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xancredible) wrote2024-08-03 08:53 am
xancredible) wrote2024-08-03 08:53 am
Entry tags:
We'll need patience on this journey. And my gun.
Previous sessions can be found here.
We were missing Aether's player for session 3, but started with a nother round of check-ins to see how the characters were doing.
Cadmus is frustrated with the slow progress. He's played the long game in life and while he accomplished what he set out to do, he also landed in hell for his pains. Now he's been given a new task and just wants to get shit done, but the endless bureaucracy of hell is blocking and slowing them down at every step so far.
Paul is still stuck on the enormity of the task. Safe hell, find Lucifer?! Huge tasks, big responsibility. Even so he's glad to have something to do, and going up and down the stairs in search of permit A83 has exhausted him but he's happy even about that because it means he gets to feel *something*.
Ronnie is also extremely frustrated at this point - or at least that's what it looks like on the outside. On the inside, she feels like a thread that's unravelling from both ends. Here's the thing: Doing the job as a receptionist was going to drive her up the wall and she didn't want to do it for all eternity. Going on this mission however has the potential of confirming all her worst fears about herself and her place in this universe so she kind of doesn't want to go. But she also doesn't want to keep doing what she's been doing. On top of all of that, she's reminded of how much she hates bureaucracy and the way it doesn't respect people. She wishes she had the power to change that, but then she would have to become that which she fears.
The Tigress is the only one who's calm on the outside and inside. She knows something will happen, but she doesn't know when or what exactly, but there's no point in getting worked up about it until it does.
So far so good for knowing where the characters are emotionally at the start of this session. They've successfully handed in the permit and received a slip of paper that allows them to receive the 3rd charm for their bracelet - but first they take a long rest. After much debating where they should go to sleep (the nearest available conference room is on the 14th floor but they're on the ground floor. The break room is on the 6th floor, and finally Cadmus says that there's open space in the basement where he works. It's not the most comfortable but it is a place to rest, so that's where the group goes.
The first real conversations between party members ensue. Paul is mostly keeping to himself but listening to conversations. Ronnie approaches The Tigress to learn more about her secrets re: staying calm. (transcript mildly paraphrased because I had to keep up with actual dialogue xD)
R: How do you stay so calm?
T: I tried to scratch someone’s eyes out when I first got here, but that didn’t work very well. There’s no point in using weapons here. No point in using bullets.
R: I don’t use bullets.
T: Resources. You want to kill a man with one shot, not riddle a body with bullets.
R: Wait, what are we talking about?
T: We conserve. Me, bullets, you, energy.
R: Okay, but I’ve been conserving energy for so long. You just seem so calm. How?
T: If you can find something that you want to accomplish - can be a small thing - that’ll help you to focus. For example, I’m looking forward to find out why I’m here and who put me here. And that helps me stay calm.
R: But how do you bear the waiting?
T: There’s very little to do on the sea, you only can wait. Sometimes you have to pretend that you can do a thing. Pretend you’re calm until you become calm.
R: I will give that a try.
T: It might not work for you, so don’t be discouraged.
R: Well, my way hasn’t worked for me so I thought I’d try something new.
T: Patience is something I feel we’ll need on this journey of ours. Plus my gun. This bureaucracy would’ve gone much quicker if I had had it.
Cadmus, in the meantime, has one off to the side to "meditate". This isn't mechanical meditating, just narrative downtime for Cadmus to gather his thoughts and make an attempt at calming himself down since his fire genasi lava-skin is glowing a lot with his anger. He makes a little fire in his hand and starts playing with it.
Aafter Ronnie has finished talking to The Tigress, she heads over to Cadmus and offers to play catch with fire by making a little non-lethal fire bolt and tossing it back and forth. Cadmus has added more of his own fire to the bolt to turn it into an actual ball of fire and they gently lob it between them.
Cadmus explains that fire always calms him down.
C: “Sometimes I burn the deliveries but more always comes”
R: “Magic fire is the only warmth I’ve ever known.”
