08.03.2025 - Scribe-5 - Sacrifice

Asgeir is gone this session

• Scribes and Bucket notice that the doggo ate the paint brush
• The borchure artfully depicts going to one of the plinths and interacting with it in some way
• Coty looks around for a spot she can hang her painting
• She finds a spot between two pedestals that seems to call to her
• She calls Scribes over to use the screwdriver in her arm
• During the installation, Coty gets the feeling that she's being asked to share of herself, to see another angle of this exhibit
• She chooses to share her survival skill
• The rest of us see her eyes widen in understanding
• An image appears on the nearest plinth of Coty falling from a cliff and turning into a seal
• She loses her proficiency in survival
• The plaque on the plinth says: "Survival"
• Coty starts to see faces above the plinths, and paintings on the wall, fitting perfectly with her own
• Bucket puts one of his golden leaves on one of the plinths (Religion)
• As he puts his hand on the plinth, it whispers names he is sure he knows, but he can't quite grasp what they are
• It seems like a question. Like it is asking him for a name. He tells it his own name, Nibbles Chestnut (Bucket is just a nickname, he gives his actual name)
• That name appears on the plaque, along with a translucent image of Bucket without his armor
• As it does, Bucket completely forgets that that was his name
• Scribes tries to ask him about the name he spoke, but he blames her faulty memory
• Bucket and Coty see that the paintings/figures other that theirs are changing all the time
• They also see their art pieces in the brochure
• Void activates his magic eyes
• He mostly sees illusion covering the walls and the plinths
• Also some necromancy mixed in
• Scribes puts together that Bucket just lost his name after offering it up
• She asks Void to use his tattoo as the defining feature
• Void tried to put the back of his hand on the plinth
• He immediately feels searing pain, and someone slapping his hand away
• Coty tries to take her picture down, and she is able to easily detach it
• A new painting appears where hers was. It is flickering in and out like the others
• She puts hers up again, on top of the new one
• We make a plan in the voicechat, before executing it
• Thargnak Ironroot Thorne and Bucket armwrestle in front of the sleeping clerk as a distraction
• Thargnak gets and early lead, but Bucket gets twice the lead
• Bucket intentionally weakens his grip to prolong the distraction
• Coty draws with some parchment and crayons from Scribes
• The dog tries to eat the crayons
• The crayon-feast makes the art quite difficult to do
• Once all the crayons have been eaten, the dog goes on to lick the drawing
• Void pretends to planeshift home, because he forgot the soul container and has to go get it
• Everyone except Scribes is fooled, only because Scribes knows she hasn't been able to make that yet...
• In the midst of all these distractions, Scribes casts Nondetection, trying to pretend she's helping Void with his spell
• Void tries to offer his tattoo again, intentionally lowering his paranoia against devil deals
• Scribes and Void hear the whispers telling stories of heroic deeds
• Slowly but surely the tattoo starts bleeding off of his fingers and onto the plinth
• For each hero story, a new portion leaks off. As they do Void forgets that story
• There are 14 heroic deeds in total
• Killing the dragon during the courtcase
• ...
• The plinth is now covered in inky liquid, along with images of heroic deeds
• Void doesn't feel that different, except for a faint dissatisfaction or frustration
• He now sees the entire exhibition, like the others. The three of them now see colors spread through the exhibition
• Once the distraction is no longer needed, the armwrestle can finally stop holding back
• Bucket wins!
• Sylword offers up his Sleight of Hand proficiency
• Scribes puts a copper wire from her component pouch, offering up the deal she has with De Mowbray about calling regularly
• Some other snippets of conversations with De Mowbray is also lost
• She no longer remembers any of the deal or why it was made
• The voices get louder
• Thargnak offers up his perception
• The hallway fills with images all over, crystalizing and then settling down into the shape of a door at the far end of the hallway
• Void opens the door
• It is a dark souls doorway, making it hard to see what's on the other side
• Coty manages to see a large concert hall with red carpets
