Into the Feywild

Ominous blood smears greeted us upon our entering the Feywild. We did our best to analyze this clue but the blood did not appear to belong to any living creature I had treated before, though closely resembled something humanoid. This trail led us to the sounds of a battle, peeking through the brush, we found a faintly familiar scene. Slaughtered lizardfolk and aberrations reminded us of one of our own adventures not long ago. Naturally I rushed to the aid of the lizfolk with Darren but upon treating the injured soul, I found his blood matched that of the unrecognizable trail leading us to this grim scene. The ailing lizfolk only mumbled something about us missing our mark and pointing us south. Following his lead, we found ourselves in a clearing. By that I meant we found copies of ourselves in a clearing fighting a familiar symbiote throwing not too familiar attacks and obliterating a distracted (not)Justine as Darren tried, unconvincingly, to pass us off as a troupe of 'stunt' doubles, however the damage they sustained over the next few attacks successfully persuaded them to let us intervene. Joz, Jeeng and Darren did most of the work to take down the beast and upon the scene's finale, a tiny figure, calling themselves Sammy, approached to appraise us. They were impressed by our combat abilities and flawless 'costumes' after a thorough inspection and hired us on the spot as the Dark Lord's official stunt doubles. I quickly inquired about the fabled fruit of immortality and sought payment for our services in the form of this, to which Sammy simply replied it would be quite the feat to impress the Dark Lord so completely that he might grant this boon. With that, Sammy whisked us away to our next scene, a gothic horror Penelope remembered as the Slaughter of Ashenvale - our objective, rescue the villagers from demons, enact a repelling ritual and await reinforcements at the cathedral. Since we adopted the role of templar knights, I felt right at home channeling the Silver Flame to fuel more impressive divine smiting than usual (for the benefit of the show) although my athletic performance was not quite up to par and I fell prone to Zariel's general who took full advantage to beat me near bloody. I was able to return the favor with another powerful divine smite before retreating to the cathedral to activate the wards. I had one last task to survey the dark angel to confirm the strange markings Jeeng's buddy Jimmy alluded to and found that someone going by the alias of L had made a contract with this simulation. Sammy congratulated us on a spectacular performance, highlighting how Jeeng and I gave powerful divine energy. Our 3rd scene saw us at the aristocratic event known as the Crimson Wedding where Lady Beatrice was to marry lord Batler. Beatrice's twin sister, the Crimson Countess Lamba sought to sabotage the happy union by planting various traps and infiltrators sent to sew dissent. I investigated the room's decor for traps, finding the statues and entrance rug could transform into potentially hostile guards. Additionally with my medical expertise, I identified a deadly toxin flowed in the central fountain, but only lethal if inhaled. I then whispered my findings to the group to check that we could neutralize these traps, while Darren conferred with Batler to help identify the culprit. Shortly after Penelope and Joz investigated the kitchen, Joz came bounding back to the ballroom with a tapestry on fire in his mouth as a distraction. Gouda, Batler's head chef insisted that we quarantine Joz so I accompany them to the servant's quarters. There I made sure to leave the door unlocked for Joz to move about that wing of the house and accompanied Gouda back into the main hall. I then chatted with Batler to gain further insight into Beatrice's house, including her grandfather, the lord of the estate whom apparently dabbled in bargaining with any magical beings to gain power. After that I asked his permission to inspect the stage at the back of the hall. A winged creature lurked underneath but moved too quickly to see the shape of it. Penny joined me for the on-stage investigation and found a silver symbol, no doubt a component for some demonic ritual. After Jeeng drew the crowd outside for a distraction of epic ground-pounding proportion, Penny, Darren and I lingered behind in hopes of disarming the various traps. However, the majordomo also remained to keep an eye on the house. Thus Darren and Penny invented another ruse to draw him away from the hall down the west wing. With him out of sight Penny and I finally were able to disperse the contaminated water amongst the planters and remove the silver symbol entirely. I then tried to show Penny the creature I'd caught a glimpse of earlier under the stage however all traces of it simply did not exist, leading us to believe it to be summoned. Just as I re-emerged from underneath, the majordomo returned. He stared completely aghast at the missing water from the fountain, immediately suspecting us but we played it cool as they say and he could not find any fault in our alibis. Shortly after, the crowd returned from outside as well and the lord of the manor also paused at the empty fountain. His servant whispered his suspicions in the lord's ear which prompted him to gather Penny, Batler, and I for a private meeting (accusation) in the library. Upon entering, the room appeared to have had a tornado sweep through as everything lay in disarray and only the little lady Lamda, Beatrice's twin, stood coyly in the middle of it all. Suddenly, Darren materialized near the library's entrance apparently having suffered a burn from some kind of doll? In response, Lamda summoned a gaggle of demon girls wielding stakes aimed at Darren who raced toward us to give us the doll with his discovery. He realized damaging the collar on the doll reflected to Lamda herself so he urged us to remove the collar. Penny was able to enlarge and shake off the collar which Battler then also burned himself when trying to pick it up. In that instance, Lamda fell unconscious which triggered Kinzo's ire and fear as he realized things might not go his way and ran to block our escape as he ordered the stake wielders to accost Jeeng. As Darren kept half the demons occupied, Jeeng managed to slip free of the others even as Kinzo continued to throw various poisons and grease his way. Once he