Session 81: Reaching Floor 3

General Summary

Who is She?

The session began outside of a room in this big ol' memory maze. A road sign outside simply said "Who is She?", and Hysteria's ever-alert nature suggested that a trap was nearby. Not only that, but a large creature made of light and a pale blue flesh seemed to be looking for something in the room. Its mouth was massive, filled with sharp teeth, and its hands and arms ended in a bright light without any torso to attached to. A strange vessel beneath the light, head and arms moved with the creature and was also covered in mouths and eyes.
Hysteria pointed out the creature as well as the trap, and as they were working on disabling this minor hindrance, the rest of you silently communicated what you wished to do about the monster. As plans were finally made to move past it and to the north, Hysteria finished disabling the trap but triggered a secondary trap which launched several poisonous darts at you. You all dodged out of the way, fell prone, and the noise it all made caused the creature to move towards you. Combat began with this creature slowly moving across the room, and its movement triggered another trap found within the room which created a current of wind. This wind blew up and over the monster and scattered several scraps of paper it had been collecting. The papers were lost somewhere in the room, and combat proceeded.
Throughout the encounter, you discovered that attacking caused more monsters to appear and attack you. These "Guiltborn" had a vaguely humanoid appearance, though it looked as though their flesh had melted and the meat and blood inside them was boiling and creating new horific forms. Barely functional claws scratched into the air, and they had the ability to pull guilt from a person to damage them and create difficult terrain. As you moved throughout the room, some of you would also sometimes find these scattered scraps of paper which were revealed to be torn pieces of a portrait.
ALT was eventually eaten by the creature and found another piece of the puzzle inside its detached 'stomach', and, with the pieces Hysteria had found, it was revealed that the portrait was of a young woman. Her hair was long and black, her skin was pale grey, and she was wearing fine garb. The damage to the portrait matched where the Light part of this monster formed, and one of the tears was along the woman's mouth as if to suggest the creature's strange, massive mandibles.
The combat, after flooding the area with more and more Guiltborn, a plan was formed to show the completed portrait to this creature. Theories were formed that perhaps the monster was a person missing the woman who was in the portrait, or perhaps that the woman had become the monster herself. Either way, there was probably some silly metaphor involved... Upon seeing and taking the portrait fragments, the monster's light grew until it consumed it entirely. All that remained was a ball of light with the silhouette of the monster being destroyed within. This silhouette vanished and another one matching the woman from the portrait appeared. The same voice from the previous room made a short announcement over the still-unseen speakers, and then even the ball of light vanished.
"I try to forget…I try to forgive myself, I try so hard to just move on. It hurts so much."

---

He's New but Annoying

Before leaving this area to further explore, there were many more theories about what just happened here. There were ideas that this monster was a person that lost someone and consumed their portrait before becoming this creature. Though other thoughts involved the monster being the woman, becoming this creature, and the portrait being the metaphorical "lost pieces" of itself that it needed to feel whole again. It wanted to remember itself, and perhaps it was just a memory itself found within the mind of this Vsevolodrik person.
The journey from there was perilous with at least one trap encountered along the way. The trap seemed to be designed to crush you with some moving walls, and Hysteria disabled the 'dangerous' part of the trap, but the walls slowly moved to try and separate you all. Fortunately, most of you made it across, but Frode found himself trapped in another room. Bobcat burrowed through as a giant ground squirrel though, and Frode was freed.
You cleverly chose the correct directions based on the road signs, and picking the worst options eventually did lead you to one which read "He's New but Annoying". The intrigue of such a label was too much to ignore, and you all funneled into another room with another announcement over the speakers.
“At first, all he wanted was to feel connected to it all…to feel the presence of his “god”, this Cievka, as he called it. He made a deal with us to enter the Gate, to stand in its center and just let go. I had no idea what would happen.”

The room shifted with the voice, spectral, glowing and illusory images in this room formed into a city made of spirals. The surrounding environment was …unpleasant and dizzying, and a familiar though much less corrupted figure could be seen standing at the center of the largest spiral. His form was starting to pull, stretch, and twist into all the fractals around it. You recognized his mask, but his robes and figure were much younger and far less corrupted.

---

“There came a time when he had spent so much time there that his form had changed, that his psyche had begun to reach out and into my most private of memories. He approached me, projecting himself from the center of it all, and he made me an offer.”
The images took on forms of winding stone hallways within some massive and ancient structure. Their purpose and design were mysterious and confusing, but within one of the rooms was an exceptionally old man. The spectral and smokey, spiral covered form of The Oni was created outside this person’s door, and you heard a familiar voice. “I can help you. LET ME KILL YOU. Come with me. IT WILL END.”
The projections and the disembodied voices were interrupted, however, as Bobcat, now Agave, ran forward to attack the image of The Oni. He had a spell ready, his hand reached out, but the illusion's hand suddenly became far more real looking and grabbed hold of Agave's wrist. The two of them struggled against each other for just a moment before The Oni's other hand slowly moved to his lips. He shushed Agave, and, without another word, Agave became still. Within his mind he was trapped at the center of a massive amount of rushing water, and he found himself struggling to be able to move or escape the mental prison that had trapped him.
The rest of The Oni's body also started to become more tangible, more real, and his familiar, maddening laugh started to echo throughout the room. The battle wasn't much of a fight, he died rather quickly. The final blow was delivered by Steve, a sword piercing through his mask and splitting it down the middle similar to how DAN killed Božena long ago. The mask, split open, drew the attention of Hysteria's own mask as well.
His body slowly turned to dust, the room itself crumbled and was consumed by darkness, and you all eventually found yourselves standing in nothingness. Then, within the darkness, something started to glow. It was a single line at first, then it grew and multiplied into an endless, infinite stretch of prison bars. A floor manifested beneath your feet, prison cells surrounded you, and you found yourselves in some sort of infinite, spiraling prison. I wonder who could've made this?
Agave's staff was no longer pulling him down, now it was being dragged in a particular direction. He spent some time channeling the energy he had built up in the staff as well, and he learned that the Lonely Blue Agave spirit that he had been searching for was nearby, somewhere on this floor, and that it was apparently incredibly confused and cold.

In-game Date:
Daulok 33, 308

Report Date

28 Aug 2023

Primary Location

Vsevolodrik's Prison

Related Characters

• The Oni