Play Report: Supergame II, The Afternoon Crew

10 Mar, 2026

Chronicles of the Mesmerizer: part 8^{1 2}

After witnessing what happened to Gene the Fighter³, I’m in no hurry to go back down the rainy town's dungeon without a better source of mushroom caps to keep my mind sharp. All I need is a way to extract the spores from what I have a mage's brain to cultivate them in.

I grabbed the first muddy carriage leaving town and re-encountered Hard Candy,⁴ who sweetly informed me of a bounty placed by a local pyromancer-ess, Pyrrha Les-Arsahnist, whose property in Blip was deemed forfeit to whoever killed her. We were too late to join an initial party, but rumors had it at least one of a previous group had died and none had claimed the manse.

We joined a larger group: Myself, Mortigaunt the Mesmerizer; Hard Candy; a leaping, winged sorcerer called Skarvi; Molos, an aquatic man with galvanic senses; and Osre, a barbaric fighting sorcerer.⁵ Three locals attended us: The Thermos, Abrative Phillip, and Barnabus Blackfish, a Cleric.

The wall surrounding the compound was foreboding… especially the enormous hole in it covered by a tarp. Suspecting an obvious trap, I allowed the others to enter first, but it was just as it appeared. Skarvi cast an excellent spell I envy — clairvoyance — and espied our mark, Les-Arsahnist herself, apparently sleeping. Hard Candy and Abrative Phillip climbed up on a rope and dispatched her with blades — but when the rest of us entered, it was clear that she had also been burned. Unconcerned with the particulars, Hard Candy took her head along.

The main goal apparently in hand, the next object was treasure. The first sign of that was floating in an adjacent room: an amulet, it seemed to me, floating in midair, reading in the common script:

MY CHUD SON :(

Molos discovered with his galvanic senses that it was actually worn by an invisible fellow, who introduced himself with a remark about halflings I can’t bring myself to repeat. Chud Son, as we came to know him, said that Pyrrha had been his mother, though he hadn’t liked her very much, and showed us a letter suggesting she had anticipated her own destruction at our hands. I skipped past that bit to where it said “treasure” and read:

I have left a small amount of treasure guarded by True Love. It is yours if you can show my darling chud son true love.

After an uncomfortable silence, Hard Candy and the others attempted to embrace Chud Son, who invisibly evaded them before offering to simply show us to True Love.

He proved a poor guide. The invisible, intolerant imbecile (who continued to comment on halfling culture) wandered past a mustache mannequin and an enormous sausage-in-a-bun roller before we stopped near a large tank holding a metal child meditating in fluid and a door. Chud Son insisted True Love was beyond.

I entered, and encountered a huge white humanoid with eyes the color of blood, who bewitched me to free him until Hard Candy pulled me away. Molos questioned it, but the enigmatic thing simply said it had "seen the Whole of Time." The conversation was intellectually but not financially stimulating, so somebody punted Chud into the room, where he developed a libertarian streak and began to release The Chained One.

A struggle broke out. The men-at-arms rushed in and battered Chud and Chained alike, the latter bleeding gold blood and attacking with shadow-punches when his limbs were freed.

If my brain had not been addled by the curse of the Statues, I’m confident I would have sooner noticed Chud’s “amulet” closely matched a blank space above the tank. Testing a hypothesis, I woke the child in the tank and, to my surprise, it addressed me, first:

"Sir! Sir! Where is the army of northern Virginia? I must regroup with General Lee's forces!"

As part of my studies into other realms I know of tales of travelers from a dimension known as "the Confederacy," who emerge naked from caves to leap and do great violence. Recalling such cryptids’ natural foes, I informed the child that there was an extremely pale "Yan-Ki" in the room just beyond. The child rent a hole in the wall with its mind and floated in.

I did not expect that the child might itself also be swayed by The Chained One's fearsome aura. I watched as the fighters flailed as it turned the metal walls into a tornado of shrapnel. Sensing the fight was becoming desperate, I threw my Illuminated Dagger and struck The Chained One dead.

Instantly, the children of Pyrrha calmed themselves. The child flew off in search of his General, and Chud Son, abruptly enlightened, took his leave to "make space for diverse voices."

There is not much left to tell. Beyond the Chained One’s room was a metal grandmother, Pyrrha’s mother-in-law, who confirmed Pyrrha’s only son was a child and really into history, and that a previous party had been through here before and taken all they could carry. Bastards!

They must have realized that I was among those so wronged, though, as after we left the estate empty-handed, an urchin presented us with instructions to collect 30,000 gold pieces and a Bowl of Controlling Water Elementals, which I gratefully accepted.

P.S. Curse my addled brain! I began my chronicle with the wish for the brain of a powerful mage, and I have left precisely such a thing in Hard Candy's hands! I must appeal to him for possession of the head immediately.

P.P.S. Writing now morning after heist. Strange dreams. My hands feel like weapons, throwing daggers… I cut myself and the blood ran gold. The shadows are worshiping me and calling my name. I have seen the whole of time.