The Atracidae arrive, tensions come to a head, and characters are forced to analyze where their priorities truly lie.
Characters Interacted With
Donovan: Defended himself against The Atracidae’s attack. Status unknown after this session.
The Atracidae: Invaded the arena and attempted to capture Donovan and his plant constructs. Were fought off successfully.
Louisa Donaurkos: Part of The Atracidae, attacked Donovan.
Mei: Arrived to try and stop Donovan from hurting Louisa and persuade him to call off his plant construct program.
Other Characters Mentioned: None
Locations
- Shengdu Colosseum
Session Overview
The session picked up where the last ended, with the party in the midst of combat with Donovan’s plant constructs. Despite several party members being grappled by the constructs’ tentacle attacks, and Brooks even being downed, they eventually triumphed over Donovan’s creations, to the applause of the government officials and scientists watching the event.
The party watched as a clean-up crew came in to sweep up the plant construct’s parts, and the government officials and scientists discussed with Donovan. They seemed pleased with the second combat demonstration, and encouraged Donovan to join them in a meeting. Donovan told them that he’ll catch up to them later, and waved goodbye as they all funneled out.
The party remained suspicious that The Atracidae would still appear. Fanna went up to Donovan to try and warn him, but Donovan seemed reluctant to give them attention, giving quick, one-word answers. Thien, suspicious of the cleaning crew, walked up to a member and interrogated them. He also realized that Donovan was keeping his eyes and ears open for any suspicious activity too, hence him appearing distracted to Fanna. The cleaning crew person acted defensive, and another walked up to Thien to see what was going on. Eventually, a few “cleaning crew” members walked up to the doors and fiddled with them, prompting the guards’ attention. The disguised Atracidae members finally revealed themselves, knocking out the guards, and more members ran in through the entrances.
A few Atracidae members set up near the edge of the arena, carrying spell materials and attempting to cast a major spell of some kind. They were guarded by a fellow Atracidae member who casted Wall of Stone to surround them, and another member Wild Shaped into a bear.
Two Atracidae members neared Donovan, telling him to come with them. Donovan asked them who they were, to which they warned him that he had no choice in the matter. Donovan coldly armed himself in response, and combat began.
Thien unloaded the Conjure Barrage he had been holding towards the druids near him, then promptly started aiming crossbow bolts. Fanna tried pleading with Donovan to let the party help him, but when Fanna let slip that they worked with The Atracidae, Donovan immediately turned on Fanna with his gun. The other party members quickly cut in to explain themselves, and Donovan decided to focus on The Atracidae members for now.
As crossbow bolts and bullets flew, the party overheard some of The Atracidae members shouting to each other in Druidic, asking where Mei was. After recognizing her voice, Amanti realized for certain that one of the druids was his long lost wife, Louisa.
Meanwhile, the druids swiped at Donovan, attempting to petrify him with Flesh to Stone, and accompanying Giant Spiders tried restraining him with their webbing. A ranger got off a couple good shots on Donovan, injuring him, but he was healed by the party.
Amanti used a Wall of Fire to smoke out The Atracidae members that had set up the unknown ritual, causing one of them to drop the Wall of Stone and focus on countering the party and attacking Donovan instead. The party once again pleaded with Donovan to come with them, and he protested that he couldn’t leave the plant constructs behind. Only when Brooks suggested taking the plant constructs with them did he seem to start considering the party’s offer, and Fanna tasked themselves with trying to carry a construct with them in a Bag of Holding.
Slowly but steadily, the party downed some of The Atracidae. Louisa managed to get off a successful Flesh to Stone on Donovan, but Fanna successfully Counterspelled it, inciting her ire. Brooks, with his expert aiming, downed Louisa, sending her tumbling to the floor. The remaining Atracidae members decided to retreat now that their commander was downed. Donovan, meanwhile, eyed Louisa ambitiously, and strode toward her with a gleam in his eye.
Amanti’s blood went cold as he feared what Donovan would do. While the remaining Atracidae members were felled or started running, he scrambled to stand in front of Louisa and stop Donovan. As the party questioned what he was doing, he was finally forced to admit that he recognized her, and that she was his wife whom he thought he had lost long ago. Ripping off the mask that concealed her face revealed this as fact.
