Session 24: Welcome Foolish Mortals Report
General Summary
Standing at the entry hall of a magically conjured mansion, magic far beyond anything these few had seen before, several members of the party decided to wander about the mansion for a while. They looked through the north wing, and found a library room with a curving stair upward, and, after looking at a few books, headed upstairs. On the second floor the group found a room with a strange table with six pockets around the edge, a top lined with felt, and a raised edge. Alongside the table were several polished sticks about 7 feet long. Jeeves , seeing this, froze for a moment, lost in thought or memory, then suddenly rushed from the room to find a washbasin to splash water on his face, and attempt to clean his hands. Roisin Marshfield followed, asking how he was. Jeeves asked Boris if he was familiar with magical induced memories; a confused and confusing conversation. Roisin Marshfield asked what kind of memories Jeeves had seen. Jeeves asserted
"I don't remember if I disliked people before, in the extent unbecoming of a doctor. The table was kind of like one night that I am feeling like I remembering. Mmm, surely can't be me, of course, it's just, ahhh, I can, I at least know that the game is named 'Snooker' and that it... uhh, and that there was is competition in it. At one point I guess I had won the game and left. Ahhh, and and then what happened afterward is...not...that...great of a thing for me to want to believe that I ended up doing, but it certainly gave that feeling. Like, like the magic of of your nightmares, Roisin Marshfield. It's uh kinda reminds me of those in the sense that I don't want to believe they were me, but they certainly felt, or, that but they certainly feel like I was either in it or it was me. Unpleasant things."
Roisin Marshfield replied, "Hmmm, that is weird... That is, interesting... You OK now, though?" Jeeves did not immediately respond, but looked down at his hands, his eyes widening, and began vigorously scrubbing his hands, as though desperate to remove some unseen stain. Roisin Marshfield then asked Boris if it was best to "leave him for a bit", thinking perhaps Jeeves needed some "space" to adjust and recover. Boris looked at Jeeves and noticed something strange happening to the distressed chiurgen. Boris spoke, "Uhhhh Jeeves ? Did the water in your washbasin just turn into blood for a moment?". Jeeves did not respond, just looked even more horrified. Instead Jeeves just sat on a footstool nearby, tense and unmoving, staring about the room. The chiurgen's eyes focused on something on the floor nearby and stared fixedly and blankly at that point on the floor as Roisin Marshfield asked "Jeeves , what is goin on? This is, this is weird... This is so weird... This seems... Boris ? What do you see, in there?". Boris responded, "In the water?" "Not just the water, in the room!" Boris described a scene of horror with Jeeves dressed in fine clothing covered in blood, a scalpel and knife in his hands with human flesh hanging from the knife. Roisin Marshfield described a woman's mutilated corpse laying on the floor with blood everywhere, and asked again "What is going on!". Boris suddenly looked around frantically, "Where is she? Some woman is getting murdered, it sounds like.". Roisin Marshfield asked again "Are we like playing a vision? From Jeeves ?". Jeeves continued just standing and staring. Roisin Marshfield started, then asked "Jeeves ? What have you done??". Jeeves finally responded, "hhhhhh, eruh, you're right, you're right...", seeming not to notice Roisin Marshfield's question. Roisin Marshfield spoke, "What? Jeeves , you're not making any sense...". Jeeves suddenly charged out of the room, yelling "But I can do betterrr!". Roisin Marshfield moved to block the door behind him, which further confused Boris . Suddenly Roisin Marshfield's hair went slightly gray, and she fell to the ground unconscious and barely breathing. Boris called upon divine magic to restore her, confused about what was happening. Jeeves pulled out a lantern and then tried to strike with a pulse of radiant energy, but hit Roisin Marshfield, nearly sending her back to death's door. He fought through his fear and rushed close. Something struck Jeeves , causing him to weaken substantially, and Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack. Boris struck with the Rod of Justice, and attempted to paralyze the horror, though he could not see it. Roisin Marshfield then backed away from this apparition. Boris now consumed a magical herb to heal Roisin Marshfield, though at the cost of his own health. Jeeves then sent a sacred flame against the apparition and punished it with holy radiance, but the apparition struck at the same time, again draining his life force. As it struck it screamed "You Killed Me! You Murdered Me!" Jeeves , apparently responding, yelled "And you killed her. And you murdered her!". The apparition then struck Jeeves again, taking over his body and causing him to stab himself in the chest with his rapier.
