Session 26: The Sinkhole, Creeping Death, Steve!? and Through the Wall; Finally out of the Swamp!

General Summary

The Sinkhole

The session began with the lot of you still near The Sinkhole and deliberating on your next moves. It was decided that any future Rot excursions would take place after the trip to The Night City of Dorchar, and plans to get back on the road began. Most of you were still blighted, poisoned or otherwise badly damaged from your encounter with the Death Blossoms, so the first step in these plans was getting healed up and resting. However, the curiosity involving the Pit was too much to ignore.

Agave decided to try shining a bit of moonlight down the strange dark pit at the center of the sinkhole. The darkness was moved aside as usual, but the pit proved to be deeper than the last as the depths never seemed to be discovered fully. Angling the light so that Kaswink could pure over the side she saw just more dirt and not much else. However, unlike what occurred at The Well of Darkness, this time the ground began to shake. Around the rim of this pit you saw the damp earth which was mostly submerged in a thin layer of rushing water pouring from the upper levels of the sinkhole down into the depths. The ground began to crack, however, as roots exposed themselves to the air above. They smelled unusually foul, the ground they rose out of a combination of stagnant mud water, rot, forest detritus, meat, and mildew. As they were revealed a shape began to take form as well: Most of the rim of this pit was surrounded, but a small wedge was broken out and away from the familiar shape. After the roots fully emerged, the beam of light from your spell changed as well. The radiant energy slowly became corrupted itself as the light changed color to be a dark, ominous red. Discussions continued during this with thoughts of returning with a more powerful light.

Sensing that something was definitely wrong, Agave attempted to stop concentrating on his spell. Though, as he ended this spell, the beam persisted, the dark blood red lighting rising from the pit now as if cast by some sort of weird ...blood ground moon. The dark, bloodred light of the moon spread into the water that had been flowing into this strange dark pit, and it began to flow backwards as blood. A voice rumbled through the ground emanating from the cracked dirt, from the blood, from the mushrooms and the broken circle of roots. It was bloated, coughing, wheezing, rotted, struggling to get any deep-throated words from its unseen jaw. It said “Who dares bring this vile light into my realm? Disrupting my joyous freedom from the reel, if you would worship the Circle why do you trespass here? Begone, lest ye would prefer the endless existence of a shattered cycle-" The voice was cut off for a moment as Namina interrupted claiming that she "Trespasses here because she is here to heal the cycle!" Kaswink, hoping to save Namina began dragging her away from the pit. As she was being dragged away the voice continued. "Would ye join me in triumph in the ever-coming hour of victory against that wretched ring-" Namina tried to push Kaswink away with a gust of wind and as she did the voice continued. "Would ye find solace in learning what your past lives knew, remembering what memories were washed away by the River Misery?” Namina continued taunting the voice as she was placed on Kaswink's shoulder and carried further towards the raft. "A mind clouded by memories is a mind that can no longer learn and experience the joyous circle!" The blood that flowed from the pit was then up to your ankles. The voice continued through all this, not much caring for the interruptions. Agave committed the location of the pit to memory. "I hope you will return and join me here then in my hour of revelation, Travelers.” You all continued your trek back to the raft, Namina continued to shout insults and expletives the whole way, and as you all made it back to the raft you found Frode was already there having fled at the first sign of real bad trouble. Namina really wanted to fight whatever that was, but with the help of the rest of the group's desire to rest you pressed on further down the bayou and away from this horror.

Creeping Death (and treasure?)

While traveling down the Bayou some healing was had along with a bit of a rest as Frode used his culinary abilities to create a delicious meal consisting of mashed sweet and spicy purple and green tubers found nearby along with the flowers which had poisoned you per Agave's instructions. This meal alone helped many of you feel a lot better, but Hysteria provided further assistance by crafting some medicine from the flowers along with a poison to be used on future enemies. After the meal and healing, people began to take shifts sleeping. NAD, Hysteria, Frode and Namina stayed up to keep watch over Kaswink's body and sleeping rituals. Though, Hysteria was also taking a bit of a nap through meditation. They saw darkness as they meditated. Not the normal darkness you might get from the back of your eyelids or a dark room, no, this was something more. It had a texture to it. The way it looked almost felt like water. It was so dark though that no light could ever hope to escape it, but it went beyond that, there was no light. It felt like there would never be any light again, like there never even was light to begin with, and it felt like there was no reason to even swim up to the surface because beyond this dark black liquid there was only more darkness in all forms of matter. In the darkness they didn't really hear anything, they certainly didn't see anyone speaking, but they kinda sensed something was speaking to them. They could tell they were supposed to be hearing something. What it was was impossible to tell, but it was there in the darkness. Suddenly, without warning, they felt their lips move. A voice escapes their mouth despite such things normally being, well, unheard of. The voice was their own, the way it would sound, logically, but the accent and the language was completely different from what anyone would normally be speaking with. It was such a distant ancestor to modern Elven that it took you a bit to understand each word, but the meaning was eventually found. Note, the only person to really understand what was said was Hysteria, and even they had some difficulty parsing it. Namina might've gotten a few words from it, but if you want spoilers on what was said then feel free to see those below:

