WoDaD Session 40

== Title ==
Out of the Frying Pan
== Recap ==
Maria gets healed up while Amros tries to figure out how to leave this starry black void. He calls his Nightmare, but the door on the wagon won't open or even appear. Luckily, Melody reappears and says she can guide the party back to the Material Plane with their help. The party is suspicious of her since she mentions having history with Morgana, so she confesses that she's Amros' aunt; her brother, Harmony, is his father (eventually). Amros is incredulous but they need help escaping so they accept her aid. With Amros, Bran, and Thelo lending her their magic, Melody guides the Nightmare out of the void, through the Planar Fog, and into the Material Plane. 
Arriving in Mallharc, the party finds the town alight with a comfortable flame. The townspeople are all eerily calm despite the burning, including one Farryn Fo, whom Thelo rushes to. When the ghostly kid approaches, he is similarly overcome with an oxymoronically intense calming effect. Farryn, his twin brother, starts to lead him into town; the rest of the party, from outside the town, recognize how bad this could be. Bran plays a countercharm while Maria summons a Big Dog to fetch Thelo and Amros rushes in to grab Farryn. 
Taking a moment to think about Maria's condition (with Yorsog's moral support), Bran recalls that breaking a deal with a powerful Fey can doom you - and killing the Fey you made a deal with can leave you further cursed. With how powerful Morgana was, it might take even a Wish to undoom Maria. That, or they can make a deal with another powerful entity, such as Ulurslef who conveniently owes Thelo a favor in exchange for Morgana's pinky. Ulurslef said they'd meet Thelo in town, so the party needs to sort out Mallharc first. 
When Maria helps Bran investigate the Font affecting the town, her Ill-fated condition leaves her open to said effect and she starts moseying into town. Thelo and Amros try to stop her but end up losing their grip suddenly enough that she falls and hits her head. Meanwhile, Bran gleams that his countercharm should protect them from the calming magic so long as he continuously plays it. He also realizes that this Font is probably connected to Boldrei, the long-missing goddess of community and the hearth, of fire and family. With that information, Amros pieces together that this is a Rift to the Everhearth, where Boldrei once resided. It's clearly corrupted, feeding on people and their feelings of family, but if they can "remind" the Font what true community looks like, it may resolve. 
With Bran playing his countercharm, the party makes their way into town. They pass burning people who snap out of it when they hear his song. When they reach the center of town, where Maria realizes the Font is taking the form of the town's center tree, they see the Everchanging Denizen, Ileao, struggling with the Chosen of Boldrei, Elfo, while the old Chosen of Shar, Alex, tries to suck up the flames of the town to keep the collateral low. Thelo recognizes all three - especially Old Man Elfo, his adoptive father who appears to be extra enthralled by the Font. Elfo turns his (and the Font's) attention on Thelo and Maria, who fall into a trance. Bran talks to Ileao and Alex to try and figure out how to solve the situation and Yorsog talks to the tree with magic. The tree tries to get him to join the family. Amros draws the haven door as quickly as he can nearby, hoping the space within the haven will be protected from the Font's calming effects. 
Thelo, in his trance, sees the scene on the beach leading to his death. A woman's voice, presumably Boldrei's, tries to lure him in with promises of staying with his family, of never dying and having to leave them. Thelo seems tempted, especially when Farryn joins the call, but resists and turns down the offer because he can't leave Chi Pin and his friends. Maria sees a vision of a parallel world where her parents survived and she traveled with a jade salamander dragon, meeting a Kalynn who never died and became Chi Pin and a Bran who never had to go to war or lose his family. Boldrei's voice once again offers her a better life, free of suffering and full of love - and Maria refuses it, pained, because she can't leave Bran. 
Back in the real world, Bran sees Thelo and Maria starting to come back to themselves, but it's too slow, too little, too late. He uses his new cogitative Azural Magicka to create a sort of super countercharm, a counterbomb, and speaks to the pair of loved ones. He says that they don't need the fake family, that they are stronger than the charm. He says they are his family. He says to snap out of it.
== Continuity ==
The previous session is WoDaD Session 39. The next session is WoDaD Session 41.
Category:WoDaD
Category:Session