Useless as Tits on a Qhortho
Rolan takes watch just as any other night, but his dreams continue to keep his attention until the details become so fleeting that he can no longer catch them. It’s almost as if the harder he tries, the more elusive they become. Meanwhile, his friends rest.
The rest of the party is suddenly aware that they are running. As soon as they come to realize this, they stop in their tracks.
QHOR: Crikey, what’s all this runnin’ then? I’m full knackered.
Qhortho shakes his head in disbelief as he hears his own words.
Aran quickly takes in the surroundings. Black, hard road. In the middle of fog. Great.
He looks to the harsh screechy voice he’d just heard to see a body that just won’t quit.
ARAN: Goddamn girl! You lookin’ good!
If he’d not had the words leaving his own lips, he wouldn’t even know the creole accent as his own.
Qhortho looks down and realizes he has the two biggest breasts he’s ever seen. For a moment, he remembers Cora before running his fingers over them.
QHOR: Well, these some big tits. Shite, well who are you then?
The large tall, muscular black man in front of her with a giant bush axe responds with a very deep voice.
ARAN: It’s me, Aran.
Qhortho notices Aran’s guandao has been replaced and he instinctively grabs for his great sword. In its place he finds a baseball bat.
Qhortho looks over to a middle-aged man wearing a robe with a white collar carrying a shotgun.
QHOR: Right, so who are you then?
The middle-aged man responds with a thick French accent.
QARZ: I guess I am ze priest de shota-gun?
Qarzdaq looks amused by his own voice.
QARZ: Qarzdaq.
Qhortho and Aran nod. This leaves only a grizzled detective with a snubnose revolver.
DORL: Tha fuck you mothafuckas lookin at?
QARZ: Are you our friend Dorleck?
DORL: Yeah, I’m Dawleck.
As the four of them realize they are their normal selves, just reskinned in a sense, they also come to the realization that these objects they are holding are not completely foreign to them. It’s as if they were provided some knowledge of this world from the bodies they are inhabiting.
This time it is Rolan missing this time.
Now they are replaying how they came into this place. They were running. Ok, but running towards or away from something? Maybe they were running to where Rolan is?
ARAN: Awrite dere are some footprints over here leading off da road.
They all approach Aran and when Qhortho gets close, Aran happens to look up.
ARAN: You lookin’ like you got a real upgrade!
He grabs Qhortho’s boobs and Qhortho shrugs.
QHOR: Yeah, they are pretty nice.
They follow the footsteps to a path that leads to a large mansion.
It’s All Evil
The clouds in the dark sky glow by bright moonlight from behind. As they continue, they notice a circular opening in the clouds bounded by a ring of green smoke. Through the opening, they can clearly see the stars above. Approaching the house, they realize the ring is situated perfectly above the house.
Suddenly, the door of the house bursts open. A housemaid frantically runs towards them, screaming, looking back towards the house. She looks forwards, towards the newcomers, and runs directly towards them, screaming with terror the entire way.
MAID: Something evil! He’s captured! He’s going to kill him!
She crumbles to the ice-crusted snowy ground, sobbing uncontrollably. They attempt to console her, but it is of no use. They tell her that they feel like they’ve been sent here to deal with the situation and ask what to expect. This seems to calm her just enough to speak.
MAID: The master has become obsessed with the occult. He’s been trying to open portals to other dimensions and it seems he’s had some success. He’s just summoned someone and took them to the basement. God knows what’s down there.
DORL: Anything around the house? Anything upstaihs?
MAID: Just evil. It’s all evil.
She tells them that the master of the house is the only one that can enter the basement due to a locking mechanism that only he can open. She goes on to say that Master Rookland is the wealthiest man in the region and is very powerful.
Qarzdaq unrolls some parchment and asks her to draw a map of where the party should go. Focusing on something concrete might also help to calm her enough to provide more information. She draws out a few of the rooms: a foyer with the basement door, a study and library, a dining room, and a kitchen. Leading farther into the house from the foyer is a double staircase leading to the second story.
DORL: What’s upstaihs?
MAID: I don’t know. I’m not permitted to go upstairs. Right now, the master is in the study toiling over his latest work.
QARZ: Any such powuhz or spec-ial abilities we should know about?
MAID: No. He’s an old, frail man trying to get more power.
QARZ: I think we should go speak with the master.
DORL: Hold up. Is theh a window we might want ta sneak through aw any otha’ passages we should know about?
