#play reports

[zedecksiew]

Whirling Mummy One-shot

(Art by Sam Mameli)

Have been deathly ill for most of this month, with barely the focus to do anything. So I've been in the dumps.

Last Wednesday I ran a one-shot for my regular TTRPG group, just to feel like I could do something---anything. I didn't have much of a voice. Just a low rasp. So all my characters that night were kinda husky, sultry folks, the kind you might find in a bar.

Apopros to the game, I suppose. I ran the Whirling Mummy, a dance-hall adventure I created for Prismatic Wastelands' ENNIE-winning bar-crawl campaign setting, Barkeep On The Borderlands:

THE WHIRLING MUMMY Madam Smiling is the never-seen proprietress of The Whirling Mummy, an undead-themed dance hall, named after Madam Smiling's ancient, still-animate consort. + Before the Keep, before goblins lived in caves – a goddess cursed a king to dance. He danced all night, he danced all season. He danced and he died. They buried him dancing. He danced in his tomb of jade mosaic. A quake split the Iron Fens, and cracked his tomb, and spat him out dancing. Tonight, in the mummy's honour: a dance-off! Various crews compete to win their hearts' desire. There has never been a wish Madam Smiling could not grant.

+++

Got my players to make characters using Barkeep's evocative background packages. The party:

Frederick the Foppish Dandy, with a big hat, dueling pistol, and a wealthy fiance called Giorgio ("Georgie!");

Alejandra the Ebullient Dancer, with a tambourine, vial of poison, and her patron the noble chanteuse Lady Gaga;

Melan the Troubled Musician, with a flute, a cymbal-playing pet monkey, and a broken heart.

Serendipitously appropriate, for an adventure featuring a dance contest!

Melan decides they have history with Kril Mouser, leader of the club's musicians.

Ironically, Alejandra spends her whole night off the podium, gassing up the crowd to win over their support.

Frederick ("Freddie!") plays out a rivalry with one of competing dance crews: a trio of voguing toffs.

Freddie ends up being the night's star dancer. "This is the kind of music Frederick plays in his room," his player says:

+++

I rolled a new event for every turn / round of the dance-off, for maximum shenanigans:

A skeleton flapper loses her head on the dance floor. The Dancer turns that skull into a ball the cheering crowd can bounce around. Poor skelly!

A gang of electric-lute-wielding bards storm Kril Mouser's band stage in an attempt to take it over. Melan spends the round fighting them off, earning the musicians' favour. (Alejandra throws her skeleton skull, knocking a bard out.)

A paladin raid on the club for illegal necromancy. This coincides with the last round of the dance-off; Freddie is too drunk to continue, so Melan takes the stage, and duels Master Mocking Of A Million Eyes, the peacock demon and final boss.

Melan's player describes their dance as "Lizzo with a flute, but while performing a Celine-Dion-like ballad".

This means they beat an eldritch horror with a combination of this:

and this:

Nice.

+++

So the party won the dance-off. They are entitled to wishes from Madam Smiling.

Frederick asks to be the richest person in the world;

Alejandra wants to retroactively swap places with her patron Lady Gaga;

Melan selflessly asks for land back for the indigenous lizardfolk. (The industrial district in which the Whirling Mummy sits used to belong to the lizard-people; there were lizard nuns handing out pins outside the club.)

I was very pleased with this game. I think it was my first successful, self-contained one-shot? We played for about three hours, and I felt buoyed by endorphins after.

I love my players. Thank you Am, Ai and Vesha for playing with me; you have kept my love for this game stuff alive.

I lost my voice again, the next day.

+++

Final scene, one year later:

Melan is the opening act for a concert by Lady Alejandra, in a city ruled by Prince Frederick the First.

All of this happens a continent away; the city in which Barkeep is set has been totally erased. A trade agreement has been signed with the lizardfolk queendoms, however---and ambassadors report an incongruous-looking dance hall, in the middle of the marsh.

Inside, it is said, a mummy in jade shoes endlessly dances. Inside, it is said, a dance contest is held, and its prize is whatever your heart desires.

