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Session 1
A time, a place, Carcosa
It hit them like a wave, like a dream, like a nightmare. The yellow fog engulfing the world, the screaming wind, the shapes in the mist, the wet street, the leprous walls of crumbling buildings. And the Tatterman, pounding closer and closer from the fog, assailing their sanity, slashing them to ribbons. The blood-covered cobbled street…
They woke up, or at least they thought they did, to the sound of the tortured man calling for help. Chaos followed. A scrambling of the shapeshifter with Mrriaál grappling her, Lorena making the scalpel the shapeshifter held fall to the ground. Claw, grappling, globs of acid being hurled. Chaos. And finally a dead, horrific, shapeshifter reverting to its natural asexual self. The tortured man was now dead. They were hurt. Badly. Tam's magic healed them. Little did they know. It would become obvious soon enough.
Bit had already started to change, it was eating her already. The others didn't know. They would.
No way out from this subterranean series of cells but a vent through a cold furnace and a chute over a mount of dead bodies, ripened beyond their time. They chose the vents leading to a boiler room, where they infringed on the territory of a zoog and its rat companions. Rats in the walls… Mrriaál and the zoog eventually talked and they agreed to leave the creature's territory.
In the hallway beyond, a barricade, warning crossbow shots. Humans at last! But why were they shooting? The humans would not let them through, crossbows ready. Too many shapeshifter. On the barricade, they didn't trust them and forced them away. Words did not help. On the barricade, they were too scared, they had been through too much to take any risk.
Down the dark hallway, rooms buried under rubble, the half collapsed walls of the Briarstone Asylum. Yes, that's where they were now, the Briarstone Asylum, Ustalav, Golarion, another place. Their place for then.
Corpses in the rubble. Asylum patients, doctors, visitors. And shapeshifters. All dead but one that almost fooled them, pretending to be a wounded old nurse. But it didn't. Paranoia has its virtue. But leaves you all alone.
A dead body that animated. Remnant necromantic magic. Haunts. Echo of events to come.
An old laundry room, an undead creature, attached to a wall, eating a corpse that was the only barrier preventing it from eating a crazed asylum patient. "Zandalus sees," he screamed. "Praise!" The undead creature gone, they took no risk. Subdued the crazed man. And moved to the only other door out of the laundry.
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this is my journal because Tam told me if you write things down then you can remember them when you need to and Tam is very wise just like Bit is very smart and Lorena is very small and I need to remember because something is wrong with my memory because I am very very stupid and useless
so I will start with the earliest things I remember
that is being in the cage I was bred by the Mistress she bred me from a half-ogre and a leopard using BAD EVIL MAGIC but I didn't come out the way she wanted so she put me in the cage next to the other failures
and she did the tests which hurt very much to see why I was so bad and I tried to escape sometimes but she always caught me
... that's pretty much everything I remember until what happened today
I guess I should start with the dream
it was a very bad dream
I was in an alley and it was the time when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table and I went through certain half-deserted streets the muttering retreats streets that followed like a tedious argument of insidious intent and there was something pursuing me in the yellow fog
something big
there was something big in the yellow fog that rubbed its back upon the window-panes the yellow smoke that rubbed its muzzle on the window-panes and licked its tongue into the corners of the evening and lingered upon the pools that stand in drains
so I ran away I ran before it could slip by the terrace and make a sudden leap
and the bricks were made of flesh and the streets were rotting beneath me and a voice said "Me" and I thought "Me?" and a voice said "Up" and I thought "Up Me? Me Up?" and the thing in the yellow smoke that slid along the street rubbing its back upon the window-panes was getting closer and closer
and there was no time there was no time for all the works and days of hands
and a voice said "Save" and I thought "Me Up Save? Save Up Me? Up Save Me?" and I thought is that like "Wake Up Save Me"? is this a dream?
and then I woke up
I woke up in a cage so that was normal but MR BEAR WAS GONE
so I screamed and screamed and screamed
and Bit was in the cage with me and Tam was in another cage and Lorena was in a third cage but I couldn't see her and I didn't know their names until later and I can't remember how I got in there it wasn't the same cage as the cage the Mistress kept me in
and outside the cage there was a woman with a knife cutting up a man on the table so that was normal and he was the one screaming "Wake Up" and I was screaming back because MR BEAR WAS GONE
and the woman came over to tell me to stop screaming and she was wearing my face because I guess she could prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet
so I grabbed her through the bars
and Bit walked right through the bars which is pretty neat and she got the key off the woman's belt and let us out and Lorena did something to the woman's knife which made her drop it and I thought oh no I am in here with BAD EVIL WIZARDS
but i thought the woman with the knife was probably worse than the BAD EVIL WIZARDS what with the knifing and taking away Mr. Bear so I kept hold of her and started punching her and I did that for a while
but after a while she got away though and I had to come out and punch her and Tam did stuff to make my punching better and also tried to save the guy being knifed but he died
and Lorena squeezed out through the bars and she and Bit threw acid at the woman and the woman clawed me until I was almost dead but I was able to take One Last Punch and then I fell over but they told me later that I punched her so hard that she was able to take One Last Punch which knocked out Bit but then she fell over too so that was the end because Tam and Lorena were still awake but she wasn't
and then Tam did something although he didn't know how he did it which made me feel better and I said "How can that be magic if it made me feel better" and they told me that there is Good Magic and that they are GOOD NOT-EVIL WIZARDS
!
anyway we looked around and I found Mr Bear and I gave him a good long cuddle
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so we introduced ourselves to each other although we all kind of felt like we knew each other but none of us could remember how we got there or much of anything at all
it was like the moon had lost our memory and was smiling alone all the torches seemed to beat a fatalistic warning someone muttered and the gas lamps guttered
and a parrot came out of Bit's shoulder and I tried to grab the parrot but it flew away and everyone told me not to do that which seems unfair
so we searched and found an enormous pile of dead bodies in another room
and then we found a furnace which we thought maybe we could climb up so I took my armor back off and tried it I should have said that I found my armor too along with Mr Bear
and I climbed up into a room where I saw something glow and heard something skittering so I went to the door and opened it and someone shot me with a crossbow!
and then the rats and a cat-rat creature came out and attacked me and we were fighting and Tam came up to help me but then I could understand the cat-rat creature I think because my father was a leopard and the cat-rat creature just wanted us to leave so I said sure because I like animals I think because my father is a leopard
anyway the others came up and we went out into the hall where people were warning us not to come into the hall and we found out they thought we were shapechangers like the woman downstairs who when she died became a horrible monster
so we talked to them and asked them to remember the time they knew what happiness was and let the memory live again
but they WOULD NOT LISTEN even though we said we were not shapechangers and we argued for a very long time and finally they said if we killed a bunch of shapechangers they might believe us
so we went away and some big centipedes attacked us right in front of them and Lorena made the centipedes all greasy and then we killed the centipedes
and then we went farther and a woman came out of some rubble and said "Oh I am hurt" and Tam went to help her walk but I was suspicious because of what the guards had said so I tried to grab her and I missed and it was a good grab so I knew she wasn't a wounded old woman so I said "Kill it kill it!" so we did and it was a shapechanger so I took the body back to the guards and said "There's one"
and it made more sense to me why the guards were so stupid because being stupid was smart in this place
and we saw a body moving in the rubble so we went to help but it attacked us even though it was dead but its hands and head crawled towards us and when we killed them its intestines attacked us too
I am starting to think something is wrong with this place
and we went on and found another dead person eating another dead person so we killed them both even though only one was moving and there was a not-dead person too who said "Zandalus Sees" and "Praise" and nothing else and we thought he might be a crazy person because the guards who didn't let us pass told us this was a crazy person place
anyway we knocked him out
and now we're standing before another door but we're not sure whether to open it because we're hurt and Lorena can't make things greasy anymore and Tam can't do the special good not-evil healing magic and I guess Bit probably can't do whatever Bit does
so maybe we will go in or maybe we will rest and wait because soon it will be morning
daylight we must wait for the sunrise we must think of a new life and we mustn't give in
when the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too and a new day will begin
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I just wanna go home. I don't belong here. Nobody does. This is not a place for people.
The dream was bad enough, but I've had nightmares before. Waking up was worse. For one thing, the bandage-faced giant in the dream cried for help all the while he was pursuing me. Could be he was a victim of the situation just like I was. And at least it was over quickly.
I wish the asylum were a dream too, but we've been here for a while now and it's not going away. I suppose this is where I really am.
So many things don't add up. I must have lost several years. Last thing I remember, I was still living at the River House, earning a modest coin with my penmanship. Now apparently I own a suit of armor? And a sword?! I have a sword. Let that sink in for a moment. I didn't pick up the brawn or the courage to go with it, unfortunately. I've mostly hidden behind my shield and flailed around with the blade so far. Good thing Mrriaál knows how to fight.
What is even stranger: Everytime we fight, I keep having bouts of... some kind of possession? Another man's words pour out of me, fell words that have no meaning to me but that boil with an ominous power that touches those around me. My fellow survivors don't seem to mind. Is someone — something? — using me as a conduit into the world? Am I some demon's hapless pawn? Or did I even willingly sell my soul to a dark power my past life? Either way, I dread the answer.
Sometimes, these words conjure an eldritch glow from my palms, red like a sunset and laced with black tendrils, and it appears to heal wounds. The others seem convinced that this is some kind of priestly magic that I work, but surely that's preposterous. I don't know the first thing about magic, and only enough about gods to mumble a prayer to Desna or Pharasma when the need arises. Wouldn't I at least have to know which god I serve? And even if it were true — what if it turns out I serve an archdevil, or some unspeakable horror from beyond the veil? My sword is rather wicked-looking, almost like a sickle, and my amulet bears a stern-looking eye. I am afraid to ask.
Perhaps this place is so truly gods-forsaken that even the gods themselves don't know were are here. Then we are truly lost.
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Logbook of Bit - Entry 001
A very peculiar incident happened. Having pondered on the causes and implications for an appropriate amount of time, I have decided to approach this curiosity as I would handle any difficult problem: I will write down every aspect I encounter as well as my thoughts upon these matters for later study. In so doing I will be able to rearrange these observations into a coherent picture allowing me to find a solution and remedy insofar as possible.
But first things first. I seem to have lost my memory. Well, technically most of my memory. What is left over is blurred and only appears in incoherent figments. I have attempted to order them chronologically as well as possible:
… an enormous hill made of metal … fire and lightning … wandering through vast plains … a group of humans in hide clothing and massive swords … they attack … a bright flash … the large man falls down with smoking a hole in his chest … the warriors flee … more people but with fine cloth and strange weapons … ‘come with us’ … a cage on a wagon … freezing and hungering … travelling through hills and mountains … flapping wings ... … a market in a town … acid and mist … a mansion … the master makes creatures appear … we study his book … a construction workshop … the master is angry - must flee … reappear in another place … and then - blackness ...
In this blackness I was wandering for what seemed like a lifetime. My last memory - was it real? - is that a yellow fog appeared. I was running away, but the fog crept closer. Interestingly, elongated structures - what turned out to be tentacles - materialised from it, but I was somehow able to evade them. Then a crossroad - should I follow the path downhill or rather climb the hill? From the fog a voice emerged - ‘up’ or was it ‘up me’? From a rough estimate of the fog density and pressure I decided the wiser path leads uphill, but my calculations were wrong as the fog ascended much faster than anticipated. A creature appeared through the fog - a leathery humanoid - and uttered another word - ‘save’. I could not make sense of this incoherent babel and instead decided to stop the creature. Turning around I held my hands up and a strange liquid formed on them - only to disappear in an instant. Before I could run away further, the creature mumbled ‘WAKE’ and slashed at me. As it slit my throat, the words rearranged and I heard a shrieking voice screaming ‘Wake up! Save me!’ - And then I woke…
As I opened my eyes I saw what had become my fate. I was locked in a cell. Inside, a creature unlike any I ever had seen or read about - as if a human and a cat had mixed their essences - was I save from her? Outside, a man strapped on a table, obviously the source of the shrieking voice. A woman with a scalpel cutting into his flesh. I quickly decided that staying in the cell with the cat lady (Mrriaál, as I later learned) was 78 per cent less likely to result in fatality than dealing with the scalpel lady - so I remained silent. There was no clear indication on whether the man deserved his treatment anyway. At this point, however, the cat lady started to quite strongly hammer at the cell bars. Was she trying to distract the lady or cheering for her? Or was she hungry and demanded food? It is awkwardly hard for me to read the intention of others.