MAID: No. The hedges around the house are impenetrable. You must enter through the front door.
DORL: Does it creak?
MAID: Only if opened slowly.
DORL: Alright. Guns blazin’ it is.
Qhortho leads the group to the door and kicks the door with astonishing force. Unfortunately, this door opens outward and all he manages to do is hurt his foot a bit.
Aran reaches for the handle and opens the door quite easily. Aran shoots Qhortho a sly look. Qhortho shrugs.
Ok, Let’s Split Up
Aran and Qarzdaq take an immediate left at the first door into the study. The room is richly colored and ornately decorated. A grand piano stands in the far-right corner.
Dorleck and Qhortho approach the second door on the right: the door to the basement with bloody human handprints. Not just one pair either. Due to the layering of several faded prints, it appears bloody hands have been placed on this door on many different occasions over a long period of time. Perhaps this is the way to open the door. The maid mentioned that only the master could open it, so perhaps the master will be required in the flesh.
Qhortho kicks the door very hard, but as his foot makes contact, it shimmers with a light blue glow. All of the energy imparted by his kick is immediately reflected as a single impulse, sending him flying into the door just across the hall. He shakes his head as he finds himself on his back with wooden splinters of a door around him. He looks around and sees Qarzdaq standing above him and Aran going through another door at the back of the study.
QHOR: Crikey!
Aran steps into a warm and inviting office to see a frail-looking man standing in the far corner facing towards the Aran but looking down.
ARAN: I’m goinna need dat key to da basement.
Qarzdaq and Qhortho both hear Aran and jump to attention.
Before they get to Aran, they seem him get struck by a green beam of… something… Aran suddenly feels as if death itself is reaching into his soul. He’s then struck by another short blast of green energy. Aran is slightly dazed, but altogether ready to fight.
He charges ahead and smashes the man multiple times with his giant bush axe. The sound of bones crunching under the impact is very satisfying to him.
Qarzdaq bursts through the door seeing Aran strike a bloody cult leader in the corner of the room. Qarzdaq attempts to Hold the cultist in place, but the cultist notices this and quickly waves his hand in front of his face. Qarzdaq feels the spell cast, but no effect happens.
QARZ: Le connard…
Qhortho rushes after Qarzdaq but stops in his tracks by a sight outside. There is now a man outside near the hysterical woman helping her up. She is no longer crying. In fact, she is… smiling and laughing?
QHOR: You right bitch. AYE, IT’S A SETUP!
He continues in towards the fight being had in the office.
Dorleck hears this and rushes to the front door, flinging it open. Outside he sees a robed man and “the maid” talking. They see Dorleck and look intent on approaching with nefarious intent.
Dorleck holds up his revolver and whispers to it, “come on baby… don’t fail me now.” He rubs the cylinder and quickly summons a dome of 1-foot-thick ice over top of the man and woman, preventing them from taking another step.
Inside the dome, the woman shoots purple blasts at the ice, causing the ice to crack but not break entirely. The man pulls out a hand axe and strikes the crack. A section of the dome crumbles, leaving magical frigid air in its place. The man steps through. Instantly, the man’s hair freezes, but he manages to walk through without frostbite. He runs towards Dorleck and prepares to strike.
Meanwhile, Aran, Qarzdaq, and Qhortho are about to pummel the cultist when he suddenly vanishes.
QARZ: Shut ze door!
Qarzdaq readies his shotgun and blasts the corner of the room. Blood appears from thin air, splattering the wall. Qarzdaq reloads.
Dorleck rubs the revolver’s cylinder again, causing a cone of extreme cold to envelop the robed man next to him as well as the “maid” still inside the dome.
The man almost falls down, but fights against it. The woman looks as though she’s had worse thrown her way.
DORL: Resistant ta cold, eh?
Aran swings his axe a couple of times, only striking air. His third strike hits something hard. Suddenly, the cult member is visible again, now with an axe blade deep in his skull. The body is held above the ground until Aran shakes its head loose. The body falls with a thud as blood pools on the floor.
Qarzdaq looks over the body and realizes this cannot be the master. He is not nearly as old as the maid described. However, now knowing this is all a setup, who knows if the master even exists.
Qhortho searches the large desk, finding a lot of blank pages. This might also be a piece of this elaborate trap.
