Editing 01/23/2024 --- Happy Times (Dread Key)

* Happy Times (Dread Key) – Lionnir 48th, 715AR (1/23/24)
** ''STARRING: Bee (B), Claudia (C), Damon (D), Ki (K), Thomas (T), Z (Z)... and more!''
* Ki, Bee, and Damon use 2 Recovery each for health blocks.
** Thomas also uses 1 Recovery (-7 Recovery Total)
* Ki sets out to collect all of the people for her mission. Damon and Bee already know about it, Bee felt it in her bones.
* Ki looks for Thomas. Thomas is in his tent. He does not look great.
** Ki asks to come in and Thomas obliges. He sounds lethargic. He says it’s fine, but yesterday is very clearly bothering him. 
** Ki hopes everything will end up okay. Thomas asks what she wants.
*** “Yes, down to business! I would like to cash in that favor that you owe me.” – K
** Thomas “okay”s with a shaky inhale. We are going on a mission tonight courtesy of Ki’s patron. Thomas asks what he is needed to do. There might be combat so we would need fighters…Or nothing at all could happen. Who knows. Thomas’ help would be appreciated, though.
*** Thomas will do his best.
* Thomas and Ki head to the Rat Races.
** It is a strange atmosphere. They try to start up the races, but the rats refuse to run. As they try to pick them up they skitter away, screeching. Big Cheddar curls into a ball and will not move.
* Damon wants to go see his wife. And then go to the Rat Races.
** Claudia is in her tent. Her feet are tucked up against her. She greets him maybe a bit wearily.
** Things could be better, she says. Things have gotten tense.
** Damon needs her help with something. He’s been trying to curate blood, but he hasn’t found humans willing to give him blood.
*** “The beast is… always hungry,” she says, “it wants death. It craves it. It’s the final drop of blood that is always the sweetest.” 
** Damon asks if she has anything that can help him. But she apologizes. She cannot do anything. She can feel his hunger through the bond, though.
** Her advice is to head to the medical tents. There are some that won’t make it. Take whoever you can stomach.
** Claudia walks forward and takes his hand, she tells him to not forget himself. Their affliction is an all consuming one.
** They share a kiss :)!
** Continuing on to the medical tents. There are many people on death's door. Soldiers who have taken dire wounds, civilians dying of old age… Damon offers them a quick death and a prayer. There is one older human man who nods, he says he cannot go on anymore. He does not want to be taken by ''them''. Damon thanks him. He eats him. Claudia was right, the last drop really is delicious.
** SPIRIT SAVE – 2 Successes
*** +5 BLOOD
** The beast within pulls Damon to another tent. Someone inside smells more delicious than the blood he just took. Does he want to go in…?
*** Damon goes into the next tent and stops there. There is a middle aged woman with a concussion. She slipped and fell. She was getting bed rest–Damon rips her throat out and drinks. He is satiated as he leaves. People begin to notice as he walks away, and begin screaming.
* Bee looks for the red-headed elven woman who told her of the Storm Witch. She is sitting around a campfire. 
** Her name is Sophia! Bee greets her and apologizes for startling her. She asks what exactly Enola said about the Storm Witch.
*** Sophia says the same thing as before, all she said was the Storm Witch was coming to save her.
** Sophia says that the color of the lightning was somewhat blue.
** Sophia stops and remembers more, “one of us asked why the Storm Witch couldn’t come and get Enola, because she said they had called out– I think some of us thought she was crazy, and she said that the Witch was fighting in the North.”
** Bee thanks her and bows. As Bee leaves, Sophia leans toward other people and is definitely talking intently with them.
*** SPIRIT SAVE – 0 Successes, The talk must be good! She seemed friendly after all.
* The party gathers together at the Races. Bee says that stuff has been weird and is nervous about leaving.
** Ki determines that the rats all seem to be in survival mode. They aren’t interested in anything: each other, food, people…
*** Animals can tell when disasters are going to happen, Ki suggests. Bee doesn’t find this very comforting.
** Ki goes out to check the sky. And one by one… the stars are all going out.
* Ki goes to look for Hester, but at this point she doesn’t seem to be around. She decides to look for Claudia instead. She is in her tent and appears to be journaling.
