Chapter 6: Out of Body

GM You descend back down the stairwell into the maze. After an indiscernible amount of time you ascend back into the room with the slaughtered ox. It smells a little, but the flies haven’t found it yet.
Marcel I look for passages from this room to elsewhere
GM You return to the dividing wall beyond the shifting floor without impediment. You can hear a faint scurrying coming from ahead.
Marcel I investigate the source of the mysterious scurrying sound
GM You carefully walk around the dividing wall to find whatever could be producing the sounds, but the proceeding room appears empty. Despite the appearance you can still hear the scurrying from seemingly right above you.
Marcel I pull out my immovable bar, lock it in at about eye level, and then balance myself on top of it in order to inspect the ceiling
GM In a remarkable feat of acrobatics, you lift yourself onto the short pole. Like the other hallways nearby this room is dark; despite this you are able to make out the lines between the tiles lining this ceiling. In the center of one such tile nearest your head you spot a protruding dark lump. You blink a few times to try and force your eyes to adjust more to the darkness. In a brief moment you believe that you could see the lump moving, turning, but it’s too late. The lump leaps from the ceiling into your face. A giant scarab has attached itself to your face. Two more begin scurrying down the walls. It bites your face but you can take it. Marcel I curse, and rip the scarab off of my face And throw it to the ground
GM The scarab hisses as it collides with the ground onto its back; its legs flailing in the air. The other two scarabs reach their carapaced friend and flip it over. Now together, the three scarabs circle beneath your floating perch.
Marcel I jump down, aiming my feet center mass for two, while attempting to strike the third with my blade
GM You land on one scarab, crushing it into a mess of chitin and... paper? Following this motion your sword falls down onto another bug, slicing it in twain. The split scarab blooms in scrawled parchments, to which the remaining scarab hurries towards. The survivor feasts on the exposed papers, gorging on whole knowledge without tearing or biting.
Marcel I gaze incredulously upon the scarab devouring its brethren and scurry past it, grabbing and tucking my rod away as I continue on in a direction out of here, but a way that I haven't been before
GM Past the scarab feast lies a long, north-south hallway. Lanterns light the space every few paces. The walls and floor are obviously constructed from different material than from where you are traveling from. Do you go left (north) or right (south)?
Marcel I take a left here
GM The hallway ends with a open door to the right. The room inside had red walls with a black marble floor. Etched into the floor is a red and grey pentagram. Around it is a growing trail of grey dust that waves along, to and fro, like a snake in sand. The ends of the trail dissipate as if blown around by an absent breeze. I’m the center of the room is a round, glass table with a medium vase. You can see a folded note sitting inside the vase. There is a door directly across the room from you and a north-facing archway near the north-east corner.
Marcel I approach the table to upturn the vase in order to get the note inside.
GM The paper falls into your hand as the dust trail circles around you briefly before moving on. The paper is slightly yellowed, and is folded down to be a few inches across on each side.
Marcel I unfold the piece of paper to read it.
GM After each unfold you reveal more and more writing, but there is no end to the folding. More and more the note grows; it currently is 3 feet across and still has more folds. The revealed portions of the note are sprawled with a list from one “Picata” to “Psyteramona” detailing the seemingly endless reasons for why they are the perfect candidate to be Psyteramona’s lover.
Marcel I remember that signature from the letters before. I stop unfolding and begin folding back the note and tuck it away with the rest of my paper things. I go towards the north-facing archway and peer in
GM Despite folding along the same creases, you are unable to get the note back down to the exact size as you found it. Peeking in past the archway you first see a shallow alcove to the left of this short hallway. In the alcove lays an old corpse with a few hovering flies; it doesn't stink despite its advanced state of decay. The other end of the hall is capped with lead fencing that looks to be blasted open into the next room by some powerful force. The hole in the fence leaves ample room to slip through.
Through the fence you witness something truly awesome. Filling the majority of the room is a grand, ebony blob. Floating in space, the amorphous mass ebbs and flows, constricts and expands in a pulsing pattern like a four-dimensional heart. Your senses can tell that this object is made of immense magical energy. Parts of the mass flare out into the room in waves, colliding and bouncing off the walls and floor. Past the black material, you get glimpses of two doorways on the western and northern walls
Marcel I approach the decaying body and examine it.
GM On the body you find some rotten foods and decayed wooden blocks along with 18 gold pieces that appear to be of old Rosaran design.
Marcel I take two pieces of old Rosaran gold and proceed to check out the blob behind the fence.
GM The convulsing mass continues its rhythmic dance, but occasionally spasms violently to one direction or another.
Marcel I toss a piece of gold at it through the fence
GM The coin flips through the air until, thwack! Upon contact with the energy the coin goes flying into the near wall. An electric streak follows the gold and hangs in the air. The percussive force that fills the hall is cold and heavy; the kind that sends a chill down to your bones and burns your ears. (Roll a reflex save to stay standing.) The stream of the coin’s path is widening, leaving a gap, a void, in the center. The air around the empty cut billows like curtains in a breeze. Marcel 14
GM You get knocked down.