No matter her intentions - the result of her action was the scalpel lady coming at us and shouting ‘You’re next!’ to the cat lady. Before I could reassess the situation, the cat lady grabbed her through the bars and started to strangle her. Given my apparent association with the cat lady and the scalpel lady’s obvious intentions, I recalculated the likelihood of fatality and determined that leaving the cell and trying to kill the lady before she kills me was arguably the better option. I thought the bars would be an impossible obstacle, but while thinking ‘I would be rather on the opposite side’ I suddenly disappeared and reappeared five feet away from my cell. I have a theory on what happened, but I need more data to verify it.
As the scalpel woman was held tightly by Mrriaál (i.e. the cat lady), I took my chances and calculated the appropriate vectors to snatch the keys from her belt (it turns out that choosing spherical coordinates simplifies this considerably). The number of unknown variables was low enough for me to succeed, so I held the cell keys in my hands. Quickly I opened the cell door so that Mrriaál could escape, but she would not loosen her grapple. So I took a scalpel from the table and slashed at the woman. However, while my attack vectors were appropriate, I lack the necessary strength to harm her. From the opposite side of the room I heard another voice - a cowering man - or should I say boy? - also in a cell. He waved at me pointing at my hands. What did he want? Discuss my attack vectors or was was he excited by something? Would he hurt me? I couldn’t tell. Anyway, I did not take any risk and continued to slash at the vile woman. From the other side a small creature approached us. I could not see much of it as it was engulfed in shadows, but it was obviously on our side trying to chain up the evil woman.
Then she broke free of Mrriaál grasp, who in turn left the cell to attack her again. My suspicion that the woman was not human solidified when her hands turned into claws. A fierce battle erupted between the two beasts until both seemed to drop to the ground at any moment. As the man/boy in the other cell cast a soothing magic on me, he revealed himself to be on our side, so I went over and handed him the keys. Sadly, I miscalculated my relative safety, since the clawed monster jumped and stabbed at me. My last thought was ‘Has my blood always been blue?’. Darkness followed.
When I woke up again the fight was over and the beast had been slain (so had the man on the table - but I digress). My companions in misfortune had saved and healed me. The man/boy is called Tam and seems to be a priest of some sort. The little creature actually is a halfling woman named Lorena, and she has magical powers. Still, she is constantly moving in the shadows, so I have not been able yet to study her closer. Time will tell. As I was investigating the room, suddenly, a bird appeared on my shoulder. Strangely, I seem to have a connection with it - as if… His name is Nat, and he is a fine example of an ara ararauna - remarkable bird, lovely plumage! He seems to put talking before thinking though - this might suit me well.
We searched to room somewhat more and found interesting items - I took a crossbow, a pen with some ink, some candles, a pouch with odd contents, and a magnificent book - a spell book! Some memories came back! My spell book! I used it to cast arcane spells. This required some study! While the others climbed up the vents of a furnaces (or whatever else these people did), I devoured my spell book (not literally - obviously). Lorena pulled me back into reality and suggested to follow the others. I didn’t see why, but staying down here alone did not seem wise either. Climbing up was easier than what a simple cylindrical model would have implied.
On the upper floor there was a bit of a mess - Mrriaál had played with some mice - but there were some left, so the consensus was to leave the room as fast as possible. Outside some people were barricading in a hallway - were they monsters, too? I couldn’t tell. But they would not let us join them anyway unless we bring them three monster corpses. Was this some exotic form of mating ritual? I couldn’t tell. Our group was very undecided on how to handle this, so in the meanwhile we followed the hallway in the other direction. At least the other people told us were we are - an asylum. This does seem to be the most logical explanation. You lose your memory - you end up in an asylum. So there’s that.
Opening doors only led to big omnipedes attacking us. At the end of the hallway a massacre had happened - the only survivor, an elderly woman - or was she? I couldn’t tell. But the others told me to stay behind (maybe I smell strange). As if they had know - had they? - the woman transformed into a vile monster and attacked. Luckily the individuals in my group know how to deal with these situations. They slaughtered the old lady. She probably deserved it - Nat (suddenly in the form of a corvus corax) confirmed this. Exploring the asylum further only revealed more monsters - a dislodged head and hands - and a ghoul. I wonder when we will meet civilised people?
I shall see how I can escape this unpleasant situation. It is hard to concentrate in here - it is as if I sometimes heard some mumbling - but when I turn around there is nothing. And it triggers … feelings? Is it anger or joy? I cannot tell… yet…
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Zvezda? Is that you? How did you get into this asylum all the way from Irrisen? But I thought your companion was named Fritzwick, not Mr. Bear....
(This is entirely too awesome, we have a Black Cat Monk in our Reign of Winter campaign who... well, has a most interesting personality and I swear somehow Mrriaál is her spirit-sister!)
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Also, even more amusingly, the previous time I ran Reign of Winter my group included a Black Catfolk Brawler. Though she was more angry than confused and somewhat innocent like Zvezda is (and was also run by a different player). So yeah. This makes the third Catfolkesque melee type that I've come across now.
=^-^=
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so we decided not to open the door yet because we were very hurt and very very tired so we went back to a broom closet to sleep but before we slept we talked to the guards and we asked why they hadn't run away from all the terrible things and they said look outside so we looked through a door into a courtyard
and the yellow fog from our dreams was hovering overhead and it was raining blood from a lacerated sky bleeding its horror the sky was turning red falling into me the sky's crimson tears abolishing the rules made of stone
then we went back inside and went to bed
and I had a terrible dream again I was back in the alley with the fog and I closed my eyes and ran and ran but didn't get anywhere and the big creature was there in the fog so I attacked it kill it kill it and it reached down and gently stroked my face
and I woke up screaming
after that we went back to the door we didn't open with the man outside still screaming Zandalus Sees and we opened the door and there were bodies an a pile and one on a table and a thing in a basin saying I'm hungry and a face-changing thing behind a curtain but when we pulled the curtain aside it was gone
but the woman on the table turned out to be alive and I was worried about face-changers so I held her down and later tied her up and we searched her and found a healing vial and a key and we gave her the healing vial and then we talked to her and she said she didn't remember much but she worked there and there had been an earthquake and a riot and strange monsters took her to the room
and she seemed all right but I knocked her out for safety which the others didn't like and we talked about what to do about the thing in the basin which wanted to eat us and eventually we decided it was better to kill it although Bit's bird disagreed that bird is really very annoying
and while we were leaving I asked if the key we found on the woman fit the manacles outside and the others tried them and they did
and I thought why would a helpless woman on a table have the keys to the manacles that were holding a dead body and a hungry monster and a crazy person and I thought I don't think she's a woman I think she's a face-changer
but I knew I only thought that because I am very stupid and the others are all very smart and I knew that if I told them I thought the woman was a face-changer they would come up with all sorts of clever arguments I couldn't think of about why she might have the key even if she wasn't a face-changer and they would probably change my mind so I killed her while she was helpless and tied up before they could say anything
and Tam raced in to stop me but he was too late and the woman was dead and turned out to be a face-changer she turned into one when she died
but that was the third face-changer we killed so we went back to the guards and said Hey let us in and they said no at first and we were very mad because they promised but eventually they said they would let us in if we left our weapons outside so we did
and inside there was a place where a whole lot of people were staying and a woman named Winter was taking care of them and she was mad at us for coming so I got upset and she said help out if you want to stay so I chopped some firewood and Tam made some food and Bit knocked a poor old man unconscious and I think Bit has a Problem
and then while we were explaining that Bit had a Problem Lorena tried to destroy a statue of a pretty woman with wings but we stopped her
I don't think we made a very good first impression
but anyway we talked to Winter about what happened and she said they didn't know there was a riot and things got strange and the fog came and it had something to do with the Zandalus person who the crazy person was talking about and they couldn't look for a way to solve it because the way out had been blocked by an eye wall fungus thing
so we spent hours and hours and hours trying to figure out how to get past the eye wall fungus thing which was VERY ANNOYING and finally Tam and Winter used their Good Not-Evil Magic to get rid of it
we went past and through a room into another room which had nothing interesting only a lot of books and there were RATS and I hissed at the RATS and the RATS summoned more RATS who attacked us and there were lots of them so we had to retreat
but we went back the next day with a plan on how to fight the RATS and this time we were better at it so we defeated the RATS and Lorena went through a little tunnel and said there are more RATS back there so we went through a door and are going to fight them and that's where things are now
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Session 2
A place, a time, Carcosa
Fatigue, exhaustion, despair. They barricade themselves in a side room. Nightmares, yellow mist, screams. The Tatterman, stroking Mrriaál's face. Shudders. Barely any rest.
The final room in this wing of the Asylum. A laundry room. A torture room. Cadavers. A living cadaver, hungry; mangled legs, immobilized in a washing bassin. A surviving doctor, still alive. Tortured. Or was she. They almost save her, back to the barricade. Still, suspicion. Paranoia. She held the key to the manacles to the crazed man, the body, and the ghoul attached to the wall. Paranoia. Mrriaál slits her throat before Tam can stop her. Horrified companions. The cacophony of Bit's pet talking bird. Already, the body of the woman changed to that of a dead shapeshifter. Survival. Paranoia. Paranoia has its virtue. But leaves you all alone.
At the barricade, they let them through. Without their weapons. A large group of survivors. Patients. Doctors. Visitors. Kids. Winter Klazcka is doing her best to keep them alive. And sane. She prays to the Lady of Graves, the Mother of Souls. The chapel is safe. The Great Dreamer protects their sleep.
It started with riots. Prisoner Zandalus, crazed, leading hordes of former patients. Transformed residents, violent. A plague of shapeshifters born of the residents. It all started that way. But the chapel is a harbor. Only Lorena, furious, attempts to destroy the statue of Desna. Confusion. Hesitation. What is happening to her? What is she becoming? What is she already?
An eye eating a wall. The only way to the rest of the Asylum. No way out. The eye fights back. Eventually destroyed by healing magic. The way through is open!
But outside, the yellow fog. Tendrils of mist curling. Shapes in the haze. Rain. A warm rain. An oily rain. A warm oily rain the color of blood. No way but further in. Searching for answers to questions. Searching for questions to answers. Searching for a way out. Searching for a way in.
The library; scattering rat-people. More rats and even more rats. Skittering, scrambling, climbing. On the books, on the shelves, on them. Biting, gnawing, scratching. Rats all over. Rats in the books. Rats in the walls. Forced to retreat to the chapel.
They rest, worn out. Bit connects what she sees. Tam's holy symbol. N… She knows, recoils, stays away from the scribe, no closer, sense of danger. Yet his magic is helpful, heals. How is it possible. The Black Pharaoh. How?
The library again. Fire, weapons arcing under the lantern light. Books flying and rats skewered. And rat-people. But more still ahead. They know. Lorena went and saw, unseen.
