RB 4-9: The Doleful Grotto & Meeting Drusilla

Mission Report

Fri, Jan 12, 2018 ((Nov 24, 2019))
Party: Jane Irwin (Cael (a little late)), Cyrus Riggs (Sielic), Proud Flame (Aunne), Cadeos (DragoN), Haelra Vayn (Basil (long AFK in the middle))
Absent: Lyndi Fletcher (Aslene) (dealing with CRA political matter)

The team experiments with strategies to overcome the fog of depression in the Doleful Grotto. Working together, they free different shards of Nails from different shades of depression. A vicious giant snake-being called Elende appears and attacks. The team defeats Elende. In order to return to the Cursed Arboretum, they have to push through their L10 Walls. In the clearing with the greenhouse they meet Phoebe Wyrick, who urges them to leave Nails' mind. When they hesitate, "Wyrick" reveals herself to be a blood hag. Battle ensues.

In the Doleful Grotto (Fear)

• Proud is ashen gray as he succumbs to the fog of depression
• DM: > C talks P out his apathy
• DM: > J sends eagle in, it's overcome with apathy
• DM: > Cy creates a longer rope, ties it around J, sends her in
• J calls on Dol'modeen for inspiration
  • Entropy is the natural flow of the multiverse. Living things die. Mountains erupt with violence or else they crumble with erosion. All that rises is eventually washed away. We should not be angry at the natural flow. Decay and renewal are part of the cycle. The fallen dead become fertilizer for new life. Old things must fall to make space for the new. When the cycle proceeds as it should, anger has no purpose.
• Nails (Anger): slapping his face: you're useless
• DM: > J pulls Nails (Anger) from the Grotto
• Jane Irwin: Jane seems- surprised at herself, and might be a bit teary eyed. For, uh, reasons.
• Nails (Guilt): pulling at his hair, dry washing his hands: you should have been smarter and stronger; you shouldn't even be here
• DM: > P uses sarcasm to convince Guilt Nails
• Nails (Hopelessness): head in hands, sighing: you can't win; the evil is too great; too many have already been seduced by the promises of power
• DM: > H tries to persuade Nails (Hopeless)
• DM: > H nat 20 on Persuasion
• Nails (Emptiness): motionless: nothing matters; no fight left in you
• DM: > Cadeos goes in, succumbs, Cyrus helps him shake it off
• Throughout the trips into the Grotto, a voice whispers discouragement, growing steadily louder
• The depression fog reactivates the anxiety Cyrus experienced, when he failed to escape the anxiety tornado
• The team renews Cyrus' energy

Battling Elende

• Elende appears: a towering snake of black water shot through with stars
• Cyrus creates a storm of bullets with Animate Object
• Jane's Giant Eagles tear at Elende
• Draco: I'm discerning a variety of resistances and immunities
• Elende creates a Specter of Depression
• Cyrus' bullet storm gets the killing blow
• The water sloshes back into the pool
• DM: > With the defeat of Elende, the Specter of Depression disappeared back into the water
• DM: > The pool clears up into the reflection of the starry sky, as the storm starts to recede
• The stars denser and different than Earth's night sky
• Draco: > is intrigued by experiencing a human mind in this way

Back to Cursed Arboretum

• Proud hits a wall
• DM: > The Cursed Arboretum is beset by stormwinds
• Proud can vaguely see two humanoid shapes on the far side of the greenhouse
• Blake: The enemy has erected some kind of defense, using your own Unbound Wall. You can overcome it, if you declare your truth.
• Each Raptor passes through the wall by owning their L10 Wall
  • Proud: believe in own self-worth
  • Haelra: getting better at contacting the other side but also pulling back
  • Cyrus: encourage growth instead of command it
  • Cadeos: leave the Four Dragon Paths to focus on serving Bahamut
  • Draco: get formal approval from RA to remain on Earth
  • Jane: commit to a relationship with Dol'modeen
• Cyrus gives a Captain American pose, points at Jane, and says, "I believe in you! You can do this!"

• The storm is clearing up
• Phoebe Wyrick approaches the group
• Glowing white portal
• Wyrick: You have defeated the twin threats of anxiety and depression
• Wyrick: Your friend is healed. You can go home now.
• Team questions her and spreads out
• Wyrick drops a seeming, revealing herself to be a hag, and attacks Proud

Fighting Drusilla

• The hag, Drusilla, summons vines that restrain much of the team, and 3 shadow mastiffs appear from the darkness
• Drusilla heals by using her blood-drinking hair and knocks Proud unconscious
• The shadow mastiffs surround and hurt Jane
• Jane loses concentration and thus her summoned eagles
• Jane protects herself with a Wall of Fire and hurts the mastiffs
• Cyrus heals Proud to consciousness
• Haelra conjures 2 specters
• DM: > Specters are carefully staying above the vines