by: Kelsey "Mel" Miranda
Hello friends and good people of the Realms!
I have finally awoken from my food coma and want to tell you about What You Missed and Feast of Blackwood XV!
Friday evening we gathered at the inn in to accompany General Ripley in a raid of the nearby town of Owlhaven. Ork’ne had overrun the town and had opened a portal to the Soul Plain to allow their numbers to pass through to our realm. In order to close the portal, the Arcanum Corp had been working on a lazer that when fired at the portal, will destroy it and seal the way. In order to have it hit the target, we needed to set up the lazer emitter locations. But first, we needed to scope out the town and get the exact coordinates of the portal.
We went in and once again found Ork’ne making piles of the dead and creating their spore mounds to feed on. While some of us tried whittling down their numbers and evacuating citizens, others ran counter strike measures to trap or sabotage the Ork’ne so they would be weaker when we returned the next night.
Just as we got the citizens out, more Ork’ne spawned from the mounds. Swoop, Ryu Four Squig and Griffin rushed a mound and consecrated it as we have before. But this time nothing happened. Swoop then had a vision of being suffocated and tangled in fabric, and was able to deduce someone had captured Death.
We regrouped outside Owlhaven and started toward a makeshift stronghold the Ork’ne made. There we found a wriggling bag suspended in lines running from wall to wall, tangling around the bag. Myself and a few other adventurers untangled these lines to release the bag while the rest of the party defended our location from Ork’ne. At each knot opened we found another and another bag. After many attempts, we were finally able to pull Death from the Bottomless Deep Pocket™. In the past, the Church or Marduath in the region had devised a ritual to put Death in a bag. The Ork’ne had learned of this ritual (likely by consuming a member of the church) and duplicated it. With being held in there for who knows how long while people died and were consumed by Ork’ne, she had some missing and blurry memories. We decided to assist her in regaining the true shape of these memories the following day.
The next morning we regrouped at the inn Ripley was there gathering smaller squads to set up the lazer emitters around Owlhaven and at the spire of Shalindar Keep. I unfortunately missed crawling through glorpy sewers, but potato and Swift filled me in that it was very sticky.
While people were regrouping, Nos and Bones called attention to Nos taking the death knights oath again. Bones slew him to complete the transformation, but instead of raising as a Death Knight, he remained dead. Just as we began investigating where Nos’ soul could have gone, Death’s envoy came in. She said she had some memories to take us into if we were prepared.
She brought us outside to a clearing and we stepped into a memory. There we saw undead closing in on a small village somewhere very snowy and cold. A few of us received visions of a specific family, and saw the memory through their eyes. We began fighting through the undead hoard when one of the “family” was cut down. Time paused as Death cried, “No i dont remember it like that, there has to be something we missed.” In a flash we were back to the beginning of the dream. We repeated this reset a few more times as we tried to figure out what part of the memory was missing. Eventually we were able to discover the path forward; all of the family helped each other make it out alive. The memory faded around us as a demon came barreling towards us. Behind him were 4 worshipers of Marduath hot on his heels. We helped put the demon down, and then asked what was happening. The leader of the quad, Chaz, was trying to subjugate the demon under Marduath’s influence so he would fight alongside them against the Ork’ne threat. The other 3 stared to argue with Chaz as the demon stood back up (regeneration problems). I was unable to hear the ensuing discussion since the demon then ran through a group of giant frogs eating Nixits, and i had to step in and make them spit them out, but it looks like Chaz was successful in getting his demon.
Death rejoined us to being us to another memory, one we were warned has not yet come to pass. We walk into another clearing where we met a much older, more battle worn Torolf. He welcomes us into Valhala, but asks us to assist him before we go up to the banquet hall. Dinosaurs have somehow been able to make it into Valhala, bu they are trying to eat all the souls living out their afterlives. Torolf asked us to help put them to rest by slaying them and burning their bodies. We loaded their ashes into a boat docked on the Unending Seas. Torolf turned to us and said his final farewell. He decided to get into the ship and sail it out on the Unending Sea so they will never see the dawn and rise again to torment the people of Valhala. He did this knowing he too will fade with them, but it was the sacrifice he needed to make, Death lead us away from him as his ship became a speck on the horizon.
After returning from the dream of Valhala, and recovering composure from knowing our dear friend not only made it there but gave it up for our sake, we split the party. Some went with Ripley to work on the lazer while my cohort stayed with Death to sort another memory. We were given a script, some out of order, that we had to use to retell a story of an alchemist who turned out to be King K’s father. We watched in horror as a man so eager to help people that he recklessly caused the death of his old friend the huntsman, and sped up the passing of his own wife with a failed cure potion. The agony of running through the huntsman's death over and over until we found the true ending affected Death the most, as she became more distraught at each repetition. She retreated to recuperate while we went in for dinner.