Still forward, halls and hallways, corridors. A path of mucus between doors…
Hurrah for method acting! =^-^= And dumb monsters! =^-^=
I must say, I am truly impressed though that you thought through the encounter, went "this is a shapeshifter pretending to be a prisoner," and took it out. Well played! Very much well played. :)
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I need to get my thoughts straight. Writing usually helps.
The good news is that we've found a refuge promising as much safety as can be hoped for under the circumstances. Even just entering the chapel soothes my soul, and unlike last night, I slept well. Bit apparently refused to sleep in the chapel and paid for it in nightmares. I find it reassuring that the numen of the gods still counts for something in this place — it can't be quite as godsforsaken as I had feared. Winter is a godssend; she's single-handedly keeping the peace among our sorry band, and she appears to be a more competent healer than I am. A more competent anything, for that matter.
Some limits to the chapel's safety have already become obvious. A good part of the refugees are crazy, to begin with. There's also a fair number of wounded, and our food will run out in a couple of weeks or so. The rest of the asylum appears to be overrun with monstrous creatures. Perhaps most disconcertingly, Lorena committed an act of vandalism against a statue of Desna — Desna! — in a fit of rage, later claiming she had found her too pretty. I fear the forces of madness are seeking to infiltrate the sanctity of the chapel and to sow discord among us. What if the next bout of insanity will lead to murder?
Bit also used a powerful magic spell to overwhelm a raving patient in need of soothing, which proved very counterproductive when the spell didn't wear off gently. I don't think that was madness, though, just extraordinarily poor judgement. I'm having a hard time making sense of Bit, to be honest. Even her bird seems exasperated with her at times. Mrriaál says it's because Bit's on the speck drum. I don't know what that means, but Mrriaál seems sympathetic about it, so I guess it can't be a big deal.
As for the bad news? Let's start with the fact that I was overwhelmed by a swarm of rats and bitten to within an inch of my life. The horror of our situation was bad enough before I suffered grievous bodily harm; now that I know first-hand just how vulnerable I am, it is that much worse. Yet we must continue on our sortie, and no doubt face more merciless violence. Whatever I did in my past few years, it clearly didn't include much battle hardening.
What is perhaps worse: I also dealt my share of merciless violence, and in a manner so honorless it would make any Paladin blush and blanch at the same time. I cut down a ratling with my sword while it was stunned by Bit's magic. Even so, it took me two strokes. I doubt I would have been its match, had it had its senses. Cutting down centipedes is one thing, but this was clearly a sort of person, even if monstrous in appearance. It certainly did attack us with deadly force earlier, so I suppose it can be construed as self-defense, but still. I murdered a helpless person, and don't feel all that bad about it.
Earlier, when Mrriaál slit that false orderly's throat, I was going to stop her. The results proved her choice correct, but still I feel worse about that death than about the ratling's. Is a human face the only thing that separates my compassion from cold blood? What does that say about me?
Mrriaál said that since I don't remember my past sins, my current self is innocent of them. I'm not sure that's how it works. I am continuous with my former self; who is to say that I would make any different choices, were I in the same situations again? Will all the guilt and corruption that my past may hold crash down on me when I regain my memory?
The bloody rain outside the asylum marked my arms with stains that won't wash off. I am afraid that's also what my soul may look like.
As for my possible religious allegiance: Winter didn't recognize the symbol on my amulet, and it certainly doesn't match any of the holy symbols on display in the chapel. On the other hand, Bit stared at it a while ago, blatantly lied about her conclusions, and then rushed off. She won't tell me more. The dread is killing me.
I suppose I should end this on a positive note. Alright then: Winter is really hot. Eyes of two different colors, chiseled face, black leathers, really pulling off that badass inquisitor look. Perhaps a bit on the thin side, but hey, who am I to judge? It's not like I have a chance with her — she must think me a mere boy — but somehow I find my attraction oddly reassuring. Our situation can't be that bad if my mind still has room for this sort of thing.
By the way, I might not remember my last few years, but I'm nonetheless very sure that I'm still a virgin. I mean, I'd have to know, right? I'd have to feel different somehow.
Well, so much for that positive note.
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so we went and fought the rat man and I got scared and ran away and then I got knocked unconscious
so we went back and fought the rat man again and I got scared and ran away and then I ran back and he ran away and now we don't know where he is
and the bird on Bit's shoulder turned into a raven of the saintly days of yore and much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly and not the least obeisance made he and the raven never flitting still is sitting still is sitting
then we found a woman and the yellow fog was coming out of her and I went to try to wake her up and I fell into a dream I was back in the city and there was an old woman knitting and she told me the past was in the doctor's books and our past had been sacrificed and presently my soul grew stronger hesitating then no longer I woke up and told everyone we had to find the books
but first we wandered around looking for a place to put the woman making the yellow fog and Winter told us not in the chapel and we asked her some things and she said she was there because she was looking into someone named Lowls and we found a room where everyone was dead with bags on their heads and a room where dead birds were singing although not a feather then they fluttered and methought the air grew denser perfumed from an unseen censer swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor
so finally we found a closet and we put the woman in the closet and then we went into a courtyard where a THING attacked Lorena and nearly killed her and tried to carry her away so I grabbed Lorena because she is MINE and we tugged her back and forth until I dragged her out of the courtyard and then the THING attacked Bit but we had hurt it pretty badly so it gave up and flew away
and at the end of the courtyard was a little shed and in the shed there were stairs and at the bottom of the stairs was a hole and in the hole there was
ITS EYES HAD ALL THE SEEMING OF A DEMON'S THAT IS DREAMING AND THE WITCH-LIGHT O'ER IT STREAMING THREW ITS SHADOW ON THE FLOOR AND MY SOUL FROM OUT THAT SHADOW THAT LIES FLOATING ON THE FLOOR SHALL BE LIFTED NEVERMORE
anyway then we went and found the books and they mentioned Lowls and that we had worked for Lowls and they mentioned Zandalus and that Zandalus dreamed of things that were and weren't and the doctor was going to try an experiment with Zandalus and we think that is when things went very very wrong and there were more cultists like the one who said Zandalus Sees! and they attacked me so we attacked them back and now we are very tired
and now we must ponder weak and weary over all these quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore
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Let's start with the bad news again.
First of all: Gods almighty, we are so bad at this. That ratling mage single-handedly won two fights against us, sending the mighty Mrriaál fleeing with panic, conjuring another one of those horrid rat swarms to engulf us in a tide of filthy teeth (I swear, next time that happens, I'll lose my gods-damned mind), and hammering us with those inescapable magical strikes. At least I had managed to calm down his two disgusting giant pet rats with some sort of spell; otherwise, we might all have been rat food.
The ratling mage allowed us to retreat when two of us had fallen, which Mrriaál interpreted as weakness on his part, especially since he had resorted to what looked like a fallback spell toward the end, even if it was significantly more powerful than that of our own two depleted mages. But after Winter patched us up and we returned to finish the job, it turned out his power was far from exhausted. Again, he sent Mrriaál running with terror, and dealt us strike after painful strike while we struggled with his stinking pet rats, which had evidently recovered from my spell. Lorena was fighting from a concealed perch in the broken wall, but was still almost killed by a mighty discharge of lightning. (To be honest, though, I'm not even sure it was the ratling's doing. Maybe this cursed place itself is trying to kill us.) And when Mrriaál had finally returned and closed her hands around the gods-damned ratling, he managed to invoke an even mightier form of magic and whisked himself away in the blink of an eye.
Not only is the mage still alive, but he seems to stay out of our way for now. No doubt even his seemingly endless resources must have dried up by now, and we could probably take him in another fight. If he just waits it out until tomorrow, he'll be back at full power and I have another rat bath to look forward to. At least we found an amulet that should help Mrriaál resist his fear magic next time around. Hopefully that will be enough. Maybe we're even luckier and he decided to leave for good — he did say he knew a way out, after all. Come to think of it, he did quite a bit of talking, always urging us to stay away from his lair. I wonder whether it would only have taken a brief open conversation with him to reach a non-aggression agreement. It's probably too late for that now, after our repeated blatant attempts on his life and our murder of his friends and pets. Gods, are we the bad guys?
Ugh, I'm doing it again. I can't afford to lose sight of the bigger picture here. That ratling mage was living in part of the asylum overrun by the monster invasion, and thus is certainly part it himself. I highly doubt the asylum had been housing ratlings before this all started. And the other ratfolk attacked us on sight, after all. Just around the corner, we had found the remains of people who had tried to barricade themselves in a room and had been slaughtered when the monsters broke through a wall to reach them. This is the kind of thing we're up against. They are the bad guys.
More bad news: The yellow fog outside the asylum is even more dangerous than we thought. When we ventured outside to access a remote door, a winged horror dove from the fog above, struck down Lorena and tried to carry her away into oblivion. Only through Mrriaál's heroic determination was she spared this unthinkable fate. I've taken to calling those creatures volcra, given the obvious parallels, but apparently I'm the only one here who read about Saint Alina the Heliokineticist as a child.
To add insult to injury, that remote door turned out to be a dead end. Only a broken stair leading downwards and ending in mid-air above a pitch-black abyss in which there was , haha, certainly not a building-sized demon snake waking from its sleep to end us all, how crazy would that be, right?! Hahahahahahahahaha...
Where was I? Right, good news. We found the asylum's administrator sitting catatonic in a puddle of blood with yellow fog billowing from her silently screaming mouth. Alright, that didn't sound all that pleasant, but as I see it, the fog is our main enemy here, and for all we know it might disperse quickly if we were to stop its source. We tried knocking her out and holding her nose and mouth shut, but that didn't work. Then again, we didn't want to do it for long enough to suffocate her, since her condition might be reversible for all we know. She seems surrounded by an aura of sleep that claimed Mrriaál before she could touch the administrator, but she was rewarded with a dream of some elderly woman — an ally perhaps? — who informed her that the administrator's books contained our history and that our past had been sacrificed.
We did, in fact, locate her journal, in which she chronicled the treatment of the patient Zandalus, who seemed to have some clairvoyant powers. The local count, a certain Hasterton Lowls, appears to have visited him often and to have attempted an experimental treatment based on a book called the Chain of Nights. The records end there, which lead us to believe that the experiment caused all this horror in the first place. Perhaps we're inside Zandalus' nightmares right now, or perhaps the treatment released them into reality? In any case, we also found evidence that the four of us used to work for Lowls and were admitted to the asylum recently with a strange case of group amnesia. Interesting.
Come to think of it, we found a rather lavish living space near the entrance of the asylum that could be the administrator's residence. Through a window, we could see that an open-air stone path leads from one of its walls (secret door?) to another door in the outside wall of the asylum. Perhaps that's where the administrators most private books are stored? Too bad we'd have to venture outside to figure that out, and what is perhaps worse, the residence contains two gruesome corpses and a cage of taxidermic birds that somehow chirp... no doubt we'd have to face some undead horrors if we were to attempt to locate the secret door.
And yet, we may soon run out of options and choose to brave these horrors in return for a chance to escape this hell. Personally, I suspect we might have to kill the administrator to stop the fog from replenishing. Let's be honest, if we'd found a ratling spewing yellow fog, we'd have killed him in a heartbeat. Maybe this is another case of a human face lulling us into a false sense of sympathy. And even if the administrator could technically still be saved in her current state — wouldn't it be preferable to sacrifice her life in order to save those of the dozens of people in Winter's chapel? The longer we wait, the more lives will be lost to the monsters and the madness.
Gods, what am I saying? This place is getting to me more than I'd like to admit. What I'd give to feel some honest-to-gods sunlight on my face again; that'd knock some sense back into me.
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I forgot something. Bad news, of course.
