Not Quite Lovecraft
- Thread starter Blacksheep
- Start date
- Fantasy Historic Mystery Horror
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- Pronouns
- She
- Pronouns
- She
Out of town for the weekend, will write up Monday hopefully!
Occult Truth
- Pronouns
- She
You took a breath and straightened up. You knew your humanity looked weaker here, shadowed by all that you had seen and done and taken into yourself. Nemo was approaching with cheer and hunger in their mind, and Phileas was dancing on the edge of dreams, not quite here but not quite not either. You could tell that Silas could sense Phileas' presence, if not fully grasp it or see it. "Look around. This is only just beneath the masquerade that everyone lives in. The truth of the world beyond what humans are blind to see."
"You can't stand against me here, not as you are. And I will have your tale. I will know your master, and of your cult. So tell me truly, who do you serve? What have you seen?" You leaned in hungrily.
Silas laughed. He laughed and laughed. His mind was cracked. "High Speaker M'Dari, our leader! He who hears what the Bloody Tongue has to share! He who brings us together in revelry and blood! In violence we feed power, and gifts spill back to us! I was trusted to stand! I was a no one, and now I hold the door!" He cackled madly. You peered in. Still no magic touched him. Just a man who had seen too much. Perhaps even before you brought him here.
[ ]Return Silas to his room
[ ]Kill Silas
[ ]Write-in
You stood back in Silas' room. You could still feel the faint tug of blood magic, now that your senses were fully open and grasping. Perhaps you could check it. Or perhaps you could head straight to the prize, the ritual rooms beneath.
[ ]Check what is below the bed before moving on
[ ]Leave it be
[ ]Write-in
"You can't stand against me here, not as you are. And I will have your tale. I will know your master, and of your cult. So tell me truly, who do you serve? What have you seen?" You leaned in hungrily.
Silas laughed. He laughed and laughed. His mind was cracked. "High Speaker M'Dari, our leader! He who hears what the Bloody Tongue has to share! He who brings us together in revelry and blood! In violence we feed power, and gifts spill back to us! I was trusted to stand! I was a no one, and now I hold the door!" He cackled madly. You peered in. Still no magic touched him. Just a man who had seen too much. Perhaps even before you brought him here.
[ ]Return Silas to his room
[ ]Kill Silas
[ ]Write-in
You stood back in Silas' room. You could still feel the faint tug of blood magic, now that your senses were fully open and grasping. Perhaps you could check it. Or perhaps you could head straight to the prize, the ritual rooms beneath.
[ ]Check what is below the bed before moving on
[ ]Leave it be
[ ]Write-in
[X] "It is time to let go of the door."
-[X] Take him to the oceans to be judged. That he might see the other paths he could have taken.
[X] "Your burden is heavy. Rest now."
-[X] Place flowers on his head gently. Comfort him, lulling him into sleep in the garden.
[X] Contain
-[X] Pachamama's runes worked in Peru. Contain the red mask without touching wrapping it her seals, so you might study it later with care.
[X] Grab the keys
-[X] Leave the mask be and rush to the ritual room instead.
-[X] Take him to the oceans to be judged. That he might see the other paths he could have taken.
[X] "Your burden is heavy. Rest now."
-[X] Place flowers on his head gently. Comfort him, lulling him into sleep in the garden.
[X] Contain
-[X] Pachamama's runes worked in Peru. Contain the red mask without touching wrapping it her seals, so you might study it later with care.
[X] Grab the keys
-[X] Leave the mask be and rush to the ritual room instead.
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[X] "It is time to let go of the door."
-[X] Take him to the oceans to be judged. That he might see the other paths he could have taken.
[X] "Your burden is heavy. Rest now."
-[X] Place flowers on his head gently. Comfort him, lulling him into sleep in the garden.
[X] Contain
-[X] Pachamama's runes worked in Peru. Contain the red mask without touching wrapping it her seals, so you might study it later with care.
[X] Grab the keys
-[X] Leave the mask be and rush to the ritual room instead.
-[X] Take him to the oceans to be judged. That he might see the other paths he could have taken.
[X] "Your burden is heavy. Rest now."
-[X] Place flowers on his head gently. Comfort him, lulling him into sleep in the garden.
[X] Contain
-[X] Pachamama's runes worked in Peru. Contain the red mask without touching wrapping it her seals, so you might study it later with care.
[X] Grab the keys
-[X] Leave the mask be and rush to the ritual room instead.
Vote closed
- Pronouns
- She
Ritual Room
- Pronouns
- She
You let out a soft sigh. "Your burden is heavy. It's time for you to rest." You gently pressed your magic down around Silas, blanketing him in the peace of the garden and pushing him down. He struggled against it, but it was a weak mild thing. He had no true resistance to someone enforcing their will upon him. You picked some of the friendlier flowers and placed them near him to guard him in his sleep. Whether or not he would awaken again, at least he would have peace for this moment.
