The Asylum (One-Shot)

### Goal(s)

* Appease Othal, the Lord of Secrets by locating a specific but unknown asylum patient

## Key Parties

### Player Characters

* Rerut
* Dr. Beksinski
* Gordon Disambiguation
* Magenta
* Glasses the Kobold
* Mr. Pepper
* Cosmo Kirkland
* Rio Del Toro

**The Asylum** was a One-Shot that took place at an unnamed asylum in 440 A.U..

## Characters

### Important Non-Player Characters

 The Gaunt Man
 Carrot
 Coric the Piper | Asylum inmate, flautist, friend of many rats

## Summary

The session begins in a large asylum, with orderlies walking around but instructed not to talk to the inmates. A group of visitors, cultists of Othal, gather at the asylum entrance for a reason none of them can quite remember, but they do know that they are charged by Othal with the task of finding a specific inmate within the asylum. They are all allowed only one question to ask of the various inmates while attempting to identify the one they are each looking for. Should they say anything else to anyone other than the asylum keeper Dr. Beksinski, they shall be considered to have failed their Othal-given tasks.

They are greeted at the entrance by Dr. Beksinski. The asylum staff wear an insignia of a "rectangular pyramid, with an ocular motif." Entering the asylum, they meet a figure in a trenchcoat smoking a cigarette. After an aggressive conversation, it is revealed that this man ("Frank the Finger"), though an inmate, believes himself to be part of the asylum staff.

The group follows Frank down the hallway, peeking into the windows of the various cells. They meet a singer who lost her voice and so stomps on the floor a lot instead, and a man named Bob whose job is to water the plants. The group sees insects flying around, and Frank explains that there is a greennhouse nearby which is the source of the bugs. Bob asks to be released from his cell to show the group his plants, and Dr. Beksinski merely shrugs and offers up the key.

Meanwhile, Glasses the Kobold goes upstairs with Sturm, one of Dr. Beksinski's assistants. Rio and Rerut go off with the other assistant, Drang.

In the greenhouse, the group sees a head sticking out of the soil. Thus they meet an inmate in her 50s or so who has buried herself in the greenhouse because she believes herself to be a carrot. Bob waters the "carrot".

Dr. Beksinski, along with Cosmo, Gordon, Magenta, and Mr. Pepper, decide to leave Frank and check out the asylum basement. Meanwhile, Rio and Rerut head upstairs to try to meet up with Glasses.

The basement contains a rec room, where the group meets a patient named Michael Johnson who believes himself to be a turnip. The "turnip" explains to the group that there is conflict between the various "vegetative" patients over access to the asylum's sunlight. A man named Bill with a prosthetic leg hobbles over and greets Cosmo. Bill offers to arrange a meeting between Cosmo and a particularly interesting patient, but cautions that the meeting can only be one-on-one. This worries Dr. Beksinski, who does not want any of the visitors to leave the presence of either him or his assistants Sturm and Drang. Nevertheless, Cosmo follows Bill to the proposed meeting.

Glasses the Kobold explores the second floor. They find an empty room where the walls are covered with strange writing. Glasses then heads to the library, where they meet an elderly man who attempts to take Glasses's glasses. After the failed attempt, the man snaps his fingers and summons another inmate, and tells the inmate to "take the Kobold to our gathering circle". Sturm merely shrugs.

Arriving at his meeting, Cosmo meets an extremely gaunt, unhealthy looking man. The gaunt man is agitated by Drang's presence, and Cosmo asks for Drang to leave. Drang refuses to leave, though he does move to the farthest part of the room. The gaunt man then whispers in Cosmo's ear. Cosmo then stands up, gives the man a thumbs-up, and leaves the room, asking Drang to not lock the doors. Drang looks at Beksinski, who instead re-locks all the doors and even adds additional locks. The gaunt man points a finger at Mr. Pepper, through the cell window. Mr. Pepper examines the cell through the window, then backs away to rejoin Dr. Beksinski.

