07. April 19, 2020

The Odd Bodies

We decide to wait to confront the Thin Man. We rest to regain spells (half guard); about 3 hours in, we see a shimmering in the air, from the center of the room, a few feet above the floor. It gets brighter, then there’s a plopping noise, and a naked, goo-covered body is in the center of the floor. It’s a human male, maybe 40 years old. Then the shimmer disappears. Upon examining the body, the skin looks new--supple, pink, like a baby’s flesh. We notice all of the corpses look like they have new skin. This body doesn’t have a pulse, but has a skin reaction, when the examiner pinches/holds the skin, it whitens from the pressure then turns pink when released. It reminds Reddy of stories of a body that’s had its soul sucked from it; body is maybe in stasis, but there is no soul inside. There is NO tattoo on its neck, but there aren’t any ink stains around it.

About 45 minutes later, there’s a slight breeze out of nowhere. And four of the stacked bodies stand up, and walk over to the goo-covered guy, and start cleaning him off. Then they stack him in a slot, put their stuff away, lay back down about 10 minutes later in the spots where they had come from. We think there’d be about 82 more slots that could be filled.

We end up resting for 8 hours, and those are the only interesting events that occur.

We check, and the portal about 300 feet down the tunnel is still there. We walk through it, and the paladin senses we are in the catacombs in the Foul World. We turn around and the portal is still there--so we walk back through it, into our world. We don’t really want to tell the guards about it...we are somewhat hesitant because earthly lawmen don’t seem like the right people to tell. We could go to the Plinth, a multi-denominational temple in the North Ward, where there’s a representative of Dol Dorn that we could talk to (among others), but decide not to. We decide to remain in the lab.

Almost 24 hours later, we finally sense someone strolling down the tunnel toward us. Into the corridor, preceded by a wave of chilling cold, walks the thin man. He stops upon seeing us--almost statue-like.

We Speak to the Thin Man

There’s a long silence. Cam says “may we talk?” The thin man turns his head looking at Cam, but doesn’t respond verbally. The thin man is definitely not Good; he’s not overwhelmingly Evil either, but he’s definitely creepy. Jaindoh asks “where are we? what is this place? who are you?” He laces his fingers together and asks her directly, in a deep voice that almost sounds like two stones grating together, something like “are you serious, can I really answer?” Jaindoh says yes. He replies “Your manservant, Lucian Paine.” Frustrated sounding, Jaindoh asks again “where are we?” Lucian rolls his eyes, and replies “Seven.” She asks “what about through the portal” and he replies “One.”

Our Evil Twins and Their Twisted Plans

“How many places are there?” asks Cam? “131” replies Lucian. “What was [Jaindoh’s] last order to you, Mister Paine?” He replies “to assemble bodies here, since Seven was the most stable, to be able to push out.” How long ago was that order? “about 8 years ago.” Where are all the bodies from? “Groan.” How are you giving these bodies souls; these bodies are inanimate; how are they getting sentience? “I am not; the apparatus was constructed for me, but I do not understand its workings.” Who built it for you? “Can I really say that?” For the second time, yes. “Rielas the Calculating.” Who is that person, I don’t know the name, is it a pseudonym? “Cam is the pseudonym, the Calculating is the true name.” Some bodies are clean, some have ink stains, what are you doing with the bodies with the ink stains. “This is difficult, because I was told to not reveal the plan to anyone. Are you rescinding the order?” Temporarily, Cam rescinds his order. He repeats his question. “I believe the bodies are up to Version 3 and those that have your sigil on their necks are able to be inhabited by the consciousness of the despots.” We ask for our names “Dumua the Furious” is what Reddy is known as. “Zeruf the Haunted” is Hakon. “Seriel the Scourge” is Jaindoh. How is the apparatus functioning? “it is producing bodies properly.” and when the bodies are pushed forward? any challenges or successes? “sometimes when I return, some are gone, so I assume that is successful. My task was only to bring the bodies here.” How many that carry our sigil have entered the field? “27 at last count, though I believe there were issues with two.” and if we wanted to track the faulty bodies down, what do they look like? “I don’t remember. They are all simply sacks of flesh to me.” how do they behave that is faulty, what should we watch for? “resisting the mental commands of Rielat the Calculating.” have you seen any effects with the Tyrant’s Mercy? Has it been working? “I don’t know anything about that.” How safe have you been Lucian, any trouble? “aside from the two faulty bodies not functioning properly, the occasional turmoil in one, everything has been smooth.” when will your task end? “[it goes on] until further notice.”