Marcel I get up again (Ain't nothing gonna keep me down).
GM You stand triumphant. What do you do?
Marcel I slip through the fence in order to go through the northern doorway.
GM Make a reflex save. DC 15
Marcel 4
GM You duck through the blasted hole in the ancient fence. Hugging along the south-eastern wall to avoid the energy before you, you quickly find the gold coin you threw. About three feet above the ground is the Rosaran gold wedged three-quarters if the way into the stone wall. Now that you are closer to the void created by the coin you can see something inside it. Thousands of stars glisten in the blackness beyond, and you feel presence watching you through the gap. You duck under the void streak in the air in time to avoid a wave of ebony mass crest from the central blob. When the arm of magic passes over you it’s as if all sound disappears. You catch yourself staring into the void. You shake your head and continue along the walls towards the northern door. You can see it more clearly now, only that the mass’s pulses seem to be growing faster and intermittently blocking you from your goal. You send the pattern and roll across the room in time to avoid the waves successfully. The wooden door before you is painted white. You want to look back at the void. You reach for the door handle to open it. Something is watching you. The door is locked. You turn your head towards the western door, but the mass of energy is growing violent. An arm of blackness sways out and you are too caught off guard to avoid it. The energy hits your hip first and flies you across the room. A tear opens in the air just as it did for the coin. Your mind separates as you watch one of your bodies break against the wall while your current body falls into the void. This new space is cold and vast. Floating down through space you now see both rips back into the room. Above from where you fell you see a wide, flat stone wall like the underside of a foundation. Looking right then left you see a woman grabbing the bottom of this stone pulling it into a tube. Her body is infinite and unbearable. She weeps as she tries to feed from the tube to avail. You still the presence of being watched, but it is not the woman. Two violet, flying, cloaked figures enter your vision who together carry a giant lantern at least ten feet high. They are followed by a third figure who grows closer to you. Unable to control your descent you watch as the cloak looms over you. There is no body underneath. The violet sleeve extends to you, then the cloaks “head” suddenly snaps back towards its peers. They float away towards the stars, which you realize are only on one end of this void. The hood looks to you briefly then speeds away as if needing some unheard command. The stars blink in unison then turn away as well, as the leviathan they belong to lead the lantern bearers deeper into the void. You feel your body begin to fade and sound starts to return to the world. A static of whispers overtake you when you lose consciousness.
You are standing in the now morning lit attic. Sigmund asks a seated Tiss, "How long has he gone so far? Does he... oh. There he is." Sigmund walks up to you eyeing you over. "You doing okay there?"
Tiss jumps up from her chair and hurries over to you, grabbing your sky-blue robe by the waist pulling it up for inspection. The area near your hip is stained a deep purple and heavily frayed. "What did you do? Do you have any idea how hard it was to get this? If this gets ruined it won't work anymore and that means all that hard work would have been wasted on you!" The final emphasis drives home her content.
Marcel "I... I'm not sure what happened exactly. I can't recall. You'd have to ask the other version of myself, if I'm understanding how this all works."
GM "Well," Tiss throws the robe down, but it simply goes back to hanging near your waist. "If you let anything more happen to this, don't expect to make any more miraculous returns." "What?" Sigmund interjects. "Don't worry about it," Tiss continues. "The sun's out, my shift is done. I have a lot of important work to attend to, so Sigmund if you would be so kind." She starts down the stairs without finishing the sentiment, her plain dress swishing all the way down the stairs." "Well, pleasant as always. Eh? So, got anything interesting in your pockets this time?" Sigmund asks, bringing a lighter mood to the room. "Are you tired? You've been at it for two days now." Miraculously, you do not feel tired.
Marcel "Actually... I feel fine." I begin sifting through all of my goods I found in the maze. I show my findings to Sigmund. They are puzzling. "So... I guess I got to go back in. Hopefully I see this room again." I say, picking a little bit at the frayed fabric of the robe, glancing up at Sigmund
GM You show the old Rosaran gold, the gold with the long-nosed man, the letters and the infinite note to Sigmund. He seems enthused, but ultimately less impressed than your last haul. You start to say your goodbyes and head back to the painting, but Sigmund stops you, “Before you go, you should know there’s been an update on the old hideout. That woman from before came back. After jumping out of the painting she disappeared, but last night she showed up at the old place with a troop of mercenaries.” Sigmund sighs, “Lookout said they tore the place up looking for something, probably this painting, then torched the place. The mercs seemed to revel in it, but lookout said the woman just stood there real creepy, just... watching the fire. Thought you ought to know.”
Marcel "Thanks for the update. Keep this old thing safe while I'm in here. I don’t want to be unable to come back out." I say, examining the painting. I look back at Sigmund, flash a quick grin, and enter into the painting.