Session 0

Setup and such. Rough plan:

• discuss folks characters a bit
• journey to Port Glory, introduce the city
• stuff about town until Saturday
• the intro “ball” at the Firtina (storm) observatory
• maybe get to the intro of the Incunabulum itself, but probably not

Actual gameplay:

• Yonca and Ahlquist on the same ship out of The City.
• Lasho and Reginald on the same ship out of The Holy Empire, Albioch through Dannofer then out to the ocean.
  • They meet Percival.
• Hector and Tamber already in Port Glory, meet before the ships start coming in.
  • They meet Beyza.
• Group meets at The Diplomatic Hotel. Reginald tries to get a suite upgrade but only succeeds in one evening.
  • They meet Sebastian.

Session 1

• Seb knows Tamber’s work. Has a notebook with his visions, goes from 3 moons -> 2 moons -> 1, which births a spider.
• Yonca reveals someone sent her the answers to the riddle.
• Hector gives a tour of salt street.
• Group headed north, nicely dressed, to Firtina observatory.
• Fight on the train with some of Mr Finch’s thugs, dressed in their “finest”. Ahlquist gets stabbed in the shoulder. They seemed like they expected rich people, but not good fighters.
• Arrive at bog bend station. Seb was in the last car blending in with commoners.
• Walk up the path to the observatory. Group offered a welcome shot (basically a caipirina shot). Only person who doesn’t drink the opening drink: Yonca.
• Sviatlana gives Tamber a drink, mixed with some of the lily pad magic.

• I am looking for a myth, a thing that may not even exist, and I have brought this journey as an opportunity to all of you. I am seeking the chalcedonic threnody. A song that is written about in the oldest of texts. We hear rumor that its authors lived deep in these jungle temples. You are not here to help, but you ARE being given an opportunity to involve yourself. I will not lie, there is danger.

• Met Reznikov, his looks:
  • Bald, waxed head.
  • Elaborate waxed mustache
  • Small pointed soul patch
  • Silver shod pointed toe boots
  • Purple pants with silver pin stripes
  • White vest under burgundy matador jacket
  • Half-cape
• Hector meets Boris, the train pilot.

For next game, please message me the answer to this question privately:

When you dream, where do you go?

Read into it however your character chooses, I will not elaborate.

Session 2

• Recap
• Hector finds out through Boris that Reznikov worked for russian state energy research.
• Lasho sees Seb’s notebook sketch from his visions.
• Tamber sneaks into other folks rooms (Takes a ring from Ahlquist, Takes an empty vial from Yonca, Takes part of the shaving kit from Reginald, triggers a trap in Beyza’s room and takes some makeup from her dopp kit)
• Tamber hangs out with Lasho afterwards.
• No one looks North. Ahlquist does a little bit of pinhole, but not enough textural info for the sigil.

Session 3

• Folks look around the train, see the damage. Khiri blinks around and creates a water bubble to put out the fire. Yonca and Seb are missing.
• The train starts breaking and when it comes to a stop 4 large jaguars (one with 3 eyes) attack the train.
• Found the secondary engine and a onyx sarcophagus.

Session 4

How big are angel dicks? - Cameron

• Finished off the 3 normal jaguar.
• Talked to the 3eyed jaguar, it wanted to “take their navigator” or their “sun that brings storms”. They attacked it when it went to look at Reznikov. It is now
• Learned more about the world setup from Farrow and Reznikov

Session 5

• Meet the Uh’Ha
  • Many with forehead trinkets from reflective materials
  • One head shaman lady with 3-headed jaguar hat and a jewel forehead trinket + onyx mace
• Reach an agreement with the Uh’Ha to un-shut the way together to help them escape the dreaming.
• The “great many limbed weavers” are breeding and getting more aggressive generation by generation.
• The Navigator knowledge was lost across the generations of the Uh’Ha. The shaman was respectful of Farrow for his “many journeys”.
• Group learns of “a great metal beast” in the lake south of here.
• The Uh’Ha are skeptical of naming.
• The shaman lady went to get agreement with the rest of her tribe.

Session 6

• Recap by Morgan this time.
• Yonca mentions that Seb knew how to get into the Tankard place.
• SPIDER - Spicy predators incoming, drop everything + run.
• Tamber makes a sketched copy of the map.
• The blood on the map is “fresh” but thoroughly wicked into the paper. It has some helical calcium growths like early coral formation. Tamber finds this through her magnifying kit. Farrow and Reznikov share a look.
• The ink blots on the map are squid ink.
• Dono reminds that the shaman cat they gave back is probably permanently crippled from the poison.
• Tamber and Ahlquist go on a jaunt out to the lake to see the “iron beast”.
• TODO update map without ink and blood stains.
• Confirm the crown ironclad, see some water birds get eaten.
  • Logging camp that was abandoned on the southern end, burned out cabin
  • Second active logging camp over to the south west
• Yonca isolates the ink and blood into custom vials with hydrophobic coating that is effective at repelling coral growth.
• When time passes, it is easy to become listless.
• TODO write up meaning up symbols and their locations on the map and how to get the keys.