You plucked the key free from where it had been half hidden on a chain around his neck and headed back through to the art shop. You opened the door to the cellar and headed down. You didn't hesitate to open the door this time and step inside entirely. The entirety of this area is stone, with a high ceiling that feels disorienting after the small cramped spaces of the shop and rooms above. You get the feeling you're missing something as you glance around at the bare walls, but whatever it is slips through your mind with each glimpse.
Beautiful large african drums are set aside along one wall, with a large pit in the center for the rituals. A winch to the side is attached to the stone covering the pit and what is below. Across from it you can see an alcove, and four dessicated corpses stumble out from where they had been guarding a seated cushion. You're quick to grab a torch and light it, plunging it forward to set the creatures on fire. They are silent in their attack even as their jaws drop open in silent screeches of anger. You think you can hear something more as you battle, but your entire focus is taken up on this.
Combat Roll Using Dex: 4
You struggle as they strike at you and spread the flames to your own body. You're forced to retreat back to the stairs bleeding heavily and one of your arms wrenched out of its socket. Luckily the corpses seem to be tied to the ritual room leaving them to stand in the doorway and watch mindlessly to see if you attempt to enter once more.
[ ]Call Nemo for aid
[ ]Try to attack one on one
[ ]Come back another time
[ ]Write-in
You plucked the key free from where it had been half hidden on a chain around his neck and headed back through to the art shop. You opened the door to the cellar and headed down. You didn't hesitate to open the door this time and step inside entirely. The entirety of this area is stone, with a high ceiling that feels disorienting after the small cramped spaces of the shop and rooms above. You get the feeling you're missing something as you glance around at the bare walls, but whatever it is slips through your mind with each glimpse.
Beautiful large african drums are set aside along one wall, with a large pit in the center for the rituals. A winch to the side is attached to the stone covering the pit and what is below. Across from it you can see an alcove, and four dessicated corpses stumble out from where they had been guarding a seated cushion. You're quick to grab a torch and light it, plunging it forward to set the creatures on fire. They are silent in their attack even as their jaws drop open in silent screeches of anger. You think you can hear something more as you battle, but your entire focus is taken up on this.
Combat Roll Using Dex: 4
You struggle as they strike at you and spread the flames to your own body. You're forced to retreat back to the stairs bleeding heavily and one of your arms wrenched out of its socket. Luckily the corpses seem to be tied to the ritual room leaving them to stand in the doorway and watch mindlessly to see if you attempt to enter once more.
[ ]Call Nemo for aid
[ ]Try to attack one on one
[ ]Come back another time
[ ]Write-in
Ooh combat scene. Isis's runes worked great against the undead last time right?
[X] Exorcism
-[X] Immediately use your water of forgiveness to sever their connection to you and their pursuit.
-[X] After they lose interest, patch yourself up and roll out a canvas inscribing Isis's runes. Call Nemo to you as you work
-[X] Hold it out like a shield and approach the undead. If Nemo manages to arrive have them wait as backup incase your gambit fails
-[X] Use a modified Reverand's ritual, calling upon Isis as your patron. Douse their flames with Annointed water of forgiveness, attempting to cut off their connection to the moral realms.
[X] Baelfyre
-[X] Start by your water of forgiveness to cut their connection to you and halt their pursuit.
-[X] Call Nemo to you, use the portal to get one of the heavier workman tools you put inside in your stash. A hammer.
-[X] Rest a while in the red realm, see if Emily can fix your shoulder. But not so much time that the night ends.
-[X] Use a hunger lure on the torch to draw the undead together and set them aflame with Hunger's flames.
-[X] After the flames die down dispatch the rest. Make sure Nemo doesn't stray from being too overzealous. Project Phileas's serpentine cool to them to imbue them with patience before a hunt.
[X] Exorcism
-[X] Immediately use your water of forgiveness to sever their connection to you and their pursuit.
-[X] After they lose interest, patch yourself up and roll out a canvas inscribing Isis's runes. Call Nemo to you as you work
-[X] Hold it out like a shield and approach the undead. If Nemo manages to arrive have them wait as backup incase your gambit fails
-[X] Use a modified Reverand's ritual, calling upon Isis as your patron. Douse their flames with Annointed water of forgiveness, attempting to cut off their connection to the moral realms.
[X] Baelfyre
-[X] Start by your water of forgiveness to cut their connection to you and halt their pursuit.
-[X] Call Nemo to you, use the portal to get one of the heavier workman tools you put inside in your stash. A hammer.
-[X] Rest a while in the red realm, see if Emily can fix your shoulder. But not so much time that the night ends.
