The exorcism of the spirit possessing Veve backfired, blasting the party and chaining them in spectral "sins." Veve instead calmed the spirit ("Britney"), who then attuned her to the Bone Yard and screamed in Necril for the psychopomps to come judge a corruption that "devours the rightful flow of souls." Three controlled mummies and a fist-sized void-creature poured out of the sarcophagi. The party opened the tomb named "Serafa" (against better judgment), unleashing the void-thing, and the session ended on a brutal cliffhanger: everyone low on HP, sickened/slowed by a void blast, and a fascinated Venris grabbing the void-creature with damage unresolved. Reinforcements led by Osef have just arrived.
The party is deep in the Menhaem family crypts, investigating at Vandy's behest after her priests fell ill and failed to recover. The Menhaem dead (500 years' worth) have mostly crumbled to dust; some bodies are simply gone, eaten by a corrupting substance that even rots the stone. None of the spirits here belong to the Menhaem family. A hole roars down through the floors from above. Last session Veve (a.k.a. VB/Mochi) was possessed and petrified; Cid restrained and sacked her while Abbas began an exorcism — and the possessed Veve started speaking Tengu.
| 00:00:02 | Pregame: hero points, table chatter, and tech crashes Players gather, joke around, and wait on Tellspire/Obsidian. The GM (Speaker A) collects current hero-point totals before recapping: roughly two for Veve, two for Cid, one for the rest (later reduced to about one each). Mostly off-topic table chatter. [S31 · 00:02:36 · turn 0009 · scene 001] |
| 00:09:00 | GM recap: the Menhaem crypt investigation The GM recaps how the party got here: weird events in the crypts of the Menhaem family. Vandy sent the party (and recalled her own priests) to investigate after some of her priests failed to recover. The party was briefly locked in but priests keep an open door, coming in and out to top the party off from haunts, ghouls, and ghosts. Strangely, none of the spirits present belong to the Menhaem family, whose 500-year-old remains have mostly crumbled to dust; some corpses are simply gone, with a corrupting substance eating the stone. A hole roars down through the crypt floors from above. Last session the party pushed downstairs and Veve (VB) was overtaken by a spirit that petrified her; Cid restrained and sacked/gagged her while Abbas began an exorcism commanding the spirit to the River of Souls. The possessed Veve also began speaking Tengu. [S31 · 00:10:42 · turn 0104 · scene 002] |
| 00:14:56 | The exorcism backfires: spectral blast and chains of sin Abbas's exorcism rolls 29 but the spirit inside Veve resists and lashes out in a wave of desperate energy. Everyone but Abbas fails a Constitution/Fortitude save and is shoved back; Venris crit-fails (17 then a 9). Then a second effect (tagged mental and cult) wraps the whole party in heavy spectral chains forged from their own sins and regrets; only Veve escapes. Venris, a follower of Calistria, defies the chains by feeling no regret over his thievery (deception then +2 for faith). Cid uses War Lore (+1) then an Escape action to break free. Veve continues to hear the spirit's voice: 'No escape, no mercy, no river... only void that devours all.' Cid repositions Veve but she is anchored to the room by an invisible tether. [S31 · 00:15:42 · turn 0137 · scene 003] |
| 00:38:10 | Calming the spirit: Veve befriends 'Britney' Veve tries to communicate with the spirit possessing her, asking how to escape the room. The spirit only repeats 'there is no escape, all I feel is doom.' Veve casts Soothe (an emotion/healing spell, +4 to Diplomacy) channelled through a performance and succeeds, calming the spirit so it becomes friendly toward her though still terrified. The party nicknames the spirit 'Britney.' Abbas's repeated exorcism attempts go awry (a crit fail nearly harms Veve); Veve tells Abbas to stop exorcising it because the spirit may help them figure out why she is trapped. Everyone breaks free of their chains. [S31 · 00:51:41 · turn 0466 · scene 004] |
| 01:04:59 | The bog-rot mummy bursts from its sarcophagus A sarcophagus breaks open. A foul-smelling, decayed mummy infested with bog/rot bursts out and rolls into initiative. It exudes a stench (DC 19 Fortitude) and rushes Abbas, clawing him for ~10 damage. Defending, Abbas avoids contracting Bog Rot, a curse-and-disease new to the campaign: a creature killed by it melts into noxious sludge and can't be resurrected except by a 7th-level resurrect ritual. The GM clarifies Bog Rot is a common, mundane affliction of this creature and unrelated to the disappearing bodies and corruption seen so far. Cid trips the mummy (athletics 31) and steps away, telling allies to finish it prone from range. [S31 · 01:05:33 · turn 0595 · scene 005] |
