#two shards of the same soul in very tenuous balance

[ishgard]

in Your darkest dreams You will find Me...

[overfedvenison]

Dnd Session 6

Oh dang, I never updated my D&D journal for the past session.

So quick summary of the past events: An orcish princess was murdered, implicating our organizations and causing the orc faction to go to war with us, after we refused to hand over a stone that can empower demons of the Black Veil. We suspected the Black Veil - An organization allegedly dedicated to maintaining cosmic balance, but was clearly playing us in some way. Our investigation uncovered a grand conspiracy where the Veil's enemies, including a demon hunter, were trapped inside crystals in a secret house in the city.

But in the process, one of the Veil's members was interviewed in a circle of truth and exploded, and a shadow demon was unleashed from a crystal sphere from the rolm - The veil then declared war on us. However, we got proof of our innocence in these events, and found the culprit was someone named Rilo...

The party:

Charn, a human fighter from the Storm Petrel Academy currently acting as a revolver-brandishing PI unravelling a demon conspiracy and acting as the party's lawyer Arka, a lizardfolk bloodrager and close ally of Charn who had recently begun studying at the same school Pavia, the victim of a scheme to frame her for murder. She is a soldier of the Black Ravens, and has a colonial mindset. Erdrick, a dwarven barbarian who has recently entered an alliance with a demon to reclaim his lost honor And... An Aasimar I can't remember the name of. Slowly learning to stand for herself, but hasn't had a lot of screentime or character development

(Also Tosh, a kistune)

First, I presented my findings to the king, who was very irate at the investigation that transpired. Since one of the people we interviewed kind of... Exploded? The Black Veil had up and left town, and declared war on Angelpoint and the Storm Petrel Acandemy. I'm alive, though, free of treason for now - I uncovered various conspiracies from the Veil that proved that they were doing some incredibly dodgy things, and it's probably good that they're legitimately our enemy instead of just our enemy in secret. So things are kind of up in the air.

However, it's a bad situation... With the Veil gone and without the stone, there is a chance the apocalypse will happen within two years - If the Veil were telling the truth. What's more is that the person we have in holding is threatening us and saying how the Veil can invade us whenever she wants, etc. Of course, I pressed him: "If she's so powerful, why didn't she just go get the stone herself?"

We have to find a conclusive solution within two years, in any case, and then sailed off to present our investigation to the Orcs of the Mistveil Islands.

----

The orcs were receptive to our findings... We conclusively proved that Rilo was responsible for the murder, and not our ally Pavia as they believed. We also learned a nugget of information: Rilo did indeed bring the Obsidian Shard to the misty isles. The Veil, for all their conspiracies, mind control, and dirty deeds, did in fact have a traitor in their midsts working against them. One who took the Shard for his own means.

The orcs demanded a trial by combat for continued relationships. Through strength and valour, they would judge our valor.

Pavia fought the orc's strongest champion... She was quickly crushed, as he has immune to bullets. Tosh jumped in soon after, only to be overwhelmed as well. But Arka stepped up with great honor

"Heal my enemy. I will fight with all my might."

The orcs were impressed. "Very well," said the chieftain.

...The two barbarians raged at each other and traded immense blows. Arka's new magic allowed him to grow to the size of a giant, while the orc was naturally 8-feet tall and wore a mask of steel tusks that dealt horrible goring wounds.

After leaving his swamp, learning of the outside world, studying at the Storm Petrel Academy, and getting a metal arm in his adventures, and learning of the demons that would control the fate of the mortal realm... Arka died here, defending the honor of a human city. But in his death, he dealt a critical blow to the Orc - He collapsed of exhaustion just after killing the lizardfolk.

----

It was this sacrifice that allowed the orcs to forgive us - Somewhat. The chieftain was pleased, and a day later brought the now-recovered Pavia to his tend as we were readying to leave.

He asked of Pavia a request - To go find the true killer, and return his head to him. That will show that the orcs that Pavia is truly in her good graces, and valued Okra.

Pavia, however... As you'll recall, she hated the orcs. This made her the perfect target to frame in the first place - And all this trouble had only made her double down.

"No," she said "That problem is your own. I may not have pulled the trigger, but I hated Okra and I hate your people. I might have done it myself, had I the chance."

The Orc Chief became enranged, and punished her for this insolence. This attracted the rest of the party, who watched. He gave her one last chance to make amends - And she said "You have proven nothing to me. You are what I thought - Savages"

And so, she was executed. I returned the gifts they had given us, and the party left the island to a rocky and very tenuous "peace." This, too, we will have to fix.

----

The party was down a few members, but upon returning to town, got some back.

Erdrick the Dwarf hired a new Black Raven Mercinary, a skilled but naïve soldier who does everything by the book and who is built to call out assists and spot. He's Pavia's player's new character, and is much more of an idealist (and much less of a racist)

I also encountered a summoner, who began to follow me around. He's Arka's player's new character, a socially-awkward summoner who makes friends with summoned creatures.

Finally, the NPC we rescued from the Veil - An experienced demon-hunter, skilled but unused to having a body after many years in a crystal. She is serious and intelligent.

Together, we had one final piece of unfinished business before we could proceed to bigger issues. - To defeat a shadow demon we had inadvertently unleashed when exploring the Veil's secret room.

