Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Session 20 opens on a retcon rather than a scene. The party wakes on the same interrupted night that closed session 19 to find a stranger at the coals and two equally real sets of memories: in one, the warlock Steven has always travelled with them; in the other, a young High Elf artificer named Barney always has, and Steven never existed at all ^[1]. This is the in-fiction handling of a real table change: Steven’s player left and a new player joined as Barney Amoran, whom the wary party quizzes, half-accuses of being an imposter, apologises to, and then promptly elects as their decision-maker ^[58], L346, L361). The night is interrupted a second time by an Aurelian Binder patrol (an elite heretic-hunter with a horse-sized hound and two archers) that Father Thomas bluffs past before it breaks off to chase a flash on the horizon, promising “I’ll deal with you later” ^[76], L295). The party abandons its ruined rest, marches north, and at dawn reaches the Eldwythe bridge, where the Aurelian occupation of the town itself has ended even as the border checkpoint still stands ^[10], L553). To cross, they hire on as caravan guards to the merchant Laura Bennett, bound Eldwythe to Umbrafall for fifty gold ^[12]. Two days on the road bring a new metaphysical omen, the failing ley lines (“a brownout in an electrical grid” of the world’s arcane power, first felt in Arcanthys), read by Barney’s gadgetry and tied back to the dying world-dragon behind the Egg quest ^[19], L1140, L1271, L1263), and a night ambush of five ghouls and two ogre zombies driven by a lone, unnamed necromancer who flees when his undead break ^[31], L1613). No one dies; Caelumn burns down three ghouls and Barney punches the head off a fourth with his suit’s stored energy ^[26]. The session ends short of Umbrafall at a mill-pond settlement where a storehouse has been forced and an axe pins a still-twitching severed grey hand to a chopping block ^[29].

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Metadata

• In-game date: 843-04-01 to ~843-04-05 (continuous from s19; dates approximate, pending the DM calendar).
• Locations visited: Aurelian farmland (the s19 camp), the Eldwythe bridge checkpoint, Eldwythe town (teamster’s yard), the Eldwythe-to-Umbrafall road, and an unnamed mill-pond settlement near Umbrafall.
• Major NPCs present: Laura Bennett (merchant employer), the Aurelian Binder and his patrol, and the unnamed lone necromancer with his undead.
• Factions involved: Aurelian forces (the binder corps / Inquisition), the Pure Light (via Father Thomas), and unaffiliated necrotech.
• Sessions referenced (callbacks): s9 (Harvo’s death and Terry’s lost Charisma), s15 (the Egg stolen), s18 (the sky-dragon flash; Mike’s execution), s19 (the abandoned Aurelia raid; the Vel’Kris route; the fey-ambush camp).

Executive Summary

A new player took over the fifth seat, and the DM wrote the change into the world as a dual-memory retcon: the halfling warlock Steven is erased and the High Elf artificer Barney Amoran is installed as though he had always been in the party ^[1], L155). After bluffing an Aurelian Binder patrol and abandoning a twice-interrupted rest, the party marched north and found that the Aurelian occupation of Eldwythe town has ended, though the border checkpoint on the bridge still stands ^[10], L553). They crossed out of Aurelia as hired guards to the merchant Laura Bennett, bound for Umbrafall ^[12], L696). On the road they learned the world’s ley lines are failing, a “brownout” of arcane power tied to the dying world-dragon behind their Egg quest ^[20], L1263, L1271), and survived a night ambush by five ghouls and two ogre zombies under a lone necromancer who fled unidentified ^[31], L1613). No one died. The session ended on a grisly hook at a mill-pond settlement short of Umbrafall ^[29].

Narrative

The session began, unusually, before the story did. After a round of out-of-character table talk (a debate about a different game’s dual-wield ruling, and a recap of s19), the DM picked up exactly where s19 left off: the party had laid back down to finish an interrupted rest, with Father Thomas taking the watch ^[32].

Then their memories changed. All of them woke at once with a spike of pain behind the eyes. By the red coals sat a young High Elf none of them recognised: shaggy black hair, round glasses, a boyish face marked with grease, a welding mask pushed up on his forehead, a leather apron over dirty overalls, metal braces on both forearms with the left larger than the right, and a screwdriver in his hand. As the pain spiked, the memories doubled. In one set, a companion named Steven had travelled with them; in the other, this Barney always had, and no one named Steven had ever existed. Steven’s bedroll and pack were simply gone ^[1]. The DM confirmed the mechanics plainly: two versions of every memory, both equally real, and Steven “has never died” because he was overwritten rather than killed ^[33], L155). Out of character, this was the table change: the player behind Steven had left, and a new player had joined as Barney.

