In the morning, Talif and his elves leave their huts and go to the altar. The adventurers follow them reluctantly. The last whisps of fog clear away, revealing crates upon crates of foodstuffs, tools and other supplies. Talif explains that they had made a deal with ancient entities, offering sacrifices in exchange for their survival. Just as the adventurers would start raising questions, Solid is discovered among the crates. His clothes, armor and gear are all intact and stacked neatly next to him, except his weapon. He is naked, holding only a strange, master crafted, evil looking warhammer. Groin quickly wakes him up (probably with healing). Selene checks him out, stealing a spiked steel ball right out of his rectum without him noticing.[1]
Talif talks to the adventurers, offering them no help from the elves. However, he does offer an extended stay in the village - for ever. He also slaps Selene, but the notes don't say why. Can't blame him, though.
Solid awakens and starts recognizing people, like someone who had been away for a long time.[2] he describes being with Sotocus for a time, but then loosing contact with him.[3] He talks to Talif and looses his patience, grabbing the elf by the neck and slapping him around. At that, the fog suddenly descends and envelops the adventurers. Female demons, dancing, singing and cavorting, leap out of the densest parts, attacking the adventurers.
The fight goes badly. Leader-type demons throw magic at the adventurers and summon back dead combatants. That is, until Solid stops fighting and starts speaking Latin instead.
OK, let's clarify that. Solid starts speaking a language unknown to the other characters. This is signified by Solid's player actually reading a text in Latin. Unfortunately, he thought the situation to be way too funny for seriousness, and kept laughing up. Sotocus' player took over, and he did a marvelous job of reading the text in a demonic voice. It was hilarious; I was extremely satisfied.
The recited text banished the demons and dissipated the fog. I loved that nobody thought to ask Solid how he knew to say that. All they looked at were the results.
At this point the party split up again[4]. The girls went into the village and set some huts aflame, which triggered another demon attack. Fortunately, they managed to beat the demons.
The elves look dumbfounded at the flames[5] while the party members ran away from the cursed village.
Having no more missions to accomplish and/or fail, the adventurers retreat to Beverna. They soon realized that the situation had changed. Men in black uniforms patrolled the countryside and the castle wall, trained the soldiers and advised the baron. Apparently Zyn discovered some sort of ancient communication device in the castle, and managed to phone in reinforcements. They also cooked up a desperate plan, which the adventurers reluctantly accepted. With the removal of the local orc and goblin tribes, the attackers lost their staging grounds, and scouts had discovered their actual center of power: an ancient castle, up in the mountains. Another army was gathering there, at that moment. Perhaps it could be repelled - but what about the next one? And so, the plan was to have the baron and his allied forces march out to meet the enemy, drawing them away from the castle, and ensuring that the adventurers can infiltrate the castle and eliminate the enemy leadership.[6]
Oh, and the leader of the black uniforms decided that he needed to keep an eye on the party to "ensure their success". He designated one of his underlings to join them. And so we had a new party member: Ren, the Kor monk.[7]
[1] I am not in the habit of telling my players "No" or "That can't be done". Results may vary.
[2] Which may or may not have happened. The rest of the party experienced a single night. Who knows about Solid?
[3] He may or may not be perma-dead at this point.
[4] Q: How many... ah, you know what, never mind.
[5] Living in comfort for decades without having to do anything does that to people.
[6] If the plan sounds way too stereotypical for an action movie, that's because it is. Time was running short, and I knew I needed to stop the game sessions in a short while. I axed a couple of previous ideas, and compressed as much as possible into this version of the events.
[7] I honestly expected the party members[8] to quickly go through these events and reach Beverna in no time - after all, Szivem had been resurrected and the elves were decided on not helping. But no, they let poor Sotocus/Ren's player sit through a session doing nothing, waiting for them to meet his new character.
[8] You know you're in trouble when you're annotating an annotation. The lesson that it is foolish to "expect" the players to do something had not yet sunk in at this point.
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