(This may not make a lot of sense, as it is the description of an encounter multiple sessions in to the campaign, but I am going to try to write up each session going forward. This takes place as three new players…and their characters…are introduced to the campaign)
The party of four observed an odd lightning storm, no clouds, no thunder, just lightning coming down out of the sky, out over the sea from the promontory. The odd lightning storm erupted into a planar rift which threw a bunch of trees and mud out into the shallow sea off of the promontory on which the party stood. A human man, a fox-woman came through along with a girl on a T-Rex and landed prone near each other in the shallow water. It was not clear whether they were together, or merely happened to get caught up in events at the same time. The human man stood up and dragged the fox-woman to shore, while the T-Rex with the girl stood up and turned back towards the rift. At the same time as the others were thrown through the rift a halfling man was as well. The halfling landed a hundred feet or so from the others. While those thrown into the water were getting their bearings, a gigantic slime in humanoid form came through the rift, followed by a tarrasque.
In addition to the original party on the top of the promontory, there were two groups of Lizardfolk on the sides of the promontory watching events taking place at sea. Initially, the halfling headed towards shore in the direction where the others had landed in the water. However, when he saw the T-Rex he decided that splitting the difference between the Lizardfolk groups was the best course this was also the closest place to get out of the water. Unfortunately, this spot was a steep cliff face and he was not able to get far enough up the cliff before a large wave rolled in and swept him back into the sea (which aside from the intermittent large waves was shallow enough for him to stand). The wave washed one of the trees which had been thrown through the rift against the cliff face. So, the halfling climbed the tree to get higher on the cliff face. This allowed him to get far enough up to keep his grip on the cliff face when the next wave struck.
Meanwhile the giant slime humanoid and the tarrasque began to fight in what initially seemed a n evenly matched fight. When the human male (Randor) got to shore, the fax-woman(Aniu) was able to get up and walk. These two began moving inland away from the tarrasque and towards higher ground. Meanwhile, the original party began moving towards them (at the time they began moving the halfling was heading towards those two and they lost sight of him). When the original party met up with Randor and Aniu they made greetings and moved towards higher ground. One member of the party saw that the halfling was trying to climb the cliff and went to the top of the promontory to see how he could assist him. The rest of the party, which now included Randor and Aniu, joined him there.
Side NOTE: while the rest were heading towards the promontory, the triton member of the party (Slash Ahhh) jumped into the sea and swam out towards the tarrasque fight. Periodically, he would rise to the top of the waves and take crossbow shots at the giant slime humanoid (missing every time). Lizardfolk were observed heading out towards the fight as well. The Lizardfolk threw spears with chains on them into the slime humanoid. Lightning redirected from around the rift to strike the chains and cause the spears to burst within the slime humanoid.
Once the halfling joined them at the top of the promontory, they stood to watch the fight (having observed the Lizardfolk heading out towards the fight and desiring to know what actions they would take when they got there). The T-Rex ran on top of the waves, jumped over the tarrasque and appeared to go through the rift (the party was not sure because they lost sight of the T-Rex when it got to the other side of the tarrasque). After a few more rounds, the tarrasque appeared to mostly defeat the slime humanoid and drew it back through the rift, which closed dramatically behind them. At the same time, a bit of lightning seemed to envelop fox-woman and the halfling, both of whom disappeared (this seemed as if some sort of rift magic had pulled them in).
These two characters are played by players who are not going to be able to be at every session and this represents the mechanism by which the Game Master will introduce and remove them from events when they are unable to make play sessions.
Before the party could get itself organized, the Lizardfolk cut them off from retreat. The Lizardfolk accused the party of spying, but after a bit of tense negotiation the party was able to convince them that their queen would need to decide their fate. So, the party was taken to see the Lizardfolk queen. There the party learned that the Lizardfolk were at war with the Sahuagin (nasty, smelly fish-people, also known as Sea-Devils). The party offered to act as emissaries to Peppermarsh (the nearest land dweller city) to convince Peppermarsh to aid the Lizardfolk. Unfortunately, the queen was unconvinced that the party could accomplish that mission, but made a counter-offer: if the party would deal with a corrupted Great Old One (a giant crocodile of spiritual significance to the Lizardfolk) she would accept that they were not spies for the Sahuagin. The party accepted this mission.
Upon receiving directions from the Lizardfolk, the party headed inland into the swamp towards where the corrupted Great Old One could be found. En route, they came upon three humans who had just sacrificed a Lizardfolk and were conducting a ritual to summon some kind of elemental. The party, having decided that anyone who would sacrifice a humanoid was certainly evil, attacked and killed the three humans. The party took a short breather at that point.
We will take up the story in the next episode.
I initially wrote this up for someone familiar with the campaign who wanted to know what happened. I hope to continue writing up a summary of each session and posting it here. Hopefully, as time goes by it will become easier for those not part of the campaign to follow events.
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When Ezra learned that many of the Returned Exiles had intermarried with the people living in the land, we need to interpret that in terms of yesterday’s passage. Ezra’s response, and that of the rest of the people, was not about those of the Returned Exiles who married those in the land who chose to follow God’s Laws. It was about those who married and allied with those who continued to worship idols and follow other practices contrary to God’s Law. In addition to yesterday’s passage where it stated that everyone who separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors was welcomed to take part in the Passover, we have in today’s passage an indication that resolving who had violated this prohibition was not just a matter of looking at their wives’ parentage. Rather, each case needed to be looked at on an individual basis.
There is another thing in this passage I want to look at. When Ezra came forth and publicly prostrated himself before God because of those among the Returned Exiles who were joining themselves with idolaters, many of the people joined him. This tells us that many people had been concerned about the problem, but no one was willing to step forward and do something about it. I want to be fair here, it takes a special kind of person to mobilize a group to deal with this sort of problem. The lesson we learn here is that we are not alone in being grieved by the sins which are damaging our society. We should take heart from such knowledge. We can also learn that many times it only takes one person willing to stand up to such things to bring about change. When we see sin around us, let us prostrate ourselves before God and ask Him to show us what to do.
