Session 8
Attended: Alex, Francois, Nali & Scot
Venue: Scot & my place

Covers events on 20 to 24 Ulriczeit.

From an email I sent to Vanja:

Ziegfried’s translation raised all sorts of inconclusive questions about why Klaus was really sent out here. I have no idea what anyone really thinks the situation was, which suggests that nobody actually has any firm opinion on the matter.

Still on the road through the Demon Swamp, they encountered a group of more conventional Beastmen, emerging from the woods ahead. Norovir had some sort of major seizure when he tried to cast his first spell. So Ziegfried had to drag him and Moon’s Egg away from the fight, while the rest engaged the beasties. They killed the bestigor and captured the standard they were carrying, and most of the rest fled. When he came to again, Norovir had no feeling in his legs for several minutes. At this point, a major storm started up.

Not too deep into the woods (which also look Chaos-tainted), they came across an old, abandoned house, very large and still in pretty good condition. Everyone went in, except Imhol who didn’t want to at first. But he didn’t trust the trees either, so he just sat out in the open, until the heavy rain and the cold and some weird animal cries forced him inside.

Inside was a pretty abandoned sort of manor, obviously once very nice, but apparently untouched for over a century. People got funny feelings in some rooms, and Egg refused to sleep in one or two. An exploration of everything revealed a basement door that Peter couldn’t get anywhere near picking open, and that nobody else could break (though nobody tried as hard as Peter). They also found the master’s bedroom, which was filled with astrology books and charts, and one book about the Dark Tongue, which seems very similar, but not identical to what was carved on the monolith.

At some point, someone noticed that they couldn’t open any of the doors or windows to get out of the house. Peter tried sleeping alone in the master’s bed, but was attacked by some sort of blue, furry imp.

Eventually, a bunch of mattresses were dragged down to the entrance hall and a camp was set up there. Peter (who had been acting mysteriously religious since you left the monolith and talking about one true god) brought Ziegfried a book to translate, which Ziegfried has only partly deciphered so far, even with the help of the Dark Tongue book. It appears to be some sort of history of… something that Ziegfried hasn’t translated for certain yet. The one clear thing is the symbol of Khorne. I played Ziegfried as being cautious about this, not wanting to challenge Peter directly or telling anyone else exactly what it is, in case he really doesn’t know.

Everyone had some sort of nightmares while they slept, except for Ziegfried and Egg (I’ll leave it to the others to describe exactly what they dreamed). A deeper search of the house revealed a hidden room next to the master bedroom, where a shrine to Tzeentch was set up. It also had a key for the basement, which turned out to be be just a big cave with a stone altar, a sacrificial dagger and a system of little channels leading from the altar out to the floor of the cave, forming the pattern of a Chaos 8-pointed star.

There was an awful lot of fucking about at this point.

They pulled out the Ouija Board, but couldn’t seem to follow its advice. They got Ziegfried to try and read a Dark Tongue book with Tzeentch‘s symbol that they found in the master’s shrine, and the best Ziegfried could get out of this was something about how the “altar is the heart of the home”. They tried burning the altar in the basement, they bashed it with everything they could find (especially random bits of iron), they tried blowing it up with a little bit of black powder. I can’t even remember all their schemes for this altar, but it just stayed in one piece.

Eventually, Peter reached for the sacrificial dagger, so Norovir blasted his arm right off with a lightning bolt. At this point, Peter starts openly praying to Muuthauwg for relief, and everyone is completely fucking confused. After a little more debate, Peter gets the dagger again and stabs Imhol, throwing him on the altar. Imhol seems pretty pleased about this, but Magnus quickly drags him off it again and Norovir blasts Peter’s other arm, not quite off, but still in horrible condition.

At this point, I had to throw them a big clue, and Ziegfried bursts in saying, “Hey, maybe this isn’t the right altar referred to in this book of Tzeentch. Remember how there’s that other altar, upstairs in the shrine to Tzeentch, with the symbol of Tzeentch actually on it and shit?” So they easily smash that one, and the storm outside finally ends. They rush outside (because the door is now open) and it’s a bright, clear morning. They set fire to the house and carry on down the road, Peter hanging back to try and beg Muuthauwg to heal him.

(Also, through this whole thing, Norovir keeps having brief attacks of either numb limbs or hyper-sensitive limbs that are horribly painful to touch.)

GM’s Summary:
The weary party find an ancient manor house on the edge of a forest blocking their path and, as a storm starts brewing, they opt to spend the night there. Imhol initially opts not to, but is eventually driven inside too. But the house is haunted! A bad evil Chaos wossname must be destroyed and then they’re free. In the confusion, Peter Peters calls on Muuthauwg for help and is eventually forced to confess he’s been worshipping him.