When the ratling mage struck us with his fear magic for the second time, Bit underwent a sudden change of personality. In stark contrast to her usual cool and detached self, she turned bitter and vicious, cursed and demeaned us and our incompetence, adopted a strange churlish gait, and even invoked someone called Hastur (God, devil, demon, worse?) at one point. Even Bit's friendly parrot turned into a cold-hearted raven for the duration. She reverted to her former self a while later, but I keep wondering whether that was one of her pre-existing conditions — a hidden personality of hers surfacing under duress? — or some evil spirit who exploited a slip in Bit's composure to possess her for a while.
And there was another strange occurrence with Lorena... she had suffered grave harm from that lightning shock and could barely walk without fainting, yet she suddenly regained some strength after dealing a bloody scratch to Bit's shoulder. Did she use some sort of blood magic to leech off a part of Bit's very life force? And when the volcra swooped down on her to abduct her to certain death or worse, I got the distinct impression that she didn't even try to resist.
I haven't witnessed a similar episode with Mrriaál or myself, but then again, would I even know if I suffered one myself...?
We have to get out of here before before the madness claims us all.
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so we went back to the room where the dead birds were singing and most of us got through all right but they picked Tam up and tossed him down because what goes up must come down and what must rise must fall and what goes on in your life is writing on the wall
and we had to go outside for a while and I don't like being outside here because there are horrible things in the fog and sure enough horrible things came and attacked us a swarm of little faceless things and they were scary and we killed them with fire
I had lots of things to light on fire I don't know why I had them I think maybe they belong to Mr. Bear
then we went back in and we found a lantern with a frozen flame and a dead man who had killed two of the cultists in yellow with a boot and suddenly there was a horrible creature next to me and I punched it in the face and it died and Bit said it was a gool and if they touch you they can make you not able to move and remember that because it's going to come up again later
anyway we went on and there was a screaming man tied to a hospital bed and Tam touch him and he died so I said Tam why did you do that and then the dead man turned into another gool and I said Tam why did you do THAT and Tam said he didn't do it but no one else touched him so I think it was Tam
we're all pretty sure Tam is evil but that's all right I like him anyway
so we went on after we killed the gool and we found a room where a dead woman was bleeding sideways and there was a dark room beyond with a child in it and Bit went in because Bit can see in the dark and the child was dead and stole Bit's voice and now Bit won't go into rooms anymore
this place is horrible
I went and got the lantern with the frozen flame because the dead child wanted a lantern but it was the wrong lantern and we figured out that her brother was alive and back at the chapel and probably had the lantern so we went back to the chapel and let Bit's parrot do the talking because frankly the rest of us shouldn't be allowed to talk to children and we traded some toy knights for the lantern and brought the lantern back to the dead child who was happy and went away and Bit got her voice back
and then Lorena went to scout ahead and said there are a LOT of those people in yellow robes in a big room with dead people in it on poles so we decided to disguise ourselves in yellow robes and we went in shouting "Zandalus Sees!" and "Praise" and they thought that was weird and I don't know why because it's not like everyone else here is normal
but a man came up and pretended like he knew us and he was a nice man who was there because he didn't have much of a choice and we talked to him and he told us a bunch of stuff that I mostly forget but he said that dreams are escaping into the real world and there's a person in a tower to the west we should find who might help us figure out what's going on and a serial killer lady and also the Tatterman in the dream who stroked my face were working with Zandalus so that's not good
so we went off beyond the barricade that the people in yellow robes had set up and it was dark and foggy and we were attacked by more gools and we could barely see and they made Tam stop moving and then Bit dropped the gools in a pit but Tam fell in the pit too and I thought if all things must fall why build a miracle at all if all things must pass even a miracle won't last
so I jumped in the pit to save Tam but then the last one made me stop moving like when what goes on in your mind is turning into stone
so Lorena jumped in the pit to save us because Lorena is brave and good and pretty and nice but she is also small and had a hard time killing the last one and it looked like we were all going to die
but then Bit dropped us all into another pit and the gool died but we lived
so we went back across the barricade because by then we were in pretty bad shape and everything is terrible and how do we know what the earth will endure how can we be so sure
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I'll start with the good news for once; gods know I need it.
We found another sane person in the asylum. He's a doctor and seems to know quite a bit about the cult around Zandalus, seeing as he lives among them. He knows some healing magic and apparently «takes care» of the cultists, which is why they haven't killed him yet. Many others haven't been so lucky -- there are a number of crucified bodies with bags over their heads lining their living area. Apparently, a serial killer known for putting bags over her victims' heads is acting as Zandalus' bodyguard and enforcer.
There's a dauntingly large number of cultists, and going upstairs to face Zandalus would no doubt be suicide at this point. But the doctor told us that the yellow fog is created by devout followers of Zandalus who spew it forth in vast quantities, and there is one in a tower nearby that we might be able to reach and kill. No doubt they tried to do the same thing to the administrator and failed for lack of devotion on her part; hence her rather insignificant amount of fog production. I'm glad we didn't kill her. Maybe she isn't too far gone after all. In any case, we now have a lead on how to combat this thrice-accursed fog, and I'm grateful for that.
I'm afraid I'm already running out of good news. We also put the undead spirit of a young girl to rest with the help of her living brother, but it was a pretty horrid experience for everyone involved. Oh, and I'm really glad we didn't try to open the door with blood droplets oozing from its pores that we found yesterday. We now know what's on the other side: A corpse sitting on a chair, bleeding blood that falls sideways to land on that door. We don't know what the blood would have done to us if we had haplessly opened the door, but we're staying the hells away from it. The path of the blood is blocking access to a small side room, though -- could turn out to be important. I tried to staunch the corpse's wounds with my magic (my magic... still can't get used to the notion), but it only slowed the blood for a moment. Perhaps a proper healing spell would have a more lasting effect, as with the eye in the wall?
Unfortunately, we suffer bodily harm so gods-damned regularly that we need every bit of healing for ourselves for the time being. I was lifted to the ceiling and dropped on my nose by the haunted stuffed birds (ouch, by the way), gnawed on by a swarm of bat-like worms, and ambushed by ghouls while erring through the fog. We only prevailed against the swarm because Mrriaál had a seemingly limitless supply of lamp oil flasks on herself, which she speculated belonged to her teddybear. What business does a toy bear have with fuel? Does he lead a secret life as an arsonist when Mrriaál is asleep?
And gods, the ghouls. We witnessed a hallucinating man bound to a bed transforming into a ghoul before our very eyes. Mrriaál is convinced I did that, because I was trying to stir the man awake by his foot at the time. Luckily, Lorena saw a wisp of yellow fog escape from his mouth as he did, or I might have believed it myself. Bit informed us that anyone injured by a ghoul will surely die, and sure enough, when managed to gouge furrows into my arm with its claws despite its restraints, I felt every one of my muscles seize and lock me into a grotesque statue of myself. I lived through all nine hells until the affliction passed a few moments later. Are Bit and Mrriaál trying to drive me insane on purpose? In any case, it's working.
And when we ventured into the fog on the doctor's advice, barely seeing our own hands before our eyes, not one but three of these hellish creatures assailed us. I was paralyzed again before I could even land a sword blow, and when Bit tried to save me by opening a pit below two of the ghouls, I fell in as well. Paralyzed, tangled up with a ghoul and isolated from my companions, I once again stared into the abyss of certain death. It was only for the heroism of my companions, two of whom leapt into the pit after me and suffered injuries and paralysis themselves, that I am alive to write these lines. Even now, I'm having a hard time believing we didn't lose anyone to the ghouls. Perhaps our gods are testing our mettle, or are using us as pawns in one of their games, but if they saw fit to inflict this trial upon us, they clearly consider us expendable.
A positive note to end on? I am slowly making headway with my magical powers. I am starting to believe that I might indeed be a priest of some sort; the parallels with the workings of Winter and that doctor are undeniable. Yesterday, Winter sent forth a veritable wave of life energy that healed and revitalized everyone around. I remember Father Ilya doing the same thing for the village congregation back home. Surely that is the mark of a Good priest? To my chagrin, I have not been able to manifest anything of the sort so far, but I feel I might be close. I hope it will help me lay my fears to rest when I finally do so. Bit is still clammed up about her recent insight into my holy symbol, even after I confronted her again today. I swear... if she won't tell me her secret tonight, I'll just have to dig it out of her
Oh no.
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so we went back to tell Winter what was going on and we told the people in yellow that we were foraging so we brought back some food and water and then rested for the night but we all had bad dreams because a candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night
and then we went back over he barricade and across the courtyard and into another part of the building where some gools had laid a trap and pushed a wall over on Tam and Lorena and we killed the gools
and then we went up looking for the dreamer who was making the fog and there were more gools and Bit dropped them into a pit but one jumped over and paralyzed Lorena but we killed the gools
and then we went upstairs and the fog was thick and we could barely see and we ran into a man breathing out yellow fog and it was the dreamer and he touched Tam and sprinkled stardust and whispered go to sleep everything is all right so Bit kicked Tam until he woke back up and then I grabbed the man and squeezed him until he was dead
and we were all very tired so we went back to the chapel to sleep because we knew the next day we would probably face Zandalus
so the next day we went up the stairs to face Zandalus but first there were guards and the woman who killed all the people on the crosses and they wouldn't let us past and they attacked us and the woman grabbed Tam and knocked him out but Bit knocked them all out with a burst of pretty colors and I strangled the woman because it served her right and Tam woke up and was very angry and demanded that Bit tell him about his holy symbol and Bit was being all coy about it so Tam grabbed her and finally Bit said it was the symbol of a god from somewhere called Osirion and then we finally went on our way
and there was a hallway filled with fog and when we went through there were THREE of those foggy people who make you sleep and I closed my eyes then I drifted away into the magic night and I softly said a silent prayer like dreamers do then I fell asleep to dreams my dreams of you
but Bit kicked me awake and there was a pit and Lorena had covered the floor with grease and no one could see anything and Tam fell into a pit and then a dreamer fell into the pit with Tam but we were fighting the dreamers up above so no one could help Tam and Lorena threw a snowball and broke a window and it was all a mess but we finally killed them and the fog cleared a little
and Bit said she was out of spells except for the spells that she had left I don't know why she said that
so we kept going down a hallway and we found Zandalus who said he had already killed us so Lorena threw a snowball at him and Bit dropped him in a pit and then I climbed up on Tam's shoulders and threw things at him and he tried to burn out my mind and then turned invisible so I threw oil over him and then fell into the pit and Lorena and Bit threw acid at him and finally he died
but we didn't think it was over because we found all these silver weapons like someone had been afraid of something that could only be hurt by silver and we hadn't met anything like that so we kept alert and then the tattered man from our dreams who walked with us in dreams and talked to us in dreams came out of Zandalus and Bit and Lorena threw acid at him but he healed the wounds up so I grabbed him and he made Lorena afraid so I got REALLY MAD because I did not like it that he made Lorena afraid
Lorena we're together in dreams in dreams
so I squeezed the tattered man until he passed out and then Tam stabbed him with a silver dagger and he died
and the fog went away and the sun came out
we did it
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Huzzah! And I love this streams of consciousness approach to Mrriaál's journal :)
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I bawled like a child when I saw the Sun again, and even now I have to take care not to soak the water with tears of relief. My comrades seemed rather indifferent. How impoverished does a soul have to be to be impervious to the Sun's all-encompassing splendor? At least some of the asylum's residence had the good sense to run into the open and dance in the radiance.
In short, we killed four of these fog-spouting dreamers, Zandalus' bodyguards, Zandalus himself, and the Tatterman (apparently a separate creature that was unfettered by Zandalus' death). It was hard and grueling work, and we all bled for it. I personally was knocked senseless more than once, among other things by the geriatric serial killer who turned out to be almost as good at grappling as Mrriaál. I admit I went overboard a bit when I finally came to and saw Mrriaál squeezing the life from her. Not sure what got into me there. I might want to buy new boots, though; I'm not sure I'll ever get all that gore out again.
