09/19/2025 – Geeks & Games – The Shipwreckers Finale

Summary

In the last session, the Shipwreckers answered a whispering summons that wouldn’t let go. Orantha, seized by void-touched lunacy, stole a mammoth hide and painted an impossible tesseract across it until the wall of her rented room fell away. Beyond yawned a starless abyss, and a narrow stone path led to a door whose plaque read ‘Stygian Library’ in every tongue and none. Inside a dim Victorian foyer, the robed Librarian 338 slid a silver bell and a blank, ever‑unfolding map across a desk. The only certainty: You are here.

Trusting the only way forward, the party took the leftward halls to a steaming boiler room threaded with pipes—just in time to see another door closing on someone else’s map‑cape. Pulling it open, they confronted not enemies but themselves: two different iterations of their own company, each insisting the others were doppelgangers. A taut parley followed. At the name of their fallen comrade Esa, one mirror‑group sheathed blades and withdrew; the other slipped away into the stacks, intent on thwarting them.

Following the pipes, the Shipwreckers descended into rooms curated by theme—hyena treatises, then a lounge of ghostly tea‑drinkers who faded as soon as they realized where they were. Marking their path with an iron spike roused pale, phasing void‑spiders from the shelves. In the vicious rush, Les Shtick was seized and pulled into the ether to be cocooned and lost. Moments later, his bearded counterpart, Moe Stick, arrived from another timeline, fleeing accusations identical to those they’d just survived.

Pressing on, the party found the Chthonic Mechanism: a towering brass engine pouring out an endless ribbon of text as a yellow‑robed attendant ferried scraps to a furnace. Four familiar, identical cogs were missing. The Shipwreckers set them home; the machine steadied, and a black‑robed librarian granted a single input: add or delete one thing from the universe.

After fierce debate, Patick keyed the decree: Erase all of Ramlaat’s successes. The engine thumped; history tilted. The war‑god’s victories vanished, his name with them, and in the space he left, a new mantle settled by the party’s vote—Shiug the Fae Crone. With the Blood Rite unmade and a living Book of the Plateau of Leng in hand, they stepped onward into cold stars and strange winds, knowing the Library’s bargains would echo long after they closed the cover.

OUTLINE:

The Tesseract Door and the Call to the Stygian Library

• Arantha, driven by void‑born compulsion, painted an impossible tesseract on a stolen mammoth hide.
• The wall of her room fell away to reveal a starless void and a narrow stone path to a lone door.
• The plaque on the door read Stygian Library in every language and none; the party entered.

Orientation at the Reference Desk

• In a Victorian‑style foyer, Librarian 338 presented a blank, endlessly unfolding map marked only You are here.
• The party noted two exit halls and the pervasive scent of old paper, cinnamon, and camphor.
• They stepped into the stacks, braving bone‑cold air and endless shelving.

Boiler Room and the Multiverse of Doubles

• A steaming boiler room with four exits awaited; a door across was closing on a trapped map‑cape.
• Beyond, alternate versions of the Shipwreckers confronted them, accusing each other of being doppelgangers.
• At the invoked name of Esa, one mirror‑team stood down; another retreated into the stacks to interfere later.

Through Themed Rooms and the Void‑Spider Ambush

• Following pipes, they traversed a hyena‑themed room and a tea lounge of 1930s strangers who faded upon realizing their situation.
• When Paddock spiked a doorway to mark the path, two pale void‑spiders phased from the shelves and attacked.
• Arantha was poisoned and recovered; Les Shtick was carried into the ether and killed.
• Moments later, Moe Stick—Les’s bearded counterpart from another thread—arrived, fleeing his own doubles.

The Chthonic Mechanism, the Wish, and a New God

• They discovered the Chthonic Mechanism, a towering brass engine spitting endless text while a yellow‑robed attendant fed a furnace.
• Four empty gear slots matched the identical cogs they carried; they set them, steadying the machine.
• A black‑robed librarian granted one change to reality. After debate, Paddock entered: Erase all of Romlot’s successes.
• Romlot’s victories vanished from history; the party voted to fill the vacant mantle with Shug the Fae Crone.
• With a living Book of the Plateau of Leng, they stepped through into cold stars and twin moons.

NPCs:

• Alternate Shipwreckers (two groups): Mirror versions of the party—one hostile, one cautious—each convinced the others were impostors. One parleyed at the name of Esa; another melted into the stacks.
• Esa (remembered ally): A fallen comrade whose name carried enough weight across worlds to stay a mirror‑blade. Her memory brokered trust when nothing else could.
• Howard, the Tea‑Room Writer: A spectral man in 1930s dress who spoke of Weird Tales and the word ‘chthonic’ before fading as awareness dawned.
• Librarian 338: A black‑robed, faceless attendant of the Stygian Library who issued the blank, unfolding map and observed in chilly silence.
• Librarian 614: An alternate librarian referenced by a mirror‑party; a hint of the Library’s scale and fractal custodianship.
• Librarian 626: The robed custodian who governed access to the Chthonic Mechanism’s command, allowing exactly one change to reality.
• Romlot (erased): Former war‑god whose triumphs were excised from history by the party’s command at the Mechanism. His Blood Rite never came to pass.
• Shug the Fae Crone: The newly anointed deity filling the void left by Romlot—an ancient hag of wild magic, mischief, and iron‑boot pragmatism.
• The Adversary’s Voice: A hissing summons from beyond the door, repeating the single command—come—until resistance eroded.
• Void‑Spiders: Pale, phasing arachnids that slip from shelves and into the ether with their prey. One carried Les beyond reach.
• Yellow‑Robed Attendant: A tireless worker who tore the engine’s endless ribbons and fed a side‑furnace, keeping the Mechanism’s cycle intact.