We decide to give Lucian Paine a passcode, so he knows that he is to speak truthfully to us in the future, after we give him the orders to remain silent again. Cam says “I’m putting the order back in place, for you to not reveal the plan or orders to anyone, and the person speaking to you must give the following passcode: [Jaindoh utters an obscure Dol Dorn prayer].” We thank Lucian for his service. Reddy asks what manner of creature he is “construct, Dumua, construct” and we ask him to give us four extra reducing potions, which he says he “extracts from our subjects.” Urgh.

The Prodigals Return

We go up through the grate into World Seven, our world, exiting via a sewer grate that’s 2 blocks away from the Costumer’s Hall guildhouse, and we decide to sit down to have a meal and decompress. We go to the Maiden’s Tears, which is rated for its privacy and quiet, boring atmosphere. It’s the only place that has curtained booths. But we don’t talk about what we’ve seen. We eat listlessly, and then decide to go to one of Cam’s boltholes to spend the evening, recalling that about a week ago people tried to kill us.

More Questions Than Answers

There are blanks. We are big baddies in “world 1.” Did someone wipe our memories, or did someone make copies of our bodies, or are we our own selves in our own reality? And if there are 131 worlds, shouldn’t there be more portals?

Rumors

We go to work, since we all missed the prior day. We listen for rumors, and see if anyone is succumbing to Tyrant’s Mercy driving people’s sense of self away--everyone is fine. But while working at the docks, Hakon hears a tale that some nights on the Inner Sea, if it’s particularly calm, maybe a bit foggy, a ghost ship might cross your path if you are near the center of the sea. It has ghostly apparitions on it who scream in agony, before the ship is sucked into the sea with nary a ripple. The rumor is, there have been more sightings of this ship in the past few weeks.

The Plinth

We visit the Plinth that evening to pray, as it’s open all hours. We enter, and a feeling of peace descends upon us. We find the area for Dol Dorn; nobody is there, but we sit down to pray anyway. Jaindoh senses a disturbance somewhere beneath us. We descend the stairwell to the basement. Jaindoh leads us through the storage areas down in the basement, to the disturbance, and she finds another shimmer, a portal.

We step through. Three of us have a hard journey and are vomiting [and take 1 point of damage]. We are in a different storage room; it has different stonework. The portal is not there on this side. The paladin uses her divine sense; it’s not the same feeling as the horrible Foul World (World 1), or our world (7), but Jaindoh feels uneasy, the hairs on the back of her neck are standing up. Since there isn’t a portal, we exit. It’s not the Plinth...it’s not a grandiose building, it’s laid out differently. The only thing it had in common with our world was we went from one storeroom to another storeroom. We smell incense as we ascend. We are in a small room, an antechamber, and there’s a curtain over the door opening, and Cam hears one person moving through a much larger room, who is cleaning up the place. It’s a single denominational religious building, with unfamiliar religious icons. Nobody has a sense of foreboding, though nobody recognizes the icon. We sneak out, to explore.

The Church of the Traveler

The church is the only building here; we’re at a crossroads on the plains. Two dirt roads, wide, traveled fairly frequently we guess. No other buildings in sight. We don’t hear or smell the sea. We are in another world. Off to the right behind the temple we think there’s maybe a forest, maybe a setting sun (though it was full night when we left), and while it’s cool it’s warmer than it was at home (where we had snow the night of our anniversary). Cam, who is smart, suggests there might have been a time shift.

We enter the chapel, and the priest notices us, turns, and approaches us. “Good morning, welcome to the Church of the Traveler, I’m Bernard. Welcome!” We thank him. “He asks, is it right down to business, then?” we ask, huh? He answers “...your mission?” Cam asks if there are mysterious areas where travelers don’t go? “Yes, and that’s why you’re here! I’ve prayed and sacrificed, and here you are!” What is our mission? “Your mission is to rescue Andor, a fellow traveler. Lands here have been plagued by strange wolves. Andor went out to see what was going on, and hasn’t returned. I asked for guidance from the Traveler, for four nights. The first night all I got was the baying of wolves beyond the church walls, so I knew Andor was in trouble, but he’s tough and resilient and won’t be eaten yet. So I asked the Traveler for travelers to help. And here you are!” The wolves aren’t skinless and hairless, but they behave more intelligently than normal wolves, working together, like a unit.

We tell him to stop sacrificing his food. We agree to try to help.