I also didn't much care for being trapped in another one of Bit's gods-damned pits later, fighting a dreamer one-on-one (and losing, although not by much).
I finally shook some information about my holy symbol from Bit. Apparently, my god was popular in ancient Osirion and ancient Thassilon. It's very little information, come to think of it, but it did trigger a cascade of memories. I must have spent much of the last years in Osirion. I distinctly remember the desert Sun and the endless reaches of sand.
In a related matter, I finally managed what I believe to be channeled energy. Unfortunately, it did not heal anyone, but hurt a number of enemies (albeit by a laughably small degree) and left two of them awestruck enough to forget all about fighting for a moment. Is this the negative energy that the evil priests send forth in the stories? If so, the others might be right about my moral state after all. I fear the worst. I only hope I can find professional guidance and atonement before the evil slumbering in me reclaims me.
At least we broke the curse and freed everyone from Zandalus and his nightmares. That's gotta count for something. How about that, I might actually end on a positive note for once. Must be the sunlight's doing.
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A boy is thirteen years old. The atrium is large and intimidating; he has never seen anything like it. The kindly old servant has taken him up a curved flight of stairs, through a glass-roofed corridor to a comparatively unassuming door. She gives a measured knock and pushes the door open.
Baroness Svertova turns from her vantage point at the window and fixes the boy with her gaze. He freezes, but the servant gently nudges him through the door. He remembers to bow as he's been instructed. «My lady», he utters.
«I am told you are good with a pointed pen», she says without preamble. The boy nods. It feels vain not to relativize, but he suspects the Baroness has no patience for humility.
She points to a venerable desk of dark carved wood bearing stack of paper.
«I have half a hundred invitations to send by the morrow, and my own scribe is indisposed with an illness. Are you up to the task?»
The boy marvels at the hand-made paper, the crystal inkwell and the gilt pen set. No doubt they alone are worth more than half the village. A tray with steaming tea and biscuits awaits next to it.
He swallows. «Yes, m'lady.»
—
A boy is fourteen years old. The Baroness is busy, so the servant has shown him to the library. He gawks at the towering shelves full of books, scrolls, and antiquities, and at the expensive-looking maps that fill the walls between. Many of the maps bear exotic writing unknown to him, but the largest of them all says OSIRION in proud gilt letters.
«Ah, boy, lend me a hand, will you?»
The boy startles; he hadn't realized the library was in use. A greying man sits hunched at a desk in the far corner, peering intently at the sprawling spread of documents before him through his spectacles.
«Yes, my lord», the boy says. He recognizes the face from the painting in the atrium: Lord Svertov himself.
«Fetch me that clasp from the shelf over there», he says.
The boy complies. The clasp is cool in his hands; smooth gilded brass. «Where do you want it, my lord?»
«I suppose Professor Gorolyushina will want to see it», the baron says, more to himself than to the boy, a parchment in each hand. «Hold on to it for a moment, will you? I'm afraid I'm a bit inconvenienced just now.»
The boy studies the clasp: A stylized bird of prey, long wings outstretched as if to reach from horizon to horizon, a ring in each claw. Even though it is well preserved, the boy can sense a dizzying depth of age and history in it. It draws him in, mesmerizes him. An unfamiliar warmth spreads through him.
When the Baroness speaks his name, it takes him a moment to regain his bearings. «My lady?»
Lady Svertova furrows her brow and nods towards his hands. «Who allowed you to touch that?»
The boy swallows and points toward the library. «Your lord husband, my lady.»
«My lord husband», she says with a steel edge in her voice.
The boy blushes. «Begging your very great pardon, my lady», he says. «I didn't mean to presume. It's just, his portrait in the hall says Lord Baron Slavomir Svertov, so...»
«Lord Baron Slavomir Svertov was my husband», the Baroness says slowly. «He died ten years ago.»
The boy freezes, then turns around. The library is empty.
—
A boy is fifteen years old. The evening rain is falling in heavy sheets; he can barely make out the venerable stone building in front of him. The museum is closed at this hour, but there is light in the windows of the adjoined residence. The boy lifts the heavy ring and knocks. After a while, a small viewport opens, followed moments later by the door itself. Professor Gorolyushina lifts a hand holding an everburning candle and her elaborately carved cane while bracing a hastily donned coat against the cold draught with the other.
«This had better be important», the professor says.
The boy opens his hand, revealing the clasp.
«Gods almighty», the professor says.
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oh right i forgot about the part where Tam held aloft his symbol and hideous tendrils of noxious pulsating energy spewed forth from him and froze our foes with awe and terror at the sheer horror of it
good job Tam
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i am a bad kitty
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You are an *awesome* kitty and don't you forget that. :)
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I did a bad bad thing
so we took a boat over to Thrushmoor over water and it was raining and I hated it and we saw a big pillar on a hill and there's another one in town and obviously another where Lowls lives although you can't see it but it's obvious from looking at a map so that probably means something
and then Winter took us to the temple of Farazma who is the goddess who kills old people and outside the temple there was a mob with torches and they were shouting at someone and I thought someone had been doing hideous experiments like the Mistress did with me after my mother the leopard gave birth to me because that's when the mobs with the torches come but it turns out it was just some artist and they were mad at him for making art only he didn't make it and it was art like the art Zandalus drew only not as good
Tam and the bird that rides on Bit's shoulder calmed the mob down and we went into the temple although the priestess wasn't there and we went to sleep and that's when I did the bad bad thing and it hurts so bad when you finally know just how low low low low low you'll go
I was supposed to be on watch but I never went on watch because when I woke up I was in a field and I had blood all over me and I had eaten a sheep and the sheep wasn't mine which means I stole it and I was naked because I had forgotten that walking on two legs means wearing clothes
so I went back and told the others and they thought I might be a Where Wolf because the moon was full and I don't know what that means but it sounds like a bad bad thing
that morning Winter took us to see a lady who knew us even though we didn't know her and she didn't like us and she took us up to see another lady who knew us even though we didn't know her and she didn't like us and she told us that bad things had been going and people were going missing including the priestess of Farazma which is why the mob was angry at the artist and a crazy man was saying the Briarstone Witch had done it because she's a witch that makes people disappear and someone had gone to the castle and disappeared
so first we went to see the crazy person who told us he had seen the Witch in a cave outside town so Bit knocked him unconscious with a spell so he wouldn't scare people and we took him to a stable and Bit and Tam told me to strangle him until he was passed out which seems mean but Bit and Tam said to do it so OK and I was careful not to kill him
then we wanted to go shopping so we went into an Inn where there was a woman who knew us even though we didn't know her and she didn't like us I don't think we were very nice people
but after we paid Bit's bar tab she told us where we could go shopping and then another man came in who knew Tam even though Tam didn't know him and he liked Tam so he's probably evil and he didn't believe Tam when Tam said we had lost our memories which made Tam mad because he's tired of explaining and then the man said he'd seen Tam hiding something off a pier
so after we went shopping we went to the pier and we were attacked by a horrible gibbering thing covered with mouths but Lorena trapped it in a web and then we killed it so I guess this place isn't much better than the asylum really
and I climbed down and got the stuff that Tam had hidden and it included a wand full of Bad Evil Magic so we talked about the fact that it seemed really likely that we were Bad Evil People especially Tam but I had also done the bad bad thing and Lorena said she could drain life from people and Bit is Bit so we talked about it for a long time
Bit said she thought good and evil were just words and I said what does that mean everything is just words like the thing you said right now that was words and Tam said maybe a not-evil person could still worship an evil god and Lorena said maybe evil actions could be good if they were done for a very good purpose and Bit said there was something that wasn't good or evil called neutral so I said I was going to try to be a completely new thing that I called neutral good because I want to be good but still friends with Lorena if she does bad stuff for a good reason or Tam if he's good but worships an evil god and Bit if she's Bit and me if sometimes I do a bad bad thing while I'm asleep
but we all agreed that we were at least going to try to be not-evil from that point on so that was good
and then we went down to the cave and an evil vine grabbed Lorena and strangled her so I got mad because Lorena is tiny and cute and she can cast a spell now that MAKES HER EVEN TINIER AND CUTER IT IS SO ADORABLE I CAN BARELY STAND IT so I grabbed the vine and tied it in a knot and then we all hit it until it stopped moving and Lorena stole some life energy from Tam so she didn't die and I said she could steal my life energy anytime if she wanted
you ever toss and turn your lying awake and thinking about the one you love? you ever close your eyes your making believe you're holding the one you're dreaming of?
and then we went into the cave and we were attacked by a fungus that appeared and disappeared and appeared and disappeared and it was really annoying but we killed it and there was an animal tied up in vines there and I made friends with it but it really wanted to make friends with Tam I think because Tam is a boy but that's all right I have Mr. Bear
oh also I can see in dim light better now for some reason the Mistress would be so happy she always hoped I could do that but I never could before now
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It's beyond denying now. I am evil.
Or at least I was, as recently as two weeks ago, before we all went to Briarstone. Apparently, I sunk a stash of emergency supplies at dock 19 in Thrushmoor in case I needed to bail. Not only was it clearly meant for me alone, but it included a wand of an almost comically evil spell called «Death Kneel», which sucks the life force out of dying people for a fleeting personal benefit. There's my holy symbol on the bag, and some guy named Keldrin saw me sink it.
And as if that weren't enough, everybody and their dog in this town apparently knows us and hates us. Looks like we weren't merely evil, but terribly obnoxious about it, too. I still can't believe Bit sent someone to the healers for a week in a barroom brawl. Bit!
At least we all agree that we used to be better people in our remembered past, and that we'd strive to be better people again. I hope we can make amends for our past deeds before someone lynches us for them. It's really hard to convince anyone of our story, unfortunately. I might have snapped at that Keldrin guy more than he deserved.
Come to think of it, I do seem to have sudden bouts of anger recently that I don't remember from my childhood. Maybe that's the evil in me struggling to get out. My friends do give me strange looks whenever I make sure the monster we just fought is dead-dead. That's just prudent, though, isn't it?
I have half a mind to stop using my magic, since it supposedly stems from the worship of an evil god, but it's just been too critical to our survival thus far. I really should figure out what god that is, though.
In good news, I made a friend! I was worried when I saw Mrriaál cut it free from the vines that had entangled it — it is a dangerous predator after all — but our act of killing its jailer (a ghostly fungus monster with a giant maw) seems to have convinced it to adopt us as family. It appears to follow me in particular, and displays a curious amount of affection to me. I have to admit it's growing on me. I named it Fuchur, after a benevolent dragon in a story I once read (well, half-read... that story just wouldn't end).
Bit called it a «tea wreck» for some reason. I rather think it's a tyrant lizard like the ones in Tolguthic Park. It's much smaller than in the book, but I suppose it could be a juvenile.
And speaking of friends: Winter let us crash in the Pharasmin temple rather than dumping us at the inn, and she vouched for us in the investigators' guild house when the locals once more proved hostile to us. She even called us her friends. That felt unexpectedly good. I'm afraid I'm slipping headlong into an honest-to-gods crush on her. Well, that makes at least one part of my character that I don't feel bad about, even if it does scare me a bit.
One thing's for sure, though. Sooner rather than later, we'll have to face Count Lowls and figure out just what exactly he did to us. It's not going to be pretty.
