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Chronicles of Mesion: Considering Hiatus; Comments Needed.
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<blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 3226147" data-attributes="member: 9626"><p><strong>Welcome To...:Sympathy for the Unspeakable Horror</strong></p><p></p><p>“What do we do now?” Anastacia quietly asked, her voice quiet out of fear shock at what she saw around her. </p><p></p><p> Luke had pulled out the map, desperate for answers. “We should try the park again,” Enrique suggested as he looked over Luke’s shoulder. “After all, it’s night now. Maybe the park is open now.”</p><p></p><p> Lacking any better options and not especially interested in exploring this even more warped version of Crimmor, the party agreed and sprinted to the park as quickly as possible. Just as Enrique thought, the gate was now open, and the park itself was almost normal by comparison. The only unusual trait, besides yet another blank card lying in the middle of the park, was a gigantic statue. A memorial plaque under the statue read, “Dedicated to Mayor Amelie Horsen, brutally murdered while she had dinner at the Burning Wagon.”</p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, the party examined the card and passed it to another party member who hadn’t used a card yet. Anastacia looked at this one, and while the now expected voices said, “The Eight shall balance the extreme four,” she read the message seemingly meant for her.</p><p></p><p> “The one we are most interested is known as the “’prophesized one,’” Anastacia read. “We know not which one she is, but we believe she will have some sort of tie to the demi-plane. She is tied to the event that sealed this world’s fate. We believe that if she is not stopped, she could bring about the end of the world. As we would still be inhabiting the world at this time, this is not our ideal solution despite it nicely removing our other enemies”</p><p></p><p> As she read, her cat casually moved up to the statue of the slain mayor, which was so large the party couldn’t even see the top, and curled up to go to sleep. Trusting that the cat seemingly knew what it was doing, the party rested as well. And so, night turned back into day in Crimmor, and the park itself remained safe and peaceful. It didn’t even seem to be foggy here, unlike the rest of town. The party woke up peaceful, refreshed, and calm…until somebody looked up.</p><p></p><p> At last, they could see the top of the statue, and they were horrified to discover that while most of the statue was as solid as expected, the head appeared to be organic. Even worse, it was bloated and gigantic to match the size of the body, and it appeared to be quite dead. As it rotted, a wound in the head/statue’s neck started to bleed, leaving a trickle down the stone body. </p><p></p><p> Not eager to spend any longer in the park, the party planned their next move. “I think I remember seeing the Burning Wagon,” Ik said while pondering the peaceful day spent in the original Crimmor. “Maybe we can investigate that, now that we knew the mayor was there.”</p><p></p><p> The party followed her lead to what appeared to be a fairly typical tavern and restaurant. As they reached the restaurant, the ghostly image of Gerard and others appeared outside the restaurant. Gerard was dressed similar to the assassins who would later attack him. Meanwhile, more spectral images of the mayor and the various restaurant patrons and staff went about their days as normal. The mayor ordered the local meal of rabbit pouches and a greensplatter with groundspears, which the party realized was just rabbit meat stuff with cheese and a salad with asparagus. Gerard’s image chuckled and commented, “Heh, her last meal.” Sure enough, midway through the meal, he and the assassins burst into the restaurant. While the others assassins distracted the mayor’s bodyguards and the witnesses, Gerard lunged at the mayor and cleanly slit her throat in one swipe. She collapsed, dead instantly, in her own meal, and Gerard made his escape while the crowd panicked. As the image faded, monsters materialized to again fight the party. </p><p></p><p> Two of the creatures looked almost exactly like humans, but they initially appeared to be wearing masks. As the party looked more closely, though, they realized the creatures were not wearing masks; they seemingly had metal or stone masks where their faces should be. The third monster was much worse, however. It resembled to human bodies that were seemingly conjoined and wrapped with black, tattered rags. Both lacked lower bodies, and instead the entire being was supported by three metal legs. The party charged in and made short work of the two masked beings. However, in the interim, the conjoined creature leapt into the air and began spinning, and despite having any form of support, it managed to float in the air. Worried about what this being could do, Elvis pulled out his bow to shoot it, but it immediately charged into and past him, striking him with its sharp metal legs. Before it could have another chance, the party surrounded and overwhelmed it.</p><p></p><p> Once again, a card fell out of nowhere. Voices spoke, “The Eight shall terminate the living three,” as Ik picked up and read the card.</p><p></p><p> She quickly read it to the party, “Despite our new allegiance, some of our “neighbors” have grown too attached to this world. I refer specifically to the feared; they seem to need the very emotions of their food to live. More importantly, they seek to expand beyond our home. The ones known as the ‘teller of tales’ and the ‘singer of songs’ are the primary threats in this case. While not ‘ordered’ in any reasonable sense of the world, they are surprisingly ambitious. We believe they may even be secretly forming an army in a nearby city.” She looked up at the party and shrugged. She wasn’t sure what this one meant, either.