Session 15: Crab Mech? What Crab Mech?
General Summary
Morning breaks. Raine goes over to Usze's room to talk about her father, his location, and what Arulo may want with him. Later on the group has breakfast and discusses about Saan's item. The group goes over to The EYe, and he tells them the safest way towards the mansion would be through an underground tunnel. They are teleported there, and it is very dark. Usze casts light and they proceed, but later on something sniffs out the light and they are in pure darkness. Disorientating footsteps are heard around them, along with whispers. Arulo gets poked in his sides and Ruuch threatens whoever is doing this, to come out. The darkness disappears and walking on the roof the group meets a dark-skinned white haired tiefling woman, who grabs Arulo by his cheeks to inspect him.
The tiefling introduces herself as Seraphina Dusan, and tells them she was sent by Saan himself to assist them. The group isn't very trusting of this new individual With that, they team up and proceed forward. A light is seen at the end of the tunnel. Ruuch and Arulo go on to scout, with Arulo literally being consumed by the shadows. They come to a clearing and see the mansion, but it is protected by a ward. Ruuch sends his bird back to pick up the rest.
Ruuch buffs himself. They then enter, and all Ruuch's buffs are gone, with him needing to reapply them. Arulo and Ruuch approach the door, but Usze and Seraphina stay back and play in a pool of water. Before they can roll their eyes, the group is attacked by ghostly humanoids with skulls on their head. They seem to be controlled by it. The battle ends with some monsters blowing up in Usze, Raine and Seraphina's face. After taking care of them, Ruuch inspects the skulls and sees that they were human, and are in mint condition. Meanwhile Seraphina is sprinting over the water. Raine takes out her leaf and asks if this pool could maybe be turned into a holy one, but she is declined.
################## EDITOR'S NOTE: Arulo misses hit shot, Ruuch goes: "Let me show you how it's done!" And finger guns two eldritch blasts at a monster, killing it. Arulo is visibly impressed. ##################
Arulo opens the door and everyone blinks at the same time, only for them to be in what seems like a prison the next moment they open their eyes. The prison cells contain a lot of significant characters (except Vic apparently). Usze sees Adalai's body and goes over to it. Arulo spots the Sheriff's body and loots his guns. Ruuch later sees his wife and concludes that where they are is merely an illusion. After some sentimental moments (And looting) they continue onward. When walking out, they spot the last cells contain themselves, smiling at them. All expect for Ruuch, who looks at himself judgementally.
Once out everything they took in the room before disappears, proving Ruuch theory of it all being fake. In the next room they are met with a few doors. Arulo opens one to the right and finds a very, very dark tunnel. He, Ruuch and Seraphina go in to inspect while Usze and Raine stay behind. The three hear a voice: "Inspector... Is The Inspector here?". Ruuch deceived the strange creature into believing he is the inspector. On the walls they see scribbles, unreadable. Drawing resembling a stick figure with an odd hat, a bunch more people and a shadowy person. Next to it the same drawing, but all the people are dead and only the hatted figure remains.
In the next dark room is a dark figure in what seems to be a straitjacket. It asks for the inspector, and asks if he (Ruuch) is here to escape. Seems the other inspector ran before? The creature asks if he is to be killed, but they still have a few questions for him. Seems he is named Balro, and he is here because of "The people". Continuing on they turn the corner to find a room with a young boy and a huge crack in the wall. Ruuch and Arulo question the boy. Is name is... Saan? He doesn't know why he is here. They ask about the previous inspector, he seems to have owned this place and have an odd, laughter filled voice. Arulo asks why the inspector would need to kill him, to which the boy replies "I don't know, the others inspectors were out to kill them".
