Episode 85

This is Episode 85 of Dice, Camera, Action.

The Party
(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander

(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue

(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard

Izek's Appeal
The group is in the Shadowfell and they don't know what happened to it, or where Miranda went to. Lord Nihil was slain.

Meathook, the undead ogre zombie, is still here. Strix puts a blanket on his head and declares that his new name is Hooky the 3rd. Chris says that Meathook's full name is Meathook Enderavente.

The heroes are cold. There's nothing to salvage in the inn.

The group gets into the carriage. Meathook can pull it, but they need to motivate him to do so. They get Meathook to walk by dangling food in front of him with a stick.

Izek, Strix's brother, is still with the group. Izek is upset because his dolls are gone. Strix begins to argue with him. He takes one of Strix's dolls and throws it out of the cart. Diath retrieves it. Strix explains to Izek that he needs friends.

Izek points out that Diath is a Lorcatha, "The family that tried to destroy us". Izek tells Strix, "You can't be friends with him".

The carriage is stops. Evelyn pins Izek to the ground. She casts zone of truth. The group grills Izek about the Lorcatha s. Are the Lorcatha angel-people?

Izek: "The Lorcatha are a human family."

Izek mentions something called the Ashton Concordance: No Skizziks or Lorcatha can ever be together. No friendship or alliance.

Izek urges Strix to kill him. "If you stay with him, you'll destroy everything. You two can't be together!"

Evelyn: "What do you mean they can't? They are!"

Diath throws Gutter to the ground and points at the sword. "Apparently that's his. Ashton. He's no father of mine."

Izek wants Strix to go to Vallaki and look at Lady Wachter's books. The group could learn more about the Skizziks. Diath points out that they have more pressing issues. They need to stop the Soulmonger.

Paultin makes a snow angel and goes, "Look, it's Diath."

Strix polymorphs Izek into a chicken. Strix tells him she's not leaving the group. She changes him into a spider and the group leaves him behind.

Evelyn's Prayer
15 days pass. Each character (except for Evelyn) loses 5 from their max hit points due to the death curse. Diath is down to 18 hit points!

Each day, Evelyn becomes more distant from the group. She spends quite a bit of time away from them.

One morning, when Evelyn goes off to pray alone, Paultin follows her. He sees her praying out loud.

Evelyn says that she thought she was special. She thought Lathander would bless her with a life mate. And she thought Paultin was hers. She has been tempted by darkness. She's been weak and selfish. She loves Paultin more than she should and it's more than she can handle on her own. She asks Lathander to wash it away and pledges her loyalty to the Morninglord.

Then it starts to rain.

Paultin asks, "Did you really mean all that?" He casually sits next to her. "You put a lot of faith in that god of yours. You should be working for yourself rather than hoping that Santa Claus is going to help."

Paultin asks if she remembers when he tried to kill everyone. Paultin apologizes. He said he wanted the ring of winter.

Paultin explains that he never felt like a contributing member of the waffle crew. He was always dragged along. The others have so much they're good at. Strix is magic, Diath looks he's 18 forever, and Evelyn is the strongest person... really strong. Paultin is just the drunk, the "silent player".

When Paultin saw the ring, he thought he'd finally found a way that he could contribute. He realizes now that the ring led him down a dark path.

The rain makes it look like Evelyn is crying. Evelyn says that she should do her job better and that she's sorry, too.

Paultin says they should never talk about it again.

Meanwhile, Diath tells Strix he's a bit worried to tell her stuff because he's afraid. The ogre zombie farts.

Paultin and Evelyn hug. Paultin looks at you, the viewer, and says, "Chat, you can't rush this stuff."

The Accident
The heroes travel on for a few more days. The air changes quite a bit. They can hear the sound of the ocean.

They realize that Meathook is about to walk them off a cliff!

Strix tries to remember the command word to make him stop. "Spaghetti!" That's the one to make Meathook go faster.

The group rolls saving throws. They rolled bad, except Jared, who got a 34.

Diath gets out, and grabs Simon and pulls him to safety. Paultin holds onto the cliff. Diath pulls him up.

Evelyn plummets over the side. Strix saved herself via flight. She looks for Evelyn through the fog. Evelyn survived the fall. She pulls herself free of the wreckage of the carriage. Meathook is in four pieces. He was impaled through a rock.

The group checks out the beach. All along the coast are wrecks of hundreds of ships. They create a jagged mass impaled on tooth-like shards of stone. The walls of the cliff are white. The beach is black, dark pebbles.

Millions of bones litter the beach.

Strix casts remove curse on Evelyn. It gets rid of the Shadowfell despair. She does the same on Diath.

There's a cave in the stone of the cliffs. The group hopes there's a portal home in there.

Evelyn senses that there are undead on the ships.

Paultin and Diath see, swooping down from high above, a gargantuan raven.

It transforms into thousands of ravens that coalesce into a figure. The Raven Queen. She is in the form of a 6 foot tall human-shaped mound of twigs. A walking nest.

She is speaking in Celestial. Evelyn translates in a very polite manner. "I have come for the chalice and hand".

Evelyn asks, "Which hand, my friend?"

"Your fate has been stolen from you. You no longer need those treasures."

"For what purpose did he need the treasures?"

"Return them to me and I shall reward you. A consolation prize."

Strix is on the ground covering her head in fear.

Paultin hands the hand and the chalice over. Ravens swoop down and snatch the items away.

Suddenly, the Raven Queen goes from 40 feet away to 5 feet away. She's right in Paultin's face.

"Is there something I can give you? I know what you want."

Simon, the evil little golem, suddenly has a human mouth. End of session.