Strange Aeons / In Search of Sanity pt. 6 / Eire the 4th, 3592 CE / 9-3-19

General Summary

In the washroom of Stonebriar Asylum, six individuals who had previously awoken with no memories, save of a terrifying dream in which they were stalked and killed by something called the Tatterman, now find themselves in pitched battle with a malevolent creature calling herself Doctor Oathday. She is one of the physicians of Stonebriar Asylum who has mutated into some kind of monster and has been experimenting on her patients. Though Oathday fights viciously, and seems to have the power to mesmerize her victims with her strange black eyes, her own insanity is her downfall, as she becomes increasingly distracted by her own rambling delusions of grandeur, allowing Red to strike a mortal wound before separating her head from her body. Once again the party hears the strange whisper in their mind, "Ophelia Day." They discover that the far washtub contains a mutilated creature similar to the one who was chained in the other room, that Batman recalls as something called a "ghoul," an undead eater of flesh. However, despite all appearances, this particular ghoul does not appear to be undead, and is partially healed when Batman calls upon the powers of his god, Arepo, to heal the party's wounds. Shorty makes psychic contact with the creature in the tub, who appears incapable of vocal speech, perhaps due to Oathday's experiments, and learns that it is called "Serakian" and, though ravenous with hunger, abhors "flesh corrupted by the Tatterman," rejecting the party's offers of Oathday's corpse. Based on Batman's assessment that ghouls are evil, irredeemable creatures, Glaive Guy slays the creature, ending its torment. Unfortunately, Shorty does not break mental contact with the creature quickly enough and suffers psychic damage as she shares in its final moments. Meanwhile in the drying room, Kingfisher has slain the other ghoul after it viciously bit his arm. The man in yellow chained the wall continues to be of little help, still muttering the same three phrases, and so Shorty once again risks psychic contact, this time removing one of the man's dreams in order to insert one of her own that casts her in a favorable light. Unfortunately, as she interacts with the stolen dream, she finds herself underwater and drowning, as a strange white-haired man looks on dispassionately. She is able to end the dream before it does permanent damage, but her body is now racked and exhausted from the experience. Still, the psychic experiment proves a success, and the prisoner not only has a favorable attitude now towards Shorty, but has also regained the power of normal speech, revealing his name is actually Julian Rivers. He swears allegiance to someone named "Zander," who has protected him and others from the Tatterman. However, after a short conversation, Julian bolts from the room, and moments later a scream is heard coming from down the hallway. Returning to the barricade, the party learns from the guards that Julian and others like him call themselves "Apostles," and have been rioting and taking control of much of the asylum. The guards make it clear that apostles are not welcome beyond the barricade, as evidenced by the fact that one of the guards shot Julian before he fled to parts unknown. Having finished their business of clearing the southwest corridor of potential threats, the party is now allowed past the barricade. On their way to the safety of the asylum's chapel, Batman hears the sound of quiet weeping coming from the other side of a curtain at the end of an adjacent corridor. Demanding to know who is on the other side, the headstrong cleric gets into a confrontation with a guard named Denman. After channeling his god's healing ability, to no apparent effect, in order to aid the unseen source of the weeping, Batman relents to the guard's urging that he and the others seek out Winter in the chapel. When they find Winter, she reveals that what lies on the other side of the curtain is some strange side effect of the curse that has overtaken all of Stonebriar Asylum, all of it, that is, except the chapel. When the party attempts to parlay, she urges them to first assist her and her fellow survivors with the many tasks at hand necessary to aid in their comfort and survival, promising that she will talk with them more once most of her fellow survivors have settled down for the night. The party spreads out and begins looking for ways to aid their new companions.

Character(s) interacted with

Shorty (Esp Platyrhynchos), Batman (Haskell Vorsicht), Glaive Guy (Yew), Fatman (Hemlock Shores), Red (Rorgrim Coppermane), Kingfisher (Viktor Demain), Dr. Oathday (Ophelia Day), Julian Rivers, Father Serakian, Denman Winepress, barricade guards (Dunston & Dudley), chapel refugees

Report Date

04 Sep 2019

Primary Location

Stonebriar Asylum

Secondary Location

Carthia