A Faceless Hero

Image

Encounter Conditions

None

Initial Text

You find an interesting sketch of the faceless hero at the top of a large chasm. Far below, a lake of fire roils, sending up great drafts of smoke.

Around halfway down, tunnels worm into the black stone walls of the pit. A few strangely familiar looking eyes stare back out of them.

It doesn't look like it would be an easy climb, but that was probably the artist's intent.

Summary of Choices

1. Look for him exploring tunnels - Lose all hit points and gain 10 energy of Severely Charred, or go to Tunnels of the Black Book (if you have taken a length of chain from the Meat on a Chain choice (and have a flaming skull?))
2. See if he lowers himself to the fire - Lose all hit points and gain 10 energy of Severely Charred, or go to Fires of the Black Book (if you have taken a length of chain from the Meat on a Chain choice)
3. Stare into the drawing - Lose all hit points
4. Look for more eyes - Gain Evil Eye (3)

Choice Text and Results

Look for him exploring tunnels

(If you have neither a long hooked chain and a blazing skull)

A few pages later, a sketch shows the hero scaling down a bare rock face, barely holding on by his fingertips. The next page shows him losing his grip, and several after that focus on his featureless face as though he's making a series of comical expressions.

Finally he burns to a crisp in the pits of fire below. The black comedy is worth a chuckle until you notice your hand holding the page blackening.

You wake some time later, your room filled with the scent of burnt skin.

Lose all HP.

You gained 10 energy of Severely Charred

(If you have only a long hooked chain)

A few pages later, you discover a sketch of the hero rappelling down the crevasse and entering a tunnel. Past there, though, the next several pages become darker and darker.

They fade from a view of tunnel walls etched with strange writings to faintly defined walls to several pages covered entirely in ink, the only texture provided by the tiny cracks left as the strokes dried.

None of that explains why you woke up face down in the book with vicious bite marks covering your body. You can't identify what sort of animal might have made them, but at least you heal quickly. Any normal person would take dozens of reconstructive surgeries if they survived at all.

Lose all HP.

(If you have a long hooked chain and a blazing skull)

A few pages in, you find a sketch of the hero rappelling down a length of hooked chain with a flaming skull in the other hand. It's somehow evocative of a different sort of fantasy than the artist's usual stream of unrelenting horror.

It's really the sort of art you'd expect to find on the front of a heavy metal audio chip.

(Leads to Tunnels of the Black Book)

See if he lowers himself to the fire

(If you have no long hooked chain)

Hmmm, well, the only picture you can find of the hero definitely shows him getting down to the fire. Unfortunately, it shows him flailing and burning alive rather than getting out to the nearby shore.

The detail is amazing… you can almost see the flames move and hear them crackle and smell the burnt flesh. Actually, you can smell the burnt flesh, neatly explained by the burns that cover most of your body, seemingly radiating from within ignoring the clothes above them.

Lose all HP.

You've gained 10 energy of Severely Charred

(If you have a long hooked chain)

There's a nice sketch a few pages later of the hero rappelling down the crevasse. It opens into a larger chamber over a lake of fire.

With a few careful swings, the hero is able to get over dryer ground. You're kind of glad it's him and not you among those toxic fumes. Just thinking about it makes you a bit wheezy.

(Leads to Fires of the Black Book)

Stare into the drawing

You stare into the image, finding small corners that seem darker the longer you stare into them. Eventually, you wake up face down in the book.

Your body feels almost hazy somehow, like its edges are ill-defined. It snaps back in place a moment later, but you almost regret it. Instead of vague unease, everything is overwhelmed by pain.

Lose all HP.

Look for more eyes

As you look through the book, you find the eyes everywhere. It's odd, though, they're drawn a little differently than everything else. Where all of the other things are incredibly detailed, almost hyper-realistic, the eyes stand out as starkly iconic.

The more you look, the more you feel like they're someone's eyes, almost as though a particular person was staring out through all the pages. Perhaps the artist didn't even draw them and they just manifested.

That's just crazy talk, of course, but it feels like it struck a chord.

You learned a new Technique: Evil Eye (2-3)