Ouzo's second letter home

 The cast: Bear [Ian], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Debbie [Steven],

Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Tu [Shane], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris]



Dear Mum,

Hope you git this letter and that some slimy bastard* hasn't made all them spellin and other changes witch were not mine, filistines.

Well, it aint bin that good here, what with losing Gillard and Oliver, with them not gettin back from their quick trip back down to open up the shaft entrance, witch you heard about last week. When they didn't get back after an hour we was in real trouble, cause then we didn't know what to do. That big dog and them skellingtons probably will kill us. So, we decided to wait another hour. Still they did not come, so we had to make a big decision: go in or back to the pub. Unanimously, we said "let's go and do the big hero rescue". Then we buggered about for a few minutes cause Too had marmalade stuck in his throat, and Debbie had some of the same pouring out her eyes and ears.

So, through the mirror we went, Bare first, Dexter then Myrtle, finally meself and Scuttle. All was quiet, then we hear a growl and pattering feet. Bounding towards us wuz that big [skeletal] dog. Bare and Dexter stood with weapons ready. It took on Dexter, who tried to parry, got bit real bad and went down. Bare swung a mighty blow and did a bit of damage.  Myrtle cured Dexter who popped back up. The dog then attacked Bare for a mighty 5 points. He had a go back and missed. The dog tried another attack but the guys cleverly dodged and then Bare stepped in and hurt it
for 1 point, but dropped one of the only crushing weapons we have down the stairs and out of reach. Dexter scored a good hit but things were looking real bad.

Two coughed out his marmalade and then wished himself elsewhere.

The fight continued back and forth with Dexter and Bare scoring hits and both quite damaged but somehow able to dodge a lot of the hits. Suddenly, 40kg of lard called Skuttil falls from the ceiling straight onto the back of the dog. I reckon he was trying to climb around but slipped. The dog turned his mighty jaws and bit into him. A mighty 1 point. Then Bare and Dexter both hit it and smashed it into smithereens.

We easily got passed the next problem, the big hidden spike in the hole in the floor. The skellingtons were next, 4 of them, and Myrtle turned them by talking to her god of Luck, "vung tea urn" or something like that. So, we got around them and we see that the trap door is unbarred, so they must have got this far. So we stand around for ages trying to reckin what they did next. We couldn't see no footprints so all the thinkin was kinda made up.  We decided to go back through the same portal and ended up back in the cigar-smoking room. Ok back around yet again and this time through the other portal...  and back to the smoking room. Now we wuz right confused.

Round again, this time to try and set off this thing called a toggle, witch was a bit beyond me. In the final room Myrtle said "hey look everything is switched around", so we went back thru portal 2 ... 

Pop - we is in a room and there is our missin mates, Oliver and Gillard. Oliver is nonchalantly leanin against a wall and Gillard is attacking a desk, with a drawer fighting back valiantly and resisting all his efforts. In the drawer, was a letter, 4 potions and a letter opener. I reckin he got some help to finally defeet it, but I wasn't watchin at the time. There is a door out but Oliver couldn't git thru it. They banged away at it heaps, so probably nothin behind it. Both me and Skutel says no traps. Skutel unlocks it, and in the next room a cellar with a stair up. Me and Skutel saw a black cat shoot up the stair real fast like. So we set up usual attack formation and check the door at the top. A cat flap in it was still slowly swinging. Bare quietly opened the door, a kitchen. Two doors, one outside and another into the house. Everyone started talking "witch witch witch, they have cats   so witch witch witch".  The kitchen is recently used with nice scones, almost as good as yours, and the fire was out but still warm. I looked out the window  and see the new part of town. We had bin teleported.

Being utterly non-quiet we open the inside door and there is a sitting room, with a black cat sitting on a nice easy-chair. Myrtle went up to it and strokes and it purrs. It then gets a bit touchy and starts staring at Too who kept saying "don't stroke it, strangle it". Dexter meanwhile nocks an arrow and shoots at it. It begins to grow and leaps at Dexter. Now the size of a real big house cat, it has a swipe but misses Dexter. Bare had a swing  and missed, and Dexter stepped back to change weapons. Too had a crack but missed also. The rest of us stood back, Debbie kicked off the tooty tooty she does on her flute** and the mayhem began.

The cat, spittin and snarling, attacks Dexter with two sets of claws and those long cat teeth. He gets bitten badly on the arm and falls back unconscious . Oliver hit it with a magic missile but things lookin bad, it really hurts when it hits. The cat, sensing Bare's prior wounds, attacked him in the midriff and hit him so bad he lost a whole lot of
his strength. Then the mighty Gillard, coolly walked up and struck a perfect blow and it died. Then it shrank and slowly changed into a naked lady. Before anyone could notice Skutel skutiled up and chopped her damn head off ! I nearly lost me lunch over that, blood everywhere and sinews hangin down, I don't think he has bin to butcha school. He said he wants to take it to the Real priests, who, as you said, do nasty things to dead people.

I do a hunt around an find nuffin. Skutil checks for traps on the final door and finds a trap. Me and Skutil couldn't disarm it, so good ol' Debbie sets it off, and as usual the trap duz no damage to her. In the room a small study with a desk. I checked, no traps and an easy lock to open. Heaps of papers, 2 vials, ink a quill and a black stone rod. Some said it wuz obsidian but I don't know what that that means. The rod and vials were magical.

We decided to head back to the Inn feeling pretty good with ourselves, a good haul and the chalice. We mucked about for a bit, rubbin our hands and workin out how much cash the jewels were worth. Oliver went off to the Mages' Guild and it wuz all a halla a boo cause a mage had just dropped dead. Her name was Ruby Jeffrey, and it wuz real sudden like. Oliver talked some more and worked out it was about the same time we wasted the cat.