Session 6.5 - Farrow & The Shaman

Farrow & The Shaman

You call forth Farrow from his work to have a chat with the Uh’Ha shaman. He takes a few moments to re-center himself, lost in thought from poring over notes. Once again, the shaman greets him with significant respect - an act he attempts to reflect and mostly succeeds. With your translation help the two descend into a detailed conversation. The discussion meanders, swinging around from historical probing, to finding common words to describe some of the Teutarch symbols, to stories of local phenomena. Out of this, you piece together information about the map:

The Sword marker, in the jaguar territory, is referred to as both The Arena and Bulwark.

The Star marker, in the central forbidden island has a less clear translation: sometimes The Pier, others The Overlook, a few rarer mentions of The Observatory, and a single mention of The Well.

As he goes on, Farrow apologizes for the “fiddliness” of the translations. “My s-s-sources are more of j-journals and personal notes than proper b-b-books. The Teutarchs likely had f-f-formal names, but sadly m-m-much was lost in their fall.”

The House marker, present in the compass rose, unequivocally represents the Temple of The Way, which Farrow assures you is off-map to the East — back the way you came.

The Quill marker, South West by the tower — mostly gets called the Labyrinth Library, and occasionally the Lost Library.

The Horse, over by the cenotes is another more contested translation: Thundering Hall / Valley of Thunder / Creaking Chasm / Hall of Heroes.

The Tankard, shown in a number of places around the map: Final Stop / Last Call / End of the Line / variants of this.

Session 7

First session doing 10-2

• Recap / memorable pieces:
  • Ahlquists’s hand going through the map
  • Going to fix up the train, down to 2 cars, only the armored ones
  • Gotta get some keys
  • Worried about the crown ship
  • FIsh men in the cenotes
• Everyone still very suspicious of Seb
• Percival coming along, Beyza staying behind
• Farrow and Reznikov given transmitters. Reginald and Lasho have them among PCs.
• Percival brings a huge backpack (it has a full wet plate camera setup inside)
• Visit to the cenotes, the vine covers the undergrowth
• The trapped crown sailor as a radio emitter for some other creature below
• Fight with the fish man shaman and his mount
• Hector spirit travels to The Reef, steals some tree spirits back from The Wall.
• Tamber blinks ahead, finds the entrance to the hall, but she also won’t be there next session so uuuhhh

Session 8

Prep ideas:

• Someone must may their dreams as a price to enter
• Ziggurat inverts within, they must climb down and out into the dreamscape
• Relics of past glories stacked against the “ceiling”, everything else hung from cables thundering and creaking

Actual:

• Recap
• Yonca is the only clean one, everyone else has some combination of their own blood / squid blood / squid ink.
• Head overland to the center, find nothing, head back to the cenote and descend
• Find the flooded pyramid, enter and start struggling downward on the uneven steps.
• On the walls of the ziggurat (in high antremha): make offering, speak these words and

So no using bullet points right now

Session 9

• RECAP: A musky-boi jumped over the gap.
• They fight the croc, Yonca gets knocked unconscious and breathes in some water.
• They kill the croc - ded
• Percival retrieves his water logged stuff
• Hector spirit-quests deeper, briefly meets the serpent, and sees memories carries by the local spirits of some of the transition ritual. He then uses the cups to transition with Lasho. Lasho drinks the serpent cup, Hector drinks the Way cup. Lasho loses his memory of his parent’s prideful faces.
• They descent into the hall, and open the door into the abyss part.
• The serpent mentioned Lasho’s loss was “the small price” compared to later prices, and also insinuated that the later prices would not be material in nature.

Session 10

Prep ideas:

• Serpent wants a treasure. “Have any of you done something notable?”. Probably Reginald would be best. Takes that and memorializes it in the gallery.
• Won’t deal with Lasho: “You have their stain upon your soul. Any notability you may once have had has been scoured. Tales of you are amended and unwritten. You might as well not have existed. You may have cut your strings, little marionette, but the hooks are buried deep. One may guess you’ll be dancing their tune again.”
• What is its key to the Way? “I shall instruct you in the production of a very particular dirge.” hmm, no maybe “I shall learn into your mind a most particular antiphon, but I warn you to not sing it until the time is right, and then you shall make-right time. With this too, I grant you title: Horologist/Horocustus (hour-keeper, roughly).” With this, it also provides an ektara made from the tree and a strand of the angel metal.
• The boat is the H.E.S. Peregrine, a naval corvette. Last capt by Donnegal.

Actual notes:

I don’t want to be murder-mugged by an ear fetishist.

I found an extinct mushroom ; we found a crocodile ; was it extinct? ; it is now.

• Explore the abyss, find the Peregrine and its jade figurehead.
• The wind takes a memory from reginald as he says it out loud.
• Horocustus Ahlquist is the first key bearer, knows the antiphon, and has the ektara.
• Tamber complements the snake on its garden, gets given a very rare painting as a thank-you.

Session 11

• Reginald and Lasho book it out of there.
• Hector and Tamber try to communicate with the tree spirits, it tries to ask them if they are angels.
• Reginald sees his daughter Sara, Lasho sees his handler.
• The portal back to the overworld takes Tamber’s memory of rose colors.
• They head towards the island (and therefore the observatory)
• They cross the river at a slower spot, find the basins are full of animal bones.
• The land on the island is blighted, trees basically dead a few rings in towards the temple compound (which they cannot see yet).
• The spirits of the land are few and far between.
• Something is “hungry” south in the river.