</p><p></p><p> Interested in learning the rest of Gerard’s story and escaping this horrible place, the party quickly traveled to the second circled area just next to Bha-Ael’s Grace. This next building turned out to be a store called Belnare’s Bootery, which appeared to be a simple cobbler’s shop. When they entered this building, though, all the furniture was removed or placed in a circle around the building, and dark symbols covered much of the building, suggesting that it was a front for the very cult that trapped the party. Six more of the mask-face humanoids were here. The party startled them by suddenly charging, and several were defeated before they could even respond. However, the party got extremely nervous when one of the robed figures, instead of fighting back, raised a horn to its mouth opening and blew one long, low note. It sounded just like the sound the party heard the last time the world turned dark, but it sounded three times in that case. Afraid of what was coming, the party quickly killed the creature with the horn along with the others, causing more spectral images to again appear.</p><p></p><p> Gerard, now without any assassin’s clothing, stood in the center of the room, surrounded by more cultists, including an elderly woman and a now very familiar man with wild, blond hair. Gerard noticed him too, and it was clearly making him mad. The elderly woman was issuing orders to Gerard about a party of adventurers who recently arrived in town. According to the woman, they were some of the cult’ greatest “subjects,” and she ordered Gerard to give them a very special greeting. The party members nervously looked at each other. They had no idea of knowing when this happened, but it was certainly possible that these spectral beings were talking about them! Gerard, however, was not interested. In fact, while looking directly at the blond man, he told them that he had no interest in staying with the cult; he was quitting! A few of the cultists rose, ready to kill him where he stood, but he warned them not to do so, because he had many allies outside of the cult, and the elderly woman told them to let him go. As soon as he left, though, she calmly turned to the blond man and asked, as if she knew this would happen all along, if things were taken care of. The blond man simply nodded and replied, “Uther has been told. It will be done.” Moments after he said that, a very familiar scream was heard outside, solidifying when this happened.</p><p></p><p> As the images faded, another card appeared. Enrique picked this one up, and the voices again spoke, “The Eight shall unite the opposing two.”</p><p></p><p> Enrique, meanwhile, read the party the next message. “It is in play, yet again. We don’t know where, but we believe it may be close. Ironic that the very item that gave us our home is now a threat to us all, yet this can not be questioned. The masters of both our new allies and ourselves are very worried about it, for if it is not destroyed correctly, it could impose a new order that none of us could oppose. If found, do not destroy it, and definitely do not bring it into the proto-plane! Wait until the test is complete, and give it to the emissary of the masters,” Enrique looked up with a worried look. Could they have been talking about the Egg?</p><p></p><p> Besides the headquarters, two more circled areas remained on the map. Picking at random, the party chose what turned out to be The Theater of Joy, a combined church of Tsykie, the goddess of joy and children in the new pantheon, and a school of sorts where the children of nobility are regularly tutored. When the party entered the school, they discovered that it too was inhabited by more of the face/mask, beings, but unlike the earlier ones, who simply wore robes, these wore armor. Unlike the earlier creatures, they were prepared as well, and no sooner did the party arrive than the most heavily armored of the creatures pulled out another horn and sounded a note!</p><p></p><p> Aware of how poorly things were going, the party tried to charge through the door to stop him, but before they could, three of the other armored creatures blocked the door and pulled their swords on the party. Before they could be defeated, the leader sounded the horn two more times, and soon the world again changed. The school/church was transformed into a temple of evil, and the pulpit became an altar stained with the blood of many sacrifices. Though they knew it was too late, the party quickly finished the surviving warriors and quickly examined the church. They saw another series of spectral images appear. In this scene, Gerard was much younger; the age of a young child, and he was surrounded by many other children, including a distinctly familiar blond-haired boy. That boy was apparently leading the other children against Gerard. According to the blond boy, Gerard apparently killed his brother Vincent, a claim that he didn’t exactly dispute. Soon, the children were on Gerard, beating him unconscious as a result of the blond child’s claim. As the images faded, Elvis noticed a staircase built into one of the temple’s support columns. It was apparently hidden, but the false wall vanished with the day. Since there was no card again, the party realized they weren’t done here. </p><p></p><p> The basement, like all of the dark version of Crimmor, was rusted, rotting, and stained, and the floor was again nothing but a simple catwalk. Here, the party found another spectral scene. Several cultists were meeting below the school, and though they were masked and unidentifiable, they were clearly talking about Gerard’s fate above. According to them, they were the ones who told the blond boy about Gerard’s previous actions specifically so he could be beaten. Even Lorren looked shocked this one. “This guy had no chance from day one,” he gasped.</p><p></p><p>Otherwise, there was nothing but a locked door and another card. Elvis took this one, and he heard voices say, “The Eight shall hold the apocalyptic one.” As they spoke, he read his card.</p><p></p><p> “The planes may be massive, perhaps infinite, but we know so little about the true nature of reality,” Elvis read. “There are even hints that the great artifact is not of this reality at all, but rather of another dimension entirely. If so, it is not unreasonable to assume that it still serves as a link to other dimensions, suggesting that events affecting the artifact have also drawn others to our dimension. The strange visitor we had earlier, who spoke of a world of forests without end and dragons who permeated the very air, claimed that he was from such a world. If so, he is likely cursed to remain here, for the capacity to cross the dimensions is beyond even the power of the gods.” Elvis sighed at the card. Forests without end sounded a lot like home.