The Party of Lord Christopher Robin

Charles and the Stone

We had been in the Norbrook for a few days, the party at Lord Robins manor just fast approaching. I sat in the room I shared with the starlight beauty, who slept peacefully in the bed adjacent. The iridescent eyes of her familiar boring into my soul. Friendly enough when she was awake, the cat fiercely guarded his mistress during the night. He had nothing to worry about; I had other things to occupy my thoughts.

Moonlight shown through the window and washed over the grey stone that I passed from hand to hand. The old gods,  I thought. The ones cast from the pantheon that should have ceased to exists once starved of power offered up through prayer and sacrifice. Yet I hold proof, I felt proof, and I saw proof when poor Killian foolishly stuffed his stone on the back of his neck. They live, they are worshiped and they are growing in strength.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes with one hand, unable to set the stone down. And this compulsion to keep it with me...is disturbing. In my spare moments I had tried to leave it but when I thought I had put it down, unwittingly I would find it in my hand instead of where I had left it. I had tried to throw it away and ended up playing catch with myself.

What do you want from me?

What do you want from, ME, is the better question.

What the...what do you mean?

You felt useless in the fight with the clergyman.  No, don't even try to deny it, your frustration is written on your soul. I can help you with that, and so many other things, although it comes with a price.

What do you mean by "price."

What I offer is a trade, really. I give you what you want and in exchange you take what I give you. It will cost you a piece of your mind, not a big piece, but a piece, but you will see things more clearly for it after.

Will it hurt?

Yes.

Will I be stronger?

Yes.

Will I be better able to protect Killian?

Yes.

You could be lying, you are The Trickster after all.

Yes I could be lying. But realize that you are one of my only links to this world... you are precious to me.  You seek to understand so much, don't you want to know more?

Will my will still be my own?

Yes.

I accept. Help me to be stronger.

Your reliance on the instrument handicapped you during the fight. You are a man of words and act not of silly ditties strummed out on hollow wood. Open yourself to your full potential and break from the chains others placed on you out of "convention."

The room reeled and it felt as though a shard of ice was wedged into my mind. I realized that the way I had been taught to wield my abilities was wrong and that I did not need the tools I had been told were required to perform.  But I also saw so much more, I saw the world where this God "lived" and I shuddered involuntarily from the vile landscape but could not look away as all these images projected straight into my mind.

Trying to regain control I whispered, "I am an actor, the world is my stage and I will make them all believe the role I portray."  As I uttered those words I felt my mind shift and images filled me, images that were impossible, images that were too grotesque to repeat, and images that I knew would haunt me forever.  I was stronger, but I also was... weaker.

This is my price....

And all the while the cat's eyes bored into my soul.

Leaving the Manor of _____ and Arriving at Norbrook

The Manor: Enter the Cathedral

The Manor: Out of the Surgery and into the Sacrificial Chamber

Edill was the first of us to wake. Slowly he stood up; his head swimming from an unknown drug.  Groggily he looked around the dank chamber, but he could not see much of the room through his blurred vision. He realized that he was naked and that four other people lay bare on the floor, two of whom showed signs of life.

Zanvan—the gnome—woke next, shortly followed by Lavinia. Heavy headed Zanvan waited for his mind to clear before looking around the room. His eyes adjusted to the poor lighting and he realized that this room was covered in blood. The table in the center of the room was stained black with dried blood as fresher red blood dripped off the head rest. Instinctively, Zanvan reached around to the back of his neck, maybe to rub the dull throb away or maybe because at some level he knew something was out of place. His eyes widened as he felt a cold metallic socket at the base of his skull, sticky and slick. Zanvan looked at his fingers, now coated in a red substance. Blood his blood. He looked up to see the woman making the same discovery. To their credit, neither allowed the emotions of rage and violation to overtake them.

Lavinia, the eerie beauty, with hair like moonbeams shining through fog, showed no sign of caring that she was naked and surrounded by equally naked men. Instead her eyes—one an emerald, the other a sapphire—grew wide with shock as she felt the socket on her neck, fluttered with unbridled rage, and settled on cold vengeance.