managed to escape with Lamda safely (relatively, with Kinzo spryfooted at his heels but posing no actual threat) , I took the opportunity to investigate the collar and removed whatever curse was afflicting Lamda hopefully. Darren and Penny did their best to hold off the demons up til then with a little pick me up from yours truly but took that as a sign to chase after the others. I rushed after the group, hoping that Joz would follow suit. As we all raced down the hall to the grand ballroom, only Battler was able to beat Kinzo to the crowd before he could smear our good name. That gave us enough time for Darren to put together our evidence and state our case, so strongly infact that the Fey watching and directing this scene had to correct the scene to show how things actually played out in the past. And with that we were transported back to the Feywilds where a familiar butler from the previous scene awaited to extend an invitation to a private audience with his master. Renov gave us the rest of the day to refresh ourselves before the ultimate finale. Sammy congratulated us for the recently bestowed honor and invited us to rest at her place which was quite tiny even for Darren and Penny's size so we shrank down to enjoy the hospitalities. After some analysis on the doll, Frankee discovered that Archfey and Demonic magic combined to create the binding magics. This followed the trend we'd seen in the other scenarios up until now. After a peaceful night, Renov came back to lead us to our meeting with the Dark Prince. As we made our way, we passed a troll guarding a garden with trees baring the mythical fruit of eternal life though we could not detour from our destination. Past that, Renov lead us to a cabin, through which we entered one by one into a thick darkness which did not last for as we emerged beyond we found ourselves back in Hearth though not quite as we remembered it. This version of our home had succumbed to the Cave Tribe's destructive ambitions when they loosed the giant upon the realm. The foes also seemed a bit stronger than before, and maybe also a bit more charming and more numerous as more reinforcements showed up throughout the fight. Just as we started turning the tide, Valerie let out a piercing cry down one of the larger holes, as if calling forth more reinforcements. Instead, Jimmy popped up from a smaller hole on the other side of town beckoning us toward him. That would prove rather difficult as the ground beneath us continued shaking and dropping out from under. We barely made it to Jimmy before the king of worms burst from the crater, signaling the end of that encounter as Jimmy transported us to our next. A familiar T-rex greeted us on a battlefield riddled with the corpses of our friends. For a second, I thought Joz hadn't made it when I saw him lying dead with the others but the real one was right behind me all along. Fearing our friends' corpses might be desecrated (used against us) I attempted to prevent this with a solemn prayer. This was not as effective as I'd hope as the rex proceeded to consume and absorb them all the same, healing itself and adding their attacks to its arsenal. It continued to hit hard but so did we and we eventually beat down the beast as we did before. Unlike our previous exit, we could take a breather before delving deeper into the next memory and thankfully so for that rex took a huge bite out of us. Further down the rabbit hole as it were, we landed in a small hall with doors on all sides. Jeeng opened the nearest one and he and Darren inhaled a strange red fog causing them to temporarily rage out. I set out an purifying aura to negate the effect long enough for them to close the door and return to their senses. As Penny began a ritual to decipher the doors' labels, I investigated a door of my own. Inside this tiny room, a similar setting to what Jeeng gleamed before closing the room across the way, I tried to snuff the brazier producing the fog. Blasting it once only thickened the fog so I shifted my focus to the demonic statue. To prevent the fog from potentially spilling out into the hall, I closed the door behind me, and after 2 more blasts of radiant energy, it exploded leaving in its wake a small jewel and a mist serpent of a sort. I danced around the guardian as I went for the jewel but before I could deal the finishing blow, its curse transformed me into a snake as well and was forced to accost my friends. Luckily Darren barely recognized me and killed the misty serpent instead, ending its thrall over me. It took a bit but I was able to convince them that I was myself by spelling it out quite literally with my body language as I was still trapped in my serpentine form. But with this knowledge passed to the group, they were able to retrieve 2 more jewels with little trouble. The forth room presented a bit of unavoidable acidic damage but Jeeng took that for the team to retrieve the final jewel which opened the final door. Owta or a shadow of his awaited in the next chamber with two gorilla guards tethered to more braziers spewing more noxious gas. Needless to say this was another uphill battle. I was still able to provide combat support in my giant snake form tho and Jeeng went directly for Owta so that left the gorillas to us. Luckily as I approached a bloody unconsciousness I remembered I had a hefty healing potion to chug, giving me just enough stamina to grapple the gorillas, allowing the group to swiftly dispatch them after Owta fell. The circle that Owta utilized for is ritual opened into another portal as gas from the previous rooms crept down the hall threatening to consume us so another quick exit was prudent. This led us to the very same cabin we entered upon our arrival in the feywild. Here, Renov ushered us to an audience with the dark prince at last. Surprisingly, a girl resembling Lamda awaited in his company as well, and was kind enough to restore my speech, but unfortunately my transformation amused her too much to be undone. Through conversing with this pair of master manipulators, Darren attempted to change the rules and fundamental nature of their game. He proposed a wager to write the ending of his own story, without direct intervention from the megalomaniacs. As a result, the prince stripped him of his darkness and sent us on our way and if we lost this final battle, we would lose the rest of Darren as well, and to Lamda no worse...