Play Report 36 — Jellunculus

After recovering from the shock of finding the portal to another world in the closet, Almuund decides to investigate the deep ravine. He peers over the edge, seeing that it goes several hundred feet down and seems to have some sort of shiny black solid substance at the bottom, like a river of rubber. He sees the enormous centipedes that are coiling through the caves 100 feet down, resting and sparring and playing with each other. He wants nothing to do with this and steps back from the ravine.

The party moves on to the gazebo they saw in the distance. Inside it is a machine of gold and glass, through which many liquids bubble and froth. A thing like a birdcage sits at its top, over which a human skin has been stretched. The face retains some detail: enough that Hant realizes a few of the unfinished portraits in the art studio had the same birthmark present. “Hello?” he says.

Eyes on the stretched skin face turn towards Hant. The machinery squeals out some sounds for a few seconds before finding the control to make a sound like a voice. “Hello,” he says in return. He introduces himself as the artist Bashir al-Barati, captured by creatures he encountered in this world and turned into a machine that will sustain the portal he opened. “Tell me, how fares the kingdom? I think by now it has been at least a year since I left.” It has been several centuries since he left.

Akela and Hant question him and learn that he was a prolific portrait artist for King Runalt, and likely painted the pictures that they have had to do battle with. He confirms that he left to find new inspiration and new worlds to be famous in, but it turns out he retains the impulses of a rich conservative towards the property he abandoned: his former neighborhood as the dwelling place of refugee squatters horrifies him, as does the lack of knowledge of his work in the contemporary art world.

Also learned is that the constructors of the machine are “flies” of some kind, described similarly to the dragonfly-shrimp beast that Almuund summoned to gather medical supplies for Hant. They might be alien to this world as well, and have interest in portals to other worlds and a great fear of earthly flowers. There are other seemingly native denizens of the planet, which Bashir calls “some kind of elves.”

Akela asks about the Sunlit Redoubt and learns that it was (“is” says Bashir, still thinking of his own time as now) the site of many battles between Runalt and the traitorous Duke Hahn. She decides she hates this bootlicking bougie remnant of an artist and starts mocking him, which Hant joins in swiftly for the love of the game (hurting people). The pipes of the machine rattle and disgorge a slimy substance that gathers itself into a humanoid form. Almuund’s player calls it a “jellunculus” and Hant decides to try to kill it to see if it is connected to Bashir.

Hant throws his waxed canvas over the thing and starts stomping, provoking its wrath (Bashir feels nothing. It lived in his machinery but is a seperate being). It begins eating through the canvas and lashing out, so hant tris to web trap it (it is largely uneffected) and Almuund pours water on it (it is very effected). It slaps a caustic jelly-arm into Almuund, and eats away some of his armor. Akela decides that it’s time to go and lights the web that coats the jelly and the gazebo with her torch. The slime shambles slowly after as the party books it for the exit, and Bashir’s machinery whistles and sterams in anger as his remaining flesh is cooked.

Back in the Nightmare house, the fire still rages. The party leaps through the hole in the floor of the studio and piles down the stairs to the underground market plaza. On his way, Almuund grabs the lightning orb he blasted the room with earlier. He is shocked and catches fire briefly, but puts it out.

At the bottom of the stairs, the party is surprised to hear a rushing of air from behind them as the nightmare house is vacated by the nightmare: the ring Akela carries being the anchor. They learn this way that the underground market is a second separate nightmare.