Scrimbimbolo

Historian: Caleb. Date: 04/28/2025

TLDR – The party finishes their nice dinner with Rola, and asks her if she can help Alphie. She tells us Alphie has something inside them that constantly needs heat, and is drawing it from their own form – they need a big source of heat, and she says she’s been planning to do a controlled burn in a particular valley. We hike out there and set it ablaze, and Alphie absorbs everything… and then the Scrimbimbolo appears, hunting for Alphie. Rola hits the bricks, and the rest of us run back to her place, but Inora is killed saving Astranna during the skill challenge. The Scrimbimblo flees at sunrise, but takes the Gibbit with it.

• Date: 12 Lionnir 777 AR – 13 Lionnir 777 AR.
• Shannon gives the recap!
• We pick up with us eating with Rola. She compliments us again – Anja says she’s absolutely terrible in the kitchen, and gives credit to the rest of us. Rola asks where the Tattercoat Knights will go after this. Anja asks her if she can help Alphie with a problem they’re having.
  • “You see, they’re cold.”
• Rola turns to grab a blanket, but Alphie explains that they have a condition that causes them to be cold, and other things to be cold as well – they dip a finger in their glass of water to demonstrate it freezing.
  • “Oh. Yes, I can see why that would be a problem.”
• Rola goes to a cabinet and pulls out a stethoscope. She asks if she can listen to Alphie. They don’t recommend getting that close, but she swirls the stethoscope around and slings the metallic part onto their chest, where it freezes.
  • “Mhm. Mhm. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe sideways. Breathe backwards. Okay, now loop-dee-loop that.”
• She yanks the stethoscope off, taking a chunk of skin with it. She says there’s something in Alphie’s body that constantly needs heat, and is drawing it from their own form. They probably need lots of heat. Maybe if we make a big enough fire, or jump in a volcano… she doesn’t know of any volcanoes around, but there’s a valley she’s been hoping to clear of trees and the like that she supposes we could set on fire. She dug some ditches so that the fire wouldn’t spread out of the valley, but wasn’t comfortable doing the full burn. But if we’re there…
  • She clarifies that Alphie can draw the heat from it without jumping in it.
• We chat a little more. Astranna asks her about orchard maintenance, and she tells Astranna how orchards don’t bear crops for the first three years or so, you have to carefully prune the trees, make sure there are no insects harming the wood, you have to harvest quickly or the fruit will drop off and go bad… Astranna listens with rapt attention.
• Alphie uses learn emotional state on Kirval. He’s annoyed that he’s still a frog.
• We ask how Rola learned to cook – she says her grandfather taught her, and he was taught by a fairy, the fairy was taught by a cloud, and the cloud was taught by an esteemed chef from the capital. The recipe is actually of her own design! Enough duck was coming through and coming after her berries that she dropped some rocks on them. Now she has excess duck.
• Jericho’s very impressed by this – he says he can cook well, but he’s not good at coming up with new recipes. Rola says not having very much food is a great way to come up with new recipes, and she offers us some for the travels ahead. She asks about our recipes, and Jericho says that back home, his sister’s a butcher, so he grew up around meat preparation and stuff like that. Astranna says she doesn’t know a lot about cooking, but was taught enough to provide for herself whenever her mother was away for a few days. Alphie says their parents used to have them make a lot of ice cream.
• Eventually, Rola decides it’s time to go burn down a forest. We leave Kirval behind and begin hiking the mountain path toward the valley. We get a bit of downtime to talk, and Alphie asks Inora if she’s excited to go burn down a forest.
  • “Oh, um, I think so, I’ve never really experienced burning down a forest before.”
• Inora worries it won’t be enough heat, but Alphie thinks it’ll be fine – if not, she doesn’t know what else to do.
• Astranna asks if Inora liked the food – she says that she really liked it! Though she doesn’t have much to compare it to. She short-circuits a bit when Astranna asks if she had a favorite, but says it was the best all together, and asks Astranna what hers was. Astranna says she feels a little biased saying the pie, but probably that, although she really liked a bunch of the other dishes; eventually she agrees that all of it together was her favorite.