** Knock knock! They exchange greetings.
** “Our patron. I feel… sometimes like I lose time. Here and there. I’m wondering if that’s consistent with what you’ve been experiencing lately.” – C
*** Ki has not been experiencing this.
** Claudia seems nervously panicked. She says that things seem a bit weird. Ki heads over and gestures to hold her hand and takes a seat beside her.
** She isn’t hungry in the sunlight. That’s when it’s weirdest. There is so much she doesn’t understand.
*** Ki makes a spirit save to see how she feels at D3, not including the tired condition. 2 SUCCESSES
*** She is 75% fanaticism.
** Ki believes that everything will be okay. We can learn what to do, ask the right questions. Claudia thinks they need to.
** She doesn’t know what to do. It’s like the ''hunger''– Damon has it so why doesn’t she–and why isn’t it the same?
** Ki hugs her and Claudia flinches. She returns the hug.
** Claudia has been around for a long time. She has seen a lot. But everything else plays by the rules– this doesn’t.
** Ki says we haven’t been playing by the rules– she thinks we are creating new rules for ourselves. Better ones. Ones that go beyond the faults of this world. She thinks Claudia and her can help make things the way they need to be. It’s an opportunity.
*** Claudia shakily accepts this.
** Ki proposes the mission and lists who is coming.
*** Claudia rolls.
** She agrees to coming.
** Ki shares the details about the stars in the sky with Claudia.
* We all gather somewhere private in the camp.
* Damon decides to take the lead and try to pray. He prays for our success on this mission.
* Bee prays to the stars above to show us the next step. It doesn’t do anything.
* Ki states, “for the truth, for the light, under the starry sky, I offer to you all that I am.”
** Ki feels something welling up. A power around her. These are good words.
* “Let us be of service to the great cause, to welcome you, and to guide others.”
** These are good words
* “For with you there is everything and nothing. And the only true purpose is to be with you.”
** These are… still only words.
* Ki cuts her finger to seal it with blood.
** As she cuts the finger… the power is still simmering low. It does not want blood, Ki. It wants bone.
* Ki will cut off a finger.
** Which finger?
*** Ring finger.
* Thomas watches as Ki takes out a blade… and first cuts the ring finger– allowing the blood to drip… then she seems to grit her teeth and slice the digit off. It hits the ground. It begins to levitate and float upward, falling into the black void of the sky. And then, Thomas, you watch as Ki begins to fall upward. Then Damon, and Claudia, and Bee. And then finally yourself. Up and up and up you fall until darkness meets cloud. You’re spiraling now, Thomas. Flipping head over head over head. The horizon loses all meaning to you now. You are falling toward something. Something… something– and then Claudia catches you.
* Everyone looks around the place they have newly fallen. In this place there are corpses, they are strewn about. The ground is stone with leftover mosaics from a different time. Everyone is on a circle that has been shattered and broken. This temple was once inside a mountain somewhere. Now it is but a rocky outcropping in a dark forest. There is a cave, or a mine of some sort that goes deeper into the earth.
* The mosaics are not depicting any sort of artistic image or creature. A lot of it is geometric in nature. A tessellation of interlocking pyramids.
* Bee checks out Ki’s hand. The finger stump is still bleeding. She has some spare thread and a needle and asks if she would like her to stitch it together. Ki is okay with this. Bee has been spending time in the medical tents, so she thinks she can help. 
** Bee is able to successfully mend her finger.
* The bodies around may have belonged to Impure, others are average people. The wrapped up bodies are Impure. Gaunts, Blossomed Zombies, Abominations– like Bee. They all have brutal trauma to the limbs and torso. Heavy claw or metal. Whatever came through here ripped them apart.
* Damon sniffs around. 9 Successes. He smells around the corpses, small bits of iron and steel in them. Inside the mine goes deep, very deep. Throughout it is the smell of dust, rock, and coal. Incense and lavender. Something deep towards the bottom too. A mile out, heading closer to this position, or maybe even patrolling, the familiar iron scent. Whatever did this is out there.
* The circle looks like it was once a brass circle of some kind. It has been shattered and broken apart. The sigils have been scratched out. What magic it had has faded now.
* The rock of the mine is well hewn and chiseled out long ago.  There is a sign that hangs above the entrance to the mine.
