Tuesday 16 June 2020

Session 270 - Red Mirror, Black Rose

Man, can you believe it's been 10 sessions since we were forced into remote gaming? That's over three months! And here's me hoping that it'd just be a stopgap for a few weeks until we were all allowed back to the pub, alas.

This means I'm well behind on Retrospectives so I'll have to get on that!

Anyway this was a real fun session mostly because I got to go all out on funny voices and silly effects. Next time... spiders??

Session 270 - Red Mirror, Black Rose

Loot:
- A fine comb (200 exp)
- Leopold’s Diary (400 exp)
- Wind-Up Cricket Toy (400 exp)
- Golden Lion Statuette (400 exp)
- Valuable Ceramic Urn (200 exp)
- Book #144 -  The Iounians of the Moon (100 exp)
- Book #145 - Azoth and Aether (100 exp)
- Book #159 - The Rule of Law (100 exp)
- Book #176 - Do Jews Exist? (100 exp)
- Book #177 - Education (100 exp)
- Book #292 - Ethics (100 exp)
- Book #360 - POWERLAD: Enthralled by the Empress
- Book #391 - The POWERLAD Who Came In From the Cold
- Book #408 - Green Ledger of Abelia Prem (Book #277 Unusual Botany + Identify certain plants) (100 exp)
Total: 2500 exp


Foes:
- A cherub statue (100 exp)
- A very big spider (250 exp)
Total: 350 exp


Events:


--- Haunted Mansion
- After the events of the chocolate factory, the party decides to check out this mysterious red-hued mirror they found last session. It indeed leads somewhere mysterious - the entrance hall of a battered old mansion.
- Tattered scarves flutter from the shoulders of statues of nude women, the windows look out onto an endless plain of black grass, a grand staircase leads upwards and mumbling words can be heard coming from the landing above. Scattered around a couple of small trolleys are countless chocolate wrappers that crunch under their feet.
- They ignore the routes leading off from the ground floor and take the stairs up, following the mumbling. They investigate some statues and soon meet the ghost of an old woman clutching a black rose to her chest.
- Red puts on her invisibility gloves and talks to her for a long time, since the old woman tends to ramble and Red has no idea about social cues. There is something about roses and how she tended them as a youth.
- After a long time rambling, an arrow flies from somewhere! Jeremy and Scarlet see it coming, pulling compatriots out of the line of fire with them, but unfortunately leave Ratman standing exposed! He is hit with the stone arrow and promptly starts making out with Jeremy, to the chagrin of both Jeremy and Ratman’s rat legion. Yuck!

--- The Cherub
- They crawl to see what shot them and see a stone cherub giggling on the floor of the entrance hall below. It fires again but hits itself, causing it to engage in vigorous self-love.
- The party leaps into action! Ratman falls off the top floor embarrassingly, but Jeremy and Red’s joint action swiftly leads to Red pinning it in a wrestling chokehold.
- They try to talk to it, but it’s stupid and treachorous and allegedly only half a minute old. They smash it to bits.

--- The Wild Man
- They explore further and, listening at some double doors, hear some muttering from the room beyond. They bust in and find a mad bearded man in woman’s clothes leap from a four-poster bed and yell at them to get away!
- He’s been hiding from the cherubs and devouring the chocolate from the entrance hall after escaping from the chocolate factory through the mirror. Scarlet Eclipse recognises the man as the recently-thought-lost Vermillion Vest! Another bullshit George-brand character save!

--- Unfortunate Vomit
- They explore another room, finding a green room with a nice garden out the window and statues of men reading. They grab a couple of books they find on the desk and leave, though they do notice the statues shift position to be more comfortable.
- Red goes back to check out the balcony that overlooks the estate, shouting to see if there’s anyone out there. A gargoyle above her vomits acid onto her, then looks mortified and apologises profusely. He can’t help it! Also he tells her to be wary of spiders.
- Everyone but Beepbox decides to dress up in lady’s clothes in the hopes that it tricks the denizens of the mansion into thinking they’re not a threat. It’s all very fancy but rather out of date fashion-wise.
--- Snakes and Spiders
- Appropriately enough a giant spider takes the opportunity to smash through the window and charge at Beepbox! It tells the “ladies” not to worry, it’ll deal with the intruder. The ladies’ protestations that Beepbox is just their robot golem fall on deaf spider-ears, and Red manages to kick it back out the window. They get out of the room asap!
- Ratman sends rats to explore the next rooms in case of spider. One has a little servant’s quarters and dumbwaiter. Ratman sends a rat down, but when it comes back up there’s a vine growing in there. Except it’s not a vine, it’s a snake! It bites Ratman but he feeds a rat to it and it chills out, saying “thank you”.
- Beepbox heals the poison and they move on, finding a laundry room. There’s a chirping sound but Ratman’s rat finds the culprit - a small mechanical cricket. Neat!

--- Chores
- A bedroom has a stone woman in one corner, and a raggedy toy lion under the bed. Beepbox gives her the lion and she’s happy, a small golden lion popping out the back of her neck! This minor puzzle results in much of the rest of the session, wherein Beepbox completes household chores in the hopes that it unlocks more goodies. To be fair, it often does!
- He makes the bed in another bedroom, creating a safe space to sleep. He organises the bookshelves in one of the rooms, and sends a ration down the dumbwaiter. Dressing the nude statues downstairs in travelling clothes seems to make them happy too. How lovely!
- Upper level explored, they head downstairs and find themselves in a library full of crumbling books. Many are seized.
- Across the hall, there is a sitting room with windows shattered from the outside. They grab an ivory smoking pipe and mess around with a statue that defends the room from the outside with stone bow and arrow.

--- Anyway Here’s Wonderwall
- Further through the house Jeremy Wizard finds a conservatory with chairs facing a golden harp. He tries to play something on it but fails! A statue with a conductor’s baton points it at him, and he’s ensorcelled to play a beautiful harp rendition of Wonderwall! Red saves him from an eternity of Oasis.
- A last look into a large dark room. Jeremy Wizard conjures a Light, and sees the whole place is full of webs. He looks up into shining red clusters of spider eyes. Cliffhanger ending!
Total: 8000 exp


Exp Totals:
- Tim / Red, Level 7 Duellist Fighter: 109253 (Level up at 128000)
- Izzy / Ratman, Level 7 Ratman: 91224 (Level up at 96000)
- Charles / Jeremy Wizard, Level 6 Magic-User: 59602 (Level up at 72000)
- Ollie / Beepbox Strawberry Stars de Moor, Level 6 Cleric of the New Eden: 42219 (Level up at 56000)
- George / Scarlet Eclipse, Level 4 Muscle Wizard: 15670 (Level up at 18000)

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