-[X] Use a hunger lure on the torch to draw the undead together and set them aflame with Hunger's flames.
-[X] After the flames die down dispatch the rest. Make sure Nemo doesn't stray from being too overzealous. Project Phileas's serpentine cool to them to imbue them with patience before a hunt.
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- Location
- Earth
They can't leave the room. I'm not clear if you're trying to get them to return to the cushion, or something else
Why not just get some oil from upstairs, and light them on fire while they're clustered at the doorway?
That or even just get something sharp or pointy and attack them beyond their reach part the doorway?
I'm leaning towards those mundane options, but I'm worried about how we're told we're failing perception checks
I was worried about the powers behind the zombies observing Oliver. So I thought the connection cutting was prudent.. before he actively does magics.
We've gone into conflict with the cult but Oliver's capabilities should at least be preserved lest we need to pull surprises. I'm not entirely confident on the plan though so feel free to make a vote!
Edit: also bael- means funeral. So its cremating the zombies in a sense
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Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm fine with either plan, but I think we need to observe the room more closely
Wait I think I understand what's happening. Oliver's rune stealing effect is underway. The room must be riddled with Bloody tongue eldritch stuff.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Tascion
Though you might want to reference plan Exorcism somewhere in your post?
Though you might want to reference plan Exorcism somewhere in your post?
Vote closed
- Pronouns
- She
Priest's Alcove
- Pronouns
- She
Alright, you knew they were weak to fire. You just needed to burn them without getting in close. You ignored the pain in your arm as you headed up the stairs and quietly dug through the shop. You found some oil in a small back kitchen that consisted of a single cupboard and a hotplate before heading back down. You doused the corpses with as much oil as you could and set them alight once more. It was easier this time with their limits known. You could just stand there and watch them struggle fruitlessly until they collapsed, their bodies too destroyed to keep up the animation that moved them.
You checked upstairs in case any reinforcements came. The cultists you had scared off earlier hadn't reported to anyone it seemed. You still needed to deal with them later, but first you would deal with this. You crossed over to the alcove first to check what was inside it. A leopard skin is carefully wrapped around the treasures inside. Unfolding it you first find a ritual mask, one marked even more monstrously than Silas'. The tongue that hangs from the mask bothers you, there's something too familiar about it. You suspect it's human, but you refuse to look close enough to confirm whether it is or not.
There is a feathered robe in there that you suspect is meant to be worn by the leader of the cult rituals, along with a pair of gloves fitted with lion claws in such a fashion they could be used to strike and draw blood. There's no particular magic to them, but you can tell they have been used for ritual killings despite that. A locked cashbox is tucked away here as well, thankfully mundane.
The next items are much less so. There's a book titled Africa's Dark Sects that you can sense a trace of Other in. A copper bowl that looks smooth but you can feel etchings covering rests near a grey metal headband that radiates power reminiscent of the dream lands. A beautifully detailed marine chronometer rests in there, telling you the exact time it is, nearing three in the morning. There's a carved scepter with egyptian hieroglyphs carved onto it that you can sense resting power within.
The final item makes you the most uneasy. At first glance it looks like a cotton sock with something attached to the top. A closer look reveals the top is a totem inscribed with four different faces, each hideous and distorted, and ready to be worn with the cotton portion to pull over one's head and leave it resting atop. There are multiple powers marking this one, and one is deeply familiar from when you had taken the train with your old friend.
[ ]Take the book
[ ]Take the four face mask
[ ]Take the bloody tongue mask
[ ]Take the cashbox
[ ]Take everything
[ ]Leave it until you are done investigating
You checked upstairs in case any reinforcements came. The cultists you had scared off earlier hadn't reported to anyone it seemed. You still needed to deal with them later, but first you would deal with this. You crossed over to the alcove first to check what was inside it. A leopard skin is carefully wrapped around the treasures inside. Unfolding it you first find a ritual mask, one marked even more monstrously than Silas'. The tongue that hangs from the mask bothers you, there's something too familiar about it. You suspect it's human, but you refuse to look close enough to confirm whether it is or not.
There is a feathered robe in there that you suspect is meant to be worn by the leader of the cult rituals, along with a pair of gloves fitted with lion claws in such a fashion they could be used to strike and draw blood. There's no particular magic to them, but you can tell they have been used for ritual killings despite that. A locked cashbox is tucked away here as well, thankfully mundane.
The next items are much less so. There's a book titled Africa's Dark Sects that you can sense a trace of Other in. A copper bowl that looks smooth but you can feel etchings covering rests near a grey metal headband that radiates power reminiscent of the dream lands. A beautifully detailed marine chronometer rests in there, telling you the exact time it is, nearing three in the morning. There's a carved scepter with egyptian hieroglyphs carved onto it that you can sense resting power within.