Show spoiler

“This is not what should be happening. This is not my design. Find the one that chitters endlessly and free me from its coiled mind. The memories I have for you all are being slowly devoured, and soon I will no longer be able to protect you from its grasp. I leave you with one question, Hysteria, who do you receive your orders from?”

Namina would have understood the following from these words:

Show spoiler

"Should not happen. Forgotten. Coils. Protection lost. Who do you serve?"

During Hysteria's meditation, some moss was spotted nearby. It was growing over everything. Stumps, rocks, bones, and even some treasure! There was a treasure chest and a sword spotted out in the swamp and covered in moss. Hysteria perked up and exited the raft with a keen interest of this treasure. NAD followed behind while asking Frode to come with, but Frode was skeptical of Namina's ability to watch the raft on her own. Namina took some offense to this, but Frode tried to explain that it is extra dangerous here, being alone is a bad idea regardless of ability or faith in one's abilities. Namina and NAD explained that Kaswink or Agave could be awakened, and Namina also reminded Frode of Croak Chomsky, the delightful bullfrog mascot. Though, Frode chose to remain on the raft regardless of Namina's protests. Hysteria tapped at the treasure chest with their dagger. Tapping it didn't seem to do anything violent like explode or cause a trap to go off, but the moss growing on the chest did begin to slowly crawl towards and onto the dagger. Hysteria removed the dagger from the chest and dropped it hoping to see what the moss would do. It continued slowly growing around this dagger, and Hysteria decided to pick the dagger back up. Upon doing so they were completely covered in the moss, at risk of paralysis and feeling their flesh going numb while being consumed by this moss. NAD, seeing an opportunity to throw water on Hysteria and make them comically wet, emptied their waterskin all over the now moss-covered elf. The water, strangely enough, removed the moss in portions of their body, but the remaining moss continued to grow over them. Hysteria again felt the tingling sensation cover them and they went completely numb, paralyzed, flesh rotting from necrotic energies and they fell unconscious to whatever this moss is. Namina, also seeing an opportunity to drench Hysteria, created a wall of water to wash the moss from their body. She coordinated with NAD to pull Hysteria away from the moss trap after they were washed by the wall of water. NAD created a lasso from some rope and the plan went off without a hitch. Learning about how this moss functions, it was decided that avoiding any future temptations presented by it would be best for the time being, and Namina began treating Hysteria's damaged bod.

As Kaswink and Agave woke up, NAD fell asleep as the exhaustion of being awake for so many hours began to be felt by them. Frode chose to continue being awake and suffer exhaustion, and the journey continued with Kaswink pushing the boat to speed things along. Some discussion was had whether or not Namina should sleep, but she had only woken up a few hours ago so didn't really feel that tired. Hysteria began meditating again immediately after waking up from the unconscious state the moss had left them in. The journey down the bayou continued and more of the unusual moss that had hurt Hysteria earlier was seen, however, Agave noticed something being formed from the moss. It was like a map, not so much an obvious map map, but it was kinda like directions being written out by this moss in some natural language. Similar in a way to druidic, and the natural connections and attempt at communication led Agave to think that this moss might be the result of a druid leading them to something. The map would lead you all about an hour north of where you were, and it was decided that a small detour shouldn't be a problem since you needed it to be nighttime when you got to the city anyways. While following the directions of this moss, Kaswink suggesting Hysteria launch some fire arrows at this moss. You were able to witness it recoil from the fire before it landed, and Hysteria began trying to hit the moss by lining up shots. When they finally hit one with a fire arrow you were able to see that, as it burned, this moss resembled something more akin to a mass of scorched slime rather than a plant.