Meanwhile, I woke. Being naked was not so unusual; feeling like I had been drugged, however was an unsettling realization, as was the discovery of the socket on the back of my neck when I reached back for a good scratch. I sat up, maybe a bit too quickly and saw that there were others here, who also had sockets on their necks and looked just as angry and confused as I felt, well except for maybe the tall, sinewy man (whom later I learned was Edill) who had found a source of water, the seemed to be clean. He did not look at all worried about his surroundings, although at one point concern washed over his face when he reached to his backside and seemed to find…nothing. The moment passed quickly as he made another discovery, of what should not be there. He had found the socket on his neck and for half a second looked bemused before continuing to look about the room.

A groan alerted me to the presence of Killian, still asleep, sprawled out next to me. My half-elf companion and friend, got the short end of the stick, quite literally, from his blended parentage. However what he lacked in height and looks, he made up for in spades with his intellect, nimble fingers, and quick blade.

"WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS?!?!?!"

He did have trouble keeping his wits about him from time to time. My shadow and left hand had just found his very own neck socket, and was none too pleased.

"We've all got one it seems, Killian," I said with as much of a straight face as I could muster. "I—"

"Hey guys, look at this," said the naked beauty. Ok, keep it together, Charles. Killian and I walked over to where she was crouching. Before her stood a blood-soaked alter with runes and scrawls skittering over the surface.

"That language is ancient," Killian said, his voice low with reverence, "I think that it is a precursor to all the languages known today."

"You may be right," I agreed, "Do you see that symbol, there in the center? That is the symbol of one of the outcast gods. No one is supposed to remember them, let alone worship them. That is the one thing that all the clergy can agree on: hunt down and kill anyone who dares to worship one of the Outcast. If this place were to be raided right now, we might be in some serious trouble."

"Especially since this part here tells how to get in direct contact with the Outcasts, or at least this one," Lavinia almost whispered.

While we stood in somber silence, staring at the alter that should not exist, Zanvan watched in stunned horror as Edill attempted to sodomize himself with the robes he had found. Zanvan notice that one set of robs that Edill had not gotten to and quickly snatched them off the wall. Although he swam in the baggy burlap coverings and knew that these robes were at least "clean."

"We need to get out of here," I said, using all my skills as an actor to appear calm. "We need to get out of this place right now."

We walked over to the only door in the room. Nearby, some mystery meatloaf sat on dingy plates. Edill was already in front of the door staring at it, frustrated.

"Anyone else want to try and get it open?" he asked, clearly annoyed that his own efforts had failed.

Without a word, Killian stepped up to the solid door, and after a few minuets of tinkering, the lock popped and the door swung inward. No words are exchanged and Edill opened the door wide revealing a spiral stair well lit by luminescent beetles. Edill charged up the stairs, leaving in his wake slightly damp robes that the rest of us gingerly avoided. Killian was the last to ascend, having taken the time to inspect the meat-stuff. Inside the loaves he found a key (to the surgery door, oh well) and a note expressing sympathy for our situation. Both in hand he quietly took to the stairs.

The stairs let out into a prison. Five torches cast gloomy light into the cells, one sconce was empty. A single being inhabited each cell, some dead some alive, some with sockets, others clean; all with puncture marks, probably from sedatives being administered. Each of us took a torch and looked about the holding area.

"We need to let them out," Edil said, his voice hard. We all turned to look at him. This stringy man's attitude had shifted from unconcerned to indignant and angry. As Killian reached the top of the stairs, Edill swung around, and pointing at him said, "Let them out!"

"No," Killian said softly.

"Let them out now," venom flowed from Edill's voice.

"No, I'm not going to do that."

"Do it!" Edill's raged.

"We don't know what will happened! I'm not going to risk getting attacked by a bunch of crazy, drug addled prisoners!" Killian shouted.

Edill swung back around and barged into the next room. The large room stood empty, clean and bright. An ornate door stood at the far end and a strange, if not disturbing picture hung on one wall.  The picture stood about six feet high and was centered in the wall, leaving about a foot of space below and above it. The heavy gilded frame held a picture of five figures kneeling before an alter hands outstretched, waiting to receive. On the alter stood five challises, each engraved with a different symbol too small to make out. Behind the alter  man stood with a knife held high and gleaming. Overcome by curiosity, Edill and Killian inspect the picture. They both reached the same conclusion: the painting had something behind it.

