Welcome back to the Dragon's Den Actual Play Blog! For the next few weeks I will be playing the newest case in the Sworn by Ghostlight game by Matthew John! Long-time followers of the blog will remember the first case, the Ebonwood Effigies. My play through of 'The Wings of Rot' picks up a few years after the dramatic close of the first case, from the perspective of Assistant Detective of Occult and Ghostlight Mysteries, Selma Belright. What darkness will Selma discover in the Rift?
For this entry in my SbG series, I'll be using Starforged moves, Ironsworn Oracles, Ironsmith Expanded Oracles as well as the built in Oracles from the Wings of Rot tri-fold.
Begin a Session
The man called Hunter watched the two women leave the two-story brick building. He waited a few moments before slipping out of the shadows and following after them. His eyes flicked left and right as he walked along the unfamiliar concrete paths of the Midst, searching for his quarry.
Hunter knew the minds of the Vrykolakai better than anyone else. The last decade of his life had been spent studying the creatures. He was bent on destroying every last one of the vermin in Monaþstone, with the hope that the massacre would draw out their master and progenitor—the monster who killed his family.
He knew that the creature would follow the Ghosthunter wherever she went, and would strike when she was the most vulnerable. The creatures’ ability to retain a scent and to track it tirelessly until they found their next victim was uncanny. Wherever the Ghosthunter and her friend were headed, the Vrykolaka would be there waiting for her. And Hunter would not let the monster take another victim.
Case & Character Updates
Selma Belright, Occult Detective
Personal Case Journal
18 July, 1200
The Rift - Into the Depths
Undertake an Expedition
“It should be just through here,” Lenny called over her shoulder.
She was leading me through parts of the Market that I was unfamiliar with, though it appeared far older than any of the other parts of the area I’d been in—either now or a decade ago. The path was more like a tunnel, with the moldy wood and stone facades of decaying buildings rising a dozen feet above our heads. Where the main area of the Moonshard Market was brightly lit, an oasis in the dark of the Rift, this area was pitch black and the air was oppressively thick. I was grateful Lenny had thought to grab a couple of headlamps from a storage locker at the community building. I wasn’t sure the dampness in the air would permit an old-fashioned torch to light, and my Ghostphoresent light needed a recharge.
Lenny stopped abruptly, causing me to stumble as I tried to keep from plowing into her. The sound of stone clattering off of stone echoed through the narrow pass.
“Careful Selly,” Lenny said. “We’ve reached the ladder.”
I smiled in the dark at Lenny’s use of the old nickname she’d given me when we were kids. “Let me go down first.”
“If you insist. Careful, though, the rungs look slick,” she replied, pressing her back against the moldy wall to let me by.
I tentatively put one foot on the top rung, bracing the metal rod between the heel and sole of my boot. Lenny wasn’t wrong, the rung was slick with a thick moss. It was obvious no one had used this ladder in a long time. I took it slow and managed to reach the bottom without any incident.
Looking around, I found that I was standing in a small chamber of slick black stone. A pile of detritus and rubble lay just beside the ladder where my sudden stop above had sent a piece of the crumbling stone tumbling down. A shiver ran down my spine as reality sank in—I was standing thirty feet below the last indicators of civilization.
Lenny dropped to the ground a moment later, distracting me from the fear rising in my chest. She looked around, shining her headlamp on the walls around us. The thick, black moss sparkled strangely in the lamp light.
“Looks like the path goes that way,” she said, pointing toward a small opening in the cavern wall.
We set out, with Lenny in the lead again, down the narrow passage between smooth stone walls. I ran my fingers along the right-hand wall as I walked, but quickly jerked them away as a thick, viscous thing began to mold itself around my finger tips. My hand came away with a squelching rip, and a shimmer of gray light spread out from the spot my hand had just been. Whatever it was that had grabbed hold of my fingers rapidly turned white and crumbled like dust off of my skin.
“Don’t touch the walls,” I whispered to Lenny.
She didn’t respond, but her headlamp bobbed up and down. I smiled as a memory from our childhood flooded my mind: Lenny squeezing through a narrow crawl space beneath the old warehouse and shaking her head at my continued suggestions that we go back before the place fell down on top of us.
“Look at this Selly,” Lenny said, stopping and pointing ahead of her.
I peered over her shoulder, and saw a thick trunk laying across the path where the narrow crevice opened into another chamber.
“What is that?”
“Looks like a very large mushroom,” Lenny said, crouching and reaching out her hand to the grayish-white stalk. “Yep, definitely a mushroom. But I’ve never seen one this big before.”
I stared hard at the stalk. Something was off about it, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It seemed to emanate an energy, not unlike Ghostlight, but the moon’s power didn’t reach this far beneath the earth. This energy seemed off somehow, too.
“Let me get a closer look.”
Lenny let me slip by her, and I crouched to get a better look at the stalk. Several things stood out to me: first, there were clear marks that this stalk was placed here. Shallow impressions of fingerprints were visible near the center of the mushroom’s trunk. There might have even been the imprint of nails, but the stalk was too spongy to say for sure.