We decided to take a day or two two sort things out, some trainin for the fighters and a bit of research and healin. Oliver wanted to find out about the letters in the cat's study, some of the names were Rose Gervan, who was in the town militia but now retired. Odette Wiley and she is in the town guard. Ophelia Treacle who owns the mansion we broke into. The last name was Ingrid Barnett who used to be a cleaner in the Penstoke Real temple. Oliver wuz real proud of his research. Some of the smart boys in the group rekon we are now on the path of the whole lot of them Malechai bastards. We also thought it important to keep the Real temple up to date, so Myrtle went and told them stuff, and they think she needs some sort of a personality transplant.

Whilst Myrtle wuz tellin them about the cat, they checked out the chopped-off head. They then said that the cat waz probably a were-cat, and if you had got bit you mite turn into one of these were creatures. We are now all a bit worried about Dexter and Bare.

Skutil and me were asked to go and see if Roger, the bloke who hired us to get the chalice, had a witch's mark on his back door. So, we waited til nite and and we sneaked round and made sure he did not.

We had to hang around a lot waiting for the magical stuff to be checked out and passed around to the right member of the group. As usual, Too couldn't understand how some folk got the stuff and he didn't. We all laughed and poured more beer down his throat.

So, all in all we hung about for 4 days for all the magicking and trainin and healin.

Because we told them Real boys, one nite the mansion and the cat's house completely disappeared. Gone, flat ground. When I found out next morning at breakfast I wuz gobb-smaked. Them Real boys are real powerful.

The weirdest thing about the four days wuz Bare. He started rubbing himself up against doors and stuff, and liked to lie down when the sun came out and curl himself up. Looks a bit suss and we are worried he mite be a human mice-hunter to be.  We will know in about a month.

We didn't do much after these 4 days but right at the end we decided to give the chalice to the Real priests. Problem was, we took the chalice, but the Reals laughed and said it was not magic. We got real confused but finally worked out it wuz cause there was no incense. We hunted high and low and none of us knew where it waz. We all got a bit suss about each other, so we emptied all our packs and shit and guess what? Oliver had the stuff. He just shrugged. I reckon he mite be some sort of Malechai spy***. But he gave the incense up real easy like and we checked and the chalice was once again a magic-summoning thingy. So, we took to the Reals who, as usual, gave us nuffin**** for it (Mum, I agree them are real bastards), and they destroyed it.

Well that is all for now Mum. Sorry no money enclosed cause me share git spent on them Identifies, but if I don't make it home, at least me new majik dagger will, and I am sure you will make good use of it: carving up the Sunday roast of rat / gravy lard / horse testicles.

Your living and lovin son, 

Oozo

* = Philistine Myrtle did less editing this time of Ouzo's atrocious spellin' and grammuh. Most of it is his sacred words.

** = Bardic battle-hymn flute-music inspires a fight (+2 OV).

*** = Oliver did not approve of us giving the evil Malechai chalice to the REALs for destruction (despite the party vote). So, it was suspected he held the incense back in a futile attempt to stop the loss of the chalice. Ouzo did not mention Oliver's evil cursed undead knife nor his black arm, but its influence on Oliver has not improved.

*** = Except their heart-felt thanks and another favour.

The Death of Oliver and Gillard

Dear Mrs Smith and Mrs Mathieson,

May I introduce myself: Myrtle Rust, Priestess of Vingt-et-Un, and adventurer companion to Mrs Smith's son Oliver and Mrs Mathieson's daughter Gillard.

It is with great sorrow that I write to you two ladies to bear the sad tidings of the tragic deaths of Oliver and Gillard.

While we have yet to recover the bodies of the two party members, it will only be a matter of time. I will personally ensure that their corporeal remains are returned to you as fast as possible. While Gnome Post will not handle the transport of living beings, the gnomes are well-equipped to action the speedy delivery of mortal remains, be they in lead-lined coffins, embalmed with formalin in leather satchels, or pickled in 180-proof rum in barrels.

I am sure you wish to know how this tragedy happened, so I shall endeavour to relate the last few hours, leading up to the two awful deaths.

Mrs Smith's brave son Oliver was the leader of our adventuring party, and Mrs Mathieson's brave daughter Gillard was a leading fighter of the group too. The party, named "The Party", consisted Oliver Smith [Jeff], mage of great power; Gillard Mathieson [Kevin] halfling fighter of superb renown, myself 21 Priestess Myrtle Rust [Andrew], elf fighter of dexterity Tu Pointy-ears [Shane], great fighter Nicholas "Bear" Stravos [Ian], esteemed ranger Dexter [Jamie], sneaky halfling thief Scuttle Stoutfeet [Chris], archer-thief Ouzo [Darryl] and blind busty bimbo bard Debbie O'Nair [Steven].

We were exploring an abandoned mansion in the city of Toluene, hot on the trail of an evil Malechai coven of witches.

The story began when we were camped out at the top of some stairs, after passing through a one-way portal. We had just slain two skeletal dogs of great power.

A third skeletal dog approached, twice the size of the other two. We were doomed, but brave Oliver discovered a new use for his cursed boline knife.

Oliver's cursed boline knife

Cursed knife? Oh, you didn't know about that? 

Well, Oliver has a malignant and sickeningly evil magical boline knife that is, ...well... parasitically attached to his mortal soul. Not only does it turn the flesh on his arm black, it makes him feel ill when scratched and very sensitive to REAL's light. He cannot enter holy temples and has to skirt wide girths around paladins. No, it was not this knife that killed him. 

Apparently, the boline has some beneficial side-effects too: it vibrates whenever undead are near, and, as Oliver discovered today, allows him to command the undead necromantically - the brain-dead ones.

Oliver shouted some orders at the skeletal dog, and it obeyed him! Thank Vingt-et-Un's luck! Our group would have been hard-pressed to fight it. You see, our best fighter, Bear, was nearly dead from a deep rat bite.

While Oliver kept the beast at bay, we all made our way down the endless stairs to a room at the bottom. The only exit was a tough locked door that was way beyond our thieves Scuttle and Ouzo's skills.

