When me and my wife started Jessy’s Story, we had a pretty solid idea of what we wanted to do: I write the story, she makes the art. At least one piece per session. Though it was hard, we stuck to it, and now that Jessy’s Story is done I can collect all this art into a huge gallery. It is an awesome feeling. Before we get to the art: a few words from the artist.
This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
This post contains visual nudity.
| Previous |
The ground is far, far below her. Jessy falls from the top of reality, rushing towards its bottom, but in the moments between she experiences a lifetime. The wind never stops beating at her, the pull of gravity is strong as ever, yet Jessy feels still as she takes in the grotesque, infernal world around her. The ruined city beneath the black behemoth citadel opens itself to her. She walked its tattered streets, all gore and gloom, but only now could she see its true splendor. Past, present, and lost future unravels, the rise of Dehu and Mil and their countless temples and feverish celebrations. The city was built as a monument to the Twins, to the euphoria of power and control. Its inhabitants were followers and leaders at once, vying for love and glory amongst themselves. Ruthless might raised their city from dust and brought forth an age of sacred conflict to the love of their twin gods. Uncountable years passed, dynasties rose and fell, love begat war and war begat yet more love. Spears and cudgels gave way to swords and bows, replaced again by automatic gunfire and sleek drones. The city lived and died beneath the distant monolith dominating earth and endless sky, and the Twins’ chosen who had once been so many were now all gone. Well, all but the man falling ahead of Jessy, robe beating in the wind. She knows that if Tan lives, his devotion to the Twins will grant him good will and new opportunities to conquer and succeed. Below them is not just the dead and hellish city they are escaping, but every other city as well. Roads not decorated with mutilated corpses, where streetlights flicker and people hide from power rather than seek it. In some way, they all live with the rapidly encroaching shadow of the surreal structure in the distance. The ground still approaches, but Jessy’s vision warps until the empty, ruined city is smudged away, and gone.
Continue reading “Session 20 – Finale”This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
| Previous | Next |
Marie Ericson-Buckle, Jessy Button’s mother, is a shadow of her former self. She is on her knees, back twisted out of shape and legs bent in ways legs should not bed. The clothes she was buried in are rags, slashed and stained garments. Marie has cuts all over her body, infected wounds with dried blood and pus filling them. Long strips of skin and flesh have been cut from her arms, she’s bruised in blue and yellow, and exposed reddish bone sticks out of the wounds on her hand. Jessy’s eyes fill with tears as she runs through the filthy basement, overwhelmed by the sight of her mother. She was dead, never to be seen again. Jessy lost the only person she could trust when her mother died, leaving her life confusing and directionless. The left side of Marie’s head is caved in, exposed bone and hair tangled up with blood and brain. In Marie’s remaining right eye, Jessy still recognizes her mother’s green luster. It really is her. Jessy reaches down to hug her mother, whose outstretched arms wrap gingerly around her daughter despite the obvious agony. Why is Jessy there? Her mother speaks in fragmented, confused sentences, shuddering from pain but refusing to let go even as her ribs shift under Jessy’s embrace. Their conversation is slow, interrupted by long periods of wordless sobbing. Jessy was brought there by her grandmother, she admits, and Marie fills with dread. So she has gotten to Jessy too. They both know Angela well, better than either would like to. Jessy cannot explain half of what has happened to her, but in mentioning the ring Marie stops her with babbled interruptions. Why use the ring? Her disappointment and outright fear makes Jessy’s stomach sink. She thought her mother wanted her to have it. Marie swears, cursing out her own mother with a twitching kick to the ground that ends with a sad, wet thud. Jessy should have remembered what Honey told her after he had stolen the ring. Her mom didn’t put it in the will. She never wanted this. The realization is nauseating. Her mother hates the ring. Through broken teeth Marie spits out a rant about how it makes people bad, it ruins them and turns them into something so much worse than they were. Jessy’s grandmother wasn’t always how she is. Marie’s voice cracks. The cruel voice in her head is what the ring made of Angela, and it will do the same to Jessy.