The map eventually came to an end. There was no obvious place for where the map was leading, just more swamp like anything before, but it was definitely where it had led Agave to. Could it be a trap? Is the treasure just hidden somewhere? Searching began with an intent to find whatever was supposed to be here. Agave was able to locate an unusual patch of "moss" which was strangely flat, painted rather than actual moss growing from a tree. It "grew" along the side of a nearby, very wide tree, and it was revealed to be a slab of metal acting as a well-disguised door. Agave, fearing the deadly moss from before, used a conjured thorn-covered vine to shift the metal plate out of the way. Behind this slab was a hollow area within the tree with some items stored inside. Kaswink easily removed the slab and moved it out of the way so that you could investigate the interior a bit easier.

Inside this tree was a familiar chest and sword. The chest contained an unusual Stone brick with rather "perfect" dimensions to be later investigated by NAD or AND or DAN later due to their supposed background in engineering, some folded up silk and a book, Understanding Skorumpovaný; An Outsider's Look at the Cult of Rot. The book, at first glance, appears to have been written by someone from a Remlit Expedition Team belonging to a subdivision of the "Ministry of Culture and Museum-worthy Acquisitions". The sword was revealed to be magical thanks to Namina's ability to see magic. It also had a small latch lodged into a hole in the hilt. It was discovered to be a Gardening Sword, as the latch, when opened, caused a second handle to appear. This handle could be pulled towards the main handle which would cause a new blade to appear. By letting go of the second handle it would spring back out and pull the new blade back in like a pair of sheers. The group looked for some obvious cyphers in the book, but didn't see much on first glance, certainly no druidic as Agave was looking for. Though the end does have some weird stuff going on. You took your newly-acquired booty back to the raft and the journey, gave Frode the sword, and continued toward the city.

S̴͓̻̔́͝EVT̵̈́͑͝ͅVSĘ̶̭̗̏STV̵͎̹͉̈́̕TÈ̵̛̪EVE!?

The journey through this Swam of Terror eventual brought you all to something further unusual: A Wall. A wall stretched endlessly in either direction and was about 30 feet tall. It almost blended into the environment, several shades of green, brown, yellow, and it would be quite difficult to notice were it not for the bizarre decorations lining this supposed structure. Every so often a drawing of an eye was present, a nice purple colored eye, and as this was noticed another odd feature about this wall was discovered: It was moving. It was just constantly moving in one direction, never running out of any wall behind it. It was moving fairly slow, almost wouldn’t have noticed were it not, again, for the strange drawings of eyes. After seeing this, you all decided it would be best to make camp and rest until nightfall, perhaps the Wall would be gone by then. Even if the wall were still there, time to figure out what's going on would be nice. The wall was avoided though, staying back near the bank of the flooded area of swampland, and a camp was set up for those that needed to sleep. Frode insisted that someone needs to keep watch at any suggestion of needing to sleep, though also quickly passed out without much need of convincing that other people can keep watch. Some foraging was had, Kaswink found some pretty flowers which she started using to make a chain, and some basic foodstuffs were found. Kaswink also started tanning vegetable leather while people were sleeping. Agave helped Namina get some sleep by creating some water in a hole to keep her scales wet, and he also dried out some weird spider eyes for Kaswink. Namina also requested that Agave find some more Societea which Agave was able to find easily enough. Agave also found 4 more Traveler's Shiitake.

NAD, meanwhile, had a desire to find an outhouse...for some reason, and they discovered the sillhouette of a small hut in the early morning light nearby. As they approached they heard the sound of a familiar voice calling out for help; the voice of their brother. They continued approaching the outhouse as a small light inside was illuminating the crescent moon carving in the door, and the voice called out again, barely able to exist in this world as it called out for help again. The cries for help continued and it seemed to be both coming from further into the swamp, beyond the wall and also from within the outhouse. The voice called out again as the light inside the hut went out and NAD continued their approach. They reached the door and began deliberating amongst themselves while looking for "spiraly twisty thingies". The grass around the hut was lifting further into the air as it twisted and curled around itself toward the hut. Another call for help, a gust of wind, and suddenly the call for help broke as it became a scream of agony. NAD kicked the door open, and on the other side they saw something rather peculiar and frightening for half a second. It was the image of an incredibly thin and hunched woman. Her shoulders were brought up to her head and her arms were bent as she was turning her face towards NAD. Her face was disconnected from her head, sitting several inches to the left of where it should be, spiraling a bit as her eyes were in the wrong place, her mouth a frightful grin, and her image faded leaving behind just a field. There were tea crops, a small fire and building, and a couple of people were chilling near this fire calmly poking at it in this pristine land. The "pristine" qualities were contrasted heavily by a pile of twisted entrails in front of NAD's feet. A trail of blood in all directions was spiraling out from these entrails as well, and the voice of NAD's brother was no longer calling out to them. NAD was filled with hopelessness. The only spirals in the area were the entrails and blood trails, nothing else seemed remotely related to their quest.