At the front of the house, the woman runs out of the dome, wincing as she passes through the frigid air. She blasts Dorleck with a purple blast. He immediately points at her, firing back with Hellish Rebuke. She is instantly surrounded by green flames, melting the snow on the ground around her. She certainly was hurting from that one, but not as much as he’d expected.
DORL: Ah, shit… Resistant ta magic? Fuck.
Should We Rest or Should We Go?
The man beside Dorleck hacks at his arm. Blood splatters across the door, causing Dorleck to recoil slightly. Dorleck speaks a few words, causing a spectral frost to form on his clothing and skin. It does not restrict his movement, but whoever strikes him is going to get a nasty surprise. Dorleck smiles at the robed man, then steps backward.
The man sees this as his opportunity to strike. The axe smashes the same location, but this time strikes something more solid than flesh. A frostbite-inducing chill travels up the axe and into the man’s hands, causing a few of his fingers to become useless.
Dorleck lets a small laugh out as he takes a few more steps backward.
DORL: Hey! Guys! Front daw!
The rest of the party definitely heard that.
Aran dashes out of the office, through the study, and to the front door. He looks at Dorleck with a combination of amusement and curiosity when he sees the layer of frost covering him.
He turns to look outside just as a purple blast catches him off-guard in the chest. Seconds later, she is standing just outside the doorway, coaxing the robed man to enter and be her shield. He accepts his role.
MAN: You may kill me, but Cthulhu will ensure I live forever.
ARAN: Ah guarantee you been got dat fursd paht raht.
Aran hacks the man down with one strike of his bush axe.
DORL: Yaw welcome.
Aran looks at Dorleck as if he just saved his ass.
DORL: In all seriousness though… try ta knock em out next time, aight? I’m just itchin’ ta try…
Suddenly they hear cacophony from the study as Qarzdaq strikes a few keys on the piano. Qarzdaq kicks the piano and runs into the hallway.
Dorleck Hexes the maid, the fires two shots with his revolver. He strikes her twice and she falls.
DORL: Fuck yeah, bitch!
They search the bodies, but find nothing of any value except an interesting-looking dagger. Qarzdaq takes the dagger. They decide to explore the rest of the house before trying to get into the basement. Dorleck mentions that he could use an hour’s rest. Just then, the house shakes. Time is running out.
DORL: Yeah, yeah, yeah… it’s just an owa…
QHOR: Why don’t you just sit down an rest, and I’ll have a look ova ere.
DORL: I can’t do that to ya… I’ll go with.
QARZ: It will take us an hour to search ze house anyway. Maybe you jus wait here.
ARAN: I’ll looka upstairs.
They discuss this, non-strenuously, for about an hour.
DORL: Hey, ay know what? Fuck it. I’m feelin’ pretty good.
With that, the house shakes again. It seems to be getting more and more unstable. It makes them doubt they will get another opportunity to rest.
Ok, Let’s Split Up Again
Qhortho and Dorleck enter the dining room off the foyer opposite the study, next to the basement door. They hear some sounds coming from behind the only other door… The door leading to the kitchen.
Qarzdaq and Aran approach the staircase. As soon as Qarzdaq places his foot on the first stair, he feels himself being levitated towards the ceiling.
QARZ: Cordon bleu!
As he approaches the ceiling, he attempts to struggle but has no control over his body. The ceiling begins to fracture, crumble, and break away. Beyond the ceiling is the night sky. The green cloud ring provides a viewport through the thick layer of bright gray clouds that fill the remainder of the sky.
He feels himself being pulled through the ring and into the cosmos. His journey feels like an eternity. His body ages accordingly. Days, weeks, months, years, decades pass while he floats through space.
Eventually, he notices that he is headed towards a star. It’s only then that he realizes how fast he is moving. Has he always been moving this fast? A huge planet soars past him as he gets closer to the star. The star is partially blocked by another planet. But… that is no planet… at least that’s not ONLY a planet. Clutching it with enormous tentacles is a giant octopus-like creature, slowly devouring the entire planet.
Qarzdaq feels his movement slow. He is being forced to watch this horrifying sight to completion. When it finishes, it somehow swims through empty space in Qarzdaq’s direction, leaving asteroid crumbs in its wake. Unable to run, unable to turn away, unable to do anything at all, it slowly gets closer until it raises one giant tentacle, pointing directly at him. Even if he could scream, the fear would have made it impossible. He floats, paralyzed.
Aran is looking at Qarzdaq. He still has one foot on the first step and is staring upward with his mouth open. As he watches, Qarzdaq’s hair and beard is growing and graying. He lets out a shriek that is louder than any he’s ever heard.
