The Dark Mirror

November 14, 2006

The group arrives back in Hightown late from their mission. Reece is immediately pulled into telling the story at the Inn and is then asked to go to Hackby and tell it there. Victor has several nights of dreams. The first night, it's memories of being with the monks again, helping people against orc and goblin raids. The second night it's the same dreams but this time the orcs and goblins are peasants and Victor has slaughtered them. His fellow monks look on in horror. It seems real but then Victor notices Molmas in the crowd. Eric hangs out with his lady friends but notices that Duece is following him at night. He tries to talk to Duece but can't catch him when he is following him and Duece denies it during the day. Eric is with Brenda when he feels sluggish and realizes he has been poisoned. Just before he passes out, he sees Duece coming into the room with a strange expression on his face.

Duece wakes up, cold and wet. He is lying on the ground of a house he doesn't recognize. As he wakes up and looks around, he realizes the liquid is blood. Eric is unconcious nearby and there is someone else in a heap behind some furniture. The furniture has been shoved to the side and two concentric circles with runes between has been drawn in blood on the ground. Eric wakes up and they find that Brenda is okay as well but cold. No fire and it was quite cold that night. Further, Eric is still sluggish and Brenda won't fully wake up, she is so tired. They have been cut pretty well, probably the source of the blood.

As Duece talks to Eric, Duece thinks they just got back last night from the rescue mission. He has no idea what happened in the two days since. Eric is quite suspicious of him, given what happened, but needs his help. Duece goes to the Inn, looking for Reece, not knowing he is gone, but finds Victor and brings him back to Brenda's. They want to figure out what is happening but Eric is worried about Brenda and doesn't want to leave her alone. They set up for one of the guards to watch her as she is sleeping and go to the Inn.

While at the Inn, Victor and Eric really start questioning Duece, who doesn't have any answers. Suddenly, Duece sees himself looking in the window at Brenda and the guard. He watches as "he" creeps in and kills the guard from behind. Then Duece is back at the Inn. He says what happened and Eric runs off to check on Brenda. She is fine but the guard is dead like Duece described. Eric takes Brenda to the Inn.

A crowd has gathered around them as they talk. Byron shows up and they talk about what to do. Duece again has a vision but this time he is looking at the four of them talking! When he says this, Eric charges into the crowd but doesn't see anyone he doesn't know. And scares them quite good. Byron disperses them, telling them he will tell all later.

Duece tries to see who this is and again gets a vision of the person in a house. However, the person realizes what Duece is doing and not only talks to him, but pulls Duece to him. At the Inn, in a swirl of dark shadows streaked with blood, Duece's body disappears. Eric, Victor, Byron and some guards go looking for him right away. Duece barely realizes what has happened, when he gets hit on the head from behind. He collapses to the ground and just before passing out, sees another person killed.

The others arrive but it is too late for the owner of the house. Duece seems fine but now knows that he has a connection to him. The group uses this to find this thing but Duece is worried about going to him again. Byron gives him a dagger of cold iron, which is supposed to help ground him at a particular point. In the meantime, they have found the thing at another house and it has opened a portal! He steps through it, telling Duece to come with him and shed some blood. The group goes to the house and each of them recognizes Arabel. No one wants to go through, especially with the brands.

Martin contacts them at that moment and then joins them by teleporting to them with magic. He says that he thought he and the ladies they rescued were able to talk Nigel out of doing anything about the group but it was all an act. Nigel gathered some purple dragons and is heading toward them to arrest them. The group explains what has happened so far and while Martin recognizes the shadow magic, isn't sure how it is done. He is a wizard and has learned magic through study, not a sorcerer who knows it intuitively. Duece is not happy that Martin can't tell him more. Further, they aren't sure what to do since the thing went to Arabel and they are still branded.

Martin can offer a potion that will help with the brand. However, if it is magical, it will return after four or five days. The agree so they can get after the thing. Duece managed to shut the portal before and then opens it. They go through and drink the potion, asking Martin to find Reece, which he agrees to do. (He isn't successful.)

They track the thing down, with Duece feeling when it has made a kill. He gets an idea of where to go in Arabel and they set out. The smells, sights and sounds of Arabel feel like home to Eric and Duece. They have enjoyed their time in the country but never realized how much they missed the city. Further, after lightening a few people of their money pouches, Duece is really wondering why he left the city! Victor, never one for cities anyway, doesn't mind being back but has enjoyed learning from the Rangers of the county.

They track the thing down as it was near some children. Eric and Victor lay into it, but their blows are turned away and cause only a small amount of bruising at best. They are hurting it but it should have been shredded by now. Then Duece attacks with the dagger he was given. His first blow gives it a nasty cut and it screams an unearthly scream, scaring every one else out of the area. His second blow finds its heart and it explodes in a blast of hellfire!

They go to Martin's triumphant! As their brands are gone as well, they decide to upgrade their weapons and armor in Arabel, knowing they can walk around freely. Duece lets is slip that he has a gem and that is sold and their money pooled to get some much better equipment. Feeling much better, Martin takes them back to Hightown.

Now there is just the problem of Nigel . . .

Notes

• The first paragraph was something new for me. I pretty much used what I knew of them to set up what had happened to start this adventure. The players did very well!
• I told the group that I really thought about how I wanted to start the adventure. I thought about having Brenda dead but the problem with that was why weren't they killed as well? So, it seemed to make more sense to me that she was alive as well as they were.
• I don't have everyone in the village fleshed out, so that's why I am vague about names of peasants. We usually just used common names as place holders for them. So, it was Bob and George.
• The players asked me the reason for Arabel and I said I wanted to see how they would play their characters as branded and then not branded. It was so interesting! When they were branded, they wanted to chase it but all of them flat out refused to go while branded. As soon as the potion was offered, they said yes and went through! It was quite interesting.
• Martin didn't find Reece because the player couldn't make it that night.
• The slip by Duece about the gem could have been by the player but it fit so well with the character that the player agreed to let it stand. It was quite cool and funny!
• The players were fun to watch with the money. I am using DND prices for the most part and they haven't got much coin, usually getting coppers for Reece's performance. So, in this session, when they get over a hundred gold from everything, it was quite amazing! It was really fun to watch as they tried to maximize their value in what they could buy!