This gains Ronnie some sympathy from Cadmus, who remembers that Ronnie belongs to a family of disgraced angels who've been banished to the 9th circle of hell. No one knows what crime they committed but they know it must've been bad for them to end up here. Ronnie has lived all her life in the 9th circle of hell, it's all she's ever known. Cadmus says he looks forward to when she gets to experience real fire.
R: Can I ask you a kind of personal question?
C: Yes.
R: What was your favourite thing in life?
C: My middle sister Eleni, she was my favourite. I would tell her stories if she had a nightmare. She would come to me and I would make a fire to chase away the dark, and tell her a story, and she would fall back to sleep. Those were good times.
He catches the fire ball and stares at it pensively as this memory plays through his mind. I rule that reliving this memory, remembering that what he has done in life was for Eleni and others like her, helps to ground him. He realises that what he's been asked to do now - save hell from implosion - will also save the Elenis of the mortal plane, and possibly Eleni's eternal soul in heaven.
R: She was lucky to have you.
C: *feels some type of way about it but Ronnie rolled a nat 1 on insight so just thinks he looks sad about missing his sister.*
R: I just wanted to help, I’m sorry I upset you.
C: You have. *stops glowing as brightly as before, looks quieter* You reminded me why I will do what needs to be done here.
Of course James, who plays Cadmus, then asks me if remembering Eleni could have mechanical use later, and I said I'd be happy to have that conversation but it would come at the cost of something else, so we'll see if this is something he wants to pursue xD
Paul, who was listening to The Tigress and Ronnie earlier, would've also listened to Cadmus and Ronnie but the desire to be away from the fire was bigger so he moved too far away to overhear anything. Aether is the only one who noticed that Paul moved away from that fire. (I rolled for Aether, we'll check in with Aaron to see what he wants to do about that.)
The next morning, after a long rest, the delivery of new office supplies comes in and Cadmus says to just leave it there. Paul wonders if this is why they're always out of printer paper, but Cadmus explains that that's not why, and also that the charms and the mission is more important than the delivery.
The archivist/acquisitions officer welcomes them, and when he's been handed the slip of paper for the 3rd charm, his eyes go wide. He pulls out a form for them to fill out, and then goes off for a good half hour to find that charm. He fills in some more details on the form, and Aether signs it, then receives a small wooden box with the charm inside - it's a snowflake.
The group then asks what to do about the 4th charm and the archivist happens to know: Go through that tunnel at the end of the archives - it won't be easy and he's not allowed to give hints - and then fight the circle overseer. If they beat him, they receive the last charm. However, the archivist is confident that they won't, because no one has so far.
The group asks him about their weapons, and he pulls out more forms for them to fill out before he goes off to find their weapons.
Cadmus: longsword, hand crossbow + bolts, shield, half plate armor
Paul: Crowbar (light hammer, simple melee weapon)
Ronnie: no weapons
Tigress: Flintlock Gun (pistol stats) + leather coat (leather armor)
Cadmus, seeing that Ronnie has no weapons, gives her his hand crossbow and shows her how to use that, complete with putting his arms around her to correct her posture and grip. Ah, romance.
All of the weapons are in the exact same condition as they were when the characters died, which means that Cadmus' longsword is covered in blood. It's not wet blood, nor is the blade rusted. It's just covered in blood. Cadmus doesn't bother cleaning it either.
None of the characters whose players were present said anything about it, and we'll again ask Aether's player if he wants Aether to have a public opinion about it.
Since there's nothing else for them to do anymore, they head towards the tunnel - and are met with a massive wall of ice just inside it. Cadmus and Ronnie start melting the ice with their low-level spells and it takes them a good long while to melt the first five feet of wall. As they've accomplished this task, they also set free an Ice Devil who immediately attacks them, so we roll initiative.
The group manages to kill it before the first round is over, and the devil has dropped a spear that has an icy spear tip that glows with the kind of iridescence that the tightly packed ice of a glacier has. The Tigress picked it up and failed an Arcana check, as did Ronnie who didn't touch the spear. We've decided to call the session here and see if Aether wants to do an Arcana check as well.
