Nate had been too busy in the past week to check the archive of last week's D&D stream to find out what went down. What with filming the FNaF Musical with Random Encounters and working on his own stuff, he was going back blind. The session began and Nate immediately noticed that something was wrong with Jared. The way the man sat, how he kept glancing at the musician uneasily, it put him ill at ease.
"Right then," Chris Perkins began the session, his usual 'I know something you don't' smile and unsettling cheer. The tone seemed to disturb everyone more than usual, even Anna was clearly uncomfortable and both her and Holly kept glancing at Jared. "Welcome back to Dice Camera Action, last week our party, minus Paultin who was passed out drunk in the Blue Water Inn, got into some major confrontations and, well, let's just say things went less than great."
Holly, or Strix Nate supposed, scoffed, "I found out my aunt is a Strahd supporter and Diath freaking DIED! I'd say things went less than swell!!"
Nate was taken aback by this; Diath was dead? Then what was Jared doing here? "Wait, WHAT?"
Jared, Diath, smiled sadly at him. "Yeah, remember the gallows before Sehr Pool? Well that was a premonition... Izak, Strix's brother, had me hanged to prove a point."
It was then that Nate fell fully into character as Paultin, from the wide eyes and fear-filled voice to the little whisper in his head. "No..."
Chris began the session properly now; describing the atmosphere in the Inn.
Nate spoke shakily, "I... I get up from my bench and look around the tavern and notice Diath, Strix and Dee are missing and I look at Evelyn like "Dude, the fuck? Where is everyone?""
Anna smiled sympathetically, also fully in character. "Oh Paultin, you're up. Oh, um, y'see we had a run-in with Strix's brother while you were out and Strix ran off and Diath got arrested and taken to the stocks and Izak is gonna get him now before kicking us outta town."
Paultin gave the paladin a withering look, "You really think this Izsak dude can be trusted? I mean he's kiinda half demon."
"Well that's a little racist there Paultin, Strix is a teifling too you know."
"I don't care. I'm gonna," he gets up properly, "I'm gonna get outta here and go get him." Paultin ran out the main door, crashing into a bunch of guards. Naturally he entered combat but he used a double move to get out, heading for the square at top speed, the whispers telling him 'You were warned. You shouldn't have been away. You could have saved him.'
The bard ignored the whispers as he ran, pushing past guards and civilians until he reached the square.
Jared could see something wrong with Nate. While Anna was busy having Evelyn trying to catch Paultin, he was eyeing Nate and Holly, and it was clear Nate was troubled. "Nate?"
Chris was describing the square to Nate, "As you enter the square, you see a group of about 5 sets of stocks, all but the centre one are occupied by people wearing ceramic donkey heads and you see a small crowd around the far end. "
"I'm gonna rush over and see what the commotion is about, pushing past the crowds if I have to."
Chris smiled wickedly, "Okay then. When you get through the crowd you do, indeed, see what drew the attention. It's a gallows, and there is a body hanging from the rope. A limp and lifeless body that you don't need to roll perception to tell is Diath. From the crowd, it's obvious that he was just killed and you can see a hint of an emotion you can't recognize just yet etched into his dead face."
Paultin's eyes widen and a strangled cry of fear is torn from him. "Diath! No!"
Jared was worried now, he could see that Nate was shaking slightly, he;d never seen the musician as anything other than happy-go-lucky. "Nate, are you okay man?"
"I clamber up onto the scaffold and take out a knife, cutting Diath's body down and tearing away the rope. Also if it's possible, I'd like to see if I can try to revive him through like CPR or something."
Another smile and a chuckle now from Chris, he was clearly enjoying Nate and Paultin's shared suffering. "The guards don't try and stop you, in fact they stand by and let you. Laughing a little at your distress. When you get Diath's body down, you can see that the expression still clinging to his face is one of regret and you an still feel the last vestiges of warmth in his corpse. Also as he's already deceased, the only way to save him is with a resurrection spell which, as a bard, you don't have."
Even Anna and Holly notice Nate's distress now. They can see the musician is clearly panicked to an extreme degree by this concept of Diath's death.
As Nate struggles for words, Anna and Chris have an exchange that puts Evelyn in the square with Paultin and Anna points out Nate's state to their DM.
Chris tilts his head, his tone worried now. Now that he looks properly, this is more than just Nathan being in character. "Nathan? Nathan is everything okay?"
Nate's dark eyes stood out shockingly in his now white as a sheet face as he looked at Chris as if seeing him for the first time. "Y-yeah. I just feel a bit... ill. I gotta... go." He stands from his desk chair unsteadily and staggered from the room. as he left he could faintly hear the others debate about whether to halt the stream for now.
He stumbled into his bathroom and hunched over the toilet, vomiting. He couldn't get the image out of his head; the image of Jared, at the end of a rope. One of his good friends, dead because of him. He knew this wasn't real, that it was just a game, but that image wouldn't go away. And neither would the whispers.
"It's all your fault~"