Second, the sense that the mushroom was emanating Ghostlight was confirmed. The stalk fairly glowed in my vision as I knelt beside it. It was definitely Ghostlight, but there was something else too. Something tainted. What the taint could be eluded me, but I was convinced I’d sensed it before.
“Someone put this here,” I declared. “And there’s clear traces of Ghostlight.”
“How could there be Ghostlight this far down?” Lenny asked.
“I have no idea. There’s something else too, something dark. Tainted. But I can’t place it.”
“How do you know this?”
“I have…you might call it the Sight. It allows me to see deeper than the surface, to detect Ghostlight.”
“Where’d you get that?” Lenny asked, clearly intrigued.
“I think I’ve always had it. I remember seeing hints of something when I was a kid. But I didn’t know what. Not until I went to University.”
“Oh.” Lenny’s voice sounded dead. “We should keep going.”
“Ok, help me move this.”
We started to lift the mushroom, which wasn’t all that heavy. The stalk disintegrated in our hands as we lifted it, and chalky pieces of fungus crumbled off our fingers. The mossy walls of the cavern glimmered again, sending the gray light rippling back toward the ladder.
“Did you see that?” I asked.
“See what?” Lenny replied, looking back at me with a tightness to her lips.
“Nothing. Let’s get moving.”
Undertake an Expedition Results
Journey Progress Update
Ask the Oracle - Waypoint
Undertake an Expedition
The stone beneath our feet shone with an iridescent red as we stepped beyond the crumbled mushroom stalk. Each step sent another pulse of the red light through the thin layer of fibrous material covering the ground like some kind of alien grass. At the edge of the overlook, another iron ladder descended into the darkness below.
I didn’t wait for Lenny to offer to go first, and put my feet on the slime-slick top rung. This ladder was much the same as the last, though perhaps less secure in its connection to the cliff face. I managed easily enough, and dropped to the ground a few moments later, my boots sinking into a thick, soft carpet.
Suddenly, the ground flashed red and gray, strobing out from my boots into the gloom. A groaning hiss echoed off of the cavern walls and a long, thick tendril snaked its way through the bioluminescent moss and wrapped itself around my ankle.
Undertake an Expedition Results
Journey Progress Update
Ask the Oracle: Waypoint
Face Danger
I kicked out at the tentacle with my free boot, but it was harder than I imagined and thick with fibrous muscle. My attack didn’t even phase it. With a hard jerk, it ripped me off of my feet and dangled me upside down ten feet above the mossy floor. I struggled against the creature’s grip, and my kicks and attempts to pry the tentacle loose with my hands became more desperate as the creature on the other end of the tentacle trundled into view.
It was a massive six-foot plant, with a bulbous head split by a maw oozing with a glowing yellow liquid and lined with dozens of sharp teeth. The plant had no eyes, or other discernible facial features. It looked like any other carnivorous plant, except for its size and the fact that it trundled forward on six root-like appendages connected to its barrel-shaped torso. The creature’s skin was a slick greenish-yellow with various dark markings.
Lenny dropped down from the ladder and chunked a large piece of rock at the creature. The stone slammed into what would have been the chest of a human assailant. The plant monster groaned and hissed. It snapped its tentacle like a whip, and hurled me back toward the ladder. I slammed into the cliff face with a scream and landed hard on the ground.
I could feel blood trickling down my cheek, and taste it on my lips. The arm that collided with the cave wall throbbed, but didn’t feel broken.
Lenny rushed to my side, helping me to stand. “Are you ok?”
“No,” I groaned, and supported myself by leaning against her.
Face Danger Result
Resource Update
Ask the Oracle
Face Danger
“Think we can get by this thing?” Lenny asked, watching the plant creature closely.
“I think your rock must’ve hurt it,” I replied through gasping breaths. “It doesn’t seem ok now.”
“Then let’s get out of here before it decides to attack again.”
Our movement must have brought the creature from whatever stupor Lenny’s rock had inflicted upon it. As we began to move, me stumbling along holding on to Lenny’s arm, the creature’s groan-hiss grew louder and its root appendages carried it toward us. As we ran, we noticed other plants of similar build and form, but, thankfully, they did not seem to be alive.
The tentacle struck again, nearly knocking Lenny over, but she managed to leap over it at the last second and maintained her footing. The creature let out a wail as we slipped into a narrow crevice, and dragged ourselves through.
Face Danger Result
Resource Update
Ask the Oracle
Undertake an Expedition
We scrambled down the next ladder, Lenny leading this time. This one was covered in more of the thick, black moss and glowed a faint gray and red as we climbed. At the foot of the ladder, I stood with my hands on my knees, sucking fetid, thick air into my lungs through clenched teeth.
“That was close,” Lenny said, also breathing heavily. “What was that thing?”
“No…idea. Never seen anything…like it.”
“Are you ok Selly?” Lenny asked, stepping over and putting her hand on my back.
