of her hand.

“I’ll find you again,” she said. “I don’t know how, but I’ll find you.”

“Of course you will,” he replied. “And you look after your new family. Your new crew. And sometime very, very, very far in the future, I hope to meet them too.”

Back on the Material Plane, Kriv could see Amaranth falling. He wasn’t certain if she was dead or unconscious, but he had an awful suspicion, and didn’t want to take any chances. He swam to the surface as fast as he could, telling the others what had happened, and that they might need the egg. Voski asked where it was, pulled it from the Bag of Holding as soon as she’d been told, and instructed Kriv and Ditto to try to use their ability to shape the rock to launch her downwards.

The Morkoth was still lurking down there, in between where Voski had entered and where she needed to be, to get to Amaranth. It struck her, and she retaliated by casting Shatter on it. It laughed, looking back at Amaranth, and motioned with a tentacle. Her body twitched. Voski used her mind to wrench a rock from below and send it upwards, crashing into the creature.

When Voski got to her, Amaranth was already opening her eyes -- but instead of their usual glowing yellow, they appeared glazed over, a sickly milky white. Voski shoved a hand down on her face to keep her at bay, then crushed the phoenix egg in the other single-handedly with the gauntlet.

Amaranth could feel herself being drawn back to the Material Plane, though there seemed to be a malignant force trying to keep her out. She tore it apart, and came to, breathing again, looking up at Voski in confusion while invigoration from the phoenix’s egg coursed through her. She asked where Kriv had gone. “Shut up,” Voski said, cheerfully, as she healed her and pulled her upwards, “We’re not done here. I feel like we had this conversation back in Soreth. Let’s go.”

Near the surface, Kriv was finally crawling out of the water and was able to heal Erwyn, who was also fairly confused. He asked what had happened to Voski, and when told that she had gone after Amaranth, then asked what happened to her. Kriv told him she’d been knocked unconscious. Zikt floated over and apologized that her kinsmen were not the most effective of fighters. Kriv told them they’d still been massively helpful. They then told him they needed to go back to guide the others, because in their exoskeletal forms, the Caftner were really only effective with frequent instruction, and dove back into the water.

Voski was now dragging Amaranth towards the surface, but felt a rocky tendril close around her leg. She looked up to see that the breach had completely closed above them, then glared daggers at the stone around her ankle, willing it to move, and set herself free. She waved at the Morkoth with her gauntleted hand, saying, “Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m sure we’ll start cataloguing your collection right away.” The Morkoth swung at them in a rage and missed.

They continued to flee and had nearly made it to the surface when the Morkoth got in an angry hit on Voski, knocking her out. Amaranth screamed out, “Kriv, Voski’s down!” as she brought her to the surface. He clambered down to cast Cure Wounds on her, then helped her to the shore. 

Erwyn, who still didn’t seem to quite understand any of what was going on, ran over, panicked, asking if everyone was alright. He got brushed over a bit in the chaos, but eventually Voski flopped on the ground near him and said, “It’s a work in progress,” before healing herself and telling him the breach had been successfully closed.

Ditto, too, raced over, and uselessly braced herself as best she could on the ground to extend a hand to Amaranth. One the tiefling was up and had collapsed on the shore, she started laughing hysterically, overwhelmed by everything they and especially she had just been through. She only stopped when Ditto asked her if she was still with them. Voski, still on her back, glanced over at Ditto and said lightly, “She is.”

Taking in everyone’s appearances -- and the fact that he himself wasn’t doing so well -- Erwyn asked to confirm that they all felt awful. When everyone answered in the affirmative, he cast a second Healing Spirit, still in the shape of a Caftner. The party clustered around the small form, soothing their assorted wounds as best they could.

Before the spell could end naturally, the form of the Morkoth shot up from the hole in the rock, with several exoskeletal Caftner that had clearly been trying to take it down falling off with the momentum. It looked far more insubstantial than it had before, and when it took a swing at Voski, it missed. She laughed at it.