Bear shoulder-charged the door, then all the fighters, one at a time, made their own attempts to break it, but it was all too strong for them. Until party bimbo bard Debbie tapped her boob against it, and lo and behold, it splintered, the iron-bound hoops broke, and pieces of the door scattered down the passage.

Down the passage, at the corner, there was a pit trap. It had been set off by some hapless fellow weeks ago. His emaciated and rotted body was impaled on a spike inside the pit. No, this was not where Oliver fell. Nor Gillard. 

The corpse had 12 magical arrows, a magical dagger and a magic cloak. Scuttle donned this cloak and it shrunk to fit his morbidly obese halfling body - tight as a drum.

Alcove skeletons

Further on, was a corridor with eight skeletons in alcoves, four a side. The fighters started to battle these, and destroyed four of them before Oliver arrived on the scene and held the others at bay with his boline knife.

It seemed, if one attacked a "held" skeleton, it would fight back, and then Oliver could never again gain necromantic control over it.

Shadow

In the next room was a slab of obsidian, large as a table - a Malechai shrine. There was another exit (door) and a barred trapdoor in the floor. But three shadows, hidden against the far wall, attacked us. They can only be hit by magical weapons, so Gillard, Dexter, Bear and myself engaged. Debbie whistled up a rousing battle hymn with her flute. No, this was not where Gillard fell. 

After a tough fight, we prevailed and destroyed them. We were all hit by them, draining us [ shadows drain STR, not hp ], except Gillard(!). So, we needed a good rest to recover this weakness. Sleep was not possible near the obsidian block, which radiated cryogenic evil, so we withdrew back to Pit Corner.

When we returned to the obsidian block room, an hour later, we first checked the barred trap-door in the corner. It lead down a long vertical shaft down to the sewer tunnels way below. We worked out that Scuttle had managed to get to the other side of this trap-door a previous time (some weeks ago), but on that trip, he could not get past the bar.

Next was the door from this room. The two thieves, Ouzo and Scuttle, checked it and quickly ascertained that it was trapped. This was a job for Debbie. 

Debbie was very lucky. Like me, her half-elven ancestry ensured that Vingt-et-Un looked fondly upon her, and graced her with good luck. But Debbie was half-blind too, having cataracts and severe astigmatism [ 3 PER ]. So, it was very easy to guide blind Debbie into doorways that were trapped, pressure plates in the floor, and tripwires, relying on her luck to save her. Hence, her epithet was Debbie "trap-springer" O'Nair. 

So, Debbie was guided to the door and she opened it, the trap went off, and a one-ton block fell from the ceiling, but :

"Whip whap wing!" 

Went the trapped door's spring.

But Debbie's excess luck, 

Meant she didn't give a fuck have to duck.

From the "whip whap wok!" 

Of the one ton block.

As it crashed to the ground,

Leaving her safe and sound. 

Behind was another passage through to another cavern and archway into another Malechai altar. The two thieves spotted a magical trap in the archway. I went through that, and got zapped by some lightning from above (this should have been Debbie's job). I, too, am lucky, so Vingt-et-Un decided I only be slightly burned. The altar in this room had 13 stools around it - the Malechai coven number. And on the altar there was a chalice and 13 sticks of incense. This chalice matched the one we were supposed to recover.

Bear tried to take the chalice, but got badly zapped and this knocked him down. I had to use two cures to get him up again. This should have been Miss Trap-Springer's job.

There were two portals on the wall here. These are the kind you have to commit to, and blindly (and blithely) walk through. We decided to use the one on the right, and whoever went through, the rest of the party would follow. So, I lead the way...

... and ended up back in the Cigar room of the mansion (right next to the one-way portal that placed us at the top of the stairs with the skeletal dogs).

Since we were back in the mansion, we decided to finish exploring it. We had yet to do the upstairs, so that is where we headed. 

The whole place was damp and musty and showing signs of decay, and had not been occupied in months, but the rot had set in long before that.

In the bedroom above the main dinner hall below, there were great holes in the floor. The 13 seats of the dinner hall below were still occupied by the animated corpses. Tu and Ouzo had an idea to throw two of the upstairs beds through the holes in the floor to try to destroy some of them. The "bed attack" plan seemed to work and broke up three of their bodies. But we found out later, when entering that room again, that they just reformed. Maybe because beds do not qualify as "magical weapons".

In one of the upstairs sitting rooms, we heard a woman's scream. We could not see what had made the noise, but there was a painting of a woman on the far wall. The floor around the painting looked rotten, so no-one was brave enough to walk close to check her out.

In another bedroom, there was a recently left lantern. Ouzo smashed it. Outside the window, from that angle and point of view, one could signal the abandoned quarter of Toluene, or maybe the town's guard-house tower in the distance.

In another sitting room we heard another scream, and this time saw some movement. There was another painting of that same woman, and a rotten floor. Gillard bravely traversed across to the painting and tried to pick it off the wall, but her hands sort-of got sucked into the painting. We had to pull her off. No, this wasn't where Gillard met her fate. Dexter stuck an arrow into the painting, with no effect.

We then had a party conference to decide what to do next. 

• No one wanted to go into the dining hall and take on the 13 animated corpses. Let sleeping dogs corpses lie.
• One group wanted to go back through the Cigar room portal, back underground, past the skeletal dog, past the impaled body, past the alcove skeletons, and back to the second Malechai shrine, and go through the second portal to see where it exited. 
• The other group (including me) wanted to get out of there, and investigate the fellow who sent us on this goose chase to get the chalice. If he had the Malechai symbol, we would turn on him. This option would also involve spilling the beans to REAL so that they could send their level 26 pope down here to cleanse the two Malechai shrines with holy fire (like they did with the other Malechai temples a few weeks back).

The second group won the vote, but It was at this stage that seeds for the tragedy of Oliver and Gillard unfolded, and why I am writing this letter.

