Callie’s Journal
As Cal goes to the teleport circle, he notices that it’s not exactly the same as it was before. He jumps off to avoid the trap just in the nick of time! But the Brucolac swings a gauntleted fist at Cal’s sword, attempting to bludgeon it out of his hand. Cal parries, but the Brucolac bites him! Cal’s blood boils in some kind of reaction. His body frosts over. The Brucolac tries to let go, but can’t. The frost is entering him!
Meanwhile, the rest of us appear around the outskirts of Sepulchralis, but we’re missing Cal. He didn’t make it?!
All at the same time, we all have a pounding headache.
Suddenly, Cal finds himself looking at the teleport circle and knowing for certain that it’s a trap. If he steps on it, the Brucolac will attack him. He can also see the Flux glittering all around him, and he’s pretty sure that’s new. He senses hostile intent from the Brucolac.
Meanwhile, in our minds, we all see the Brucolac bite Cal and get frosted and be unable to let go. He lets out a primal scream (the Brucolac, not Cal). Cal stabs him and he pushes Cal away from the sword, trying to disarm him…from the sword that is still lodged in the Brucolac’s body.
So we’re pretty sure Cal is in big trouble. We ask Sophie if there’s any way back there, and she says it would be suicide to go. She gives Oz the ol’ doe eyes, but he’s undeterred. We all pile onto the carpet. It’s rescue time! But suddenly, Oz looks torn. Bec frowns. It looks like he’s been enchanted, that vixen!
Cal rages and stabs the Brucolac, who growls, “Dirty tricks!” and tries to throw Cal. Sir, no one tosses a halfling. Besides, we’re the ones who were betrayed by our erstwhile ally, so settle down. Cal uses his whip to get the sword back. Annoyed, the Brucolac says “That weak earth magic won’t help you!”
I cast calm emotions on everybody, to remove Sophie’s charm and also to prevent any retribution from Oz. Now that Sophie is calm, she thinks that we are f’ing nuts and splits herself into 8 parts. Whoa! Vondal tries to convince her without trickery to join us and save Cal, but she ain’t having it. She wants our portable hole in exchange. Nah! With a last “thanks for helping a girl out—see ya never!” she runs off, along with all the cool stuff we gave her.
Cal tries to whip the sword out of the Brucolac’s arm. He yanks it out and flames burst out of it.
That pounding headache feeling happens again and Cal is stepping into a portal. Whatever is happening is beyond his comprehension, but his danger sense tingles. It’s definitely a trap.
Back on the carpet, which we are pushing for maximum speed, Vondal and Freki can tell that some sort of force (karma, perhaps) is acting on this situation, keeping the balance of power. First Cal was saved, now the Brucolac is saved.
Cal senses the Brucolac’s hostile intent. He’s gonna Reckless Attack that guy’s dick, and he doesn’t care who knows it!
Bec casts invisibility on us, so that things won’t notice us zooming around on the carpet. Good thinking, Bec!
Cal lands a critical strike on the Brucolac and sets him on fire!
(Sean is rolling pretty badly on his crits.)
Nate: As one of the two halflings rolling like this tonight, can I say: this feels racist.
We’re going fast and not from the same way we came in, but we navigate these slum-tunnels as best we can. Hugin and Munin say to Freki, “Be ready. The time is approaching.”
The Brucolac uses finger of death on Cal, who somehow doesn’t shrivel up and die. The Brucolac says in a pained voice, “Enoch! Come to me!” and the portal lights up. Dammit, I do NOT want to see him right now, no matter how sparkling his dinner conversation was! Let’s put something heavy on the portal, guys.
The flames that were on the Brucolac sputter and die.
We’ve reached the gate of the cemetery. Vondal senses that the ghosts are… um, not in the graveyard. That seems ominous, not like we wanted to encounter any.
Meanwhile, the Brucolac uses telekinesis and Cal is restrained, by which I don’t mean that he’s acting passive-aggressive while hiding his real feelings.
The Brucolac orders Enoch to guard the door. Then he says to Cal, “Did you feel it? The lost time. I have not felt that interference from Themis for some millennia.” Cal tries to remember who Themis is, but it’s kind of hard to concentrate right at this precise moment. So he bluffs, proving that he’s more mortal than not (if there was any doubt).
