Rug combat
- Elijah J. Lucas used fire breath weapon. Clearly weak to fire.
- Rug grappled Elijah.
- Cisco shot the rug, hitting Elijah.
- Ruasar hit with the quarterstaff for 0 damage.
- Elijah burned his way out with breath weapon.
Yort Li healed Elijah up. Moved on.
The blood rune room
Cisco unlocked the next door. Inside:
- Table with a rune that has blood on top.
- Bowl and several red candles on the table.
- Painting of priests dripping blood from their hands.
Ruasar saw waves of blood in the table grain — but nothing leaving the confines of the rune. Bowl was stone but not a drop of blood inside.
Cisco found a letter from Lady Serenna:
The blood remembers. Not ink. Not ash. Not word or wind. Only blood speaks truth. I bled a memory, and in return, she showed me what I had forgotten. What I had feared. What I had always known.
The table listens only when fed. Not all sacrifices require death — but none come without cost. A single drop is enough for the dreaming to begin. More, and you may pull the past screaming into the now. Those who seek knowledge must offer pain. Those who seek redemption must offer guilt. Those who seek power… well. You already know the price.
I leave this warning not out of mercy, but selfishness. I wish not to be alone in my torment.
— Serenna
Visions
Lorien Painbearer looked inward to ask Alric:
- Bunch of scenes. Lots of arguments between Alric and Serenna.
- Serenna slamming the door on Alric. Alric slamming on the door. Many times. Getting darker every time.
- Lots of regretful feelings.
- Alric couldn’t stop Serenna from using the power.
Cisco picked up the knife: “On this knife?”
- Felt overwhelming urge to walk to the table. Briefly regained control. Dropped the knife.
- Bolted to the other room to loot to prevent himself from picking it up again.
Yort Li proposed destroying the rune. Ruasar began.
-
Ruasar found himself in a library of bone and glass. Every book had his name on the spine. He opened one, blank, until blood filled the pages from his fingertips. Knowledge offered at a price. Came back.
-
He stepped back, doubting he was strong enough to destroy the rune.
-
Yort Li flicked acid onto the table. Found himself on a beach. Water receded — bones of his kin, his temple destroyed. Dear Li reached out from the water with a ghostly arm: “You were too slow.” He walked through the empty temple. Was told the people prayed but he didn’t answer.
-
Fernie Hawk Tuah’d — Elijah J. Lucas had a vision soaring through the sky, was Fernie. Landed on a crumbling cliff. Sky tore open. Fernie fell into flames; he couldn’t save her. Bones of him and his tribe. A small child with wings, crying.
-
Yort Li spat at the table — repeated the vision. This time avoided Dear Li’s submerged skeletal hand.
Cisco gave Elijah J. Lucas the goop of the soldier who had turned into a ghost and died — Edward, the guard who broke the forest chain in Session 15 and was incinerated to blue dust. Elijah poured it into the bowl. Pooled. Began to boil and smoke. Smoke took the form of the soldier — mouth open in a silent agonizing scream. The smell of burnt flesh.
Through the door
Moved on. Cisco unlocked the last door. Yort Li put his hand on the table and intentionally stubbed his toe — “those who seek knowledge must offer pain.” Didn’t work.
Door opened to a sunless sea and something beginning to awaken. Red eyes and a long tongue (hot). Shifted in the sky and glanced at us before looking away.
Lorien Painbearer entered first and saw Lady Serenna, just as she was before, in a white gown. Felt longing for her.
We all entered. Serenna trembled and reached out to Lorien — said she didn’t think he would come. Asked to take Alric’s burden from him.
- Lorien refused. His burden to bear.
- Alric struggled to gain control — wanted to be with her.
- Serenna claimed Ilmater wasn’t watching. Lorien wouldn’t break his oaths.
- Serenna grabbed the knife.
- Ruasar doubted Serenna. She got real sus.
Serenna grabbed Lorien in an icy grip and morphed into the hag.
Hag combat
- Cisco quickly tried to summon the Sea Hag. Failed.
- Three shadows and one hag.
- Ruasar (with witch bolt) and Elijah J. Lucas killed one shadow.
- Cisco, Ruasar, and Yort Li held off two shadows while Lorien Painbearer hit every single attack until the final two.
- Ruasar finished off the hag.
The hag's parting curse
“When one hag dies, others will rise.”
“[Our group] now hold the chain.”
The manor exhaled out years of rot. Cisco went down on the last turn; Yort Li stabilized him afterwards.