MAL Ep. 38

Ep. 38 Recap
Note: Unfortunately the recap from this session is somehow missing. I'm not sure it was written due to the player stresses. I can maybe tackle that job later since I have a full recording of the session - I believe.

Ep. 38 Quick Summary from 5-26-2021
The party arrived in the drow city of Ellenun after a series of frustrating encounters in the Underdark wilderness. After sending a message to the drow matriarch Talisha Ken’rae and getting some badly needed sleep, the group spent some time in the Guild of Magic learning about drow society before heading to their midnight meeting with the matriarch. Upon arriving in the nicely appointed waiting room, they noticed a flurry of urgent activity amongst the drow nobles and Aler was contacted via whisper spell by an elven prisoner asking him to save her baby.

Bay & Jon's Interaction: Darkest Before The Dawn
All right, here's Bay being stressed enough to let the shields down a little with Jon on the way to Aler's family vault.

I stuck to NPCs as much as possible but I did have to make Jon and Red speak a bit-- I cribbed lines from your Discord messages, please forgive me if the diction isn't quite right  I'm hoping this can be a springing-off point for the characters to do a bit more RP with each other about the stresses they're under, but at minimum, at least Bay has managed to get a couple of significant misunderstandings between Jon and the other PCs out into the open.

Onwards!

Laura

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=== "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that," said Bay. "I'm pretty sure we're in more danger right where we are, actually."

"What do you mean by that, Bay?" Jon said in a low voice.

"What do you think I mean by it?" Bay folded her arms. "I have a 16 intelligence, Jon. I'm capable of putting Aler's life is a distraction, Nothing that doesn't stop the Invasion and save Piper matters now, and Thrane Do'Ezzen will save Piper if we kill Aler into a single syllogism."

"You are making reckless assumptions," said Jon.

"I am making inferences. Ever since we got to the Underdark, you have been telling me repeatedly that nothing I care about matters, and your actions have spoken the same all the more loudly."

"Because nothing you care about DOES matter," snapped Jon. "Not in THIS context.  All of it can wait. What does it matter if Aler learns about his family now or next year? Who cares if a snake staff sits in a swamp for a few weeks? None of YOU are on a deadline!"

"YES... WE... ARE!" shouted Bay, flinging both her arms out. The strap flew completely off Jon's dragonscale backpack, which bumped to the ground; Vanima Kaimelar bounced out of it and ran in a circle."We are ALL on the SAME fucking deadline! Aler, Zadkiel and Tanya all died in the Invasion in the same vision Piper did. These are the last weeks ANY of us may be spending with the people we care about. Has that even occurred to you?"

Jon was actually silent for a moment. There was a loud POP from inside Tanya's bag. "Oh shit!" she said, fumbling for it. "The champagne!"

"Bay," Zadkiel said quietly. "Piper's going to die at midsummer even if we do defeat the Invasion."

She put her hands to both sides of her face and took a deep breath, trying to calm down without wasting a wand charge. "Not if we kill Chavalk, though... right?"

"Is finding and slaying a demon lord in his stronghold in the Abyss such a walk in the park it would take you a matter of days to do it?" Jon said bitterly. "You brush her life aside as an afterthought. Every one of you but Zadkiel. And then you blame me for not caring enough about yours?"

"We have done nothing of the sort." Bay stood her ground. "Your vision showed Piper being killed by Shyra and Chavalk's army. Ever since then, we have been busting our asses to try and stop that from happening. And to stop Zadkiel from being killed by Threndix. And Tanya by the King of Clocks."

"Yeah, he turns out to actually be kind of nice," said Tanya, still mopping up champagne.

"And Aler from being killed by me," said Bay in a very quiet voice, and turned her back.

The whole pauldron came loose from Adriel's plate armor and went clanging to the rocky ground.

Cartino cleared his throat. "Excuse me, but Jon...  do we need to KILL-kill Chavalk to secure Piper's safety, or would just defeating him during the Invasion be enough?"

"Lochrann said killed dead," Jon said flatly.

"Couldn't you--negotiate with her about that, or something?"

"It's not always that easy with the Elder Fey," contributed Tanya.

"Yeah but Jon has like a +43 or something to his Fey diplomacy checks?"

"Listen," Red finally weighed in."Piper is a valued member of our pack. No more, but no less, important than any of us standing here now. We have never abandoned her, Jon--to the best of our knowledge, we have been gathering allies and intelligence to support her position. If we dropped everything we were doing and sped back to Hastenport right now-- what would you ask us do with those extra hours that would help Piper any more than what we're doing right now?"

"I--I don't--" Jon lowered his hand to his forearm. "Know," he said, like it was hard for him to say. Vanima Kaimelar jumped up onto his leg like she was giving him a hug.