Session 12

• Khiri has forgotten a question.
• The blight effect is mostly carried through the ground, but also somewhat weakened ambient.
• Tamber checks out the path, finds the first of the helpers, a desiccated sailor from the peregrine. It sees her. Its carrying a bucket of bones, some avian and some human.
• Tamber feeds the sailor a healing coral, it quickly gets “sucked dry” and dies. The energy flies to the temple.
• THE FIGHT
• Ahlquist gets noticed by the spiders by reading the symbol in the middle fountain. (hidden detail)
• They find one of the trials.
• Tear in the air at the of the makeshift arch (made of broken chairs / cots / clothes / etc).

Session 13

• Tamber finds that the seaweed growths are some transplant from a larger coral formation that is the kind that eventually makes tunneling portals to the reef. The seaweed would not normally grow alone.
• Tamber is also noticed by the spider trap in the pool. (also secret)
• The other outbuilding has been converted to a large scale candle production.
• Dono: “do we have to kill it?!” about the shades
• Hector takes the cigar case full of magic wicks.
• Reginald takes a bunch of candles.
• Hector figures out something about the candle magic, the flame is all one flame and it is eating the spirits in the wicks.
• They head down into the main temple
• They chat with the previous navigator and eventually decide to attack!
• Hector is wrestling with him in spirit form trying to burn him up with the ignited handle.

Session 14

• Start right back in the middle of combat.
• Death by Water!
• Eating multiple blood flowers lengthens the effect but does not enhance it.
• Josh traps him into the body all of the last one, then ignites the candle under it.
• Tamber blinks the snake + ahlquist out, then returns to rescue the others from the portal.
• The snake says its called Observer.
• Khiri takes the cosmolabe and becomes the key

Session 15

Pre-prep:

The package of memory stirs, like an egg soon-to-hatch.

Actual:

• The snake gifts “stain-sight” to Hector and Tamber. Tamber is less good at it.
• They head off the island, make camp south west.
• Tamber investigates the cosmolabe. Finds she can look through her mirrors into the past. Generally the longer back the easier to see. Lack of resolution is like fog. (it actually looks into the accumulated memories that the web catches)
• Ahlquist plays some music on her Ektara. It slows down time around them. She spends time practicing.
• The group approaches the edge of the jungle. Suddenly, the ground falls away ~20 feet, onto rougher scraggly terrain. Its a seam where the dreaming is showing earlier memories, closer to the time of cataclysm. Rockfalls scar the land. Spirits are youthful, but preserved over time.
• They cross the broken ground to the tower, seeing that it is made of great web, reaching into the sky and held aloft by almost invisible balloons of silk. As if a funnel web spider web was inverted.
• Hector’s hands are not repaired, they work ok but appear only as threads of muscle and tendon over blackened bone. They smolder still, emitting wisps of smoke.

Session 16

Prep:

The sigil burns into your eyes. It crawls, its edges fraying and reforming in a ceaseless rippling frenzy. Behind it the wall of web ignites, as if from within, a consuming maw of flame reaching out. You remain transfixed as you feel your skin bubble and char and boil away and then it is done and you are back, looking at a meaningless patch of wall. Your throat feels raw. Your companions stare at you with concerned eyes. While you were mesmerized your body spoke to the party in the same language used by the snakes. It burns your vocal cords to speak it, and your mouth tastes like ash. You tell everyone else: “We enter the great library. Fire is forbidden here. The halls and arcades must remain peaceful. Danger lies elsewhere.” (you should actually tell people this, feel free to share or not share whatever else from this)

• The exhibits are continually shifting dreamscapes.
• The key is stored deep in the archives. The path to the archives is through another deepening rift.
• Up the tower is the collection, can watch dreams and memories accumulate.

Actual:

• Order: Yonca, Reginald, etc in roll20
• Lasho triggers the sigil
• The group heads downwards into the arcade. They hear music, which Reginald recognizes. They enter the first gallery (Reginald’s) via a tunnel of onyx.
• Starts as his hall, with a phonograph playing music. There’s cooking noises from the adjacent kitchen. The walls are hot, and opening a door causes chest height sand to pour in. Someone runs from the kitchen. They follow, headed by Lasho and chase the man into the desert. Its a sandy high altitude desert that Reginald remembers from mongolia. The figure runs across a ridge in the dunes and down into an oasis, then through another tunnel. Lasho hits him in the foot with a knife and chases after him
• The figure fired a crossbow into the side of the dunes, waking an angry sand worm like a mongolian death worm, that Reginald killed but only after a long ardous process. The group fights it and wins.
• Outside in the arcade Lasho questions the person, a teutarch (implied, not necessarily realized by the group) named Gunther. He traded his freedom for access to the archives.
• He offers to lead the group either the long meandering route through the arcades, or the shorter but more dangerous route through the galleries.
• galleries:
  • 1 -> Reginald (visited)
  • 2 -> Ahlquist
  • 3 -> Percival (visited)
  • 4 -> Yonca (definite)
  • 5 -> Tamber
  • 6 -> Lasho (definite - visiting now)
  • 7 -> Hector (definite)

Path: entrance -> arcade -> Reginald -> arcade -> Percival

Session 17

The group begins in a gallery featuring Percival’s memories. In opens to a marble auditorium, like a court, with voices just outside the upper viewing area doors. There is one exit across the room. Percy seems upset to see the setup.