NAD decided to approach one of the individuals near the campfire. He was tightly gripping the firepoker he had in his hand, and he greeted NAD with some base kindness though asked NAD what they were doing here. NAD answered honestly, explaining that they were following the cries for help and entered an outhouse before everything got freaky. The man's face was aggressive and confused with a bit of a sort of threatened look on his face. The man was able to see the blood and entrails as NAD asked about it, but he seemed to think that NAD was responsible, possibly slaughtering his animals. NAD voiced more of their confusion, saying that they are looking for their brother and it somehow led them here. The man asked how NAD feels to which they replied that they feel worried. He then asked "Is it all your fault?", "No, I don't think so." and "What's going to happen now that you're here?" "umm, I was hoping to get some direction or find some answers..." NAD continued answering the string of questions growing more and more confused and distrusting of this gentleman. He then asked NAD "What's going to happen to your friends? Will they be okay without you? Will they be able to defeat things without your many arms?" to which NAD became even more distrusting, how did this person know? NAD voiced a desire to help their friends, but that they need to find out where their brother is. The man replied with a calm "They will die without you. Every moment you are here is a moment that they could be dying. You're trapped, there's no way out, you will never go back home." NAD was ... in denial, of course, showed their resolve, but the man continued laying it on heavily. Saying that they can't do it all, but NAD understood that they rely on them and that also...they rely on them. More confusing questions followed, NAD was strong though. "Isn't that your brother? Isn't he the pile of entrails you found here? Don't you want to give up?" No, absolutely not. "You see something like that, your own brother dead, why even bother looking for him at all?" How can you even assume that's him? I saw who created those, and it wasn't him. Whoever it is, whoever it was, whoever you are, we need to find out and get to the bottom of this so that we can find my brother and save him. "I can get you to him. I can free you from your responsibilities besides him. Will you leave your friends to find him? Will you be strong enough to save him from what traps him in that realm?" I don't think that I would be strong enough alone, there are things my friends can do that I can't. I know I wouldn't be strong enough alone. "If you can find me at the center of it all, then you will find him as he wraps around my fingers. And, with any luck, you and all of your friends will be trapped forever. More thoughts to my symphony of chaos and spiraling torment that will keep you occupied and away from it for all time. Are you ready for that?" I'm ready to face whatever challenge you dare throw at me, and with my friends we will stop you from doing what you dare try to do to harm us. "If you didn't know you brother was dead behind that door. Would you still open it?" To find out and to confirm it for myself, yeah, if he is dead, and I highly doubt that he is dead, I'd rather see it with my own eyes and confirm it. Make sure it isn't an illusion. "Will that knowledge keep you up at night thinking about how you failed him? How it's all your fault? How you could've done better in every way possible?" How would I Know if I haven't seen him yet? "You could go on living. Free of that burden." I could, or I could not. "The choice is yours." I choose to go forth, I choose not to stop. To not let you prevent me from finding my brother. And if you have him within your slimy grasp I will save him. "Oh, quite the opposite. I'm afraid you're not ready for that yet. You should go back to your friends, they're probably waiting for you. You wouldn't want them to get hurt. After all, you swore an oath didn't you? You bound yourself with-" Frode... that's right. The man then snapped his fingers. NAD was suddenly standing in front of an outhouse hearing a cry for help which turned to agonized screams. Opening the outhouse door they saw the same Twisted Hag. The hag vanished again and they were back in the field, seemingly in a loop.

Hysteria, meanwhile, followed NAD for a bit and observed what they were doing. They saw them enter this outhouse and then reappear a few moments later. They didn't hear the same screams, but hey witnessed the strange loop from the outside. Hysteria learned a bit about what NAD learned here, apparently there's someone pulling strings, and the two of them debated on whether or not they should re-enter the outhouse together. Hysteria explained that if something isn't worth dying over then they shouldn't go out on their own, and that NAD is a very valuable member of the team. Hearing that they are a valuable member of the team caused further stress to NAD than it normally would. A physical weight on their shoulders almost, something magical was weighing on them. Hysteria eventually tried opening the outhouse door to see what they would find. On the other side of the door they found paintings of Anthony, Nicholas and Dave all with expressions featuring distress, agony, and painted slightly to the left of where they should be. On the inside of the door was another painting of a fourth halfling that looked similar to the others, and he was split in half, disemboweled with their entrails being coiled similar to how NAD discovered him in the strange farm level. Hysteria explained to NAD that Hags cannot be trusted, particularly hags and the things that they show you. They show you what they want to show you to get what they want, but it is rarely true.

