Gigi and Norbith wake up once again in their respective beds in town. They have few memories of the night before but terrible hangovers. Norbith plays a prank on Burga that causes her to wet the bed. They meet up with the party near the well again and Norbith posits that iron is often used to break magic. While no one can verify this no one has a better idea either and they take a couple of iron hoops from one of Johnny's empty wine barrels out with them at nightfall.
Hori and Chantrix tie Norbith and Gigi to two separate trees. They then loop the iron around them to see what happens. Voola uses her druid form to turn into a dog and see what happens in town when the sun goes down.
In town - Voola watches the sunset and then, as though a switch was flipped, the town begins to attack each other. However, they ignore Voola in her dog form. She goes back to the rest of the party after verifying that one - everyone is dying - and two - they don't care about animals.
Back in the trees the, Hori and Chantrix are sheltering up a nearby tree. When the sunsets, Gigi flexes and breaks the ropes holding her to the tree, only stopped by the iron which begins to emit a high pitched shrieking noises. Chantrix leaps gracefully from the tree, runs over, and twists the iron in the back which stops Gigi from escaping although she continues to struggle.
Norbith also began to escape his bonds, the iron around his waist falling to his feet as he struggles out of them. Hori falls out of the tree exactly as gracefully as a cat isn't and manages to get to Norbith in time to grab the iron and trap his ankles. Norbith is not pleased, spitting and snarling and cursing in Doridal dwarvish. Chantrix and Hori together manage to wrestle the iron up onto his chest and twist it tight. The sounds gets louder as they do.
Hori pokes at Norbith with a stick. Unsurprisingly, Norbith grabs it and begins trying to swing it at Hori and Chantrix. When Voole returns the three take turns sleeping far enough away to not be bothered by the noise until sunrise when Voola returns in time to see the townspeople's corpses disappear.
Encouraged that the iron seemed to do something, the party spends the next day finding more iron and making a cover for the thing in the well. Voola goes down to check on the thing to see if she can see anything different but it makes her so nauseous she can't get close. Hori agree to lower Norbith down and Voola goes as well, riding as a lizard in Norbith's pocket. Despite the lizard vomit on his shoulder, Norbith managed to put the cover over the sigil in one mighty hammer blow. There is a loud noise, a feeling of pressure on Norbith, and Voola changes back into her full form. After some scrambling, Voola turns back into a lizard and Hori pulls Norbith and her out. They reach the top and congratulate each other on doing.... well... something.
There's a crack of lightning and a figure appears in front of them. Its shape seems to constantly change but it is vaguely reptilian with sharp teeth and red glowing eyes. The creature admonishes them for disturbing its magic and tells the party they need to undo what they have done. Chantrix and Hori both attempt to attack the creature but are very unsuccessful.
That night, the party repeats the previous day. Nothing much has changed except that the loud noise that was coming from the iron around Gigi and Norbith now seems to be coming from everywhere at once and is utterly deafening. The villagers do not seem to notice. No one gets any rest.
Gig and Norbith compare notes that the sky in their dreams was bright and rainbow-like, like the surface of a washing bubble. Hori suggest that they try the cover again, this time while the town is in its rage state. Voola will wait at the top of the well in dog-form, Hori will lower Chantrix down with the new cover, and then Hori will wait outside the village where she can still see but will hopefully go unnoticed.
The sun sets.
Chantrix pulls the old cover from the sigil in one hard yank, pocketing it quickly despite the fact that it seems to warm and writher in her hand. She place the new cover and hammers it into place. There is a loud noise again and the rocks on the fall in front of her begin to cave in. One strikes Chantrix and she begins to try to scramble up out of the well.
Voola watches both Chantrix and the villagers. After the hammer blow every villager drops to the ground motionless. Voola returns to form to help with Chantrix and Hori arrives around the same time to lift her out of the well before the side collapses in on her.
The creature appears again and attacks on it are similarly rebuffed. It chides them again for disturbing its magic before disappearing.
Cautiously, the three approach the town where Norbith has had his face slashed open by Gigi. Both are alive and Voola immediately begins helping Norbith. The rest of the town are not so lucky. The party help who they can but those who were injured before the magic broke do not restore in the morning. Despite their best efforts throughout the next day, 14 people do not survive - including the town Mayor, Harim. Grief-striken, Gigi begins to play a dwarvish dirge, translated to common, about things being for the better and sacrificing yourself.
It does not go over well.
Harim's wife intercepts them before the villagers, slowly gathering pitchforks and torches, can corner the party. She tells them that while they may one day be grateful to be free of the magic, the cost was high and not all of the villagers are grateful now. The party finds Beowyn and Sunna and sneak out of town before they can be lynched.
Days spent in Thunderbliss: 5
Pranks Pulled: 3
Whiskey and Coffees drank: 7
Thunderbliss residents at start: 45
Thunderbliss residents on departure: 31
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DM notes
This was interesting because I had some vague ideas of how to break the magic but left it open for players to think of something clever. When Norbith's player suggested iron it was funny because that's a fey folk legend - but considering the background of magics in this world and the other-worldly v. nature magics - I decided it would do something and I'd decide what when they decided what they were going to do. Seemed like a good compromise.
One of my new toys for these two sessions is snap camera which overlays snapchat filters onto any video stream. My players had no warning and when I showed up using the 'gorgon' filter they lost their shit in a most satisfying way. Lots of "no no no no" and "make it go away."
Got a long post about upgrading my roll20 account coming up. We also have another session tomorrow night.
