The Shadows Fall (ooc)

We started our session fighting 9 humanoids who thought we were dangerous. Merrli smoked 6 of them in one go; "These are just guys!" They're basically monster hunter minute men, We wonder if it was okay/moral to kill them. Merrli thinks he actually killed like 7 people in one spell and wonders if he actually is a monster.
Dara rolls an insight check- DM Hannah: "you're not the brains of the operation, but you're also good with instincts" We put hurt people at rest.
How the evergloom effects the emotions at top of mind is the one that takes control. These people were close to becoming sorrowsworn.
 
We all pass evergloom checks. Day passes as normal, but TOO normal. It's hard to keep track. We set up camp, Al is still a moose.
Merrli is staring at the flames
Dara is going over past battle strategies.
Al is trying to make a "lawful" bed
 
Perception check: Merrli Nat 20. Out of the gloom, we see a porcelain face. The Matron's sword, a piece of blade hanging from her neck. w/a raven w/ an emo fringe.
"The servants would like to take you to the Fortress of Memories, to reclaim what has been lost" Eles realizes it's the same voice from her dreams. She greets Eles by name.
The Fortress of Memories is a stronghold for the Raven Queen, she keeps things that are lost, both memories and items. It's kind of a purgatory.
Eles falls to her knees and just starts crying-a release of emotion realizing that this is what she's been taught her whole life.
"You have been through a lot. the Matron appreciates your dedication, even in the face of confusion.
The woman kind of loses her composure. "the things she does kind of suck sometimes" The woman (Leldentha) says she could use a long rest too.
Al starts berating her with questions, and she tells him to calm down.
Eles asks if Manny is in the fortress, but when she messaged him, Eles heard him and some unknown other languages. So we still don't know where he is.
"Are we cool?" Merrli asks. with his "Present state of living" "Are you going to kill me"
Leldentha: " you are an abomination-usually we would, this conversation goes against our ethics.
Something about in communion with the Raven Queen.
 
"Let's start at the beginning"
different Matron sects: Sword, hands, mouth, eyes. The Eyes got a message, mouth is trying to understand it. Merrli is wanted/needed by the Matron. Revising her stance on the undead.
Leldentha looks like an elf, but she's very pale with violet eyes. She's something different.
She shakes Dara's hand. She tells us we all feel fragile. mortal. in a way that she doesn't,
The port of broken dreams is not a place she's heard of. Shadowfell is a bit of a lawless place.
The golden tree blooms a few times every year. The festival of color.
She has a visible reaction to the ring on Merrli's hand. She is surprised. In Shadowfell, memories and items are important. The hands of the matron wears rings themselves. (New gig for Merrli?!?!)
Someone asks if it's disrespectful to wear it? "No, but you may have accepted a role you didn't know about" it may be the reason so many touchstones have found Merrli. There may be a reason you want to gather memories. (OOOHHH, cause he's MISSING his?!) The Matron has words for him.
Dara spars her. I don't really remember how it went, other than someone got a Nat 20, and the other got a 27. A rugby tackle and flip over a shoulder were involved.
 
After a long rest, "The afterlife is complicated" Leldentha draws something on the ground, a kind of dimension door. We get the ravens from our dreams! Flying through Shadowfell, a huge structure appears on the cliffside. "fucking huge" Absolutely dripping with ravens. They drop us at the front courtyard. Another masked figure is waiting for us. Shaved head, long purple robe holding a big tome. This is one of the Matron's mouths-Kindroth.
"We cannot help you in the Fortress of Memories" they just translate for the Matron, the party will take place in trials.
Guidance: one simple direction. Continue straight, do not become distracted. It is a place mortals can be lost in.
We see a statue of the Raven Queen with her hand cupped in front of her, like waiting for an offering.
Eles...without doing literally any of her usual perception or insight checks, puts one of Guatir's feathers into the hands. It falls through, but disappears. It seems to accept the offering and Eles forgets her entire relationship with Guatir. He's just a regular raven to Eles now.
The party wonders how to proceed. Eles walks through the doors to the fortress first, but the doors close behind her. She's in a foyer, it has a feeling of coming home. We wonder if we have to do this individually. It seems like the Raven Queen would have made things more obvious. Eles opens the doors behind her again, and the party sees each other on either side of the doorway, but none of us can travel through.
 
Eles stays put, while the rest of the party examines the statue....it has an inscription "a memory precious, warm and bright the Raven Queen claims the right to keep into her care. Enter here your soul laid bare and trust the matron's watchful care"
Al gives up the lantern
Merrli gives up the tabaxi bracelet
Dara gives up one of her gibbets, the memory of her first battalion.
But then everyone is able to walk though the doors.
 
On the top of the doors? written in raven feathers? "Faith"
Eles casts bless on the party. In front of the party are 2 doors. with Raven skull knockers. One has bark. then an incorporeal Manny appears, looking much older. "I don't have much time, you can come with me," and as if he's talking to other people, "Guys, I made contact" then booming sounds, he looks afraid.
We decide to stay the course, going through the door. looking behind us, the door we walked through says "focus" on it.
 
The lights flicker and the floor falls out from under our feet. Al and Eles fail their saves, Merrli and Dara save. Al and Eles land on a hard surface. They find themselves in a room full of mirrors.
Dara and Merrli are in a room, no, they're on a battlefield. Dara feels more determined and competent, knowing that she knows how to fight. This is the battle where she listened to her father and got a bunch of soldiers killed.
Merrli sees a different battle, a village that he razed, witnessing himself in a feral rampage.
 
