Session 85: He Has Erizen

After sixteen hours, the key is finished and we’re ready to go. Industria takes us to Yanca’s cauldron and encourages us to say a quick prayer as there’s no telling what will happen from this point on. Once the soup is prepared, we each drink some of it and then drop the keys in. The world lurches and spins, stilling afterwards to reveal that…we’re in the kitchen. A hidden door is revealed though and as we step into a forest, we tell Louhi to stay behind and alert us if Yanca’s hut tries to move. The forest is dull in color and despite being a separate plane entirely, it seems relatively normal.       That is, until we follow the sounds of the river in the hopes of finding civilization. We find a deserted, desolate village that hasn’t seen people in centuries. The only residents are a family of skittish foxes. There’s a church, so we step inside to investigate, and are greeted to the sight of a sculpture of a crucified man. Beneath it on the altar is an “Orthodox Book”, but there’s no magic contained inside. A cave nearby has magic though, but it’s only a short message about finding a light shining off of a crack. Yanca’s journal implies that the crack we’re looking for can be scored for cheap on the material plane can be found to the north.       The next village we come across is also abandoned and one house is isolated from the rest. It turns out to be another one of Yanca’s homes from her former life. With all of the magic research lying around, I ask why Jesus died if he was such a powerful wizard like Baba Yaga. Industria hasn’t gotten that far in the Orthodox Book yet, but she promises to keep me updated. We divide to search for the mysterious crack, though Dandy finds an interesting humanoid in a cavern nearby. When he doesn’t return during our game of fetch, Industria uses the mindlink to see what’s up, and we all meet up with him outside of the caves.       We approach and the creature’s startled because he’s never seen our kinds before. He’s tall and covered in reddish-brown hair and tells us that long ago, furless people lived in the villages until they were hurt or changed by a bright light. These people were their ancestors and the being that brought the light chased them away and made others violently ill. These sasquatches keep to themselves to stay safe from the woman they call “The Pale One”, who happens to be the Baba Yaga. We ask if they know where her death is hidden, but they don’t know.       Upon asking if there’s somewhere they cannot go, they point us towards a forbidden zone hours away that is full of bright lights and loud, shrieking creatures with big, black paws. Come morning, we trek into this area and come face to face with what appears to be some kind of moving armor or machinery. The man operating one of them is immediately sent into a panic when we approach because things like us shouldn’t exist. Industria pulls out a Bible and introduces herself as Jesus, proving this by turning water into wine. This man is terrified and thinks the apocalypse is upon him, but after a brief discussion about Mormonism, Industria reassures him that the world isn’t ending and Americans don’t exist.       He marks a few places on our map where supernatural activity is said to occur and off we go. Elathera suggests that we reach out to the deities of this plane, so Industria attempts to commune with the good lord, Jesus Christ, but it doesn’t work. Exasperated, she reads ahead in the Bible, spoiling the fate of Jesus for herself before she casts a wish to acquire his bones. She tries to speak with the dead instead and alas, the lord is reached and finds this to be an unorthodox way of reaching him when everyone else just prays.       He’s not mad at any of us, even the one who impersonated him and possibly drove a man insane, and he helps us locate Yanca’s death. It’s within the forest, by a clearing surrounded by rivers. He imparts a vision of this location to Industria and when we ask if he can help with the incoming reset of the universe, he unfortunately can’t. With the ritual finished, Industria agrees to do as he instructed and bury his bones somewhere remote and undisclosed.