| 01:18:30 | Veve's spirit casts Spiritual Attunement to the Bone Yard With Veve's permission, the Tengu spirit takes over and casts an unfamiliar, uncommon, divine-feeling spell (later identified as Spiritual Attunement) that attunes Veve's spirit to the Bone Yard in the Outer Sphere. A tear of blood and 6 damage mark the casting. The GM explains the cosmology (Inner Sphere vs Outer Sphere, with the Bone Yard among the Outer Sphere planes). The spell does not teleport; it splits the spirit between the crypt and the Bone Yard and grants Veve resistance to vitality and void damage. The spirit screams out in Necril (Tengu) for the Wardens/psychopomps of the Bone Yard, calling that 'something devours the rightful flow of souls.' Veve gleefully dubs herself the 'Bone Slayer.' [S31 · 01:23:41 · turn 0746 · scene 006] |
| 01:36:06 | The Erastil-priest mummy and Shared Invisibility A second, less-deformed mummy emerges, wielding an ivory diamond-pattern staff, and casts Crisis of Faith on Cid (Cid passes with a GM +2). It hammers Abbas hard (18 damage, then 8 more), and Abbas keeps passing Fortitude saves against Bog Rot. Veve casts Shared Invisibility (subtle, 30-ft emanation, 5 willing creatures, 10 minutes), cloaking the party. Recall Knowledge reveals the priest-corpse was once a priest of Erastil (an ivory relic remains) but the controlling magic is undead, not Erastilian. Vandy realizes the mummies are 'no regular mummies — they're being controlled,' and tells the party to find the main one. Osef runs off to fetch reinforcements; Vandy casts a divine lance and misses. [S31 · 01:37:48 · turn 0878 · scene 007] |
| 02:21:50 | Opening the screaming tomb: the void-thing revealed Veve's recall knowledge pinpoints the closed sarcophagus next to the Erastil-priest as the source: inside is something the trapped spirit fears most. At Cid's urging ('don't attack the mummies, open the tombs'), Venris crowbars the sarcophagus (athletics 25) bearing the name 'Serafa' and sticks his head into the moss-filled hole. A piercing auditory hiss erupts; Veve protects the party with a counter-performance (Fascinating Performance, granting allies a 24). The save (DC 25) is against being Fascinated; most fail. The session breaks here. Several near-death moments; everyone is low on HP and hero points. [S31 · 02:39:09 · turn 1392 · scene 008] |
| 03:01:46 | Break and 'going to Absalom' banter Five-minute break. Out-of-character talk about a planned trip to Absalom (the party has no money for it and most characters don't even know it was the plan), and a player already drafting a backup character. The GM teases that a future campaign will not be Golarion-adjacent and far from Absalom. Mostly table chatter, with some campaign-relevant Absalom/Morblin/Mayor threads surfacing. [S31 · 03:04:48 · turn 1642 · scene 009] |
| 03:07:42 | Fascination, the figment lure, and a psychopomp vision Post-break, the opened tomb reveals a fist-sized amorphous void-creature: swirling blues and sickly yellows with corrosive tendrils, half-consuming a corpse. It Fascinates the party (Venris and Cid stuck repeatedly failing Will saves). A third mummy rises. In the Bone Yard, a psychopomp answers the spirit's call: a robed, mist-winged figure on 'Judgment Street' saying 'your call is heard, lawful; I shall see the balance restored.' Veve casts Figment to project an illusion/vision of it and lure the mummies. Abbas's recall knowledge IDs Bone Yard lore (River of Souls, psychopomps as shepherds of the dead). A bumped-into Cid finally breaks free (lucky 20). [S31 · 03:08:31 · turn 1681 · scene 010] |
| 03:47:30 | Reinforcements, a void blast, and the cliffhanger end Venris and Cid finally land Vitality Lash hits on the mummies (16 damage) once they step outside the invisibility emanation. Osef arrives leading a troop of reinforcements down the stairs. The void-creature unleashes a pointed-burst spell (DC5 to scatter): everyone in the area takes 15 spirit/necrotic damage and is sickened 2 / slowed 1; Vandy crit-fails. A still-fascinated Venris walks up and grabs the void-creature, taking pending unresolved damage. With players (especially the one running Veve/Mochi) tiring, the GM ends mid-turn on a hard cliffhanger: the party is at very low HP, the void-blast damage to Venris is unresolved, and Veve notes her spirit buddy's resistance (Spiritual Attunement) was forgotten and should be applied next time. [S31 · 03:41:25 · turn 1983 · scene 011] |