Play Report 29 — Now Again I Climb

The conversation between Hant and his mysterious contact resumes. Hant recognizes that the mountain-shaped shadow was a chair tactically positioned next to a lamp.

Hant asks his fellow assassin for clarification in his task. He feels he has misrecognized some aspect of what he is to do — “my footing has felt uneven,” he pleads. His fellow assassin, who currently goes by the name Eser (and uses they/she), replies: “perhaps your footing is uneven because I chose a poor path to set you on.” Hant requests clarity in what they mean, and they say that if they give clarity they will need to leave their post here, leaving Hant again unsure of where they are — a reasonably steep price appropriate to the degree of success rolled last session. Hant says he had never felt sure he would see her again, and so he is prepared to again take that chance if it helps reveal the heresy he has been set to destroy, so long as she is prepared to leave her post. There is a resignation in Eser’s eyes, and they tell Hant to look in the suitcase under the bed in the next room. Hant says, in the language of faithful village that he grew up in, “now again I climb.”

He goes to the other room, and discovers the first drafts of the heretical books he was told to destroy. The art, the stencils, the sketches, and the materials all match up to the other work on display in Eser’s room. It seems as though they originated the very heresy they tasked Hant with ending. Hant does not know this motivation for them setting him on their own trail yet, but what Eser hopes for is to allow Hant to act as impartial judge of their actions — they are regretful of what they did, and have decided that Hant is the hand of god that will absolve or punish their misdeed.

The sound of paper rustling in the other room stops. Hant looks in: the chair has been sat on its side, the curtain opened, leaving no mountain shaped shadow. Eser has fled from the window into the night. Hant gathers what info he can from the notes in the suitcase: many of the best art materials can be sourced from smugglers in the employ of Mylan Carre, a merchant-industrialist who fancies himself a collector of iconoclastic oddities worthy of historical preservation.

Hant returns to his room.

The next day, Hant and Akela set out to delve into the Nightmare inhabited by the Basilisk Man. They arrive and enter, pretending to be searching for their lost friend Jonas. They shout that name, deliberately hoping to get the Basilisk Man’s attention. The Basilisk Man begins stalking from afar, watching.

They also get the attention of a Corpse-Eater, an undead entity given life by the nightmare forming in the same place it and its fellows were secretly buried. It scuttles in the corners of one of the entrance rooms, and asks them for meat. “Any kind. The fresher the better,” he rasps. “I’ll trade you this for it” — he holds up a jar full of smoky green substance — “fresh from the basilisk!”

Hant and Akela question him about why he wants meat, and he is very open about wanting to eat it. When “hey describe your friend Jonas, maybe I ate him. If so, sorry” leads to “hey both of you are meat so if one of you really wants this vial you could give me the other,” the duo decide to kill him so as not to have a troublesome and morally wretched being following them around (Hant already fills that role in the party). Akela shoots him in the head.

Immediately, the seven other Corpse-Eaters lurking in a staircase all begin yelling at the party — “He just wanted meat! What the hell!” They take positions on the stairs where they cannot be shot but can leap on someone coming up.

From the other direction, an old man holding up a lantern steps forward, pretending to be concerned about the gunshot. The Basilisk Man is making his move, and assumes Hant has brought Akela in to be devoured. Akela has been warned about the poison. She looks at the Basilisk Man, spends a second feeling like she is starting to trip before she shakes herself into recognizing him as a puppet-being, and grabs the snake by the head, felling it with a punch to its eye. The snake melts to fog, and the puppet clatters to the ground. Akela sits the puppet against the wall and the group prepares to delve further.