As we wrapped up dinner, we got news that we have found Nos, and that his soul was sent to Shalindar keep. We went over to the keep but were intercepted by Ripley. She said the time was now to fire the lazer and end the Ork’ne threat. She seemed…off. She was a lot more combative and twitchy than usual, and was really pushing for us to fire the laser as soon as we got in alignment. We prepared to fire, but Ripley aimed the beam into the portal rather than at it. The beam penetrated the vortex and hundreds of burning, screaming Ork’ne poured out. Before the portal flickered out of existence, we saw the scared remains of the soul plain on the other side. Ripley broke into a villain cackle and second chanced away. I heard the screams from the soul plain echoing through my head (thank you mycelium), and thankfully Tulli knocked me out and got me to safety.
We chased Ripley up to Shalindar Keep only for it to be blocked off by several death knights and skeletons. We asked to see Duke Nos, but the Death Knight in White rebuked us, saying we had no business seeking council with a child. It was then we realized we were stuck in a memory loop. We fought through the memory and were able to make it into the keep. We found that the way to the top of the spire was through an arcane lock that used artefacts from Idaris’ history as the keys.
One half of the party went to recover tomes from the old library, where my team went to the great hall. When we reached the banquet hall there was a high table set for dozens of guests, but only two Death Knights were sitting at the two heads of the table. In the center was Dark’s throne, and his crown was waiting on the cushion. They welcomed us to join them in waiting for Dark to return from battle. As we settled in, some kobolds came to serve us, but asked if a few of us could help them cook. Tempest, Jasper and myself went to help them make stew by butchering bears for meat, shaving herbs from a shambling mound, and “encouraging” a lobster to musk in the pot, all while containing a very lively fire elemental. With dinner finished, the kobolds rushed us back to our seats and presented us with the feast. Since we were still in a memory loop, the food was all a little off. Not indelibly so (for me) but just enough to make it an uncomfortable meal.
We regrouped and were able to open the way up the to spire. When we opened the doors, Nos was chained to the wall as death began rending him. We raced across the room but were stopped by skeletons. When Nos hit 50 blows, he was rended. Before we could react, we were reset in the memory loop and running back into the room. We fought again to reach him and broke through, but we couldn’t stop Death from rendering Nos. Swoop started challenging Death the next reset; this happened to K way back, but the man in the chains was Nos, not K. He made Death look at Nos closer. Time stopped as she asked Nos if he is aware of the path he has chosen. Nos agrees, and Death releases her grip. Swoop finished the Death Knight transformation with Nos by raising him through his phylactery.
Next target: get Ripley. We ran up to the final chamber where Ripley had teamed up with ethereal creatures. We fought long and hard, and were able to take her alive. Nos took her to the dungeons to await trial the following morning.
Sunday started very strong with General Ripley’s trial. She was dragged in haughty and argumentative. Bones was sealed in a COP with her and he held her for the trial. Halfway through the cross-examination, in a flash of flame, Ripley collapsed and a dark form flew out and away from her. Ripley began sobbing and apologizing. She had been possessed by an ethereal the whole time and couldn't stop it from destroying part of the soul plain. All she could feel was the hatred and desire for vengeance against the Ork’ne that the creature held. She was lead away to be treated by healers.
As Ripley was ushered away, the first course came out. I have 2 words for you: Cheeseburger Soup. If you didn't have any you really missed out, it was the most delicious thing, and that's even considering it was up against the always incredible and my favorite Hungarian Mushroom soup. I had to stop myself at 3 bowls because I knew I needed to save room for the main course. There were also the crowd favorite Blackwood Meatballs and spinach artichoke cups, as well as a lovely cheese board. During this time we were graced by many wonderful bardics. The theme for the competition was Legacy, and everyone brought such thoughtful stories and songs to share.
For the main course, I had the steak, but was able to share a bite of both the stuffed pepper and the chicken and all three were delicious. My only complaint was that I couldn’t eat more of it. The steak sauce was balanced with the perfect acidity to cut through the natural fatiness of the steak. The stuffing for the chicken was herby and moist and the stuffed pepper had a nice range of textures in the stuffing (corn, dice pepper, rice and beans).
As the main course was wrapping up, court began, and it was quite the court. Here’s the bullet point list of what happened:
Rani/Mackenzie’s engagement
Mathies’ 10th year as Feastocrat for the Feast of Blackwood
Bones making Matiya and Halen Knights of the Steward
Bones making Tulli Knight Commander of the Knights of the Steward
Tulli making Mathies' a Squire of the Steward
Ajax and Varyk’s clan becoming a members of Blackwood
Bones and Haylen getting a scale for Leadership
Vesper's Farewell Speech
Haylen taking Jinx as a petitioner to Kalmdaka and Nation of Blackwood
Bones taking Varyk as a Squire to the Knights of Blackwood
Elizah taking Leo as a Squire to the Knights of Blackwood
Inducting Irri into the Knights of Blackwood
Inducting Jamie/Nos into the KOEF
Afterwards were scrumptious cupcakes: lemon, chocolate cherry and caramel (yes i had all 3 flavors) Adventurers continued talking into the evening and we parted ways as the evening came to a close……