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it turns out I am even worse than I thought
much much worse
so we found the cave of the Briarstone Witch and we went in and we found a Witch but I don't think it was the Briarstone Witch because there weren't any kidnapped people there and she attacked us with her weird wolves and cast a Bad Evil Wizard spell that tangled us up in vines
and I have mixed feelings now about the Good Not-Evil Magic that my friends are using because later it saved my life even though they should have let me die but this time my friends the Good Not-Evil Wizards threw webs and pits and things at the Witch and they didn't save anyone's life they mostly got in the way and kept anyone from getting to the Witch while she cast her Bad Evil Wizard spells at us so she did that for a long long time and Lorena almost died of a fungal infection
but finally I burned my way through the web and went down the pit and came up into the other room where the Witch was waiting with her monkey and they tried to kill me but I killed them instead and we found a note from some lady asking for more dreams I don't know what that means so we left
and we went back to town and a dead woman attacked me saying I had killed her
and I remembered killing her I remembered punching her and kicking her until she died somehow I became the Thing that The Mistress raised me to be
and this time the spells cast by my friends the Good Not-Evil Wizards really helped and I would have died if not for them but instead I killed her
again
and then I curled up in a ball and cried and cried
I am the hollow cat I am the stuffed cat headpiece filled with straw my dried voice is quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass or rats' feet over broken glass shape without form shade without colour paralyzed force gesture without motion
later I talked to Winter about it and asked what can you do when you did something bad and you can never, ever, ever make up for it ever and she said you have to learn to forgive yourself and I said how and she said I had to atone which I think means I need to do so much good that it cancels out the bad
that's an awful lot of good
an awful lot
and then we went to investigate the weird pillars and I touched one and
unreal city under the yellow fog of a winter dawn a crowd flowed over the bridge so many I had not thought death had undone so many
sighs short and infrequent were exhaled and each man fixed his eyes before his feet
and I saw the Yellow Sign
the Yellow Sign
the Yellow Sign
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I have no explanation for the bond the tyrant lizard and I share. We just clicked together like lodestones in the scant hours that I've know her so far. She understands more of my words than an animal has any business to, and sometimes even I feel like I understand what she's thinking. For one thing, I now have no doubt that she's a she, even though I don't know any more about lizard anatomy than I did before. The Fuchur from the books was male, so I decided to rename her. The name Abkhadnezar imposed itself on me, and it feels strangely appropriate for a proud beast like her. I suspect the secret partition of my mind that retains my knowledge of priestly magic must have come up with it.
My conscious self almost immediately shortened it to Nezar, though, and finally to Nez. If my other self should object to that, let it come forth and face me. I have a lot of questions for it.
The cave didn't end where we found Nez. It apparently belonged to a Druid with a penchant for all things fungal and who worked commissions an alchemist and poisoner. She didn't respond to attempts at parley and fought us instead. It was ugly and messy, but we won. Let's just say the mages on both sides were quite a bit less in control of the battlefield than those in the storybooks. Good thing Mrriaál at least knows what she's doing. Were it not for her crippling self-doubt, she would be unstoppable.
We spent the night in the cave and went back to report to Winter in the morning. On the way, we were assaulted by a terrible undead horror that repeatedly incapacitated most of us with its unbearable wail and almost tore Mrriaál to ribbons. It took all our combined effort, as well as a large amount of luck, to take it down before it succeeded. Apparently it was the remnant of a woman whom Mrriaál pummeled to death in her recent past. I suppose it's the worst deed any of us have remembered so far, but there's no saying what other atrocities still lie buried in our memories. Mrriaál took it pretty badly. Can't blame her, really. Bit also snapped into her insufferably negative alter ego during the fight, and didn't revert to her proper self for a while.
Personally, I've resolved to distancing myself from our past sins until such as time as we understand under what circumstances exactly we commited them, and how they were purged from our minds. Our past had been «sacrificed», that dream lady had said to Mrriaál. I'm still hoping that means we might not be completely responsible for those deeds. Repression is not the healthiest of strategies, but it keeps me functioning for the time being, and we certainly depend on that.
We also paid a visit to the eldritch obelisks that loom over the town, and had disconcerting visions while touching them. I saw myself hurtled through an immeasurable abyss of utter black void only to end up on a foreign world covered in vast but sterile cityscapes, all steeped in the sickly miasma of the Yellow Sign that took the Sun's rightful place in the sky. What unfathomable corruption can pervert something as pure as the Sun? It's just not right... It's just not right...
In good news, I stopped at a bakery on the way to the chapel and the baker hated our guts. That's not the good part obviously. He denied it, too, but it was plain to see. I don't suppose all bakers in town hate us, but I must have subconsciously picked the bakery that I used to frequent. I can see why, though; the pastries are excellent. Winter seemed pleased with the pień o szokolať she picked from the bag. That's the good news: I now know something that Winter likes.
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Lot going on right now, keeping it short.
We paid a visit to the fort to investigate the recent disappearances of people on their way to the fort. The officer in charge was a certain Barawyn Cesyll. She seemed nice but overworked, given that the magistrate Paget had not returned from a recent mission and most of their mercenaries had bailed on them. She wouldn't let us in to investigate, claiming that there had been no strange occurrences in the fort itself. She seemed trustworthy, so we left it at that.
So we finally went to Lowls' manor and knocked at the gate. When the guard wouldn't let us in, Mrriaál tried to grab him through the sliding hatch he had been peering through, but failed. Worried that he might sound an alarm, I wrought some form of magic on Mrriaál that allowed her to fly over the dense brambles that walled in the compound, and to enter the guardhouse from the courtyard. Yes, I can make people fly now. How wild is that? I always thought only wizards could do that sort of thing. Once these troubles are over, I'm going to use that power on myself. It must be exhilarating. I really hope I get to keep my magic when I reclaim my life.
In any case, Mrriaál grabbed the head of the guards, flew him high above the ground and dropped him to his doom, while Bit teleported through the gate and opened it for us so we could fight the two bestial grunt soldiers in the guardhouse. To make things worse, animal-shaped parts of the brambles separated themselves from the wall and attacked us like dogs, while two unarmored nobles casually strolled out of a nearby building to watch us struggle while they sipped wine. From their dress and unimpressed demeanor, I was certain they were mages. At the height of the battle with the grunts and the walking bushes, Lorena decided to aggravate the mages by casting a magical spiderweb on them — and sure enough, they started to return fire with their spells. One of them threw a beam of fire at me but mostly just set the web (and herself) on fire, but then caught Mrriaál in gales of uncontrollable laughter. I eventually managed to snap her out of it by approaching her with a magic circle (I can do that too now?). To Lorena's credit, she blinded the two mages with some explosion of glittering motes, which put them on the defense and bought us enough time to turn the table on them. Bit summoned some kind of mighty bull to trample and gore one of the mages while Nez made short work of another who had had the temerity to attack her with a dagger. Before the last mage died, trapped in one of Bit's pits with the rampaging bull, we tried to offer her a surrender, but she preferred death, threatening that «he» would return and end us all. Not sure if she meant Lowls or the King in Yellow.
We went on to plunder the house of the mages and found an inordinate amount of fine clothes and some excellent wine from pre-liberation Ravounel. We certainly felt like we deserved a toast after our successful breaking and entering, especially after the sobering encounters of the last day. There might have been a fair amount of luck involved, but I do believe all of us are starting to find our stride in battle. Bit shook the sky with a mighty fireball today, Lorena is discovering new debilitating powers, and I was pleasantly surprised at how courageous and deadly Nez proved in close combat, especially seeing how frail she seemed only yesterday. I guess she just needed a good meal and a night's sleep. Even the bolstering effect of my trance preaching appears to have redoubled, even though I still don't understand a word of it, and I did manage to land the occasional sword blow.
Make your peace, Lowls. We're coming.
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so we went to the castle and said hey what's going on and they said nothing's going on so we went to Lowl's house
and at Lowl's house the guards wouldn't let us in so Tam did a magic that let me fly over the gate and then a guard attacked me but I could fly so I went way up high with him and dropped him but meanwhile the hedge attacked Bit and Lorena threw a web at a couple of Bad Evil Wizards so they attacked us and even when we said hey sorry about the web can we talk they said no you will die so Lorena made them blind and Tam's big lizard ate one of them and Bit threw a big cow at the other one and we said do you want to surrender and she said no you will die so Bit threw her in a pit and then we threw the big cow in the pit on top of her and she got smooshed and died
and we thought wow they were really stupid and it turns out that's a whole theme here every single person at Lowl's house is stupid I'll get to that soon
anyway the Bad Evil Wizards had wine in their house and I drank some and it was horrible
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I suggested hunkering down in the mages' house and recuperating our strength, but the others wanted to press on into the main building so as not to give the cultists time to fortify it. Lorena did some scouting and reported some guards off duty just behind the main entrance, so we rushed them and took them down easily. Lorena was just going to take a look upstairs when she started screaming... it turned out some freakish otherworldly squid had grabbed her in its tentacles and was sucking her blood through a myriad of imperceptible tendrils. We had to fight it from the claustrophobic confines of a corridor, and it simply shook off the magical assaults our mages threw at it, so the fight didn't go well at first. Unlike most things we'd fought so far, it was a match for Mrriaál's wrestling might, and each of its foul touches sent a wave of debilitating nausea through our bodies. Just as we finally managed to turn the tables on it, more cultists came through the door and joined the fray, focusing on me in particular. One exceptionally nasty swordswoman had approached me invisible and would have run me through with her rapier, had I not turned aside at that very moment by sheer coincidence. Luckily, I was able to cloud her mind with my dark words of power long enough for Nez and the others to take her down.
With that, it seemed, we had broken the back of the cultist's response. The remainder of the upper floor was empty bedrooms, including Lowls' private quarters. In his study, we found a lot of books on occult themes and notes on his research. It appeared Lowls had some infatuation with the aesthetic of Qadiran culture, much as my former employer's late husband had had with with Osirion. What is it with nobles and exotic lands?
In any case, Lowls' notes contained the logistics and planning for an expedition to Katheer, which explains why he is absent at the moment. We suspect we will eventually have to track him down. I don't mind, as it would seem I have braved the desert before. At least I'll get my fill of sunlight.
There was also some writing on a deal struck with the Mad Poet, which involved our very minds as bargaining chips. I even had a very vivid vision of our whole group, including Lowls himself, meeting the Mad Poet somewhere in a fever-dream rendition of a desert oasis. The Mad Poet was clad in Qadiran garb, so I suspect his oasis is tethered to Qadira somehow, even if I doubt it is part of the actual material world. In that case, chasing Lowls to Katheer might serve a double purpose. If the Mad Poet somehow received our minds as payment for some service rendered, perhaps these minds are still in his possessions in one way or another, and there might be hope for us to reclaim them.
Oh, and Nez was there with us in the vision. We must be old friends! Maybe we go all the way back to my time in Osirion. That would certainly explain a lot. Tyrant lizards aren't exactly common in Ustalav.
We spent the night in Lowls' bedroom and continued our exploration of the mansion in the morning. The attic was haunted by a lady twisted by madness as well as some horrible bodily affliction. We decided to leave her alone.
In the ground floor, we found a trap door to the cellars, which contained some more excellent wines, a large number of sarcophagi, and a strange creature impersonating a Qadiran woman featuring mandibles and spindly claws. Apparently she knew us from before, but preferred death over talking. This seems to be a theme among these cultists. The woman had been working on a corpse, trying to incorporate some kind of hinged plate mechanism into it. We identified the corpse as Accuser Omari, who had been sent from the capital to investigate Lowls' strange undertakings. I fear we will find the other missing people in a similar condition.
Oh, and we a magical khopesh in one of the sarcophagi, just like the one I'm carrying, except it was magical and glowing with a purple aura. What are the odds? My friends couldn't identify the magic, but I've decided to wield it for the time being. It seems rude to say no to such a personalized gift of fate.