Percival is actually exiled from the Crown, and was hoping this expedition would help him acquire enough clout (information/treasure/whatever) to save his reputation. This vignette should establish how he got exiled.

From the court to a prison ship, bound for the isle of man penal colony. The ship can be explored, but the route through is available simply. From the ship downward to his cell, then out.

Actual:

• Start. Reginald recap.
• Moving around Percy’s gallery.
• Yonca takes papers off the council table. Ministry of internal affairs seal on the folder. Finds the exile papers.
  • Gross negligence in his role in the death of Justice Karrst.
  • Prosecution opted towards execution but an influential voice in the ministry halted that stay.
• They step onto the deck.
• Tamber and Hector are poking at the simulation to try and find the edges.
• Proceed downward to his cell. They fight his fear-memories of other thugs there who beat him up.
• They realize Percy was overseeing the dig site from the last game and was exiled because of them, then saved by a note from someone high in power. The note was missing, and Percy didn’t want to discuss it.
• From the next arcade they enter into Lasho’s gallery. At first the rain makes them think its his, but then he doesn’t remember it, and they doubt it for a bit.
• They enter onto a brownstone roof in a nice part of The City (merchant area) in the middle of a heavy downpour. Below them, a skylight has been picked open and left not-quite-closed to be quieter.
• Inside, a single figure is dead from a knife, laying on a piano. The piano is covered in some large-print revolutionary posters against The Crown: one depicting the king as mostly-dead, kept alive with constant healing potions—the other depicting ezra didem and “know your true master”.
• Downstairs they find more dead, and printing materials and pamphlets for the revolutionaries.
• Next to a door leading further inward, Lasho finds a crumped typewritten card:

Leave no stone unturned for dust they shall become.

• It awakens something long-dormant in Lasho, though he stays in control.
• Opening the door triggers a scene to begin, as two young bohemian revolutionaries are mid-death in the hallway (from a past when he was the sole killer).
• Someone asks Gunther if there are real people in these galleries. He says they aren’t right, more like recordings. None of them feel like real people.
• Inward, a circle of further folks crowd around a single young witch communing elsewhere. They revolution has strong allies elsewhere. Yonca tries to talk to them but they just parrot the same “you don’t have to do this, you can’t stop us all, the revolution will succeed” creeds.
• Lasho is surprised and falls back, leaning onto Hector’s hands. This unseals some part of his soul that reacts to the message. He disassociates and un-choosingly astrally projects, his body going into the motions of killing everyone in the room. Hector scoops up his soul and tries to bring him back to his body.
• Fights ensue, Lasho stabs Tamber before re-awakening in his body and collapsing into sobs. Hector protects him. The witch revolutionary is possessed and fights the group, eventually detonating into a fireball.
• Cameron has crab spines in his neck
• Yonca is super on fire
• Tamber has a leg wound
• Lasho is super bruised

Session 18

Prep:

Down the hallway, the door opens into a dark alleyway outside (space-jump). There is graffiti on the wall, that anyone who’s visited the city has seen:

The Saltpeter Sovereign Slumbers!

Graffiti of the form “(The) Saltpeter Sovereign (does things)” appears all over the city, generally cleaned up pretty quickly. The constables have historically seemed unable to pin a specific culprit (though they have had arrests) so the popular consensus falls to a collective, or even just a shared joke or initiation among street gangs. Upon seeing this, Yonca immediately calms down, though can make a check to see the degree of affect. From the darkness down the alley a woman’s voice rings out:

Has the dust settled then?

Dreams have no introduction, and nei‐ ther does this adventure

Actual:

• Everyone punctual this morning! (also loopy)
• Dono gives the recap this time, not in character.
• Tamber tries to identify the crab spines, realizes they blood bond the receiver into the crab, awaiting a later effect. She yanks them clear, and blood bonds to Reginald in the ensuing cloud.
• Ahlquist tries to pull Yonca into the bubble.
• Hector burns away some of Lasho’s trauma to get him moving. Later: you find that piece you burned away trailing you, connected by a thin strand of something.
• Ahlquist digs through the ceiling and out onto the roof of a shed in the alleyway.
• Yonca gets cut out of her clothes, with a coral healing bloom in her eye. It heals into a flat fish looking out from the hollow.
• galleries:
  • 1 -> Reginald (visited)
  • 2 -> Ahlquist
  • 3 -> Percival (visited)
  • 4 -> Yonca (definite)
  • 5 -> Tamber
  • 6 -> Lasho (visited)
  • 7 -> Hector (visiting)
• The group progresses into Hector’s gallery. It begins as the interior of a field tent, then an absurdly infinite Crown Army camp. His old drill Sergeant (combined with Father imagery) is yelling at him to complete the obstacle course, which has strange fragments from other things in it.
• After a set of hurdles, a rope wall, and a climb across ship decks, the PCs have to crawl under a building an emerge into a smokey hookah filled room. Hector’s mother’s voice scolds him for his choices, then the 100 hosed hookah growls teeth and attacks.
• Folks start cutting hoses and fighting it. Hector sends air spirits through it to try and clear the local smoke. Reginald charges it with his horns.