Someone piped up that the barred trapdoor in the first Malechai shrine should be unbarred (we left it locked). The logic, I think, so that entry could be managed without going through the one-way portal. in future. Before it could be voiced that this might be dangerous, Oliver and Gillard ran off, back to the Cigar room and back through the one-way portal. They predicted the trip should only take 10 minutes, and they should re-appear in the Cigar room.

That was the last we ever saw of them.. 

Oliver and Gillard, R.I.P.

The Art House

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], with two marmalading back at the Bestial Maid Inn (Gillard [Kevin], Dexter [Jamie]).

“Oh shit” complained Oliver, “my arm has gone black again!”

The party were in the REAL Temple in Toluene, discussing the Temple’s posted mission to “solve” the raid on the REAL Temple up in Penstoke.

“And destroy the suspected witch’s coven operating in the area” stated the REAL priest.

Back at the Inn we decided that a good starting point in unravelling the local coven would be to locate the house at the top of the access shaft that ran up from the Malechai shrine. We had located that shrine down in the caves below the centre of town, and REAL had dealt to it. We knew that the trapdoor at the top of the shaft (which we could not get through) was somewhere in the city’s central restricted zone. And we knew it would be likely that the symbol we had found on a few of the other houses associated with the coven would be at that location too.

“And” said Oliver, “if we are in the restricted zone again, we could recover that guy’s artwork”

Oliver was referring to one of the jobs posted on the community notice board; to recover Roger Olak’s precious artwork which he had to abandon in his house in the restricted zone when the area was evacuated due to subsidence and risk of collapse.

Oliver and Myrtle dropped around to Roger’s temporary residence to discuss the job. Ten thousand gold pieces to recover his fifteen pieces of artwork from his locked storeroom in the old house. He gave us the address, along with a cursory description of the house layout.

“And most impowtantly” he stressed, “you must wecover the chalice welic and incense sticks that are stowed were in the woom too!”

“Very dodgy” stated Myrtle as we were leaving, “totally not his art! Or even his house”

But we had taken the job. And with some heated discussion and application of party smarts [Oliver made a Mind role, less than 18 and a success] we determined that the location of the shaft in the caves was almost exactly below the house that Roger had directed us to. So, we were looking forward to an efficient two‑in‑one mission into the red zone.

That night we slipped back into Zarbo’s house on the restricted zone boundary, waited till morning, and then out the back door into the restricted zone. Ouzo was cautiously leading us through the streets towards the address when we rounded a corner to find a squad of five town guards directly in front of us and staring straight at us.

“Oi” yelled the ugly female sergeant, “what the f… are you lot doing in here?”
“Oh, good morning sergeant” blustered Ouzo, “can you please direct us to the Custard Tart Inn”
“Eeeek” squealed Tu stumbling back, “they have dogs!”

“No” commanded the sergeant, “now get the f… out of the zone. In fact, we will escort you out”

We were escorted out of the restricted zone!

“And don’t let me catch you in there again” instructed the sergeant, “or you’ll be arrested and thrown straight in the slammer”

We slunk back to the Inn to determine our next steps.

“Well, she was quite nice” chuckled Scuttle.

After a few hours we returned to the Zarbo house to try again. But this time we took more care with our navigation and managed to avoid the patrols and arrived at a walled mansion in the heart of the restricted zone. A ten-foot high brick fence with an old metal gate surrounded a large two‑storey mansion. Peering over the gate we could see an ornate front door in the middle of the building. All the windows we could see were shuttered, stone gargoyles could be seen adorning the corners of the roof, and the gate had a huge padlock locking it closed.

“No traps” said both Ouzo and Scuttle.
“Ha” complained Bear, “Not me this time”

After Scuttle poked at the lock for a few minutes Ouzo quickly sprung it open and we all slipped into the property, closing the gate behind us. Draping the chain around the lock, we made sure not to relock it. The driveway swept round to the left and led to an old stable building. Foregoing the front door, we quickly circled to the right around the house. The right rear of the enclosure sported an overgrown vegetable garden, while an old well was located about halfway along the rear brick wall. 

A back entrance to the house was located about central on the back wall, and there were two old timber out-buildings at the left rear. And sure enough, the coven symbol was subtly caved into the timberwork of the rear door.

A timber veranda  ran along the left side of the house and another entrance was located off the veranda .

The unlocked out-building contained a bunch of gardening tools and a lot of dust. The locked out-building had a broken window along the side and looked to contain more tools and a pile of old sacks of something smelly. Scuttle stepped back from the lock with a frown, so Ouzo stepped up and flicked it open in seconds.

“That’s how you do it Scuttle” he mocked.

Tu and Myrtle slipped into the gloomy interior, and almost immediately stumbled back out with a yell, closely followed by four large flying “bats” with extremely long proboscises.

Tu managed to let off an arrow as the creatures swept up into the air above us and then began to dive straight down towards us. Tu’s arrow hit one squarely in the chest region, closely followed by Myrtle’s sling bullet that hit the same one square between the eyes. It’s head literally exploded, and it dropped to the ground like a stone. Ouzo’s arrow barely injured one of the others.

The three left attacked Bear, Oliver, and Scuttle, but they mostly missed. Bear was struck on the shoulder, but the proboscis just bent against his chain mail armour, and it skittered past with an indignant screech.

Tu got off a shot the next round which took another one mid-flight and pinned it back against the out-building wall. Ouzo’s arrow glanced off the one that still had his previous arrow hanging from its guts, and Myrtle’s highly effective sling bullet knocked one of the others from the sky.

The final remaining creature dived down on Debbie, but missed, and Debbie pierced it with her rapier as it swooped past. But not enough to kill it, as it swept up and turned for another attack.

Oliver’s Magic Missile stopped it mid-dive though and it tumbled to the ground at Debbie’s feet.

Myrtle looked over the four creatures and confirmed their identity as Stirges.

“Nasty blood sucking bastards” she noted.