There was also an undead man who insisted that we look at the yellow sign on the wall. We killed him, once again finding Bit's magical pit more of a hindrance than a benefit... at least I can make Mrriaál fly now. And we found a passage to the estate's well, whose shaft extended quite a bit farther down and branched off into some narrow side canals. Mrriaál, still flying, descended into the shaft to investigate, but was assaulted by many rats and a man made of more rats stitched together by their tails. Since we couldn't come to aid, she simply retreated back up the shaft, and we decided to leave it at that. One of the canals heads off in the direction of the town fort, though. We wondered whether that was linked to the disappearances near the fort.
The cellar ended under one of the side buildings that normally served as the estate's kitchen, but now hosted more of the bestial thugs we had first met at the guardhouse. There were quite a lot of them, but between Bit's fireball and our combat prowess, we made short work of them.
It looked like we had explored everything at that point, but we knew there were still quite a few abducted people still unaccounted for. We returned to the cellar and indeed found a secret door behind a wall-filling rendition of Pharasma's face. Once more unto the breach, then.
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so I don't have a lot of time because I'm writing this down in front of a door because I think as soon as we go through this door everything's going to get very bad and explode very fast so I'll make this quick but basically almost everyone in Lowl's house is stupid
I guess the guards weren't stupid they were just surprised because Lorena snuck in first and said hey there are guards so we surprised the guards and killed them
then Lorena went sneaking upstairs even though it was obvious that we should go downstairs because that's where Bad Evil Wizards keep their secret stuff so that's where the third pillar would be I know that because that's where the Mistress kept her secret stuff like me
but Lorena got attacked by a big invisible bloodsucking thing with tentacles and that's how we knew things were really weird because who keeps a giant bloodsucking thing with tentacles in their house?
it was really hard to kill because we were all crammed into the stairway and it was a big invisible bloodsucking thing and more guards came and then an assassin lady tried to assassinate Tam but she missed and Tam's lizard killed her
then we found some books and the others spent a long time reading books and it was very boring but they found out Lowls had gone to a place called Katheer and then the others said they were tired (I have noticed that Wizards get tired very easily) so we went to bed
the next day we went up to the attic I guess just in case Lowls was an incompetent Bad Evil Wizard who put his secret stuff in the attic where anyone could climb up and find it instead of the basement but the only person in the attic was an old woman who told us to leave her alone and when we didn't she threw a magic at me which honestly seems fair because she did ask first so we left her alone and went away
and then we finally finally went down to the basement and that's where all the stupid people were first there was a stupid woman doing something to a corpse and we said hi there what are you doing to that corpse but she just said you will die you will all die I will kill you so we killed her
and then we met a stupid man who said have you seen the Yellow Sign and we said yes it is right over there on that wall but he kept asking and got all scary and Bit made a pit and the stupid man drained my life when he touched me so we killed him
and then we met a whole bunch of stupid people who didn't even say anything they just attacked us so we killed them
but that was the whole basement and I was surprised because we hadn't found the pillar so we looked in a couple of other buildings but there weren't any other basements so I said there must be a Secret Door in the basement because sometimes Bad Evil Wizards hide their secret stuff behind Secret Doors so we looked and we looked and we looked and finally we found one behind an image of the goddess who kills people when they are old and sick and I guess also makes babies get born
we went through the secret door and down the stairs and there's another door and behind that door I think it's going to be all the secret stuff and it's going to get bad so I'll stop for now
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so I guess we won but we still have no idea what's going on because something is happening here but you don't know what it is do you Mr. Jones?
down in the room behind a secret door there was the pillar just like I thought but there was also a horrible monster from another world and a woman and we asked the woman what is going on and she said we would be too stupid to understand and I said that's fair so can you tell us something we would understand and she said no because you wouldn't understand and I said but I asked for something that I would understand that makes no sense and she said that is because you are stupid and don't understand and I said can you at least tell us your name and she said you wouldn't understand so I said screw this and drank a potion that made me invisible
because sometimes you hand in your ticket and you go watch the geek who immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak and says how does it feel to be such a freak and you say impossible as he hands you a bone and something is happening here but you don't know what it is do you Mr. Jones?
so I snuck up on the woman while the others fought the thing from another world and then another thing from another world came and attacked them as well and Bit dropped the woman in a pit but she flew out and I grabbed her and she tried to do a magic to make me attack my friends but I resisted and soon we defeated all of them
and we looked at the pillar and it was covered with blood and there were dead bodies and I guess that's where the kidnapped people went and we touched the pillar and I saw some stuff but the others saw much more horrible stuff which was weird and then we went upstairs and the city was on fire
and we were on top of the hill so we could see that there was fighting over by the docks and fighting over by the chapel of the death goddess and Tam said "Oh no, Winter!" so I said I'll go take care of the docks and you go help Winter and I ran down to the docks and the rest of them told me to come back so we could discuss things and not split up but I didn't think that was a good idea when the city was on fire so I kept running and the rest of them went to the chapel but I found that out later
down by the docks there were fish people taking all the people slaves so I took a potion that made me big and fought the fish people and killed some and then one threw a spell at me that made it hard for me to move so if they'd run I couldn't have chased them but instead they got all close and tried to kill me so I grabbed the one who cast the spell which hurt because he was covered in electricity but then I started squeezing him and he died and the rest of them ran away
and later I found out that down at the chapel there were dead people attacking the chapel and my friends had a hard time because it was hard to hurt them with fire or cold or hitting them really hard which kind of left not a lot for my friends to do but eventually they managed to kill the dead people
but we still don't know why the dead people or the fish attacked or why they were there but it looks like they came from the fort so that woman who told us nothing was going on at the fort was lying which seems mean
and it's all very confusing like if we saw a one-eyed midget shouting the word now and we said for what reason and he said how and we said what does this mean and he screamed back you're a cow give me some milk or else go home and we know something's happening but we don't know what it is do you Mr. Jones?
Who is Mr. Jones?
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Mrriaál had been right about the stelae. There was indeed a third one in the basement of Lowls' manor. The secret door in Pharasma's face led us down some stairs and into a short corridor, one side of which opened up on the stela. It looked a bit different than the other two in town, mostly because of the thick patina of tried blood that caked the floor around it. It must have received a lot of blood sacrifices.
The other side of the corridor revealed a throne room. A lady wearing fine clothes and a courtly sword occupied it and immediately started attacking us with spells. I'm pretty sure she would have gotten into Mrriaál's mind if it hadn't been for my magic circle. I should wear those more often. Somehow I feel a bit safer inside them, even if mind-bendingly terrible thing are happening.
The lady had a grotesque verminous beast with leathery wings with her. When I sent Nez to attack it, she set off a trap in the floor, but dodged the blast with a spectacular leap to the side. She's growing stronger and more magnificent every day. Mrriaál drank a potion and vanished in to thin air.
The winged beast kept Nez and me at bay, while Lorena and Bit returned the favor by blinding her and dropping her in a pit, respectively. The lady used some kind of magic to fly out of her pit, but Mrriaál had already crossed the room by then and grabbed her by the legs. The lady put up a surprisingly good fight, managing to get off a spell despite Mrriaál's lethal embrace and later channeling a painful amount of dark miasma into the room. I guess she was a priest like me, even though she looked more like a mage. Eventually, Mrriaál managed to squeeze the sense from her and left her to slide back down into the pit.
Meanwhile, though, things had gotten hairy on my side of the room. The winged monster hadn't gone down easily, and a nightmarish hound-like monstrosity had manifested from one of the room's corners. It shook itself into a frenzy and brutally assailed Nez, while Lorena seemed to wither under its otherworldly stare. It would have killed Nez several times over if I hadn't all but emptied the superior healing wand we recently found into her, while Nez' powerful bites didn't hurt it as much as I would have expected. When Mrriaál was finally done with the priestess and joined our fight, it finally died. Looks like a magic weapon was needed to properly break its skin. I should figure out a way to grant magical power to Nez' bite.
After the fight, we went to touch the stela to receive our visions. I saw myself back at the edge of that alien city again, and the Yellow Sign was dominating one horizon, growing ever bigger and threatening to engulf the world. But then another symbol, looking much like Sarenrae's but black and inverted (bad sign?), rose at the other horizon to contest the Yellow Sign. Somehow its appearance heartened me, and then I was back in Lowls' basement. Bit then claimed that this «black anc» was what my holy symbol showed back in Briarstone. That's nonsense — it's always been that ominous make-up-wearing eye. Are we not even sane enough to agree on what's plain to see?
In any case, our work at the manor seemed completed, so we left the estate again. That's when we heard the screaming. Chaos reigned in several places of the city, in particular the harbor and the Pharasmin chapel. For some reason, Mrriaál insisted on going to the harbor even though the chapel contained the entirety of our scant few allies in this gods-forsaken town that otherwise hates our guts. (Yes, I have an additional reason to prioritize the chapel, but even so.)
So we raced to the chapel and barely made it in time before a veritable horde of surprisingly well-armed, agile, and coordinated undead people charged its door. They had apparently come from the fort, so they were probably the remains of the fort's former mercenaries. Our appearance drew half of them away while the others continued to hack at the door. We fought our challengers as best we could, which was rather pitiful without Mrriaál's might. Again, Nez' heroic efforts were mitigated by the enemies' unnatural resistance against her non-magical bite. My magical khopesh cut true, though in my hands even the sharpest weapon is a moderate threat at best. Both Bit and Lorena found some hidden reserves in themselves and were able to throw mighty fireballs into the midst of the undead, but they proved resistant against fire as well. It wasn't going to be a quick fight.
From behind the door, Winter tirelessly channeled the will of her goddess in the form of funerary ashes that burned white-hot when they touched the undead, but one of them survived just long enough to breach the door and attack her. Between Bit's magic, Winter's dagger and Cesadia's crossbow, the undead fell, but not before wounding Winter with a sword stroke. Just about then, the rest of us managed to whittle down the last of the undead that had come to face us, and the chapel was saved, along with all the refugees we had relocated from Briarstone.
I hear Mrriaál had her hands full fighting fish-folk slavers at the harbor, but prevailed against them with sheer might. It was horribly irresponsible of her to go alone, but it did work out in the end. She probably saved dozens of lives from slavery and death with her decision.
In the aftermath, even Cesadia (the lady from the Sleepless Agency) had to admit we had indeed changed from our evil selves from two weeks ago, and informed us that a barge was going to arrive in Thrushmoor soon that could take us all the way to Katheer. We expect to spend much of the time underway studying the many arcane tomes we secured from Lowls' mansion. Maybe we can figure out what has been done to our minds, and how to reverse it.
I intend to bring all the expensive spirits we found at Lowls' along onto the barge. After all that pain and horror, I'm looking forward to some relaxing, peaceful downtime.
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...I'm looking forward to some relaxing, peaceful downtime.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...
...I'm looking forward to some relaxing, peaceful downtime.Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...
*hands NobodysHome the flask of extra-hard liquor*
There there....
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sail!
so we left Thrushmoor to chase after Lowls and Tam wanted Winter to come with us and she said no but she told him to write so that's something and I hope it works out for those two crazy kids
but anyway we got on a boat and we started sailing and Bit started making magics and Lorena started reading all of Lowl's books although I can't remember why that's important I blame it on my ADD
sail!
Skywin is the captain of the boat and she asked where we were sailing and why so we told her and that seemed to make her upset and she said if I wanted to be a sailor I needed to learn how to drink so I said I would try it again so she gave me some kind of brown wine and it was still terrible so I guess I'll never be a sailor but I refuse to do it again blame it on my own sick pride
we were sailing past Illmarsh and Skywin said we shouldn't stop there because it's a bad place and we saw a ship with red sails in the fog and then we were attacked by Screaming Things so we killed the screaming things
and I started reading the Pnakotic Manuscript it's very boring
anyway Lorena said she found a ritual which would let us go to the land of dreams so we decided to do it although I'm not sure why maybe I'm not listening maybe I'm a different breed but we did it and we went down a stairway into a desert and there was a deserted place in the desert which makes sense and we wandered around until we found a man who said hi I am a shopkeeper may I sell you some things and we asked if he had seen Lowls and he said no so I said OK what do you have to sell us and he did a magic which made the Mistress appear in my head and she killed me and I woke up screaming
sail!
