Autoscopy

Autoscopy Chapter of Hypolethia
Chapter 3 of Secondary Intent
Chronology
← Previous	Next →
Paramnesia	-

In which TO BE COMPLETED

What Happened

• Continuing the astral journey, the cabal intended to return to Vánagandr's Oneiros but things did not go as intended. The jeep they had used as metaphor of travel slipped out of Wotann's control and careened into the jungles that seemed to be the natural bound for his soul. The terrain grew wilder as the vehicle picked up speed. Images of other paths the jeep could have taken spread out like possibilities to the left and right with each ending in a violent collision, smashed and wrapped around a tree, and each filled with what appeared to be their own bodies broken and dead.
• Over one last rise and the forest disappeared into craggy hills filled with ancient Greek ruins build upon rough-hewn ground where trees had been uprooted and the land remained wounded. They had reached Kassandra's Oneiros.
  • Vánagandr's sense for trauma (her praxis _Scars in the Wallpaper_) told her that this was a place devastated by long term human exploitation and dominance, but the despoilers were long gone and the realm had since scarred over and regrown with ruined imagery.
• The entire cabal began to see images of their own deaths by sudden and brutal means. This was an unsettling experience for all besides Kassandra, who has been seeing such visions for so long that she has stopped reacting to the horror. She spoke of her past, how she had always seen such things, of how her parents had tried to milk fame and fortune from her visions. And how, in the end, she had foreseen their deaths in a car accident and chosen not to tell them.
• As they were talking, Kassandra became overcome with a vision. A deific entity in the shape of a monstrous and gigantic satyr appeared to murder the other members of the cabal with an immense spear. It contemptuously asked her what she thought was going to happen when she brought unwanted people here, tormenting her and driving her into a fit. The others tried to help her come out of it but it only passed when another, calmer voice spoke to Kassandra and guided her back to awkward, pained consciousness. And only then did the they realise one of their number was missing...
• Vánagandr had tried to help Kassandra by weaving a spell of shielding to protect the younger woman's mind from the pain and intrusion tormenting her. The spell failed, forming improperly and lashing Vánagandr with both the contemptuous abuse of the satyr and the full force of Kassandra's tempestuous emotions. Overwhelmed by this and her own inability to help, she slipped while the others attended to Kassandra's medical needs, trailing a chain of pained memories and bloody words as she stalked deeper into the Oneiros in search of the intrusion into the young woman's soul.
• The others found her in the greatest ruin of the Oneiros, an elegant and magnificent heap of fallen glory. At its heart lay a statue that bore all the mythic symbolism of Dionysus, leaning atop a smaller statue of a woman with Kassandra's face. As the others contemplated the psychological symbolism of this, Vánagandr remained lost in her own fugue and a rising obsession to find the thing that was missing inside Kassandra, eventually tearing a path into her own Oneiros.
  • In her digging, she found something. Hidden in the ruin of trauma was a sense that something had been stolen from the Oneiros. A destiny or future perhaps, and not simply by mundane horror. This absence felt like the intrusion.
• The world collapsed under the four of them, pitching them down through darkness and into cold rain. Onto a wrought iron balcony high above a cityscape that bled under a crimson-tinged stormcloud sky. Behind them lay doors into a penthouse suite, and a presence drawing close.
• While Vánagandr remained insensate and overwhelmed, the others were met by a woman that wore her face but spoke with smooth amusement and barbs beneath her words. She knew that the incident with the distorted trailer and that it had come from Kassandra's memories. And she commented that as much as Vánagandr would not like it, perhaps she should show the others where her intrusive trauma lies. Since she is so set on tearing open all their pain for inspection.

TO BE COMPLETED

RAWNOTES TO BE PROCESSED And they got to meet the wolf in chains who proved to be charming, confident and barbed in her speech. She implied things and suggested that perhaps Vánagandr should show the others her own hidden intrusion so that they could understand. So that is what they did, going into the mirror room and there they saw a memory of her just before awakening and behind that image of her was a shapeless predatory thing that felt like it was drawing closer. The intrusion. As they watched it consumed and usurped the image of the memory, shaping it into a distorted version of Vánagandr that railed and threatened and promised that it would devour them all. And as it did this, it no longer felt like the intrusion. Vánagandr felt herself to be the intrusion, though I’m not sure if it was herself or her self. Everything felt wrong. And as darkness fell upon them, they tried to reach Titania’s soul so that they could finish this astral journey before too much harm was done

Plot Developments & Facts Discovered

TO BE COMPLETED

RAWNOTES TO BE PROCESSED

• Kassandra's visions
• The Intrusion in Kassandra
• Vanagandrs hidden trauma imagery
• The Wolf in Chains knowing more than it should
• The thing in the mirror

People Appearing (in order of appearance)

• Kassandra
• Titania
• Vánagandr
• Wotann
• The demonic satyr, ecstatic and controlling. (seen only by Kassandra, aside from a glimpse by Vánagandr)
• A calm voice. (heard only by Kassandra)
• The Wolf in Chains, shared a cigarette with Kassandra and seemed to know more than she should.
• A hungry predatory shape, raging and furious in a mirror.

Locations

• Kassandra's Oneiros
  • The Temple of Dionysis and Hope
• Vánagandr's Oneiros
  • The Bound Suite

Notes

• Vánagandr suffered a dramatic failure when casting her spell and gained the Spooked condition. That combined with her vice of Pride drove her to go off alone to seek answers. Mental contact with Kassandra's pain and the sharp personal trauma of not being able to help someone who was suffering in a very familiar way drove her obsession into a fugue.
• Experience: total given so far in the Chronicle is 4 mundane and 3 arcane.