  • Henrietta pipes up very cutely as we’re talking, and then tries to waddle off a cliff. She’s confused when Astranna grabs her, saying she can fly, but Astranna tells her we don’t know the area well enough to fly around.
• Alphie passes out the friendship bracelets to everyone, minus Rola, who they apologize to. They explain everyone’s contributions. Gwyn bashfully pulls Alphie into a hug. They’re very cold. Newton stays silent through this interaction.
• Around midnight, we reach the overlook, and see an overgrown thicket below us, ¼ mile wide and a mile long. Rola tells us she wants to plant a nice berry grove, but she could never clear it out on her own. Now we have a great opportunity – a win-win.
• Astranna tries to start the fire (2 successes – 8 dmg), and is able to start a small section, though it’s slow to catch. She starts setting more dry areas on fire and spacing them out, and Henrietta runs around in circles (“The sun is back! It’s gone! It’s back!”). Astranna asks for someone to scoop her out, and Jericho obliges. Piero thinks there’s something wrong with that chicken.
• Alphie moves down lower and takes a breath, drawing in more and more and more, and the rest of us higher up see parts of this area start to flicker in and out of light, tendrils of heat folding towards Alphie. Heat itself ripples in the air toward them as it begins to impact them underneath the light of this full moon, and they breathe deeply once again, as for a moment, their fingers become warmer, and warmer, and warmer. Are you trying to bring it all in, Alphie?
• Rola’s torch goes out, and the rest of the thicket begins to cascade, all the flame beginning to wink out one by one by one. Alphie’s body begins to glow brighter, as this tendril of light begins to wrap into the sky in the form of this strange iridescent double helix, and then that helix begins to move back down. It’s now the only light here, one light in the darkness, and even the light of the moon seems to dim as they pull in the rest of the heat and breathe out one last breath. So much of that cold dissipates.
  • With the size of the fire and the amount of heat they pulled in, they lose 9 cold.
• As Alphie stands in this complete and utter darkness, they look out, and they see something. Over on another mountain, they see a humanoid figure looking at them, 5-600 ft away. Everyone looks in that direction… for a moment, Jericho is able to see the figure, and then it warbles in the air, as if the air itself is made up of these boxes, and then the boxes all shift and turn at once, like the spinning of a Rubik's cube. And then they’re gone.
• Astranna tries to relight Rola’s torch, but can’t. Jericho is able to briefly strike a match, but it burns with a strange black flame before winking out. The flame felt prickly, as if there was a field of spines around it. Like something pressing into his hand. Newton says his grandma told him about the black flame, and that it’s one of the signs of the Scrimbimbolo. Rola looks around.
  • “It has been very good to meet you, um, Tattercoat Knights, if you don’t mind I’ll be taking my leave.”
• Everyone’s too stunned to respond, so she leaves, offering for us to stay at her house if we need. Astranna tries more to ignite her flame, and with each successful ignition, it gets a tinge of black. She takes Henrietta back from Jericho, and checks on the Gibbit. It doesn’t seem to think anything is wrong, but she gives it pets and instructs it to stay close.
• The party decides to head back to Rola’s. Gwyn takes the lead (3 successes). We round the ridge, and we see, in front of us, stakes made of felled trees, ranging from 8-17 ft tall, driven into the ground so that the gaps between them are maybe 6-7 inches across as the widest. They’re driven down maybe 2-3 ft into the solid rock of the mountain. Gwyn spots the gleam of claws, pulling back behind a rock, and stops us for a second, pointing out where it was. She tries to listen (mental save – 2 successes), and hears nothing of note. She asks Astranna to try to keep getting her fire going; the fire, at this point, is now half orange-red, and half black. Astranna’s trying to think of her family’s hearth.
• The stakes are in an erratic shape. Astranna looks at it, but doesn’t know what it could mean. She seems to be drawn into them – they’re twisting and winding, but there’s a subtle power, the things that they’ve seen. What could they have possibly seen? She’s not sure what it means, if anything, but they make her feel a way she perhaps really doesn’t like, unsettling her to her core.