Aran grabs Qarzdaq and pulls him away from the staircase. Qarzdaq feels as though he is being ejected from the planetary system and being sucked out of what has become his new reality.
They fall on the ground and Qarzdaq looks around in utter terror. Qarzdaq looks all around in sudden movements as if about to be attacked on all sides by his worst nightmare.
ARAN: You ok, bon ami.
Qarzdaq is unable to speak, his eyes unable to focus. He begins to cry uncontrollably with a confusing mix of fear and relief.
Though they heard what sounds to be a woman’s scream, Qhortho and Dorleck continue forward into the kitchen.
Qhortho is the first to enter and see a twisted, nearly featureless humanoid. Its limbs hang loose and its head resembles that of an insect. Its eyes flicker in and out of visibility. Frigid wind swirls around the creature.
Dorleck rounds the corner to see the creature. It is so foreign to anything they know that they cannot even piece together exactly what they should aim for or avoid.
Dorleck decides to just throw caution to the wind. He fans his revolver, hitting it with three of his shots.
Qhortho rushes in, bashing the creature with his baseball bat, breaking several bones – or maybe its carapace – with each strike. Though the thing looks like it had been damaged, parts of its head and body seem to phase in and out as if healing itself in some way, but it would be impossible to know if it truly regained any of its vitality.
The creature moves one of its limbs through the air, tearing some sort of hole or portal into another dimension. It jumps through and disappears, the portal closing behind it. Qhortho and Dorleck look at each other as if they’re not sure what to believe anymore.
QHOR: Run you bloody coward!
DORL: We gave ‘im a good run, din’t we?
They search the room and find nothing too abnormal on the countertops – mostly just dishes, utensils, and moldy food. Looking in the fridge, they find jars of blood. Whether it is human or animal, they cannot be sure.
Dorleck grabs an armful of jars for the road.
QHOR: Are you mad??
DORL: We don’t know if we need these things…
Qarzdaq scrambles to his feet and runs as fast as he can towards the front of the house. As he passes the bloody handprints on the basement door, his memories begin to come back to him. They were in this house so long ago. They’d never finished their mission. What was their mission? Was this a dream? Or was his time in the abyss a dream? He looks down at his aged hands. Not a dream. Maybe neither was a dream. What are they up against here?
There Will Be Blood
Qarzdaq takes a few moments to examine the bloody handprints. He feels for where he remembered placing the interesting-looking dagger so many years ago. Still there. This is not a dream. He cuts his hand with the dagger and places his bloodied hand on the door near the other handprints.
Nothing happens.
Qarzdaq remembers something the maid had said so long ago – only the master of the house could open the door. Now to find the master of the house.
Qhortho and Dorleck come walking into the hallway to find Qarzdaq standing in front of the basement door, bloodied dagger in one hand and blood dripping from the other.
They stand next to Qarzdaq looking at the door with him in silence. Qhortho takes a jar out of Dorleck’s arms and opens it up. He dips his hand inside and smears it on the door.
Nothing happens.
QHOR: Shite.
QARZ: I zink weh need za masta’s handt.
His voice is a little raspy. They look over at him and now notice the aged man before them.
DORL: Man, you look like shit.
Aran walks in as Qhortho bends down to wipe his hand on the cultist’s body lying on the floor.
DORL: Hey, cut off that fucka’s hand!
QARZ: Ahem. I zink weh need za MASTA’s handt.
Aran decides he’s up for the challenge. He cuts off one of the cultist’s hand, dips it in the open jar of blood and smacks it on the door.
Nothing happens.
Dorleck cuts off the other hand and puts it in his pocket for later.
DORL: What about the guy in the office?
They spend several minutes cutting of various limbs and using various pools of blood in combinations to open the basement door. The door now looks like a red Rorschach test.
Nothing happens.
QARZ: I zink weh need za masta’s handt.
DORL: Yeah yeah yeah… Ok, so whaeh have you guys checked fuh this masta?
QARZ: We tried. But then I saw…
DORL: Saw whut?
QARZ: I cannot explain. I saw… uh…
His eyes begin to well up.
ARAN: We’ll just go without ya.
QARZ: Oui. I stay here.
DORL: Well if you’se already checked all the downstaihs, we gotta go upstaihs.
QARZ: Non. You check le upstairs. I stay here.