“Every memory now has two versions and both feel just as real.” — Nick (DM), ^[1]

The party did not take it gracefully. They demanded that this magic-denying stranger prove he could cast (they remembered “Steven” firing eldritch beams), Father Thomas threatened Zone of Truth, and Barney, a self-professed sceptic of magic, protested that they were asking a lot of a man who did not believe in it ^[34], L142). When the DM asked the new player how Barney felt about being called an imposter after risking his life for these people who had pulled him “from the wreckage,” Barney’s answer, “It’s heartbreaking,” pulled the party back and prompted Caelumn’s apology ^[35]. Having decided (per their new shared memory) that they badly needed someone good at decisions, the party then elected Barney their leader on the spot.

“We’re giving you the stick, you’re the leader now.” — Terry, ^[8]

The night was not done with them. On Barney’s watch, stoking the dying fire, he spotted a lantern approaching: an Aurelian Binder, an elite heretic-hunter and magic-detector, with a horse-sized mastiff and two archers ^[36], L267). Father Thomas, an Aurelian Pure Light cleric, did the talking to shield his all-caster companions, weaponising the party’s own trauma as proof of loyalty and rolling Deception on a claim that an inquisitor had already given them leave ^[37], L286). The binder, who “outranks you by quite a lot,” was not fooled and pressed him (“Are you lying to me, cleric?”), but before the standoff could resolve, a flash of light lit the distant sky and the patrol broke off to investigate it ^[5], L295). The DM tied the flash to the s18 event: gauged three to four hours away and “oddly reminiscent of what happened on the ocean with that dragon that lit up the sky” ^[7].

“I’ll deal with you later.” — the Aurelian Binder (Nick, DM), ^[6]

Rest ruined, the party marched north through open farmland for the rest of the night and, at sunrise, reached the Eldwythe bridge: white Aurelian banners, canvas awnings, wagon queues, and guards searching carts before the crossing ^[38]. Rather than risk a search, they hired on as guards to a merchant working the freight lane, Laura Bennett, whose lead wagon carried a “guards wanted” board for the Eldwythe-to-Umbrafall run ^[10]. Caelumn closed the deal on a Persuasion check at advantage (22), and Laura, not herself an Aurelian, agreed to vouch for them on her manifest for fifty gold total, food and wagon passage included ^[39], L487). She was blunt about the limit of that protection: it would not survive the guards deciding to open packs ^[40]. It held. Caelumn answered the checkpoint’s heresy question with a technically-true account of the execution they had merely witnessed, and the whole caravan was waved through ^[13].

“I will agree to pay you 25 gold. in total amongst all of you… and I will pay you another 25 gold once we reach [Umbrafall].” — Laura Bennett (Nick, DM), ^[12]

Across the channel, Eldwythe had changed. The Aurelian banners were gone from the town, doors had been replaced, pale squares marked where notices had been torn from the walls, the market was open again, and local wardens (not Aurelian soldiers) stood at the corners and pointedly did not help the soldiers on the bridge ^[10], L553). The occupation of the town had lifted, even as the border checkpoint remained. The DM confirmed the party had “left Aurelia” ^[17]. They rested the day and night in a teamster’s yard, at last completing the long rest they had been denied since s19 ^[41]. Father Thomas gave one of his own rations to a beggar and earned Inspiration, and on his own watch Terry hummed Harvo’s melody, returned his song “to the great tapestry of the world,” and regained a point of Charisma that had been lost since Harvo’s funeral in s9 ^[42], L817).