We took a quick look down into the well, but given our well experience of a month ago, we took the dark well at face value and moved around the corner of the house, bypassing the veranda , and checking out the stables building. The stable door was ajar, so we all slipped in. There was a month’s dead horse lying in the middle of the stable, extremely desiccated, otherwise nothing of interest. Bear shimmied up the ladder to the loft, but only found old straw and dust.

Then we stepped up onto the veranda and Ouzo carefully inspects the lock.
“No traps” he reports, but the disbelieving Scuttle then successfully removed the poisoned needle poised just next to the lock and flicks the lock open with a deft twist of the pick.
“I’s been learning” he confirms.

The door creaked loudly open as Bear gave it a push, and then he stepped boldly in. The room was quite dark, and very musty. The dim shapes of furniture could be seen sitting around what appeared to be a cigar lounge. Directly in front of bear, a long dead figure was slumped in an old armchair.

“Um, my dagger is vibrating” yelled Oliver from out on the veranda.

Bear stepped forward, swinging his new +1 Long Sword at the figure in the chair. His mighty blow shattered the desiccated corpse and scattered bits of bone and ripped cloth across the room.

“Still vibrating” shouted Oliver nervously.

Bear felt the temperature in the room plummet, and his breath began condensing into misty streams as he breathed. He caught a flicker of darkness off to his right and spun around to see a shadowy apparition floating towards him. He swung his sword at the shape but cut only air. 

The creature swung back, and its misty arm swung right through Bear’s torso. But rather than physical damage, the effect of this chilling strike was to reduce Bear’s strength by three points.
[The rolled damage, 6, less Bear’s armour of 3, was deducted from a random character stat, which was strength in this case. Bear’s strength attribute is 18/50 so a 3-point drop reduces it to 16 temporarily. Note that for high strength characters, this affects hit points (from +3 to +1, so effectively -2 hit points temporarily), hit damage if using strength style (from +2 to 0), and other minor abilities like smashing open doors etc.]

At this point Oliver’s dagger gave a throbbing pulse and Oliver noticed that the blackness in his arm retreated slightly to below his elbow, and that he felt particularly invigorated!

Getting in the next strike, [Party rolls a larger initiative roll on D10 than opponent] Bear’s magic sword cuts through the figure and deals four points of damage, less an unknown armour value. This time when the creature swung at him, Bear ducked back out of the way.

Myrtle attempted to use her innate ability to Turn Undead, which unfortunately had no effect.

Failing the next round’s initiative roll Bear was the target of the creature’s next attack. This time Bear was too slow, and the creature hit him for 0 [three points damage minus three armour]. Bear’s return attack swung over the creature’s head and missed.

In the meantime, Tu had been pulling back the curtains and opening the shutters to let in some sunlight, Myrtle had expanded her new magic obsidian +1 staff and stepped in for an attack, and Scuttle had been skulking along the side wall to get behind the creature in preparation for a Back Stab with Gillard’s +1 magical short sword.

In a sudden flurry of activity, each of those three things happened just after Bear hit for 0. Myrtle swung her +1 staff dealing four points of damage. Scuttle appeared right behind the creature and dealt six points of damage. [This was also a critical hit, a 20 on the first D20 roll followed by a second roll that “hit” the creature. The critical hit dealt extra damage, and the Back Stab dealt double damage. This all added to the 6 points inflicted. Less the unknown armour value deducted by the DM] And then a beam of sunlight from the nearby window fell across the creature causing some additional damage. The creature then just evaporated leaving nothing but a lingering chill.

“I got it, I got it” cheered Scuttle, leaping about with excitement.

With a bit of sunlight streaming in we could see that there were two internal doors leading out of the room, one straight opposite the external door we came in, and one to the right that headed towards the front of the house. There were also a couple of tables and some small bookshelves. Ouzo took a look around and was soon lighting up a cigar that he pulled out from one of the cigar boxes laying on the tables. Clouds of smoke billowed out as he puffed away.

“Pretty decent” he stated, “and check out the fancy box. Five more if anyone wants one!”
“Woah” exclaimed Bear as the smoke billowed around him, “my strength is back!”
“Don’t anyone use those cigars, they are obviously magical” commanded Oliver.

We gathered up the fancy cigar box and the (hopefully) five healing cigars and having completed a cursory search of the rest of the room, we headed over to the door leading to the front of the house.

“SNICK” goes the poisoned needle in the door handle as Scuttle grabs it.

But fortunately for him, the lingering cigar smoke in the room neutralised the poison almost immediately. He pushed the door open and stepped into a reading room. This was the corner room of the house, with shuttered and curtained windows around the two outside walls, and full floor to ceiling bookshelves all around the two interior walls. And books, so many books! Oliver squealed in delight and stated looking at the book titles, but Ouzo and Scuttle were already at the next door which looked like it would open into the front door area of the house.

“No traps” reported both Ouzo and Scuttle as they swung the door open.

Steeping through the door we found ourselves in the entrance foyer. Steps led up the second level, an open archway led out of the foyer straight ahead of us, and an internal door was closed to our left, directly opposite the main entrance door to our right. A dense collection of hunting trophies adorned the walls, with thick dust and spider webs indicating quite a time since the house was occupied. Scuttle makes a beeline for one of the ten-pointer deer head trophies mounted low on the wall and lifts it down.

“Rooaaar” he yelled, holding it over his head, “look at me”
“Idiot” chuckled Bear, looking around to make sure there was no one, or nothing, else looking.

Lowering the dear head to the ground, Scuttle checked the left-hand door, and after satisfying himself that there were no traps, he slowly pushed the door open and peered in. A grand dining room with a large centre table covered in rotten and mould food, with twelve seats. Each seat was occupied! Then the twelve shadowy figures stand and turn to look towards the door.

“Opps” whispered Scuttle.
“Um, my dagger is vibrating again” noted Oliver from back in entry foyer.
“Hold the door” yelled Tu as Scuttle pulled the door closed.

Bear shoved Scuttle aside, wrapped his hands around the handle and leaned back. There were a few thumps on the other side of the door, some violent tugging, then nothing. After a few minutes of silence Bear relaxed his hold on the door and looked over at Myrtle.