</p><p></p><p> But he had little time to worry about such things. As he finished reading the card, the pyramid-headed figure slowly descended the stairs, again blocking the party’s only means of escape! Enrique quickly retreated to the door to try and get it unlocked while Elvis stayed behind to fire at the creature and hold it off. However, whenever he fired an arrow at the creature, they just bounced off of his helmet or skin apron. Was this creature as invincible as it seemed? </p><p></p><p> Fortunately, Enrique got the door opened before they had to find out. Everyone, including Elvis, dashed out of the door and into the very relative safety of Crimmor’s streets, or at least the streets that still existed.</p><p></p><p> “Back to the park?” Ik asked as she examined the nightmarish world.</p><p></p><p> “No,” Luke said as he shook his head. He wasn’t even sure if he could sleep after knowing what was watching above them. But his argument sounded more resolute. “We have to finish this. Who knows if Gerard or the other spirits are trapped here, suffering? And what about that master the frogs were talking about? We should examine that last circle and get out of here as soon as possible.”</p><p></p><p> The last circled location turned out to be Durndraaven Manor, the home of the Ophal noble house and presumably Gerard’s own home. However, like the rest of the city, when the party arrived, it was twisted into a house of horror, a barely stable mess of metal and unidentified flesh. Three more of the armored face/mask creatures were waiting for the party, along with another acid-spitting patient. Eager to escape this nightmare, they made short work of them, but it was a costly battle, and by now, some of the party was barely able to walk. Nonetheless, they held on long enough to explore the house and find Gerard’s room, where an even younger spectral Gerard was playing with a stuffed lizard while a woman was speaking to an unseen person outside of the room. She was younger as well, but she was clearly the same woman that was issuing the adult Gerard orders in the earlier scene. Ik suddenly placed her face. “I think that’s Lady Zharnn Ophal, the noble house’s matriarch!” She explained. “I heard about her. There always were rumors that she was involved in some shady activities. But I couldn’t have imagined this!”</p><p></p><p> While Ik explained this, Zharnn continued her half of the conversation. According to what they learned, she actually adopted Gerard very recently at that point after being impressed with his skill at surviving without a home or parents. She even specifically mentioned what he did to “the other boy,” suggesting that the blond child’s rage might not have been unfounded. However, the other being apparently explained that they wanted Gerard to be the “ideal subject.” If this meant what they thought it meant, the party realized that Gerard’s entire life was building toward the construction of this plane. The images faded, and Lorren noticed that the room contained both another card and the now rotting stuffed lizard. He glanced at the lizard and realized that the name “Winslow” was written on the bottom. Some sympathy, or perhaps madness, touched Lorren as he claimed the lizard for his own. Meanwhile, Luke claimed the final card as voices chanted, “The Eight shall control destiny, opposed by none.”</p><p></p><p> “Though both are infants compared to us, the ‘new’ pantheon intrigues us,” Luke read. “Where did it come from? Most of the theories suggest the so-called ‘primals’ brought it to the people. This makes no sense. Were the primals not themselves servants of the gods? Why would they need to introduce new gods never heard of before? We believe the primals came from another source entirely, bringing their gods with them to this world as a result. The one known as Bas is particularly fascinating. Why, of all the pantheon, is there only one evil goddess? Was this a contentious subject among the primals? Were her servants especially vocal or powerful, and if so, what became of them?”</p><p></p><p> This left only one place to return to, but the party looked reluctant. “I don’t think we can handle a place that serves as their headquarters in this condition,” Anastacia admitted, and Luke had to agree with her. With no small amount of reluctance, they returned to the park to rest another day, and the horrors and injuries weighing all of them down were enough for them to sleep even with the realization of what was watching them sleep.</p><p></p><p> The next morning, after the basic preparations were made, the party wasted no time in reaching the headquarters. The crater was no different compared to the last time, but the image was different. It showed Gerard’s wife, and when Luke shouted the name, “Juliet!” the world changed again. For the third time, the warning bell sounded out from nowhere, and day somehow became night. The empty crater was replaced with a catwalk bridge leading to a windmill. Even the mill wasn’t immune to the grotesque nature of this version of the town; a body was tied by the legs to the one of the windmill blades, and whenever it tilted down, the body fell back and struck the ground with a sickening thud. </p><p></p><p> Ignoring the macabre display as best they could, the party entered the windmill to find whatever force controlled this twisted plane. They found a corridor leading towards another chamber. More of the masked creatures were inside the walls themselves, working on various machinery in an apparent effort to maintain the plane itself. There were hundreds of them, but they ignored the party’s arrival, and for their part the party thought better of confronting them. They had their leader to contend with. As they neared the chamber, a loud, inhuman laughter could be heard echoing across the walls, along with dozens of screaming voices.</p><p></p><p> The chamber the party discovered had circular walls and was dominated by a single cage in the center. It was made of metal bars, but the four bars at the corners of the cage were most notable, as they were larger and contained a spike that pointed inward into the cage. Inside the cage was a pitiful beast being pierced by the spikes. It seemed initially to be a mess of seemingly random body parts, but they continually appeared and disappeared as the party watched it. Suddenly, a bolt of energy emerged from the four spiked bars of the cage and struck the beast. With an alien roar, it was briefly trapped in a single semi-coherent state before altering its form again. </p><p></p><p> The party, however, was more concerned with the monster above the cage. It slightly resembled a jellyfish, but it floated through the air. It also only had four legs, but they were long and ended in a series of cruel barbs that were, for now, wrapped around the bars of the cage. It had a more spherical, pod-like head, which was filled with a green fluid. Worse, ghostly heads, including that of Gerard, floated in the pod and gave off constant wailings. The creature itself, however, was doing the laughing despite not actually having a mouth.