Convergence, Session 18

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.

Deciding on the Way Out

In The Darkest House, the Convergence Player Characters discuss their best option for escape, given that the route the demon described in Convergence, Session 17 requires calling on the house and acquiring more Doom.
Cyprian Kernow is more certain that the demon's route is the best option, since receiving his vision of encroaching darkness. Toho "Ultrathem" Tanaka agrees that this option seems quicker and more certain, so these two call on the house while focusing on the pattern in the vestibule and are transported back to the great hall. (It is assumed that Trace also uses this route, but his player was absent for the session.)
The others set off exploring this secret, fifth area of the house to try to find a route back to the areas connected by the elevator.

The Exploring Group

The exploring group traverse a corridor, but Iolo sees his wife's face in the woodgrain pattern of a door. She looks scared and is mouthing "help". He tries to break the wood to release her, but Dvorak-46 intervenes, implying that this is just a trick of the house. Iolo snaps out of it and moves on.
They proceed into a room with a twisting walkway that defies gravity. Iolo tries to use his drone to survey the room, but it loses gravity when leaving the walkway and floats away. He has to float his goblin to retrieve it. The exit of this room leads, strangely, into a tent.
Atreyu realises that this is the home tent of Tan, one of his hunting mates from his tribe. Tan is sleeping when the group arrive, but wakes, startled. He asks Atreyu how they got here and who the others are. Atreyu and Tan converse for a while - Atreyu's tribe had been wondering where he'd gone for some time. Tan seemed unable to see the door leading into the house, instead implying that he was seeing the exit to his tent. The group try to lift the edges of the tent to see out but are unable to.
Eventually, Atreyu convinces Tan to just stay in his tent and let the group leave to continue their quest. They look through the other impossible door within the tent to see the time loop room and decide to go back the way they came, to the other doors in the blue corridor.

The Group Hurrying to the Exit

The group who used the pattern in the vestibule to return to the great hall find their way back to the ballroom, to attempt to acquire the silver key from behind the bar (on the assumption that it will open the Door Man's exit). When they arrive, the barman seems standoffish but isn't immediately hostile. They chat to him for a while, understanding that he is looking after the key for somebody and is unwilling to give it up.
Cyprian distracts the barman with conversation while Toho swipes the key undetected. They go to surreptitiously leave, but Cyprian is assailed by a vision of darkness (a result of his Doom) and alerts the barman, who immediately attacks. Cyprian and Toho are both wounded and both fail to resist the effect of having to immediately pursue a risky craving. Cyprian is compelled to contact demons and Toho is compelled to fight kaiju. They to and fro for some time, trying to pursue activities that they aren't really able to, setting off in one direction and then another. Eventually, they both snap out of it, but after maybe half an hour of wandering and rambling together.

Back to the Blue Corridor

The exploring group pick the lock on a door and find a bedroom that appears to have been used by Phillip Harlock. From here, they find a small room with the ghost of an old man sitting in a chair. The ghost greets them in a friendly manner and engages in conversation, saying his name is Charles. He claims that he found his way into this room because it was open to him (through the veil?), but he doesn't know anything of the house.

Ghostly Old Man Sketch by Phoebe Herring

He occasionally makes strange gestures as he speaks and eventually possesses Iolo's body, displacing Iolo's spirit into his own ghostly form. Charles (in Iolo's body) reacts with glee at having a physical form again and runs off into the house. Iolo takes some time to adjust to his new ghostly body.
Atreyu tracks Charles back to the time loop room, but the group decide not to pursue him into there.
They use a key from the bedroom to enter what seems to be Harlock's secret study. It is also connected to a sort of meditation chamber. Between the two rooms, the group gain much information about the workings of the house from various books and notes. Using some of this information, they whisper their mothers' names (or equivalent) into the orchids in the vestibule and are transported to Harlock's "original house". Taxi Varlik whispering Sequoia's name causes Prune to realise that she is actually Petunia.
In this original house, they don't feel the crushing darkness of the darkest house - it feels much more normal and seems lived-in, even though nobody else is here. Some of the rooms are basically the same as ones in the darkest house, but much less strange and configured in a way that makes sense. It's a very normal house, mostly. They can see outside into a quiet town at dusk, that seems normal but completely unfamiliar (it isn't Perpetual Bernville or any of their home realities) - they can even exit the door into this town if they wish.

The Smaller Group Find the Exit

The others, after snapping out of their compulsions, eventually make their way to the cellar below the interior courtyard. Cyprian alone is able to see the Door Man here this time. He uses the silver key in the Door Man's chest and the front door appears (impossibly) in the centre of the room. They can see out of it to a street. They step through the door, successfully escaping the Darkest House.

Exploring the Original House

The exploring group look around the original house, finding a dollhouse in the nursery that has a strange, puzzle-piece-shaped black void in its attic. Dvorak finds some puzzles in a child's bedroom and spends some time searching through them for a piece that will fit the hole in the dollhouse.
The others of this group head into the basement and find a strange object that matches the lacuna described in some of Harlock's notes. Ghostly Iolo touches it and is sucked into the object for three minutes. When he exits, he has received massive mental trauma and experiences fragments of impossible memories and visions. He feels that he may have briefly seen everything.
Meanwhile, Dvorak has found a piece from a puzzle called Happy Family that fits the dollhouse. The group gather as Dvorak inserts the piece. They are all immediately ejected from the house in a swirling vortex of energies and find themselves next to the rest of their group at the side of a road.

