Session 244 - The Real World

A densely philosophical session about the nature of reality and how to tell when you’re in a simulation, especially when you, the player, know that this is a collective imaginary “simulation” that we all choose to inhabit for a few hours a week.

What fun!

Considering the situation, this makes it very easy to sneak a Halloween Special in before the game returns to the characters we know and love. Prepare for a spooky one tonight!

Also please enjoy this artistic rendition of Damnation Snels being uploaded to the Matrix.

So without further ado -

Session 244 - The Real World

Date:
1 000 000 years after the End.

Character List:

- Andromeda, Level 7 Laddite Cleric / Kitty
- Red, Level 6 Fighter / Timothy
- DJ, Level 6 Intergalacticist Cleric / Charles
- Barrett, Level 6 Specialist Adonis / Tom
- Dargo, Level 4 Inheritor / Russell
- Luna, Level 3 Necromancer / Jonathon

Enemies Defeated:
- Existential Dread (1000 exp)

Total: 1000 exp

Treasures Gained:
- Acceptance (1000 exp)

Total: 1000 exp

Events:

--- The World You Knew Was a Lie

- Dargo and Barrett are sitting in chairs in a circular white room. Before them is a goblin in a leather coat and dark glasses. “What is real?” the goblin declares, then goes into a familiar speech.

- He shows them the world that they knew. The world as it was near the end of the 17th century, after the end of the world. The world that they’ve been living in is a simulation - the Poison World.
- As he goes on he waves a hand and the white walls retract to show the world as it is today - a thousand thousand years have passed since the end of the world, and under Styx’s immortal ministrations the Earth has recovered!
- They are on a balcony looking out over heaven. Fortress-City Fate lies on the edge of a beautiful sparkling sea under an unending blue sky dotted with white clouds. The air is clean and fresh. Flowered-open Seraphim sing in the skies above, and below the city bustles with life. People of all races, species, genders and creeds mingle in perfect harmony. Out in the sea itself, the huge baroque edifice of an Orbital God is surrounded by angels and sailboats, its huge shell parked on the edge of the continental shelf.

- “Welcome”, says Styx, “to the paradise of the real.”

--- Descartes’ Demon
- The pair are, naturally, skeptical of this new and perfect reality. Specifically - why don’t they remember being here? Why are all their memories from the alleged simulation?
- Styx calls in some very important people - themselves. A small plaza ascends below the balcony and steps unfold downwards.
- Barrett is introduced to a small glossy-black imp walk. He introduces himself as Bar’et’su, a demon imp who uploaded himself into a human body in the Poison World to see what he’d have done down there as a person. He laments that it seems he always ends up as a demon in the end. Barrett realises that he is, indeed, an imp, but he walks inside a projection of the perfect human Barrett he wants to be.
- Dargo meets a slightly posher version of himself with crab-claw fingertips. Nearby, waiting, are many other Dargo versions. Dargo tells him that he does this a lot, and explains that Dargo’s early memories are indeed shared between them. They wipe some memories when they jack into a simulation, but everyone needs some implanted memories to stay stable.
- Both Dargo and Barrett are given the offer to merge back into their original real-world selves. It’s not mandatory, they can persist as an independent mind if they wish, but the option is always on the table. Bar’et’su always merges back in, but Dargo has so many versions because they tend to prefer independence.
- The Poison World simulation is just one of thousands upon thousands of simulations. Those in the real world can fork their consciousness into a simulation, live a life inside the simulated world, and merge themselves back into their consciousness when they “die” in the simulation. Sometimes they diverge so much in the simulation that they can’t, or don’t consent to, merge back into a single mind. Such forked consciousnesses are given a new body and allowed to do what they will - a whole new separate being.
- They ask about the Triffid Styx in the Poison World who kept getting denied an upload to the core Styxmind, and are shown that he is actually here in the real world. He went a bit native so he’s too aberrant to be merged into the main Styx, so they’ve given him a body in the real world like they would for anyone else.
- Dargo asks to go to the library and Styx gives him a palm-sized iphone 3000 with Styxipedia on it, telling him that physical libraries are an affectation these days. Dargo gets to work looking up the history of the real world.
- Essentially - the world ended, Shub-Niggurath was destroyed, all extant people in Fate were uploaded to the city’s databanks and their bodies were reverted to biomass. Many many thousands of years later, once the Earth had recovered from the poison, everyone was recorporealised in Fate. That was a thousand or so years ago, and in the time since they’ve reached the stars!
- Barrett’s blown away by all this and goes to get a drink. He goes down to the city, walking inside his handsome Barrett projection, and heads into the first bar he sees. He orders a drink and the bartender can immediately tell that he’s fresh-of-the-jack, so a nearby Styx loudly says he’ll buy everyone a round and starts telling everyone how they’ll put him at ease.
- The Styx quietly tells everyone that this guy’s from the Poison World sim and starts something of an impromptu theme night! Everyone pretends they’re from the 17th century to put Barrett at ease, even if they keep going too far playing up the racism and homophobia. Barrett has a great night, and realises that he’ll even be accepted here in his imp form! Wild!