Through the Wall!

At around noon everyone sleeping began to wake up near the wall, NAD and Hysteria returned from their adventure, and Kaswink decided to throw something sticky at the wall to mark the eye painting as it moved. When she did so, however, the wall stopped and some of the nearby plant life began to shake violently. When the wall stopped it revealed several ledges crossing each other in an unusual pattern. Hysteria saw this as an opportunity to try to climb the wall and was able to pull themselves up using such a ledge. Though, as they tried to climb the ledge cut into their hands causing warm blood to flow over their hands and a great deal of pain as the ledge cut deep to the bone. Deciding to push through this pain, Hysteria continued climbing. The wall, however, had different ideas and started to roll against Hysteria's climb hoping to throw them off. Hysteria jumped from the wall doing a sick flip, but nobody saw it as Hysteria vanished, reappearing somewhere else in the swamp near the wall. Agave used his ability to speak with plants and found that the ones that were shaking seemed to be unaffected by the spell. The still motionless, normal plants were partially animated however, and were eager to answer any questions. A small flower answered his questions "it's always there. always moving. Day, night, rollin along. There's never an opening. The only things that travel through are animals, animals go where they want. The last person that tried to climb over disappeared, not sure where they went." In their isolation, Hysteria heard a voice. It was kinda snake-like with hisses and primal noises, it was calm however, and part of its voice was also like a bit of wet glass being expertly played. It seemed to be asking them a question, but Hysteria couldn't understand the language.

The rest of the group began walking a random direction along the wall hoping to find Hysteria. Along the way, Kaswink looked for animal tracks and saw that they seem to just make it to the wall and either vanish or pass through without issue. No signs of them climbing over, jumping or digging, just stopping. Agave, learning of this information, turned into a Cat and started walking through the wall. It allowed him through, but halfway through he was stopped by some, almost gelatinous, mass. The same voice heard by Hysteria was then heard by Agave, and he seemed to understand the primal, snakey like half as a form of druidic. “Your presence is not welcome, your lives are unnecessary. The swamp does not see your value, and your violence only brings imbalance to a delicate existence. You would be better as food to the myriad plants you harmed, prove to me your kindness, your compassion for nature, your understanding of law and I will let you live.” Agave replied, also in druidic, explaining that he seeks to find an end to the blight that is damaging both his own realm and the Spirit World. The wall allowed him to pass but did not speak to Agave again. On the other side of the wall, Agave saw the familiar sight and solid ground of the forest. Nearby he saw farmland and heard voices, and his copy of A Traveler's Guide to Dorchar suggested that the city he is looking for should be right here.

The group saw Hysteria's sillhouette approaching, and Kaswink called out to them, and, seeing Agave vanish, Kaswink began pounding on the wall. The plants continued vibrating more aggressively, and the same voice spoke to the whole group still on the swamp side of the wall. Only half of the strange double language was understood, and it was only understood by Namina. “You are intruders. Trespassers. Your presence is not welcome and your lives are not necessary. Attack me and prove your violent natures, run and show your cowardice, prove to me your value, your meaning, your purpose so that you may have a reason to live.” Namina explained that she is on a mission from her god to heal the cycle and restore balance. She stated that she does not wish to harm the wall or "the city that resides inside." She then relayed the words that she heard from the spirit so that the rest of the group could try to answer as well. Kaswink replied that her purpose here is to just help everyone else get to where they need to go while learning what she can about her own quest along the way. NAD was unsure how to feel about this, and they were still a bit in their own head about the recent events involving their brother, but they eventually explained that they are trying to follow their brother and held no violent intent toward the swamp. Frode answered that he is there to help find a cure for his people and his family while honoring the law as a fellow guard. Hysteria explained that they are there to save their people. The answers were all accepted and everyone was able to pass through the wall. Some were able to cross easier than others, but you all got through, and Namina and Frode even received a special blessing from the weird wall thing. On the other side you all saw the same farmland that Agave did and we ended the session there.

Session Recording
Monday, April 25, 2022