</p><p></p><p> Negotiations were brief. “Welcome,” the creature greeted the party when they entered the party. “How have you enjoyed the journey through my new world.”</p><p></p><p> “We haven’t especially,” Grim acknowledged. “Is that trapped thing keeping this place around?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes…” the jellyfish admitted, but before he could begin the traditional evil speech, Grim shrugged.</p><p></p><p> “That’s all I wanted to know,” he grunted before charging one of the bars and striking it with all of his might!</p><p></p><p> However, it soon became obvious that it wouldn’t be that easy. While the jellyfish uncoiled from the cage to confront the party directly, a wall in the corridor leading to the room suddenly split apart. From the opening, Pyramid Head stepped out. It turned to face the party and raised his sword.</p><p></p><p> Anastacia was at the rear of the party when the fight began, but she courageously held her ground. Even though it didn’t seem to have any effect, she even tried to stab the monstrosity while dodging his gigantic blade. While she was dodging, however, she suddenly felt a dark force strike her in the bad. She turned for a moment to see the jellyfish had descended in the middle of the party and was unleashing orbs of dark energy in every direction. Save for Lorren, who wisely retreated to the far end of the room, everyone was caught in the blast. Some managed to get out of the way, but Anastacia wasn’t so lucky. Acting on her brief hesitation, Pyramid Head drove his sword straight into her chest. She was killed instantly as her heart was ruptured!</p><p></p><p> Fortunately, the party wasn’t the only one to take casualties. After unleashing its dark energies, the jellyfish grabbed Elvis in one of its tentacle and began to thrash him about while digging its blades into him. However, this left the creature partially undefended, and Enrique took advantage of the opportunity to dive his blades into the creature’s pod head. As vile green fluid leaked out, Grim stopped attacking the bars to take advantage of the opportunity. He sliced at the creature with his own sword, and the leaks grew until the creature’s entire head split like a crushed tomato. As the body twitched and fell to the ground, the souls of Gerard and the countless other beings drawn to this plane happily escaped, flying to their true eternal rewards.</p><p></p><p> But none of this stopped Pyramid Head. He turned his attention on the next victim, which turned out to be Enrique, and dropped the wounded rogue with one strike as well, though he at least still breathed. Luke was the next closest target, but fortunately he at least had a way of curing himself. Pyramid Head constantly inflicted wounds on him, but Lorren by now noticed that though the creature never seemed to physically take damage, the magical energies that sustained him were weakening. He fired at Pyramid Head using every spell he had. Finally, Pyramid Head apparently could no longer manifest itself. With one single, grisly action, he turned his sword inward and drove it into his own chest, pinning him to the ground!</p><p></p><p> With both of their enemies destroyed or at least stopped, it was easy to destroy the cage. When the four bars were destroyed, the creature’s amorphous form slipped around the now non-threatening normal bars of the cage. The instant it left the cage, the entire plane seemed to fade away, and instead the party found itself inside an entire different windmill. This one was covered with more cultist circles and paraphernalia, including some very expensive-looking artwork of the dragon eating its own tail, but it at least it was the real world again. The party cautiously stepped out of the windmill, and as they left, Elvis could swear he saw a black-armored, winged figure flying away. Evil was certain, but the creature’s metal armor looked almost alive, similar to the armor Malordonus wore.</p><p></p><p> The city watch, meanwhile, found the party almost immediately. “You were missing for days!” the first guard gasped. “You’re lucky the caravan didn’t leave yet. It would have given up and left a day ago if he didn’t intervene.”</p><p></p><p> Luke was confused. “Who stopped them?”</p><p></p><p> “I did,” a voice said behind them. The party whirled to find Operative Vel behind them. “Now, could you explain to me where you were?”</p><p></p><p> The party did their best to explain the situation, and meanwhile they learned that Vel, along with many other Fra Dane guards, were already in the very caravan the party was planning on using. They learned the party went missing and investigated the whole city, soon learning of the cult’s existence themselves. Already, most of the cult was arrested, including a dwarf named Uther who was guilty of murdering a local noble. However, some of the cult apparently escaped, including Zharnn Ophal, who was last seen fleeing towards the Gate of Madness with a messy-haired blond man.</p><p></p><p> Vel was surprisingly understanding and helpful towards the party, suggesting that he expected big things from the party’s success in the Gate of Madness. He even offered to pay for Anastacia’s resurrection. While the clerics pleaded for her soul and Ik watched over her friend’s recovery, Enrique and Elvis made their way back to the Silent Hill crypt. They had to retrieve the Egg, after all.</p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, Luke and the others sat down to began their briefing with Vel. As usual, they weren’t sure how much to tell him about their discoveries and how much to keep secret.</p><p></p><p> To their horror, Elvis and Enrique found all of the masonry and urns of the Embalming Room shattered, and the Egg was gone. They realized that Vel mentioned a full investigation when the party vanished. If his investigation was this thorough, he now had the Egg.</p><p></p><p> Back in town, Vel smiled as he asked Luke, “Now, what can you tell me. I want to know everything.”