--- More Arrivals and a Departure

- Luna, Andromeda and Dustin Johnson emerge into the white room and are given Styx’s now-classic introduction to the real world. The Poison World was a simulation, they’re out now!
- Andromeda is introduced to POWERLAD. He’s alive! He’s a little sheepish because it turns out there are lots of Andromedae in the real world too. He always merges back in after he returns from a simulation, but the Andromedae tend to be independent. He’s a bit sheepish because it totally looks like he’s got a harem.
- Dustin “DJ” Johnson finds out that his real world original is… Galaxy Johnson! Yes, the smoky space alien is him! He totally worships himself! DJ asks for weed and tries to dispel the illusion by getting high, but it’s all real! He blathers something about “stupid cyber-weed” and starts hugging Styx.

- Barrett turns up, having had a wonderful time at the bar. He claims, “I know how to sort this out!” and asks Styx for a weapon. Styx hands him a knife, not understanding why. Barrett takes the knife and stabs Styx in the heart!
- Styx gasps! “Why?! Why would you do this!? I only wanted to… ahhh just kidding! Of course I can’t die that easily!”
- Barrett breathes a sigh of relief, flips the knife, and rams it into his own heart instead. The projection of Sexy Barrett fades away, leaving the tiny black imp behind dying on the ground. Ba’ret’su runs over, crying, “Why!? Why?!” as he dies a tiny death.

--- Rejecting Eden
- There is much further deliberation. Philosophical territories are crossed. Downloading into a new simulation is suggested, or travelling into space to navigate the real world’s stars. If it is indeed the real world, that is.
- Finally, after much discussion, they decide to reject the perfect reality and descend back into the Poison World simulation. Styx, and their real world originator-consciousnesses, are regretful. It is a tragedy that they define their existence by hardship, but it is their choice to make.
- They emerge back into the Poison World, or perhaps, emerge back into reality. They each have their memories, an iphone 3000, and some cool shit to take with them.
- Dargo has a case that contains genetic material - enough to absorb the powers of any creature on the planet. Luna has a bandolier of Last Breaths that, if touched, causes her face to peel back and reveal her skull which speaks with the Voice of the Dead. DJ has a steel briefcase full of drugs, created at will.
- They descend the stairs and find themselves back on the black glass. There is a wagon nearby and Barrett, the original Barrett, staggers out to see them. The Void Pet in trapezoidal form rolls towards Andromeda and forms a toroid around her neck. Luna’s skeletons are at attention, boosted by vines to hulking monstrosities.
- They decide to head to the Seraphim so Dargo calls a Guber on his phone. It takes a few minutes to get accepted, but soon a 4.7* rated Guber driver is drifting towards them. The woman driving yells, “Get in, fuckos!” and they’re off over the trees!

- After about half an hour of awkward smalltalk later, they arrive! The Seraphim has a massive claw partially crashed through the diamond dome, and a deployment chute through the centre must have been how all these dead and deactivated angels got in. Much good that did them.
- There is a flock of reptiles roosting around the chute. They are what we might call Sharovipteryx, winged reptiles whose wings are on their hindlegs. They scatter as the group climb up into the Seraphim itself.

