Today's session was fairly short as far as actual progress is concerned, because we got heavily sidetracked often and lengthily talking about our other gaming activities. We were also sans Mary(had to do day-long laundry).
I'm glad I've learned to not get frustrated with players that aren't into the RP aspect of the game, because if they enjoy it I shouldn't gripe at them all the time for not 'getting in character'. But let me tell you, Pat and Jon are emotional zombies in the game world practically. Violent, anti-social, awkward zombies of destruction...:)
And now, for details of the session...
They finally reached town to lay low for a little bit for a day or so to rest before they skip town. While in the bar, Jon deciphers the contents of the Grave King's grimoire, and discovers five seperate rituals and incantations...
* Ritually remove a victim's face, allowing you to later wear it as a mask and magically seem EXACTLY like that person in every way, down to picking up mannerisms and minor personality quirks
* Manifest a small boat, made out of dead men's fingernails
* Temporarily animate a statue (up to like 30' or 40' tall) that can also swim through the earth, for the sole purpose of relocation
* Ward an area from the presence of inevitables (incarnations of Law) sent out to bring justice to the caster
* Enchant a highly wrought figurine of moonstone to ward the bearer from the corruptive influence of otherworldly forces that might twist and 'change' the character
Meanwhile, our friend Pat and then Adam examine the journal of Vargaas for details of the strangely untouched magical city. While doing this, a noble and two cloaked bodyguards enter the tavern and take a central table, which prompts the bartender to act nervous and begin opening windows. All three have nearly pitch-black cloaks, with a sheen of emerald or ruby colors (ruby for the guards, emerald for noble).
After a bit of prompting, followed by collected knowledge on the part of Adam and Jon, they figure out that those patrons are members of the Black Lotus Eaters. They are a guild of sorcerers and their bodyguard slaves who collectively consume bits of black lotus for the enchancement of their power and visions. Few want to tangle with them, as they are a group of druggies with mystic power and hopped-up bodyguards and all.
While the noble sniffs a small amount of tea, the two bodyguards take a small sip and promptly spit it out and they dump the rest on the floorboards with some sawdust (to prevent overdosing). The people in the tavern leave them alone, and Adam does the closest thing to getting downwind of them, which puts him by the window near where the vomiting is done. While there, he begins to a hear a tinny grunting sound outside, prompting him to begin investigating. The sound is emitting from a puddle of yellow vomit. Poking said puddle provokes a rising bulge, further investigating revealing a well-made buckler given a semi-mirrored sheen and the symbol of an eye with eight arrows sticking out of it. The shield also seems to emanate an aura of dark energy when not looked at directly. Not wanting to get attention, he cleans it in a trough and hides it in his bag, then goes to bed to sleep off the booze with the intention to discuss it with the party on the morrow. Pat's character follows suit shortly, leaving Jon with his grimoire and checking notes a bit late into the night.
While reading, and about to go to bed himself, the lotus eaters seem to get down from their high and the noble walks over to him. Sitting before him, he begins to tell him that the flower will be his and that he cannot hide it forever. He informs him that his vision is but only a metaphor, but he knows enough that he (Jon) has it and that his people must have it. He creates the illusion of a beautiful, sandy-colored field of wheat with a single iridescent daffodil growing, then leaves with a warning that they will not rest.
Confused, and sort of weirded out, Jon sneaks up to his room and sleeps uneasily.
That morning, Pat is accosted by a group of locals who begin to start the celebration now that one of the heroes has risen from bed. The prisoners set free by Adam got to town and gave enough information to identify the slayers of the Grave King, who had beset the land for decades. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the party stumbles down and get dragged into the celebration (lots of booze handed to them).
Eventually, they're able to drag themselves away from the festivities long enough to confer on some of the weirdness from the prior day, name Adam's buckler find. After minor research, but mainly from each other's memory, they realize that this is a Shield of Chaos. Basically, it's a physical manifestation of part of an ancient Lord of Chaos who revels in the heat battle, unleashing/reflecting raw chaos every time it is struck in the heat of battle. There also exists lesser shields, which didn't have the same breadth of randomness or the power of the true Shield of Chaos, and in fact usually stuck to a single theme of effects.
Curious as all get-out, Adam tells Pat to shoot his best at him, utilizing his Deflect Missile training (he can deflect one arrow at a time with perfect accuracy). With a bit of coercion, it deflects off the buckler, creating a conflagration of flame to surround Adam and forcing him to roll on the ground to minimize the burning. With a smile, and temptation to test it more, he stores it away at the sound of knocking.
A young farmer girl (looks 17, actually 22) with wheat colored pigtails and a sunny disposition has brought a basket of cheese, bread, a couple pieces of fruit, and some wine for the heroes. While providing the food to the heroes and basking in their presence as only a teenager could, she eventually blurts out the desire to see adventure and wishes to follow the party to be a part of it all. Not really certain they would be able to convince her or stop her from following, they reluctanly acquiesce.
While Adam picks up a few supplies from the store (namely more arrowheads and fletching), he notices that he's being followed by some cloaked woman. With a few deft turns, he loses the follower, sneaks around to appear behind her to ask why she was following him. She attempts to say she wasn't following, gets an uncomfortable silence at Adam calling BS, then hurriedly swings a hidden kukri at him. Not surprised, Adam deftly dodges and tells her that he'll kill her if he sees her again, who takes up the offer and disappears into the crowd.
After a bit, they finish packing and head north for a caravan stop-over to get long distance supplies. While they travel Adam tries to show the girl at least a modicum of self-defense, noting that she's hiding the fact she's much more skilled than a simple farmer should be in both tridents and daggers, but doesn't try to broach the subject out of caution.
Once they reach the town and take a break at a local tavern, they notice the trailing edge of an almost pitch black cloak with a minor ruby sheen from a secluded booth along with a minor whiff of black lotus scent, which gets them nervous and proceed to sneak out of the bar to get the hell out of dodge. Just as they reach the stables with their pack animals, a black lotus eater guard is holding down the farmer girl (named Analee) while his boss sifts through the party's stuff.
As the noble is still coming down from his high, he reacts harshly and tells the guard to take care of them while he fails to mind control Adam (with an entirely too high of a roll to resist). The guard stabs into Jon's arcanist, his high making him a bit too bloodthirsty for what he was doing, noticeably wounding him in the shoulder. Jon panics and creates the illusion of a duplicate running in one direction while he runs in the other.
Adam steps back and swiftly plugs three arrows into the now very dead guard. The noble/arcanist gets desperate and calls on dark energies and unleashes a very large bolt of energy that damages Adam as much as the sword did Jon (which is alot and wasn't a solid hit either). Of course, this was a very desperate measure, as the party killed him in the next round.
They take some of the better things, such as a pouch of drugs and an intricate lockbox with a single black lotus blossom. Adam drops the guard's bloodied shield on the table of the one guard inside the tavern, telling him not to follow.
I end the session with the party hearing the giggle of a small girl in the darkness, unable to fully track where she goes when they begin to see her.
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