“Let’s try the archway” she decided.
“There was a door in there that probably went through to the cigar room” noted Scuttle.

The archway led through to an empty lounge with shuttered windows to the front of the house, and a door to our left. Scuttle and Ouzo checked the door and confirmed there were no traps. Myrtle took the risk this time and opened up the door. Nothing happened! The door opened up into a kitchen. The rear door of the house was directly in front of us, a door that probably led to the dining room was on our left, and a staircase dropped down into the darkness on our right. A few little rats were startled by our lights and scuttled off into gloomy corners.

But then a much larger rat hopped up from the stairwell, squeaked at Myrtle, and launched itself at her. As she lurched backwards, tugging the door closed, she saw a stream of rats tumbling over the top step of the stairwell and heading for here. At the rear was an even larger rat, enormous!

“Eww” squealed Myrtle as she slammed the door shut, “Giant Rats”

Bear did his door holding trick again, but with a mighty crash the head of an axe splintered its way through the wooden door panel in front of him. This door was not going to last very long. Oliver bolted back out through the arch to the entrance foyer, and the rest of the party spread out in front of the arch facing towards the kitchen door and preparing to fire. Bear let go of the handle and dropped back to the defensive line, shield up and +1 Long Sword in hand. Scuttle dropped into some shadows by the disintegrating kitchen door and disappeared. Debbie slipped out her magic +1 flute and struck up a fighting tune.

In seconds, the door was smashed open by the axe, and a very scruffy and hairy man with buck teeth stepped through the remains. His Giant Axe was held up in a very aggressive stance, but that was not going to stop our arrows. Ouzo and Myrtle let fly, but only Ouzo’s arrow hit the thing. Then Bear and Tu step forward in unison and engage it in melee. One successful hit each and the rat man goes down, before it can even swing its axe. [Bear hit for nine damage, while Tu made a critical hit dealing eight damage, also reducing its CON by four points, and causing it to faint from the pain]

But then seven giant rats followed it through the door and spread out to attack everyone. Two went for Debbie, two for Tu, and one each for Myrtle, Ouzo, and Bear. Scuttle appeared over the fallen rat man and made sure he would never get back up. In one combat round three of the rats were down, and the remaining four wisely turned tail and scampered back into the kitchen and down the stairs.

We followed of course. Bear and Tu in the front, down into the cellar. Tu was wielding his silver-plated sword and Bear was using his magical +1 sword. Among the stacked barrels and ripped open sacks of flour cowered the four rats. As Tu and Bear stepped forward off the bottom step the rats attacked. The first two rats went down easily with the first strikes, and then the second two leapt into the fray. The lead rat launched itself off a barrel and smashed Bear in the chest. Bear stumbled back, twisted his ankle, and dropped his sword.

[The rat made a critical hit dealing two extra damage, breaking Bear’s rib, temporarily reducing his STR by one and his CON by two, causing him to lose his next attack with subsequent attacks at -2, dropping his weapon, and having to roll on the fumble table. The fumble resulted in the stumble and twisted ankle, with an additional -2 to attack and defence for the rest of the combat. Pretty much as bad as it gets for a strength fighter! The STR and CON reduction also caused a temporary drop in maximum hit points of three for the rest of that combat, or five minutes]

Tu finished off his attacker with a couple of weak blows, but Bear was really struggling against his opponent. The rat had managed to sink its teeth through Bear’s chest armour and was worrying at him mercilessly. Given the peculiar location of the rat against Bear’s chest and Bear’s injury induced restrictions, Bear was unable to get in an effective blow. After Tu killed his one, he spun around and cut Bear’s rat off his chest with a finely judged swipe with his silver-plated long sword.

“Ouch” said Ouzo, offering the cigar box to Bear, “try one of these healing cigars”
“Wait”, yelled Oliver when he finally noticed, “we don’t know that they are all the same …”

Too late!

A cloud of cigar smoke billowed out from Bear’s puffs and enveloped some of us as we all stood around in the small cellar. As we each breathed in the smoke, we began to cough and splutter. Five damage to Bear from the poisonous effects, three damage to Tu, and two damage to Oliver.

 [LUK rolls were made, a fail put you in the smoke, a success put you out of harm’s way. Then saves against poison were required. Obviously, not all cigars are equal]

A decent search of the cellar did not uncover any steel trap doors in the floor, or any hidden passages to other locations. But there were four dead rats and a pile of old rotting foodstuffs.

Myrtle noted that Bear’s broken rib would take three days of rest to come right, or a level two or three Priest’s Cure Serious Wounds, which she could not cast, or some other magical cure effect. But she did cast two Cure Light Wounds, on Tu and Bear, and a Detect Magic.

[The clerical Detect Magic has a much longer duration that the Wizard version, so this is used if a party want to wander about a bit looking for magic]

Not surprising, the four remaining cigars were magical. And fortunately, so was all our own magical equipment, but nothing else down in the cellar. We retreated back through all the rooms we had cleared of danger finding nothing else magical, until back in the cigar room Myrtle could see that a door shaped section of the outer wall had a noticeable “shimmer”.

“There”, she pointed, “a possible secret door of some kind”
“Allow me” stated Ouzo, stepping forward.

Ouzo laid a hand on the wall in the middle of the indicated area to investigate.

“POP”

Ouzo vanished.

Myrtle rushed over and being very cautious not to touch the wall she swung her arms about to check if Ouzo had been turned invisible. Nope. Tu grabbed a mirror off one of the tables and reflected a beam of sunlight onto the indicated section of wall. Nothing.

“Better hurry” exclaimed the incapacitated Bear, “he could be in trouble. Wherever he is now”

Bear and Tu approached the wall and simultaneously touched it.

“POP”

Myrtle and Oliver followed.

“POP”

Debbie was looking at a couple of the books, so Scuttle grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over.