Session 19

Prep:

hmmm, well at some point my lab. but perhaps mother’s death bed, playing with/bringing up brother. . . Shitty father

A Looking Glass aperture should punch into Hector’s dream outside before the belfry.

[inaudible - male voice] …erberations near Austral Deep’s listener probe, well beyond normal even for a flare. [female voice, familiar] Since we are not locking down right now I have to assume The Shroud is still intact. Have you verified the readings? I don’t want to be called to this basement because some junior operator dropped the probe inside leaping range of a tiger. [male again] Main reflector confirms M’am. Coincides with fulminological aberrations too, no weather system within 100 klicks… [woman, turns to face the window and peers in, as if your side was dark or foggy] why is the resolution on this Looking Glass so low, what are we looking… [eyes narrow] … the fuck?! Kiran why is this lab familiar?

Ringing the bell makes the path to the next arcade appear. This is even more strange than previous ones. The floor is made up of laminated Teutarch pennies. The ceiling here is high, like a church.

Why The Shroud? Close translation from the spider’s language: great-web-that-envelopes-the-world-collecting-record-of-its-peoples-final-grief.

Travel to Yonca’s gallery:

• Costis leaving, being collected by the faceless man and umbrella lady for the project.
• The lab (what quirks here?) perhaps some invasions by Costis memories since the lower galleries are so unstable.
• The Antremha shores during the Teutarch exodus. Hundreds of ships being disassembled. The pyre darkening the sky overhead. Perhaps the lab dissembles into this on one edge. Pink-orange petals settle lazily downward, mixed with the ash. Tamber would recognize these as flowers from a Harper’s Folly. This plant is an aggressive bind-weed infesting coastlines all along the Eastern Atlantic coasts. Its a reef replant.

To the archive:

Actual:

• Hector clears out the air, Tamber cuts at the stem, and Reginald starts smashing the bowl. Tamber and Reggie cut and smash it apart.
• They get outside, then find Hector’s family estate weirdly crammed together. Hector climbs the belfry, burning away pieces of the walls where he touches. The lightning storm in the distance coalesces into a single huge pillar of lightning that cuts a mountain in half.
• They escape into the arcade that is Teutarch themed. Ahlquist is enamored by the council statues.
• Osnaburg was the main Teutarch city that they fled from.
• The next gallery starts in the lazarette of the ship Ahlquist got discovered by dockworkers in. They pop out and the call of “stowaways” gets built up. Diving off the ship, they find themselves in a huge mess of ships, the Teutarch exodus fleet. Moving up to the beech, the ships are being taken apart, their wood being brought inland. There’s smoke filling the sky.
• Onto the beech, there’s a wedge of university meshed into it. Inside that wedge, Yonca finds her lab (Böcek Ini aka Beetle Den). They see through a Looking Glass into the crown intelligence
• In the exit of the building, on a university flier board, the following is written:

The Saltpeter Sovereign Steals

• Yonca sees The Faceless man and Lasho’s handler take Costis away via spider sigil. Yonca was there, but had the memory hidden.
• Once on the beach they follow the last few stragglers to the great sacrifice bonfire. The council of 9 are lead in a ritual by the Teutarch Queen. Most of the exodus fleet is trapped in the conflagration, with only a limited group of folks spared to travel the way.

Session 20

Prep

Light streams from one side of the arcade. Heading that direction, you see a large stained glass window, glowing impossibly this far under the earth. As you get closer the detail resolves: instead of mortar the individual fragments are held in luminescent web; like the pillars you’ve seen throughout. The window portrays a saint-like figure, larger than life: a woman with a serene face and closed eyes, arms wide and welcoming. To the side of the window a misshapen stair like an Escher painting descends from the ceiling, hanging like a stalactite. In the shadows under the stair a single figure sits, leaning against the wall. They’re wearing a simple robe, hood up. Next to them on the ground sits a familiar circle: the small pool from the ritual you just watched. Drips from above cover its surface in infinite ripples.

then after they sacrifice

She reaches her hand out and diverts the drips from the ceiling. As the ripples cease a reflection of the misshapen stairs above clarifies. Their form suddenly makes more sense: a path downward into the pool.

• knave / jack
• queen
• king
• ace

Actual

• Wade into the fray with the honor guard.
• Lots of fighting. Ahlquist gets her nose broken, Reginald gets cut badly in his left shoulder, Yonca gets her leg burned by a super heated sword.
• During the fight the Teutarch
• Tamber blinks into the ritual circle, then out with the Queen. This removes the focus from the ritual and causes a steam explosion from the pool, knocking a bunch of folk over and burning them.
• Eventually they pass through the tunnel into the “final” arcade.
• This one is the clerestory of a church, with some more doors, and then windows into the same underneath space as thundering hall. At the end is the disgraced queen of the Teutarches, who offers some info then manages the sacrifice to enter the archives.
• Hector gives up his humanity and the queen opens up the downward stairwell.

Session 21

Prep

What is in the archive? A collection of beautiful things from before the calamity, along with the distillation of dreams funneled through the library above.