The road to Umbrafall ran two more days by wagon. Caelumn learned to drive the team; the DM sketched Umbrafall’s grim economy, an environment so poisoned it cannot grow food, so that food and water are premium imports and druids migrate there to sell goodberries ^[15], L681). At noon on the second wagon-day came an omen: for about ten seconds every shadow pointed east before flickering back ^[19]. Barney, reading his gadgetry on a natural-20 Insight, saw the cause: the ley lines are failing. On a later Insight check the DM framed it as “a brownout in an electrical grid,” the main source starting to fail so that magic will act strangely first in cities that rely on it, like Arcanthys ^[20], L1271). Recalling Sevryn’s explanation, Caelumn tied it to the central quest: arcane energy stems from the dying world-dragon, the Egg is meant to hatch a new one, and chromatic dragon hoards are the practical fuel because the Aurelians nearly exterminated the chromatic dragons across the continent, a purge that left the city rendered “Baltharim” destroyed with a new city built atop it ^[21]. Barney’s ley-line detector suggested a possible way to find dragons without waiting on Sevryn’s divination ^[43].

The first travel-night cost the party five gold: on Terry’s watch a small humanoid raided a wagon and fled into the trees, and Terry chose not to raise the alarm ^[44]. The second travel-night brought the session’s only combat. Mid-conversation at the campfire, a branch snapped and five ghouls burst from a ditch while two ogre zombies lumbered onto the road, and behind them stood a lone human watching from the tree line while everyone rolled initiative ^[23]. The controller never acted and never was named. Barney ate the opening critical hit but, as an artificer, retroactively equipped adamantine plate to downgrade it to an ordinary hit and then made his save against the ghoul’s paralysing claws ^[45], L1376). Caelumn became the party’s furnace, melting the first ghoul with an advantaged Chromatic Orb and killing two more over the fight ^[46], L1571, L1648). Father Thomas anchored the defence: Twilight Sanctuary poured ten temporary hit points into every ally each round (and gave the near-blind Terry light to see by), and Turn Undead frightened and incapacitated three of the undead on a DC 14 save ^[47], L1580). He also soaked a natural-20 crit for twelve piercing and ten necrotic on his own temporary hit points ^[48]. Terry bodyguarded Laura behind Blade Song and Mirror Image and took no damage at all. When the surviving ogre zombie broke away, the lurking necromancer vanished into the forest ^[25], and Barney ended the fight in style: energy building from his suit into his glove, he punched the last ghoul’s head clean off ^[26].

“you guys see the energy build from his suit and starts to slowly glow in his glove. He punches the ghoul’s face. As you see it implode into multiple small pieces… it slumps down with no head. And that is the end of initiative.” — Nick (DM), ^[26]

Four ghouls were dead; the fifth ghoul, both ogre zombies, and the necromancer had all fled ^[49]. The party could not pursue. Afterward the DM confirmed the wounds were “just necromancy magic,” and that necromancy, banned in Aurelia, draws necrotechs to the corpse-rich outskirts of Umbrafall ^[50], L1714). Caelumn suspected the attack had been targeted and probed Laura for enemies; Laura offered no lead, framing it as the ordinary robbery that had cost her a shipment before ^[51]. The party finished the interrupted rest and rode on. On the third evening, short of Umbrafall, the road reached a small settlement around a grey mill pond, where a storehouse had been forced open, silver paint ran into northbound wheel tracks, and an axe pinned a still-twitching severed grey hand to a chopping block ^[29]. On that image the session ended, with Barney bookending the night exactly as he had begun it.

“I’ve been here the whole time.” — Barney, ^[30]

Dialogue Highlights

1. Nick (DM), the memory-swap device: “Every memory now has two versions and both feel just as real.” ^[1]
2. Barney, the magic-sceptic asked to prove he casts: “As someone who doesn’t believe in magic You’re kind of asking me to do a lot here” ^[34]
3. Thomas, framing the newcomer as a possible imposter: “if this Bernie character can’t do that same weird shit, then he’s an imposter. and he did something with Stephen.” ^[52]
4. Barney, wounded by the party’s doubt after his rescue from a wreckage: “It’s heartbreaking.” ^[35]
5. Barney, on how he fights: “it’s magic but it’s flavoured very mechanically so wherever I can it’s more of a thing I make on the spot more than like casting anything” ^[53]
6. Barney, the quirk: “I don’t need to rest” (later clarified: only four hours to long rest, so he pulls double watches) ^[54], L790)
7. Thomas, bluffing the binder with the party’s trauma: “I have witnessed these people stand by and watch a companion be executed for heresy without any one of them objecting.” ^[37]
8. The Aurelian Binder (Nick, DM), leaving the threat open: “I’ll deal with you later.” ^[6]
9. Thomas, crediting his own god and warning the party: “whatever just happened, that was a gift from the Everlight. I suggest that we don’t let him or his kind find you again within the borders of Aurelian territory.” ^[55]
10. Laura Bennett (Nick, DM), the limit of her protection: “it will not save you if you give them any reasons to start opening packs.” ^[40]
11. Laura Bennett (Nick, DM), the terms: “25 gold. in total amongst all of you… and I will pay you another 25 gold once we reach [Umbrafall].” ^[12]
12. Caelumn, answering the checkpoint heretic question: “We watched an execution happen in front of us. That was the most recent interaction with a heretic, if you call that an interaction.” ^[13]
13. Terry, electing the newcomer leader: “We’re giving you the stick, you’re the leader now.” ^[8]
14. Caelumn, the running joke and the closing line: “Look, Nick, any new character introduction, don’t make them complicated. We’re fucking stupid.” ^[56]
15. Thomas, his atonement arc regressing at the sight of undead: “maybe maybe maybe Aurelia had it right. I don’t know.” ^[57]
16. Barney, bookending the night: “I’ve been here the whole time.” ^[58], L1777)