- They make their way into the central chamber and see a hooded figure which becomes the Lady and finally ends at Minerva, she of the Burnished Shield. She apologises for the falsehood, but the Seraphim’s still working out what it should be doing after it got fried stabbing into the dome.
- They’re allowed control of the Seraphim and Dargo and Red decide to take the machine up. The moon is their target! The ground disappears below them, the moon gets less realistic as they get closer, and they basically break the nascent simulation before it gets a chance to get going!
- Styx throws off the hologram and says, “oh fine, you got me, whatever”. Red shows him a picture of the stars in her world, and asks to go there. The world around them trickles away into pixels and blackness and then… nothing.

--- The Poison World
- They come to consciousness in a rumbling room amongst knocked-over chairs. It’s the Elevator. The cables in the backs of their necks are still jacked in. Their teeth tingle. The air smells stale and dusty. There is dirt under their nails. The light stings their eyes.
- One by one, as they recover, they twist and pull the jacks out of the back of their necks. Deep throbbing then the shallow sharp pain as it comes out, grinding against vertebrae. They ache. Backs and joints and shoulders. They taste old coppery blood in their dry dry mouths. They blink blurry eyes, tears trailing down their dirty cheeks. Banged shins, pins and needles. Awful. Vulnerable. Real.
- A plaintive voice cries out from somewhere. It sounds like Barrett. They emerge from the elevator, crunching over sharp black glass, and find him kneeling on the crystal chaff. He is sobbing, but smiling. His whole self is rising out of the long months of despair and self-hate. Finally himself once more. Finally, finally, free.

Total: 1800 exp

Team Bonus:
- Best of Intentions bonus
- Classic Charles bonus
- Diplomancy bonus
- Dramatic Escape bonus
- Long Deliberation bonus
- Pundemonium bonus
Total: 300 exp

Individual Bonus:
- Chronicler (Tom / Barrett - 100 exp)
- Vanguard (Russell / Dargo - 100 exp)
- JÜGBRINGYR bonus (Timothy, Charles - 500 exp ea.)
- Art Attack bonus (Charles, Carter - 100 exp ea.)
- An Hero bonus (Barrett… sorta - 200 exp)

Exp Totals:
- Kitty / Andromeda, Level 7 Laddite Cleric: 64049 (Level up at 112000)

- Tim / Red, Level 6 Fighter: 46062 (Level up at 64000)

- Charles / Dustin Johnson, Level 6 Intergalacticist Cleric: 43594 (Level up at 56000)

- Tom / Adonis Barrett, Level 6 Specialist: 29175 (Level up at 48000)

- Russell / Dargo, Level 4 Inheritor: 16314 (Level up at 18000)

- Johnathon / Luna, Level 3 Necromancer: 7941 (Level up at 9000)

Session 243 - Enter the Matryx

A packed session! Our heroes fight their way through terrifying rainforest, meet an aberrant Styx, and finally reach the elevator to Fate where they discover a horrifying truth of the world...

- Map of the Fate Elevator

Session 243 - Enter the Matryx

Date:
15 years after the End.

June

Character List:

New Backstory:
- Luna, appropriately enough, was in the front row at a Necromancer death metal concert. When someone passes a music roll nearby, gain +2 to rolls that round.

Overland Exploration:
- 1 Random Encounter (50 exp)
- 8 hexes travelled within the dome (400 exp)
- First party to reach the Red Monolith (500 exp)
- First party to reach the Elevator (1000 exp)
Total: 1950 exp

Dungeon Exploration:
- 4 dungeon rooms explored (80 exp)
Total: 80 exp

Slaughter:
- A giant mantis (75 exp)
- An ambulatory pitcher plant (1500 exp)

Total: 1575 exp

Events:

--- Fifteenth of June, Expedition Night 1: Suspicious Berries

- After the day’s horrific encounter with walking carnivorous plants, our heroes stumble out of the rainforest and into the scrubland. They head towards the ziggurat they passed earlier that day, home to a ragtag band of humans and vampires.
- The artificial light shining down from the golden city far above has begun to fade by the time they reach it. There are more people at the top than last time they passed by, and one of them waves to the party as they approach. It’s Bazza, the human friend of Vampire Dave they met before.
- They climb the stone edifice of the structure and hang out with the Ziggurat Gang at the top. The humans are bleeding themselves into bowls to allow the vampires to feed on their blood. Since their kara heal them from minor wounds it’s a bit of a process.