[gwythaint]

Strange Days

a secret organization of villains… I mean An open grouping of well known oligarchs are taking over… Your mission is to overthrow… I mean survive. The three branches of government agree not so stop hunger, or war, or genocide, or the senseless slaughter of schoolchildren, but to ban a piece of social media, while the remaining outlets suddenly become welcoming to the kind of people who the…

[gwythaint]

Session Play Report for Manhattan Minicon Beneath the Fallen Tower using 75pt GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

Session Play Report for Manhattan Minicon Beneath the Fallen Tower using 75pt GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

I cut down on startup time by assembling a stack of illustrated pregens using my stock art. We had seven players, one of whom was in the InfiWorlds game I participated in earlier this summer. He built an elf using my template (I will be eventually attaching a pdf of the pregens and his character) and there were a couple of people with prior DF experience.

Noah Green, who had played a cleric of…

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[gaijinhunter]

Aerial Style News [MHX Play Reports]

[Last Update] 08.08 09:00]

The first hands-on event (private) is going on today and yesterday media got to play and write articles. Here is what we have learned about the aerial style so far, much more to come which I'll update this.

Your B button evade is now a forward air evade

If you touch a monster you'll jump off them even higher

You can do all sorts of attacks in the air

(unconfirmed) you can equip 1 super skill

(unconfirmed) you can hop off Palicos bombs and small monsters too

Lost Moves:

Since you can spam aerial moves over and over, you lose power on the ground. For example, with GS you do not get to use charge attacks on the ground at all, for Hammer even if you charge it up you do not get the stomp move. However you can air evade after just about any move so they felt it made up for it.

There are also reports that for LS you cannot do a spirit combo on ground, only in the air. They did make it easier and faster to pull off though and with the idea that you are an air hunter not ground, this makes sense.

Mounting is Harder:

Famitsu was unsure if it was mounting in general (I doubt it) or the aerial style only, but mounting too simnifically longer with the aerial style. This makes sense as the point of aerial is not to mount, but to command the air.

Other Notes:

You can evade tail swipes and stuff easy since you are in the air but they noted that if you are right up against a monster doing air jumps, you can find that you lose sight of them and can get smacked around, so it will take some skill to control things.

Happy Hunting!

[fromthewildwood]

AW: Dark Ages - The Saga of Trüng-Holt, Verse 1

Our Setting: The Trüng-Holt, a stronghold bordering on the Baltic Sea that defends a harbour and port and is threatened by a raiders from the sea, an unlawful crown (seized by a tyrant, Miklos of the Zsolt), and a local warlord, ambitious and bold. Its fortifications include a hilltop position, a bottleneck approach up the side of the cliffs, an outer palisade wall, and a deep well; its armoury includes spears, round shields, hide coats and leather helmets, and bows, enough for 10 warriors.

For more setting detail, please see the Set-up Session write-up. 

Our Cast (thus far):

Amai the Touched, Wicker-Wise of the Trüng. She is wyrd, wary, and strong, but goodness yet evades her. She is wise in poison-craft and whispers to ghosts. She can enchant someone or something, and is sometimes overcome by oracular visions.

With one hand in each world, Healer, counselor, Bloody to both elbows.

Hilda the Right, Peasant Beauty of the Caymbre and Zsolt. She is bold, good, and strong, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She is breathtaking and fell when she appears on the battlefield, and her foremothers were queens of the Old Blood. She is radiant and stunning, and receives gifts and offerings on behalf of the summer, the earth, and the river.

Born free, feet upon the earth, But in my birth are secret things, And in my future, fire.

Ritva the Certain, Blacksmith of the Kekkonen. She is strong, wary, and good, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She speaks wisdom to those who come to her for counsel, and has the right to take on a student as her apprentice. Were she wronged, she could muster champions to demand blood recompense and they would come; were danger near, she could rally warriors from among her peers to the defense of all and they would listen.

Scorched and roaring, Fearless, indomitable, Sanctified by crucible and forge.

