We’re inside a demi-plane linked to a deck of cards found inside a room, that can only be accessed by drinking a liquid that makes you gaseous, which can only be entered through a portal in a golem’s chest, which in turn resides through a hallway guarded by a magically-summoned beast that re-sets each time it’s destroyed, inside the same pyramid, on a planet, reached through a portal activated with blood from the two-that-are-one, on an asteroid that is the eye of the Dragon Constellation, in a crystal sphere known only as the Shadowsphere. With me so far?

About a quarter-of-the-way in there is where I died. A trap that forced the heart to beat with it killed me, then brought me back to life. I don’t remember anything from when I was dead. No bright light, no drifting fog, no angels or devils or anything… just nothing.

So, Kenari retrieved the Harrow Deck from a room in the pyramid of the Four Kings. The deck itself transported us to the Harrowing, the land created by Sonaray, the bard. She split the demiplane off from Dream, and she based it off her stories. That’s about all I know of it, but the cards can be played here to affect certain outcomes.

Moments into arriving, we got into it with these creepy bird people in creepy clown costumes. Word of Wisdom wanted to try to find a way to get us all out of this place, so he tried some fancy Pshychoportation and disappeared in a swirl of cards, only to be replaced by a scruffy-looking gunslinger cowboy with a hard-on for justice. He follows Murlynd, and his name is Melchior. I will miss my psionic friend. May his travels lead him somewhere safe.

All is not well, here. Sonaray was murdered by the Conspirators. There are ten in all. Local legend has it that to defeat the Head Conspirator, you must gather 6 of 9 tokens that are left behind of Sonaray to lead you to the Striding Fortress, where the Head Conspirator, Cesarian (a dragon, why is it always a dragon?) reigns. So far we’ve beaten Bernaditi, the Rakshaza, in charge of the Midnight Circus and gained a garnet, and Brambleson of the Briar Patch, whom I have dueled and won the emerald pendant. Tonight we camp in the clearing that follows Brambleson around, and wait for him to return, so that Melchior can question him further and administer Justice for his part in slaying the Bard.

We got into a heated debate about whether or not we COULD technically kill the bunny, as all the conspirators are merely characters in a story trying to be REAL, and seem to be in a fixed loop. He still won’t budge, though. And I thought I was a hard-ass stickler for the rules. I have absolutely NOTHING on him. His sense of Justice is a hard one. With lots of owies. I feel sorry for the rabbit. I wonder why he didn’t insist on punishing the Rakshaza.