Barnes used the mirror to search for suitable corpses and found some along with buried cookware
The party spent several minutes debating who should be the one to use the ritual knife to skin the corpse. The task eventually fell to Barnes who, despite some trouble, did a suspiciously good job of skinning the human, suffering only minimal sanity loss
Resources were gathered for the ritual, Marta suggests a spot of light grave robbing for a container in which to boil the water
Everything gathered, musical ritual begins, Tex and Yulia chant while constructing and playing the instruments, Barnes and Marta guard the boundary of the juniper circle
Tenzin and Albert also chant
Marta is terrible at spotting things and Barnes can’t hit a jackal
Skeletons surround the circle and eventually Shri Chitipati, guardian deities and Lord and Lady of the burial ground turn up to join in the dance
Pleased by Tex and Yulias performance, Citipati leaves and the ritual is a success, infusing the instruments with their life energy (POW)
Tenzin, realising we’re running out of time sacrifices some of his own life energy and one of the 3 skulls on his Khaṭvāṅga to teleport us to Tibet
This proves too much for Marta, who runs screaming into the snowy wastes, still dressed for Indian weather, regaining her senses just in time to avoid going off of a cliff
Tex helps her up and Marta suddenly reaslises that she can no longer look at the Khaṭvāṅga
The party makes their way towards a printing house. The plates for the ritual and the ceremonial paper have been misplaced, so to fill the time an agreement is struck that we can receive the scrolls we need in exchange for delivering a thangka to a monastery in Dzogchen
Tea was offered but Marta is too exhausted from her ordeals to care, she heads to the area where the pilgrims rest, followed by Lord Barnes, insisting that Marta write up their latest adventure with him as the main character
Marta rages, accidentally casts Flesh Ward on Barnes, punches him (ineffective) and goes to bed
Barnes meanwhile felt a surge of British courage and ran outside to find the legendary white ape. Failed his climb check and fell the distance of 3 buildings but suffered no more than a slight winding
He proclaimed himself the King of England to a donkey who was, surprisingly, able to rescue him – a day trapped in an icy chaam alone did nothing to his sanity, must be a British thing
Barnes eventually returns to the party, his stench of death sending Marta running from the building
Tex dreams of the large, featureless white plane with the downward staircase, he had his weapons with him despite having given them up. He overhears minions of the King of Fear talking about how the King cannot currently enter the world without monks stopping him (did this happen after arriving at the next town?)
In the morning, the party is shown the thangka, it depicts the Abbot of the monastery at Dzogchen surrounded by his most revered teachers.
The party sets off and Marta, for the most part, resists the urge to throw Barnes into danger to test the efficacy of her spell
Party arrives, Barnes argues with an ani (a female lama) but eventually tucks King George into bed with a blanket and kiss goodnight
We deliver the thangka to the head monk only to find it now depicts Tenzin having sex with a red skinned woman. Apparently some universal gaslighting and a peek at our friend’s onlyfans is enough to cause further sanity loss in the party