</p><p></p><p> OOC Notes: And so ends my first official Halloween adventure. In 10 months or so, we’ll see if I can manage to make it an annual tradition. Fans of the last campaign I ran may recognize the jellyfish monster as one of my many unique monsters. Anyway, the adventure’s ending was tied to how long the party spent in the proto-plane, and this was admittedly an ending I expected. What they do next, however, completely threw me for a loop. But you’ll have to wait until next week for that update, which will be admittedly a little than this one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LordVyreth, post: 3226147, member: 9626"] [b]Welcome To...:Sympathy for the Unspeakable Horror[/b] “What do we do now?” Anastacia quietly asked, her voice quiet out of fear shock at what she saw around her. Luke had pulled out the map, desperate for answers. “We should try the park again,” Enrique suggested as he looked over Luke’s shoulder. “After all, it’s night now. Maybe the park is open now.” Lacking any better options and not especially interested in exploring this even more warped version of Crimmor, the party agreed and sprinted to the park as quickly as possible. Just as Enrique thought, the gate was now open, and the park itself was almost normal by comparison. The only unusual trait, besides yet another blank card lying in the middle of the park, was a gigantic statue. A memorial plaque under the statue read, “Dedicated to Mayor Amelie Horsen, brutally murdered while she had dinner at the Burning Wagon.” Meanwhile, the party examined the card and passed it to another party member who hadn’t used a card yet. Anastacia looked at this one, and while the now expected voices said, “The Eight shall balance the extreme four,” she read the message seemingly meant for her. “The one we are most interested is known as the “’prophesized one,’” Anastacia read. “We know not which one she is, but we believe she will have some sort of tie to the demi-plane. She is tied to the event that sealed this world’s fate. We believe that if she is not stopped, she could bring about the end of the world. As we would still be inhabiting the world at this time, this is not our ideal solution despite it nicely removing our other enemies” As she read, her cat casually moved up to the statue of the slain mayor, which was so large the party couldn’t even see the top, and curled up to go to sleep. Trusting that the cat seemingly knew what it was doing, the party rested as well. And so, night turned back into day in Crimmor, and the park itself remained safe and peaceful. It didn’t even seem to be foggy here, unlike the rest of town. The party woke up peaceful, refreshed, and calm…until somebody looked up. At last, they could see the top of the statue, and they were horrified to discover that while most of the statue was as solid as expected, the head appeared to be organic. Even worse, it was bloated and gigantic to match the size of the body, and it appeared to be quite dead. As it rotted, a wound in the head/statue’s neck started to bleed, leaving a trickle down the stone body. Not eager to spend any longer in the park, the party planned their next move. “I think I remember seeing the Burning Wagon,” Ik said while pondering the peaceful day spent in the original Crimmor. “Maybe we can investigate that, now that we knew the mayor was there.” The party followed her lead to what appeared to be a fairly typical tavern and restaurant. As they reached the restaurant, the ghostly image of Gerard and others appeared outside the restaurant. Gerard was dressed similar to the assassins who would later attack him. Meanwhile, more spectral images of the mayor and the various restaurant patrons and staff went about their days as normal. The mayor ordered the local meal of rabbit pouches and a greensplatter with groundspears, which the party realized was just rabbit meat stuff with cheese and a salad with asparagus. Gerard’s image chuckled and commented, “Heh, her last meal.” Sure enough, midway through the meal, he and the assassins burst into the restaurant. While the others assassins distracted the mayor’s bodyguards and the witnesses, Gerard lunged at the mayor and cleanly slit her throat in one swipe. She collapsed, dead instantly, in her own meal, and Gerard made his escape while the crowd panicked. As the image faded, monsters materialized to again fight the party. Two of the creatures looked almost exactly like humans, but they initially appeared to be wearing masks. As the party looked more closely, though, they realized the creatures were not wearing masks; they seemingly had metal or stone masks where their faces should be. The third monster was much worse, however. It resembled to human bodies that were seemingly conjoined and wrapped with black, tattered rags. Both lacked lower bodies, and instead the entire being was supported by three metal legs. The party charged in and made short work of the two masked beings. However, in the interim, the conjoined creature leapt into the air and began spinning, and despite having any form of support, it managed to float in the air. Worried about what this being could do, Elvis pulled out his bow to shoot it, but it immediately charged into and past him, striking him with its sharp metal legs. Before it could have another chance, the party surrounded and overwhelmed it. Once again, a card fell out of nowhere. Voices spoke, “The Eight shall terminate the living three,” as Ik picked up and read the card. She quickly read it to the party, “Despite our new allegiance, some of our “neighbors” have grown too attached to this world. I refer specifically to the feared; they seem to need the very emotions of their food to live. More importantly, they seek to expand beyond our home. The ones known as the ‘teller of tales’ and the ‘singer of songs’ are the primary threats in this case. While not ‘ordered’ in any reasonable sense of the world, they are surprisingly ambitious. We believe they may even be secretly forming an army in a nearby city.” She looked up at the party and shrugged. She wasn’t sure what this one meant, either. Interested in learning the rest of Gerard’s story and escaping this horrible place, the party quickly traveled to the second circled area just next to Bha-Ael’s Grace. This next building turned out to be a store called Belnare’s Bootery, which appeared to be a simple cobbler’s shop. When they entered this building, though, all the furniture was removed or placed in a circle around the building, and dark symbols covered much of the building, suggesting