Session 19: The Heart

NPC's
Ivy

Location
The Royal Sanctum, Heart Chamber

Summary
The party sees many vines squirming in Garoon's stab wound, which Cryllos performs first aid on. As he goes to check up on Ivy, vines wind around her and pull her into the floor. The tree suddenly pulses, giving Oleander an adverse reaction. Alastor approaches the Heart, a beautiful display of gold lights, surrounded by vines and roots twisted into faces. The vines approach Alastor, morphing into a weird human-animal hybrid. The Heart's whispers become so loud that everyone can hear it, causing Oleander to lose control over their arm. The face turns into Ivy's, but quite uncanny, and says, "You are the piece, turn one, become one," before grabbing his hand. Cryllos shoots the mass, and it turns into Ana's face. It repeats, "become one," and grabs Cryllos's leg. He suddenly feels high, before the vines turn into a faceless Cryllos and replacing his leg with cursed wood. As it takes damage, it cries, "do you not wish to become one, do you not wish for happiness?" After more attacks, the Heart bursts into a shower of golden light and screams, urging Oleander and Alastor to also scream. Wooden, viney humanoid figures slough off the walls. Cryllos puts on the automaton crown, and its gears whirr, glow, and heat up, melting into a band of liquid metal on his head. Cryllos hits the Heart again, and he sees a vision of a turbulent sea, with something large rising out of it. Alastor tries to command the vines, but his efforts are futile. It taunts, "foolish." A humanoid with six stick arms approaches, crawling like a spider, as the room starts shrinking. Other humanoids join and hone in at Alastor, all of whom bearing familiar faces and abilities. The Heart suddenly orders, "Return to me, my children," blinding Oleander. Cryllos burns some ants, as the Heart gives an offer to Alastor: "I can give you power," as another vision shows something golden bursting from the sea. Alastor, pulsing with golden light, spits, "I'm not interested unless you have money." A poor choice of words, as petals fall from branches, and Alastor fills with power and almost passes out. Out of desperation, Alastor tries to seduce the Heart, which unfortunately fails and brings confused judgment from the others. The battle goes on, and Cryllos tries to copy the Heart's powers, but he is stopped by the silver man, who says he will become like it. Instead, Cryllos creates a legendary bow to fight with. The Heart changes into the form of a golden human with a deer skull. The room becomes a snake, and it sure looks like it will swallow the room. Whispers turn into voices, talking, crying, and laughing.

After the snake takes damage, the Heart explodes into a rain of golden spiders. Cryllos copies the crown thrice and gives them to the others. The spiders bite at the party, leaving gold, which expands and starts ripping blood vessels. Cryllos makes dense poison gas, killing the spiders, which turn into an eye. It petrifies Alastor, but he uses his newfound telekinesis to slam the eye around the room.

It turns into a two-headed unicorn. By forcing it to slam into walls, it is damaged.

Then, it turns into a golden star. Oleander slams it into the ground, hurting it more.

It then turns into an undeveloped fetus with a large heart. When hit, it shows the party a vision, where they're dying, and the tree tenderly gives them new bodies.

Finally, as the final hit lands, the wood withers, including Oleander's wooden parts, leaving them without an arm. The energy of the crown crashes drain out, and everyone collapses. Cryllos's silver bead slithers across the ground, joining other silver beads. Out of the mass, the Silver Man congeals and simply states, "well done."

Misc.

 * New abilities by the crown
 * Cryllos can copy anything that he can remember or envision.
 * Alastor can shape-shift and perform telekinesis
 * Oleander can grow a whole jungle
 * Garoon's damage is halved, and his return damage is multiplied instead of added.
 * Things Cryllos created
 * A legendary, golden bow with sapphires that has arrows made out of blue fire
 * Sticky bombs
 * Mass healing
 * More crowns
 * Poison gas