Convergence, Session 16

General Summary

SPOILER WARNING: This session describes some of the content of The Darkest House. If you ever intend to play it, it's best to avoid spoiling any of its mysteries.

Leaving the Chapel

In The Darkest House, the Convergence Player Characters continue their search for an exit.
While in the chaotic chapel, Cyprian Kernow asks a final question during meditation with The Revelation: "Where's the nearest exit from the house?" The answer returns: "The Door Man. Near the Music Room."
The group leave the chapel via another secret passage, following Leofe (who has wandered off). Halfway up the climbing passage, she notices another passage concealed within this one - the group realise that it returns to the room with the dolls, so they return to the passage's original course and find themselves in a bedroom. There doesn't seem to be much here, so they move on.

In the Ballroom

Not long after entering, a ghostly orchestra appears on the stage of the ballroom and begins to play music. Taxi Varlik, Atreyu and Iolo are compelled to dance. The others hear the clink of glasses coming from a bar on the balcony, so they investigate.
The barman is welcoming and polite, offering everyone drinks of their choice, for free. He chats with the group a while, though doesn't give away a lot of information. He seems able to create any drink that the group ask for. Once people accept drinks from him, he whispers warnings and hints to them:

• He tells Cyprian that Trace knows more about the house than he lets on.
• He tells Atreyu that Dvorak-46's zeal is putting the group at risk - that the house won't tolerate it. He also says that the names of the house's inhabitants can be found "in mother's section, where a corridor displays the wheel of blood", but heavily warns against leading Dvorak there.
• He tells Leofe to go to the room across the crossroad-corridor from here to find something cool.
• He warns Iolo against travelling with Cyprian - that his corruption is risking to trap the group in the house.

Absinthe Sketch by Phoebe Herring

Cyprian asks Trace if he's hiding anything, which leads to him discussing Ingram (and other cyber spirits) with the group. He asks Ingram if they have anything to share - they respond that they have been inundated with communications from the house since arriving, but that almost all of them have been deception. However, the signal transmitted to the radio in the Japanese-style room seemed to come from another entity inside the house (not the house itself), and therefore may not have been (as) malevolent.
Atreyu shares with the group that the barman told him where to find the names of the inhabitants of the house, but that he had been trying to sow mistrust of Dvorak. The barman speaks up to warn the group that Dvorak is a danger to them all. Dvorak reacts with aggression, threatening the barman, who quickly transforms into a monstrous corpse, swarming with giant centipedes. He attacks Dvorak and Cyprian.
Cyprian is harmed and immediately overcome with an intense craving to satisfy his desire to call upon infernal spirits - he starts to leave in the direction the group came from. A brief fight with the barman ensues, with Atreyu also overcome with a craving for lone exploration outdoors. Dvorak is temporarily blinded and the group end up fleeing combat into the next room, leading them back to the crossroad-corridor with the leering faces. Just before leaving, Leofe noticed that there were some items behind the bar that looked useful.

Seeing Through the Servo-Skull Sketch by Phoebe Herring

A Guest in the Tea Room

The group investigate the last unexplored door off the crossroads with the leering faces. It leads into a tea room, but most notably, there is another person here. Prune sits in one of the chairs, looking confused. Taxi reacts with shock.

Taxi Looking Troubled Sketch by Phoebe Herring

The group question Prune - she claims that she felt sleepy while heading home (after describing the events of the end of Adventure: The Door in Reality), found somewhere safe to sleep, then woke up here just as the group entered the room. She seems very wary of them and doesn't recognise that Taxi is an older, altered Petunia. Taxi maintains a ruse that she knew her mother, Sequoia, and offers to lead Prune out of the house (after giving her her sickle, to defend herself with).

Poor Prune Sketch by Phoebe Herring

Claiming the Radio and Exploring the Floor

Trace heads to the Japanese-style room to investigate the radio, after what Ingram revealed. He is ambushed by the monstrous undead woman there, but Iolo uses a Cypher that summons a monstrous bear to deal with it. The two creatures fight each other to the death as Trace grabs the radio and takes it to the tea room to investigate. As he tinkers with it, Ingram confirms that the source of the signal has since stopped broadcasting (so can't be located), but was definitely a separate entity to the house itself (though still within the house).
Atreyu realises that the key that the silver locket transformed into unlocks the door from the radio's room to the music room - he goes there to anxiously pace around as it's the largest space he can think of, though it doesn't satisfy his craving to wander outdoors.
Dvorak has become frustrated with some members of the group due to their acceptance of various corruptions and manifestations of certain abilities. They head out of the other side of the tea room alone, to sulkily explore. They find a corridor with an old-looking stone archway with the words “meaning is a burden" carved into it - they pass through and nothing seems to happen. Their dataslate grows legs and scuttles off as they find themselves in a grand bedroom, but there's nothing there beyond the furniture and another door. They send their servo-skull back to the group to summon them, saying they've found a way forward.

