A Trip Down Memory Lane
On April 28, 2017, Mako, Decasus, DLP, and I brought our level 1 characters to QS’s Vena Summer Festival, where Mu, Brummen, and Jenara first met Ma’neha. Although Ma’neha had to skip town early, the other three finished the hunt for the festival. Several weeks later, for both characters and players, (May 27, 2017) the trio took a hunt that led them to Riddleport, a city of Varisia on Golarion, where they met two others interested in completing the mission: a Samsaran druid named Kerrick and our beloved healer, Arnon Katsu. The day after the disastrous end to Saul’s Pay the Devil His Due event, Rydia introduced Aysel (June 2, 2017). Ma’neha rejoined the party partway through as Mako GMed us through the mystery of the blot, the removal of the crime lord Boss Croat, and the introduction of Dephora, Petrune, and the Drow.
On August 18, 2017, while celebrating their success, the world they’d just saved shattered, and suddenly Mu and Kerrick were slaves because of their magic; Katsu was a truck driver, married with an adorable daughter; Brummen was a confident, flirtatious lieutenant of the Resistance; and Aysel was a pawn of the antagonist. Joining them was another mysterious pawn, a barbarian named Miles. With Decasus as GM, the party worked together with The Doctor to regain the fragments of a Tear of Time, gradually regaining their memories of their original timeline along with their original talents, and eventually being called upon to Embrace Their Destiny, becoming uber versions of themselves in order to overcome Dartalgna and set the timelines to right.
On December 12, 2017, though it was but a blink of the eye in time for the Characters -- difficult though it was to fathom their AR experience as being such -- the party found themselves back in the Gold Goblin, celebrating the recently-saved world, though their experiences in the other reality had left an indelible mark on each of them. Kerrick, especially, having left Kasumi in the alternate reality, felt the need to do some soul-searching, and left the party. Mu and Katsu joined Brummen, who simply wanted Sameritha to work on a hairpin for him, despite the invisible whispers and snickers and diamond lampshades of his friends, before the two retreated to the Goblin’s basement for a secret ritual that seemed to go awry, stealing Saidra into their current timeline.
Around a month later for our characters, on January 19, 2018, the party gleefully headed off to visit Brummen in his hometown of Chanson for the local New Year’s Festival. Quickly waylaid by mischievous freinemies, the party became more keenly aware of the war Brummen had only briefly mentioned from time to time, discovering its oddities but being deterred in their efforts to help. An enjoyable New Years was marred by the arrogant actions of a sorceress several days later, whom the party captured and questioned, gaining the pertinent information the locals needed to finally understand the cause of the war. Although the information was helpful, the party had to leave with the war still ongoing.
Several months passed for the characters, and on June 1, 2018, they regathered at the Gold Goblin, now joined by Ma’neha’s godmother, Chariael’s Zepana, to be petitioned by the Elves for their help with the Drow. On the way to Crying Leaf, on July 20, 2018, the party was devastated when Aysel plane shifted away. Manon became their guide, though she often resented that role and showed great self-control in not maiming or killing any of the party members in her frustrations. With Mako at the GM wheel once again, Armageddon’s Echo was found, the Drow were stopped from their nefarious plans, and Earthfall was prevented yet again.
The party still grieved the loss of Aysel, however, having spent only three weeks helping the Elves, but they didn’t know where to begin in searching for her. Not until Susivni, GMed by Decasus, on March 1, 2019, offered to give some guidance in return for their help discovering the heinous plot behind Ma’neha’s father’s death. They soon discovered that it had been Zepana’s husband, Letan, who had killed Ma’neha’s father, with the aid and direction of fellow followers of Dartalgna. The Kin’Tuk were divided, and the newly-named Kin’Hyphantonar left their traditional homeland.
On May 3, 2019, three days after heading to the Kin’Tuk lands, the party, now armed with at least some information to go on, and joined by Zepana’s teenage son, Kin, began their weeklong search for Aysel, subsequently being led into the Fey Wild and the Fell Night Realm by GM Mako. On June 14, 2019, they came face to face with Count Ranalac the Cruel, who soon surprisingly suffered a broken nose from the impact of a magically powerful fist in his face. The party proceeded to take him down, battling the majority of June 28, 2019, and largely helped by Kin’s mischievous prank coughing dust. With Ranalac dead, the party returned to the Gold Goblin on July 12, 2019, fully intact and with Aysel in their midst once again.
Six months passed for the party, allowing Aysel to heal and recover from her harrowing ordeal in the Fey Wild and Fell Night Realms, though it was only two weeks later for their players, when, on July 26, 2019, QS gave Saidra the ability to return home. Except not. The party arrived in Cordoba to discover that many things were wrong. Over the next several days, joining Nadia and Bakir in the Resistance, the party worked to help uncover the vile wish that had been made that had altered Cordoba’s history. Going from being ambushed during an ambush, to breaking Artaxes out of prison, to saving Saidra from her own grandfather, Rashan, on the Plane of Fire, the party was finally given the key they needed: a fractured Tear of Time that needed to be destroyed at the very place the errant wish had been made. The party swiftly dealt with the heavily-fortified sultan -- twice -- and quickly uncovered the plot behind the war with neighboring Asturia. On March 20, 2020, Cordoba’s history had been set right, the country was at peace with their neighbors once again, and two party members who had grown ever closer, took a ride on a magical carpet through the moonlit night.
A week after seeing Saidra set on the throne of Cordoba once again, the party decided on April 3, 2020, that it’d be good to accompany Brummen as he visited his family once again.
In the last 3 years, we’ve had 10 primary party members, 3 of which were present in all 8 main campaign arcs (2 present in all 9, if you want to count the Vena Festival). We have played together for 90 sessions (including the Vena Festival) before tonight’s begins [May 1, 2020 -- Redeeming the Fallen, Session 3], with over 291 hours of recorded content. Or, if you’d prefer, 12 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes, and 2 seconds worth of recordings -- just for the main arcs for the Heroes of Destiny. That doesn’t include pre-game or post-game fellowship, any of the shorts or one-shots, or any of the time spent on Hangouts between games.