NPCs

1. Laura Bennett (new this session): a human travelling merchant running three covered freight wagons, hired the party as guards from Eldwythe to Umbrafall for fifty gold total plus food and passage. Explicitly not Aurelian ^[11]. Businesslike but fair; docked five gold from the party’s pay when Terry let a thief raid a wagon ^[59]. Draught horses Fritz and Ritz; keeps a written manifest. Disposition: neutral-warm employer. Last seen: s20.
2. Aurelian Binder (new this session; personal name unknown, “Bob”/“Jim”/“Bab” are out-of-character table jokes and are not canonical): an elite Aurelian heretic-hunter and magic-detector, described as one of “the Inquisitors’ general attack dogs,” travelling with a horse-sized mastiff and two archers. Outranks a cleric like Father Thomas “by quite a lot” ^[5]. Interrogated the party’s camp, then broke off to investigate the sky-flash, leaving an explicit unfinished threat. Hostile/suspicious. Last seen: s20.
3. The lone necromancer (new this session; unnamed): a lone human who watched the road ambush from the tree line and directed five ghouls and two ogre zombies, then fled into the forest when the undead broke ^[60], L1613). No description obtained (no one rolled to make out features). Affiliation unknown; the DM did not tie him to Aurelia (necromancy is banned there) or to the sky-flash. Status: alive, fled.
4. Steven (retconned out): the halfling warlock is erased from continuity by the dual-memory swap and has zero lines. He “never died,” only ceased to have existed ^[2], L155). Out of character, his player left the table. Status: departed (retconned).
5. Harvo (referenced): the deceased former party member’s melody is the vehicle for Terry’s Charisma restoration ^[18]. Not present.
6. Sevryn (referenced): the quest-giver behind the Egg; his world-dragon exposition is recalled at length ^[21]. Not present.
7. Minor/unnamed: a beggar at the teamster’s yard ^[61], a stray dog and a horned bunny ^[62], L802), the checkpoint clerk and Eldwythe’s local wardens ^[63], L553), and the small-humanoid wagon thief on Terry’s watch ^[44].

Locations

1. Eldwythe bridge (new): the Aurelian border checkpoint at the southern end of a bridge over a large unnamed channel; white banners, canvas awnings, freight lanes, cart searches, and heresy questioning. The party crossed on Laura’s manifest ^[9], L417).
2. Eldwythe (revisited, major change): the Aurelian occupation of the town has lifted, banners gone, notices torn down, market reopened, local wardens installed, though the bridge checkpoint remains Aurelian-held. A clear faction retreat and a visual-upgrade candidate ^[10], L553).
3. Teamster’s yard, Eldwythe (new, minor): where Laura stables the wagons and the party rests ^[64], L628).
4. The Eldwythe-to-Umbrafall road (new, traversed): leaves the town’s western edge, bends northwest, farmland into woods, occupation relics along the way, and biogloom near the Umbrafall end; robbery-prone ^[65], L1120, L1757).
5. Mill-pond settlement near Umbrafall (new, session-end hook; unnamed): a small settlement around a grey mill pond, its storehouse forced open, silver paint into northbound wheel tracks, and a twitching severed grey hand pinned to a chopping block ^[29].
6. Umbrafall (referenced): destination; poisoned environment, food and water a premium import, a goodberry-druid economy, and a necrotech hub ^[15], L681, L1714).
7. Referenced route/lore: Mirestrand, Velkris, Aurelia, Vhal’Zarim (rendered “Valsarim” this session, Caelumn’s home city, a religious city said to mirror Aurelia), and Baltharim (a city destroyed in the Aurelian chromatic-dragon purge, spelling unconfirmed) ^[66], L754, L1263).