As the group discusses among themselves, they suddenly hear the sound of a flute echoing though the halls. Drang identifies the sound as coming from "the Piper". Something awakens deep in Mr. Pepper, prompting Dr. Beksinski to offer him a salt tablet and some water. Some rats then run by and Dr. Beksinski urges the visitors not to impede them.

The group in the basement meets the piper, a man named Coric. He tells them he is a businessman and gives business cards to Cosmo, Gordon, Magenta, and Mr. Pepper. The business cards have, in addition to the name "Coric", rat pawprints on them and the names of a rat (with a different rat name on each card). Corrick then bows and leaves, heading toward his cell.

Upstairs, Glasses the Kobold joins a group of inmates sitting in a group, apparently a story circle. One of the inmates, an elderly orc, asks Glasses if their glasses can see things that aren't there. When Glasses nods yes, the group produces a crowbar and pulls up a floorboard, presenting Glasses with an ancient tome that was hidden underneath. The book contains the same sort of writing as Glasses had seen in the empty cell earlier. Along with the unfamiliar script, the book contains side-by-side translations of the strange text into Aeldman script and Fialta script. The elderly orc explains that what is contained within the book is the inmates' way of communicating amongst themselves. The orc then gestures to the ceiling, where Glasses sees writing of the same sort, which is not visible to Glasses without their glasses. They spend a few minutes using the book to try to transcribe what they see written.

Reruk, also upstairs, looks at the same ceiling but sees nothing. Putting on a pair of special goggles in his possession, Reruk looks at the ceiling and sees faint squiggly moving lines, almost as if an optical illusion. It suggests to Reruk that something is there, but obscured.

Cosmo, Magenta, and Gordon all realize that they have all had a Rat Experience(TM). They compare the business cards they received from Coric. The rat name on Magenta's card says "Spot", the name on Cosmo's says "Scratch", and the name on Gordon's card says "Sniffles". Magenta and Cosmo have been passed notes that say "Spot likes cookies" and "Scratch likes fruit". Gordon doesn't seem to have gotten a note. The three Rat-Experiencer-havers decide to head to the asylum's first-floor kitchen to get some food for their new friends. Mr. Pepper comes too (he has a note that says "Bulb likes chocolate"). Karl's DM intervention tells Gordon that Sniffles wants meat. Also, Cosmo wants to steal the key to the gaunt man's cell from Dr. Beksinski's office.

Glasses and Reruk decide to look at the ceiling through the combination of Glasses's glasses and Reruk's goggles, which adds an element of color to the script seen on the ceiling. Rio is also there but is just chilling. Glasses decodes the text but the sentences don't seem to have any particular meaning.

It's lunch time for the asylum. The visitors get lunch too. While in the cafeteria discussing who among the Rat-Experience-havers should sneak into the kitchen and/or Dr. Beksinski's office, Gordon the giant gets offended that the group thinks Cosmo the gnome would be better at sneaking than he would, and he angrily flips over a lunch table, inadvertently causing an excellent diversion. Sturm and Drang aren't paying any attention, they are getting seconds. Cosmo attempts to sneak away, but is noticed and joined by Frank who wants to know where he's going. Cosmo shows Coric's business card to Frank, who nods and leaves Cosmo to go about his business. Rio also notices Cosmo and follows him into the kitchen. Mr. Pepper also follows. Dr. Beksinski enters the cafeteria, yells at Sturm and Drang for neglecting their duties, and manages to calm down Gordon.

In the kitchen, a man in a chef's hat walks up to Cosmo and asks where the quail eggs he ordered are. Sturm sees the visitors in the kitchen. He goes out to get Dr. Beksinski. Cosmo threatens people in the kitchen with his baseball bat. Dr. Beksinski attempts to talk him down and get him to leave the kitchen. During their heated discussion, Rio and Mr. Pepper find the cookies, fruit, chocolate, and meat that they were looking for and leave the kitchen. Dr. Beksinski threatens to kick Cosmo out of the asylum if he doesn't leave the kitchen, and Cosmo unhappily storms out.

