Play Report 34 — Orb Incident


Having executed the basilisk man, the party prepares to head upstairs. They do not know this, but the upstairs is a different nightmare. Both are parasitic to each other, but exist independently. They cautiously head up from the underground into the house above.

They find an abandoned kitchen, full of horrible messes. It smells bad. On a table sit several crusty pots and pans as well as a glowing orb, half gold and half polished quartz. An upside-down pot sits next to it. Akela peers out the windows and finds only a dark void. Almuund and Hant examine the orb, and smell ozone in the air around it. They are rightfully wary of touching it, and to avoid doing so directly, Almuund lifts the upside-down pot. Hant aims his gun at the pot, just in case. Beneath the pot is another orb: all gold, with five buttons. Almuund picks this up and tests a button, blasting everyone in the room with lightning that the first orb emits. Akela and Almuund, in addition to the lightning, have their clothes burst into flame. Several panicked moments are spent putting out the fires.

The orbs are both left on the table, to be dealt with later.

Akela explores forward and looks at the hallway and other rooms. The hallway has many paintings, mostly landscapes and portraits, all slightly unfinished. She recognizes one, a historical figure from the Kingdom of Law named Ghazil Khan, who was the subject of many famous portraits. She also confirms that a nearby door goes to the street, and enters the lounge and finds a silver ring in the style of an antiquated wedding ring from the Kingdoms of Law. Hant investigates the washroom, finding working plumbing and a hidden cashbox. He then heads upstairs, past even more paintings (even less finished), closely followed by Almuund and Akela.

Upstairs they see an art studio in disarray. Canvasses are piled on the floor in front of an open balcony, many of them with slash marks in them. An easel sits with an unfinished painting on it, and Hant moves to take a closer look: the unfinished smudges and pencil work seem like pictures of harpies like the ones from the cathedral downstairs.

Akela goes to the balcony, and only barely saves herself from falling through the floor: the canvasses were being used to conceal a damaged section which would have dropped her into the kitchen again. The balcony simply looks out into an empty black void. This unnerves everyone. Also unnerving is that there is a bloodstain leading from one door to another in the studio.

At this point a noise is heard from downstairs. Akela rushes to check and sees four painted figures trying to climb up: distorted oil paint-textured humans with stomach wounds, trying to climb the stairs. Two have swords and are caught in coiled fabric that slows them. They emerged from the hallway paintings once all party members had passed, to trap them upstairs. She tries to greet them, and they all simply fight harder to ascend first. One swings a sword and it distorts the wood of the stairs like a photoshop smear tool.

Almuund has a very clever idea: find a blank canvas and drop it on them, to see if they are absorbed into it. This is not in their rules but I love the idea so much that I let it work. They are caught half inside the canvasses, and splatter on the stairs, leaving a mess.

Thank you to Kai, player of Almuund, for this beautiful image.

The paint-men dealt with, the party enters one of the doors with bloodstains on the floor near it, and discovers a fine bedroom in disarray. Two corpses lie on the bed dressed in fine clothes, one dressed very much like the statue that kicked Hant’s ass. That one wears a ring that is recognizable as another (more aristocratic) engagement ring, and also as the nightmare’s anchor. Hant carefully takes it, and the party prepares to head for the door just as more noise comes from downstairs.

Almuund knocks a piece of the broken floor down to peer into the kitchen, and sees motion in the half light. Hant checks the stairs and sees more paint people blocking the doors. The party begins to formulate an escape plan.