But first...
First, Zoma climbed their tower up to the Sanctum, carrying the heads they collected that afternoon: the mage and the blademaster. Zoma added their heads to the sacrifical altar, next to Grimgrin's and Warmaster Argug's. Sitting on their chair, Zoma ran their vivid green eyes over the power crystals, lighting them up and drawing Aether from them. The candle flames flickered and the shadows grew.
Zoma rested their hands on the arms of the chair, leaving their scythe to the side, standing upright on its own. They closed their eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing and chanting in a low voice, opening their mind's door and leaving it open for It to visit.
"O Extraneus, responde querelis meis,
iterum hac nocte ad me veni.
Quattuor tibi offero – quattuor nunc mortuos.
Ostende eis desperationis sensum."
A flood of incomprehensible, surreal images invaded their thoughts. Fighting against them was impossible, one cannot resist the pull of The Stranger after all. Zoma felt their nose bleed; they licked it and extended a hand over the altar, channeling the heads. It was time.
They concentrated on the lifeless objects before them, and drew from the deathly energies to affect those lives. They called It. And told It where to direct Its gaze. Whose dreams to affect. Whose head to beat on like a church bell. As Zoma opened their eyes again, there It was: the eye. A rift in reality itself, with The All-Seeing Eye peering through, the yellow serpentine eye fixed on the heads on the altar.
Zoma smirked. The Stranger had seen them. The Hex was placed.
[[OOC: This is a minor consequence from the recent skirmishes. It is entirely up to the players whether or not this Hex affected them. I'm simply providing a RP element to add substance to the narrative. But the final decision is of course yours. The Hex attempt was on the characters Grimgrin, Lothian and Juilin. The effect would be constant nausea, headache, a persisting sense of dread and cold, and most of all, terrifying nightmares emboding their deepest fears, every night, for a week. After this time, the effect would wane and vanish like it was never there.]]