Session 4 Recap

MISSED IT. PEPEHANDS.

kola and rowen play-fight. sigmund and rowen talk. king's makes us smoke a peace pipe, we're rewarded tailoured treasure. josh is supposed to send me a list of them.
evening goes on, enjoying their loot. asbjorn's turn, turns away from treasure and goes to the king of the bugbear; barters for the slaves freedom in turn of his reward.
king is impressed, still allows him a piece of treasure. gauntlets, or something. rowen got a black arrow. sigmund got a flute (???). kola got a surcoat.
normal surcoat/armor, apparently. freya got ???.

we move on, high as fuck apparently. party's in a good/alright mood. have asbjorn's new bugbear friend guide us to the darklands. long rest, during it
sigmund notice "dark things" marching torward us. we're awakened, preparing for whatever the fuck is going on. there's giant spiders, can't see shit
outside of sigmund's torch. we're surrounded. jules decides to be a spellcaster, enlarges and twins it. they go fuckin' squishin' spiders. rowen goes
big bad badass boy, gianto mode. we succeed, even with all the disadvantages from the battle. back to resting. except... when its our turn to take watch,
rowen hears whispers of pleads and screams on the wind. tortured souls. darkness settles in. changes him. tells asbjorn when it's his turn that his place
is not normal and cursed. asbjorn notices it, but endures. rowen is fucked up a little, asbjorn is just unsettled. what happens next is that everybody.

Josh says that Rowen and Jules fail a saving throw, involving long-term madness/insanity. They have their alignments played with, temporary or something.
Rowen is a little... eh. Jules is super excited (???), inspiring leader feat.png. Rowen has a massive change of heart, decides not to go all of a sudden.
Tries to convince the party to abandon the mission, saying it's a bad idea/the death of us/cursed. Party lever Gale, Rowen, who's been quite the opposite,
says he's sure she's dead. Rowen clutches desperately to Asbjorn after trying to run away in fear. Begs for him not to leave his side. Jules has in contrast
turned into a hero. We go on, the party reaches a bridge over a ravine. Very rickety bridge. Also happens to be very windy. Bad luck, eh? Jules with
the heart of a lion, goes first and nearly fucks it up. But, he makes it. Freya goes next, with disadvantage in heavy armour and almost fails as well, but
with Asbjorn's help, makes it. Sigmund next, with guidance from Magnus/Asbjorn, makes it. Then it's me, apparently. Rowen and Asbjorn talk, Karl prepares to
cross the bridge. Josh does a pretty good job playing Karl for me. I manage to cross the bridge, and very skillfully too. Rowen and Asbjorn are left.
Rowen's a pussy, Asbjorn commands/intimidates him with Thaumaturgy. Rowen goes off, manages to succeed even though he's pissing himself visibly. Asbjorn
and his slaves. One of the slaves, the Dwarf Marianne, says that she could fight, because they're crossing the bridge into enemy territory. Human woman
/slave Friki, is less so of a fighter. They all get ready to cross the bridge. Disadvantage in heavy armour. IF ASBJORN DIES I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD.
Bridge breaks. ROWEN'S A HERO. GRABS THE ROPE OF THE BRIDGE. FRIKI IS FUCKING DEATH. DWARF WOMAN IS OKAY FOR NOW, HOLDS ONTO ASBJORN. ASBJORN IS HANGING
ON FOR DEATH LIFE. MARIANNE IS SLIPPING. ASBJORN HOLDS ON FOR DEAR MAGNUS. EVERYBODY'S HOLDING ON FOR DEAR LIFE. HOLDING ON. HOLDING ON. ASBJORN'S GAUNTLETS
ARE VERY SLIPPERY APPARENTLY? I THINK MARIANNE FUCKING DIED. TEARING YOUR FUCKING MUSCLE PULLING THIS ROPE. THE ROPE... is lighter. You reach the top.
Asbjorn is alive, tearful. Thank God Asbjorn is not dead. Sincerely cries, tells Sigmund we've got to get those bastards. Rowen/Asbjorn says that.