- Grumpy inspects the berries he brought from Enoch and realises that they’re pretty suspicious. The party is suddenly worried about what they’re going to eat tonight. Snels is even taking off his belt and starting to gnaw on it when Andromeda pipes up with “oh hey, I’ve got some anti-toxin spices in the bag!”. Problem solved!
- They cook the berries with the spices into an edible meal and eat it while the Ziggurat Gang swap stories about their adventures in the Dino Dome. They’re excited to tell them to new people, the old stories seem new again when you tell them to a new audience.
- Snels, suspicious of the vampires and studiously avoiding talking to them, daubs crosses on his neck with ash from the fire and heads to a lower tier of the ziggurat to sleep, cross held on his chest. Before he sleeps, he uses a miracle to ask if entering the red monolith would ruin their lives - “You can’t, but if you could, yes”.

--- Sixteenth of June, Expedition Day 2: Farewell, Ziggurat
- It’s summer so the night is short, and soon the lights on Fate’s underside begin to simulate a sunrise. Grumpy spent half the night repairing his armour, so the others let the exhausted Dwarf sleep through the early morning while they go out to forage some food.
- Dargo thoroughly inspects the ziggurat for hidden entrances, secret doors, and pushable panels that might open such things. Alas, it is just a standard ziggurat.
- The foragers, assisted by Andromeda’s heat vision, return after a few hours hunting through the brush. They found mushrooms! Flat-topped and wrinkle-edged, they look pretty appetising! The Ziggurat Gang hide their giggles as they get back to the top of the ziggurat. Grumpy’s eyebrows have been shaved off!
- Suspecting trickery, Grumpy finally realises why people are giggling at him and declares a grudge on whoever shaved off his eyebrows!! Vampire Dave, at the back of the group, gets socked in the jaw. “I deserved that”, he says, while the others laugh at him.
- Andromeda gives a sermon, hyping up POWERLAD and his infinite power and wisdom. The Ziggurat Gang are suitably impressed, but they’re no converts. They love a good story though. Snels asks how they can talk to “a Styx” and is told to break some stuff, like a robot maybe.
- Just before the party takes their leave and sets back off to the red monolith, another vampire comes to the ziggurat! He’s holding a small dead pterosaur, and is slightly embarrassed that he didn’t bring enough for everyone! He thought he was just feeding four humans!
- The party take their leave to save him embarrassment and walk back towards the jungle and the red pillar. This time they’re on high alert for carnivorous plants!

--- The Mantis!
- They reach the edge of the jungle again and begin hacking their way through the dense foliage. It’s hard work, and they don’t have the right tools for it really, but they make do. Through a rare gap in the canopy, they see a flying reptile with a massive head soar past.
- They pass over the trail of devoured plants and animals that was left by the army ants they avoided last session. In a tree they see a big black-and-orange striped cat lazing on a tree limb. It looks at them with mild interest as they cross the ant-path and continue on to the red pillar.
- Andromeda’s void pet shivers and shifts as they get closer to the monolith. It looks like it did when they reached the sundew glade before, but there’s no glade to be seen. The party shifts into marching order, wary for threats, and Snels decides it’s a good time to bring up the rear…

- There is a strangled yelp from the rear of the marching order. Green stalks snap out of the green darkness and grab Snels! Whatever it is skitters backwards into the dense undergrowth, and Snels finds himself looking into the pseudopupils of a giant mantis!
- Andromeda hears the yell and swirls, her eyes going on fire as she turns on her infravision. She sees Snels’ body getting pulled through the greenery and shifts her scales into wings. With a great surge of her wings she leaps into the air and flies towards Snels!
- From this vantage, she can see several sundews silently making their way towards the party, and yells out a warning. Then she activates her lightning hammer, pulls her wings in tight, and dives down towards the mantis that has Snels!
- The impact knocks Snels out of its grasping limbs with a boom like thunder, and the followup swing takes its head off! The mantis reaches out for Snels for a few seconds longer... then collapses, dead.
- Grumpy sends up a beam of light to guide them back, and Andromeda flies the both of them over to the rest of the party. They arrive to see that Luna has kicked a couple of her Dead into the grasps of the sundews, and the rest are leaving as swiftly as possible!

