Chapter 10
General Summary
Part 1: Hasten Neuroses
Chapter Ten: A Gardener Rings Hither
Chapter 9 Recap:
When we last saw our band of six heroes, they spent a lot of time getting closer as friends!
They sailed back to Terun with Devlin, who was a bit disgruntled from having to be gone longer than intended, but seemed to genuinely care about getting them home safe; they did rescue Rika from the clutches of her Secondary Location, after all.
Back on Terun, on the short walk between where Devlin docks their boat and the village, they one by one mentioned their having nausea and headaches, and Thad, who was experiencing it for the first time, had his interest piqued. They discussed theories as to what could cause them, and wondered if it had anything to do with their changes in diet after their forced induction into The Fold.
In the spirit of sharing, Imari mentioned that she'd been in contact with someone every time she died. After a shockingly small amount of deliberation, Thad agreed to kill her so she could talk to her otherworldly friend. They went into the drugstore at Boarwood Village to buy some healing potions.
The clerk, who was absolutely convinced that this killing and immediate reviving was a sex thing, persuaded Thad to take some condoms, and he ended up with a lifetime supply of them (these condoms don't expire because they're magic or something idk, leave me alone).
Imari conversed with Arcil for a long time before Thad brought her back, and when she was alone, she found something curious in her reflection in the mirror.
Denali told them they had done well on their missions, and that his newest one would be the most interesting: he required the bones of a god.
Simulor, 24 Pereundei, 253 E.W
11:37 am
Elliott could not contain his excitement to be on a mission again. It had been less than two weeks, but he said he was going stircrazy with only Denali's house and the village to go around.
In Reggie's Rentals and Trade-Ins, Rika was sure to cover all of Izaelia Evans' albums with Freida Gelsey's newest EP before following the rest of the crew downstairs to Theives Can!.
Spickle tried their hardest to lurk in the shadows while Thad bought the tickets to ride the LVR, but Rika noticed him hiding and asked what he was doing. Komi was also little help. One of the clerks at the counter saw Spickle and there was a flash of recognition in her eyes.
Spickle was able to deescalate the situation with their usual Weird Old Man tactics, and came across as just innocent enough to pass through a criminal network.
While all of this was happening, Imari put up the coin to adopt a familiar, and Komi purchased something she'd had her eye on since their first visit to Thieves Can!: a mystery drug.
On the train, Elliott and Imari struggled to identify the creature she now had. It was timid, but seemed to be okay with their group after acclamating. A Speak With Animals spell did little to identify the species. Elliott supposed that this creature must be descended from some of the mutants of the war.
Imari decided to name her creature Mortis—Morty, for short.
Thad, Imari, Rhizel, Spickle, Komi, and Rika realized immediately that they had no idea where on the whole of Nasus the grave of Jiro was located, but before the sinking feeling could settle in, Elliott pulled out a compass and a map and started pointing them in the correct direction. "Did none of the rest of you get the coordinates?" he asked.
After a couple of hours of walking, they emerged from a loose wooded area into a clearing of calf-high grass, and Elliott came to a stop. "It should be here," he told them.
Rhizel stepped on something. He looked down and saw the hilt of a sword—one in much too good of shape to have been out in the elements for long, unless there was magic at play. Before anyone could cast Detect Magic, though, one of them picked the sword up, and it—seemingly with a mind of its own—slipped out of their hand, and pointed to attack... along with three others that rose out of the grass behind it.
A breif confrontation ensued. At one very notable point, Imari cast a spell that triggered a wild magic surge, and a unicorn appeared out of nowhere. Imari spoke to it in Isendraki and asked it for help, and it was pissy about being summoned by strangers and asked to do their bidding, but after some convincing, it did help the group prevail. One by one, the swords were cut down by blows from all eight assailants, and when the last was defeated, they all rose into the air again... but instead of attacking, pointed at the ground, and sank into it. The tall grass seemed to melt away, revealing a well kept courtyard, and a stone footpath leading to the entrance of something no larger than a modest mausoleum.
Thad, Imari, Rhizel, Spickle, Komi, and Rika stepped up to the entrance, but stopped short when Elliott asked, "Where are you going?"
It turned out that he still saw the grassy courtyard. No footpath, no steps up to a door, nothing. Imari took his hand and tried to walk him up the stairs, but while she stood at the top of the stairs, he seemed to be knee-high in the middle of them, as if the stairs were just a hollogram he was standing in the way of.
With a sinking feeling, Imari told him she didn't think he would be able to come in. He told her it was okay, becuase he brought walkie-talkies. He gave one to her, kept one for himself, and said he was going to add all the local plants to his encyclopedia.
