Session 79: A Puzzling Discovery

General Summary

Anxiety

The Anxiety room which had been partially explored the previous session was concluded! You continued to move about in this area, and Frode continued to be the one person that almost fell into almost every pit. Steve, electing to stand outside as his echo explored, found himself making a decision as the walls started to shrink and cut off the rest of the dungeon. He dodged out of the way and swapped with his echo to be inside the room with the rest of the group. Arms and eyes continued to grow from Frode as ALT and Steve's newly made Echo began to explore another hallway leading north. They found another room full of loot, the fabled Loot Room 2, and Frode began to slowly make his way in that same direction despite all the pits between him and the room. He managed to make it a good distance down the hall, continuing to grow more arms and eyes, but he ended up falling down a pit in the end, finally succumbing to the room's strange goals.

Meanwhile, Bobcat was studying the painting in the main room. He found that the eye at the center of the painting was slowly blinking. It took an incredibly long time to close and reopen, building anticipation as it did so, and Bobcat relayed its animation to the rest of you...though mostly just Hysteria and Steve as most of the group was in the tantalizing presence of Loot Room 2.

As Frode fell down a pit and left behind a cloud of dust, ALT was quick to leap into action towards the frightened screams of their ally. Without much thought or concern, ALT jumped down the pit and found itself next to Frode in a narrow hallway with little room to move. Frode's screams continued as the spirit of Anxiety pulled itself free of his body. Thanks to ALT's light, the tight space was at least illuminated. The rest of you took some time to get down the pit as investigations and initial attempts to descend revealed that it was actually full of dust. Removing thought or any reason from their action and simply falling in seemed to remove this obstacle, and they finally found themselves next to Frode and ALT fighting this spirit. Combat against the spirit mostly involved it attempting to grappled Frode and anyone else nearby as more of you found your way down the same pit. When it grappled someone, it was also able to control them as Frode was forced to stab Bobcat. Shadows also spawned, and, as combat progressed, the walls slowly began to fall to dust. When the spirit was finally defeated, the way back to the main room and to the rest of the dungeon was opened.

Memories of Dead Worlds

You found yourselves at a decision as this new hallway forward came to an end. A set of stairs led deeper down, and Bobcat's staff suggested that descending was the right way forward. However, there was also a locked door, and, as Hysteria listened to see what was on the other side, it was also discovered that a heavy wind and sand were likely hidden away by it. This was used to compel Bobcat to consider the possibilities, and you all eventually voted to see what lies beyond. Disappointingly enough, the other side provided no wind or sand, and you instead found yourselves in what seemed to be a gallery of sorts. Inside this room were the bones of a massive creature, chandeliers, statues and several paintings. The paintings depicted alien worlds as they slowly lost life and eventually became completely desolate before being pulled into the sky by a familiar image of a celestial body, like a moon, but with a giant maw that consumed everything. Similar scenes had been witnessed during events with the Whendigo and by ALT when given the most recent forbidden knowledge. Bobcat poked at one of the piles of bones. Doing so caused it to form not into the creature it once was, but it instead became a much smaller skeleton wearing scraps of leather armor. After pondering this skeleton for a moment, and after seeing several more rise from the other piles, Frode chose to use his divine connections to destroy many of these skeletons, though more still continued to rise. Defeating them wasn't terribly difficult, but their death eventually resulted in the rise of the monster the bones were once originally a part of.

After defeating this skeletal monster, attentions were turned back towards the paintings and statues. A strong gust of wind picked up, scattered bones and sand around the room but especially near the entrance where a new painting began to manifest. This painting, as observed by Bobcat, depicted scenes from your own world, Taranel, and theories were brewed as the other paintings in the room also changed to show your own world becoming a lifeless realm. One theory was that it could be a warning of things to come and that perhaps the world will start over again. Perhaps these other worlds ended and were reborn as well, perhaps the world you came from is just one of many in this brutal cycle. Another thought was that the death and suffering is contained within the painting itself and that taking it with you or messing with it could bring about what it depicts. The statues represented a wyvern, a griffin and a humanoid woman carrying a basket of grains. A puzzle was detected, and efforts to rearrange these statues began. Nothing seemed to happen regardless of the combinations you attempted, but it was slowly deduced that perhaps the room should be empty similar to how the paintings ended up. You removed the statues from the room and something finally happened! For a brief moment, the room was void of anything when these statues were removed. No light, air or anything at all, it was like you were all floating in a void for a brief moment until the light, air and everything else returned. A stairwell leading down to the next level was revealed, and you decided to take it down to Floor 2.

Descending Further

Down the stairs, you found yourselves in a new place different from the ones seen before. The walls were not made from bricks like the above floor, instead it seemed more like the walls of a cave. Within these cave walls were the mostly unrecognizeable ruins of some ancient structure. Wood, stone and various metals could occasionally be seen, and these same ruins could be seen littering the ground as well. A sign could be seen in a nearby entrance to this room with, strangely enough, the common word for "Library" written on it. At the same time that this sign was read, it was also noticed that several damaged books could also be found on the ground. Bookshelves then appeared and blocked any way forward. These shelves smelled incredibly moldy, musty and the sensation of a warm, rancid breath was fealt before a massive face and two arms ending in shriveled claws grew from each shelf.