DORL: Yeah, yeah. I get it… stay down hea and we’ll fuckin’ handle it.
They approach the staircase and see 5 doors in the area: 3 doors upstairs and 2 on this floor.
Dorleck motions to the one on this floor.
DORL: So you checked in hea already?
ARAN: No. We neva did see dat one dare.
Dorleck opens the door to a billiards table. He investigates the table and room, finding nothing out of the ordinary.
DORL: Nothin’ outta the ordinary? Let’s jus’ see about that…
Dorleck feels pretty satisfied with himself as he steps back from his hasty art project. He’d poured the blood from one of the many jars he collected onto the table and it was now beginning to drip on the floor. He tosses the empty jar into the puddle of blood on the table.
DORL: Embrace the horruh.
He walks out of the room and closes the door behind him just in time to hear a door slam shut upstairs. Aran is standing outside a closed door on the upper floor.
Aran looks down at Dorleck and shrugs his shoulders.
ARAN: Dee daw jus slammt. Qhortho’s gone on insahd.
A Divided House Falls
Qhortho finds himself in a hallway of rich mahogany walls and crown molding, with a door at the opposite end. Two paintings hang on the left wall; a desk abuts the right wall with a chair.
He takes a step toward the first oil painting on his left. It is a very fine portrait of a man pointing behind him, over his shoulder.
He walks towards the next painting down the hall, but with each step, the hall seems to remain about 15 feet away. Looking behind him, it looks as if his entry door is moving away from him normally.
QHOR: What’s all this now?
He takes a few more steps and is now in the middle of the room, but he is no closer to the door at the other end of the hall. From this distance, he can see that the next painting is another well-done portrait of some other person pointing over their shoulder, behind them.
He takes off running towards the door, but although he has actually been running, the door remains at the same distance. His perceptions of reality are beginning to break.
He decides it’s time to leave this room. He attempts to walk towards the entry door and realizes he cannot get any closer to that one either. He is stuck in the middle of this hallway.
Aran tries opening the door, but it does not budge. He tries the next door, which opens normally.
He sees steps leading up to an attic. At the top of the steps is a small window letting light in. The sounds of crickets and cicadas fill the room as warm summer air touches his skin. The corners of walls and ceiling are coated with cobwebs and dust. Various small items are strewn about as if this are were abandoned many years ago. The stairs lead up and to the right to what looks to be a loft.
Rather than climbing the stairs, Aran steps back to check another one of the doors. This one also opens normally.
He is looking into a hallway with a door on the opposite end. Mirrors are on the side walls.
Dorleck is watching Aran this entire time. Aran calls down to Dorleck to have him come upstairs. Dorleck approaches the first step with apprehension, but seeing as nothing happens to him, he runs up the remaining steps.
Qarzdaq watches on with some fear, but seeing as all three of his allies have gone up, he bravely decides to join them. This time, he uses the other staircase though, just for good measure. He stands alongside Dorleck and Aran as Aran steps through the door and it slams shut behind him.
As he walks thorough the hall, he looks into each mirror as he passes. He does not see himself though. Instead, in each mirror, he sees one of his comrades in their original and more familiar form. However, they each have an air of evilness about them – each with a sort of twisted gaze and smirky grin.
Aran looks into the one on the right. An evil Dorleck is staring back at him. He smashes the mirror, revealing the glass is nothing more than a barrier. With that barrier out of the way, evil Dorleck steps through grinning, clearly happy about his release.
Aran attacks him immediately with his bush axe. He looks badly injured, but it does not seem to reduce his resolve. He wipes a droplet of blood form his mouth and grins at him with an evil coldness.
Qhortho is confused and sees no way out. He takes a step backward and realizes his perspective of the room has changed. He actually moved! He continues to walk backwards until he reaches the door at the end of the hall. He opens the door behind him and steps through.
Still facing the entryway, but standing inside the exitway, he hears a click from the entryway door, as if it were just unlocked. He feels a sense of pride as he now “gets” this hellway.
That pride takes a back seat to action as he realizes he is sharing some personal space with a creature that looks like the one he’d encountered in the kitchen.
Dorleck leaves Qarzdaq’s side to enter the door that Aran decided not to enter. Warm and inviting air coupled with the sound of outside summer insects calm him slightly. He climbs the stairs and as he rounds the bend to continue up, he gets the sense that the cicadas he is hearing are not cicadas. The sounds seems more localized… and inside the room ahead.