Amanti continued, telling Donovan that he would not let him harm his wife. Donovan brushed him off coldly, telling him to move out of the way, saying that if he didn’t end this now, they’d keep coming back for him. This infuriated Amanti, and he launched into a tirade against Donovan, saying he was stubborn and an idiot for refusing help, and clearly did not have the situation under control and needed their help.
By the time Amanti was finished, Donovan was seething. He glowered at Amanti and Louisa, shaking with rage, and his body faintly glowed as vines started growing out from under his clothes and snaking toward Louisa. As this happened, the flame of his Spirit grew bright for all to see, and the party realized that something was off with his Spirit: It wasn’t warm like fire, but cold. Before Donovan did something irreversible, the party desperately shouted at him to change his mind. He paused briefly, seeming conflicted. Then, a voice shouted out for Donovan to stop, and Mei ran into the arena. Donovan turned around to see who the voice was, and froze in shock upon seeing it was Mei.
Donovan asked her what she was doing here, and Mei emotionally replied that she came to stop him from doing something she’d regret. Donovan told her that this wasn’t her business. Mei appealed to Donovan’s emotions, saying how she knew creating war machines for the government wasn’t what he truly wanted to do in his life, and that it wasn’t too late to back out of the deal. As Donovan seemed to consider Mei’s words, Fanna revived Louisa back to consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around, before they quickly widened with surprise upon seeing Amanti standing near her.
The party chimed in after Mei’s words, telling Donovan that he seemed like an intelligent man who could use his talents for better, and Thien saying that Donovan could serve as a good role model for kids in Nam. As Louisa gained her strength back, however, she started shouting for Mei to make her move and do what they had planned. When Donovan processed these words, he spun back on Mei and asked if she was with Louisa. Mei was forced to admit she was, and Donovan grew hostile once again, narrowing his eyes and bitterly saying how Mei had lied to him once again. Meanwhile, Louisa tried casting a spell behind her back at Donovan, but Fanna Counterspelled it.
Donovan turned around, mind set on Louisa once again. Thien tried to step in between the two to block them, but Donovan and Louisa lunged at each other. The party merely saw a blur, then the sounds of a spell going off and a gunshot. Louisa fell to the ground with a gunshot in her stomach, and Donovan with a knife in his chest.
Thien knocked Louisa out again, and Fanna cast Hold Person on Donovan. As Amanti pulled the knife out and healed him, Fanna tied up Louisa. While the party debated on taking the two to the Eastern Shengdu Temple to talk things out, Donovan glared at the party with hatred in his eyes for Hold Person-ing him. Mei, after some thought, told the party that if they promised to keep Donovan safe, that she could take Louisa and try to talk to her. The party agreed to her deal, but not before demanding that Louisa meet with them the next day to talk—Louisa did have a lot of catching up to do with Amanti and Nadyn, after all. As Louisa regained consciousness once again, she was gagged to prevent her from yelling anymore, and Fanna warned her to not be a deadbeat mother to Nadyn.
Mei and Louisa left, and Fanna released the Hold Person on Donovan. As Donovan lay on the ground gasping for air, Fanna sat down crisscrossed next to him and tried talking to him. Donovan, however, shakily starting getting to his feet, covered in sweat and mumbling to himself. As the party listened in, they realized to their horror that Donovan was madly ranting about how he’d “kill them all” and “have them strung up by their entrails.” He then started limping slowly toward the door. Fanna tried getting in his path and continued trying to talk to him, but Donovan doggedly limped around them. Fanna and the party collectively decided that they needed to let Donovan cool down, and stopped pursuing him.
Fanna collected the rest of the plant construct parts, and the party decided to make their leave from the crime scene. As they exited the Shengdu Colosseum, they caught a glance of the anti-plant construct protesters once again. The protesters suddenly started condensing on a specific point, that being where Donovan was limping out of the colosseum. They surrounded him and increased the intensity of their shouts and chants, until Donovan finally snapped, turned around, screamed at them to “fuck off,” and held his gun up threateningly. This stunned the protesters into silence, and the session ended with the haggard Donovan continuing on his way.
Key Learnings
- Something was off about Donovan’s Spirit: The flame inside him was cold, not warm.
Items Of Importance
- None