Everyone moves onto the mountain entrance. Looks like a weird face. They realise this entrance is a mouth, and it's very small. 5x5ft tunnel. We continue
we're concerned. It was like it was shaped by a giant serpent. We come into an opening, and we can skeletons of all sorts of races native to Saxifell.
We see that some of the Dwarves are wearing a lot of armour. One in particular is wearing intricate, though rusted armour. Kola recognises it as a
Great Hero to the Dwarves. They defeated black dragon. Apparently, once they came here, something happened. There are tons of corpses, but they can't
be consecrated. They decide not to. At another side, you can see where it continues and from there a cloak figure marches in. With his mask on, it's
the one we wounded back at Harwick, one of the cultists with all the spells. He summons all the dead. Rowen hits 'em with one-liner, charges back the front-line
, takes opportunity attacks from the risen dead, and continues to bullrush the Big Bad at the moment. He survives, but is terribly wounded, especially
since the last time. Apparently I'm cleaning up shop with my insane, roguish DPS. Rowen is blinded, getting fucked up. Fight ends very quickly when
they gank the swarm. Big Bad retreats, everyone's in pursuit. Making haste, they find themselves in a giant room. REALLY open dome in the mountain.
Like 120ft diameter. REALLY large. At the centre, there's an Aztec/pyramid. Revealed to be a sacrifical altar of soons. Again, tons of skeletons.
All women (?). Anyways, a bunch of skeletons. Corpses lying on this altar. There's a man with a raven near-by. Long brown hair, with a beard and dark
, dark black eyes. Ominous. He's besides the Big Bad / Necromancer, but the Necromancer is knelt before him. Raven Man is the Big Bad? Previous Big Bad
/ Necromancer surrenders himself to him in his failure. He is returned to the Abyss. Falls to the ground. Raven Man / Big Bad. Defiler, he's called.
This Defiler, he turns to the party and says (and you can see Gale on the altar)-- Sigmund shoots at him with the black arrow, does a lot of damage.
... A lot of necrotic damage. Defiler likes necrotic damage, and he absorbs it. Good job, Sigmund. This Defiler then seems to emanate this aura of
intimidating aura. This place, and darkness, is somehow linked to him. He stands, speaking. "I see there is a son of Magnus amongst you." Hi, Asbjorn.
"I've already faced one of them, and defeated him. It would be an honour to defeat another in my life time." At this point. Epic. Battle. Commences.

Skeletons rise from the ground, even more. One very armoured by the altar rises, a ye olde' hero turned to a darker purposes. He rises, and he gets the
Guiding Bolt meme sent directly to his inbox. It hits, but it's FUCKING GRABBED OUT OF THE AIR NO FUCKS AND HE YEETS IT BACK AT FREYA, TAINTED WITH
NECROTIC ENERGY. HE'S THE REVERSE UNO CARD.

We've realised that we're out of our depth. If this guy can do this, what the fuck can the others do? At this point. Jules is too fucking courageous.
He enlarges Sigmund and Freya. Sigmund shoots an arrow to the Fallen Hero, breaking off his rusted armour. His ribs are exposed. Sigmund and Freya
are giants, and they charge into the frey attacking the horde of undead. Kola and Asbjorn also charge in, Asbjorn to the Necromancer. Asbjorn
casts his Channel Divinity, Light Domain AOE bigboy spell. Imposes disadvantage on the Defiler with his sick one-liner. Defiler says, "You are the son of
Magnus." Death Finger Fucks Asbjorn, and with a point of his finger it streaks over to him. Kola is decides to be even more heroic than Jules, and plays
Bodyguard for Asbjorn. It does a whole whopping 66 necrotic damage. Kola goes into a coma.