Soku the Swift, Court Wizard of the Laung and Trüng. She is wyrd, good, and wary, but her spirit shudders away from boldness. She is literate in Persian and Arabic and has the right to seek the truth in any troubling situation, unhindered by any. She is able to step out of her earthly life and journey in other places, and can see into the heart of unnatural creatures.

Astrologer, necromancer, Scientist and sage Trembling before God

The Session:

Spring in the cliffside Trüng-Holt: the lean time, with winter stores devoured but the first harvest of spring not yet ripe. 

Hilda the Right and the Caymbre spend the season preparing for what their matriarch, Nan, fears is coming and through their trading contacts manage to make arrangements that will double the size of the stronghold’s armory. 

Ritva the Certain spends the season working alone in her smithy, but with only one strong pair of arms progress is slow and she turns her mind to the question of finding a worthy successor. 

Amai the Touched spends the season in rites and celebrations, slaughtering those of her family’s livestock grown old or weak to supplement the scarce food supplies left during the bare time of early spring. 

Soku the Swift spends the season celebrating the rites of her people, shedding her courtly manners and duties to reinforce her ties to the pack, culminating in a ritual hunt and bonfire the night before spring turns to summer.

Summer in the cliffside Trüng-Holt: the weather warms and the winds die down so that the beach becomes a place of revelry and ritual. 

Soku wakes up at dawn beside the ashes of the bonfire with her people laid out hungover and still-senseless around her. She exchanges words with the only people awake, Bian Many-Voice, who predicts the coming of a storm. Obligations to her people fulfilled, Soku returns to the Trüng-Holt and the central household and reports the conversation to Parvana - leader of the Trüng and therefore, by default, the stronghold - who asks her to investigate the nature of this possible ‘storm’.

Just outside in the forge, Ritva sets to work refining the last of the iron ore left in her stores into usable metal. Her work is interrupted by the arrival of her mother Janike, to whom she had entrusted finding her candidates for apprenticeship, and Hilda. Hilda proposes several of the Caymbre, none of whom Janike thinks highly of, and then offhandedly mentions her cousin Gaspar of the Zsolt, whom Ritva likes the sound of and who Janike regards as a passable candidate.

There is only one problem: Gaspar is Zsolt, not Caymbre, and Nan is not prepared to pay his apprenticeship fee, while Janike is unwilling to let her daughter and clan take on an apprentice without a fee to compensate them and to give their kin a financial stake in them doing well. Ritva seeks out Parvana, who had previously encouraged her to take an apprentice and turns out to be willing to pay the cost of Gaspar’s board and lodgings and take this burden off of Janike. This reduces but does not eliminate the cost of the fee, and so Hilda leads the other two off to talk to her parents. 

Soku settles down in her quarters, stepping out of her earthly life and allowing her consciousness to expand out of her body and into the world and the beings around her. Her consciousness expands too far and too fast, however, and Soku soon loses track of the concerns of her earthly life and no longer desires to do anything but pursue the vastness and intricacy of the world’s life-web. 

Amai practices in full armour with shield and spear on the mustering field but soon grows bored and having overheard the conversation about Ritva’s search for an apprentice passing by decides to go off in search of Hilda’s parents’ house where negotiations remain ongoing. Ritva makes a passionate case for the opportunity and lifelong security that Gaspar is being offered and Marta, Hilda’s mother, agrees to pay his apprenticeship fee.

Amai, who had arrived just in time to witness this, is overcome by an oracular vision and collapses and Hilda and her father, Helmich, banish the others to the street to continue the conversation there while they care for the Wicker-Wise. Ritva takes Gaspar aside as Janike and Marta haggle over precise details of payment and cost and takes his measure and explains to him what will be expected and required of him and how he will be treated in return.

In her unconscious state Amai’s vision skates out over the water beyond the harbour that lies at the foot of the Trüng-Holt and she sees the trading vessel owned by the Caymbre, carrying the iron ore and weapons they’d purchased in the spring, pursued by a mass of stormclouds that resolved into a raiding ship. Upon the deck of this raiding ship, barely a hand of time’s sailing away, stands a ritually-scarified pale-skinned man with wild never-cut hair and the gleam of sorcery in his eyes. 

