D&D, MotW, Skyrim, and other RPG nonsense

-We lost two players due to real world Drama, which in turn led to the DM having to decide how to handle their in-campaign characters

-The unhinged PC-turned-NPC became a turncoat who sold the soul of the other PC-To-NPC to Raphael, like she'd been threatening to for weeks, leaving his warforged body a soulless husk that only responds to direct commands

-Then she got kidnapped by the assassins guild

-This was all mid-mission, so the leaders of the resistance were understandably confused/pissed when we returned

-One of the leaders, Cuma, a druid my PC Daecan respects highly because of his skills, loyalty and willingness to rescue a bunch of perfect strangers, got pissed at Daecan and blamed her for coddling the unhinged NPC/frankly enabling her, and left for a mission while leaving a bunch of animals keeping a close eye on Daecan

-then we had basically a beach episode session where we celebrated Founders Day with the townsfolk and participated in a concert, where the bard and an NPC Daecan was developing a crush on (a halfling mage named Cora) put on an amazing show while Daecan dance-fought for the crowd

-everybody was congratulating us afterward and it was pretty rad

-then Daecan got a letter the next day from her contact Xander in the village the group helped save, saying that he wanted the group to come help with talks to settle how to rebuild the mining town (Xander is a doddering old halfling monk, Daecan is fond of him and he's taken a shine to her and the DM basically said he kinda adopted her after the last time they met lol)

-so Daecan, the warforged robot, and Lester head for the mining town and do some light diplomacy, which was funny as hell considering that Daecan is a socially awkward monk and Lester is a self-important, very loud bard. Anyway, they decide on a plan and agree to support the resistance, which means we now have another town to add to the roster.

-on our way back to homebase, 2 days out from home, we see airships and giant constructs from the enemy kingdom and realize they're heading toward the resistance base, so we use the sending stone on the warforged to notify the resistance and make double time, trying our best to get back

-everything is on fire. when we enter the base, the level 20 leaders are running out at us, screaming at us to run, being pursued by a huge undead orc, and when we get outside, we hear Cora on the sending stone, thanking us for the awesome time she had at the concert, before she blows up the entire base

-Daecan. Is. Devastated. The leaders who are present get her and Lester up and run with them to the nearby town gates, where more people are injured and dead. And then an airship drops one of the Big Bads, who calls out the main resistance leader, Vincent, to play.

-knockdown drag out fight, paladin vs. oath breaker, time starts slowing for everyone but them, the local armed force finally shows up, THE Big Bad shows up and fights with the resistance's best tinkerer (Grylla, and yes, we've made the jokes dw), then calls off his people and they run off while one of the resistance leaders, an aasimar named Sarah, heals a bunch of us.

-BUT. Before they run off. Two of the big bads showed up together, and who should appear behind them but the former PC, smirking and saying "I told you I knew where the base was." And then one of the big bads immediately killed her to tie up loose ends, with the DM admitting he found it a hard choice between giving us the chance to face her down later and following what the BBs would actually do.

-So now we're losing our minds. Our base is demolished, the resistance is disgraced, we've lost a lot of good people, and now we have to figure out how to move forward. Vincent looks at us, and he's like, "we have to split up. That's the only way we can keep surviving and growing. You two, you're promoted, you take the new town and build up a base of operations there."

-Lester protests but we knew this was coming bc we were putting in a guild-like system (hard to play a robust game with only 2 PCs), so Vincent insists. And so we head back to the mining town.

-Along the way, close to the mining town we find a halfling who informs us that the leaders all poisoned each other before making the final vote is a bizarre, comedic fashion. Lester and Daecan are flabbergasted, and when they get to town (after a truly crazy detour to deal with a tree creature dealing cookies) they investigate.

-unfortunately, Sherlock and Watson we are not (couldn't roll above a 10 to save our lives apparently) and we don't find anything. The guy who shows us in to the meeting place goes, "welp, this town is now Y'ALL'S problem, have fun" and walks out, which...somehow convinces Lester that he's king ("and you're queen! ...but not like that, ew. No offense Daecan." "-_-")

-we left off with Daecan figuring out where to lay the bodies to rest and returning to find Lester being bowed to as King. She grappled him but couldn't make him shut up, and he managed to get 3 volunteers to do the burials.