• There is a large organ (instrument) on the far side of the room, as well as other instruments made of bone and sinew
• Bucket doesn't see anyone, but notices that the whispers have followed us into this room
• They seem to get louder the closer we get to the statues
• Scribes looks one over, and notices that it is incredibly life-like.
• It is also missing a hand, having been chopped off
• It depicts a powerful, charismatic figure. Though it is not someone she recognizes
• Suddenly, an elderly woman steps out from behind the statue and starts sweeping the floor
• Void comments that it must take a while to sweep the whole place
• She responds that "patience is a virtue. I'm so proud of you for-", then she suddenly goes back to sweeping
• Void feels weirdly proud of himself because of the compliment
• Void thinks the statues feel somewhat similar to our guardieners (guardians + guardeners) from Veilhearth
• The cleaning lady sweeps some more, turns around and compliments everyone, and then sweeps through the wall
• Bucket attempts to follow. He hits his head on the wall
• He tricks Thargnak into running into the wall, to be better than him
• The duo starts testing all of the walls
• Coty and Sylword head up to the balconies
• The seats there are fancier than the others
• Sylword points out some grim depictions among the embroidery of skeletons, fear, demons etc.
• The keys of the organ seems to be pulsing
• There seems to be dark veins of blood trailing out of it
• Walking to a closer balcony, they now see that the pipes of the organ are shaped like people screaming in fear
• All the statues seem to be connected to the blood cables coming from the organ
• There is an exit behind the organ, lit by a stagelight
• Coty considers jumping off the balcony to get there, but for once decides to do the reasonable thing and walk back instead
• Scribes and Void walk up to the organ
• Scribes pulls out the Bard-in-a-Box, and feeds it the 8 page, very intricate, sheet music
• As the song plays, illusions starts highlighting certain keys on the organ
• It is as if the composer had four hands
• The whispers seem to sing along in harmony
• Scribes gets a sense that she could play this tune on the organ, but there is some power involved
• She finds herself unable to step away, and she knows that if she played she would feel powerful
• Thargnak and Bucket finish testing all the walls, without finding any secrets
• The party gathers around the organ
• Scribes starts playing, using her special arm's functions, and mage hand, to account for the missing arms
• No sounds comes from it
• It feels like it should work
• Scribes sends magic (1st lvl slot) flowing into it, and the sounds finally comes
• It seems to spread in all directions
• It plays a short part of the song (about a page), then the sound stops again
• Bucket casts Sacred Flame on one of the statues
• There's a scream of pain
• Bucket casts it again
• Nothing happens when Scribes plays again
• We try doing it at the same time; Bucket casts Sacred Flame, Void casts Eldritch blast and Scribes plays
• Bucket hears "Why???" through the whispers. He tries to explain, but "Pain. So much..."
• Void also hears repeated whispers of "Pain"
• Despite protests from the party, Thargnak and Bucket try to simultaniously head bash two statues
• The statues start to bleed
• They try to carry the statues to other places
• Void feels like the statues (being stuck here, in constant pain, as a piece of art) is his worst nightmare
• He goes to the door on the stage
• It has similar magic as the plinths
• It seems like we're supposed to give something up to open the door (spell slot, prepared spell, class feature)

Plan

REMEMBER: Void has Nondetection for 8 hours

Give something up, so Scribes can play the organ and open the door

Look for clues about Void's sister

Save the last dwarf that we accidentially sent to Hell (Bucket's honor depends on it)

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Sylword can cast Locate Object on the knife that was left on the other side of the Lorladon portal.

Scribes needs to read up on what pranks are, and think of one to prank Sylword and Bucket back. Since they told her to.

Learn the new spells: Aquired but unlearned spells

Scribes needs to talk to Coty about what happened with Lorladon (Coty wants to assemble her voodoo dolls first)

We should turn Custodian Auren over to the Path of Hill, claiming that we held him while we investigated his crime of impersonating the Emperor