Amai wakes with a start and cries out a warning to Ritva and Hilda, who begin mustering nearby warriors of the Trüng and Caymbre to defend the shore and the ship. Soku’s consciousness jolts and retracts in response to the intensity of emotion developing back around her body. She wakes in time to hear the cry going up of attackers sailing into harbour towards the beach and remembers with horror that her people are still mostly laid out senseless and helpless where they slept the night before after their ritual on the beach.

[fromthewildwood]

Monsterhearts, Session 5

(Players, feel free to point out anywhere I may have forgotten things.)

The Setting: Drawing, a large forested country town in New South Wales around an hour from the coast, at Saint Valentine’s Academy, a Catholic high-school.

Our Cast (this session):

Brittany – an icy Queen with captivating eyes who leads a cultic clique who perform rituals they don’t understand at an old ritual site near the coast. (UPDATE: They pronouns) [Played by Kat]

Kafka – a striking Ghoul with hollow eyes who was killed in a car-accident a month ago, bare days into the school year, but woke up afterwards confused and hungry. (He pronouns) [Played by Kaj]

Sabrina – a brooding Witch with calculating eyes whose sanctuary from the stupidity of her classmates (an old and abandoned bathroom) is full of occult paraphernalia. (She pronouns) [Played by Jacqui]

Mika – a distant Infernal with calculating eyes chosen to receive power and influence by an unknown patron who asks only the smallest things in return. (They pronouns) [Played by Liv]

Floris – a dainty Fae with mesmerizing eyes who dreams of the King in the Greenwood from whom she stole her glamour and power. (They pronouns) [Played by Liska]

Eva – a stiff Hollow with soulless eyes who was once a beast of the forest before gaining a new furless and two-legged form (She pronouns) [Played by Kettu]

What happened:

Flashback, the afternoon before: Waking up from their strange dream on the boat Brittany decided to check in on Jock, the injured member of their clique. Suspicious of the seemingly-occult cause of his condition they questioned him over the phone, getting a list of people who were annoyed at him that included Sabrina’s name.

Mika spent the night fitfully almost-sleeping, once again comforted by the Dark Power in its raven-like shape and infused with some of its power in order to replenish some of their lost energy and drive.

Kafka woke up in the woods  and headed towards his house, knowing he had to deal with Mika’s blood before he could show up at school. Reaching a road just as Sabrina was driving down it he managed to beg a lift and once back at his house took a shower while Sabrina snooped through his room. 

Noticing that Kafka had left his necklace of shells - made by Mika years ago, which he had never stopped wearing even after the friendship ended - when he put down his stuff before heading into the shower, Sabrina took it as a sympathetic token and Kafka failed to notice its absence around his neck.

At the school Brittany noticed Raven and Lauren having a whispered and slightly-charged conversation and, knowing about Raven’s connection to Sabrina, decided it was worth investigating. They directed their second-in-command Tiffany to move to a desk just behind the friends and eavesdrop and record the conversation on her phone. 

Kafka and Sabrina arrived in class, very late. Sabrina noticed the recording app open on Tiffany’s phone and made a notice of it, while Kafka had an awkward moment of eye-contact with Adam - looking fairly concerned given Kafka’s state the night before - before realising that Lauren was present and seemingly unharmed. The two took their seats, Kafka deciding not to make a scene and to talk to Lauren after class.

Naive and unaware of teenage hierarchy Eva attempted to befriend Brittany and got cruelly shut down and reminded of her lowly place in the high-school social ladder, though Brittany felt a strange guilt over treating her so harshly. Floris rebuked Brittany and they responded by calling Tiffany over to back them up and delivering a threat of social and mystical punishment, but the attempt at intimidation only roused the fey primal wildness within Floris and allowed her to frighten Brittany into a promise to leave Eva alone. 