The first thing they saw was a keypad next to the door. "Input Number of Entrants," it said. The following prompt was "Enter First Name," and Rika, forgetting how her current age of technology works, entered the numbers "7452."
"Is your name PGJA ?"
This time, Rika entered 777 444 55 2.
Once all of their names had been entered, the door opened with a click, and they crossed over a threshold that bore the words, "0N1Y 35M1R5 M057 3XC3P710N41 W0U1D R34CH H4573N N3UR0535"
The first thing they encountered was an arch with the phrase "D4RK 60D5 571CK 70637H3R," a Common Tongue translation of the dark god saying, "Nycterai Urb Hiil." Beyond this point was a dark, long hallway full of iron chains that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. Everyone was able to pass through, except for Rika. The moment she crossed beneath the arch, the nearest chains animated and attacked her.
The five unscathed were able to fend off the chains, but had to fight more as Rika progressed through the hall. Even when struck by the others, the chains only seemed to have a problem with Rika.
Beyond the chains, they found an unlocked door that led to a small unremarkable room. There was enough space for them all to be comfortable, so Imari let Morty out to play while they figured out how to get into the next room.
The entire room was bare and bland. Nothing on the walls, floors, or ceiling. The door on the opposite side of the room was locked, and a sign above it said, "P14Y D34D." Naturally, they all laid on the ground, unmoving, but nothing happened. Rika sat for a while trying to think of any songs called "dead" that she could play. In the meantime, Imari taught Morty how to play dead. They even tried talking to the door, to see if it would give them any hints. Still, the exit door remained locked. And non-sentient.
Thoroughly stumped, the six of them decided to make camp for the night.
Reqi, 25 Pereundei, 253 E.W
6:58am
The next morning, which happened to be Rhizel's birthday, they all awakened with advanced headaches and nausea, some of them tripping over their feet as they moved about the room.
Having tried everything else they could think of, they sat in a circle and recounted to each other what they knew about numerology, from any ancient magic or divination classes they had taken over their education. They were certain the numbers in Leet Speak must have meant something. They collectively recalled the following:
- 1 stood for Esmir, and Dalinda
- 3 stood for Milianua, and for Intelligence
- 4 stood for Bastian, endurance, Isendrak, strength, and creation
- 5 stood for Susan. No one had any clue who or what Susan was, however
- 6 stood for Jiro, for misfortune, and salvation
- 7 stood for Nim and for luck
- 14 stood for Maktye, and for imbalance
- 34 stood for Wykmir, completion, and for the gods
- 35 stood for absence, infertility, and abandonment
- 36 stood for completion, and archaically stood for the gods
- They also recalled that numerology rarely exceeded 36
At last, Rika had a realization. She took her half lute off her back, ensured it was in tune, and played the notes D, E, A, and finally, another D.
The exit door opened with a click.
In the next room, the first thing the six of them noticed was a humming sound coming from above, along with the occasional metallic 'tink.' They looked up and saw that they were in an incredibly high ceilinged room, and close to the top, a huge swarm of moths circled a light fixture that provided the room with dim light. They were able to see that the moths were reflecting the light down to them, and between that and the clinking of metal, determined that these were tiny moth constructs.
Inspecting the rest of the room, they noted faux foliage up and down the walls, as if they were on the set for a woodland scene in a low-budget film. In the gaps of the branches, they could see two city maps on either side of the room. One was of Huntington, West Virginia, and the other was of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. None of them had ever heard of such places.
And finally, large and imposing in the center of the room, was a perfect replica of the Mothman Statue that can be found in Point Pleasant—juicy ass and all. Again, none of the six of them could draw any such connection, but they knew of the mothmen of the Finlandi forests that were being overtaken by the Maktari armies. The odd thing they noticed about the statue was the hundreds of pinpricks that covered the entire thing.
Rika noticed that there was a door handle on the far side of the room. She crossed to it, hoping she could open the exit door, but as she brushed some foliage out of the way, hundreds of tiny metal spheres fell to the floor. They were the perfect replicas of moth eggs, cast in metal. As the floor was covered, making maneuvering twice as difficult, the moths from the ceiling descended on the statue, and plugged themselves into the tiny pinpricks all over the statue. When they were all plugged in, the statue animated, and attacked.
Go back to Chapter 9
Continue to Chapter 11
Silly Little Quotes
Will you help us?
Dude what
It's super not a creature. It is a door.
A 10 is fine, I mean, you do know how to read.
Details
Report Date
24 Oct 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
Related Characters
Previous Sessions
Chapter 1Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Later Sessions
Chapter 11Chapter 12