• Alphie ties the Ribbon of Sharpness around Gwyn’s sword, and she starts hacking at the stakes (B1 – 18 dmg). The first impact strikes one of the stakes, and it bows a bit, with another swing breaking through the outer shell of the wood and carving through something beneath. It’s wet, and Gwyn nearly gags as it falls over. It’s not blood – it’s a strange, light yellow pus that flows out, with the smell of strong chemicals. Of sulfur, of chlorine, of so much else.
• That part of the stake goes flying, and clatters down, breaking the silence. Somewhere off in the distance, Anja hears a light, ethereal music of some sort in the air. It’s ambient, seemingly coming from nowhere. For a moment, it’s peaceful, and then on a closer cliff, Gwyn sees a small avalanche – she doesn’t see the cause, but rocks begin to fall away. She decides to lead us on another path (5 successes).
• As we move, we get to a fork in the road. Astranna’s flames are now 80% black, beats of light illuminating a few seconds at a time. Gwyn looks back at us, and then… maybe ¼ mile down the path, there’s a thing, a silhouette that looks at her and then it’s gone, jumping 40 ft from a standing leap onto the side of the cliff and disappearing. Gwyn takes us down a small toe path, running parallel to our old one 700 ft below it. The party is asked if they’re doing anything that might help.
• Jericho tries to look for points of contrast to help navigate, but doesn’t see anything (0 successes) . He’s only really able to see the others thanks to Astranna’s meager light. Astranna suggests writing down Scrimbimbolo in the notepad. He does, but gets nothing. Piero pipes up.
  • “Boss? Uh, boss, everything is fine, right, boss?”
• Jericho reassures him that they’ll handle it – they always do.
• We keep going, and there’s a moment as shifting rock falls down on Astranna. She looks around, still trying to flick her fire on, but it’s now 100% black flame. As she tries to ignite it again…
  • Astranna, how are you feeling as you realize that you were the last flame, and you just went out, and that with each ignition, with each spark, you hastened this coming?
• She’s horrified, and as the flame finally goes out, she turns, and sees something climbing down onto the path.
  • “Tattercoat Knights, walking alone. Walking, talking, they are for me.”
• The creature has a strange pattern along its body, shifting, twitching, the air around it not right. It has long claws, and has what appears to be flesh covering metallic features, as red, red eyes stare at all of us. It begins to move forward step by step by step, first slow, then going to a jog, and then running.
• Jericho begins the skill challenge by grabbing Newton (1 success). Anja tries to use her shadow chains (1 success), and they fly through the air, wrapping around the creature. Its claws seem to heat up and carve through them. Gwyn makes a physical check, trying to use exploration and her searching subroutine (D1 – 1 success). She takes another turn, rounds another path, and finds stakes. The whining of gears is only increasing, whirling, it’s all in her head, and the rest of us see Gwyn holding the sides of her head, and the Scrimbimbolo continuing to dash.
• Maybe 50 ft below us, there’s another path, and she leaps, digging her sword into the side of the mountain, but we’ve lost precious time. The creature dives down headfirst at the path and lands on its claws, almost as if it’s doing a handstand, and those muscles contort as it rolls forward, its glowing red eyes seeing Alphie. A nightmare made real. Alphie tries to keep us steady (2 successes). A chain clips Anja’s shoulder, but Alphie is able to grab her and pull her back on the path.
• Astranna tries to count the leaves on the smallest tree she can find, like Newton advised, but a realization causes her to slow – those massive stakes had to come from somewhere. This thing cut down all the small trees, it went ahead and it made the board unfair. She doesn’t see the small trees, only big ones, thousands if not tens of thousands of leaves. Ahead, as she turns, she sees the creature running toward her. The claws almost reach Astranna.
• Caleb rolls a 1d3 (3). Inora jumps in between and is grabbed, the claws whirling like a blender, and we hear Inora’s scream radiate out across the mountainside, her chest turned to red mist, her insides destroyed. Her form turns to but bubbles, and then the creature looks at us.