Continue reading “Session 19 – Love and Inhumanity”This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
This post contains visual nudity.
| Previous | Next |
All morning, Jessy feels blood trickling from her neck onto her clothes. Nothing there. She hurriedly packs all her most expensive things into two duffel bags and dumps the blood-stained tarps from upstairs in the garbage bins out front. It’s a dark day out, thick gray clouds covering the sky and making noon seem like twilight. The Mississauga and Toronto city centers are barely visible, just muddy shapes in the distance. Jessy calls an Uber to get to Tan’s place, watching empty stretches of highway and sad apartment buildings where people stand by their windows, staring out at the streets with empty eyes. Jessy has never seen Toronto quite like this, so broken and dismal. Color has drained from the prominent graffiti and senseless advertisements, marketing products she’s never heard of. It is a surreal experience, made worse by the only exception to this dullness. Each police car they pass gleams in proud white and black, a vivid display in the otherwise washed out surroundings. They’re not after her right now, she knows that, but their everpresence still discomforts her. At least Tan’s condo welcomes her with warmth and bright decor. She takes a brief moment to soak in it, but with some dismay realizes she has much to do still. Online, she builds her contact network and starts laying out some backup plans. What happens if she needs to flee? Where can she stay? The ritual is in two days. She has so much to do. Jessy spends most of her time agonizing over what is to come. When should she place Sol’s golden coins? What will she do about the last one? How should she attack Sol?
Continue reading “Session 18 – Mancipia”This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
| Previous | Next |
| The ring burns like fire when Jessy places it on her finger and a burning sensation spreads through her entire body. She cannot hope to control the power flowing from the ring, and the raw sensation of it incapacitates her in an instant. Jessy collapses onto the floor beside the bleeding, dying old hag possessed by her grandmother. Angela watches from her eyes, delighted as Jessy is forced to recognize a suffering unlike anything she’s felt before, or even imagined. Through the ring, her mind is invaded by another, something once a woman but now barely human.1 In a few fleeting moments, Jessy relives a lifetime of hurt. Nothing could have prepared her for it. Lashes, burns, restraints and darkness, punishments so surreal that her own soul feels torn to bits, each piece wound and bound like silver thread then tortured again. Vomit rises in her throat and chokes her, a half century of unrelenting agony taking over every thought and emotion. That suffering lives in the ring, but Jessy can sense that the woman who knew it is still out there somewhere, alive. The pain has eroded her thoughts, her name, her entire soul, yet somehow she lives on. |
1
Keep It Together Failure
|
This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
This post contains elder abuse.
| Previous | Next |
The pendulum of the old clock punctuates Jessy’s every step, the ticktocking of its exact machinery guiding the pace of all things in this place. She is guided down a hallway of closed doors, no names, titles or signs of life other than her and the withered receptionist. At the end, a heavy wooden door states with a gold plate: SOL. The door is opened for Jessy by the receptionist’s starved remains, and she is quick to step inside and confront whoever has orchestrated all of this. The man waiting in the room, tall and broad in a checked suit of brown, greets Jessy with a heavy handshake. He has a sturdy figure and small beady eyes. At the far end of the sizable office stands a desk of dark wood, a massive piece of furniture that looks completely immovable. Behind it, just above the exquisite leather chair, hangs a map of Toronto and all its boroughs. Every road, alleyway and tiny walking path is a thin line on the map, lines which continue past the black, narrow frame and out onto the wallpaper. The entirety of the room’s walls swarm with a myriad of lines, an endless city surrounding Canada’s finest metropolis.
Continue reading “Session 14 – Sol”This is a session recap for a Kult: Divinity Lost roleplaying campaign. Jessy Button is played by my wife, who also does the art, and I am the game master.
This post contains visual nudity, memory loss, sexual content and flagellation.
| Previous | Next |
| Jessy sits in the bedroom, confused, and listens to James run down the stairs. Carolina and Daisy immediately go to check on him. Realizing this situation might get out of hand quickly, Jessy hurries to catch up to James. He is on the verge of tears, trying to give Daisy a rambled recollection of what happened. He was terrified, stuck with suffering and pain for an eternity. No joy, no passion. He sought his god, and found only torment. Carolina and Daisy are shocked, but Jessy approaches and tries to mend her now ruined relationship with James1. She didn’t mean him any harm, she only did what she thought he wanted. She cares about James and making this right, but right now he needs to calm down. Carolina has already called Tan, recognizing the weight of what’s unfolding, so perhaps they should just wait for him. Daisy leads the temporarily placated James to a chair in the lounge, and when he asks for his 3DS she gets it for him from the staff lounge. They all sit down and wait for Tan, with the cheery sounds of Animal Crossing as background noise. Jessy’s mind is running at full speed, trying to piece together an excuse or explanation Tan might listen to. |
1
Influence Other Partial Success |
Beyond Elysium 