As he continues, the cobwebs get thicker. He rips them apart and presses on. It’s not more than about 5 more feet before he sees a large spider. Not a spider that is big for a spider. No, this thing is about the size of a person.
Evil Dorleck holds out one hand. A short sword appears in his hand. He gets closer to Aran and attacks him with a speed Aran’s not seen from normal Dorleck. The first attack glances off Aran’s armor, and Aran counters the attack. He brings his bush axe over his head and down with tremendous force. Dorleck’s head seems to split down the middle for a moment before he vaporizes into a mist of blood, spraying the entire area. An Aran-shaped clean are remains on the floor behind him.
The door behind him clicks as if it’s just been unlocked.
Qhortho recognizes a couple of the marks he left on this creature in the kitchen. It’s the same one. This sends Qhortho into a rage.
He smashes the insect-humanoid thing twice in quick succession, cracking its head. It begins to ooze in a way that can only be described, poorly mind you, as in reverse. It’s as if the ooze is on its carapace and being sucked inside to an inky black void.
It strikes back, slashing him and grappling his torso with its seemingly useless arms. They must be holding him with a force outside that of muscle. He’s broken stronger arms than this with half the force.
Qarzdaq enters an unexplored room and finds it to be a library. After searching around, he finds nothing out of the ordinary.
Aran runs past the other mirrors to the door on the opposite end of the room. He sees an old man sitting on a chair, reading a book. He looks up at Aran and smiles with a level of creepiness he has come to expect from anything in this damn house.
OLD MAN: It’s time to dance.
He swipes his hand through the air, causing a tear in space itself. He jumps through the rift and vanishes, the “doorway” closing behind him.
Aran steps up to the area where the rift was and swings his axe through the air hopefully. Nothing happens.
Aran looks out the nearby window and sees a sprawling year that leads downhill to a small park. On the other side of the park is a small village. People walk along the cobblestone roads. Though he’s glad there is some human life around here, even this is not fully consoling. What’s odd is they all seem to be agitated.
Scanning to the right, he sees a flaming barrel at some kind of shoreline. Next to the barrel are a few docks and a few small boats tied up.
The spider rears back, shooting webbing at Dorleck, restraining him. The spider approaches, looking hungry. His mind gets a little swimmy. He starts to think he’s been poisoned. Suddenly Dorleck feels his muscles tighten. Yep. Definitely poisoned. He wrenches his face then closes his eyes and puts aside the pain. Attempting to draw on its power.
The spider being so close to his face, Dorleck whispers something to it and takes this as an invitation. He reaches out and touches its face gently.
Negative energy courses through the spider, causing it searing pain. The spider seems like it can take a lot more where that came from.
Suddenly the house shakes violently.
Qhortho manages to keep his arms free of restraint and smashes the butt of his bat into the creature’s head. The outside shell cracks and gives way to its gooey center. The arms holding him let loose. Qhortho, still raging, smashes the creature to a gooey pulp. With every strike, shards of its carapace and bits of flesh strike the walls.
Breathing heavily, his breasts heaving, Qhortho turns, dragging his bat through the goo and mess and walks calmly out the door into the fucky hallway.
Qarzdaq enters the door he saw Dorleck go through and walks up the stairs. He is frozen momentarily in place by the sight of the largest spider he’s ever seen. It’s larger than the human-sized mass of webbing blocking most of his view.
DORL: It’s cool.
It’s only then that Qarzdaq realizes that Dorleck is INSIDE that mass of webbing.
Aran looks back to the hall with mirrors and makes a run for it. Nothing out of the ordinary happens.
He steps out from the room onto the upstairs landing. He looks around and sees no one else, hears no one else. He descends the stairs and re-enters the foyer, just outside the basement door.
The spider sinks its teeth into Dorleck’s arm. Its mandibles freeze over and crack slightly as it pierces the thin crust of frost on Dorleck. The spider’s poison sends searing pain through Dorleck’s veins. The spider goes back for seconds, causing him more cold damage.
The spider attempts to trap Qarzdaq with more webbing. Qarzdaq quickly blocks it with a magical shield.
Dorleck closes his eyes and creates a twisting pattern of colors that weaves through the room. It vanishes after just a moment. The spider falls victim to it and is dazed in place.
Dorleck cranes his neck around as much as he can.
DORL: Hey. Get me outta hea. Cut me loose.
Qhortho steps onto the upstairs landing and looks around. He sees Aran downstairs by the basement door.