The final item makes you the most uneasy. At first glance it looks like a cotton sock with something attached to the top. A closer look reveals the top is a totem inscribed with four different faces, each hideous and distorted, and ready to be worn with the cotton portion to pull over one's head and leave it resting atop. There are multiple powers marking this one, and one is deeply familiar from when you had taken the train with your old friend.
[ ]Take the book
[ ]Take the four face mask
[ ]Take the bloody tongue mask
[ ]Take the cashbox
[ ]Take everything
[ ]Leave it until you are done investigating
- Location
- a place without enough snow
[X]Take the four face mask
- Location
- Earth
I'm not sure of the benefit of taking any of items, except for the obvious of denying them to the cult. In that case though, perhaps burning the building down to hide exactly what happened would be even more productive.
Maybe painting the items and then 'selling' them to local pawn shops? Use the paintings to track the items to their new homes? That sounds unreasonably dangerous to innocents to me, so I'm not advocating for that idea.
Maybe painting the items and then 'selling' them to local pawn shops? Use the paintings to track the items to their new homes? That sounds unreasonably dangerous to innocents to me, so I'm not advocating for that idea.
I think we should do a secure, contain, protect protocol on these..
Silas doesn't know anything else, so our next leads are the loot. To unearth the true nature of the cult now? I'd rather not sell anything but use them as leads. Maybe the detectives can investigate out the painting while we find out how their occult stuff works?
Silas doesn't know anything else, so our next leads are the loot. To unearth the true nature of the cult now? I'd rather not sell anything but use them as leads. Maybe the detectives can investigate out the painting while we find out how their occult stuff works?
[X] Into flames
-[X] Use the remaining time to secure the items in Pachamama's containment and Isis's warding against the underworld.
-[X] Call Nemo, get them to bring Emily as well.
-[X] Consult Emily, determine if you can bring them over to the Red realm for further study, and if your containment work is sound
-[X] Have Nemo carry some of the paintings so you can give them to the detectives later to find their origin. They do all of the physical work in your stead.
-[X] Destroy all evidence of your break in. Put one of the undead bodies in Silas's bed. Set ablaze Hunger's flames and leave through to the red realm, destroying the portal. Use the same warding you used to contain Hunger to contain the spread of the flames beyond the shop.
-[X] Use the remaining time to secure the items in Pachamama's containment and Isis's warding against the underworld.
-[X] Call Nemo, get them to bring Emily as well.
-[X] Consult Emily, determine if you can bring them over to the Red realm for further study, and if your containment work is sound
-[X] Have Nemo carry some of the paintings so you can give them to the detectives later to find their origin. They do all of the physical work in your stead.
-[X] Destroy all evidence of your break in. Put one of the undead bodies in Silas's bed. Set ablaze Hunger's flames and leave through to the red realm, destroying the portal. Use the same warding you used to contain Hunger to contain the spread of the flames beyond the shop.
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- Location
- Earth
Using hunger is leaving evidence of it break in, if they can identify the fire as burning unnaturally.
I don't want a city wide fire, or the risk of one, but warding the fire is sending a clear message of a minimum to the abilities of what happened here.
[X] Into flames
As an alternate.
[X] mundane flames
-[X] Use the remaining time to secure the items in Pachamama's containment and Isis's warding against the underworld.
-[X] Call Nemo, get them to bring Emily as well.
-[X] Consult Emily, determine if you can bring them over to the Red realm for further study, and if your containment work is sound
-[X] Have Nemo carry some of the paintings so you can give them to the detectives later to find their origin. They do all of the physical work in your stead.
-[X] Destroy all evidence of your break in. Put one of the undead bodies in Silas's bed. Set the house on fire, starting with the basement. Hang around and sound the alarm as needed, to stop the spread of the flames beyond the shop. Ideally, don't get seen and don't get involved with the fire, but be ready to make sure the fire doesn't get out of control.
I'd really rather Oliver not be seen in the scene of the crime at all though.. Mundane fire might be risky in terms of spreading beyond and the occult stuff might survive or bindings be undone.
Occult fire kinda would give a message to the cult, no? A boogeyman. We've already committed to showing ourselves to Silas so this way might be the way forward afterwards.
If they get convinced Silas is dead in the fire, we can potentially turn him in the garden. Use him to enthrall the other cultists even.
Occult fire kinda would give a message to the cult, no? A boogeyman. We've already committed to showing ourselves to Silas so this way might be the way forward afterwards.
If they get convinced Silas is dead in the fire, we can potentially turn him in the garden. Use him to enthrall the other cultists even.
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Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If we're going to burn the place down, might as well be thorough
[X] Into flames
[X] Into flames
Vote closed
- Pronouns
- She