Actual

• Take the long stairwell down to the archive.
• Ahlquist plays music and gets reply from Thundering hall, some distance away.
• Enter the archive itself, find New Osnaburg.
• They get to meet locals, who are friendly and apologize for the pain of the galleries.
• Tamber and Ahlquist, as key bearers, wait out in the town and get to talk to one of the Councilors (Ava) about the Teurtarchs.
• The rest enter the vault-chunk and get to meet the archivist.
• Most friendly snake, due to living with the humans for 70ish years. Answers questions.
• Tells everyone that the keys are all forms of divination, and this one is the only one that is forward looking.
• Meet Siegebreaker, 40ft-wide (if splayed), about 20ft diameter when standing. Orange-brown hue. Huge and ancient.
• Elected Lasho the bearer for this key, since the snake was more amenable to his condition.
• Siegebreaker spider-blinked them out to the top most arcade.
• Headed into a gallery manifested from stored dreams of Ahlquist when she got her arm.
• A ship in the straight into the Med sea, with JanJak attaching the arm to an unconcious Ahlquist.

Session 22

Prep

• Probably going to get Ahlquist a second arm. What is she going to do with it?!
• Back to the overworld, where will they choose to go?
• Will Morgan remember that the way to find the tavern is to get yourself lost when you need it?
• Key from the Knife symbol (arena in Jaguar territory) is a knife for Haruspex (divination of entrails)

Actual:

• Cameron running late.
• Fighting dream JanJak.
• Realize the other person was The Artist, cut him in half.
• Ahlquist finds the fishman in the bilge.
• Some questioning of the simulacrum. Not super useful.
• Inspecting and gathering the new arm.
• Leaving, Lasho draws a card (4 of shells), then they head to the quarry. The fine a onyx splinter embedded in The Seal.

Session 23

Prep:

• End of last session Lasho drew the 10 of Gates for “how do we get into the tavern?”. The actual answer is “simply” to get lost. From Yonca’s dream/escape:

As the two of you reach the threshold, Seb leans in:

I, uhh, am not exactly sure what we’re about to see. This place, I’ve seen it in my dreams before. In my, visions. The times I am most lost, as the nightmares are at their darkest I always seem to find this door. It… wanders.

• Need to translate that clue into a card-read.

Gates are not always to be found. Sometimes gates do the finding.

You are pursued by a yawning maw. Teeth and knives and spikes roll through

A snippet about the Last Call tavern:

The interior is expansive, though somewhat maze like, and appears to be made up of a large patchwork of historical styles as if the bar had been partially renovated hundreds of times over. The whole scene is lit by a medley of different sources, from piles of flickering candles to gas lamps to modern arcane lightning tastefully brightening corners.

You overhear a gentle babbling of many muted conversations echoing around the walls. Many languages, far more than you recognize, make up the murmurs. Tucked away private alcoves comprise most of the available seating, all with privacy curtains. Pushing deeper in you find a central chamber amongst the layout with deeper floors and a raised ceiling. Intricate mosaic tile work runs along the floor evoking tree roots, and from the middle of the room sprouts an intricate silver facsimile of an ash tree, rising to fill nearly the two stories up to the ceiling. Hanging from the branches are innumerable bottles of wine and spirits. Draped throughout those same branches lies an enormous anaconda, its body pitted and scarred, though its scales still hold healthy luster.

As you enter, the snake is finishing a pour into the waiting goblets held by a patron below. On tip-toes they lean up next to the anaconda’s head and whisper something to it, before departing to a shadowed table.

Actual:

• Translations:
  • Shroud - Geographic Survey
  • Quarry Site Two
  • Lightning dam?
• “Not all gates are places, some gates are states of mind.”
• Tamber testing onyx vs coral - coral can’t punch into onyx.
• Yonca mentions Seb’s statement about nightmares (“darkest”) + being lost.
• Tamber hears that and thinks to use the astrolabe to look through to what Seb was doing prior to passing through into The Shroud.
  • See Seb staring North, then drawing his network around his room, listening at people’s doors, then smashing his mirror. He sees a spider in the mirror before smashing it.
• Jaguars starting to flank the group. Lasho notices, then Reginald.
• One jaguar hops onto a rock to make itself known, then walks toward the group.
• Ahlquist uses her instrument to talk to it.
• They talk with the Envoy, who mentions they are alright with them having the keys as long as they close the way behind them.
• When leaving, the Envoy mentions that there was a commotion at the train and other humans have accosted their friends. Then the rest of the jaguars stop hiding and all walk off.
• The group decides they must make haste back to the train. They roughly retrace their route, though do not go back on the center island.
• When passing the island, the fire has grown and engulfed most of the island. Acrid (and weakening!) smoke surrounds the area. Additionally, oily smoke-fog pools off the edges. Hector tries to take some fire spirits, but instead realizing they are simply one large fire spirit. He leaves it be. Folks think they might need to address it eventually.
• As they pass the lake they notice the Crown ironclad (Olay Ufku “event horizon” in English) is docked against the northern shore with a watch complement on deck.
• They sneak up on the train location. Lasho ranges out about a half mile from the group and notices a porter line running up parallel to the river.
• The train is swarming with crown marines. The group did look like it had successfully tipped the back cars over and off the track. The remaining upright ones: normal engine, spooky engine, onyx storage car.
• While sneaking around Lasho failed a rock-paper-scissors and I offered him a retry. He did it, and the deck ate the previous bad luck, but also something from him. He got to redo it, and felt very hungry afterwards. Everyone was a little freaked out by that.
• Hector brought distracting winds while Tamber blinked in and kidnapped the 2nd LT and brought him back to the small player camp a little ways off.
• In the cap, the group were playing go-fish. Reginald had just asked Yonca if she had any 3s, looked grumpy, then jumped up looking like he was gonna tackle her. Instead he was tackling the newly brought through LT. They pin him to a tree.
• Tamber blinks back and with her life-vision from the blink flower notices prisoners. She finds all but Farrow and Beyza. With her last remaining power she brings Reznikov back to the group.
• Reznikov mentions they were ambushed about 22 hours ago. He was beaten for information and is worried about Thorogood because he’s so frail.
• Hector burns the resistance out of the LT’s soul (shocking everyone) and they learn that Beyza set up the crown raid, and her and Farrow are both back in the lake on the Ulay Ufku. He also reveals the Ufku’s complement is down to 161.

