Session 37: The Ghosts

NPC's
Jessabelle Wormwood, Dorothy MaryJane Tigale, Oliver Sr. Tigale

Location
Secret Villa

Summary
Alastor, Cryllos, Shade, and Oliver meet up and turn to return to the house. Along the way, they see a drunk-looking, swaying, red-cloaked figure out of a bush. Alastor sees that the cloak shimmers. It, in an off-putting tone, says hello. It lifts its cloaked arm, revealing it to be handless. It continues, whispering, "blood, new blood, fresh blood, be with us, be our blood," and on. They walk away, then the cloak collapses. Shade stabs the fabric, but red light flickers off the ground when stabbed. It pleads, "free, free, we're trapped..."

Nonamé is alone in the mansion, so she makes the fire worse by throwing books into it, which… somehow works? It pains both her and Jessabelle, who scorns and guilts her for destroying so much knowledge. Jessabelle vanishes as Nonamé sees a weird red shimmer.

The others run through the forest through a shimmering red aura and more voices to a house that is very on fire and falling apart. The red shimmer is brighter and paled faces of dead children look through the windows, whispering. Inside, the wallpaper burns off, revealing wards etched on every wall. Shade runs in and helps everyone out, right before the ceiling collapses on itself. Alastor and Cryllos look through the rubble for secret doors, only to find secret doors everywhere. A bit of the floor is caved in the library, leading to a basement. They descend into a damp, mossy greenhouse with ghosts all about. On a stone table are rusted chains and red stains. Alastor sees a back room and a tunnel that leads to the cave. Red lights spiral up to make a humanoid form, and it begs for blood.

On the surface, Oliver feels a gentle hand gripping his shoulder. Jessabelle coos, "there you are," placing a needle close to his neck. She gestures to the piano. "Oh, you've brought this. How thoughtful...Just play the song." Oliver successfully escapes her grasp, to which she scolds, "will you be disobedient until the end?" Oliver slams the keys on his piano to get Alastor and Cryllos's attention. Cryllos returns to the surface, as Alastor is pulled by voices that cry, "help us... give...blood... she killed us..." He goes through the back door.

Jessabelle urges Oliver to play the notes when Cryllos shoots the score with a lit arrow, but it bounces off with a chime, further angering her. She hucks needles at the party, starting the fight. Shade steals one page of the score and disappears into his pocket dimension, redirecting her aggravation towards him. "I'll find a way to get you out!" she howls. Annora bites her and drinks her blood, giving her a strange, tingling sensation. Jessabelle pulls out a flowery bracelet, summoning glowing vines out of it, which grab Annora and Oliver.

Alastor enters a room of ghosts, and a cloaked figure gestures him to follow it. Lines of red light lead to a glowing red crystal. The figure hisses, "Free us. When we are no longer bound, the world will be ours. We are dead, we are gone." Alastor offers them an afterlife in the underworld, but they decline as they are waiting for revenge. They were also Jessabelle's descendants, forced to play the song for her. The crystal will not hold them for much longer, and then, they will break everything. But until then, it takes time.

Jessabelle becomes more agitated. "You will play the song," she shouts as she pulls out seeds, "before I plant these into your friends." Oliver steals and tosses them into the fire. Done with him, she starts playing the song, but Nonamé slams the piano keys, and Oliver plays his own music, ruining it.

Alastor emerges from the pit, crystal in hand. It explodes, then the bones in the ground start rattling into life. They grab Jessabelle's ankles, yank her underground, and they fall apart, right as the red light flickers out.

The party wakes Dorothy up, who, still out of it, notices Oliver. She holds him and cries, "I can't believe your father would do that. I'm glad you're okay you useless child." They return to the cave, though Oliver Sr. is not here. The red, pulsing light illuminates more bones in the walls and footprints. As the party follows the prints, Amalesca notes something different about this place that it is strange and wrong. The red aura fades outside a boundary. They go down the hill, where they find Oliver Sr., who immediately tries to hug Dorothy. She slaps him and scolds him for attempting to sacrifice Oliver, which he takes. The ground suddenly shakes, and the party looks up to see the hill rising and uncurling. It forms a construct, glowing red, made of stone and bone. The from is inhuman and has an odd number of legs, its chest a lit cave. It laughs, sounding like the voices of thousands of children.

Misc.

 * The strange, tingling sensation Annora feels after drinking Jessabelle's blood is still unknown.
 * It is joked to be hepatitis, which is scientifically impossible (needs confirmation)
 * A player called this an "epic hepatitis moment," much to his partner's dismay and pain.
 * Oliver played a Megalovania and Hall of the Mountain King mashup.
 * The former caused the skeleton uprising.