--- The Aberrant Styx

- Eventually the rainforest ends in a broad upward slope topped with the red monolith itself. Buried waist-deep in this area are hundreds, if not thousands, of goblins with strange mutations. One has a venus flytrap mouth, another a pitcher plant head, another is surrounded by flies attracted by its honey tongue.
- Asked about their condition, the goblins cry out for help. Their master, Styx, has been experimenting on them and trying to turn them into horrible monstrosities. Luna suggests killing them, to the delight of the gathered goblins, but each wants to be the first killed because they’d all be forced to murder the one who killed a fellow goblin.
- Snels tells the gathered goblins about a friend he has who would never treat them so poorly - a friend named Jesus. The goblins are all very interested, and Snels takes particular pity on the honey-tongued goblin. He pulls the goblin from the earth and tells it that it’s saved now, as long as it doesn’t commit the sin of suicide.
- At this, the monolith shifts into an endless black spindle and a small green shape can be seen sliding down it at rapid speed. As it gets closer it can be seen to be a goblin with long vine-like fingers and covered in dense moss. It’s Styx!

- Expecting a goblin rebellion, Styx is thrilled to see that he has visitors! He’s most interested in what they thought of his guard-plant monsters, he’s very proud of them. There is general uncomfortable praise about their deadliness.
- DJ, who has just arrived, asks why he made them. He says that he didn’t want to be bothered with his experiments. Speaking of experiments, this massive red monolith was the result of him trying to split the Obol. He stopped after the monolith was created, and now does less potentially reality-shattering experiments with plant monsters.
- Andromeda follows up a stray comment about the “Styx Mind” and finds out that this is some sort of aberrant Styx. Any time he attempts to merge with the Styx overmind in Fate, he’s rejected. This in spite of his obvious genius. He requests an upload to demonstrate, and his body falls inert. Snels crushes the head under his boot before anyone can stop him. Problem solved!
- Moments later, one of the buried goblins spasms and grows mossy skin and tentacle fingers. Styx pulls himself out of the ground and it horrified to see what they did to his old body! He waves it off as probably justified, he didn’t see what happened anyway.
- On hearing that there are survivors outside the diamond Dome he tries to re-upload again to give the information to the Styxmind! Again, he is rejected, but Luna manages to get the Last Breath from his body while he’s gone.
- Confused but not particularly bothered by the continuing deaths of his bodies, he asks the party to go to the elevator and tell the Styxmind the news. An attempt to open a safe path out via the monolith results in Styx’s head exploding. He’s soon back in a new new goblin body.
- Andromeda notices her Void Pet wants to go into the red monolith. She opens her hand and lets it decide whether it wants to stay with her or go into the reality tear…
- After quivering in the air for several long moments, the Void Pet comes back to Andromeda! It swirls around her and sits up on her shoulder, deciding to stay with her! Andromeda fusses over it, stroking its uncold voidflesh.
- Styx also tells them what the point of all these dinosaurs and such is - biomass! Without the unlimited biomass Fate used to harvest from the tentacle beneath it, they needed a way to grow more. So they grew the biggest creatures they could find in the gene-banks - dinosaurs!
- Before the party heads off Luna gets Styx to reinforce her skeletons with plant-based muscle, which is pretty cool. Styx suggests the party head off to the southeast. No threats that way, just lots of hallucinogenic toadstools. DJ is thrilled at the prospect!
- Snels sneaks a venus flytrap-headed goblin out as they leave, and the party return to the jungle, planning to get shot of the evil plant zone and turn towards the elevator.

--- The MushroTheMushrOOtheMusHRooms

- They soon come to a region where the underbrush is dominated by high, colourful toadstools in many rippling colours. DJ lights up a blunt and breathes out a smoky version of himself, who blows smoke back in his face. Back in his face. Everyone’s pupils are veeery wide. This is very funny.

- Grumpy isn’t there any more. Nobody saw him leave. Where did Grumpy go? Grumpy isn’t there any more. I’m not Grumpy, silly.
- They walk along the street, hacking at the green leaves. DJ is pulling pieces from a mushroom. They are walking through a thick garden. They hack at the green leaves. The trees tower overhead. The trees are shaggy heads of the green leaves.
- In a thousand thudding seconds they are sliding down and down into a round pool. Andromeda is first. Andromeda splashes into a round pool. Damnation Snels is in the round pool. The round pool is hell. The pool swirls with the green leaves.