Session 24

Prep:

• Likely visiting the Ulay Ufku first to try and rescue Farrow (and probably kill Beyza).
• Admiral ???
• Fighting there will probably take the whole session, but they might seek the tavern after.
• Q from Josh: “how much do I understand about how the Navigator jumped between bodies? do I need to prepare the target body in a special way?”

  • Your soul’s newfound incandescence illuminates truths once hidden. Do you begin to resent this cage of bone and flesh that you have called home for so long? There are other paths, other ways. The ties that bind you—the true you—to this… meat are numerous, parasitic almost. Perhaps the body knows it is the lesser half and has tried so hard to become necessary, to envelope you and shelter you. But you can see now. These ties can be snipped; paired down. It is said that eyes are the windows to the soul, but perhaps they may also become doors.

Actual:

• Khiri missing as expected, Morgan dropped last minute, and Cameron thinks he might have COVID :/
• Group split, those not there (+Percy and Reznikov) would stage a distraction attack on the supplies line to pull attention away from the ship, while the folks who were there would sneak on to get Farrow.
• The sneak aboard the ship by climbing along the cliffs and cutting into the hold. They notice that the iron skin of the ship is covered in arcane runes, and the figurehead is an extremely detailed depiction of a women blindfolded by a crown, being burned.
• Inside, they see that the original engine has been jerryrigged into a multi-boiler system to use different fuels and power differing things. The crews had to but into the floor to allow it space to grow.
• They sneak through the officers areas to the infirmary where they fight the doctor and some marines, rescuing Farrow. Lasho uses the luck-adjustment twice, first gaining a pressing but unknown appetite and then wanting raw flesh. He almost bites a random engineer sailor but clamps it down (har, har).
• On their way out they pass the Rear Admiral’s office, where he’s consulting maps with Beyza. They break in and a fight ensues. Lasho uses the box again to reroll against Beyza, and I force him to roll for a card of the deck. He gets the Knave of Teeth and is truck with a need to consume her teeth to that he may have a second mouth (thx six of pearls) to further quench his appetites. The group looks on in horror.
• Ahlquist keeps the admiral under control, then Hector grows the wood of his door into a cage before they leave.
• In his drawing room they see a painting of the ship headed towards an immense salt-washed mirror held between two ships during a storm.
• On the way out, Hector binds the jaguar soul that wanted to escape into the screws (sympathetically all of them) of the engine, causing a huge meltdown.

Session 25

Prep:

• Likely will end with the group going to the Last Call tavern, so I need to determine what is up with that key.
  • Seb could have it.
  • It could be given by the barkeep. At what cost?
  • What is it?
    • Coin — heads or tails?
    • Bottle — drink to forget, or to remember?
    • Cup (cyathomancy). Yeah this

Actual:

• Dropped back to deal with the side-party: how Yonca and Tamber made the distraction. Yonca rigs an alchemist fire trap and challenges Tamber about what is happening with the coral transformations. Yonca convinces Tamber to extract some coral from her eye socket.
• RECAPPPPP
• They meet up at the rally point. “Did you EAT somebody?” “Well, yes” “Did they deserve it?”.
• Tamber confronts Hector about his changes.
• Discussion of securing their allies—using the cover of the distraction to rescue others from the train.
• While headed to train, argue about morality, especially that of Hector.
• Hector raises a fog, and preps water under the mudbank to hide their escape.
• Under the fog they break into two groups, one (Tamber, Lasho, Ahlquist) take out guards on the prison car and rescue the remaining Incunabulum crew, the other (Reginald, Yonca) rig the special engine to go unstable and start blasting lightning around.
• They decide to find the Uh’Ha, to ask them to protect their friends while they search for the other keys.
• On the way there, Lasho draws a card to find where to go, draws the Knave of Teeth again.
• On the way, gets lost and winds the entrance to the Last Call bar.
• Greeted by the host, given a private room where they decide to surgically remove some coral from Yonca (a bit from her eye) and Reginald (his whole shoulder leaving no coral remaining).
• Met some visitors: some are tripping and visiting this in dreams, others are dead visiting for their last call.