that it was a front for the very cult that trapped the party. Six more of the mask-face humanoids were here. The party startled them by suddenly charging, and several were defeated before they could even respond. However, the party got extremely nervous when one of the robed figures, instead of fighting back, raised a horn to its mouth opening and blew one long, low note. It sounded just like the sound the party heard the last time the world turned dark, but it sounded three times in that case. Afraid of what was coming, the party quickly killed the creature with the horn along with the others, causing more spectral images to again appear. Gerard, now without any assassin’s clothing, stood in the center of the room, surrounded by more cultists, including an elderly woman and a now very familiar man with wild, blond hair. Gerard noticed him too, and it was clearly making him mad. The elderly woman was issuing orders to Gerard about a party of adventurers who recently arrived in town. According to the woman, they were some of the cult’ greatest “subjects,” and she ordered Gerard to give them a very special greeting. The party members nervously looked at each other. They had no idea of knowing when this happened, but it was certainly possible that these spectral beings were talking about them! Gerard, however, was not interested. In fact, while looking directly at the blond man, he told them that he had no interest in staying with the cult; he was quitting! A few of the cultists rose, ready to kill him where he stood, but he warned them not to do so, because he had many allies outside of the cult, and the elderly woman told them to let him go. As soon as he left, though, she calmly turned to the blond man and asked, as if she knew this would happen all along, if things were taken care of. The blond man simply nodded and replied, “Uther has been told. It will be done.” Moments after he said that, a very familiar scream was heard outside, solidifying when this happened. As the images faded, another card appeared. Enrique picked this one up, and the voices again spoke, “The Eight shall unite the opposing two.” Enrique, meanwhile, read the party the next message. “It is in play, yet again. We don’t know where, but we believe it may be close. Ironic that the very item that gave us our home is now a threat to us all, yet this can not be questioned. The masters of both our new allies and ourselves are very worried about it, for if it is not destroyed correctly, it could impose a new order that none of us could oppose. If found, do not destroy it, and definitely do not bring it into the proto-plane! Wait until the test is complete, and give it to the emissary of the masters,” Enrique looked up with a worried look. Could they have been talking about the Egg? Besides the headquarters, two more circled areas remained on the map. Picking at random, the party chose what turned out to be The Theater of Joy, a combined church of Tsykie, the goddess of joy and children in the new pantheon, and a school of sorts where the children of nobility are regularly tutored. When the party entered the school, they discovered that it too was inhabited by more of the face/mask, beings, but unlike the earlier ones, who simply wore robes, these wore armor. Unlike the earlier creatures, they were prepared as well, and no sooner did the party arrive than the most heavily armored of the creatures pulled out another horn and sounded a note! Aware of how poorly things were going, the party tried to charge through the door to stop him, but before they could, three of the other armored creatures blocked the door and pulled their swords on the party. Before they could be defeated, the leader sounded the horn two more times, and soon the world again changed. The school/church was transformed into a temple of evil, and the pulpit became an altar stained with the blood of many sacrifices. Though they knew it was too late, the party quickly finished the surviving warriors and quickly examined the church. They saw another series of spectral images appear. In this scene, Gerard was much younger; the age of a young child, and he was surrounded by many other children, including a distinctly familiar blond-haired boy. That boy was apparently leading the other children against Gerard. According to the blond boy, Gerard apparently killed his brother Vincent, a claim that he didn’t exactly dispute. Soon, the children were on Gerard, beating him unconscious as a result of the blond child’s claim. As the images faded, Elvis noticed a staircase built into one of the temple’s support columns. It was apparently hidden, but the false wall vanished with the day. Since there was no card again, the party realized they weren’t done here. The basement, like all of the dark version of Crimmor, was rusted, rotting, and stained, and the floor was again nothing but a simple catwalk. Here, the party found another spectral scene. Several cultists were meeting below the school, and though they were masked and unidentifiable, they were clearly talking about Gerard’s fate above. According to them, they were the ones who told the blond boy about Gerard’s previous actions specifically so he could be beaten. Even Lorren looked shocked this one. “This guy had no chance from day one,” he gasped. Otherwise, there was nothing but a locked door and another card. Elvis took this one, and he heard voices say, “The Eight shall hold the apocalyptic one.” As they spoke, he read his card. “The planes may be massive, perhaps infinite, but we know so little about the true nature of reality,” Elvis read. “There are even hints that the great artifact is not of this reality at all, but rather of another dimension entirely. If so, it is not unreasonable to assume that it still serves as a link to other dimensions, suggesting that events affecting the artifact have also drawn others to our dimension. The strange visitor we had earlier, who spoke of a world of forests without end and dragons who permeated the very air, claimed that he was from such a world. If so, he is likely cursed to remain here, for the capacity to cross the dimensions is beyond even the power of the gods.” Elvis sighed at the card. Forests without end sounded a lot like home. But he had little time to worry about such things. As he finished reading the card, the pyramid-headed figure slowly descended the stairs, again blocking the party’s only means of escape! Enrique quickly retreated to the door to try and get it