We were missing Aether's player for session 3, but started with a nother round of check-ins to see how the characters were doing.
Cadmus is frustrated with the slow progress. He's played the long game in life and while he accomplished what he set out to do, he also landed in hell for his pains. Now he's been given a new task and just wants to get shit done, but the endless bureaucracy of hell is blocking and slowing them down at every step so far.
Paul is still stuck on the enormity of the task. Safe hell, find Lucifer?! Huge tasks, big responsibility. Even so he's glad to have something to do, and going up and down the stairs in search of permit A83 has exhausted him but he's happy even about that because it means he gets to feel *something*.
Ronnie is also extremely frustrated at this point - or at least that's what it looks like on the outside. On the inside, she feels like a thread that's unravelling from both ends. Here's the thing: Doing the job as a receptionist was going to drive her up the wall and she didn't want to do it for all eternity. Going on this mission however has the potential of confirming all her worst fears about herself and her place in this universe so she kind of doesn't want to go. But she also doesn't want to keep doing what she's been doing. On top of all of that, she's reminded of how much she hates bureaucracy and the way it doesn't respect people. She wishes she had the power to change that, but then she would have to become that which she fears.
The Tigress is the only one who's calm on the outside and inside. She knows something will happen, but she doesn't know when or what exactly, but there's no point in getting worked up about it until it does.
So far so good for knowing where the characters are emotionally at the start of this session. They've successfully handed in the permit and received a slip of paper that allows them to receive the 3rd charm for their bracelet - but first they take a long rest. After much debating where they should go to sleep (the nearest available conference room is on the 14th floor but they're on the ground floor. The break room is on the 6th floor, and finally Cadmus says that there's open space in the basement where he works. It's not the most comfortable but it is a place to rest, so that's where the group goes.
The first real conversations between party members ensue. Paul is mostly keeping to himself but listening to conversations. Ronnie approaches The Tigress to learn more about her secrets re: staying calm. (transcript mildly paraphrased because I had to keep up with actual dialogue xD)
R: How do you stay so calm?
T: I tried to scratch someone’s eyes out when I first got here, but that didn’t work very well. There’s no point in using weapons here. No point in using bullets.
R: I don’t use bullets.
T: Resources. You want to kill a man with one shot, not riddle a body with bullets.
R: Wait, what are we talking about?
T: We conserve. Me, bullets, you, energy.
R: Okay, but I’ve been conserving energy for so long. You just seem so calm. How?
T: If you can find something that you want to accomplish - can be a small thing - that’ll help you to focus. For example, I’m looking forward to find out why I’m here and who put me here. And that helps me stay calm.
R: But how do you bear the waiting?
T: There’s very little to do on the sea, you only can wait. Sometimes you have to pretend that you can do a thing. Pretend you’re calm until you become calm.
R: I will give that a try.
T: It might not work for you, so don’t be discouraged.
R: Well, my way hasn’t worked for me so I thought I’d try something new.
T: Patience is something I feel we’ll need on this journey of ours. Plus my gun. This bureaucracy would’ve gone much quicker if I had had it.
Cadmus, in the meantime, has one off to the side to "meditate". This isn't mechanical meditating, just narrative downtime for Cadmus to gather his thoughts and make an attempt at calming himself down since his fire genasi lava-skin is glowing a lot with his anger. He makes a little fire in his hand and starts playing with it.
Aafter Ronnie has finished talking to The Tigress, she heads over to Cadmus and offers to play catch with fire by making a little non-lethal fire bolt and tossing it back and forth. Cadmus has added more of his own fire to the bolt to turn it into an actual ball of fire and they gently lob it between them.
Cadmus explains that fire always calms him down.
C: “Sometimes I burn the deliveries but more always comes”
R: “Magic fire is the only warmth I’ve ever known.”
