User blog:LadyLuctus/Session 44: 25th March 2019

12th of Evaar


 * Fighting happens.
 * Everyone aside from Cayden is charmed by a goblin dressed as a jester, and the others stop being hostile towards the party. We consider Nilbog to be our god and Spawnsworth says he is his best friend. Alethra hears Justice calling her name but he sounds far away, as if being blocked by something.
 * Nilbog starts writhing and the decapitated elven head on his staff invites us to go inside the keep. He has 4 Eladrin with him; one for each season.
 * Inside the keep is a 4ft tall goblin with one gold eye and one green. His name is Ja’far and he appears to be very young. He is singing about how great the Emerald Lily Pad are and seems excited to see the group.
 * Inside the grounds of the keep are wooden huts. The iron tower in the centre is surrounded by a mote.
 * Nilbog is stumbling like he is in a great deal of pain. Alethra asks what he requires of the party and the staff speaks for him (who we also love dearly) and he says that he simply wants our love and for us to make ourselves comfortable.
 * The elven head screams ‘no’, and Nilbog takes over again. He asks the party to kill the hobgoblins in the inn who won’t listen to him. Alethra and Ventus start running and fighting over who will do what he wants first. Ja’far asks Nilbog for permission to go with them.
 * Ja’far notices Cayden is not ensorcelled like the rest. Neither have any idea what is going on with Nilbog but Ja’far is a fan of the Lily Pad and has been waiting to meet them.
 * Alethra notices Cayden says Nilbog’s name wrong and starts to challenge him for Nilbog’s love. Cayden attempts to save face and declares Alethra his rival; she says she’s glad he finally said it; they are rivals and she will walk over his corpse for the glory of Nilbog.
 * Ja’far tells us Nilbog sometimes thinks he’s an elf lord.
 * Cayden goes to enter the inn and the hobgoblin allows him peace for the parlay. Ja’far tries to distract everyone else by singing a song about Nilbog’s fashion sense. It works.
 * The lead hobgoblin is called Birkan of the Barrow Legion. He tells Cayden that Nilbog has ensorcelled Birkan’s men and only the group in the inn are safe from his trickery.
 * Cayden convinces the hobgoblins to pretend they have seen the truth and also love Nilbog. Ventus has hidden in the room to listen and when he jumps up to proclaim his love for Nilbog, a female hobgoblin (Barrow Maker) in black robes whispers for him to wake up. Ventus is free from Nilbog. Cayden and he start to bring in each party member one by one to wake them up.
 * Alethra walks in and the same happens.
 * Rihiri walks in and wakes up in the inn in Canterport. Cayden tells her about his dream of being Haerel and killing Dis, and how before Dis died he said something. The rest of the day continues as before but when she wakes up the next time there’s more to the story and this time Dis was nearly killed by Justice before Haerel manages it. This goes on and on until one day she zones out and asks Cayden about his dream, which he hasn’t had. Rihiri remembers that this has happened dozens of times, but this is the first time Cayden has not had the dream. Then she’s back to the original point and the Barrow Maker wakes her up. Cayden never had the dream.
 * Spawnsworth, Lily and Voice are also released from Nilbog. Alethra attempts to contact Justice but he is still being blocked.
 * The Knights and Barrow Legion talk about how they can kill Nilbog. Ja’far tells us that Nilbog keeps saying he has True Sight.
 * The iron tower was not in the castle this morning, says Birkan. Rihiri tries to work out if anyone else has been repeating this day but only she has.
 * Alethra realises Slip is still out in the courtyard (last seen as a goblin.) Ja’far tries to contact her with Sending but there’s no response.
 * The group plan for Ventus to cast Mage Ward and separate Nilbog from his staff so it no longer works.
 * The staff calls out for Cayden. The entire group goes. Nilbog has moved behind the tower, where he is flanked by the Eladrin, 4 dryads, 2 treants and some sort of portal.
 * The staff asks Cayden to give Nilbog his moon blade. He says he was there when it was created. Cayden yells the codeword (“Lily Pad”) for the plan to begin and casts Firebolt at Nilbog. Nilbog disintegrates whilst Rihiri and Ventus Dimension Door to where he used to be. He has jumped to another goblin in the courtyard upon his death.
 * Fighting happens where we kill the treants, two of the dryads and two of the Eladrin.
 * Cayden disarms Nilbog, and once the staff rolls out of Mage Ward it asks Cayden to save it. It says it is now free.
 * The staff believes itself to be Corellon; he hasn’t been able to hold a form since falling and ended up connected to the goblin. He asks Cayden to put the staff through the portal (which leads to one of the parallel planes - the staff says it's the Feywild.)
 * As Cayden goes to fulfill the staff's wishes, The Raven Queen threatens "what has been done can be undone." Cayden tries to argue but she says nothing else. Cayden puts the staff through the portal and Ventus kills Nilbog.
 * Corellon ascends. A congress of ravens and black-winged angels fly towards the party. A wall of green erupts around us and we hear “no” echo in Corellon's voice.
 * The Raven Queen’s protection from scrying has been removed. Ventus screams “I did nothing!” and holds up his raven feather. The Raven Queen replies “You did nothing” and evaporates his blessed feather.
 * Ja’far is 10-11 years old. He has a black braid down his back. He has scars all over his arms. He’s the child Ventus threw a dagger at. Alethra punches him when she finds out he threw a dagger at a child.
 * Ja’far asks to join the Lily Pad and Spawnsworth agrees he can be a squire until "bigger". He says his family aren’t good people. He says he’s from under Southreach.
 * Where the portal to the Feywild was is now a portal that looks into a room in the Iron tower. There’s a glowing purple crystal in the middle of the room. It’s ancient and allows you to store a visual and auditory message. It’s glowing on and off. It’s on a pedestal that has buttons and dials on it.
 * When the message is activated an elf appears in clothing none of us recognise. In elven he says “Day 257; Camorran research expedition. It’s been 3 days since the other outposts went dark. It appears to be a vault of some form or another. We have managed to discern there are safe combinations to the Ilithid device in sequences of three. Given that this means there are 769 possible combinations, a brute force attempt seems unlikely to succeed. We have, however, discerned that the square button, followed by the short lever, are two steps of a sequence. With a one in seven chance we intend to... (moans from an unseen source) Yes, I'll get to you in a moment. We intend to... (sounds of an earthquake)"
 * Camorra is a Dawn Nation; the Elven one. They all disappeared around the same time. It was around before the Yuan-ti. 10s of 1000s of years old.
 * The tower is made from the same material we’ve seen on Ilithid weapons.
 * Ventus walks into the room and the arch he stepped through disappears, trapping him in the room alone. The device lights up.
 * Rihiri Dimension Door’s into the room to get Ventus out but swaps places with him. She tries to cast it again to get out but reappears in the same spot.
 * Having no way to get out, Rihiri decides to try a sequence. She presses the square button, the short lever, which both bing green, then she picks the red dial at random. We all have to make Wisdom saving throws. The ones who fail are effected by a form of Indefinite Madness.
 * Alethra gains the personality trait; I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest and most beautiful person I know.
 * Lily gains the personality trait; I keep whatever I find.
 * Ventus gains the personality trait; I have discovered that I really like killing people
 * Voice gains the personality trait; I don't like the way people judge me all the time.
 * Upon seeing Ventus licking the blood of the people we fought from his hands, Cayden casts Remove Curse and Ventus is cured.