We step into the Outer Night

General Summary

The Outer Night is gray, everything is gray there and washed out. There are no living things really. The world feels draining and silent. Ahead of us we saw three figures talking, we glance at each other and sneak around them, but as I passed them I had this overwhelming desire to eat, and pulled out some granola. They focus in on Athea and I, and the fight is started. The creatures transform from the people they had vaguely looked like into monstrosities. A swift flurry of blows and a few spells were exchanged. We all were conserving our strength because of the warning we wouldn't be able to rest and recover (He danced divinely ). As the last creature fell, they dissipate revealing only a spearhead laying on the floor. Anger and darkness radiated from the spearhead, and I stepped forward with the Unmade Blade, destroying the spearhead, as I do I hear wailing and it crumbles to dust. We continued walking in this dark nothingness, we struggle to climb the hill, at one point Cap, Athea, and Marcus slipped and fell injuring themselves. Marcus stood up with a gouged eye, and Cap's arm was crushed in the fall. Hopefully, that won't mess with his ability to fight. At the top of the hill sat a lone figure hunched over a campfire cooking food. It smelled amazing, and I tried talking to him thinking he might know where Oberon was or the castle we sought. As I did, he smiled, disappeared, and 4 men stepped out of hiding and attacked us. Another fight ensued, we very nearly died, and the creatures left behind some crude unfamiliar metal knife. It feels wrong, like the Song is twisted or weaker here. As Marcus stepped closer, he feels they are the antithesis of who he is. Athea grabbed the knives and stowed them somewhere. Because that is not at all worrying.

The Tower

The Tower ahead of us feels like someone once saw a castle and tried to build it from their memory. A gate stands between us, and we slowly step through one by one. I don't know what got ahold of us that we decided to step through singly but we did. We appeared on the other side separately, alone and in the dark. There is a large misshapen keep with a wall surrounding it that looks like it's made of petrified bodies. Marcus and Athea told me later it reminded them of the Order of the Purple Hand.  As we were separated we each tried different ways to find each other. Cap used the find fae spell to try and find Marcus or me. Marcus climbed forward and as he got to the keep tried to misty step into it, but its pitch black, so he lit a torch to try and tries to walk forward. I used my sense to try and push forward towards the familiar and making progress, but its hard. Marcus eventually gave up on the torch and started walking blindly forward toward something he felt. Cap started singing, "Show me the way to go home," and felt like something was behind him so he started backing towards the feeling. I felt something between me and the person I was going towards, it's dark and a well of souls in servitude to it. I struggled whether to continue where I was going or to head to the well of souls, but I have long known you never leave someone behind and kept going to the feeling of familiarity. The creature following Cap attacked him, and he struggles to fight back against a creature appearing and disappearing. I burst into the room he is in and a bear is attacking him. We work together to fight the creature, and as he collapsed, he step back into a soul behind him and transformed into a giant snake. 

Meanwhile in other parts of the castle

Athea stepped into the dungeon and sees a young man chained to the wall, emaciated and totally unaware of Athea there. She stares at him and notices he has an SPQR tattoo on his arm. Athea tries to free the man, but only seems to be doing more damage to him. So he heads back into the castle to try and find something to help him and passes a doorway with a grove of dead trees in the room, as he stops to look in he sees a man in the form of a tree and a pile of bones near it.

Back to our epic fight

As Cap fought he started to sing hymns, and I joined in singing as I recognized the hymns, but I do not know all the words of the hymn he sings. But I can feel his song strengthening us and healing our wounds. With another final blow, the snake collapses, and we see the creature step back into the string of souls and emerge as a humanoid tiger. It turns and attacks Marcus who has just stepped into the room. We attack again. "I seem to have guests in my demesne," a voice says from the void, it sounds cultured and powerful, but also wrong. "I am so happy to see you. I will give one of them to you my nagaloshi, and you can take its skin and add it to your cloak." It feels like the voice has turned and seen Marcus, "Ahhh, another of these little ones. You may last better than the last one." the voice solidifies into a many-armed creature, Kali Cap roared in fury and I felt him call upon the song, strengthening its tenuous grasp here, as it calls forth to the Creator. Marcus takes that moment to call the Man on the Moon  to help fight Kali. Marcus joins in the fight alongside his future brother-in-law, is that right? That's going to be weird, I guess he is marrying a Power. Realizing, I won't add much to the fight, I run towards the feeling of home. I see Athea transferring a small sapling and dirt into a helmet he found.  I continue running past him and see the man chained to the wall. I try to look and see if I can get him free, but everything I do will cause him immense pain or possibly kill him. I see the door, and it's the way home I've been feeling. I can feel it calling to me. "This is how they've been getting through," I mutter, "We can't let it stand." I called back to Cap, "Cap! We need a shrinking potion. I think this is the missing emperor!" Cap ran in and poured a potion down the man's back as I swung on the doorframe. It collapses and we hear Kali scream behind us in pain as her home starts to collapse around us. We ran back to the room where the Man in the Moon fights Kali, and between all of us we successfully kill her and he helps us return to the Moonlit Keep.

Report Date

15 Mar 2023