The telekinesis drops, but Cal is still pincered between Enoch and the Brucolac.
We’re approaching the chapel. All the ghosts are surrounding the chapel like some kind of freaky unbiodome. Three vampires guard the door: Goratrix, Meerlinda, and Etria. They’re watching the door for some reason, and the ghosts are giving them a wide berth.
Oz uses Panache on Etria to try to convince us that her clan is the best, and they should work together to get rid of these Crispic losers. He shouts “2READOR 4LYFE!” or something like that. It might have been more like “Let’s take out these two assholes,” but is that all that different when you come down to it?
The Brucolac bends down to stare at Cal up close, looming enormously and menacingly. “Her touch lingers on us both.” He starts moving his hands like he’s going to cast a spell. Cal tries to stab his hands in an attempt to mess up the spell. The Brucolac does stop casting the spell, but he also grabs Cal and GODDAMN SWALLOWS HIM. On the way down, Cal whip-grabs his sword again and manages to snag it and bring it in with him. An inspired move!
Oz tells the vampires at the door that we need to get in there and asks if we’re going through them or not. Goratrix steps to one side and waves us in. “Watch your step,” he says, enjoying this.
Inside the titan’s tum-tum, Cal hears muffled voices talking about how there are “more visitors.” Cal is getting eroded, mind, body, and soul. So the situation isn’t great.
Bec drops our invisibility and asks Etria if she’ll help us. Etria says, “I fear you’ve misread the situation. As much as I’d love to take power, this isn’t the time.”
Vondal asks if the vamps have seen anything and Goratrix is in the middle of telling us he sees all, knows all, et cetera, when Freki gets in his face and growls. There’s just a touch of fear from Goratrix, but he’s not our target and not in our way, so we just go past him.
We open the doors and Enoch is there. “Hello. I see you’ve found my lord’s sanctum,” he says.
Cal is trying to use the sword, but meanwhile he’s being digested and some part of him is nourishing the Brucolac.
The Brucolac claims that he was all set to let us go, when we insulted his honor. And by “we” I mean “Oz.” Oz tells him you can’t insult what doesn’t exist and Freki backs him up.
All along the walls, where the tentacles were before, the Flux has become palpable. Vondal wonders if he can use it to kind of like Flux Cal out of the titan’s belly. Relatedly, Flux is now a verb, or at least Vondal is trying to make it happen.
I’m having an episode. I’m normally open to visions, but this isn’t a great time, to quite honest.
Bec wants to ask the Hand of Vecna to take us all the hell out of here. She hears three voices from the Hand: (the voice of a crossroads at night) “He seeks to take Themis’s power,” (reminiscent of a cauldron bubbling and stirred with a magical staff) “You must stop him,” and (a voice full of schemes and sorcery on a golden chariot) “Take it for yourself.”
Something is moving in Oz’s pocket. What is in his pocketses? It’s a small wooden coin, not the sort of thing you’d expect to wiggle around. He got this from Avandra, who also said he’d know the time to use it. He bites that coin!
Vondal starts bending reality to make Cal just BE out here with us. Enoch notes this to the Brucolac, who wants to wait and see.
Oz is like, “I’m over here biting fucking wood! Let’s go!”
Vondal starts to glow. His green muppet fur starts to glow and he becomes translucent. We can see his skeleton!
I flicker over to Vondal and then I start having a vision.
Vondal’s fur bursts into flame. He can’t control it anymore, but maybe he can channel it?
A rain of fire falls from the ceiling, centered on Vondal. At the same time, Vondal is radioactive. I take 7 damage from the fire raining from the ceiling.
I have a vision of myself at HQ setting up a shrine to my dual goddesses. It’s not one hundo p my style, but it’s good. I feel connected to the shrine. I’m sure of exactly two things: I didn’t do that, but that it still happened. That’s one of those mysteries that scholars will ponder for the next few centuries, assuming of course that I live long enough to tell anybody about it.
Freki grapples Enoch. Meanwhile, the Brucolac is locked in a mental battle with Vondal and completely distracted. At a certain point, we others can tell that neither of them is paying attention to the here and now.
