Session 74-76: Recap and the Take

Session 74-76: Recap and the Take

This session took the party into the Valley of the Flowers, the crash site of the witch Zalvorex’s vessel, The Parapraxis. The “imago core” (the power source) of the vessel draws from the “underpsyche” (the unconscious) of the crew, serving as a storehouse of their fears, traumas, forgotten memories, and repressed urges to power various aspects of the ship’s operations. The core was damaged in the crash and has been leaking “xenosic radiation” that has shaped the valley into a strange, almost living, environment crafted from Zalvorex’s unconscious. It is a tiny world full of their nightmares, wishes, traumas, and desires. And, as it turned out, it was quick to absorb and weaponize he unspoken fears of the intruders. Before setting out, Zalvorex provided them as well with a list of goods to retrieve from the Parapraxis and strict instructions to “leave everything else just where it is”.

The party made its way into the surreal environment of the valley, piercing the outer sphere of brambles that encloses it with an amulet provided by Zalvorex. They chose to enter at a point of tall blue stemmed flowers, like a wheat field of white sunflowers. Amongst the tall waving flowers, they were beset by what Dozar recognized to be demons of MANA YOOD-SUSHAI, “Those Who Do Not Sleep”, eye covered angelic forms. Although they slew them, T’kar was struck by one of their beams, and found his chest mutating, sprouting unblinking eyes.

The party stumbled upon a giant corroded metal head, beyond which lay a stretch of a hilly terrain, enclosed by crystalline walls, and covered by a corrosive thin white powder. Mounting the walls, they were able to get a clear view of the valley, revealing it to be strange indeed (map below). In the near distance they could see a black nighted cityscape of broken towers. Between them and it, there was a strange lake covered in twinkling lights. Springing from its center, they could see high above (300’ up), the white keel of the Parapraxis speared by a massive tree trunk.

On their way to the shores, the party was overcome by a libidinal wave, and had strange erotic experiences (feet played a prominent role) that lured them away from the party. Overcoming this titillating difficulty, the party made its way to the shore of this “lake”, which out to be more an opening onto an apparently endless depth of “oneiric sea”, a kind of twilight space. There they struggled with some Gaolers, tall emaciated beings covered in chains and cages drawn from the fears of the opium dreamer Dennis. The party overcame them, eventually ascending, at last to the deck of the Parapraxis.

After passing a thrumming geodesic dome (the “biosic generator”), and messing with some scopes, the party climbed down to the main deck to get into the captain’s quarters. There they found all manner of interesting things. While they were poking around Zalvorex’s lavish circular bed, three identical children sat up in their nightclothes, with pale faces streaked in blood, and horrible psychic vampire mantas affixed to the top of their heads. These mantas were the “eigolphin”, psychic vampires who had taken Zalvora’s little brother in fields of pink wheat on Phantamoria. Two more eventually emerged from the wardrobe, where they had been playing dress up. What ensued was the most difficult combat the party has faced in a long time. The eigolphin turned Faithful Unasi, the party’s freed slave from the White Jungle, against the great warrior T’kar, and T’kar struck Unasi terribly. At one point an eigolphin had affixed itself to Dozar’s head and would have devoured his brain had the eigolphin’s won initiative. Unasi made a death save, and two of the lower level characters were one hit away from dying.

But the party prevailed. Laden with some loot, the party made a hasty retreat out of the valley to meet up with Zalvorex’s moving manse.

Creatures Slain

Those Who Do Not Sleep (x3) 450 XP
Gaolers (x2) 250 XP
Eigolphins (x5) 2500 XP

Goods and Services Rendered

Information Gathering 1000 GP
4 Humidors of Hulbaba 600 GP
Pillows, Kimonos, and Slippers 100 GP
Detachable Sphere from Master Globe 500 GP
The Savi Syldoon series 400 GP

Goods Stolen

Jellyfish Sculpture 1000 GP

XP and GP totals per character

Athelstane (2) 340 XP 195 GP
Dennis (6) 1020 XP 584 GP
Salinger (6) 1020 XP 584 GP
Cletus (6) 1020 XP 584 GP
T’kar (2) 340 XP 195 GP
Clovis (6) 1020 XP 584 GP
Dozar (6) 1020 XP 584 GP
Ernis (2) 340 XP 195 GP
Unasi (3) 510 XP (Total XP 12193)
Mia (1) 170 XP 97 GP (Total XP 803)

Brendan S Athan Silesia Aleksandr Revzin Chris P. Shemek hiTankolel Pete Segreti Eric Boyd Nick Kuntz