“Just out of breath.”
“You sure? You hit the wall really hard.”
“I’ll be tender for a while, but I don’t think anything is broken.”
Lenny looked at me doubtfully, then sighed. She turned away from me, using her headlamp to illuminate this new area of the Depths. This cavern was huge, and the beams of our headlamps didn’t touch the far side.
“I think we’ve reached the bottom.”
“No way,” I replied. “The Depths are a thousand feet down. This must be a larger cavern, but we can’t have descended more than a hundred feet or so.”
“Technically no one knows how deep the Depths go. No one’s been past the Midst and survived, at least not since the moon cracked.”
“True, but surely there’s more separating the Midst from the bottom of the Rift than a hundred feet? Right?”
“You are probably ri—what’s that?” Lenny asked, her head turned toward the ladder. She moved past me, and her lamp reflected off a strangely polished metal crate wedged beneath a lip of rock.
“Looks like a deposit box? What would a bank deposit box be doing all the way down here?”
“A what?”
“Banks keep these boxes for clients to store important documents or heirlooms in. They put them in a vault. Getting one out is not an easy task.”
“How did it end up down here?”
“No idea. Do you think we can get it loose?”
Lenny got on her knees and tugged on the box. It came loose with a spray of dirt and gravel, sending Lenny toppling over backward.
“Yes, I think we can get it loose,” she said, chuckling as she got to her feet.
She brought the box to me, and we looked it over. It looked almost new, somehow, despite the layer of disturbed dust and a few scratches from being removed from the crevice. I pressed the button on the front of the box, and, to my surprise, the lid clicked open. The twin keyholes I expected to find were absent. In their place, I found an old style rotary combination lock set to oh-eight-four-seven.
“I’ve seen this combination before,” I muttered as I lifted the box’s lid and peered inside.
A letter sealed with a familiar symbol lay on top of three sprigs of a plant I’d never seen before. The seal depicted a mortar and pestle, with the words “Tubblebottom’s Apothecary” clearly etched around the border.
I handed the box back to Lenny and pulled out the letter. I opened it and gasped. The letter was written in the scrawl of Elijah Tubblebottom.
Letter Text
“What’s it say?”
I handed the letter to Lenny, unable to gather my thoughts after this newest revelation. After Jari told the legends of the Rift earlier, I just knew Tubblebottom was behind whatever is happening. With his ability to travel between times, it was very likely that the Elijah Tubblebottom from Jari’s story and my nemesis were one and the same.
“What the hell have you gotten me into Selma?” Lenny’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. “Who is Detective Remus? What is aconitum napellus? What’s coming? How did this Tubblebottom guy know you would be here?”
“As for the first two questions, those are easy to answer. Detective Tiberius Remus was my mentor. He vanished about two years ago while we were investigating a string of murders in the city. We tracked the clues to Elijah Tubblebottom’s apothecary, where the warlock communicated to us through a powerful Ghostlight crystal. When Detective Remus touched the last clue, a moonstone ring connected to the Gotelles, he was sucked into a rift in time. Apparently the Gotelles are a rival warlock family, and the Tubblebottoms had been waging a secret war against them for millennia. I went to University with one of the Gotelles, but she seemed normal to me.
“As for aconitum napellus, it's a flowering plant that went extinct after the moon cracked. It has some connection to Ghostlight, and is a potent toxin. It was what led us to Tubblebottom in that murder investigation. He used the plants to kill his victims. They supposedly fueled his—oh shit! I know what’s happening!”
“What are you talking about? You sound crazy.”
“You don’t have to tell me, I know it sounds crazy. I’m a scientist, Lenny. That’s why I studied. forensics. But this crazy, magic stuff. It exists. I know what’s happening in the Rift. The disappearances, the Lost. It's all connected to Tubblebottom’s plans.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Of course not, you couldn’t know all the details. Tubblebottom began his string of murders in order to fuel a spell. According to him, the spell allowed him to rend time and space and return to the past, before the moon cracked, when his power was greater. I fear the missing people are already dead— we will keep looking, don’t worry—and the Lost…whatever Tubblebottom is up to, I guarantee he’s using the spirits of the recently deceased to fuel another part of his spell. Whatever it is, it’s not good and we have to stop him.”
“This is insane. But if you’re right, then I have to keep looking. If there’s even a small chance some of my people are still alive, I have to try.”
“We will keep looking. Let’s—”
A dark shape leapt off the wall, where the glow of our headlamps barely illuminated. I pushed Lenny out of the way, and leapt back just as the shape landed where we were just standing. It stood to full height, and pushed the gray hood from its head. A sickly white face with narrow, burning red eyes glared at me in the light of my lamp. My heart plummeted as recognition dawned on me—the Vrykolaka had found me. It hissed at me, baring a smile full of razor sharp fangs.
“Run,” I whispered hoarsely.
Undertake an Expedition Result
Ask the Oracle - Waypoint
Will the Vrykolaka claim Selma and Lenny? What dark mysteries await our good detective?
