Pariah Session 5 - Play Report

Use the tags to find previous and for some more details. Hex fills used this session:

• River Rapids. 42, fishing village - salmon spawning.
• Nothing.
• Llama herds, predated upon by Nameless One in wolf pack.

The Band determined they would head north-west and investigate the warrior-lodge beyond the mountains. Checking they had rope and bundles of dry wood, they headed off - bringing their entire group, planning to establish a base-camp at the foot of the mountains. They passed through quiet alpine woods, unknowingly drawing the attention of a family infected with The Hunger. Quickly finding the foothills of the mountains, they set about finding caves to camp within whilst Purple Point, Blue Fallen and two followers headed out to search for firewood. At this point the family attacked, charging the group. Blue Fallen succumbed to the terrible muscle-cramps caused by some serum which dripped from their gnarled fingernails, as did one of the followers of the Band. From the cave entrance, Idle-Quiet One spotted the combat and raised the alarm. Purple Point commanded their wind spirit to make a great noise, noticing that the three surviving attackers were attempting to drag away his paralyzed companions. This terrible din drove them fleeing back to whence they came, leaving but a single corpse. Purple Point applied a draught of the healing-honey to Blue Fallen and brewed a restorative tea for himself and their companion. The rest of the night was uneventful.

A random encounter roll led to a small group of Ghouls ‘surprising’ the party. Since they had said they were moving at speed, not stopping to forage or hunt, the Ghouls, numbering only 4, elected to bide their time - hence the encounter actually triggering much later on. Morale, as it often does, gave a swift resolution once spirits got involved.

The next morning, the Band awoke to find the weather had turned, heavy winds and rain dissuading them from challenging the mountain that day. Instead, they elected to investigate more caves amongst the foothills, finding a niche-filled cave with burnt moss and a damaged idol depicted a heavily pregnant woman. Leaving this second cave, they saw 6 wolves and a nude human surveying them from the mountainside. This odd group left when waved at.

During this time, Cunning Mountain caught an entire warren of hares whilst Golden Other led hunters to trap and kill and Llama. When trying to help with the hide preparation, Gold Other was begged to please do literally anything else - something they acquiesced to. For their wind-spirit exploits, Idle-Quiet One tattooed an incredible skull design on the chest of Purple Point. Meanwhile, Blue Grove brewed some strange puffballs they had found into a potent tea, drinking deeply.

A terrible ringing filled their very being as a heavy sea of nothing leaked from their eyes. Their cranial fault expanded like a balloon stretched over a cactus. They felt this ringing pass into them and through them, reverberating like a scan. They were both observer and subject, but were all to aware of an other also observing. As they came down from this potent trip, he found his physical form changed - his tongue replaced with that of a butterfly, a ribbon-thin coil within his mouth.

Idle-Quiet One immediately took the offered cup. The weight of reality crushed them down into a molecule thick pancake of suffering, aware only of the infinite everything bearing down upon them before it finally relented. The return to three-dimensions was almost as harrowing as existing in two - the pain haunting their eyes forevermore.

Blue Fallen was the last to drink of this tea - after which the colour slowly drained from reality, leaving everything monochrome. This slowly turned into true chrome, everything a shining reflective silver, the boundaries becoming murky and then immaterial - all reality a mirror reflecting the self/other that Blue Fallen recognised as themselves and as reality itself. A scream built within him before emerging metallic, echoing - a sound burnt into his ears to be heard and re-heard in every waking moment until he dies.

Interesting how much impact weather can make on these plans. The wolf encounter was simply a high-distance, neutral reaction roll. I like having the fills appear in some way in the encounters, allowing for multiple interactions during extended periods in one hex. I didn’t expect to have to ad-lib so many highly powerful drug-trips, but there you are. I think I’ll expand out the Banes tables for the journeys to other realms - two mutation results may have given the players the wrong idea about this brew. That said, nothing wrong with them not understanding what they are playing with.

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