Escape, At Last

Charles, in Iolo's body, is also ejected from the house, so some of the group spend some time catching him and Iolo manages to re-possess his body, forcing Charles back into his ghostly form (who then escapes).
The dog that had befriended Atreyu also escapes, as well as Prune (though not the cat that Leofe trained or Cyprian's corpse-double). Taxi breaks down in tears upon realising that this is really Prune and not an illusion.
Dvorak had noticed that some of their items had transformed into Chaos-corrupted versions, so they burn their tainted book away from the others.
After catching their breaths (and realising that they have left the house with ongoing hauntings and nightmares), the group take in their surroundings - a grey area with squat industrial buildings. They can see the shimmer of a golden magic circle at the edges of the space, meaning that they must have successfully found their way into The Hole in the World.

Fixing the Hole

Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati approaches the group from a building that they seem drawn to. She appears confused, asking how she got here. She doesn't remember anything about a house, but says that the group had left Perpetual Bernville to try to find a route into The Hole in the World - she assumes that they were successful and somehow managed to summon her here.
She leads them into the building, which seems strangely familiar. It's an industrial building, sort of like a warehouse, with a small office space. She wanders into the office and says she's compelled to reminisce with the group about things that they couldn't have experienced together:

• She talks to Cyprian about an anecdote involving a book with chains illustrated on its cover, that causes strange effects when invoked.
• With Dvorak, she discusses visions of a strange reality where immortal space magicians use their incredible powers to conjure useless objects out of light and unnecessarily fight each other to the death while ignoring the suffering of their race.
• Her and Taxi reminisce about wandering to a nearby bakery while discussing in-depth theoretical implications and very specific critique of games.
• Atreyu speaks to her of boys from another land, obsessed with fighting and becoming stronger. In particular, a group of pirates with a straw hat for a symbol. Also, lots of dice and cards.
• With Iolo, she wonders about whether machines can be conscious - what truly makes a "mind" and a "self". Also, detailed information about swords.
• She talks to Leofe about far-off realities where the people tend to have overly-large eyes and live very dramatic lives. Particularly a related group with rigid rules for their combats, where they agree to take turns hitting each other.
• To Toho, she talks about games and mental health. Particularly inspirational, political games - the only ones with any real value. About how games might make people better, make people think more fairly.
• With Trace, she also discusses games, but with a focus on the quality of the design of their interlocking systems - there is a standard that should be aimed for, relating to fairness and balance.

As the group continue to converse together about games, stories, technology and other things that could be considered nerdy in some places, the area around them begins to regain its colour. They start to sense that whatever was wrong here is being repaired, and they feel a sense of belonging. The Hole in Reality is slowly filled, repairing the root of the problem that brought the Convergence Universe into being. With this resolved, they should be able to finally reverse the converging of realities as they see fit. Maybe they can return home, perhaps after they resolve some of the remaining issues in the area.

Rewards Granted

• The Convergence Player Characters all reach Tier 6 (the maximum) in Cypher.

Missions/Quests Completed

• Escaping The Darkest House.
• Repairing The Hole in the World.

Character(s) interacted with

The barman, Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati

Notes

Splitting the Party at a Crucial Moment

It was strange to have the party split for most of the session, both pursuing different climactic goals. While they did ultimately both escape, and the smaller group arguably succeeded at the stated task more effectively (getting out ASAP), the larger group got much more focus for the session and ended up uncovering a lot of information about The Darkest House and even uncovering a sort of "good ending". It felt a little unfair on the smaller group, but I suppose they did get to be vicariously involved in the actions of the others.

Problematic Compulsions

When the smaller group fell prey to their compulsions during combat with the barman, it led to an awkward sequence that was difficult to resolve in a satisfactory manner. The terms of the barman's ability meant that they both had to pursue activites that they weren't really able to, and at a time where they were really just trying to trigger escape from the house. I can see how those compulsions could lead to fun moments in a game, but this just felt frustrating. But then, glossing over them seemed to kind of "spoil" the nature of the house. The solution of just having them wander aimlessly for some time felt inelegant, but I couldn't think of a better way to resolve it. I couldn't even fudge rolls because the system doesn't allow it. This is a situation where gamemaster control could have solved a problem.

My Finale Idea - The Hole in the World

I felt a bit awkward including this sort of heartfelt moment of reminiscing about being together as friends, in real life - I don't know if it was a bit forced, off-tone or underdeveloped (or all of those, or other things). I had imagined that it would be a nice, touching moment but it ended up just feeling a bit strange. It is a bit unfair to drop this on players out-of-the-blue - they're partaking in some escapism, identifying with their cool, fictional character, and I confront them with the reality of work and the separation that the pandemic inflicted on us. I suppose I just wanted an excuse to explore those feelings together, but maybe I should have been upfront about it, rather than vague and mysterious.
It was very nice that Cyprian Kernow's player "got it" very quickly and started playing along before the situation was clear, but I'm not sure how many of the others were invested in the scenario.

A Fun Finale (Funale?)

The group were interested in doing one last session of Campaign: Convergence next time, with them all at their maximum power level, tying up loose ends in the Convergence Universe and making some decisions about the fates of the people and realities involved. Maybe fighting some big enemies. I offered that we could either leave the ending ambiguous as The Hole in the World is repaired, or do a final session as just described. I think a last bit of slightly wacky fun with Cypher will be a good send-off for the campaign.

Convergence Session 18 Sketches by Phoebe Herring

Related Adventure

Campaign: Convergence, The Darkest House

Report Date

20 Jul 2021

Primary Location

The Darkest House

Secondary Location

The Hole in the World