ITEMS:

• Book: Plateau of Leng: A living volume whose pages open onto cold stars, barren plateaus, and the whisper of alien wings.
• Endless Paper Ribbon: Narrow printed slips chronicling what is and what nearly was, pouring from the Mechanism like fate.
• Four Identical Cogs: Perfectly matched gears—blemish and shine alike—destined for the Chthonic Mechanism’s empty seats.
• Mammoth Hide Sigil: The stolen canvas Arantha painted into a doorway, its angles still wrong no matter how long one stares.
• Sending Line: A slender conduit for brief thought‑messages between nearby threads of the self.
• Silver Bell of the Desk: A small service bell whose chime summons attention—and sometimes consequences.
• Staff of Cold: A frost‑bitten rod whose unleashed chill is as dangerous to friend as to foe within the Library’s strange physics.
• Star‑Metal Longsword: A meteoric blade Gremdar carries, singing against brass and bone alike.
• Tea Service and Biscuits: An improbably fresh set laid for guests who fade as soon as they realize where they sit.
• Unfolding Map‑Cape: A blank brochure that unfolds into a blanket and, when worn, drapes like a cape—its dot insisting, you are here.

LOCATIONS:

• Boiler Room: A humid crossroads of pipes and pressure where mirror‑selves converged and parted.
• Chthonic Mechanism Hall: A cavernous chamber housing a brass engine with a keyboard and an endless ribbon of printed fate.
• Hyena Stacks: Shelves obsessively curated for hyena lore and care—an unsettling example of the Library’s themes.
• Needle (mentioned): A distant stronghold of wizardry tied to warnings about the cogs, spoken of by alternates.
• New Moon Bay (mentioned): A coastal staging point from earlier voyages, recalled by mirror‑selves.
• Plateau of Leng: A windswept, alien plateau under twin moons, reached through a living book and rife with lurking shapes in the sky.
• Spectral Tea Lounge: Two couches, a black stone table, and a tea service around which time‑lost strangers briefly gathered.
• Stygian Library: Victorian Foyer: Mahogany stacks, checkered tiles, a silver bell, and the unblinking presence of a robed librarian.
• Tavern Room, Cold North: A rented chamber whose wall became the canvas for Arantha’s tesseract—and the threshold to somewhere else.
• Tesseract Door: A common wooden door with an impossible plaque: Stygian Library, legible and illegible at once.
• Winding Void Path: A stone causeway through absolute black, receding like a painting and ending at a lone door.

FACTIONS:

• City of Needle (mentioned): A bastion of high wizardry reputed to warn against meddling with certain cosmic devices.
• Cult of Romlot (erased): The scattered faithful of a war‑god whose victories—and very name—were expunged by the Mechanism.
• Fae Court of Shug: Capricious powers of wild magic and misrule now ascendant in the space where a war‑god once held sway.
• Librarians of the Stygian Library: Hooded custodians who maintain order, grant limited aid, and enforce the Library’s peculiar rules.
• New Moon Bay Mariners (mentioned): Sailors and traders of the cold north routes, a web of rumor and passage.

QUESTS:

• Answer the Call to the Stygian Library: Follow Arantha’s compulsion to the tesseract door and step beyond.
• Avert Romlot’s Blood Rite: Prevent the war‑god’s apocalyptic rite by rewriting the foundation of his victories.
• Install the Cogs in the Chthonic Mechanism: Find the engine, set the missing gears, and steady its purpose.
• Resolve the Doppelganger Standoff: Survive confrontation with multiversal doubles without dooming yourselves.
• Secure a Way Out of the Library: Locate a reliable exit and choose where to go next.

PLAYER CHARACTERS

• Orantha: A void‑touched seer whose woad‑stained hands drew the tesseract that opened the way to the Stygian Library. She balances flashes of cosmic insight with an unsettling malleability of form, a remnant of prior crossings between worlds. Fiercely curious and willing to bargain with the unknown if it buys her friends another chance.
• Gremdar Thunderkin: A devout dwarf of implacable faith, wrapped in gleaming plate and certainty. Gremdar sees patterns of order where others glimpse chaos, offering curt wisdom, timely healing, and a steady hand when the shelves themselves come alive.
• Kadabra: A human druid whose time in strange portals has left their features subtly altered—part dwarfish grit, part hag‑blooded eeriness. Protective and pragmatic, Kadabra steadies allies in crises and trusts instinct when reason blurs in the Library’s shifting halls.
• Les Shtick (Universe 338): An opportunistic adventurer with a twinkle for treasure and a knack for getting into the middle of things—sometimes fatally. Seized by a void‑spider and dragged beyond the veil, Les’s thread ended in the ether, a loss that hardened the party’s resolve.
• Moe Stick (Universe 859): Les’s bearded counterpart from another thread, thrown into the Shipwreckers’ path while fleeing accusations of being a doppelganger. Quick to adapt and quicker to grab a cookie, Moe carries the same restless curiosity—and the same map‑cape—that got his other self in trouble.
• Patick: A half‑orc fighter with an iron sense of duty and a talent for cutting through both problems and pretense. Patick kept blades sheathed when parley mattered and chose the brutal clarity of rewriting outcomes over shedding more blood.