The bell rang and class ended and Sabrina headed around the room towards Raven’s desk, stealing Tiffany’s phone (from where she’d left it) along the way. Sabrina reached Lauren and Raven and was about to talk to her emo tryst before being given an unspoken plea to give Raven some space and not complicate her already fraught negotiation of friendship with Lauren now that her feelings couldn’t be reciprocated even if she spoke up.

After Sabrina left the room, headed for her sanctuary and followed by Eva, Kafka struck up a conversation and attempted to feel out where she’d gone the night before. Her recollection was slightly patchy but Kafka was satisfied of her wellbeing and the two awkwardly put a label on their relationship (boyfriend/girlfriend) and planned a date in the library. 

Mika, having arrived at school a little earlier, was leaned up against the lockers outside the classroom waiting. They watched as various other students left and exchanged polite words with Lauren and then an uncomfortable moment of tension and unspoken grievances with Kafka. Lauren politely excused herself so they could talk in private, telling Kafka to meet her in the library once he was done. 

The intense tension between Kafka and Mika turned charged and erotic, Kafka pushing Mika up against the lockers they were leaning against and kissing them. Mika wrapped a hand around Kafka’s throat and marched them back into a janitor’s closet where the two gave in and slept together again. 

Sabrina took the phone to her sanctuary and listened to the recording - of Lauren realising that Raven had sex and trying to find out who as Raven attempted to shut down the conversation, unwilling to have that talk with someone she had reciprocated feelings towards - and began to put together what Brittany’s interest in it was. 

Eva chose between following Floris to the library to thank her for her help dealing with Brittany and catching up with Sabrina. Deciding on the latter, she came into Sabrina’s sanctuary and admitted how Brittany had bullied her and received a promise from Sabrina that she was working to shut them down.

In the afterglow in the janitor’s closet Kafka brushed off Mika’s attempts to communicate and trivialised the encounter they’d just had. Mika lashed out over the fact that Kafka wasn’t wearing the necklace anymore and told him to call Lauren next time he was ‘looking to have some fun’ before dressing and setting a fire in the corner of the room. 

The smoke alarm went off, prompting Kafka to hurriedly dress and get out of the room as the flames began to spread while Mika looked on dispassionately and without fear as the Dark Power expressed its approval. 

[fromthewildwood]

AW: Dark Ages - The Saga of Trüng-Holt (Set-Up)

Our Setting: The Trüng-Holt, a stronghold bordering on the Baltic Sea that defends a harbour and port and is threatened by a raiders from the sea, an unlawful crown (seized by a tyrant, Miklos of the Zsolt), and a local warlord, ambitious and bold. Its fortifications include a hilltop position, a bottleneck approach up the side of the cliffs, an outer palisade wall, and a deep well; its armoury includes spears, round shields, hide coats and leather helmets, and bows, enough for 10 warriors. 

Its People:

The Trüng, bone-white, stout, and angular-faced, who first lived and thrived in this place. They are a village of 50 souls living in 6 households with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their elaborate cosmology, their sorcery and enchantments, their mercy to their defeated enemies, their craft and skill as shipwrights and sailors, and their far-reaching trade routes.

The Caymbre, wiry, tale, and white-blond, who are a single family by birth and marriage. They are a clan of 30 souls living in 4 households with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their generous hospitality, their great beauty, their craft and skill at fortification and construction, their archers, and their devotion to law.

The Kekkonen, black-brown, hulking, and blue-eyed, who are bound by a single common experience – being enchanted to attack the Trüng-Holt and then freed by sorcery. They are an enclave of 20 souls living in 4 households with 5 warriors among their number. They are known for their subtle fashions, their superb metalwork, their veneration of the priests and priestesses of the Trüng, their physical prowess, and their implacable blood-vengeance against those who ensorcelled them.

The Tearwyn, wiry, lithe, ginger-haired and freckled, who are bound by a single common experience – they were born with their eyes already open. They are a band of 16 souls who live in 16 households with 16 warriors among their number. They are known for their individual skill at arms, their strategy and tactics, their loyalty, their spicy cosmopolitan cuisine, and their vigilance against sorcery.

