Sx02 - Always Watching

**Always Watching** is the 2nd session of the campaign. It is preceded by Sx01 - Welcome to the... World?, and followed by Sx03 - Ocean's Four.

This session takes place in the beginning at the end of the 8th of Imber Tenebris, most of it takes place on the 9th of Imber Tenebris and ends with the morning of the 11th of Imber Tenebris. The notable moments of this session is arriving in Marmoor, helping the island with a "Beast" problem, by investigating an ascetics home and Blind-Folley Mine and gaining passage off of Ash Island.

## Finding Ourselves

The session begins with the party realising it is the middle of the night and that they were in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere they assume in Fracti Terra due to some clues in Seddon Asylum. The group decide to camp out in these woods before trying to explore farther. They decide to move a comfortable way away from the ruins of the asylum before making camp. They set themselves on shifts to watch out for any threats. Vox takes the first watch keeping an eye out. During his watch he gets the impression that most of the usual wildlife seemingly wants to steer well clear of the ruins of Seddon Asylum. He also become aware of that feeling of being watched, looking to the nearby slopes of the mountains they see the distant figure of someone watching the camp, they soon disappear whenever they lose sight of the figure. Their watch ends without incident, they are then replaced with Felix who spends a lot of time with his mirror during his watch and continuing his research, however he does note the sound of metal striking stone, echoing across the valley. He does not investigate this further. He does however cast the spell Detect Poison and Disease, whereupon he discovers that Pip has contracted a disease that he identifies as Satirev's Voice, which they seem to have picked up from being bitten by the "Rat". This disease would have inflicted intense hallucinations and dreams, that often strain the afflicted's grip on reality, this would eventually lead to a paranoia induced death, over either lack of rest, improper nutrition or hydration, or simply an accidental death from said hallucinations. It also occurs to Felix that this disease is sometimes on purposly contracted by Satirev's devout in order to get closer to their god through the intense dreams it can induce. As Pip awakens to begin their shift, Felix administers a dose of *Red Deus* and cures Pip then and there before they began developing severe symptoms.

Breaking camp, they start trekking through the rain down the trail away from Seddon Asylum, eventually making it to a point where it meetes to what is most likely a well used thoroughfare. They are presented with a choice to go left or right, they decide to go right. This path eventually has them pass a sign that signifies they are heading towards a town called Marmoor and in the opposite direction is The Sleeping Margin. With this the group realise they must be on Ash Island. Some of them even note Oleum Lake, through the forestry near the road. They decide to continue on to the town of Marmoor.

## Getting Down to Business

Arriving in Marmoor, they spot the Marmoor Inn, a place to stay and they spot the Manor of Lady Fuligo. They decide to try and get an audience with the Lady, to try and get help answers and hopefully a way off of this island. Speaking with the guards and after exerting Lliamh Tatius' position they are granted an audience and are led to a room in the manor, where they would be greeted by Lady Laila Fuligo. Due to the other's inexperience in the higher echelons and social grace, Lliamh took the head of the meeting. However their claim was me with quite severe suspicion by Lady Fuligo, wondering why a Laird would be on Ash Island and why they would attempt to enter the country illegally, especially seeing as the two countries do business regularly. Eventually due to not wanting to risk an incident she proposes a deal, the island has been reporting attacks from creatures in the wild, a statement has gone out telling people to stay in their homes and to barricade themselves of their on the outskirts, or find secure shelter. However there is an ascetic of the Sanatio Church who has yet to be contacted. He lives quite deep in the wilds and so it is suggested that the party go retreive the ascetic in return for passage off of the island, Lliamh agrees and the group head out to where the ascetics home is supposed to be.