At this point, Rowen is screaming. Calling for Kola. Good joke by the way, Abdi. Anyways. Again, they realise the Defiler means business. The fight
goes on. Jules wants to flee with Giselle or whoever the fuck. Decides to do so, but first casts a giant wall of fuck-you. Fallen Hero, the Defiler,
and other smallfry are on the other side. Freya picks up Rowen and returns to behind the wall. Everyone's behind the wall. Black fire / wall of death.
20ft tall, deadly. Jules is fearless, which isn't always a good thing. Swoops through the wall of fire. Survives, endures, keeps concentration. Goes
to Gale. Tries to untie her (rope bonds). By accident, he cuts himself? Too enthusiastic I guess. Manages to free her. Fight ensues. Rowen circles back
around. Fallen Hero is going at Asbjorn. Rowen tries to help, looking for the perfect moment/helping others. Fighting with the head, not the heart.
Fight is raging on. Shit's tense. Asbjorn with a Guiding Bolt, uppercuts the fuck out of Fallen Hero with guidance from Rowen. How the times change.
All the mooks were decimated with his previous Channel Divinity. Duel of the Fates is playing now. They keep fighting. He pulls out his twinblade Staff.
He's been playing Dark Souls 2, and he's Darth Maul. The Defiler attacks Asbjorn and Rowen with it, misses Rowen, but hits Asbjorn. As it hits him,
he steals vitality from him and heals up his own wounds. Rowen knows what to do. Sigmund goes into to restrain. Freya gets advantage and she slams
the fuck out of him. Massive DPS. The Defiler is experiencing painful Cock and Ball Torture. Rowen yeets the Defiler's Twinblade. Defiler is sad
that his bullies took his toy away from him. He dips, Misty Steps out my guy. Appears to the altar, casts Circle of Death. Jules is fleeing with
Gale, casts a spell. Everyone takes 33 damage.

Everyone but Rowen and Sigmund is knocked unconscious. Jules shields Gale with his body before getting knocked out. It is them and the Defiler now.
Now, remember. They've been training together for quite a while. Sigmund references this, saying this is the moment they've been waiting for. They go in.
Sigmund trips him over, succeeds. Rowen capitalises. Hits one, misses the other. Does damage. 4 hp on Rowen. Not sure about Sigmund. They fight. Their
attacks are not enough. The Defiler stands up, with his Legendary Actions tries to attack them both. Rowen is too late in his impose disadvantage, as
the dice is already rolled.  S N A K E  E Y E S. THEY DOUBLE RIPOSTE. THEY'RE GIVEN ADVANTAGE ON THEIR ATTACK.

"How do you want to do this?"

Bruce speaks for them both. Says Sigmund who go in for his gut, and try to cut him in twine. Directs Rowen to slide through his neck in a sudden, double-
slash. With the force, the Defiler is practically ripped and thrown to other side. Necrotic energy leaves his body and flies up to the roof. Everything's
going to fuck. Place is fucked. Debris falling. Mountain rumbling. They try to grab everyone and dip. Can't do much for their wounds. Gale is alive.
Sigmund goes back for Freya, and wakes up the others. Apparently Karl picks up Asbjorn. I roll a natural 20 on my death saving throw. As always, I'm a
badass, even when I'm not here. We have everyone, except Kola. Everyone's rolling pretty good. Music's settling in. Emotion's are boiling. Rolls are
falling short, as we attempt to escape. It is not going well. I am not doing well. We manage to make it out, I particular JUST make it. Diving out of the
passage just as it closes.

We see Rowen holding Jules, seeing if he's okay. He's on Death's Door. One more moment later, his final breath leaves him. He dies? Rowen breaks, and begs.
Pleads to the Gods. As nothing seems to be happening. Jules is lowered to the ground. Rowen is so convinced to make a sacrifice, attempts to offer himself.
I wake Asbjorn. Sigmund's trying to console/control Rowen. Asbjorn, prays to all the Gods for Jules. Singing praises of him, and that if there is any
cause for the Gods to rally around, it is for them to save this heroic man, and this his courage demands resurrection. Though it seems nothing came of it,
he goes into a trance-like state. Sees a cloud-filled platform, and standing atop is an ethereal image of Jules. They have their final words. He says,
reciting a poem, "Do not cry at my grave, for I am always there. Memories that come to comfort you, I am the moment of courage you have in battle."
Paraphased, flowery metaphors of how he shall always be there, and that he shouldn't cry for him. Jules has become very curious of religion over religion.
At the end says, "So, this is where we go after all. I was a fool all along." He says a scale, dark manifestations of all his bad thoughts, actions, things
he's brought into the world, counter-balanced by a light of everything good he's ever done, or given him reason to pass on to the heavens of the Saxons.
The scales tip to the darkness, but a light of hope bursts into the scales and pushes it toward the heaven. The prayers of his comrades. Or maybe the Gods
hearing them themself. Maybe not for resurrection, but for a peaceful afterlife. The weight falls, and he manages to pass the pearly white gates, and he's
allowed to pass into the halls of champions.