Items & Loot

1. Barney’s power suit (artificer Armorer armour): stores and re-emits kinetic energy; blocks blows, delivers a Thunder Pulse gauntlet strike (1d8 thunder, imposing disadvantage on the target’s other attacks), and channels the fight-ending decapitating punch ^[67], L1485, L1666).
2. Adamantine plate (Barney, new): selected mid-combat as an artificer item; turns critical hits into normal hits; usable without the Strength requirement via the Armorer feature ^[45], L1359).
3. Barney’s magical screwdriver: a reconfigurable multi-tool that becomes a wand he casts through (Ray of Frost as “solid ice cubes”) ^[68].
4. Barney’s ley-line detector (gizmo plus glowing left bracer): reads ley-line activity; the left bracer dims as the lines fail ^[20], L1251). His most plot-relevant device.
5. Escort payment: 50 gold total for the party (25 up front, 25 on arrival at Umbrafall), split party-wide, food and wagon travel included ^[12]. Five gold later docked for the wagon theft, charged to Terry; Terry also handed Laura ten gold to “buy out” his share ^[59], L1083).
6. Terry’s Charisma restoration: humming Harvo’s melody returns one point of the Charisma lost at Harvo’s s9 funeral ^[18].
7. Father Thomas’s staff (work in progress): he carves runes with woodcarver’s tools, but they are inert until he obtains magical ink (a gold-cost component); the work reads as heretical and he hides it ^[69], L769).
8. Cargo (Laura’s, not party loot): preserved food, lamp oil, farming tools, and empty containers, all premium in poisoned Umbrafall ^[70].

Currency: party +0 net on-screen (the first 25 gold is agreed but not shown changing hands); Terry -10 gold to Laura; the second instalment reduced by ~5 gold for the theft.

Combat Encounters

Road ambush toward Umbrafall ^[71]. Party at start: full strength, second travel-night camp; party at end: no downs, no deaths, rest completed.

• Monsters faced: 5 ghouls (published Ghoul chassis, AC 12, HP ~22, CR 1, paralysing claws on a Con save; the DM added a homebrew necrotic rider to their bites), 2 ogre zombies (published Ogre Zombie, AC 8, HP ~85, CR 2), and 1 unnamed human necromancer as an off-screen controller who never rolled initiative.
• Notable rolls: Terry natural-20 initiative (no effect) and a lost 21-tie on Dexterity to Father Thomas; a ghoul crit on Barney negated by adamantine plate; Caelumn’s Chromatic Orb rolling two 8s to hop targets; an ogre’s forced Wisdom save coming up a natural 1 against Barney’s Sanctuary; a ghoul natural-20 crit on Father Thomas (12 piercing + 10 necrotic); Terry’s scimitar crit for 9; Barney’s “20” killing blow.
• To-hit against party: the undead landed only two meaningful bites all fight (Caelumn 7+4, Father Thomas 12+10 on the crit); Terry took zero (Mirror Image), Barney took ~3 (crit negated).
• Party resources: Caelumn (Innate Sorcery, Chromatic Orb x2, Quickened Firebolt, Create Bonfire, Shield); Father Thomas (Twilight Sanctuary each round, Turn Undead, Booming Blade, Shillelagh); Barney (Thunder Pulse, Ray of Frost, Sanctuary, adamantine plate); Terry (Blade Song, Mirror Image, scimitar).
• Kills: Caelumn 3 ghouls ^[46], L1571, L1648), Barney 1 ghoul (the suit-punch, ^[26]. Terry and Father Thomas landed hits but no on-screen kills.
• Resolution: 4 ghouls dead; 1 ghoul, both ogre zombies, and the necromancer fled ^[25], L1668). Milestone advancement, no loot (undead carried none).