-----

While we were planning, Erdrick met with his Patron. As you'll recall, when we refused to return the Shard, Erdrick became enraged and made a deal with a demon to retrieve the shard to restore his dwarven honor... And so he conversed once more.

This demon was Rilo, the very one who had killed Okra and betrayed the Veil, and was now playing him as well - To get the shard, and to betray the Veil for his own ends. He has a new plan - He wants to converse with me. He would come to our meeting place in disguise, and get me to agree to an accord to meet with him later...

The summoner and I spent the time researching the Shadow Demon in the library, getting an entire monster manual entry on the thing and planned out a strategy. Erdrick approached us as well, and got the party together to discuss plans. He took me aside as well, acting friendly and courteous - As far as I know, I'm our issues are over, and so Charn trusts him.

What we were speaking of was mostly irrelevant... Buy while we met, I heard a voice in my head from a passerby - Rilo was offering to explain everything to me. I told him that I would agree, and we would need to work out an accord... No magic, no allies, and no weapons. We would talk... In my research on the shadow demon, I also found the perfect spot - A section of the sewers with a metal grate between us. Furthermore, I agreed to get him to wear gloves and not phase through that grate with his mist form. Not an hour later, I would be in a nearby location to combat a shadow demon.

Charn and Rilo would meet. And talk.

----

The DM and I skipped ahead to the demon fight from this part because I had taken up a lot of screentime this game, and did this later.

The talk was long and tenuous. Charn started incredibly suspicious at first, but through either honeyed words of legitimately speaking the truth, he gradually said more and began to saw Rilo's side.

Charn was suspicious, but as crazy and prepared as always. He had a smokebomb on hand in case he needed a quick escape, and a plan for afterwards.

Rilo told me many things that seemed to make sense...

That the Veil was, for all it's misgivings, actually legitimate about protecting the multiverse from an apocalypse, and needed the stone to do so. Rilo stole the stone in order to seal off the material realm, and in doing so, would free the people of the god's control and the control of Shira so they might stand on their own

Shira, as seen with the followers, was controlling the fates of many humans for her own ends. She cares only for her own goals, and not for the hearts and souls of human beings. She is a villian, but not an evil one... She maintains a status quo in the blood war, but her existence is bad for humanity. Positives and negatives.

Shira can call in forces through the tower - This is something we have to deal with. She can also spy on us, but we are unsure how. The Veil Member in holding is also a liability, and should be dealt with.

He cleared up a bit about the murder... He actually climbed down from the roof, killed, and the became invisible after, for instance. But the broad strokes of Rilo as the culprit were accurate... Rilo betrayed the Veil, gave the Shard to the orcs for safekeeping, then when we didn't return it to him, panicked and killed Okra as a threat. The conspiracy with the Veil was unrelated.

And now, he asks that I help him - Go to the abyss, return his sister who is trapped there, and then seal away the material plane. A tempting offer... I told him that I would have to consider the philosophy teachings of the Storm Petrel Academy - A faction about defending from the apocalypse, the potential of humanity without fate and destiny, and hunting demons - to see what I should do.

This wasn't fast enough for him, so he had an imp slave cast Dominate on me - From a demon's perspective, an imp slave is no ally, just a tool to be used and discarded.

Charn would get him that shard, of his own free will, or not.

----

OR THAT'S HOW IT WOULD GO DOWN, IF I DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING!!

The party was fighting a shadow demon immediately after this meeting. A shadow demon's most dangerous ability is Possession... Which can be warded off with a Protection from Evil spell. Protection from Evil also suppresses mental control for it's duration - And so I had a few minutes to alert someone.

The demon slayer and Aasimar! Aasimar has perspective from Charn's secular humanism, and Seranrae's Church - Both anti-demon. The Demon Slayer is an enemy of the veil, but also an enemy of demons. I let these two in on my plans...

"A word - Before we fight this shadow demon, I was investigating the final aspects of the Okra case. I understand everything now... But I'm not sure why I made some of the decisions I did, and believe I have made an accord to meet with a demon, at 3 AM at (location) three days from now. Neither of us are to bring any allies, weapons, or magic...

Over the next few days, I need you to investigate me. If you think I've been dominated into being your enemy, or have become an enemy of this city, go there with any many forces as you can - But anyone who comes, must come as my enemy, not my ally, ready to kill me if need be. Capture his demon's soul in the crystal ball we retrieved so we can offer it to the veil to leave this city alone - this demon is a traitor to them. Then, give his body to the Mistveil Orcs as justice for murder, for peace on that front. I'm counting on you two... I trust you wouldn't fall in line with demons.

Hrm. Now then, this spell is limited, so lets kill this shadow demon before anything else."

The pieces are all in motion - These two will investigate me, and find out the truth. If they agree with Rilo, of free and sound mind, that is what our path forward shall be. If they come to try and free me, as allies, they will have come against my will - And thus, I have not brought allies, they have shown up on their own and against my wishes. If they show up as enemies, the city will be saved and the war with the orcs will be over. The only thing they have to do is not fail.

...metanarratively, I'm also giving the Aasimar some focus. She's kind of been a wallflower, haha.

----

Regardless, we manage to defeat the shadow demon and had a brief moment of levity with the town wizard which I may detail later... And are set for the next arc.