Heading to the ascetics home, the group mve cautiously through the forest up into the mountains, watching the shadows of the trees closely for any movement, contemplating what they will say to the ascetic if he's alive and what to do if he is not. Arriving at the home they find the front door of the home smashed down, and their uncertainty is immediately dispelled with the metallic smell of blood in the air. Entering they find signs of a struggle with furniture smashed, the remains of the ascetic are in the centre of the room, historso has been ripped at so violently the floor is visble through him, hopefully death found him before the claws found purchase with the floor. Investigating the room the party find many religious texts, all around *Red Deus*, and Lliamh finds a note tucked into one of the books scrawled on it is the words:

*"J'ai vingt pommes de terre, pour garder mon dieu" - Note written by ascetic*

The party figures out this means something is buried under the patch of potatoes in the ascetics' garden, investigating thy dig it up to find a large case of *Red Deus* vials. However, as they find this cache, they realise that this discovery will probably attract the attention of the creatures as they seem to be targetting people with high quantities of *Red Deus* such as the ascetic himself. Many ideas are passed around about how to deal with this issue, including whether the potatoes themselves would be able to mask the scent, realising that it is probably the dirt that allowed them to remain hidden. Soon after the group start tracking the creatures that attacked the house, they realise that the creatures are heading northwest from the home and that the creatures are most likely blind. They decide to take a book to prove the ascetic had died, but realising Lasy Fuligo would not be satisfied with this they decide to try and resolve the problem of these creatures.

## Down Below

Tracking the creatures, the group eventually come across an abandoned mining camp, Blind-Folley Mine. There are signs of a struggle and these creatures are found at the entrance of the cave, the struggle marks seem fresh so the party hold out hope that they are still alive. The group decide to try and lure the creatures out in order to fight them in the open instead of in the cramped tunnels. Setting up the crate of *Red Deus* a short distance away from the entrance of the mine they lure out one of the creatures getting their first look at one. A gaunt creature, with elongated proportions as if the bones had stretched not caring for the flesh, long claws had jutted out of gnarled fingers, their body had started growing long patchy hair, that had been dragged on through the mud, the distorted face of this creature has lost most of its human aspects, the bones of its face snapping and distorting at angles creating an animalistic maw, slightly further back rises the red sore where empty sockets of their skull rest, the eyes of the creature ripped from them. The party realised this was an early transformation of a Lycanthrope. The creature is cautious as it moves forward into the moonlight, trying to get the scent of any danger, it then tries to quickly dart forward and claim the crate. The players attack the creature, with multiple ranged attacks. This quickly scared off the creature and it made a hasty retreat to the depths of the mine. With the creature unlikely to try and emerge again, the party decided to descend into the mine. As they journey through the tunnels they come across the remains of what were humanoids all with their eyes removed, crawling around in the dirt, searching for any source of *Red Deus* they can find, Felix distracts them by creating the scent of the elixir down another tunnel drawing them away. They eventually come to an elevator shaft at the end of the main tunnel, where the scratches of these creatures seem more pervasive. They find that there are 5 tunnels leading off from the elevator. They realise that the newest tunnel leading in the same direction as one of the oldest is the right direction to go and follow it to a larger excavation. This carved hall is surrounded by crates containing explosives and has a large ancient stone carving, and steps flanked by statues leading to a ginormous stone door decorated with intricate carvings. Standing upon the steps they see a figure kill one of the proto-lycanthrope on the steps, casting aside its body, looking close to whatever this figure was, they have now started implanting human eyes into their body, all over it, akin to Vox's appearance. Seeing the group they get ready to attack. During the fight when players saw the large door closer, they would make a wisdom save, which Vox, Pip and Lliamh attempted Pip and Lliamh failed this save, both developing a form of madness as they witnessed the intricate carvings. The combat is tough, especially with the group wary of the explosives, but they manage to dispose of the many-eyed figure. The rest of his body seemed to dissolve into more of these eyes, and the group heard other people reach their demise throughout the mine. Searching their remains they find a label naming the person as Hugo Cox, one of the workers in the mine owned by Williamson and Samson a huge mining company across the continent. They also realise that the relief in the door has a section missing and the two statues have 5 sockets that have not been filled, perhaps this mechanism opens the door but they were unable to capitalise on this.

Leaving the mine they are met by a sea of human eyes, assumedly what remains of the workers in the mine. The group having left headed towards the Fuligo Homestead, to meet with Lady Fuligo, to claim any reward. In thanks for actually taking care of the creatures, they are rewarded richly in *Vial Echoes* and passage off of the island. However, Lliamh Tatius does seem to offend the lady during the course of this, and she makes it very clear she hopes they leave soon. The group spend a night in an inn in The Sleeping Margin, and as they awake they see a ship approaching, the ship that'll take them off Ash Island, and hear the familiar ticking of the grandfather clock.