Lunch ends. Glasses and Reruk decide to head to the library to look for more samples of the strange writing. The Rat-Experience-havers decide to feed their rats (which have apparently been in their clothing this whole time). Except Gordon doesn't know where Sniffles is, so the four of them decide to go back to the basement to look for it. As they feed their respective rats, a swarm of rats gathers. The four give their Coric business cards to the rats, who disappear with the cards. Shortly afterwards, Coric appears and asks how he can help. After some difficult discussion (since the visitors can only speak in their specific questions), Coric agrees to fetch Dr. Beksinski's key in exchange for the visitors getting him out of the asylum. He produces a gold-colored rat and whispers to it, and the rat scurries off.

Upstairs, Dr. Beksinski notices that his office is swarming with rats. Dr. Beksinski puts a few drops of water on his sunshard, which the rats find extremely upsetting. The rat swarm runs off, although pretty much every small object has now been removed from the office. Dr. Beksinski goes off to find his orderlies. Sturm tells Beksinski that Cosmo and three other visitors went downstairs and talked to Coric the piper. Beksinski sees Coric on the stairwell, looking extremely happy. Gordon attempts to carry Coric out of the asylum but everyone else convinces him to stop.

Dr. Beksinski regathers the visitors, so they can decide whether Coric is indeed the inmate they are all looking for. Coric gives Mr. Pepper the key to the gaunt man's cell, then strips naked and runs through the cafeteria. Gordon blocks the door to prevent Coric from being followed. Cosmo and Beksinski have a heated argument. Mr. Pepper goes to the basement to talk to the gaunt man. Beksinski announces that he is expelling Cosmo from the asylum. Rather than leave peacefully, Cosmo decides to attack the guards with his baseball bat. Upon hitting the guard, the bat breaks apart into an explosion of bat guano. Rio passes out from the guano. Drang subdues Cosmo. Glasses and Beksinski arrive in the basement, just as Mr. Pepper offers the gaunt man a sip of iced coffee.

The gaunt man shows Glasses the Kobold more of the strange writing, which gives specific instructions for how to re-pot a plant. Rio wakes up and rejoins the group in the basement. Rio reveals that all of the visitors carry special items with them, and suggests that the visitors are being instructed to use those items to re-pot the woman in the greenhouse who thinks that she's a carrot.

Dr. Pepper dumps out what remains of the iced coffee, which causes the gaunt man to have a heart attack. Dr. Beksinski attempts to save his life. Meanwhile the visitors pester Beksinski to give him the sunshard, which they believe they need for the re-potting operation. Dr. Beksinski gives the visitors the sunshard, and they head up to the greenhouse while Beksinski has Gordon carry the gaunt man up to the infirmary. Dr. Beksinski finds Mr. Pepper's missing flashlight in amongst Coric's cast-off clothing, and gives it to Gordon in exchange for having his sunshard back.

While Beksinski attends to his patient, the visitors convene in the greenhouse and attempt to follow the instructions to re-pot the carrot inmate. Things seem to be going well, although the light of the flashflight seems to not be powerful enough. Just then, the visitors in the greenhouse are joined by an angel of Othal, who tells them that they may speak freely, and that their test is over. An enormous plant sprouts from the pot, sucking the life out of the delusional carrot-inmate. However, the Othali cultists have not completed their objective without Dr. Beksinski's sunshard. The angel goes to the basement and confronts Dr. Beksinski. Dr. Beksinski tries very hard to argue that he, Christophe, has in fact won the one-shot. The angel convinces Dr. Beksinski to use the sunshard to complete the ritual.

The plant continues to grow, and produces a fruit. Dr. Beksinski eats the fruit. The fruit is revealed to have been an embryo of an angel. Dr. Beksinski is for sure going to die. The angel offers the other visitors the option to either stay and "bear witness", or to have their memories wiped and then leave. Cosmo and Gordon decide to leave, the other five visitors decide to bear witness. Dr. Beksinski allows Coric to leave the asylum on the condition that he takes all the rats with him and drowns them in the river. The ones who stay behind give birth to a monstrous minor deity. The asylum is revealed to have been an academy, and the visitors are all the first graduates of Othal University.