** TLG INC. MINE
** Thomas tries to think about it, but he doesn’t know anything about the mine.
* Heading within, Damon helps to guide us with his nose. We go through a labyrinthian corridor, and Ki is drawn deeper and deeper by feeling. Soon enough the walls stop being roughly hewn stone and change to stone brick. An entrance to a stone temple. Marble columns rise from the left and right. A mist hangs in the air. At the far end of this temple there is a giant relief of what appears to be this beautiful night sky, the moon is prominently there. At the center of this place is a brass circle. It is more intricately carved than the one above. 
* Ki heads to inspect the mural closer.
* Ki checks out the brass ring as well. It simply says, “within the key”
* Ki checks out the moon on the relief, it is a big circular object. 
* It takes us a ridiculous amount of time to realize we have to spill blood on the circle, like we did for the first mission.
** +1 Hero Point For Me <3
* As blood drips, ancient magic begins to awaken. The room begins to get more and more misty. There is light, a quick flash, and we are somewhere else. It’s a room. Certainly a room. Rather small. There are statues that don’t conform to reality or anatomy. Limbs are elongated to the point of distortion. Fingers appear suspended in thin air. The unsettling nature of the statues is amplified by something within.
* We are in a courtroom full of jesters. There is a King. The King has a featureless face of stone. There are two doors, one going south and one going east.
* Ki checks out the King.
** PHYS CHECK – 4 Successes
** The King is wearing a lion skin pelt across the shoulders, below is a simple tunic with many belts and chains carved into the stone. There appears to be a coin of some sort that he is holding. The neckline of the blank face has a small groove in the neck. The head feels unstable, like it might be loose. 
** Ki tries to move the head. It must be a screw of some kind. She continues unscrewing it. Eventually it can be taken off of the neck. Looking down on the inside there is a bit of gemstone within. Something glittering and blue that gives a soft glow. It is diamond shaped, perfectly cut within its holder inside.
** Kis fingers reach in and she acquires the blue gemstone. It doesn’t seem to be sapphire. It is a little rougher.
** Bee asks if the head should be rescrewed on. As the head is screwed on, the features are now no longer blank. There are features of a middle aged man with a crew cut and piercing eyes. The eyes do not move. All of the eyes of the courtiers, however, begin to follow Ki.
** We test to see if they follow us when we turn around. They are stationary.
* We continue moving south in a strangely diagonal hallway. Entering into the bottom room we find it filled with instruments. There are cellos, violins, drums, even a full grand piano. The gemstone that Ki holds onto begins to glow. The piano is emitting a soft glow now.
** Ki inspects the piano. It looks like a regular grand piano. The keys give off a glow stronger than anything else.
** Damon decides to give playing the piano a go. Is he playing anything specific?
*** Nothing in particular. He hits a few notes every now and then… occasionally though the blue gemstone begins to light up.
** Bee and Thomas are avoidant to testing out the piano. Thomas suggests finding out what specific notes are being played that trigger the stone.
** Ki and Damon are willing to test it. Right off the bat, when an F note is hit the gemstone glows. 
** We decide to look around for more clues. We head back to the main room and Ki opens the door. The statues in the room are broken and in ruin. The King is standing and his eyes are locked on the door we just came through. He looks angry.
** We head through the next door. It is a hall of mirrors. They distort our images. Big, small, tall, fat, inverted, concave, convex, sometimes the mirror makes you look like you did when you were five. Other times it looks like you when you are 80. Sometimes Bee, it shows you who you were before you were you.
*** Bee does see Rue. She is distraught by this.
** Ki does not see much change at all. Occasionally, the gemstone glitters. Ki follows it to a mirror where the image is inverted. By her feet, seemingly sitting where she stands, is a small golden key on the ground. 
** Ki reaches into the mirror surface, it ripples. She takes the key from the mirror.
** We continue going down the hall, and there is a door with a keyhole. Ki unlocks the door. The passage goes deeper, but there are no more mirrors.
** At moments it looks like there are different ways to turn. This place shifts with illusions. Then there is a pulse from the gemstone that we have. The glow brings us forward. There is a circular room at the end. Toward the southern side there is a door. 
** Getting up to the door there is the sound of footsteps on the other side. There is also a small impression on the door, it looks like there is a spot near a keyhole for something like a coin or ring to go into.
* Heading back towards the mirrors, Bee inspects the details of all of her faces one last time. But she notices that one of the tattoos is wrong… on one wrist and on the palm are words.