The Aluki, barrel-chested, round-faced, and golden-creamy skinned, who speak the same language while others around them do not. They are a band of 12 souls living in 1 household with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their brutal raids, their loyalty, their insularity, their towering monuments, and their superb metalwork.

The Laung, black-brown, blond-haired, and painted in red and white, who worship the same god and were displaced from their homeland by the Empire of Eagles. They are an enclave of 20 souls who live in 4 households with 5 warriors among their number. They are known for their celebrations, the might of their god(s), their fearlessness in the face of death, the garishly-dyed wolf-pelts they wear, and their loyalty.

Our Cast (thus far):

Amai the Touched, Wicker-Wise of the Trüng. She is wyrd, wary, and strong, but goodness yet evades her. She is wise in poison-craft and whispers to ghosts. She can enchant someone or something, and is sometimes overcome by oracular visions. 

With one hand in each world, Healer, counselor, Bloody to both elbows. 

Hilda the Right, Peasant Beauty of the Caymbre. She is bold, good, and strong, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She is breathtaking and fell when she appears on the battlefield, and her foremothers were queens of the Old Blood. She is radiant and stunning, and receives gifts and offerings on behalf of the summer, the earth, and the river.

Born free, feet upon the earth, But in my birth are secret things, And in my future, fire.

Ritva the Certain, Blacksmith of the Kekkonen. She is strong, wary, and good, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She speaks wisdom to those who come to her for counsel, and has taken a student as her apprentice. Were she wronged, she could muster champions to demand blood recompense and they would come; were danger near, she could rally warriors from among her peers to the defense of all and they would listen. 

Scorched and roaring, Fearless, indomitable, Sanctified by crucible and forge.

Soku the Swift, Court Wizard of the Laung. She is wyrd, good, and wary, but her spirit shudders away from boldness. She is literate in Persian and Arabic and has the right to seek the truth in any troubling situation, unhindered by any. She is able to step out of her earthly life and journey in other places, and can see into the heart of unnatural creatures. 

Astrologer, necromancer, Scientist and sage Trembling before God

Others:

The Zsolt, sharp-featured, bronze-skinned, green-eyed, who are all descendants of the same ancient queen. They are the people of Hilda’s mother, who came from outside the Caymbre, and it is through them that Hilda claims her descent from the queens of the Old Blood. That crown is currently usurped by an unlawful tyrant, Hilda’s cousin Miklos, who despite being male has laid uncontested claim to rulership. The Zsolt are a vassalage of 300 souls who live in 40 households with 40 warriors among their number. They are known for the might of their gods, their vigilance against monsters, their ruthlessness, their insatiability in war, and their great beauty. 

[fromthewildwood]

Monsterhearts, Session 4

The Setting: Drawing, a large forested country town in New South Wales around an hour from the coast, at Saint Valentine’s Academy, a Catholic high-school.

Our Cast (this session):

Kafka – a striking Ghoul with hollow eyes who was killed in a car-accident a month ago, bare days into the school year, but woke up afterwards confused and hungry. (He pronouns) [Played by Kaj]

Sabrina – a brooding Witch with calculating eyes whose sanctuary from the stupidity of her classmates (an old and abandoned bathroom) is full of occult paraphernalia. (She pronouns) [Played by Jacqui]

Mika – a distant Infernal with calculating eyes chosen to receive power and influence by an unknown patron who asks only the smallest things in return. (They pronouns) [Played by Liv]

What happened:

Sad and confused, Mika was left wandering through the empty streets and ruined industrial buildings on the western part of town as they begin to drift into a trance-like state. They felt the cold and damp of the night intensify as the sounds of a pack of hunting animals on their heels were accompanied by the appearance of a great dark golden-eyed hound in front of them.

