Sx01 - Welcome to the... World?

**Welcome to the... World?** is the first session of the campaign. It is followed by Sx02 - Always Watching.

This session takes place on the 8th of Imber Tenebris (As far as we know.). This session involved the characters first introduction and them being abducted to and escaping from a plave they learned to be Seddon Asylum.

## Meeting the Characters

### Pip

Pip's day consists of him travelling through the small wood near his family home collecting firewood and trekking through the snow to return and take care of their siblings.

### Vox

Vox's day consists of him spending time playing their drums in the corner of a tavern somewhere in Fracti Terra after helping out on the docks for the day.

### Felix and Lliamh

Felix and Lliamh are travelling throught he taundra of Obietnica in the back of a carriage, they both seem to ignore each other completley. Felix has his head buried in a book and Lliamh trying desperately to ignore the oddities of Felix's servants.

All of them seem to be having quite regular days for their current lives. Only Felix and Pip notice the presence of a woman in a long black dress with a veil covering their face standing in the snow. They only see them for an instant before the figure seemingly disappears.

Soon after all across the continent each of them experience the sound of a grandfather clock ticking as they do they all one by one fall unconcious. For a breif instance Pip becomes semi-aware of their surroundings, lying in a bed of some kind they spot through blurry vision, a grey haired man in medical garb his back turned to them, leaving the room they are in. Shortly after Pip loses conciousness once again.

## Escaping the Asylum

The party all awake in a wing of a hospital. All of them with tubes coming from their arms, they were leading to a small jar on their bedside table that had a small amount of clear fluid remaining inside. On the other side of them was a table were clearly some kind of other jar once sat. They are in rather simple medical gowns, and none of their usual equipment is present. The room had six other beds, only one of them is empty. Five of the beds had the withered corpses of people. On each of the beds are the "medical info" of the "patient".

The info entailed goes as follows (From Left to Right, starting on North Side)

 Condition
 Notes

 Condition
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 Condition
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 Condition
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 Condition
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 Condition
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 Condition
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 Condition
 Notes

Due to seemingly none of them being at all aware of the reason they are there, a small amount of trust is born within the group, as each of them are in as bad a situation as they can be. Investigating they find that they are in a wing of a hospital. They also find that the door at the western end of the room is locked so head further east in the hospital. Investigating these rooms they find evidence of surgeries being carried out, with surgical gowns being cleaned and surgical implements. The hospital having large empty containers of a similar size to the empty space on their bedsides, these were completely clean though. After some time they find a pile of what seems to be peoples affects, but squirreled away in them seems to be a crude set of theives tools made from everday things in the hospital wing. Pip also finds a cabinet with some removed eyes that turn to watch him, which he quickly abandons.

Using the theives tools Vox manages to open the locked door in the hospital wing, in search of an exit, with a Natural 20 he manages to keep his tools intact. Unfortunately as they enter this next hall, they become aware of a loud scraping sound like stone scraping wood, and incredibly laboured breathings, something large was approaching where they are. Investigating they see through one of the barred windows in what seemed to be an abandoned dining hall that outside there is a bonfire, that seems to be burning bodies. They head to the end of these corridors and through an open door they see the creature. This possibly once humanoid creature's flesh has been twisted and ripped with growths of a clear crystalline structure, replacing parts of their chest and face, this has rendered the creature blind, chasing sounds. It's breathing hampered by the parts overcome with this foreign material. Through this clear crystal they can see it has spread covering parts of it's heart. The party immediately attempt to hide in a nearby room trying to make as little noise as possible. The group comes up with a plan to use a card they found in the room they are hiding and modify it with Felix's artificer skills and the theives tools they've found so that it makes a sound and then throw it the other way from them luring the creature. Unfortunately during this process the crude theives tool does break. By hiding in these other rooms and finding more of these subjects they creature moves past the party and they manage to close the reinforced door behind it shutting it out, despite a close call with Vox failing a stealth check.

The party venture further into the what they now realise is some kind of abandoned asylum. Passing a central point where they find a locked door, which they now can't open without their tools. They also find a window to veiw the front of the building and Vox is able to spot a figure dressed similarly to a Hunter of Conamar. They dont react to the players at all seemingly only interested in their book. The party have a bad feeling about them thinking they are more a gaurd than a saviour. Felix is able to sense one of his creations further into the the west wing of the building. The group after investigating these other rooms are unwilling to risk looking into the asylum rooms in this wing, probably also afraid seeing where that creature probably originally stayed. However they do find a room that they beleive may belong to the Hunter they saw. So continuing forward they reach the end of the west wing where suddenly a chorus rises up around the players, this rythmic drone, only Felix is affected as he falls to the ground and curls up into a ball, the rest of the group pick him up and manage to move him into the next room away from the music covering his ears to try and block out the chorus. He manages to recover as they pass a room with blood leaking out from underneath it, further on they find a storage room with all their usual adventuring gear and a small gift of four *Red Deus* vials one for each of them. However on the way out they are attacked by a pair of "Rats" they infect Pip with the disease Satirev's Voice and it is made clear when they are slain that they had been eating the other rats of the asylum as they burst forth in a swarm. The party deal with them with relative ease, though may have expended too many resources for the task of escaping.

Returning through the corridor the music seems to have reached it's apex, as around them the rooms all stop singing and most of them are filled with a short sharp scream, with a certain resolve the party realise all of the people in there had died. Quickly they move back to the door they couldn't open previously and wuickly unlock it spurred on by the sounds of the creature beginning to break down the reinforced door. They move through the entrance hall of the asylum finding large bloodstains, clearly a fight had taken place here. They exit out onto the front area of the asylum, where they hear that ticking noise again, cut by the sound of the Hunter closing their pocket watch, as they draw their gun and sword, she simply says *“Solum in mortem fiat officium”.*

The battle is quick and intense, the party using everything they've got to take down the Hunter who is easily knocking them unconcious with their skilled use of gun and blade, that shifts between a long serrated balde and acurate slashing tool. It also seems to have given her some influence over her speed moving much faster than any of the group thought possible. Eventually Vox is about to land the final blow, the Hunter attempts to parry the attack with their gun and manages to negate the physical damage of the attack, but Vox's psychic blade manages to kill the Hunter.

Investigating the Hunter they find an old badge of he Saltatio school, and they retreive her weapons, which they can't manage to pull from their sheaths and holster along with a Key to the gate. Going to the gate they find a letter attached, opening it reads:

*"Dear Patients*

*I must congratulate you on your escape from the hospital. While inevitable, the persistence shown by you all is commendable. I have no doubts you realise I have taken from you, whether you realise the improtance of what I have taken, I somewhat doubt. Though I would understand if you were to pursue me due to this altercation, I fear for your well-being in such a pursuit, I assure you my pursuits are for the betterment of us all. Now if you are to pursue me I would advise staying where ypu are for a while, as there may be some things you wish to unearth.*

*I expect to be hearing from you soon and in fine condition,*

*S"*

Alongisde the letter they find a bouquet of forget-me-nots. They then decide to dig up the oldest graves of the yard. Inside they find corpses of very close likeness to themselves, realising that the corpses are also old enough, that they have no idea of how much time has passed whilst they were in the asylum, this causes Pip especially to panic, and eager to leave this place as soon as possible. Felix uses the corpse of the Hunter to make another servant. However when they pass through the light on the otherside of the gate they watch this new servant fall to dust. On this "Other Side", they look back to find the building in complete ruins, overcome by the ravages of time. An old sign marks the place as Seddon Asylum, stating that it was over 200 years old but had shut down 60 years ago.