Session 3 — Anar the Woodsman

Anar did not step into any circle and did not age. He rolled a 1 trying to close the book, saw something in it, rolled a 19 pulling Puck through the membrane, and then rolled exactly 20 — with Puck's last Bardic Inspiration — to close it. He roped the demon book and put it in his pack. He killed the mimic. He said his name was Steve. He pickpocketed the Grand Priest of Krokulmar on a 27 and learned something no one asked for. He played a thalar. He ended the session shackled in Markos's domain.

Scene 2: The Book and the Membrane

Anar reached for the cover of the lectern book and tried to force it shut. He needed a 20. He rolled a 1. For a fraction of a second the runes flashed and he was somewhere else — a vast dark space, and in it a face made of darkness and tentacles, reaching toward him. He pulled his hands back. He was still in the room. The book was still open.

Puck's hand was through the bubble membrane. Anar grabbed it. Both rolled Strength with advantage — Anar hit 19, Puck rolled a natural 20. Puck came through fast, skin visibly stretching as the membrane let go. The boots stayed behind.

Scene 3: The Close

Puck's dagger missed the book on a 3. The bubbles were shrinking. Puck gave Anar his last Bardic Inspiration die — D6 — and said: "My Lord, help me get my friends out." Anar rolled 19 plus 1 Strength modifier plus the D6. Exactly 20. The book closed. The bubbles vanished. Penelope and Orimene stepped off their circles; Puck — already pulled through earlier with Anar's help — was simply free of the ritual at this point too. All three had aged roughly ten years. Anar, who had never entered a circle, was unchanged.

Scenes 3–4: The Demon Book

Anar roped the closed book before anyone asked him to. The cover material was not right — not deer, not cow, not anything he had ever skinned or tracked or hunted. He tied it tight, put it in his pack, and called it the demon book. He would have liked to burn it but noted this was not the time.

Scene 4: The Mimic

Penelope had sat with the mimic and determined it was exhausted and afraid. She had pulled the curtain rod free and the mimic had stayed still. Then Anar came through from the kitchen and killed it. Penelope noted the contrast.

Scene 6: Two Steves

Anar's Stealth was 22 but a floorboard squeaked. A cultist opened the curtain: "Excuse me, can I help you?" Anar said he was Steve. Puck stepped out and said he was also Steve. The cultist handed them pamphlets. Anar's instinct not to disrobe — "I'm too shy" — was accepted without question. They were inside.

Scenes 6–7: The Ritual and the Thalar

While Puck played Pip off-key, Anar chanted out of rhythm. Then he pulled out a thalar — a kazoo-like instrument nobody at the table knew he was proficient with — and joined the cult chant. The ritual continued around them. No one stopped them.

Scene 7: The Pickpocket

The Grand Priest of Krokulmar stepped toward the side door. Anar brushed past him and picked his pocket on a 27. He took 3 points of static damage from the contact and learned, empirically, that the priest wore nothing beneath his robe. The priest identified himself by title, interrupted by the shock.

Scenes 8–9: Mass Suggestion and the Lead

The priest cast Mass Suggestion — the compulsion was to grovel. Anar failed, went prone. He rerolled with Fey Ancestry advantage and succeeded on the second roll. He stayed close to Puck. When Puck followed up immediately with Suggestion from Zala's spellbook and the priest failed, Anar was named in the compulsion: "Take me and my friend to Marcos." The priest had two acolyte/guards shackle Anar and Puck and lead them downstairs; the priest himself remained in the ritual room.

Scenes 11–12: Markos's Domain

The spiral staircase opened into two dome caves joined by a twelve-foot archway. Markos stood in it, reading the Codex aloud in Deep Speech, tentacles growing larger from him with each phrase. Puck's Command had no effect. Anar arrived shackled, carrying the demon book, into a room with a headless armored figure, four Far Realm crystals, two guards, and no visible exit. The session ended there.