Session 18: An Eldritch Ritual Part 2

 October 15th, 2013 

The Irregulars made plans for Simon to impersonate Orla Greene for the next few days until the ritual was to take place, providing intel to the group while the rest tried to figure out how to stop the ritual. The names on the contract indicated that a large number of the long-time families of Little Compton were involved, meaning the police were unlikely to take action.

Once Glamour worked again, Eric set fire to the Historical Society, while Chiara used her Contract of Spellbound Autumn to analyze the supernatural. She learned that Orla Greene was not, in fact, some kind of changeling or similar being, but rather a fetch, though she once again registered as “normal” to supernatural detection. The group used Eric's duct tape to bind and gag Greene, loaded her into their car (leaving Greene's with its slashed tires at the Society), and drove back to Greene's house. They called Miguel of the Autumn Court to see if they could turn Greene in to them, but unfortunately they couldn't do much with someone's fetch without just cause, and there was nothing to pin on Greene. The fetch was the Irregulars' responsibility.

Simon took on Greene's appearance, and used the group's car as a “rental” while the rest of the motley took to the Hedge with the fetch to take her to their Hollow. They left Hannah there as well, sans phone, for her own protection and to babysit Greene. Then the group headed into Providence to make preparations for dealing with the cult and the ritual. Tia and Chiara picked up paintball guns, the group negotiated a collection of flashbangs from Red, and they purchased fireworks and ingredients for smoke grenades. They tried to look into Greene's background, and after Eric, of all people, and Chiara both failed to find anything other than a Latina-Irish pop star (courtesy of Eric), Francois showed them how to actually search for people.

They found Greene's boring, minimalist Facebook page, and got a “related information” link in the sidebar to an archived news clipping from 1990 about how 18-year-old Orla Greene had nearly been kidnapped but got away to help, and that she had been planning to attend dental school but changed her mind afterward.

Eric also spoke to his Cult of Worms contact, Zeke, about the cult and learned that the Voice's full name was the Voice in the Mists, and that it was dangerous and the group should probably put a stop to the ritual before something terrible happened. And maybe just avoid the Voice altogether, if they could. In exchange for the information, Eric Pledged to perform two minor favors (or one medial), to be redeemed later.

Chiara, meanwhile, took a very long shower and incinerated her ruined clothing.

 October 17th, 2013 

Everyone enjoyed a good night's rest in their own beds (save Hannah), and met up the next morning to head back through the Hedge to check out Sakonnet Point. They headed out into the Hedge and began the trek, but something went wrong on the way. On the way home, they'd passed from watery marshland Hedge with wooden boardwalk paths to the more familiar forested Hedge of Providence. On the way back to Little Compton, sometime after they crossed into the marshland Hedge, occasional soft plup sounds kept pace with them.

Then the wooden path opened onto a wider Trod, one they'd never seen before and which the freehold didn't have on any maps. None of them recalled crossing the Trod on their way to Providence the day before. For lack of a better option—the alternative was potentially hours of backtracking—they picked a direction on the boardwalk and followed it. The plup sounds continued as they walked for hours more. Fog started to roll in, and then they heard a footstep on the wooden path behind them. Glancing behind, they saw the faintest of shadowy outlines in the distance, a robed figure taller than any human had any right to be. Tia panicked and ran for it, and everyone else opted to follow instead of investigating the shadow further.



The group ran out of the fog onto a sandy beach in the afternoon, and found they were exactly at Sakonnet Point. They all considered it very worrying that the Hedge had likely led them there. They waited for the fog of the Hedge Gate to disappear, then investigated the sandy island at the end of the sometimes-submerged sandbar, and found without too much trouble an altar rock with the spiral carved into it. The next step was choosing a likely stakeout point, and then they found a new hotel room, canvassed it for creepy dream-medallions (they found two and melted them down), and set watches.

 October 18th, 2013 

The night saw more dreams of fog and water and footsteps, and Chiara woke to a bout of sleep paralysis, but nothing else happened during the night. Awake early anyway, Chiara opted to stake out the low tide and found nothing. The group spent the day getting ready for the evening, and gathered at the stakeout point that afternoon.

Sunset and low tide came, and with it cultists carrying a wriggling body bag. They filed out onto the sandbar with their victim and walked out to the tiny island, and began their chanting. As the motley watched, the Hedge began creeping through reality, with marsh grasses fading in through the sand and the ocean water going still and dark. Fog began to roll in once more.

The motley rushed into disrupt the ritual. Chiara and Tia used their paintball guns on Morrison and the cultists to throw off the chanting, Francois lobbed a smoke grenade to scatter people, and Eric threw a flashbang that went off in the water, then lit up and went directly for the victim. Francois threw people into the water, while Eric created a wall of fire that pushed people away from the center of the island. Tia ran through a gap in the fire wall to help, and Morrison repeatedly attempted to use a commanding voice (and presumably some eldritch power) to force the motley to stop. Midway through the confrontation the boardwalk of the Trod started to fade in on the far side of the sandy island, and the corrupted static sound with its undercurrent of a not-quite-heard voice became audible, steadily growing louder. A shadow appeared in the mists, some robed creature with tentacles and flanked by more of its minion Things.

Eric opened the body bag to find the hobo that had left them the note, groggy but struggling, and Tia started to help the man escape. One cultist managed to hit Francois with a curse, forcing him to babble and hear the voice of his Keeper in his head, but by this point the motley's plan was “grab the hobo and run.”

The Voice in the Mist called out, “c͞͡o̢͝m̷͢ę̸̷ ̵͘b̡͢͝a͏c̷͞k ̀ch̸̸̷i̢l̵̶͞d́͡r̸͘͡en,” in a slightly distorted voice, twice. When they didn't stop, it then said, “t͜h҉͜i̛s ̧o̕͢nę̀͟ ̵̀i̸s àç̀҉c̴̀e͢͞͞p̛͜t͏́͠a̧͟͡b̴l̛͞e͡,” and Christina Morrison screamed. The cultists panicked and stopped trying to fight the motley, and when the motley looked back, the Hedge, the Voice, the Trod, and Morrison were all gone.

The group picked up Simon and found a hotel room in a different town to stay the night. The rescued hobo appreciated the hot shower, an entire bed to himself, and as much continental breakfast as he could eat and then stuff into his pockets before being told to stop. The group returned to their Hollow to let Hannah go home and to set Greene free because they didn't know what else to do with her. They made an arrangement with her that they would leave her alone if she left them (and Francois' hobos) alone, then led her blindfolded back through the Hedge to her house. As a parting shot, she whispered something to Eric before going in her home and locking the door. Eric seemed momentarily confused and unsettled, before revealing what she'd said.

Eric reminded the group about the Mad Tooth Fairy, and they realized Orla Greene might very well be the fetch of the missing last member of their group. At that point, everyone beat a hasty retreat from Little Compton.

NPCs Met
The Voice in the Mist

Enemies
A bunch of cultists who didn't stand a chance

Christina Morrison, cult leader

The Voice in the Mist (that the motley wisely did not try to fight)

Other Stuff
Session 17: An Eldritch Ritual (Part 1)

Session 19: Halloween