Session 80: Traumatic Clues

General Summary

A Library

The session began at the start of combat with two bookshelves. Other than a few books on each, most of the spines of the books they carried suggested a rather doom-filled narrative. They spelled out phrases like, "No one makes it out alive" and "No one gets away." The nearest shelf breathed on many of you, causing most of the group to become poisoned, take damage and, as Frode discovered, quickly begin aging until the poison was cured. Their claws, while horrific, moldy and wrinkled, never seemed to do much.
Throughout the encounter, however, it was also discovered that damaging these shelves caused some of their books to fall from their shelves and begin fighting as well. These books created walls associated with ice, thorns, fire and water depending on what the title of the book was. Within each wall, these books also caused different animals to appear like wolves, spiders, centipedes and sharks.
The battle was long because of this, and many of you found yourselves in need of at least an hour to recuperate. ALT requested a full night's rest however, and it was decided that you would sleep in this library. Hysteria kept watch, and there were thankfully no interruptions.

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Tattered, Moldy Pages

You also spent some time searching the moldy and mostly destroyed books for anything legible that might shine some light on what is going on here. You were able to find 2 sources of "information" within this place: Several loose pages with poems written on them and a book of fairy tales which seemed to be in reasonable condition, though the cover and title amongst other details were all heavily damaged. The language was unrecognizeable, but ALT was able to at least read it thanks to gifts from their strange pact.
Untitled Poem, Loose Page
Pieces. Drifting.
A gentle breeze can toss them 'round.
Towards the edges and through the center.
A spiral passes yet again.
Find them. Know them.
Each piece found and collected.
By hands most comforting.
And smiles Forgotten.
Untitled Poem, Loose Page
Beige, so common as grey
Wrapped around the unknown
The forgotten and the masses
The ones dragged in and left here
With organs and flesh resewn
Green, Purple, Yellow, even Blue.
Colors and variety that several knew
From Death to an Endless Sea.
Rites performed and bodies laid
So only Volod may set them free.
Pink, next to nobility and rarely seen.
A color of clergy and the houses Three.
Strapped onto the Brave, Brilliant
and others that have caught His Eye.
Pulled from life, rise free into the sky.
Red, paired only with a Crown heavy as Stone.
With Ego soft and bristling, quieted by Volod's own.
None may glimpse, none may see.
The final Cord save gilded Priests and Family.
And so He does die Alone.

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The book of fairy tales was possibly summarized by ALT as you all traveled through the tunnels. Or perhaps just things of interest.
The Origin of Monsters
A sort of folk tale/origin story type which made the claim that monsters were the result of an ancient "curse". The story follows a young boy as he travels the plains and rocky shores that surround a massive city which is always visible in the background. Illustrations show him stumbling upon a corpse as waves wash over it. They aren't particularly detailed illustrations, but the story makes a point of describing how surprised the child was to find it. Not because it was a corpse, but because this was the first time he had seen one "without the Rites". The book seems to refer to both a ritual and some unseen cord as "the Rites".
The child is shown musing the condition of the body. Pointing out how it is clothed instead of wearing any Cords, and he began to ponder what to do about such a strange thing. The child leaves and returns with an adult to help bring the corpse back to town, but when they arrive they find that the corpse is not where the child described. The adult begins to chastise him, and, without pulling any punches, the adult finds himself being gored by a large monster. The story ends with perspective from the monster looming over the child and a bizarre moral being presented as "The Rites: Not a Decision; Not an Option; An Obligation."

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Trauma

The next room to be stumbled upon came after several Road Signs directing you in a few different directions. The first of these signs was adjusted by ALT so that the "The Way You Came" sign was pointing back instead of in a random direction, and this seemed to cause the rest of the sign to change and show new info. You followed the path towards knowledge, and democracy quickly fell to the wayside in favor of the far more actionable "go left" policy of Hysteria. This led to ignoring many signs, but the mention of Trauma occurred many times before finally findings its room.
Upon entering, a disembodied narrator began to speak over a crackly, hidden speaker system.
“We were prosperous, we were happy and content. The world and its resources were under our control, and everyone lived joyous lives without starvation, without servitude or any anguish.”
Images, ghosts of a civilization and its people built up around you. It looked advanced, alien almost and the structures were mind boggling in both shape and magnitude. The shape of the city as a whole was …familiar.
“It began with his death, though there were many before him, my pain started with him…it’s all my fault really. If only I had-”

Within one of the structures was a throne made of stone. A crown rested upon it and a body was resting on a table in the middle of the room. There were people mourning around it. The body moved, rose from the ground, and it transformed into a monster. An emaciated, floating man with arms the size of treetrunks. His legs and lower abdomen were bound in red cord, and straps of broken cord could be seen flowing across his shoulders, arms upper abdomen. His proportions were distorted to focus on these arms, and his hands were strangely bulbous as if incapable of separating its fingers. In fact, one of these hands appeared to be completely sealed with a mouth-like, spiraling form. Eyes could be seen above it along with insect-like mandibles.

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Combat began with an attempt to communicate, though this Trauma creature did not seem capable or interested. Frode then banished him to another dimension for a little bit, but his strange mouth arm continued to attack despite such boundaries. You all waited for it to return, got into position, and Frode also began to try and ward the area against it...but he was interrupted as the creature reappeared and smashed one of its massive fists into the ground.
While the creature continued to grow in size, it didn't pose much of a threat to the likes of you, and you all managed to destroy it! It fell to the ground and left behind a hollow and dry husk which strangely remained unlike the spirits and bookshelves of the world.
Attentions turned towards finding out who or what that thing was, and, thanks to Hysteria, you were able to find another sheet of paper for ALT to read. Most of the paper was very much destroyed, but there were a few lines of legible text which seemed to suggest information about a memorial service, its location and a name.
"In loving memory of Pjedrik."

In-game Date:
Daulok 32-33, 308

Report Date

21 Aug 2023

Primary Location

Vsevolodrik's Prison