“POP”

We Found ourselves at the top of a stairwell leading down into darkness ahead. We were standing on a stone landing, with a solid stone wall behind us, and only the dark ness ahead. Ouzo was crouched in the shadows beside us with his bow drawn, and Bear and Tu had stumbled down a few steps as the rest of us popped through to wherever we currently were and pushed them forward.

After dragging Debbie through the magical door, Scuttle slumped down into a corner of the landing beside Ouzo with her head drooping and marmalade starting to dribble out the side of her mouth.

“Watch out” yelled Tu, peering down the stairs into the gloom.

Two pairs of glowing eyes could be seen, rapidly getting closer as whatever creatures they were came charging up the stairs towards us. Ouzo fired off an arrow (silver tipped) and we all saw it pass straight through the closer shadowy outline of some four-legged skeletal dog.

Tu and Bear drew their swords and engaged one of the creatures each. Both of them are immediately bitten by these strange dogs, and both of them fail to hit back. Oliver sends a Magic Missile into the one attacking Tu to little effect, and Debbie launches into a rousing tune on her magical flute. [Debbie’s +1 magic flute playing gives us +2 to attack]

Bear, already suffering from a broken rib, twisted ankle, temporary reduction of STR and CON and associated loss of hit points, and damage from his previous battle with the rat, received a nasty bite from the dog. [Dog rolls 8, less 3 for his armour, and deals 5 damage] Feeling like he could not hold out for much longer he tried blocking the dog’s next attack with his shield and quaffing a healing potion. He got the healing potion down but took another mighty bite and collapsed to the ground, blood spurting from a gash in his wrist.

Meanwhile Tu’s attacks have been either missing or not penetrating his opponent’s armour, Oliver let fly another Magic Missile, again to little effect, and Myrtle stepped over Bear’s body to take on the viscous dog that had taken Bear down. Myrtle had expanded her magical +1 obsidian staff and was bashing at the dog. Ouzo also stepped forward and poured another healing potion down Bear’s throat while Tu and Myrtle held the dogs at bay.

Tu struggles on the uneven footing of the stairs and twists his ankle [Rolls a fumble (1 on D20 followed by a missed attack roll) and suffers -2 to his DEX and -2 to his OV] and then collapses as the dog attacking him gets a solid bite into his leg. The dog attacking Myrtle fortunately misses its attack.

Oliver boldly steps forward over Tu’s collapsed body and using his quarterstaff, smacks the dog across the snout for three damage.  Myrtle is not so lucky this time and suffers a mighty bite to the thigh, collapsing to the ground. [Dog rolls 7, less 2 for her armour, and deals 5 damage. Myrtle drops to -1 hit points, and drops unconscious]

In a desperate last-ditch action, Ouzo picks up Myrtle’s dropped obsidian staff and steps over her body to engage the dog while Scuttle staggers up from his marmalading condition to feed another healing potion to Bear.

Seconds later Oliver is bitten by his opponent and staggers back, but stays upright. [Dog rolls 7, less Oliver’s magical armour defence of 3, and deals 4 points. Oliver has 5 hit points total and is reduced to 1, and his magical armour is now expended] Ouzo is also bitten by his opponent, and similarly reduced to 1 hit point. The situation was looking very desperate!

Fortunately, the potion that Scuttle fed to Bear revives him and he reaches forward to drag Oliver out of combat and step into the melee. But the dog was too quick and bites Oliver as he is dragged  back, sending him into unconsciousness. Bear flung him back onto the landing and puts his Great Axe into action. With a mighty blow, he collects the dog on his first swing and crushes it against the wall of the stair. One down!

Ouzo takes another bite and goes down, leaving Bear to face the final dog on his own. The unconscious forms of Tu, Myrtle, Ouzo, and Oliver lay scattered across the stairs. Debbie plays on, only partially aware of her perilous situation. Scuttle has collapsed back into a marmalading state, and the seriously injured Bear battled on to save the party from certain death.

Bear lands another massive blow with his axe and smashes the final dog into pieces.

“Close” he stated, looking back at the slumped forms of the rest of us.

Bear retrieves our final healing potion and feeds it to Myrtle, reviving her.

Myrtle settled down on the top landing and entered her meditative trance to recover her spells while Bear maintained a watch on the darkness below. After an hour Myrtle casts three Healing spells, on Tu, Ouzo, and Oliver, respectively. Tu and Ouzo are revived, and Myrtle again rests and relearns her spells.

After another hour Myrtle casts three Healing spells, on Oliver, Tu, and Ouzo , respectively. Oliver is revived, and Myrtle again rests and relearns her spells. Oliver also takes the opportunity to also rest and relearn his magical spells!

After another hour Oliver has his spells back, and Myrtle casts three more Healing spells, on herself, Bear, and Oliver, respectively. This brings us all to near maximum health, and Myrtle again sits down to rest and relearn her spells. Fifteen minutes later ….

“GRRROOOOWWWWWL” reverberates up the stairs from the darkness below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The Ineffable List

 

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], (Gillard [Kevin], Tu [Shane]).

ineffable

/ɪnˈɛfəb(ə)l/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

1. too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.

   "the ineffable perfection of the list"

   Similar:

   inexpressible

   indescribable

   beyond words

   beyond description

   beggaring description

   undefinable

   unutterable

   untold

   unheard of

   unthought of

   unimaginable

   overwhelming

   marvellous

   wonderful

   breathtaking

   staggering

   astounding

   amazing

   astonishing

   fantastic

   fabulous

   not to be uttered

   not to be spoken

   not to be said

   unmentionable

   taboo

   forbidden

   off limits

   out of bounds

   no go

   • not to be questioned.

     "the ineffable list that in need of altering is not"

   
   

   
   
   
2. 
   
   
   [Some downtime was in order as levelling up was needed for a day by Ouzo and Debbie. This conveniently allowed the party time to identify the longsword, and studded leather we found that was magical. It also allowed the ineffableness of the list to once more prevent all arguments. So mote it be.