QHOR: Where has ev’rybody gone then?
ARAN: I ain’t seen nobody roundere. Should maybe look at dee ballroom. Justa hunch.
QHOR: Ballroom? What’re ye goin on about?
Master of the House
Qarzdaq uses his dagger to cut Dorleck loose.
DORL: Thanks man.
QARZ: I have sumthing spec-ial fur zis guy.
DORL: Whoa whoa whoa… Dis guy’s sleepin’ right now. Let’s just get outta hea.
QARZ: Non non non. We kill zis sing now.
DORL: How bout we call out fuh the othas and we gang up on this piece uh shit.
QARZ: I cun send ze message to zem.
Qarzdaq goes to message them and finds them standing outside the door.
QARZ: You guyz is good.
QHOR: ‘Erd a commotion, we did.
Aran pushes himself ahead of Qhortho.
ARAN: Dis unda contruhl?
DORL: It is now! Let’s kill this cocksucka!
Aran rushes up the stairs, rounds the corner and crashes his bush axe into the dazed spider. It snaps out of its stupor and looks at Dorleck for a moment. It then turns to Aran and attacks. Aran sidesteps the spider’s legs, just as Dorleck steps backward. Dorleck fires his revolver, wounding the spider.
Qhortho runs up the stairs and smacks the spider with his bat. Qarzdaq lowers his shotgun.
QARZ: C’est la mort.
Qhortho fires both barrels into the spider’s abdomen. The house shakes violently and parts of the ceiling falls to the ground, breaking into smaller chunks. The wood beams throughout the house creak loudly.
ARAN: Dee ballroom. We got to do da dance. I saw an old man said dis.
Everyone else looks at each other then back to Aran. Aran leads everyone downstairs to the study with the piano.
Dorleck is the first to actually enter the study and is greeted by an old man. The old man makes no moves. He’s just… standing there, sizing up Dorleck.
Dorleck quickly fires off a few Eldritch Blasts, but they fizzle out midair. The old man raises his finger towards Dorleck and grins. He knows exactly what this means. Dorleck flicks his wrist through the air. The old man looks at his finger with a grimace. Dorleck grins.
The old man fires off a few blasts, wiping the grin off Dorleck’s face.
Qhortho suddenly appears from the other doorway and bashes the old man with his bat. Qhortho expects this old man to fall to the ground, but he just looks into Qhortho’s eyes and laughs in his face.
The house continues to shake.
Aran runs up and hits the old man with his axe. After a few strikes, the axe is stuck in the old man’s shoulder. Though he is dying, he continues to laugh as if he feels no pain and the party has somehow fallen into his trap.
OLD MAN: It is too late. Your attempts are futile. Give in to Cthulu now.
He falls over, dead. The house continues to shake. Parts of the walls are now falling to the floor.
Aran wrestles the old man up off the floor and drags him to the basement door. He slaps the bloodied hand against the door and it begins to shake. A moment later, they hear a click. Aran drops the body and they open the basement door.
The Basement
They walk down the stairs slowly, not knowing what to expect. Amidst all the scientific equipment and flasks, a large contraption holds Rolan. A deformed Rolan… in agony.
Aran steps forward with his bush axe at the ready.
Rolan’s horribly deformed body begins to move unnaturally. Something is wriggling its way out of his body. Rolan’s face turns from pain to terror. He lurches towards the Aran and takes a swing at him. Aran deflects the first but misses his opportunity to strike as a second blow comes his way. Aran bobs out of the way as Qarzdaq positions himself to Sunbeam Rolan.
An intensely stout beam of light emanates from his palms, scorching areas of Rolan’s skin. The part that is still Rolan begins to scream but is overridden by the desires of whatever is controlling him.
Dorleck creates a Circle of Death, causing parts of Rolan’s skin to rot in place.
Qhortho goes into a rage, runs up to Rolan, and bashes down on his head extremely hard. His head cracks open, leaking congealed blood on the floor. As it is oozing from his skull, Rolan’s voice says, “you have to get to the boat and…”
The thing wriggling inside him fills Rolan’s throat, preventing him from saying anything more.
Aran hears this and looks to Qarzdaq and Dorleck to make sure they also know. They each shrug at him, not knowing anything about a boat. Qhortho, still enraged, is impossible to communicate with at the moment.
Qhortho swings his bat around and smashes the side of Rolan’s face. His jaw gets knocked loose and he falls to his knees. The worm-like thing that was inside him, sloughs off Rolan’s body. It falls the floor like an unwanted puppet.