** “You are a facade.”
* Entering the main room again, everything is gone. The King, the statues, everything.
* We head down to the room with the instruments. Thomas and Bee inspect the instruments. On the bottom of the xylophone is the letter D.
* Bee heads to check out the cello. A.
* Going through the rest are the following letters: Dacefa
** Ki plays the notes FACADE
*** +1 HERO POINT for Thomas :)
* A door opens, and there is a hallway leading further into this place. Going into the next room we find a massive library. The shelves go up at least 50 feet. Great ladders on wheels allow you to grab books at the very top. At the center of the room is an hourglass with red sand. There is a timer. It appears to have been going for a long time.
* The group spreads out and looks around. Bee looks for books on Corruption. Nothing. Damon looks for books on the Black Horn. Nothing.
* Bee looks around for books on Titans. There are a few books that appear to be missing. Nothing is found on titans, but there is something in the T’s titled the Great Betrayal.
** The pages are blank. But there is a singular coin inside that clings to the ground.
* Walking into the main room again, there are thick grooves in the wall. Like scratchings. There are small bits of red sand here. Damon smells iron in the air.
* There is nothing new in the mirrors.
* In the alcove, emerging from the ground is a hand made of gold. Ki taps the hand with her finger. There is a feeling that coasts through her. Someone questioning, confused, and a hello.
** Ki grabs the hand in a handshake and says hello back. She tries to pull the hand out. She is pulling a golden arm out of the ground. We hear a thank you come through. The figure is slowly brought up. 
** Our time is running out. Thomas hurries us toward the door with the coin keyhole. Ki says she must leave and bids goodbye to the hand. The hand is confused. It asks her to wait– but she is already gone.
* Opening the door with the coin we find a dark room with paintings of the Brigade on the walls. We can see ourselves painted in different heroic poses. Their eyes follow us. Closest to us is a brass circle. On the far end of the room there is a pedestal. Upon the pedestal sits a small white stone that hums with power. We look upon an image that feels… wrong–a feeling that churns within our guts. It appears to be of two decaying figures in an embrace. It beckons us closer. 
* Bee backs toward the brass circle.
* Ki heads forward to the stone.
** Each step feels like a mile. The painting draws you in… further… and further… Ki tries to tie a string to the rope, but it turns into birds and flutters off. Ki grabs the stone. She rushes back to the group.
* Ki spills her blood upon the circle. It rises into the sky. All at once… we are standing back where we were. The previous temple. Ki is down all stamina points, she has Tired V. And… Ki has permanently lost the ability to distinguish between furniture and people.
** She sees Damon, Claudia, Thomas… and then a stool. It appears to skuttle around when Bee moves.
* Damon doesn’t appear to smell or hear anything
** He asks to roll for it. With 9 successes, for a moment he thinks there is nothing. But then he catches it. Something incredibly subtle. It’s not that he smells anything, but it is the absence of smell. It is something hiding. It must be at the mouth of the mine.
* We want to stealth it. We carefully make our way through, trying not to make a sound… but as we go– Damon can still smell the absence. It is simply sitting there. Eventually we make our way to the mouth of the mine… peeking his head out, Damon can see a figure there. Waiting.
* There is a man in blue waiting for us. He tells us we are trespassing.
** Damon says we were just leaving. The figure draws a blade from his cloak, 6-7 feet of beautifully sharpened steel. There is intense magic radiating off of it.
** He asks if we think we can just walk into this place.
** Thomas asks why we are not allowed to be here. The man says this is an evil place, a place of corruption. A place that should have long been left. He asks if we have seen the others who have tried to enter
*** Bee asks if he means the people outside. He affirms this.
** He says he killed the people who owned these mines.
*** Bee asks if this was recent or a long time ago. It seemed to be recent?
** The man turns to Ki, “Koilos Sky, is that you?” 
*** Ki affirms this. She asks who he is.
*** He says he was the man who helped Zorya to look for Ki so long ago.
** Ki says he must know her father. He does. The man levels the sword at her.
** What is left of him resides in the Gloaming. A dark place where an elder evil lurks.
** Ki asks why Zorya is looking for her. He says it was a kindness, and Ki was the daughter of a follower. But he sees that kindness is not company she knows anymore. She is with a werewolf, one of the impure, one of Radavon’s vampires, and a strange man.