With that said the boy goes over to a corner and kneels down, refusing to speak further. Ruuch, Arulo and Seraphina notice the crack in the wall is big enough for them to fit through, and they crawl into it. A snapping sound is heard. They eventually crawl out to find a dark room with five tombs, one opened, a fountain, magical suits of armour and a table with an envelope addressed to them. Ruuch goes over to the letter and reads it to himself.
ruuch died about 3 days in the future. Betrayal of contract. Arulo dies in 4 days. Shot by Faces. Seraphina dies tomorrow, cause of death was vengeance. Usze, 2 days in the future. Goat man. Raine, 5 days in the future. The pool consumed you.
At first, Ruuch conceals the letter from the rest, to which the magical armour next to him reacts and nods at him, judgementally. At this point, the snapping is heard again, this time loud enough for Usze and Raine, who have just been waiting in the hallway, to hear it as well. They go into the dark rooms that the other three went in earlier. Passing by the rooms, they hear "I remember" and "Rest in Peace". Raine in front, they find the room with the crack and crawl in. Seraphina attempts to prank the two by creating an illusion at the end, but Raine isn't fooled. Seraphina continues to walk around on the ceiling.
Now reunited, they inspect the fountain in the middle. Throwing in copper makes an odd sound. Ruuch taps the water with his hands, but it doesn't feel strange. Raine inspects the water but it is just that; water, nothing else. Raine pulls out her leaf to question her goddess, but it simply replies "Die, Die, Die". They now turn towards the open tomb, and Ruuch summons his hawk to go look inside. Its about 20ft deep, but it doesn't go any further than that. Snapping away his hawk, the room goes pitch black.
Lights come on again revealing Raine and Ruuch scooby-doo holding one another in the dark, and an odd figure is revealed on the other side of the room near the table that had the letter. It is a large Scarecrow , and it is the source of the strange clicking noise. Arulo and Seraphina go to tap the scarecrow on the head, which makes them feel it on themselves, making it some sort of voodoo-doll powers. "BrOtHeR... SisTeR..." The scarecrow announces in a crusty voice. Ruuch comes over and uses his inspector schtick again, however the scarecrow still calls him brother first off. The clicking increases. Arulo asks it where Saan's trinket is, it replies "Mansion".
The armour starts moving again and directly speaks to Ruuch, the self-proclaimed inspector. "It's not the first time you've been here sire, you did the same thing last time." Ruuch places the letter in the grave, nothing happens. He then finally shows it off to the rest and explains what was written. He concludes that it predicting the party their deaths, combined with child Saan earlier means the timelines are wrong. He then goes into the grave and seemingly disappears, but we can still hear him. "Brother lost" proclaims the scarecrow. We hear Ruuch say he feels very peaceful. Arulo is very untrusting of the whole thing and refuses to jump in.
The group wants to leave, and Usze attempts to go grab Ruuch, jumping into the grave. He also falls into a very peaceful rest. Arulo attempts to leave, but as he does the room darkens again, only for the scarecrow to be even closer once the lights come back. Seraphina yells into the grave with a booming voice, but she gets no reply. The clicking reaches a very high rate, but then the scarecrow moves back and it returns to its original frequency. Arulo, already crawling back, hears : "Ma'am, I hate to be bearer of bad news, but I fear you may die again". He turns around and talks to the armour, being told he must get out safely. Seraphina grabs some water from the fountain, then jumps into the grave. Arulo punches Raine into it as well, then hops in himself.
They are now in a classroom with smoke monsters and the scarecrow, and witness an old teacher of Raine get mutilated by The Warden. Arulo tries to pull out his pistol but it is now a banana. After answering a few questions and seeing the teacher be ripped limb for limb, a bell rings and they move on. They are now in a long hallway with statues, and at the end the scarecrow playing a large piano/organ. The song he plays is the song Usze played way back during his first time in the maze. Getting closer, the group hears the statues muttering. "We're dead, you're dead, I'm dead". The scarecrow (named Tim) continues to play. Ruuch notices the statues faces changing between emotions constantly.