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I couldn't stop her. Winter's insistence that her superiors wanted her back in the capital and wouldn't care to pursue Lowls' investigation further now that he had left Ustalav, took the wind out of the sails of my argumentation. She was certainly nice about it, and invited me to keep in touch, be it through mundane or magical ways. She even patted my shoulder once. My mind keeps circling on what that meant. Was that a soldier's version of a hug, or something you would do to console a child?
I'm glad Mrriaál kept Bit at bay during that conversation. Bit had been showing some morbid interest in my «behavior» toward Winter and would probably have said something monumentally out of place. Given my recent anger management issues, I don't know how that would have ended.
Anyway, I've decided to write my first letter to Winter in the literary form of the famed half-orc bard Lhim Riq. Hopefully I'll be able to mail it next time we make landfall. Here's what I have so far.
We're sailing the Sellen by barge,
a halfling ex-pirate in charge.
The boat and the woman
have one thing in common:
Both aren't particularly large.
The ship with red sails in pursuit
is certainly up to no good.
Dream-spawned creatures
swam to reach us
and tried to turn us to food.
A halfling by name of Lorena
depends on the dark to sustain her.
She hides in a nook
and reads book after book —
all attempts to say hi are in vain now.
I have tried, as a scribe by my trade,
with the sorting of books to lend aid.
But knowledge of Aklo
— alas — I lack, so
it won't do much good, I'm afraid.
Our wizard thinks it's ordinary
that Nat now looks like a fairy,
and not like a bird.
I find that absurd
and more than a little bit scary.
Mrriaál reads the writings Pnakotic.
So far they seem rather quixotic.
It could be worse —
I hope no curse
will emerge and turn her psychotic.
Lorena's researching has yielded
a ritual key. When we wield it,
it opens a door
in the barge's floor
as if the deck hat concealed it.
It leads to a desert oasis
— if that is indeed what this place is.
We search this malign
locale to divine
how to follow the Mad Poet's traces.
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so when I woke up I was not in a good mood and Tam wasn't in a good mood either and he tried to cast a spell on me so I grabbed him and asked what spell he cast and he said it was to calm me down
well that didn't work
I told him to ask first next time and he said OK
we talked about what happened in the dream and I asked why we had gone into the dream in the first place and it turns out we went to find out what Lowls was up to and I guess there's also a book or something but anyway we agreed that we should try again because it was important and I do want to know what Lowls is up to
and Tam asked what do we do about the shopkeeper and I said let's not go in that room and he said but what if he can come out of the room and I said I guess we'll die then and no one really had an answer to that
so we went back down the stair into the dream and Lorena decided she would sneak in first sneakily to scout things out and I went with her to protect her and everyone told me that was defeating the purpose because I'm not good at sneaking but I don't see why because Lorena can still sneak right?
and we avoided the room with the shopkeeper and we didn't run into the shopkeeper only some noisy ghosts so that was all right
and there were some books with writing in them that no one could understand and maybe wasn't writing at all and Tam wondered if they were written by The Mad Poet but I thought if The Mad Poet had written these he would just be known as The Mad because they didn't even rhyme and also weren't words or letters
then upstairs there was a man in yellow and we said who are you and he said I am the Yellow King and I said oh I thought you would be taller but it turns out the Yellow King and the King in Yellow are two different people who knew?
the Yellow King looks like Lowls and I think he and Lowls are cousins although the others told me no and there was some complicated explanation I don't understand so I'll go with cousins
we asked a lot of questions and he said a lot but the important thing he said was that if we wanted to see the Mad Poet we needed to bring gifts or he might eat us or something and that Lowls had written down the gifts we needed to bring in a book so we woke ourselves up and checked and there they were
Nat read the books for a few days and Nat is a little person now if I haven't mentioned that before and said that to get the first gift we had to go to a party so we dressed up all fancy and went back into the dream and went to the party
and there were lots of people at the party including a cat and I tried to speak to the cat but the cat didn't speak cat which is kind of weird and then a web came down from the ceiling and yanked up a guest so we all went up and evil spider creatures attacked us and they were very hard to kill but I thought they looked like some of the evil spider creatures The Mistress kept so I said try killing them with silver weapons or not-evil weapons and Tam had a silver knife so eventually we killed them and then we went back down
and we went to see the prince who was throwing the party because we needed his ring and we said hey did you know there are spiders eating your guests and he shrugged so we said OK then and then we said can we have your ring and he said well I promised to dance with three guests and I only want to dance with my girlfriend so if you tell the three guests I won't dance with them I'll give you my ring so we said OK
the first person was a vampire and she was upset that the prince didn't want to dance with her but she liked Tam so we said what if Tam dances with you instead and she said yes and she only drank his blood a little so that was all right
then we went to see a merchant who was upset because he was going to do a business deal with the prince while they were dancing and I said how much were you going to make and he said seven shovelfuls of money and I said how much is that and Bit said 10,000 gold pieces so I said OK how about we pay you that to make up for it
and my friends all got mad at me for offering to give away all our money so I had to explain to them that IT WAS A DREAM and that if you give away money IN A DREAM you do not actually lose the money and I thought I was supposed to be the dumb one?
anyway the merchant was grumpy about it but he said fine and took the money
the last person was a peasant girl and her friends said she had gone missing so I asked if she had gone missing "upstairs" and they said yes so we raced back to the upper floors and found her in a cocoon and cut her out of it and told her to go home because she was in pretty bad shape and she was a little upset about missing the dance with the prince but honestly it wasn't all that hard to convince her
so we went back to the prince and told him we'd done it and he said great and gave us the ring and also a belt and then he went out to dance with his girlfriend
and his girlfriend was a giant purple seven-legged spider and I guess that explains why there were all those spiders up there but we didn't really want to see how that dance was going to end so we all made ourselves wake up although I had to stab myself in the leg with a fork in the real world to do it
and I said I was sad we had to leave because there was someone I wanted to ask to dance and for some reason everyone thought I meant the cat and they offered to get me a cat and what am I going to have to do to get Lorena to notice me
sigh
then Nat read books for a few more days and found out that the next thing we needed was a cat's tail which made me uncomfortable and the cat was a kind of cat called a Pard and Lowls had found a Pard by asking the Zoogs like the little creature I found back in the asylum and apparently Zoogs hunt and eat cats which made me even more uncomfortable
so we went back down the stairs and we ended up on a great big tree and we saw some Zoogs and the Zoogs were being attacked by a giant horse so I made myself big with a potion and the Giant Horse attacked me and nearly killed me but Tam healed me with the not-evil magic and Bit and Lorena threw spells at the horse and I grabbed it and eventually we defeated the horse and that's where we are now
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If a dazzling vampire lady takes a virgin on an extended waltz in the sumptuous light of a frozen sunset and partakes of his blood, is he still a virgin afterwards? I mean, it was a really good dance, despite my two left feet. Lady Bonesplinter sure knows how to lead. And maybe the trance was partly due to the blood loss, but still.
I decided to lay of the letter-writing for a few days after our first foray into the Dreamlands. That ghostly shopkeeper killed half of us without breaking a sweat, and did horrible things to the rest of us. It took me two days' worth of restorative spells to purge the nightmare curse that his touch burnt into our minds, and heal the damage to our sanity. I am still left with scars on my face, which I fear are not simply injuries but rather manifestations of the ongoing unraveling of our fractured selves. The others show such signs as well: Bit's bouts of misanthropy, Lorena's antisocial tendencies, Mrriaál's occasional regressions into animalism. We must reclaim our lost memories before we literally come apart at the seams.
At least the Yellow King seemed friendly enough, and unexpectedly forthcoming with helpful pointers as to the gifts required to appease the Mad Poet. Obtaining the viscount's signet ring at the ball was pleasant enough, even if we did have to fight some demonic spider creatures in the rafters. At least I got the dance of my life out of it!
And now we're about to ask the zoogs for a leftover tail from the rainbow-colored cats that they supposedly eat. The zoog at Briarstone seemed happy to leave us in peace when most other things wanted us dead, so I'm hoping they might be amenable to talking (or nuzzling with their tentacles snouts, which I how I remember the one at Briarstone talking to Mrriaál). At least we killed what's undoubtedly a monstrous predator on zoogs upon arrival in their Enchanted Forest. That forest, by the way, is so large that we can walk on the branches like on roads, and each leaf is wide enough to build a house on.
Whatever gods prepared this path for us certainly didn't spare any expenses on the scenery.
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so after we killed the big horse we talked to the zoogs and they were very interested in eating me and I asked if they had a pard's tail and they said yes so I said OK how about I carve off bits of myself so you can eat them while my friend Tam heals me up and then you give us the pard's tail
and they weren't sure because they didn't know how I would taste and they said we could hunt tigers for them but I was NOT DOING THAT because what if one of them was a relative so I told them I was a unique cat in all the worlds and this was their only opportunity to have a bite so they said OK
and I said Tam you're the only one who knows how to stab people without killing them because you're kind of a doctor and you can heal me so could you cut bits off me and Tam yelled at me and told me it would hurt a lot like back when I was in the cage going through all the surgery but Lorena offered me some opium so I took the opium
so Tam started carving bits off of me and it was going fine even though it hurt a lot despite the opium but then Tam started REALLY LIKING IT and the only one who noticed was Bit but Bit didn't stop him so Tam killed me
although the zoogs apparently did say I tasted really good and handed over the tail so there's that
anyway when I woke up and found out what happened I got really mad at Tam for killing me when I trusted him and Bit for noticing something was wrong but not stopping it but I forgave Tam because we've all been acting crazy like I've been biting things because our brains are melting because of whatever Lowls did to us so I told him we're all going to lose it at some point and I hope he forgives me too when it's my turn
but Bit didn't understand what she'd done wrong and didn't believe that her brain wasn't working right even though she sometimes changes personality completely so we explained to her that your brain could be working wrong even if you still knew things and that we should all be looking out for each other
and Bit pointed out that offering to feed myself to zoogs was a really bad idea and that was fair so we all agreed that we were all at fault here
except Lorena who is perfect
so next we had to find the skull of gool royalty and I was very excited because I know a little about that from living in the cage next to all the other monsters in cages so I helped look through the books
and when we went back into the dreams we were in a place where gools were preparing for war and they were performing a ritual to Tam's god and when we showed up a gool came up to us and said I didn't really think that would work so we said yes the god sent us to help you with whatever and do you happen to have a royal gool skull lying around because we need that too
and the gool said no but there's probably one in the mausoleum where we'd like to you to go fight the gugs and we said well, that's convenient so we went
Tam's god is named Gnarly Hotep, it turns out
so we went to the mausoleum and bone snakes and a big bone golem attacked us and Lorena threw magic at the bone golem but it didn't do anything so Bit dropped the golem in a pit and covered the pit with a web and summoned a moo cow to guard it
meanwhile we went past it and there was a gug and it turns out gugs are big and have lots of arms and like to hurt you but Lorena's fireballs worked better on the gug and I grabbed it for a while and Nez bit it and we brought it down while the golem kept climbing out of the pit and falling back in
and we found a mausoleum and I said hey we should check it for curses so Bit and Lorena checked and there was a curse so Tam dispelled the curse so I opened the mausoleum and there was a skull so we took it and I stabbed myself with a fork to wake up again and soon we were all awake
and then a few days later there were pirates! but we paid the pirates and they went away