The creature flops around violently, sending blood splattering across the entire room. Everyone except Qhortho backs up a few steps as the creature explodes into a mass much larger than it. The black viscous mass fills the entire back area of the basement.
Aran looks around and spots a door that looks to be an exit to the ground level behind the house. The mass is beginning to take a form.
Aran makes a run for it. As he runs past the mass, a part of it forms into a tentacle and lashes out at him. Aran jumps and slams his shoulder into the door. He flings it open.
Another tentacle grabs his leg and pulls him towards its center. The mass is now forming into several unnaturally branching tentacles. Aran struggles as this thing continues to reel him in. Several eyes blink open near the middle of the mass. The tentacle squeezes the air out of Aran’s lungs as he grabs at the smooth floor for anything that might help him. The mid-section of the mass, just below the cluster of eyes, opens to a gaping maw.
Aran resolves himself to death. Rather than struggle to get free, he prepares to attack the creature as he gets closer to it… or in it.
Given that this thing is filling most of the space, Qhortho makes his way to the door while whacking the creature with his bat. It’s as if this thing doesn’t even notice Qhortho as it focuses on guiding Aran into its mouth.
The tentacle drops Aran into its mouth, and though he is now being digested, he is loose to hack away at this creature as best he can.
Outside, Qarzdaq attempts to Disintegrate the creature. The creature looks angered by this. It opens its mouth wide as if trying to eat everyone in the room. Instead, its mouth continues to open. Wider. Wider. Until it looked more like the opening to an extremely large bag. An opening with teeth. Its oozy and slimy skin begins to harden and crack. A moment later, it is half deflating, half cracking into pieces.
Aran steps out, gasping for air, his skin tattooed with chemical burns. Dark ooze from the creature’s internals continue to remove segments of flesh from his arms and face.
The house’s continuous shaking becomes more violent. They run out the back door and realize it has not been the house shaking… it was the entire ground. One long earthquake.
The green cloud ring in the sky is now much larger than when they’d arrived in this cursed place. Through the ring, it appears as if the world is hurtling through the solar system. Past planets, past other stars, past entire galaxies.
They run towards the docks and hop onto the first boat they get to. They paddle out into the water. They feel as if they are still shaking because of the sudden stillness, similar to the feeling of being on dry land after being out to sea for a few days.
Many people are outside at the village, but the party remains unseen.End of Night
Looking around to find a course, they notice mountain-sized tentacles rising above the horizon.
Qarzdaq takes one look at this and cowers, knowing their fate having seen it himself.
Aran freezes in place as the image of the tentacle creature’s mouth blanks his mind.
The next few minutes they sit, hopeless. The world continues to shake around them while they float in comparative serenity. Entire swaths of land turn to rubble and enormous plumes of smoke by tentacle after tentacle falling dozens of miles away.
Eventually, what look to be nearby kites become larger and larger. Not kites. Teeth. A mouth larger than the horizon itself bears down on them. On the entire planet.
ARAN: I got dis ting right where I want em.
The rest of the party begins to giggle slowly but infectiously until it turns to outright laughter as their final moments are within sight.
Thankfully, for them, as they pass into the creature’s mouth, everything turns to black. Not darkness; black. Existence itself is futile.
Aran, Dorleck, Qarzdaq, and Qhortho jolt upright, now fully awake. They are alive, but they feel they’ve been through hell. Exhaustion sets in as they realize it is not long before dawn. They approach Rolan, who is still on watch. Aran reaches out to touch him, but he does not move. He seems to be swaying ever so slightly this way and that. To anyone standing more than a few feet away, he would seem to be sitting perfectly still.
ARAN: Rolan?
Rolan jumps.
ROLAN: Yeah.
ARAN: What’d you fall asleep?
ROLAN: No. I mean, I don’t think so. I heard you coming up and felt you touch me, but I couldn’t move right away. Or maybe I chose not to.
The response is oddly out of character.
ROLAN: Sorry. It’s not been a good night.
QHOR: Not for any of us it seems.
DORL: This place must be cursed. We should get going…
The sky brightens and they pack up their camp, deciding they will not do their typical meditations and routines. They confirm their prisoner is still in the back of the wagon. It is time they get on their way.
We end this session on the beginning of Day 645. Each member of the Assembly gains 2.5 kXP, bringing their total to 127.5 kXP.