Almost certainly due to still feeling shaken from being dead only minutes before, Amaranth failed to hit the Morkoth with either of her blades. Kriv, however, slammed it into it with his hammer and a Divine Smite. It began to dissipate into smoke with a loud, furious screech. Before it faded entirely, Kriv made sure that it saw him scooping some of its gold into his pocket.

With the Morkoth gone, the Caftner that had been battling it started scuttling around much more aimlessly. As the party finished getting the benefits of Erwyn’s spell, several of them wandered over to investigate the little illusory healing Caftner. He patted one of them on top of its carapace. Kriv once again pulled out his winter blanket, seeing as everyone was soaked, to wrap up as many of them as he could. Amaranth thanked Voski for what she had done, mentioning that she’d taken a beating.  “You should see the other guy,” Voski replied. “Oh wait, you can’t.”

After taking a moment to rest, the party started to comb over the Morkoth’s former collection. They succeeded in finding a fair amount of gold -- as well as some little beetles that cleverly disguised themselves as coins. Erwyn used  Detect Magic to try to determine if there was anything else useful, and managed to locate a number of interesting items. First there was an entire box of colored candles (one of which appeared to be magical) that he handed to Voski, and an ornate dagger he gave to Amaranth while advising her to be careful with it. She joked, “I’m always careful, Erwyn,” then--seeing everyone’s expressions--asked, “Too soon?” There were also a couple of potions (one transparent, with some kind of claw floating in it, and one pink and effervescent in an elaborate bottle), and a strange disc with a glowing crystal inside of it that they all decided would go in the Bag of Holding. More personally exciting, he also discovered an arrow with faint gold lettering and the symbol of Corellon Laresian on it, and a pitch black scroll with Abyssal writing on it in red ink, both of which he asked if it would be alright if he kept -- though he added that working on deciphering the latter would definitely give him a headache. Ditto also found an apparently magical cat-toy, which she saved for Tiktik.

Voski was, at this point, making herself a bed out of gold. Kriv asked her if she was able to contact Auntie at this range, and she gave it a try, letting the hag know that they’d finally managed to do what she’d asked. Auntie told her to contact her again when they’d reached one of the exits so that she could rearrange the terrain for them on the way back, since nothing should be blocking her ability now. The party briefly conferred on which terrain type they would rather return through. Their responses were largely noncommittal, though Kriv requested no swampland or volcanoes, and Erwyn suggested that if they were feeling a bit more adventurous they could try mountains. Voski reported that everyone had voted for coastline.

Voski also called over to Zikt, pointing out that despite the breach’s disappearance they were still around. They admitted to not knowing for how much longer, and Voski asked them if there was anything they’d like the party to do for them. They simply asked if, before they left, the others could seal up a chamber for the Caftner again, leaving them to rest together and in peace.

Sitting down next to Erwyn, Amaranth quietly spoke to him in Infernal, hoping to keep any conversation between them private. She asked him if he remembered her mentioning someone she’d lost, and he admitted that yes, he did -- as well as what she’d cried out in her sleep the night the two of them had shared his room in Folly’s End. When she told Erwyn she’d seen that person, he was completely baffled. No one had ever actually told him that Amaranth had died. When she explained this to him, he became horrified, not knowing how else to respond but to think of his own experience and how much it had terrified him.

Amaranth admitted that she didn’t actually know how she felt about it all yet when Erwyn apologized for being so distraught when it hadn’t even happened to him. Tearfully, he asked her if she remembered what he’d told her he’d seen in his illusion in the Faewilds. When she gave the answer, he wrapped his arms around her, crying more openly now. She tearfully suggested that maybe it would be best if they both got some rest. Before letting go, Erwyn quietly and still weepily said, “You said you saw him, so I don’t know if he told you this already. But I hope you know he was very lucky to have you.” She didn’t really know what to say to that, but ruffled his hair gently.

Still lying on her bed of gold, Voski sung to everyone who hadn’t already drifted off to sleep, tiredly strumming a less-than-quality Song of Rest on her waterlogged lute -- which she entitled “The Dumbest Squid in Two Entire Worlds.”