God's Willing, God-Fearing

God's Willing, God-Fearing
Date	10/11/2024 - 10/31/2024
Storyteller	Doug
Tier	Varied
Player Characters	Victoria Honeystride, Zeal, Sanguine, Sanaa
Rewards	225 exp
Result	All associates are alive
Author	Victoria
Downtime	4

I and a few other associates received a letter to report to the Council Chambers at 9:00 AM to go on a spiritual journey. I was informed that we were not to bring weapons or armor, for we would only need tools of our worship. I brought mine anyways, because my weapons and armor are my tools of worship, as I follow Gorum, our lord in iron. Joining us on this journey are Sanaa, an alchemist who follows Nalinivati, Lictor Zeal, who has devoted himself entirely to the teachings of the Godclaw, Armiger Sanguine, who follows Barbatos, and Councilman Gregorios Jude, who worships every single deity at once. We were given holy robes to change into, and instructed to inscribe the symbol of our deity on our flesh with a piece of charcoal. I was told that my own tattoo of the holy symbol of the Godclaw that is on my left shoulder would not cause any problems. Councilman Jude, in a state of undress not befitting one of his position, brought us into a small room where we were informed that we were to participate in a ritual to call the attention of the divine, because he felt like our city had been losing their attention. I will admit that even with my armor on under the robes, I had removed my boots and gauntlets. This was the biggest state of undress I had ever been in on a job, and I pray that will not have to be in this state in the future. After Lictor Zeal and I convinced Councilman Jude that we should not call upon Treerazer, Groetus, Baphomet, Aryzul, Rovagug, and Nhimbaloth, we were given a foul smelling concoction that we could barely keep down. Despite my efforts to remain conscious upon consuming the brew, I was soon brought into a vivid hallucination. I saw a battlefield unfolding before me, with an endless army of near-dead soldiers surrounding me, begging for me to ease their suffering so they would have to fight no longer. I used my magic to heal as many as I could, but I quickly found myself overwhelmed by their numbers. They swarmed all across me, and I could do naught but watch as a massive greatsword descended upon me, and I experienced death for the first time. I am thankful it was only a vision, so I could write down that it felt exhilarating. I did not actually die though, as I awoke surrounded by an ocean of blood and a mountain of corpses, upon which stood an armored figure. I went to meet them, surrounded by an army, but they intercepted me as I stopped to heal an innocent person. They then proceeded to stab me, and claim that I am not a warrior. I tried fighting back while explaining that I fight to preserve peace, but I took heavy injuries from that. Some weird shadow figure came out of my chest as I died again. When I awoke, I was in a coffin, stripped of my armor. I resisted against the lid, and was soon able to get it open. I crawled out of my own grave, and found myself surrounded by headstones that had "FAILURE" engraved upon them. Another reminder of why I still draw breath. I saw a sword on a hill and crawled towards it, but found myself grabbed by another armored figure. They tried to claim that I am not a warrior, and I argued back saying that a warrior would not have stayed in the coffin of a failure, and would keep going in the way I have. I got grabbed by a gauntleted hand, a spiked chain pulled at my spine, and the armored figure tried to strike me down. It was here that I noticed that Sanaa arrived. I instructed them to get out of here to try and protect them, and then found myself back in the room we performed the ritual in. Sanaa was unconscious near me, so I resuscitated her. She suffered a terrible wound attempting to save me, but she survived. I also felt my connection with Gorum fade, my left hand turned to rust, and my holy symbol burned me when I touched it. It was here that I found out we could enter everyone else's visions to wake them up. We started by attempting to enter Armiger Sanguine's vision, as she was growing fur like some sort of beast, but her roars repelled us, so we went into Lictor Zeal's vision instead, in case the Marilith she kept imprisoned inside her broke out and went on a rampage. We found Lictor Zeal chained up and bleeding out at the foot of a flight of stairs. We stopped his bleeding, and he climbed up to the top with heavy resistance from the chains pulling on him. We were then able to wake him, and we then entered Armiger Sanguine's vision. We found her in a bestial state, as we were buried by worms. The Promised Land. Some quick scolding got Armiger Sanguine to return to normal, and we were removed from the vision. That left only Gregorios Jude for us to awaken, with just the four of us assembled. I did not see the rest of the visions the other associates experienced, and if they want to describe them, they may feel free to make an addendum to do so.

(TO BE CONTINUED)