*** Claudia is incredibly shaken by this and is staring at the blade.
** Damon tells him to drop the weapon, and fistfight him.
*** He does drop the blade.
** “I am Helmuth von Grayz. I have never lost before.” – H
** He activates his Torvian and begins to grow.
* Damon dives in.
** Helmuth rolls a 10 for initiative. Damon rolls a 9.
* Helmuth locks his feet, exhales, and invokes the First Mountain.
** 35 damage. He smiles
* Damon punches him back.
* Helmuth attacks for 25 damage and activates his Torvian again.
* Damon tries to punch him back, but has 0 successes.
* The rest of us must roll initiative.
**
* Ki tries to activate her gravity power, but nothing happens. 
** “Did you think I would not account for cowardice?” – H
* Thomas moves forward. He holds his action for Helmuths approach.
* Bee moves to comfort Claudia, she does not want to fight. Claudia cries into her arms.
** She repeats “He’s killed us all. He’s killed us all.”
** Bee holds her action for if Helmuth approaches.
* Thomas attacks. It is taken on stamina.
** Helmuth fights for an idea, a word. And with that he cannot lose.
** He says we will never get the great Pyramid of Gunavar.
* Helmuth gets into a different stance and begins to shed reddish light.
** “Have you ever witnessed a volcano before?” – H
*** He uses the Sixth Flame Forest Fire. He burns 100 stamina points and attacks both Damon and Thomas.
** 115 damage. He picks up Damon by the throat and chucks him into the air. He grabs his feet and slams him into the ground twice. He is tossed back towards Thomas before being slammed into the ground again. He backhands Thomas and kicks him in the ribs.
** Damon and Thomas gain Detriment I on all rolls.
* Ki holds onto the stone. It is brimming with power. She might be able to tap into it. Koilos heads forward and wants to tap into this power.
** The Alabactus Stone is activated. There is a flood of light and power that is released from it. What is your intent with this, Ki?
*** “To blow this man as far away from us as possible.”
** Ki must roll a d100.
*** She rolls a 19
** As she uses the power of this stone, she screams. Black energy flows up her arms. Helmuth turns around and screams “''NO.''”
*** 66 points of spirit damage at Sheer V
** He locks himself in place with the Land School and burns the requisite armor blocks.
** The feeling is almost too much for Ki. Power that she does not understand. Ki tries to back away from the power but it has latched on. She has drawn upon it and wanted it to destroy.
* Helmuth was dicking around earlier. But he is now much more serious.
* Damon transforms into his werewolf form.
* Claudia and Bee stay together.
* Thomas shouts at Ki about the circle. He cuts his hand open and bleeds on part of it. It seems to be lighting up in places, and Helmuth angrily roars behind him.
* On Helmuths turn, he takes in a breath. He looks over at Ki. He background action summons his sword back to his hand.
** “By the Maiden, you will fall.” – H
** He charges forward at Ki. He makes a physical save in the aura, he takes 40 damage on stamina. 
** He swings to unleash the Second Mountain unto Ki. 165 damage at Sheer III.
** Ki falls prone and cannot rise. Creatures also gain B1 on all damage rolls against her for the next two days.
* Ki loses 2 levels on her turn.
** Ki backs around the circle and cuts her hand open, spreading the blood onto the circle. 
** She wants to use the stone, another D100
*** 27
* Thomas watches as the aura of energy begins to expand. Everything is warping and changing. Faces in the destruction that is radiating out of Ki. Helmuths eyes go wide. As he goes for Ki, the circle begins to light up and activate. He screams at the top of his lungs as he is teleported away.
** “''I WILL HUNT YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.''” – H
* The power is continuing to radiate out. And out. And out. Further and further as the reaction is occurring.
* Ki flies into the air and begs Z for help.
* '''THEN NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENS DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYTHING WAS SO SO SO FINE FOR THE NEXT 30 MINUTES'''
* We go to check with the Archfey. We pan out… we look upon a ring that is changed. Altered. The color is gone. As we keep going… we transition. We see the Dark Ring in all of its greys too. Two grey rings. We focus on something else… We find ourselves in a workshop. A woman is hard at work, fast asleep, waking up with a jolt. As her eyes go wide, she looks around.
** “Ohhh… no. Nooo no no.”
* Fuck you for trying to see what is written here. You’re a cunt..
* +1 LEVEL UP!