☝️42. the might of gods

session 42 • 9/27/2022 • 1,327 words

🌞 DAY 10.3 • 📅 HARVESTIDE

⏰ Threepenny Wood, 1:30PM

Prices Paid

The party address the gnomes they just saved, who gives them a few carved marionettes and scamper home after the traumatizing experience.

Soren has a small meltdown over the letter, telling Sildar that Waterdeep and the Lord's Alliance stationed there could be in danger if a Baenre has their eyes on it. Sildar isn't phased and tells Sorennar that the Lord's Alliance would be able to squash even a threat from the ruling drow families.

Soren considers this and asks Sildar if the Lord's Alliance is that strong, then why haven't they attacked and destroyed Menzoberranzan? The group opposes to the idea of this kind of genocide, but Soren reveals that he wants to see the city torn down, one way or another, and would want the Lord's Alliance to look into doing so.

Sildar tries to reason that the Lord's Alliance does have roots in Menzoberranzan but that an all out war would result in tragedy on both ends; the group tries to also reason that not all the drow in Menzoberranzan deserve to die.

Soren grows more and more agitated. Sildar asks if Rizoyn deserved to die, at which point Soren explodes in anger, taking off his glammerweave and circlet to reveal his scars and brands to Will. He coldly tells Will that this is what's happening to the members of his village who were unlucky enough not to die; he insists that any drow worth sparing would have perished in the cruelty of Menzoberranzan--only the evil ones make it out alive.

Will mentions "Rana", a drow noble girl whom his village offered shelter when she got lost and emerged in the woods nearby. He says that though she was initially wary and hating of surfacers, she eventually came around when shown kindness and patience, citing this as an example of how drow, even those entrenched in traditional drow society, can change.

Soren seems to lose all steam at the mention of this young female noble. Will hugs him. Soren asks Will about Rana, but pulls away when he mentions that she was of the noble house Catanzaro--which is his house. After a moment of disbelief and denial, he realizes (in combination of Amalka's sending message) that his house finally now has a female child, which Amalka leveraged to climb the ladder.

He has a lil breakdown over it--that he was enslaved for 80 years and Rizoyn died to keep his family barely safe; now his house is flourishing and neither he nor Rizoyn is here to see it.

The group gathers around and shares a solemn hug.

The Missing Herbalist

The group travels to Arabella's house, where they find no cart and no one. They follow cart tracks to find humanoid footprints, deducing that Arabella was taken by the bandits.

⏰ Yard Sard, 2:30PM

The party returns to the faire to check in on Granpappy and to travel to the bandit camp from their first day. They pass the yard sard, and see the halfling thief from yesterday stealing from the displays.

Hugh approaches her and asks her to help them team up and kill the bandits, in return for all the bandits' loot. She is wary because of Sildar being a "cop", and scams Droop for 10gp lmao. Hugh explains that they picked up Sildar from being "fucked up by Droop's family", at which point Elsie hi-5's Droop.

She reveals her disdain for authority, stating that in Waterdeep where she's from, the city watch and authorities only care for themselves and not the people.

However, she eventually agrees to help the group break the time loop.

⏰ Cowslip Candies 3:30PM

We visit Granpappy's cart, where we see that the magic has worn off his kittens. Will babies them, the group realizing something has happened to Granpappy.

Droop, confused at how much the group has been telling him "no", tries to take the initiative to understand human morality and why we can't kill people just for being bullies. Will and Hugh take the time to try and explain the nuances of human morality and just punishments, while Soren is an edgy little shite who tries to say that bullies always deserve to be punished.

Though we don't reach a decisive conclusion, Droop emerges with a better understanding of human cultural practices.

⏰ Bandit Camp, 4:30PM

The group arrives at the bandit camp in search of Arabella, only to find a grave and her charred body in the campfire; it seems that the bandits tried to get her to heal their friend, and when he died, they buried him and tossed her into the funeral pyre.

Elsie is disgusted at the crime, and almost throws up. Will, at the sight of the burned body, does stumble away and throws up, reminded of the drow raid and what they did to the village. Soren tries to comfort him. As they talk next to some crates, Will recognizes the contents of the alchemical supplies in the crates; they are highly volatile and flammable concoctions.

Sildar apologizes for his hasty judgment of Elsie, who is surprised. Sildar asks her to go back to the faire and destroy the pudding in hopes of triggering another time-loop reset to the morning, since Urdlen seems to want the pudding real bad. She agrees and heads back.

The group continues to look for Granpappy, and eventually find him--turned to obsidian in a clearing. The group decide to go back and wait for another reset.

⏰ Pudding Plaza, 5:30PM

When the group returns, the faire is on fire. The bandits are hurling molotovs at the townsfolk and tents, presumably in a rage from losing their friend. Elsie is dead, and Urdlen is in the tent, surveying the damage and approaching the pudding. Hugh tries to herd the survivors out as Soren supports him. Will fights the bandits, while Sildar tries to get into the tent to destroy the pudding.

Eventually, he gets to it, and in front of Urdlen, rolls a fucking crit and absolutely demolishes the pudding. Sildar then taunts Urdlen with "did you want that?"

In a rage, Urdlen disintegrates Sildar on the spot, devastating the rest of the party.

However, the despair is short lived, as the day resets and the group finds themselves once again at the start of the day, at the entrance of the Pudding Faire.

⏰ Entrance to Honeypuddle, 7.00AM

After Sildar has a little mini mental breakdown over seeing himself get Thanos-snapped (that he doesn't share with the party) the group wastes little time in stopping Vanessa and Josie from getting poison-nettled, and march off to Granpappy.

Granpappy reacts the same way as usual, trying to storm off to fight Urdlen on his own, but the group is like you ABSOLUTE DUMBSHIT, and tries to convince him otherwise. Eventually, Will says "your people believe in you, they worship you. maybe you should believe in them sometimes too."

This seems to strike a chord with Granpappy, and he agrees to let the group tag along reluctantly and offer him their support.

The group runs through a VARIETY of plans (including getting a cupcake and disguising it as pudding), which, in D&D fashion, we do not end up using.

As we head over to where we think Urdlen will be, we run into an alive-Elsie. She expresses that she's tired of this life, and he offers to get her a stable job at Waterdeep, but she takes much better to Hugh's offer of her joining the Harpers. They agree to get her in contact with Garele back at Phandalin.

Sildar suggests that he will approach Urdlen and lie that he's been cowed by the god's power, and so wants to serve him, while Granpappy casts the ritual. Soren pulls Sildar aside and expresses worry about his recent death, and this risk. Sildar says that he'll be OK, and they kiss, mUCH to babbie Will's chargrin.