🧔♂️Harald finds himself in a misty void, listening to the distant screams of people dying.
In the real world, 🧌Gronk, 🐰Faefina, and 😎Bori see Harald collapse to the ground. Bori inspects him, and he seems to be asleep. Faefina curls up for a nap. Gronk decides that if everyone is going to sleep, he will too.
Helene, the doppelganger, raises her hand. 'Can I provide some illumination?' she says. Gronk declines, not wanting a nightlight. Bori tries to slap Harald awake, and he starts snoring. Repeated slaps have no further effect.
In the void, Harald feels his cheeks start to sting.
Helene offers to explain what's going on. She says that Harald has been possessed, for some time now, and the demon inside has gorged itself on Harald's sorrow and guilt, and now wants to finish eating him.
For a price, she says, she can expel the demon from him. She wants to keep the one surviving NeoBori alive. Bori checks it, and finds that it's bones never developed as the ritual was cut short. Reaching his hands around it's neck, he puts it out of it's misery with a quick twist. 'Name another price', he says, looking straight at her.
'Very well', she says. 'Next time I ask you to kill someone, you must do so. You needn't succeed, but you cannot do anything but your best.'
Harald,finding himself in a memory, realises that his role in it is to take over. A squadmate says that they're finding these villagers harder to take down than expected. Harald asks if it's necessary, and the soldier says that of course it is - Lady Hillaria demands it. In the back of his mind, he hears a voice telling him to get through it.
The rest of the party, standing around Harald and Helene, experience sudden sharp vertigo, and find themselves in misty voids of their own.
😎Bori sees the NeoBori, fully formed, larger than him, striding towards him with bloodshot eyes and letting out a guttural scream. Facing him, Bori says that he's sorry that his story came to an end, and hugs him.
🧌Gronk sees his mist clear, and finds himself in a city, surrounded by the bodies of his dead friends. Frantically searching his mind for spells to heal them, he feels his magic surge, and he develops an eye in his forehead, and feels a surge of necrotic damage sweeping out from him. His friends wake up, each with an eye in their forehead, and ask him in unison to join them.
🐰Faefina finds herself in a village, perhaps one near where she grew up. She feels necromantic magic seeping out from her and withering and tainting everything around her, and her robes start shifting to a purple colour. She curls up in terror.
Bori, huigging the NeoBori, hears a voice behind him say 'Well - I arrived a little too late - but it seems you didn't need me'. Bori recognises him as Geff. 'Take a look at your friend', Geff says, and Bori, looking closer, sees that the all consuming rage is also subsumed with something else - a thread of some other emotion that might be pulled.
'Try speaking to him', says Geff, and Bori asks if NeoBori comes here often.
NeoBori speaks haltingly. 'I... I... Here... You... But... Not... Me... You... Am?'
Feeling more empathy for Faefina, Bori responds 'Yarr, but one two, but not two, or one'.
Sighing slightly, Geff explains. 'Yes, he is you because he's from you, so he has your rage, but he can be everything you can be, and so can you.' The mist has started to lift, and the void feels somehow more comforting.
'I can't get to Harald quite yet, but follow your heart to Faefina' and we can help her too. Feeling and pressing on his will, Bori finds Faefina curled up, and cannot help her. Geff dissipates the vision, and explains that Faefina can't be helped yet. Bori expresses his will again, searching for Gronk.
Gronk, trying to tell his dead friends that he can help them and bring them back to life. Geff, behind him, explains that these friends belong to the dead, and he has real friends alive in the real world. Geff explains that their deaths are not his fault, and that Harald does need his help.
In Harald's memory, Lady Hillaria rides up to the village, confers with her generals, and declares that she will control the minds in the village to secure her wealth. Pointing at Harald, she tells him to kill the village's mayor and family to end the battle.
Setting off, Harald finds the mayor clutching his wife and children. The man begs for mercy, Harald remembers that in the original memory, he ran away. Harald cuts the ropes binding them, and hears a voice behind him. 'That's not how it happened, but the sentiment is the same.'
Turning around, Harald sees a large woman - the Dread Maiden. 'Have you been waiting for me to summon you to my consort?'
'Yes', Harald replied, and she explains that another is coming for him too. He has a choice, and she explains that he has a choice. Geff appears, with 😎Bori and 🧌Gronk. Geff explains that Harald has been possessed, and that Harald must make effort to expel it. He tells Harald not to feel guilt for what he has done, and to commit to justice from this point onwards. 'Making amends is difficult', says Harald, 'but I want justice and vengeance on those who have caused suffering.' Choosing to wake up, and the Dread maiden declares 'It is done. So it must be', and the party finds themselves together in a featureless void.
There seems to be a 30" area of mist a little way off. It coalesces into a figure of Harald, 5 times larger than Harald. Towering over them, unarmed, shadows writhe within it.
Pointing three fingers at the party, the party feels a ray of malicious intent, hitting Harald for 20Psy.
Harald swings his halberd, hitting once for 20phy.
After some confusion, Geff tells Gronk to hit the big Harald.
Gronk tries mind magic, hitting with Synaptic Static for 30dmg.
Bori, looking closely, realises that this is the possessor demon, and that this is a battle Helene promised to do.
Bori swings five times at the giant demon, hitting three times, for 35 dmg.
The demon, points at Harald, but nothing happens. Pointing another hand at Gronk and Bori, and this one takes. Gronk and Bori take 10 and 20 Psy dmg respectively.
'I will have your mind, Harald. Your soul will be mine', it says.
Swinging his halberd, Harald hits twice, dealing 28dmg.
In an instant, the party finds themselves back in the real world, with the large shadow floating.
Considering his options, Gronk casts Synaptic Static again, dealing 41dmg.
Gronk finds himself surrounded by green flames, and takes 2 fire dmg.
Bori hits twice, for 16dmg and stunning it.
Harald swings, hitting for 44dmg.
Gronk casts ring of fire around it, dealing 26dmg.
Bori swings at the demon in a flurry of uppercuts into the demon. The demon starts to fall backwards, before spiralling into nothing ness and fading away.
Looking around, the party sees that Helene has disappeared, but has left her stash of gold - 130 = behind. Bori finds her tracks, and is set to go after her. He spots as well a bag with a glow coming from it - a bag of holding. Inside are an assortment of magical items.
Following her tracks for an hour, Gronk and Harald realise that they're being followed by something. An elf ranger suddenly appears in the trees, and more elves surround the party almost as if they came into focus.
'Ah', says the one elf. 'Out queen sent us to find you. Come with us.'
Party gets 3750XP ea.
Gronk finds himself