The Door in Reality, Session 9

General Summary

Resuming

Those Who Will Open The Door are still in contact with The World's Psychic Maelstrom, via Matthew Lutey's augury. Styg asks the Maelstrom where the STC is - it responds that it might be (at?) The Door. He also asks about his friends and receives glimpses of them in the day-to-day lives. The group decide to leave for The Door. They spend a day or so resting and preparing. Styg heads back to his workshop to build a device to locate Stevedore, then heads out to find it. He falls into a beast den along the way but pulls himself back out quickly. He locates Stevedore, sitting in a den that it made. It seems relaxed since the destruction of Walker, but reacts with fear at Styg because he removed its arm. He tries to convince it that he can fix it, but it runs in fear. (buried city miss, read a situation partial success, under fire complete success, read someone complete success, charm someone miss)

Preparing to Leave for The Door

Matthew explains that The Cult of The Door's power structure is quite flat, except for reverence of The Door. Storm hears through the grapevine some information about Abondo, who is one of the guards of The Door itself. (grapevine complete success)

To The Door

The group form a caravan and head out, but with Errol Mustang, Styg and Reginald Fulton scouting ahead on Barry Manilow. The scouts spot a pack of beasts in the group’s path, so they rest for a day while the beasts pass. On arrival at The Skyway, Matthew is welcomed warmly while Petunia and Prune feign worship of The Door (the rest of the group refuse). These three are accepted onto a lift up to the settlement. The Wolves of the Maelstrom try to join them but are turned away, so they teleport to the top. This causes a disturbance as the cult tries to remove the Wolves, but the cult are no match for them. The rest of the group sneak up above the settlement during the disturbance. Petunia splits the Wolves by going the opposite direction to Prune, but this doesn’t prevent a fight breaking out.

Chaos

Styg and Reginald open fire on the cult from above. Between this and the Wolves, the cult are severely outmatched and are slaughtered in droves.

STYG-0 and Reginald Fighting Cultists by Phoebe Herring

Storm Gardenia heads down from their overlook to The Skyway proper, intending to put on a show of turning the Wolves away and getting on side with the cult, but has to reconsider once the shooting starts. Matthew guides Petunia and Prune through the carnage, towards The Door. Errol leaves with Barry to avoid danger. Everyone except Errol meets near The Door, with the Wolves easily rebuffing any cultist pursuers.

This place was sacred... by Phoebe Herring

(help someone partial success, act under fire complete success)

The Door

Reginald almost immediately intends to destroy The Door with his RPG, but Styg interrupts and prevents this. Petunia seeks counsel with the spirit of Sequoia about what she should do.

The Door by Phoebe Herring

As reality fractures and branches, each member of the group has their own encounter with The Door:

One version of Styg discovers that The Door is indeed an STC - he secures it properly and works on contacting the wider Imperium of Man. Later, he is picked up by a Rogue Trader vessel and eventually returned to Mars, STC in tow. He is greeted as a hero. Another version of Styg, upon touching The Door, is transported back through his life and given a second chance. Before the mess with Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati and Inquisitor Rhia Jezail and The Dei-Phage. This version of Styg has the opportunity to make choices that he’ll better be able to live with.

Styg Looking Into The Door by Phoebe Herring

Reginald Fulton tries to destroy The Door but expends all his ammunition with no effect. He blames it for the psychic weirdness that began in the middle of the war that ended the world. He charges it with his knife and disappears into it. He finds himself at a roadside in a modern-day(ish) US town. The Mystery Machine drives by. He tries to leave along the road, but finds himself mystically turned around.

Astiniltlish "Pell" Pelligri realises that The Door is where The Warp is bleeding into the Maelstrom - it’s the giant flame that he sees in his visions. When The Door opens, the chaotic energies of the Warp flood into the world, immediately transforming all of the Wolves into daemonic creatures. A second apocalypse comes.

Storm Gardenia believes that The Door relates to the dresses of her Maelstrom - she views it as a sort of wardrobe. She isn’t especially interested in what it might reveal, so eventually heads back to House Gardenia. With her overseers trained, she convinces the people of Shelter to join her family, and they all live together in relative peace and bliss, in their post-apocalyptic treehouse.

Matthew Lutey approaches The Door and begins to feel his identities resolve. His robes transform as he moves, as his body also changes. He sees threads of white light form between the members of the group as they all take on new appearances. The sound of a car crash is heard as the group come to stand in a circle, looking in. They are all in the car park of an abandoned warehouse at the moment a rolling flashlight casts a perfect circle on the wall.

Sequoia’s spirit advises Petunia to “complete the cycle” in order to “survive for the entire universe”. She steps into The Door and is wracked with the pain of electrocution for what feels like a day. Her appearance changes during this experience - she ages and her hair becomes darker. She loses her sight, but gains a connection to some higher power - perhaps fate. She emerges into a world that she cannot see - a world of magic, dragons and fantasy.

As Errol Mustang circles the tree containing The Door aboard Barry Manilow, the sky darkens and the air becomes thicker. A large group of moths similar to Barry fly in over the horizon, dancing in the sky in some deliberate but incomprehensible patterns. They seem to herald great change.