Bec considers whether she could cleanse this space, but that would take a lot of long and involved rituals. She wants to follow the Hand’s… let’s call them “suggestions.” She has to trust the Hand to take the next step.
My holy symbol is fidgeting. I feel that with its help, it could be done. What could? Something BIG. World changing, even!
Oz feels a golden thread connect from his heart to my holy symbol. I feel it too. We’re united, my brother in Avandra! I can tell that Avandra is extremely excited about this moment and what will happen.
There’s another flicker and Vondal is Cal. Cal’s sword pierces a weak spot, and the energy of his sword opens the hole bigger. A tentacle from outside reality pulls him out like some kind of 160th trimester c-section.
Oz has a feeling that he could steal, like, anything. But what?
Bec feels that the Hand is helping her burgeoning divinity flourish. Oh my, that’s new! She can tell now that Avandra is supporting Oz and me, and that could not have happened if I was split between the two goddesses. Bec can’t take Themis’s power; her divinity has already manifested a power. Oz, on the other hand, has some room in his soul there.
Bec tries hard to sort through the sensations and insights she’s getting to figure out where the power is that Oz should steal. She takes 18 points of psychic damage, but also thinks it’s somewhere inside the Brucolac. What the flipping heck?
Hugin and Munin say, “Freki, focus. Now come back to yourself.”
Freki lets the bloodlust of hunting Enoch fall away. The birds are encouraging him to be himself, not just an animal. All his forms are him, no one is better than the other.
Enoch turns into a bat to slip out of the grapple.
The Brucolac opens his hands and screams. The Flux that Vondal used to pull Cal out of the Brucolac’s stomach starts flowing in, like the Brucolac is consuming it. Now he’s using it to (barf) manifest something, but it’s not clear what yet.
Oz slices and dices Enoch the bat. He’s not quite dust, but he’s on his last wing. Freki still has him, so he attempts to use that same hand to punch the Brucolac. Then he still has a bite attack left, so he tries to bite the bat’s head off (not enthusiastically, it must be noted). Hugin and Munin manifest, distracting Enoch enough to let Freki chomp him. Enoch poofs into mist.
Bec attacks the Brucolac with chill touch. The Hand of Vecna is still in contact with Bec. The first voice says, “His power is out of balance,” then something in Elven [GM’s note: “all kalina and no mori”]. Bec knows it means the magicks of will and yielding, opposite forces that should be balanced.
Bec casts a super sweet rainbow and I kind of wish I had some of those psychedelic fruits we got earlier. I think the Brucolac does too, because he seems distracted for just a moment.
Cal Reckless Attacks the Brucolac, landing an incredible strike on him.
The Enoch mist floats away as fast as it can, but most directions are blocked by swirling ghosts outside. There’s a shattering sound in all our minds, the sound of a vampire barrier breaking. GORATRIX IN DA HOUSE
“Cease this folly!” says Goratrix. At some point, the lady vampires come in, take a look at this scene, and walk right back out. Smart ladies.
It’s my turn. It occurs to me that it would be awesome to invoke duplicity and create a duplicate of myself to try and rob him of his barf-baby, which is taking the shape of an hourglass. Avandra is tickled by this idea and together we create an enormous me! Kaiju Callie runs over and pulls out a huge deck of cards. “IS THIS YOUR CARD?” me says, and fires the whole deck straight in the Brucolac’s face. Ha ha ha ha!
While the Brucolac is distracted, Oz gets the idea to steal the hourglass… but he also desperately wants to stab the bad guy, and he feels like he won’t be able to do both. What to do? In true Oz fashion, he rejects reality and tries anyway to do both! He runs up and grabs the hourglass, which he absorbs into his body nearly instantly—and he feels the slightest temporal pulse, dragging him back only a moment [GM’s note: a Critical Moment!], leaving him with just enough time to lash out with his sword. Whoa! Oz’s strike lands true, and it should have been a fatal blow, but the Brucolac does not die; instead, he lets out a low, growling moan and sucks part of our essences into himself, healing some of his wounds.
Bec passes out from the attack. Freki coordinates with Cal to slam the Brucolac together. Enoch continues to flee, but has nowhere to go.
Responding to the dire state of his sire, Goratrix clenches his fist and a wall appears around the Brucolac. F^#K!