Session 54: See You Next Fall
General Summary
Instead of pushing our luck with the giant statue, we pull the lever and head to floor three. We're greeted by a room full of naked mannequins, all of them facing the elevator door, though nothing's moved...yet. Nothing ever goes well when mannequins are involved and while we'd all rather be anywhere but here, it's possible that this may be the "doll room" that the kid on the radio mentioned. So as creepy as this is, me and TT step inside while the others refuse to do so. Things go downhill very fast as the mannequins grab me and throw me into a pile of their writhing brethren nearby. TT downs a potion of fire breathing as I'm pulled under, and manages to take some out, though it's not enough to free me.
The mannequins encase my organic arm in metal, but I manage to dodge their attempts to encase my legs. Amelia casts a wall of bones around the pile of mannequins, letting her skeletons tear them apart in an effort to find me. Once she can see me, she tosses a potion of gaseous form to me, which I somehow manage to catch despite my body being clawed at. I turn into mist and escape from what was going to become my final resting place. When all of the mannequins are reduced to scattered limbs, a woman with an exposed skull and fancy gown emerges from the doorway. Skeletal children desperately cling to her while she chastises us for misbehaving. Naughty children will suffer according to her and TT's triggered, screaming back that she's not a child before she's ignored in favor of Amelia.
The stranger grabs hold of her and her creepy children help her encase both of Amelia's legs in metal, rendering her unable to walk. This doesn't help her in any way, earning her the good ol' Finger of Death, causing the woman's body to collapse in on itself...and then disappears. We take the time to pry the metal from our bodies, or simply squeeze out of it on Amelia's part thanks to TT's magic corset. Amelia pulls the Puppeteer's corpse from her bag to order it to control some of the mannequins, but unfortunately for her, it's regenerated like much of everything in this goddamn house. It asks her if she's ready to play again before scurrying up the wall and avoiding everything we throw its way. TT had begged Amelia not to take this thing with us, so the inevitable outcome of this has her pissed off. To show her displeasure, she takes a shot at Amelia with her gun, intentionally missing her to show her that while she's upset, she'll spare her life even though she endangered all of ours.
After the Puppeteer is turned to ash by a disintegration ray, Amelia understandably lashes out after thinking she was going to be shot to death. She disintegrates the floor beneath TT, who's able to jump out of the way and avoid falling to her death. It leads to a massive blowout between the two, both of them accusing each other of anything and everything to get their point across. I cut in to ask if they're done trying to kill each other, which leads to Amelia storming into the elevator to make her leave. I quickly join her because wandering this place alone is suicide and TT falls apart emotionally. Cayde comforts her while Adrian tries to find a way to smooth things over and in the elevator, I'm doing my best to convince Amelia to stay with us. She's unconvinced by most of it, leaving me no choice but to come clean.
I tell her that I lied to the creature that wanted me to pay a toll for us to leave. Amelia can't figure out what would be more important than gold to me and thinks it must be my sister. I give her an obvious hint, stating that Zoey wasn't the one I sold my soul, along with several others, to a hag to bring back. Things are uncomfortably quiet for awhile. This wasn't the time nor place I wanted to make that confession and she pokes fun at me before giving me a hug. Our touching moment is interrupted by the elevator being called back to floor three. The door opens and TT files in with the others, stating that she has a plan to get us out of here. We head back to the weird parlor while TT bluffs that Adrian has to be the one to pay the creature's toll. It appreciates honesty above all else, after all, so it has no desire to deal with us. Adrian believes every word.
After some awkward fumbling as Adrian tries to coax the creature into mentioning the toll, I tell it straight-up that she's here to pay up and get us out of here. It asks what or who she values the most and Adrian replies with "knowledge". A book appears in the creature's hand, which she promptly destroys, and we watch as Adrian's eyes glaze over. The creature steps aside and lets us pass into the next room. Inside, the mangled corpse of the man from the cellar is here. Not wanting to admit defeat and wander back into hell, I carefully piece him back together and place the locks in their rightful places. Amelia reanimates him, but jokes on us because we still need the goddamn key to get out. TT fails to pick the lock, so Amelia takes a crack at it...and succeeds. The front door appears before us and we waste no time scrambling out of this place.
Five months had apparently passed, though it only felt like days to us. Summer had turned to fall and as I use my riversight to see if our ship is still at or near the port town, I have to break the news to them that it's gone. We've been left behind, though we can't blame them for moving on. We have no way of contacting them, so TT rips up her trump card that Owkbanok gave her long ago. He's immediately summoned and startled, but he's happy to catch up with us and gets us out of this mess. With his magic, he's able to reach Inami, who tells him that the crew will come back for us. After his purpose is served, Owkbanok wanders out into the woods, probably becoming this continent's cryptid with enough time. Before we can leave though, we plan to raid this town for all it's worth. While we didn't complete the job we took on, all of us are battered mentally and physically, so we deserve the reward and much more.
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Report Date
06 Dec 2021
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