unlocked while Elvis stayed behind to fire at the creature and hold it off. However, whenever he fired an arrow at the creature, they just bounced off of his helmet or skin apron. Was this creature as invincible as it seemed? Fortunately, Enrique got the door opened before they had to find out. Everyone, including Elvis, dashed out of the door and into the very relative safety of Crimmor’s streets, or at least the streets that still existed. “Back to the park?” Ik asked as she examined the nightmarish world. “No,” Luke said as he shook his head. He wasn’t even sure if he could sleep after knowing what was watching above them. But his argument sounded more resolute. “We have to finish this. Who knows if Gerard or the other spirits are trapped here, suffering? And what about that master the frogs were talking about? We should examine that last circle and get out of here as soon as possible.” The last circled location turned out to be Durndraaven Manor, the home of the Ophal noble house and presumably Gerard’s own home. However, like the rest of the city, when the party arrived, it was twisted into a house of horror, a barely stable mess of metal and unidentified flesh. Three more of the armored face/mask creatures were waiting for the party, along with another acid-spitting patient. Eager to escape this nightmare, they made short work of them, but it was a costly battle, and by now, some of the party was barely able to walk. Nonetheless, they held on long enough to explore the house and find Gerard’s room, where an even younger spectral Gerard was playing with a stuffed lizard while a woman was speaking to an unseen person outside of the room. She was younger as well, but she was clearly the same woman that was issuing the adult Gerard orders in the earlier scene. Ik suddenly placed her face. “I think that’s Lady Zharnn Ophal, the noble house’s matriarch!” She explained. “I heard about her. There always were rumors that she was involved in some shady activities. But I couldn’t have imagined this!” While Ik explained this, Zharnn continued her half of the conversation. According to what they learned, she actually adopted Gerard very recently at that point after being impressed with his skill at surviving without a home or parents. She even specifically mentioned what he did to “the other boy,” suggesting that the blond child’s rage might not have been unfounded. However, the other being apparently explained that they wanted Gerard to be the “ideal subject.” If this meant what they thought it meant, the party realized that Gerard’s entire life was building toward the construction of this plane. The images faded, and Lorren noticed that the room contained both another card and the now rotting stuffed lizard. He glanced at the lizard and realized that the name “Winslow” was written on the bottom. Some sympathy, or perhaps madness, touched Lorren as he claimed the lizard for his own. Meanwhile, Luke claimed the final card as voices chanted, “The Eight shall control destiny, opposed by none.” “Though both are infants compared to us, the ‘new’ pantheon intrigues us,” Luke read. “Where did it come from? Most of the theories suggest the so-called ‘primals’ brought it to the people. This makes no sense. Were the primals not themselves servants of the gods? Why would they need to introduce new gods never heard of before? We believe the primals came from another source entirely, bringing their gods with them to this world as a result. The one known as Bas is particularly fascinating. Why, of all the pantheon, is there only one evil goddess? Was this a contentious subject among the primals? Were her servants especially vocal or powerful, and if so, what became of them?” This left only one place to return to, but the party looked reluctant. “I don’t think we can handle a place that serves as their headquarters in this condition,” Anastacia admitted, and Luke had to agree with her. With no small amount of reluctance, they returned to the park to rest another day, and the horrors and injuries weighing all of them down were enough for them to sleep even with the realization of what was watching them sleep. The next morning, after the basic preparations were made, the party wasted no time in reaching the headquarters. The crater was no different compared to the last time, but the image was different. It showed Gerard’s wife, and when Luke shouted the name, “Juliet!” the world changed again. For the third time, the warning bell sounded out from nowhere, and day somehow became night. The empty crater was replaced with a catwalk bridge leading to a windmill. Even the mill wasn’t immune to the grotesque nature of this version of the town; a body was tied by the legs to the one of the windmill blades, and whenever it tilted down, the body fell back and struck the ground with a sickening thud. Ignoring the macabre display as best they could, the party entered the windmill to find whatever force controlled this twisted plane. They found a corridor leading towards another chamber. More of the masked creatures were inside the walls themselves, working on various machinery in an apparent effort to maintain the plane itself. There were hundreds of them, but they ignored the party’s arrival, and for their part the party thought better of confronting them. They had their leader to contend with. As they neared the chamber, a loud, inhuman laughter could be heard echoing across the walls, along with dozens of screaming voices. The chamber the party discovered had circular walls and was dominated by a single cage in the center. It was made of metal bars, but the four bars at the corners of the cage were most notable, as they were larger and contained a spike that pointed inward into the cage. Inside the cage was a pitiful beast being pierced by the spikes. It seemed initially to be a mess of seemingly random body parts, but they continually appeared and disappeared as the party watched it. Suddenly, a bolt of energy emerged from the four spiked bars of the cage and struck the beast. With an alien roar, it was briefly trapped in a single semi-coherent state before altering its form again. The party, however, was more concerned with the monster above the cage. It slightly resembled a jellyfish, but it floated through the air. It also only had four legs, but they were long and ended in a series of cruel barbs that were, for now, wrapped around the bars of the cage. It had a more spherical, pod-like head, which was filled with a green