Jeeves would have fallen but Roisin Marshfield cried out, allowing him to remain standing. Jeeves then pulled out the rapier and ran off, just as Quirico happened upon this scene. Boris and Roisin Marshfield rushed to follow, still confused what was happening. Boris considered turning, but realized a ghost in posession of a victim, as he suspected was the case here, could not be turned. Unable to reach Jeeves directly, Boris launched a Sacred Flame, but Jeeves dodged easily. Jeeves continued to run away, opening the distance between himself and his companions considerably. Quirico rushed forward, and manifested his echo in an effort to catch up, but could not gain on the fleeing chiurgen. Roisin Marshfield also gave chase, unable to see clearly where Jeeves had gone, but rushing to gain ground. Boris likewise rushed forward, and nearly reached his possessed friend. Quirico rushed forward, using his echo to jump further forward, and managed to reach the others. A surge of adrenaline and Quirico was able to attempt a grapple, preventing Jeeves from running further away. Several threads of fate intertwined and reweaved at this moment, and before Quirico arrived Jeeves attempted to rush away, but Boris struck him with the rod of justice, knocking him unconscious. Roisin Marshfield again saw the apparition hovering over Jeeves , but it faded out and Roisin Marshfield just waited. Boris , still very much confused, just stepped aside. Jeeves suddenly jumped up and rushed off, Boris beat him again with the rod of justice, reopening his wounds and leaving an easily followed trail of blood as the dying man rushed off. Quirico rushed ahead, but did not reach his friend. Everyone heard a scream of horror, suddenly cut short. Roisin Marshfield rushed ahead, pressing past Quirico . Boris also rushed forward, not quite reaching a point where he could see anything that might have happened. Quirico , very near, stepped forward and was suddenly drained of life as he observed his friend's broken and shattered body lying on the ground almost 40 feet below the ledge where he found himself. Quirico then moved his echo down to ground level where it stood beside the corpse. The apparition struck Quirico and drained his life further. Roisin Marshfield rushed ahead, saw the apparition, and ordered Quirico to strike it. Boris stepped forward, squeezing past Roisin Marshfield, and tried to turn any undead that might be present. Quirico traded spaces with his echo, struck at the apparition with his echo, striking once. He now surged with energy, and struck the apparition twice more, unleashing his incarnation to strike a third time. The apparition tried to drain life from Roisin Marshfield, but failed. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack, and a strike from the rod of justice finally destroyed the apparition which dissipated after turning to Roisin Marshfield with a cry "I leave, but I am avenged!".
Boris looked down and saw the sad state of his friend's corpse. Quirico tried to think of how to fix the body, but could think of no way to return life to a corpse. Quirico carried the body inside, while the others went down the stairs to meet up in the entrance hall. The Octolibrarch was willing, and able, to help, but needed an incredibly valuable diamond to power the magic. Boris fumbled about and eventually came up with the required gem, though the cost was immense. The Octolibrarch then asked for a friend, companion, to call the spirit back to life, and Boris again stepped forth. The Octolibrarch called forth the magic, a tentacle holding Boris , another laid on the corpse, and another with the diamond, which dissolved into a cloud of sparking golden light that surrounded the body. Jeeves , falling to his death, suddenly remembered the day, nothing unusual and one of many. Happy, he had beaten an old friend at snooker for the first time in a long time, when he saw her. Another of the corrupt, foul, women who tempted him so terribly. He had to cleanse his city of this evil. He killed her. He used a larger knife to stab her, then used his knowledge of anatomy to cut through all of the critical junctures, to ensure there could be no survival. Now, somehow, the spirit of that horrible woman had killed him, but overlaid on that he had the sense that something, something was wrong in him when he did this thing. She was just a woman caught in terrible circumstance; the evil, the evil he sought to cleanse from his city was not in these women, it was in him. Perhaps it was fitting that he had died, perhaps this was better. He found himself in a marble palace, everywhere he looked was pale white stone. It was dim, however, as if only half there with all the color bleached out of everything. He sat on the floor, his back against a cold marble pillar and thought for a while. He thought back to all the times he had killed those women. The times he had purchased their services first, it made him sick. He started as there was a shimmer in the darkness, in a burst of light so bright it hurt to see, he saw Boris standing before him. He remembered very little, but he remembered that Boris was a friend. Boris saw Jeeves , half shadow and half real, sitting against a pillar. The shadow like the Jeeves he knew, the "real" part like Jeeves , but with a cane, and a black linen suit made more finely than anything Boris had ever seen, in a tall round hat with a brim. It was so strange to look upon. Boris stepped forth and asked how he was feeling. Boris then said "Hey Jeeves , it's time to come back, you still need to help protect the Rose."
"I failed anyway, a monster to begin with"
"You're not done redeeming yourself"
"What does it matter if I do that anyway; it's not like there's much that good will do, all the help I did in the previous town when I ended up meeting you, it's not as if that made much difference to them anyway."