Usze starts to dance to the music. Seraphina comes down from the ceiling and dances as well. Raine has some trouble, but Usze guides her along. Even Ruuch joins in. Arulo makes an attempt but completely fucks it up. Once done, the group is transported to a theatre where Killos is performing. Sitting down, they see the warden fall from the ceiling and behead Killos, then looking at all of the party members. One for one they come up to the stage and do a performance. Ruuch does some drama and gets applause. Seraphina sings, and is applauded and nudged off stage. Usze attempts ballet but being scared as he is messes it up a bit. The Warden seems to recognize him, but after a stare down he is allowed to get to his seat. Raine tries to hum a tune, but is then decapitated by the beast. Arulo is also murdered. The Warden moves backstage, and the scarecrow comes up and places a shadowy arm upon the two corpses.
Ruuch goes off to explore a bit more, finding statues and belongings of old party members. Usze, Seraphina and Ruuch then open the backstage to find the Warden just sitting there. Seraphina pets the beast and then places her head in its mouth. She yells "YEET" using her magic and the beast bites down almost immediatly. Afterwards Ruuch finds a door and turns into gas, moving through it. He hears a laughter, then a voice: "I wasn't expecting that. Good job". He keeps on moving into the nothingness, then hears: "You know what, I'll let you have this one". Usze is alone with the warden and has a staredown with it, which ends with his throat being ripped out.
They all wake up back in the mansion, in a small room with statues of noteworthy researchers. Raine goes to hold Usze's hand to comfort the Lizardfolk but is only able to hold a single finger. Arulo opens the door and sees a floating skull. Yaka, as it is named, asks them what they thought of his "attraction". He explains he took over the mansion a while ago. Arulo asks for the trinket and he bring him a big barrel. They attempt to open it to no avail until Arulo finds a lever on the side. Pulling it, the barrel transforms into a crab-mech. Arulo and Ruuch jump in and they pull a few levers. The claws come out and start swinging, almost decking Usze across the face. Ruuch realises he actually knows how to use the mech and gives a demonstration.
Yakko thanks the group for participating in his illusions, then teleports the group along with the mech back to the graveyard of the blue eye. Once there, they show off the mech to the eye. Then Usze asks Seraphina why she was even in the tunnel in the first place. She wants to keep her secrets, but Usze immediatly goes in for the charge only for Arulo to point out Usze's secrets. Ruuch and Seraphina enter the mech and shut it, and Raine walks off. Realising if Ruuch knew about the mirror then Arulo must as well, he comes clean. Arulo in turn talks more about the curse plaguing his bloodline. Only women seem to get it. His mother died from it, and his sister is next. He is after Raine's father thinking he knows how to get to a shard, and if he doesn't comply he will kill him.
Usze questions this immediatly considering they're hot on the trail of a shard already and that finding her dad is no longer needed. The hatch of the mech flies open and Ruuch notes he heard everything. Seraphina is meditating, but still heard it all. Arulo, Ruuch and Usze then discuss who should even hold the shard once they do find it. Ruuch claims he is the most capable of holding such power. Usze disagrees and claims that, with his celestial at his side, he can only spread good. Arulo doesn't want the shard himself and puts his trust in Ruuch. They then pressure Usze into not telling Raine about the whole "Dad killing" thing Arulo is after. Frustrated, the lizard storms off.
A few steps further, Raine meanwhile has been talking to her leaf. She asks if it is right to help these people she has been travelling with. The leaf replies that she isn't sure. She doesn't like the pirate or the old man, but is fond of the lady and the lizard. She tells Raine to trust her gut feelings. Raine then goes off towards her home to rest. Usze, having stormed off, is followed by Ruuch who then tells him in private what his plans are. He had promised his demon patron that he would hand over the shard to him, but once the demon attempts to take over he will use his powers to resist him, and that the rest would not be able to do this if it were to happen. Usze listens to his plan, but still says he will take the shard if given the opportunity.
Back in Saan's mansion, now Yaka's, a music box plays. A crude voice emanates from it...
"My FaMiLy LeFt Me, ThEy lEfT Me. ThAt WoN't Do, No IT WON'T."
Report Date
08 Jan 2022
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