Game Session Log 1

General Summary

Session One, Briarstone Asylum

You open your eyes, you look around. You’re confused, disoriented. It’s like you waking up from a trance. You are standing in the middle of an ancient city. The buildings are strange- built with an unatural geometry. But somehow you have the feeling that you have been here before... you just can’t...remember. There are people around you. They look confused and afraid. Do you know them? You cannot recall. You can’t seem to remember anything- who you are, how you got to this strange place. You can’t even remember your own name. As you look around you see a sickly yellow fog rolling over the buildings and through the alleyways, encircling you. As the fog moves in, you hear footsteps getting closer and closer and closer. Roll for initiative.
Fear, confusion, then panic. Giant, monstrous shapes seem to move in the distance. The terrain seems strange, disorienting, impossible to navigate. "Where are we?" "How did we get here?" As everyone stumbles through the ugly yellow mist, a terrifying figure- cloaked in rags- silently stalks. The tall, gaunt figure seems like an apparition- an otherworldly specter wrapped in vile, putrefying rags that move of their own will. The party breaks apart- each one fleeing into the impenetrable miasma. Suddenly, two freakishly long arms reach out of the mist. Tiny hands grab Jock around his chest. Six spindly spider-like legs wrap him tightly. Pressure mounts at the base of his spine, then a blinding pain as his backbone is ripped away from his body. The dripping, ensanguinated vertebra land on the ground in front of him, and begin to squirm. Before he collapses into unconsciousness he watches the hideous thing grow legs. It then scurries into the mist like an insect.
Drawn by fear the Tatterman hunts. One by one the party members are killed and eviscerated. Each killing is more horrible than the last. Malachi sees the body of Critch hanging lifelessly, upside down. A tangle of centipedes squirming in her mouth. Her vivisected pelt hanging limply from her tiny arms like a winter coat. Her bowels and organs unwinding like a coiled rope and falling in a tangled jumble at his feet.
With each murder, a strange distant voice can be heard calling desperately- “save me... wake up!” Zenobia yells “it’s all a terrible dream” and wakes the other party members. But reality is little better than the horrific nightmare they had just escaped. Everyone is locked in a small cell, in what appears to be a dark basement. A lone figure in a Dr’s coat is standing over a struggling man strapped to a table, obsessively cutting his flesh with a various tools- none of which seem to be appropriate for surgery. Jock screams “stop hurting that man. The Dr turns, and momentarily her face becomes Jock’s face. “Pipe down there, you’ll get your turn.”

The dying man kicks the Dr. against the bars, allowing Tecumseh to grab her keys. He unlocks the cell and watches in horror as the “Dr.” morphs into a horrible grey skinned creature. One by one, the companions escape to fight the grey skinned terror. The creature nearly kills Jock with its razor sharp claws, but is forced to retreat by Malachi’s magic.
The companions- if that is what they can be called- look each other over. A large, taciturn man with a dour affect stands in the corner, watching. A ashen skinned woman, obviously irritated by the others, gives an exasperated sigh. A thin, clerical looking young man talks to a quiet girl with bi-colored eyes, and a diminutive ratfolk girl nervously rubs her paws together. A tall man with dark braided hair- obviously a member of some Shoanti tribe- mumbles a prayer to himself.
Together, they cautiously explore their surroundings and discover they are in some kind of asylum. Terrible things have been happening here- they open a door to discover a room filled with decomposing bodies. The walls have been cracked and the upper stories have collapsed in places. And that terrible yellow fog seems to be real- and surrounding the asylum.

But they are not alone. A small group of survivors appear to be holding up in the asylum’s church. But they are not alone. A small group of survivors appear to be holding up in the asylum’s church. Arabella pleads with the survivors to be taken into the church. Paranoid and exhausted, the survivors fear the strangers are shape shifters. "If you had seen everything that we have seen, you would be cautious too. How do we know you are who you say you are? Captain York, their leader, looks the party over carefully. "You could be anyone... or anything." York tells the companions to bring back three dead doppelgängers and he will believe they are human. He tells them that the church is sanctified, and relatively safe. Disgusted, Arabella yells at the survivors "fine, we can make it on our own then." The party ventures out into a small courtyard next to the hallway. Jock finds the ruins of a small shed filled with various tools. He finds a small haversack and several good blankets. But as he turns to show the group what he has found, a black, faceless creature swoops out of the sky. Tecumseh looks on helplessly as Jock is lifted into the sky and disappears into the yellow mist.

"As if you didn't know." Captain York

The party hears a loud crashing sound just north of the hallway. As they investigate they see Jock has been dropped through the ceiling by the Nightgaunt. They rush forward to rescue him but he is trapped under rubble in the hallway. He is nearly eaten by a nest of flesh eating spiders with human like faces. Only the quick thinking of Angelica saves him, as she frees him from the ruble to escape. A man falls through the cracked ceiling, entangled in webs. His body is covered with undulating tumors that pulse as he dangles from the web. The man's eyes open and he cries "Help me... help me please." He tries to move but the webbing gives way and he falls. As he hits the floor the tumors break open- and hundreds of tiny spiders emerge and consume him within a minute.

The party retreats to the comparative safety of the boiler room. There will not be any doppelgänger hunting tonight.

Rewards Granted

Zenobia- Bottle cap for recognizing Dreamlands

Missions/Quests Completed

Escaped from cells, made contact with survivors, rescued Jock from Nightgaunt

Character(s) interacted with

Captain York

The Tatterman

Report Date

28 Feb 2020