Outro thoughts:

• Perhaps add a spike to the map?
• Perhaps redraw the map to be infinite, alluding to a maze of further hallways…

Session 26

When you have a home you want it to be nice — Tamber, speaking on coral

• Hector asks around about if the dead navigator is in The Last Call.
• Ahlquist goes for a walk and learns that the dreamers just fade away from the bar, they don’t “leave” via some doorway, by observing some in their final moments there. Still unknown how the dead leave.
• The group waits for a bit to let Reginald recover, then head to the inner bar.
• Before they can talk to the snake, they have to wait for a group (2 norse warriors in death, and their reaper steward). The reaper tells Hector that his path is narrow and treacherous, and to be careful and stay true to the course.
• They talk to the snake, who is amenable and interested in their stories. They learn many things, and Reginald gets some world-tree-aged whiskey, while Tamber gets a anemone thistle in navy strength gin from 210 years ago.
• They ask about the key, and the snake tells them Seb has it. Then they pay to learn that Seb is just around the corner in a private room.
• Outside his room, they discover one of the crown spikes in the hallway, Hector begins to remove it.
• Chatting with Seb they learn he has the cup to try to remember the face of his daughter. He accidentally burnt the last photo he had of her, and forgot what she looked like. His whole quest has been to try to restore that one good thing he had in his life.
• Tamber used the astrolabe to draw a picture of her, so that they could use his key for other purposes.
• Some Crown agents interceded, having gotten high enough to visit the bar. They attempted to pose as the hosts, but Hector could see through it. They wouldn’t attack, but tried (and failed) to convince the group to stop destroying the spike.
• Josh noticed the little map drawing in Seb’s notes, and will open next game asking him about it.

Outro thoughts:

• Figure out what Seb will tell them about the map.
• Figure out an answer to Hector’s unasked question about his path:

I’m not sure how I would phrase it or what secret I would offer yet, but I do want to ask about the place I need to go for my Purpose

Session 27

Prep:

• Maybe write goals for session direction to figure out overall pacing?
• Josh alone came with extra questions.
• Khiri and Taylor asked after the fact.

A question for the snake: “How might one live in a chosen memory? (ideally without Hector’s help)” Ahlquist will try to bribe him with illicit art gossip.

Actual:

• Josh’s theory: the weaver’s taught Seb to shift through into The Shroud, but something went wrong and it caused the engine to explode.
• Tekuan (jaguars)
• They find offerings at the forests edge, probably to the spiders
• Deeper in they find a trapped jaguar in a cocoon of web that turns out to be an ambush trap by spiders. They are smaller young spiders, looking for an easy meal.

Session 28

Prep:

• Prob going to make it to the arena complex today. Not actually a roman arena, that was a stylistic choice by the map author. More of an aztec setup with a few buildings around a central arena area.
• The key will again be below the zeal, in the fathoms.

Actual:

• Finish the fight, Ahlquist gets shot accidentally by Tamber. Reginald gets bit in his arm and poisoned before beating the spider into a pulp. Ahlquist rips her spider in half with her arm.
• Hector frees the Jaguar and tells it they want guidance back to the ruined arena.
• Hunts-under-moonlight is the original name of the Jaguar, it offers its name to them for savings its life. They decide not to rename it.
• The find the arena.
• The central ritual looks like its blood powered, following channels carved around the arena.
• Sacrifice: hair, eyes, wrists.
  • wavey curls, bright green eyes — all lost, a sacrifice of beauty
• Tamber sacrifices for opening the seal.

Session 29

• Recap
• Hector notices that the symbol formed in the blood labyrinth has been seen before, in the cracks of the clay cups and in the ripples entering the archive.
• 4 low points, on the diagonals of the cardinal directions. North East is more complex, they head to that one.
• Tamber marking their path with chalk, and sketching down the path they take in her notebook.
• Descent rooms empty of bones, though they have the spots for them.
• The lower labyrinth is flooded partially, smells of salt and rot.
• Theory: many (all) of the things under the chalcedony were brought here by the guardians.
• Hector finds some part of the flooded section by way of the wind, but cannot go very far because the chambers eventually are too flooded for wind to pass.
• Dono reads a card, gets 7 of names for “what will happen to me if I cross below the seal?”

  • Those who may keep a record of your sins may mark another tally under your name.

• Tamber tries to encourage everyone to blood bond.
• Going deeper, they find statues to: jaguar god, sun god toucan, a mammoth, and a whale. Wall of school of fish.

Oh right I did give you my starfish.

(on blood bond) I mean we can all spit in each other’s mouths right?

• Ended up with Yonca as the Haruspex.
• Learned that the Egyptian cat mummies have spirits in them,
• Wave is coming!

Session 30

• Rising water pushes them outward from the temple.
• Chased by piranhas.
• Ahlquist and Reginald bit by a bunch of piranha. Hector steals a few of their souls away.
• They climb out of the pit, and sit for a second catching their breath before moving on.
• Ahlquist has individual conversations with others to prepare folks to turn on Hector. Tamber is on board, Lasho is very mixed (interesting scruples, takes responsibility for what he did when controlled by the crown).

Final session ??

need to write recap of this before I forget it