This gains Ronnie some sympathy from Cadmus, who remembers that Ronnie belongs to a family of disgraced angels who've been banished to the 9th circle of hell. No one knows what crime they committed but they know it must've been bad for them to end up here. Ronnie has lived all her life in the 9th circle of hell, it's all she's ever known. Cadmus says he looks forward to when she gets to experience real fire.
R: Can I ask you a kind of personal question?
C: Yes.
R: What was your favourite thing in life?
C: My middle sister Eleni, she was my favourite. I would tell her stories if she had a nightmare. She would come to me and I would make a fire to chase away the dark, and tell her a story, and she would fall back to sleep. Those were good times.
He catches the fire ball and stares at it pensively as this memory plays through his mind. I rule that reliving this memory, remembering that what he has done in life was for Eleni and others like her, helps to ground him. He realises that what he's been asked to do now - save hell from implosion - will also save the Elenis of the mortal plane, and possibly Eleni's eternal soul in heaven.
R: She was lucky to have you.
C: *feels some type of way about it but Ronnie rolled a nat 1 on insight so just thinks he looks sad about missing his sister.*
R: I just wanted to help, I’m sorry I upset you.
C: You have. *stops glowing as brightly as before, looks quieter* You reminded me why I will do what needs to be done here.
Of course James, who plays Cadmus, then asks me if remembering Eleni could have mechanical use later, and I said I'd be happy to have that conversation but it would come at the cost of something else, so we'll see if this is something he wants to pursue xD
Paul, who was listening to The Tigress and Ronnie earlier, would've also listened to Cadmus and Ronnie but the desire to be away from the fire was bigger so he moved too far away to overhear anything. Aether is the only one who noticed that Paul moved away from that fire. (I rolled for Aether, we'll check in with Aaron to see what he wants to do about that.)
The next morning, after a long rest, the delivery of new office supplies comes in and Cadmus says to just leave it there. Paul wonders if this is why they're always out of printer paper, but Cadmus explains that that's not why, and also that the charms and the mission is more important than the delivery.
The archivist/acquisitions officer welcomes them, and when he's been handed the slip of paper for the 3rd charm, his eyes go wide. He pulls out a form for them to fill out, and then goes off for a good half hour to find that charm. He fills in some more details on the form, and Aether signs it, then receives a small wooden box with the charm inside - it's a snowflake.
The group then asks what to do about the 4th charm and the archivist happens to know: Go through that tunnel at the end of the archives - it won't be easy and he's not allowed to give hints - and then fight the circle overseer. If they beat him, they receive the last charm. However, the archivist is confident that they won't, because no one has so far.
The group asks him about their weapons, and he pulls out more forms for them to fill out before he goes off to find their weapons.
Cadmus: longsword, hand crossbow + bolts, shield, half plate armor
Paul: Crowbar (light hammer, simple melee weapon)
Ronnie: no weapons
Tigress: Flintlock Gun (pistol stats) + leather coat (leather armor)
Cadmus, seeing that Ronnie has no weapons, gives her his hand crossbow and shows her how to use that, complete with putting his arms around her to correct her posture and grip. Ah, romance.
All of the weapons are in the exact same condition as they were when the characters died, which means that Cadmus' longsword is covered in blood. It's not wet blood, nor is the blade rusted. It's just covered in blood. Cadmus doesn't bother cleaning it either.
None of the characters whose players were present said anything about it, and we'll again ask Aether's player if he wants Aether to have a public opinion about it.
Since there's nothing else for them to do anymore, they head towards the tunnel - and are met with a massive wall of ice just inside it. Cadmus and Ronnie start melting the ice with their low-level spells and it takes them a good long while to melt the first five feet of wall. As they've accomplished this task, they also set free an Ice Devil who immediately attacks them, so we roll initiative.
The group manages to kill it before the first round is over, and the devil has dropped a spear that has an icy spear tip that glows with the kind of iridescence that the tightly packed ice of a glacier has. The Tigress picked it up and failed an Arcana check, as did Ronnie who didn't touch the spear. We've decided to call the session here and see if Aether wants to do an Arcana check as well.