As the hound let out a terrifying howl, echoed by the pack behind them, Mika snapped out of the vision and the fearful hunting hound was reduced to nothing but a mangy cur that slunk off into the shadows. Reaching an overgrown section of the industrial ruins nearer the south Mika had an emotional breakdown, sobbing and shivering, and turned to the Dark Power – in its raven-like shape – for comfort.

Half-waking to the realization that Adam had departed during his sleep Kafka was unable to get back to sleep and, prompted by his uncertainty as to whether his gravely-injured victim had survived, wandered over to Mika’s house to check in on them and Lauren. Finding the house empty and overcome with the realization of his brutal and monstrous actions, Kafka lay down on the floor and began to bitterly weep.

Driving home in a panic to escape whatever it was in the woods that had taken a sympathetic token from her, Sabrina arrived home and shut herself up in her room to do some desperate research. Spreading her occult books around her in a huge circle on the floor, she searched until her eyes were drooping and sleep was nearly upon her, but couldn’t find any hints as to what creature might leave the inhuman footprints she’d spotted when she woke up.

Staring at the tangled sheets and discarded clothing on Mika’s bed from his encounter with Mika and Lauren, Kafka’s concern over the absence of his almost-girlfriend sent a series of increasingly-dreadful scenarios through his mind that culminated with a too-real image of Lauren pale and bloody and pinned by a great iron spear to a treetrunk in the forest.

Falling into a deep and exhausted sleep, Sabrina dreamed. She found herself in a small clearing within a dark and tangled woodland, small dead animals spiked to the trees around her with iron nails and their blood pooling among the branches. From the shadows outside of the dim moonlight, within the trees, a dark and shadowy figure watched and then identified itself as the Hunter.

Speaking longingly of the days when born witches roamed its forest and kept fear and memory of its name alive, the Hunter offered to give Sabrina the power of a born witch and teach her ancient secrets if she would carry out its ancient rites and bring back the fear of the ‘mortal flock’ when they heard its name. Despite sensing that blood and cruelty lay down that road Sabrina’s desire for knowledge and power overcame her and she agreed, the Hunter mingling their blood to seal the pact before she woke in her room with her missing pendant back in her hand and leaves and dirt on her feet.

Dehydrated and with no more tears to shed, Mika let the Dark Power guide them back home with a side-stop so they could wash their face and clean up in a frontyard fountain. Arriving back at their home to find Kafka still curled up on the floor, Mika retrieved a knife from the kitchen and the two exchanged tense and guarded words as an increasingly suspicious Kafka demanded to know where Lauren had gone and an untrusting Mika tried to find out whether the real Kafka had in fact survived his death or if all that was left was a dead and hungry thing that wore Kafka’s face.

Unwilling to wait any longer, Kafka made to leave when Mika pinned him up against the doorframe with a knife against his throat to stop him. Leaning slightly into the blade to kiss Mika, Kafka manoeuvred them back into the centre of the room during a violent and angry series of further kisses before pulling back and walking away, leaving Mika confused and alone and turned on.

As Kafka left, Mika offered the Dark Power yet more influence over them if it showed them one of Kafka’s secrets and was given a direct impression of Kafka’s feelings for them and desire to regain some of their childhood closeness and intimacy. Still emotionally devastated from sacrificing Lauren to the Dark Power and Kafka trying to kill and eat them and confused from Kafka’s sudden abandonment of their kiss moments ago, Mika was overwhelmed by a sense of abandonment and helplessness to fulfil their wants and needs and became their Darkest Self.

Now willing to do anything to feel again, Mika smashed some plates and glasses before bed as the Dark Power suggested that maybe destroying something much larger – like a person – beyond repair would make them feel even better and then went to sleep. Outside Sabrina’s window, a great raven watched over her with unblinking golden eyes and delivered a scroll of cracked and ancient bark to the windowsill. And in the forest an increasingly fearful and desperate Kafka staggered through the trees shouting Lauren’s name until, exhausted, they tripped over a tree-root and fell at the foot of the ancient tree from their vision only to spot no sign of Lauren or anything stranger than the trees still-green leaves, unusually vivid and alone among the autumn reds and browns all around.