"It made a huge difference"
"Sanitization, maybe, but then magic is all they ended up caring about anyway."
Jeeves felt a terrible weight of guilt for all he had done. The offer of a chance to redeem the guilt was attractive, but he was not certain he could accept it.
"Roisin, you mean Roisin Marshfield?"
"Yes"
"She is my patient"
"Yes, you still need to help her, help the world, you still need to make up for any evils you have done."
Boris was Jeeves friend, trustworthy.
"You're right, it's the best I can do. As much as I can do to be better than the previous."
He remembered then his name, and the name they gave him, the hated name "Jack".
"So long as I am still Jeeves for all of you. So long as I can become something other than 'Jack', redeem myself from being a monster. Protect one rather than destroy all of those that I ended up, destroying the town from. I suppose return is the better idea, redemption is what I would prefer."
A woman stepped around a corner. She wore black robes, with hair so black it seemed almost blue, her skin whiter than the marble walls, and her eyes like pools of darkness. She looked them over.
"We meet again, John."
"Have I redeemed myself from the last time, at least?"
"You have much to do, John."
She gestured, and looking across the chamber they saw more than fifty young women, all horribly mutilated.
"Their souls cry out. For Justice. This one [gesturing to Boris ] serves the Source of Justice. Listen to him, do as he says."
"I'll do what I can"
She looked at Boris , gestured at Jeeves , whom she called "John", and said "This one has committed terrible crimes, and must pay for them. You are the hand of Justice, it falls to you to ensure he pays for the evil he has done. Make him work, make him serve, make him heal."
"As you wish."
The head turned at an odd angle no human neck could replicate.
"John, do you repent of your evil, do you wish to make right what you have done?"
"Of course" She smiled then.
"Then go, AND SUFFER!!."
Jeeves awoke in excruciating pain. The woman looked at Boris then, as "John" disappeared.
"You don't remember, do you? Would you have your memory restored?"
"Yes"
"Do you know the cost? The price you will pay? It is not a memory you will wish to have."
"Is there something I must atone for?"
"Not exactly. More something you will wish had never been done, which was not your own."
"I wish it be restored."
"I cannot give it to you, but I can release it from my vault where it is held in trust. It will return to you in time."
"That is all I can ask for, thank you."
"What I do have I can give you now. When you awake you will remember. When you awake, give your niece a hug, tell her you miss her mother."
"OK?"
"Her mother was your younger sister."
A gesture, and Boris saw a halfling woman, quite a bit younger than him, her chest clearly opened and her heart carved out. With that Boris ' vision faded and he awoke among his friends.
The sparkling lights sunk into Jeeves broken body, his limbs straightened, and his spine came back into line and he screamed in agony. Boris stood up, walked over to Roisin Marshfield, gave her a hug, and told her "I miss your mother, it's OK niece, everything will be OK". Roisin Marshfield reacted with "What, wait, What?"
"Your mom was my little sister"
"OK, Uncle Boris , that sounds nice. OK. I have a family member that's nice, yay. I have others I hope they're nice, but you're the only one that's near me that's nice."
"Jeeves has returned to atone for his previous sins."
Jeeves groaned in pain. Roisin Marshfield asked Boris , "How did you know, how did you find out, that I'm your niece?"
"The Pale Queen told me, right before I saw my sister's dead form."
"What do we do now, since Jeeves just died?"
"It would be good to rest, if we could."
Jeeves tried to speak, but the pain was too intense. Roisin Marshfield suggested relaxing for the remainder of the day. Roisin Marshfield headed over to the reading room to spend the remainder of the day reading. Jeeves and Quirico replaced damaged weapons and replenished arrows from the stores in the portable hole. Roisin Marshfield found a book with an unreadble title, and after an hour reading it she found herself dreaming; and for the remainder of the day she experienced visions of horrors from realms beyond space and time. By the end of the day she was convinced she had learned much about aberrations from the far realms. Looking at the Octolibrarch, she realized it was such an aberration, that it was one of the few such creatures that was not evil, that Octolibrarch was its title, and it preferred to see balance between good and evil, law and chaos. She also realized she knew exactly what an Astral Dreadnaught was, and it terrified her. It seemed the books here could be strange and powerful. Unfortunately, her night was filled with nightmares about these horrors. Jeeves went looking for herbalism knowledge, instead he found a book about fiends, and began to initiate a foul ritual to summon a demon. The Octolibrarch slapped him in the head with a tentacle, and handed him a children's book instead. The process did leave him with knowledge of the creation of "Blue Gorse Berry", though he would require materials and time to produce. The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully, and the party exited the magical mansion back to the tunnels beneath the mountains early in the morning.
Rewards Granted
Cigfran
Roy
Quirico
Jeeves
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