Dataslate Scuttles Off Sketch by Phoebe Herring

Cyprian and Iolo follow - when Cyprian passes through the archway he is completely stripped of meaning and collapses to the ground, catatonic. Because he is meaningless, Iolo doesn't register that anything unusual happened and continues on, but passes through unscathed.
In the bedroom, Dvorak and Iolo see a strange girl open the opposite door a little to greet them. Half of her face is missing, somewhat like a broken porcelain doll, and moths fly in and out of the hole. Atreyu sees her as well, from behind, talking through a door off the music room - these two rooms must connect. The girl tells Dvorak that she also wandered into the house and became trapped, but that she can help them escape - they should find the Door Man. Dvorak doesn't trust her and points out her unnatural appearance. She counters that Dvorak has metal tentacles and extra limbs, and looks strange to her. She says she can take them to the key for the Door Man, but Dvorak refuses. She skips off into a corner of the music room, giggling, and disappears.
As Taxi is heading to the bedroom to catch up to Dvorak, she sees Cyprian slowly regain consciousness and meaning. He claims that the process has allowed him to realise that he is a vislae from Satyrine (terms relating to Invisible Sun), even though it was incredibly traumatic. She also passes through the arch and temporarily loses all her meaning - on recovery, she makes no claims of realisation of another identity.

Cyprian Sketch by Phoebe Herring

Reconvening

The group all reconvene in the music room to discuss options. Trace heads into the strange room with the Door Man, to talk to the creature guarding him. She speaks only telepathically, asking the same questions as last time, ultimately telling Trace that the group don't have the key and should go away. She says that the key they need is silver, when asked. Toho "Ultrathem" Tanaka tries to distract her while Iolo sneaks past to see if he can pick the lock on the Door Man. This doesn't work - she's hisses threateningly, pointing at Iolo. They decide to back off.
The group discuss where to go next, having seemingly explored this "floor". Cyprian is keen to find the Wheel of Blood, to learn the names of the four residents of the house and find the secret fifth, thinking it will reveal more of the house's mysteries (though maybe not lead to an exit). Dvorak absolutely wants to avoid this, fearing corruption. Atreyu is desperate to go outside, so wants to head back to the courtyard near the gallery. The group suggest various elevator floors for their next exploration, settling on two (which was Cyprian's suggestion).

The Great Hall and the Host

Floor two of the elevator leads to a strange great hall. A host in black mask, accompanied by two people in animal masks, stands where it seems a large door should be. He greats the group warmly, as if welcoming them to a party (even though there are no other people or refreshments here). They talk for a while and the Host reveals some information, even though he seems unable or unwilling to talk about many subjects:

• He recommends that they avoid the storeroom by the kitchen and the bottom floor of the elevator, though won't elaborate and confirms that they are free to go where they wish.
• He notices that they have some of the nice tools and seems impressed. He suggests they look "under the checkerboard".
• He mentions that there are potentially multiple ways to exit the house, that the tools might be linked to one (though the group only currently has about half of them) and that the Door Man is another. He warns that the Gatekeeper asks a large price for her services (to access the Door Man), once the key is found.
• He mentions that he has briefly met Phillip Harlock, though they aren't very familiar. He doesn't think that Harlock is in charge of the house any more than he is - he suggests the house is far more difficult to understand and many of the questions that the group have don't make sense in the context of its existence.
• He says that the Wheel of Blood is nearby, and can reveal that names of the four residents of the house, though this could be dangerous to interact with.

While the group speak to the Host, Atreyu heads to the courtyard on "floor 4" alone, to satisfy his craving. He returns much less anxious.

Third Map of The Darkest House by Ché Wilbraham

Bonus Post-Game Scene

In relation to the Doom they have acquired in the house, Dvorak receives a vision not long after talking to the Host:
They see Mars in its present state, before time rapidly rewinds back through the development of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Before the organisation's establishment, millennia ago, they see a powerful human in combat with some terrible being. The creature is clearly immensely powerful and has a look of the Necron about it - one of their enslaved shards of their ancient gods. The human is able to immobilise the creature, but not fully defeat it, instead imprisoning it in the Noctis Labyrinth region. Dvorak understands that this is the Dragon of Mars. Their view begins to move forward through time, and they realise that this entombed Dragon is the seed from which the Mechanicus grows - they see its influence seeping through the planet, guiding and manipulating the Martians into establishing the organisation and steering its actions across millennia.

Character(s) interacted with

Barman, Prune, monstrous corpse woman, strange girl, the Gatekeeper, the Host

Created Content

I adlibbed some extra conversation details for the strange girl, the Gatekeeper and the Host because I felt that the group were getting frustrated from a lack of leads or reliable information. They don't trust all of it (which is good), but hopefully some seeds have been sown that will help them feel more like they're proceeding in the right direction.

Notes

The House Punishes the Engaged

There's a pattern that the players who are the most engaged / proactive are seeing their characters suffer more in The Darkest House. This is because any given roll has a reasonable chance of triggering bad outcomes from House Actions (so those who roll more will experience more of these) and many of the things that can be interacted with in the house will do something bad. It makes sense, given the themes and everything, but it feels weird for an RPG. Often, I feel like proactive play is to be rewarded and encouraged by the systems of the game (to a point). I'll have to make an effort to spread any negative effects or events to those who are taking more of a back seat.

The House Acts Too Much

I'm finding that the House Actions occur too regularly. It feels like about one in every two rolls, which is a lot given how they tend to interrupt anything that's currently happening with some sort of event (that I have to come up with on the spot, slowing things down) that often triggers rolls, which further distract from the ongoing action or train of thought. Some of them are very cool at the right time, and sometimes the exploration might be too uneventful without them, but I don't like their default frequency. I'm even curtailing them quite a lot by preventing them from snowballing or happening in groups, but they still often feel too much. They also cycle through their list far too quickly - maybe it needs to be longer, with more entries that are just spooky flavour, rather than immediate attacks.

Related Adventure

Campaign: Convergence, The Darkest House

Report Date

06 Jul 2021

Primary Location

The Darkest House