  • “Give me Alphecca.”
• It bolts forward once again, and at this point, we have one failed go-around – we need 4 more successes on a roll we have not used thus far, and we fail this one, it will not be pretty. Jericho makes a spirit check to keep us going after what just happened (2 successes). He draws on everything he has, and yells at us to keep moving, keep running, as he starts to pull people forward. We scrabble onto more familiar paths, and with 2 successes left, Gwyn feels something in the distance – her searching subroutine has activated, and she can now grant B1 on the next check, as her subroutine helps guide and direct people.
• Alphie gets 3 successes keeping us on the right path through the twists and turns, and we see the cabin ahead. We bound forward, and the door is slightly ajar – we run inside, and the last person, Jericho, slams the door. Something impacts behind, and he yells for us to get a bookcase. Alphie and Astranna grab something to block it, and some of the party goes to block the windows. We all roll like garbage, even when Alphie exchanges our peace token to reroll all their failed dice. Gwyn tries to activate her armor to make herself heavier, and still gets 0 successes.
  • Anna is asked to roll a 1d3. She gets a 1.
• The wood falls away like cardboard, and the Scrimbimbolo pushes forward anyway, Gwyn giving up ground. A claw reaches forward, and it demands again for us to give it Alphecca. It lunges out, claws extending toward Alphie. What are their thoughts as the talons begin to wrap around them?
  • They’re scrambling to think of ways to solve this, running through a list of things in the house, a map of the space, etc.
• It wraps its claws around Alphie’s body like a steel trap, beginning to pull, and they hear the worst sound possible, one that makes their entire body go cold – one they used to love, but now is the worst possible time.
  • “Meh!”
• The Gibbit lunges forward, attacking into its claws and turning into its own true form. It starts to act like an anaconda, and there’s a squelching, popping, grinding coming from the forearm. Its eyes lock onto the Gibbit, and the Gibbit is dragged out from the hole the Scrimbimbolo made. We hear it yelping, and then it goes quiet. The eyes look back in once more, and at this moment, we would notice that the creature freezes, its body almost sagging as it looks out. And all of us see it – it’s 6 AM, and the sun is rising over the mountain. The creature is being fully illuminated by the sunlight. It looks to Alphie.
  • “I have found you. I shall harvest you.”
• And then it turns, and amongst the grinding of metals, Gwyn hears the softest “Meh!” as it takes off running. And then it’s gone. Alphie looks out, but doesn’t see the Gibbit. The sun doesn’t alleviate the lingering cold on them. Astranna apologizes to the others for not realizing she was the last light until it was too late, but they reassure her, and Gwyn says she’s the one who asked Astranna to keep trying the flame.
• Jericho slumps against the wall, thumbing his gun. Piero crawls up in the crook of his neck, not saying anything. Maple clutches to the side of Anja’s body very tightly, and Anja holds her and strokes her to calm her down. There are no cutting words, there is no false bravado. There is only a fearful cat, just clutching onto the person that she loves the most.
  • “I’m sorry Maple, I’m sorry we got so close to that thing. I won’t let that happen again.”
• There’s silence, but a soft nuzzle into her. Alphie sits down, and Astranna sits next to them. Gwyn sits next to them too, thinking so hard we can hear her whirring, and puts a hand on Alphie’s back. Newton is standing, looking at the holes in the door, and he looks down at his friendship bracelet, and then at the door again. He seems to be thinking. Gwyn gets a spirit check at B1 (0 successes), but can’t tell what he’s thinking. He sighs and sits next to Alphie, Gwyn, and Astranna.
• He feels bad for not saying more – he didn’t think it was real. He apologizes for slowing us down, and goes in to hug Gwyn, who’s crying. Alphie joins the hug, and says he didn’t slow us down at all. He gave us information about it.
• As the sun continues to rise, we pull back, on the Tattercoat Knights huddled together on the side of a mountain. Not full. As you look around to each other, you see the faces still here. But darkness, it comes every day. And as we continue to fade out, it is here where this session will end today.
• Everyone gets a level-up.