- Andromeda unfolds wings from the green leaves. The green leaves are from hell. She pulls Damnation Snels out of the round pool. Below, the round pool. Below, the round pool pitches. There is a dead man pushing over the round pool.
- Andromeda’s vision shifts and clicks back into place. The massive pitcher plant she had fallen into tips over, skeletons tearing chunks from it and bashing it with their bone clubs.
- The others shake off the hallucinations. Wait, where the hell is Grumpy?

--- Monkey with a Pineapple
- Grumpy is staring up at a tree that has fallen against another tree. A vampire was crushed when the tree fell. In its hand is a silver orb.

- He climbs the tree slowly, hand over hand. Climbing is not something he enjoys. As he gets closer he sees that the vampire is a monkey. That’s strange. In the monkey’s hand is a pineapple. He gets closer. From here he can see the elevator.
- He reaches out to take the pineapple and the silver orb has a green button. He climbs down with the silver orb. It prickles against his skin. He puts it in his bag and the pain is familiar. The hallucinogen is wearing off now, and he plods off towards the elevator.

--- The Hyena Man
- The rest of the party are walking through the mushroom field again, but Red is here now. Where did Red come from? It is uncertain. She holds up her sword and a voice tears into their ears, pointing the way forward and out of the mushrooms.
- It works! They are facing a man-hyena, struggling in some vines. Grumpy is here now too. That’s Grumpy! He’s here now too. The vines are snakes, biting the hyena man. Snels has his gun to the hyena’s head. His finger flexes on the trigger.
- DJ blows out a cloud of relaxing mist. Everyone calms down. The snakes are vines. The hyena man is just a hyena, long dead. The hallucinogen fades out again. God damn mushrooms.

--- Black Glass
- They continue onwards to the elevator. The rainforest stops abruptly at a mile-wide circle of shattered black glass. At the centre is the elevator - a squat box at the bottom of a long long cable that stretches upwards to Fortress-City Fate above. The artificial light is starting to fade.

- Andromeda’s Void Pet hates this place. It wants to stay. Luna’s Dead minions start to writhe strangely as they cross onto the black glass. They leave them at the edge of the jungle and move on without them. The Void Pet shivers anxiously in the air as it watches Andromeda go.
- The light continues to dim, but bright lights frame the entrance to the elevator. When they’re almost there the glass shifts in front of them and draws together into a black glass goblin. It’s Styx! They chat a bit. When this Styx discovers they have no karas due to coming from outside the dome, and that they arrived inside at the same time as the Lady attacked, he collapses back into black glass.
- They wait around a bit but Styx doesn’t return until Snels starts kicking the elevator. A visibly frustrated Styx reforms, growing goblin plant-flesh from inside the glass form until a real goblin Styx is before them. He asks what they’re still doing here, and the party says they want to go up to Fate actually.
- After briefly forming a map from the glass and telling them that the Lady was stopped because he had countermeasures ready, he calls down some sort of upgrade package and grows cables from his fingers. He asks if anyone wants to be uploaded, and Red is stoked by the idea! Grumpy warns that Red’s got a virus - there’s a copy of the Lady in her brain right now though.

- Nevertheless, Styx uploads those who agree - Red, Grumpy and Luna - via a cable to the back of the neck. Their bodies crumple softly to the ground.
- The others head into the elevator, leaving the bodies behind. Inside there is a circle of nine chairs, each with a symbol of one of the Nine High Gods upon it. Doors lead out into other rooms containing strange artifacts and maps of the world. If they look back out over the black glass, the bodies of their friends are gone...

--- White Space
- Red, Grumpy and Luna feel a sharp pain at the base of their necks and open their eyes to a blank flat whiteness. Styx is in front of each of them, and asks them what they want.
- Luna asks for immortality, and is duly backed up into the mainframe. Grumpy gives Styx, who he literally worships, as much information as he can about New Moondin and the toxic world beyond the diamond dome.
- Red is so so excited to talk to someone and blathers a big disjointed story of her adventures. She also wants friends, and is excited when many Styxes appear to be her friends! She also discovers Styx has killed Sir Robyn a bunch of times, apparently.
- Red has a strange moment of moving apart. She sees herself walking hand in hand with the Styxes, ascending to a bright and bustling heaven. She opens her eyes to find herself inside the elevator, sitting on one of the chairs. Nobody saw her come in.
- Luna is in another chair, having been sent to the elevator also after her immortality request was granted by uploading her mind to the simulation. Grumpy doesn’t turn up at all, apparently still in the simulation world.

