Session 3 — Puck Ever-Hard

Puck spent this session getting pulled through a membrane by his ankles and losing his boots to an aging circle, giving away his last Bardic Inspiration to close a demon book, bluffing a cultist with the name Steve, playing his instrument badly on purpose, getting the Grand Priest of Krokulmar to shackle him and lead him to Markos by Suggestion, and arriving in a lower domain in chains with no clear exit. He aged approximately ten years.

Scene 2: Pulled Through the Membrane

Puck's hand was through the bubble membrane when the situation became critical. Anar grabbed it. Both rolled Strength with advantage — Anar hit 19, Puck rolled a natural 20. Puck came through fast, skin visibly stretching across his face as the membrane released him. His boots did not make it. They walked on their own to the center of the circle and stood there, aging.

Scene 3: The Bardic Inspiration

Puck tried to hit the book with his dagger. He rolled a 3. The bubbles were shrinking. He gave Anar his last Bardic Inspiration die — a 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.

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. They were inside.

Scene 7: The Thalar and the Ritual

In the ritual room, Puck played Pip off-key while Anar chanted out of rhythm. Anar pulled out a thalar — a kazoo-like instrument — and joined the chant. Nobody stopped them. The ritual continued around them.

The Grand Priest of Krokulmar cast Mass Suggestion — the compulsion was to grovel. Puck made the save. He played along well enough (Performance 15) to follow through with Suggestion from Zala's spellbook immediately after: "Take me and my friend to Marcos and leave everybody else here, not chanting. Tell them it's done." The priest failed on a 13. He had two acolyte/guards shackle Puck and Anar and lead them downstairs, while he himself remained in the ritual room.

Scene 11: Markos

The spiral staircase opened into two dome caves joined by a twelve-foot archway. Markos stood in it — regalia headpiece, thousand-yard stare, reading the Codex aloud in Deep Speech, tentacles visibly growing from him with each phrase. Puck cast Command: "Drop." Markos's head turned all the way around, Exorcist-style, to look at him. Then turned back. He kept reading.

Scene 12: Session End

In Markos's domain: a headless figure in full plate armor kneeling at the center of a magic circle, a greatsword across its lap, dry-ice tendrils from the neck hole. Four crystals with Far Realm glimpses inside. Two guards. Puck and Anar shackled. No exit visible. The session ended there.