Two non-combat set pieces bracket the fight: the Aurelian binder patrol at the camp (Deception, Insight, and a failed History check, resolved by the external sky-flash, ^[72] and the Eldwythe checkpoint (Augury for a Weal-and-Woe omen, Insight 18, Persuasion-at-advantage 22, and the guard interrogation, ^[73].

Clues & Foreshadowing

1. The sky-flash the binder left to investigate, “oddly reminiscent” of the s18 dragon that lit the sky, ~3-4 hours off ^[7].
2. The failing ley lines: shadows all pointing east for ten seconds, Barney’s dimming bracer, the “brownout” framing, and the naming of Arcanthys as where the signs show first ^[19], L1140, L1271).
3. The world-dragon exposition tying the Egg quest to the arcane decline, and the claim that the Aurelians nearly wiped out the chromatic dragons alongside the destruction of Baltharim ^[21].
4. The severed hand still twitching at the mill-pond storehouse, silver paint into northbound wheel tracks: undead or necrotech activity right on Umbrafall’s doorstep ^[29].

Open Mysteries & Unanswered Questions

1. What rewrote reality to replace Steven with Barney? The dual-memory swap is presented in-world with the cause left entirely unexplained; every proposed explanation (magical interference, a parallel universe, timelines “out of sync”) is player theory only ^[1], L347). Possibly linked to the reality-glitch of the failing ley lines, but that link is not stated.
2. Who and what is Barney Amoran? A High Elf artificer who denies believing in magic yet plainly casts it, claims he does not need to rest (probably elf Trance), and was pulled by the party “from the wreckage,” an event no one has explained ^[34], L178, L334).
3. Who was the lone necromancer, and was the ambush targeted? Caelumn read it as a targeted hit; Laura framed it as ordinary road robbery; the DM confirmed neither, and the figure fled unseen ^[25], L1736).
4. The sky-flash and the failing ley lines: separate threads this session, neither yet connected to the other or to the necromancer.

Quests

1. [Status: active] Escort Laura Bennett to Umbrafall: guard her three wagons from Eldwythe to Umbrafall for 50 gold total plus food and passage; 25 owed on arrival (less ~5 for the theft). Nearly complete at session’s end ^[12].
2. [Status: active] Redeem the forged ledger at Velkris: unchanged; the route runs Eldwythe to Umbrafall to Mirestrand to Vel’Kris. The ledger is Hugo’s hook and stalls in his absence ^[66].
3. [Status: active] The Egg and the world-dragon: the party is not returning to Aurelia for now; Barney’s ley-line detector is floated as a way to locate dragon hoards without waiting on Sevryn ^[43].
4. [Status: dormant] Update Sevryn at Gloamhearth: still on the itinerary, not advanced this session.

Faction & Relationship Changes

• Aurelia retreats from Eldwythe town while holding the border bridge, a visible loosening of the occupation ^[10], L553).
• The party leaves Aurelian territory and gains a non-Aurelian patron in Laura Bennett ^[12], L696).
• A binder marks the party: an elite Aurelian heretic-hunter left with an explicit, unfinished threat against them ^[6].
• Barney Amoran joins and is made decision-maker, replacing Steven in the roster ^[8].
• Father Thomas’s atonement wavers: exposure to undead pushes him back toward Aurelian anti-magic conviction ^[57].

Table Rulings

1. Eloquence Bard is a standing subclass ban in Nick’s games; Twilight Cleric is not ^[27]. The one clear DM house rule this session.
2. Twilight Sanctuary temporary hit points were run at 1d6+4, rolled once per round for pace ^[47], consistent with the s19 table procedure.
3. Not a Nick ruling: the “cannot dual-wield two identical weapons” complaint that opens the transcript is about a different game’s DM and is out-of-character table talk ^[74]. The Crusher “knock straight up” question is an unsettled dispute, not a ruling made this session ^[75].

Callbacks

• s9: Harvo’s death and Terry’s lost Charisma, restored here by returning Harvo’s melody ^[18].
• s15: the Egg, stolen and central to the world-dragon quest ^[21].
• s18: the sky-dragon flash, echoed by the horizon flash the binder chased ^[7]; the party’s witnessed execution, reused twice as cover ^[37], L550).
• s19: the abandoned Aurelia raid and the Vel’Kris route ^[66]; the fey-ambush camp this session opens on.