fluid. Worse, ghostly heads, including that of Gerard, floated in the pod and gave off constant wailings. The creature itself, however, was doing the laughing despite not actually having a mouth. Negotiations were brief. “Welcome,” the creature greeted the party when they entered the party. “How have you enjoyed the journey through my new world.” “We haven’t especially,” Grim acknowledged. “Is that trapped thing keeping this place around?” “Yes…” the jellyfish admitted, but before he could begin the traditional evil speech, Grim shrugged. “That’s all I wanted to know,” he grunted before charging one of the bars and striking it with all of his might! However, it soon became obvious that it wouldn’t be that easy. While the jellyfish uncoiled from the cage to confront the party directly, a wall in the corridor leading to the room suddenly split apart. From the opening, Pyramid Head stepped out. It turned to face the party and raised his sword. Anastacia was at the rear of the party when the fight began, but she courageously held her ground. Even though it didn’t seem to have any effect, she even tried to stab the monstrosity while dodging his gigantic blade. While she was dodging, however, she suddenly felt a dark force strike her in the bad. She turned for a moment to see the jellyfish had descended in the middle of the party and was unleashing orbs of dark energy in every direction. Save for Lorren, who wisely retreated to the far end of the room, everyone was caught in the blast. Some managed to get out of the way, but Anastacia wasn’t so lucky. Acting on her brief hesitation, Pyramid Head drove his sword straight into her chest. She was killed instantly as her heart was ruptured! Fortunately, the party wasn’t the only one to take casualties. After unleashing its dark energies, the jellyfish grabbed Elvis in one of its tentacle and began to thrash him about while digging its blades into him. However, this left the creature partially undefended, and Enrique took advantage of the opportunity to dive his blades into the creature’s pod head. As vile green fluid leaked out, Grim stopped attacking the bars to take advantage of the opportunity. He sliced at the creature with his own sword, and the leaks grew until the creature’s entire head split like a crushed tomato. As the body twitched and fell to the ground, the souls of Gerard and the countless other beings drawn to this plane happily escaped, flying to their true eternal rewards. But none of this stopped Pyramid Head. He turned his attention on the next victim, which turned out to be Enrique, and dropped the wounded rogue with one strike as well, though he at least still breathed. Luke was the next closest target, but fortunately he at least had a way of curing himself. Pyramid Head constantly inflicted wounds on him, but Lorren by now noticed that though the creature never seemed to physically take damage, the magical energies that sustained him were weakening. He fired at Pyramid Head using every spell he had. Finally, Pyramid Head apparently could no longer manifest itself. With one single, grisly action, he turned his sword inward and drove it into his own chest, pinning him to the ground! With both of their enemies destroyed or at least stopped, it was easy to destroy the cage. When the four bars were destroyed, the creature’s amorphous form slipped around the now non-threatening normal bars of the cage. The instant it left the cage, the entire plane seemed to fade away, and instead the party found itself inside an entire different windmill. This one was covered with more cultist circles and paraphernalia, including some very expensive-looking artwork of the dragon eating its own tail, but it at least it was the real world again. The party cautiously stepped out of the windmill, and as they left, Elvis could swear he saw a black-armored, winged figure flying away. Evil was certain, but the creature’s metal armor looked almost alive, similar to the armor Malordonus wore. The city watch, meanwhile, found the party almost immediately. “You were missing for days!” the first guard gasped. “You’re lucky the caravan didn’t leave yet. It would have given up and left a day ago if he didn’t intervene.” Luke was confused. “Who stopped them?” “I did,” a voice said behind them. The party whirled to find Operative Vel behind them. “Now, could you explain to me where you were?” The party did their best to explain the situation, and meanwhile they learned that Vel, along with many other Fra Dane guards, were already in the very caravan the party was planning on using. They learned the party went missing and investigated the whole city, soon learning of the cult’s existence themselves. Already, most of the cult was arrested, including a dwarf named Uther who was guilty of murdering a local noble. However, some of the cult apparently escaped, including Zharnn Ophal, who was last seen fleeing towards the Gate of Madness with a messy-haired blond man. Vel was surprisingly understanding and helpful towards the party, suggesting that he expected big things from the party’s success in the Gate of Madness. He even offered to pay for Anastacia’s resurrection. While the clerics pleaded for her soul and Ik watched over her friend’s recovery, Enrique and Elvis made their way back to the Silent Hill crypt. They had to retrieve the Egg, after all. Meanwhile, Luke and the others sat down to began their briefing with Vel. As usual, they weren’t sure how much to tell him about their discoveries and how much to keep secret. To their horror, Elvis and Enrique found all of the masonry and urns of the Embalming Room shattered, and the Egg was gone. They realized that Vel mentioned a full investigation when the party vanished. If his investigation was this thorough, he now had the Egg. Back in town, Vel smiled as he asked Luke, “Now, what can you tell me. I want to know everything.” OOC Notes: And so ends my first official Halloween adventure. In 10 months or so, we’ll see if I can manage to make it an annual tradition. Fans of the last campaign I ran may recognize the jellyfish monster as one of my many unique monsters. Anyway, the adventure’s ending was tied to how long the party spent in the proto-plane, and this was admittedly an ending I expected. What they do next, however, completely threw me for a loop. But you’ll have to wait until next week for that update, which will be admittedly a little than this one. [/QUOTE]
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