Eles sees different versions of herself, all of the times when she could have made different choices....including a "Valley Girl Eles"
Al approaches a mirror, trying to see "a" true self. He reaches out to a mirror and seems to touch flesh. The reflection decomposes, comes back to life as a revenant version of him.
 
Now, at this point, Hannah the player has thought this whole time that the mouth's direction of "keep moving forward" is literal...so it worked out interestingly in rp, that Eles kind of seemed frozen in place, not wanting to interact with the room around her. She just wanted to find a way forward through the room. That in one of the mirrors in front of her was the doorway out...Not that it was a metaphorical "move forward" and Eles's puppet master continues to think far too literally lol.
 
In one of the mirrors, Eles sees a wood elf with a cracked Raven Queen mask. This is a version of Eles that became obsessed with (fire?)
ROLL INITIATIVE.
Dara sees herself riding a dire goat next to her mother, the champion.
Merrli sees the monstrous version of himself. He feels disgusted, like he wasn't really a person.
Revenant Al comes in with fist attacks.
Evil Eles casts spiritual weapon. She speaks to Eles, "So you're going to ignore all of the teachings of the Raven Queen, everything you've been taught. I cast Blight at 5th level. Again, me as Eles's puppet master still don't know what's going on, so I didn't want to go all out.
Meanwhile, she casts Harm for like a bunch of damage. "Those who don't follow the Matron deserves to die, and that includes you"
Normal Eles: "I know what I do is good" "The Matron is what we make her." I lose concentration on Bless.
 
Merrli sends his ghost to evil Merrli, as evil merrli popped back up with 1hp "What am I?" "A hero, once. And unfortunately again" (UGH, OUCH)
Merrli then looks to Dara in her fight "I can't leave Dara alone"
 
Dara's double is yelling at her, "You killed them"
"Maybe it's time I trusted myself more" was this Dara or Eles?
 
Is this Eles to Evil Eles? "It's because I listened and left that you can trust me." "I listened to Her, I listened to people who were not Her as well."
 
Al and Revenant Al: "I will have revenge for dooming me to this existence." "We took a deal"
 
Eles: " I know I am real. I have done good. You are not real. You are something that will..." I can't read my next word oops
Al: "Three unknown specimens landed at my abode. They knew things I didn't know. One of them (is that?) (Made a?) sacrifice and be noble. So make the sacrifice, or I may need to". Al casts spike growth to bring him to his knees. Reaches his hand out to his revenant self and says "please" and his hoof touches his, he remembers. I have disjointed notes from this: deal with Malachar, strange land devoid..."he will come back for you" then the lantern is in his hand
 
"How can we forgive ourselves?" "The easy way is to forget, the goal is to seek the hope that these three individuals have." Our door opens.
 
Meanwhile, with the Battlefield Bitches, Merrli casts shatter. Dara says to her double "You were following orders" something like how I can I not feel at fault, I knew they were bad orders.
They also go through the door. Al and Eles looking beat to fuck, white as sheets. Al had like 17hp, Eles had like 23hp. Dara is crying.
The door behind us spells "reflection"
Lildenth walks into the room. The party passed their trials. It's time to talk to the mouth and eye.
We are in a communing room, black and purple flames. The room is full of shit. We can hear memories as a cacophony.
Al: "I was teaching my niece how to fish" "How long?" Length is difficult in Shadowfell.
The eyes and mouth join- Kindroth and Nyla. Nyla is at the bowl.
 
Merrli goes first. and stays looking in the bowl for a long time. Then Nyla stands up and leaves, comes back after another while.
"The Matron cannot outright break your contract. But the goddess of memory can restore what has been lost. She she wants to give you this. A halberd/spear appears. It shimmers silver with gold accents. The jewels on it are pastel. Details of his death are still hazy. His right hand is not undead and the ring is glowing. "This will act as a blessing from the Raven Queen. If you are in need of a new purpose of finding memories..." I got so excited I didn't write down the end of the quote lol
 
Eles next- looking into the water, she sees her reflection, as a comfort this time. Out of the water, Guatir takes a (glass of water?) (Glass like water?) and puts it into my hand. Nyla and Kindroth leave for A LONG TIME. Long enough for a short rest. Kindroth walks back in, looking kind of frazzled, but trying to hide it. I again, get too excited to really write everything down. "The matron gives us all..." the upshot of which was that I was given a new role from the Raven Queen, the Matron's mirror. "The Matron's mirror shall provide the wisdom for her followers and serve as the mirror for when the Matron needs it most. An example being, trusting Merrli, despite it being against the conventional teachings of the Matron.
 
Dara Next: A skilled warrior and strategist. The Raven Queen gives Dara information about the battle, a book, a piece of knowledge about the demon wars that has been forgotten.
 
Al last: We do not do this very often, but you are resilient and resourceful. On behalf of the Fortress to build a sanctuary. He has a boat, so he gets the choice for rest. "Resting in a refuge seems correct"
"Lawful rampage in the archives" He wants 3 things. 1. A ship 2. 2 helpers. Mr. Bonez and the mother from that family we ran into. and 3. Every night is a full moon"
 
There is then a bright flash and Merrli, Dara and Eles are back on the Material Plane where they first fell into Shadowfell. It's day time?