Next Steps

Reach Umbrafall with Laura Bennett (collect the remaining pay), then continue toward Mirestrand and Velkris to redeem the forged ledger. Investigate the mill-pond settlement’s forced storehouse and the severed hand at the road’s edge ^[29]. Learn more from Barney’s ley-line detector about the failing lines and any dragon it can point them toward.

References

1. ^ Session 20, line 94 — The dual-memory cold open: the party wakes with two equally real memory sets; Steven is gone, Barney has always been there.
2. ^ Session 20, line 96 — DM states Steven was a halfling.
3. ^ Session 20, line 155 — DM states Steven never died; he was overwritten, not killed.
4. ^ Session 20, line 267-285 — The Aurelian binder patrol: an elite fighter and magic detector, "the Inquisitors general attack dogs," with a horse-sized mastiff and two archers.
5. ^ Session 20, line 280 — The binder outranks Father Thomas "by quite a lot".
6. ^ Session 20, line 295 — The binder breaks off to investigate a flash in the sky: "I'll deal with you later".
7. ^ Session 20, line 327 — The sky-flash gauged ~3-4 hours away and "oddly reminiscent" of the s18 dragon that lit up the sky.
8. ^ Session 20, line 361 — Barney is elected the party's decision-maker: "We're giving you the stick, you're the leader now".
9. ^ Session 20, line 374 — Dawn arrival at the Eldwythe bridge; white Aurelian banners, canvas awnings, freight lanes, cart inspections; road onward leaves northwest toward Umbrafall.
10. ^ Session 20, line 417 — The Aurelian banner is gone from the town of Eldwythe itself; Laura Bennett's guards-wanted board on the lead wagon.
11. ^ Session 20, line 470 — Laura Bennett is confirmed NOT from Aurelia.
12. ^ Session 20, line 487 — The escort deal: 50 gold total (25 up front, 25 on arrival), split party-wide, food and wagon travel included.
13. ^ Session 20, line 550 — Caelumn passes the checkpoint heretic question by citing the execution the party merely witnessed.
14. ^ Session 20, line 553 — Eldwythe post-occupation: replaced doors, pale squares where Aurelian notices were torn down, market reopened, local wardens at the corners.
15. ^ Session 20, line 677 — Umbrafall lore: the environment is poison, it cannot grow food, so food and water are a premium import.
16. ^ Session 20, line 681 — Druids reportedly migrate to Umbrafall to sell goodberries.
17. ^ Session 20, line 696 — DM confirms the party has left Aurelia.
18. ^ Session 20, line 817 — On watch, Terry hums Harvo's melody and regains a point of Charisma.
19. ^ Session 20, line 1120 — The noon ley-line glitch: every shadow points east for ten seconds; spore-masked traders on the road toward Umbrafall.
20. ^ Session 20, line 1140 — Barney's gadget reads flickering ley lines: the event is a symptom of the ley lines slowly failing.
21. ^ Session 20, line 1263 — World-dragon lore: arcane energy stems from the dying world dragon; the Egg needs chromatic hoard power; the Aurelians nearly wiped out chromatic dragons, destroying Baltharim.
22. ^ Session 20, line 1271 — The ley-line failure framed as a "brownout in an electrical grid," first noticed in Arcanthys.
23. ^ Session 20, line 1305-1309 — The road ambush begins: five ghouls burst from a ditch, two ogre zombies lumber onto the road, a lone human watches from the trees.
24. ^ Session 20, line 1580-1585 — Father Thomas Turn Undead, DC 14 Wisdom; three undead frightened and incapacitated.
25. ^ Session 20, line 1613 — The lone necromancer vanishes into the forest as his undead break.
26. ^ Session 20, line 1666 — Barney's suit-energy punch decapitates the last ghoul: "the energy build from his suit... he punches the ghoul's face... slumps down with no head. And that is the end of initiative".
27. ^ Session 20, line 1690 — DM house rule: Eloquence Bard is banned; Twilight Cleric is not.
28. ^ Session 20, line 1714 — Necromancy is banned in Aurelia; necrotechs cluster around Umbrafall for cheap materials and corpses.
29. ^ Session 20, line 1757 — Session-end hook: a mill-pond settlement, a forced storehouse, silver paint into northbound wheel tracks, an axe pinning a still-twitching severed grey hand to a chopping block.
30. ^ Session 20, line 1777 — Bookend: Barney repeats "I've been here the whole time".
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