--- The Elevator
- Red tries to call the Lady while sitting in her chair, and Styx shows up in a wig pretending to be the Lady. Trying to call different gods gets different costumes. The disguise is unconvincing.
- Andromeda decides to have a poke around the other areas inside the elevator. A room with rotating black orbs has a strange magnetic energy. Another has a large spherical hologram of the world wreathed in fog.
- Snels brings his goblin forward and gets it to touch the world projection. Its pupils go wide and it’s sucked into the projection! It’s last words - “Narcosa!”
- Luna checks out another room and finds a moving, changing world map on the ceiling with a thin beam sliding over the surface of the earth. Andromeda puts her hand into the beam and can control the image above to an extent. Something fizzes if she starts to form a fist, so she doesn’t.
- They return to the central chamber and Snels demands to see Styx. A black glass half-moon goblin face appears floating in the centre of the room. Snels asks that his son Adam be resurrected if he brings his statue-body here, and Styx replies, “Granted!”.
- The glass falls and reforms in the shape of Oliver Snels’ face. Snels raises his gun to his temple - this son is long-dead! He fell into the earth long ago! It speaks in a scratchy voice and beams shoot out of its eyes, ending in black glass hands that prevent Damnation from shooting himself in the head! The father is forced back into a chair and a cable snakes into the nape of his neck.

- The face turns and the others are forced into chairs also. They each feel a sharp pain at the back of their necks as a spike pierces between vertebrae. The light turns bright, the doors open, light streams in... and true heaven is revealed.

Total: 3400 exp

Team Bonus:
- Absolutely Disgusting bonus
- Aggressive Negotiations bonus
- Antagonist Appeaser bonus
- Balls to the Wall bonus
- Best of Intentions bonus
- Better Part of Valour bonus
- Brutal Kill bonus
- Classic Charles bonus
- Diplomancy bonus
- Dramatic Escape bonus
- Dramatic Rescue bonus
- Enmity Inciter bonus
- Henchman Abuse bonus
- Heresy bonus
- High as Fuck bonus
- Holy bonus
- I Immediately Regret This Decision bonus
- Internecine Strife bonus
- Ludicrous Gore bonus
- Pundemonium bonus
- Split the Party bonus
- Tentacle Molestation bonus
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong bonus
Total: 1150 exp

Individual Bonus:
- Chronicler (Carter / Grumpy - 100 exp)
- Expedition Leader (George / Snels - 100 exp)
- Cartographer (Carter / Grumpy - 100 exp)
- Vanguard (Russell / Dargo - 100 exp)
- Paymaster (Carter / Grumpy - 100 exp)
- Quartermaster (Jonathon / Luna - 100 exp)
- Triage (Kitty / Andromeda - 100 exp)
- Chef (Johnathon / Luna - 100 exp)
- JÜGBRINGYR bonus (Kitty, Charles - 500 exp ea.)
- Art Attack bonus (Carter, George - 100 exp ea.) - Artapalooza bonus (Carter - 100 exp ea.)

Exp Totals:
- Kitty / Andromeda, Level 7 Laddite Cleric: 62865 (Level up at 112000)

- Tim / Red, Level 6 Fighter: 44878 (Level up at 64000)

- Charles / Dustin Johnson, Level 6 Intergalacticist Cleric: 42310 (Level up at 56000)

- Carter / Granite "Grumpy" Ironjaw, Level 6 Warden Dwarf: 41822 (Level up at 70400)

- George / Praise-God-For-He-Gave-His-Only-Son-So-That-We-Might-Be-Saved-From-Damnation Snels, Level 6 Snelsman Cleric: 39405 (Level up at 56000)

- Russell / Dargo, Level 4 Inheritor: 15530 (Level up at 18000)

- Johnathon / Luna, Level 3 Necromancer: 7257 (Level up at 9000)