#sometimes a character dies and their decomposition enriches the soil for other things to grow

[ariadne-mouse]

In watching the aftermath of episode 6, I love how Lapin's death is such a fantastic catalyst for the narrative. The steaks stakes have been elevated. The tone has irrevocably shifted. Normalcy has been shattered: this is war, this is life and death. Nothing is safe.

Before he dies, the party is injured but for the most part we (and the characters) can believe that with the right maneuvering, everything could be okay again. Amethar's legitimacy could somehow be reinstated, and they could return home, shaken but whole. But then very suddenly, it can't: a person they care for has been brutally killed. Even if Amethar regains his seat and all is put to rights, there will have been a grave cost. Their flight from the cathedral is grim with shock and grief. They have had to leave Lapin's body behind with their enemies. I'm of the opinion that if only Preston had died, somehow, that Liam certainly would still have been in a bad place, but the rest of the party might have only felt sympathy, not personal loss (or in the case of the twins, an awakening to the realities of loss and of Lapin as a complete and nuanced person, regardless of how they viewed him). The return of the previously mundane note - Lapin, for Candia - becomes heartwrenching poetry.

This was what I was exactly what I was hoping for when I was heard this silly candyland setting would pack an emotional punch and the gravity of narrative I like in actual play DnD. And it gets to keep being silly and absurd at the same time!! It's impressive to balance those things.

RIP my fave Lapin, I loved you, and I also loved your death.