Together, Edill and Killian removed the large painting, which revealed the door to a walk-in safe. After a brief inspection, Edill found a not so clever trap. Deftly, he disarmed it, dodging the arrows that sprayed down from the ceiling. Killian stepped up after the hail of arrows subsided and quickly picked the lock. The door swung open to beautiful sight: our gear.

The excited noises broke me out of rummaging through my mental boxes. I had been pulling bits and pieces stored away. This room would be a meditation area or sacristy and the room beyond, based on the markings on the door would make the room beyond a sacrificial chamber.

Everyone retrieved their gear, and we pocketed a little extra, figuring no one would miss it.  While Lavinia, Zanvan and I prepared our magics, Edill disappeared into the prison. He returned a few minuets later looking completely satisfied with himself. Later I discovered that he had managed to open all the cell doors and even though the people inside them showed no sign of recognition that they now had their freedom, Edill seemed satisfied that they had the opportunity to leave.

 Killian took the downtime to investigate the ornate door leading into the sacrificial chamber. It didn't take long for him to realize that the door was trapped, but not by any mechanical means, and the trap if triggered would put him to sleep. No this went beyond his skill, so he waited until I had finished my preparations.

"Charles you wanna give this a go?" he asked.

I stepped up to the door and felt the magic push against me. I put my hands on the door and moved the magical energies around until they "clicked." Then the door sighed in what could only be described as relief. I had never heard a door sigh before and to be perfectly frank, the incident disturbed me.

As soon as the door was safe, Edill opened it.

Inside the chamber floated five human heads, the cheeks hollowed and skin tight to the skull. Wisps of hair clung to scalp making the skulls look like they were from corpses, except that the eyes still burned bright with the light of life. Below them sat an ancient looking creature, his skin like leather dyed a deep purple. Grasped in his talon-like hands was a gigantic green gem.

Lavinia and Zanvan had appeared behind Edill, Killian and I and together we entered the chamber. The creature, a Corrupted One I realized, heard us and shouted in abyssal:

"The vessals have escaped! They need contained!"Zanvan and Killian seemed to get the gist of what he said because they both stiffened slightly.

The Corrupt One started to chant. Energy began to swirl around us. I pulled out my lute, and began to play a inspirational song. Killian slipped into the shadows and reappeared behind one of the floating heads. And even though it was just a head, Killian managed to find the soft squishy part and the floating head looked severely hurt. While Killian was mutilating the floating head, Edill was chugging potion after potion.

As I watched Edill, time seemed to slow as his insides seemed to push out from under his skin. This thin, frail man who looked lithe a stiff breeze would knock him over, grew into a hairy monstrosity from a nightmare. He raced across the room and started mauling the Corrupt One. Shortly after he was joined by Zanvan's Edolin, a cat-like centaur whose razor like claws shred through flesh like wet parchment. The gem dropped from its hands and the pulped remains landed on top of it.

Lavinia was throwing hexes while the creatures screamed again. She and Zanvan became visibly frightened and two of the heads swooped in and kissed them with thin leathery lips. The skulls sighed in relief with as much ecstasy as someone with severe burns had healing salve applied. Lavinia and Zanvan dropped to the floor unconscious and Edolin poofed from exsistance. The Issuls flew to the back of the chamber and disappeared into a portal.

I stopped my performance to try and shoot one of the heads but it missed wildly, Killian was re-positioning himself and took another stab at the monster, but he missed and another skull came up behind Killian and planted a dry kiss on him before sighing with the same relief as his compatriots and disappearing into the portal. Killian crumpled.

Edill rounded from the fleshy pile at his feet and pounced ferociously onto the bleeding skull, which promptly turned into another fleshy pile. I managed to get off a shot that connected with the last remaining Issul before Edil finished it off. The portal had closed and we stood in the bloodied chamber surrounded by unconscious, new acquaintances and globs of flesh.

As  I started to drag Killian into the room with the safe (because honestly the sacrificial chamber was a bit too creepy for my taste), Edil charged through the other door leading out of the chamber and down a corridor before I could do anything to stop him.