The origins of the list are lost in the history of the gaming group. Some say (Shane) that the list is superfluous and shall be mocked. Others say that the ineffability of the list is self-obvious (everyone else).

Its function is to prevent any arguments about magic allocation, and to facilitate the easy distribution of said magic. Everyone gets a rank from 1-4, 1 being the bottom. New gamers begin at rank 3. Rank 4 gets first choice, with ties sorted by dice. If you take a piece of magic then you drop a rank. Simple . . . and perfect ;)

"I have question. Why am I still last?"

"Because."

"I've been last for years."

"Are you questioning the list? Don't bother. It's Ineffable."

The longsword is +1 OV & DV, the studded leather weightless. Debbie learns Magic Missile, and Shield but fails to learn Feather fall and can never learn this. Having used her luck re-rolls on these, Steven decides to wait for another level in case she fails to learn something important.

Steven also chooses the skill of Listening. Seriously? Not sure this is in character. But it is funny!!

Steven gets the studded leather, and Ian the longsword.

Ouzo improves his lock picking.

After some discussion we decide not to pursue Zarbo at this point as we don't feel strong enough, so we decide to investigate the manor house in the forbidden zone that Ouzo found in the dream.]

Ouzo sneakily evaded the forbidden zone guards and sure enough retracing his steps, finds the manor house exactly as he saw it in the dream. Furthermore, looking around the outside there is the same mysterious symbol that was inscribed on the door of the brothel, inscribed on the back door of the manor. 

[It was a sign! Of what, we still have no idea. But no werewolves so yay! Feeling brave, we decide to investigate as a group - during the day. Evading the guards proved easy]

From the outside, the only other interesting feature was a bell tower, which appeared damaged by fire. Using his new-found skills on the back door Ouzo searched for traps and found none. No-one else was willing to bet their life on this [see last week's blog for why] so Ouzo grumblingly unlocked the door and entered first. 

Inside was a kitchen, with a cellar accessible using a ladder. Another door led to the rest of the manor. Everything seemed abandoned, and a fine layer of dust and grime covered the kitchen. Clearly no-one was living here, so we could take the time to explore without fear of discovery.

The cellar seemed the obvious choice, so leaving a small rearguard, the party descended the ladder. Small, and functional the cellar was filled with old barrels containing spoiled food, and wine of poor quality. A passageway led off into the darkness. After searching thoroughly, Bear led the way into the passage. It continued for a short distance, before ending in a metal door.

Ouzo searched for traps and this time found one - a magic trap. The party muttered nervously as this seemed unusual. But it was time for Debbie to prove her worth again! Turning the handle a jolt of electricity shot through her body and threw her backwards - a little singed, but otherwise barely damaged

[Debbie is our 'if all else fails' untrapper - she has the best saves in the party]

Unlocking the door, Ouzo flexed to the left, then to the right. 

[This was deserved - there were some seriously low rolls with both searching for traps, and unlocking going on here]

The door was opened carefully, to reveal . . . another passage. Exciting times.

Proceeding with care, the party debated their order. Tu and Oliver quickly secured the most important position - the rearguard. As Oliver and Tu carefully explained to anyone that would listen, it was important not to be sandwiched into a death trap. This left Bear, and the mighty Gillard as the front rank. The squishier members of the party made up the middle.

Advancing slowly up the corridor, there was a dead body sprawled on the floor. It smelt about a week old. Yuck. Thieves tools were the only items of consequence. The cause of death - electrocution. Clearly the poor fellow had approached the door from the other side, and learnt the lesson too late, that you really need a halfling to accompany you! 

The corridor continue a short distance, and came to a ladder. Listening carefully at the trapdoor above, Ouzo heard two people talking. Their conversation was mumbled, but fragments could be heard.

"Sick of waiting . .  "

"Why did she bother?"

"Stupid contract."

The clink of tankards and general noise meant that we were unlikely to be able to ascend without being discovered. Returning whence we came we decided to investigate the rest of the manor.

Waiting bravely in the kitchen, brave Ouzo once again took the lead. The door to the kitchen opened into a larger room with a staircase going up and down. A chimney dominated what appeared to be a living room. "Where I see a chimney, I see a secret entrance", thought Ouzo. And so it was - searching the chimney led to the discovery of a shaft heading in the direction of the bell tower.

Returning to the living room, Ouzo proceeded sneakily to the stairs. Ruined but still functional if you avoided the holes, Ouzo descended to enter a bedroom. Searching found nothing of interest. Upstairs, Ouzo found a study containing a desk and an inkwell. The study also contained a hook, which clearly was used to pull down another ladder allowing access to the attic.

"Wait, I hear something . . . " Debbie started to say more - but then, her eyes glazed over, and she stood still.

[Unfortunately, no-one else noticed, so we just carried on without her. Let's face it, this was normal behaviour for Debbie after all. The drooling was slightly unusual. If only we'd looked].

Taking the lead, Debbie pulled the ladder down and began to climb. A singing noise became more clearly audible, and Scuttle and Ouzo heard it. They too began to climb the ladder. Wrestling them quickly to the ground, they did not resist as the rest of the party quickly immobilised them by tying them up. It was time to for Bear the Brave to lead the way.

He got half-way up the ladder before two foul creatures swooped through the opening and dropped viciously towards the remaining party members. Dropping to the ground, Bear and Tu intercepted the attacks.

[This is a fighter skill and allows them to protect the weaker members of the party in melee situations]

[This fight followed our usual script - we damn near died]

Tu opened with a mighty blow [20, but not a critical, 6 damage]. Hissing, the harpy clawed futilely against Tu's shield enabling Tu to bludgeon its throat using the edge of the shield [harpy fumble, -4/-4 winded]. 

Bear faced off against the second harpy. The God of Luck  - Vingt Te Un -decided that it was time to even the fight. Bear missed, and despite fighting with a heavy shield, all three of this Harpy's attacks hit!! Worse still, the singing Harpy mesmerised Bear who immediately stopped fighting and began to drool.

This battle was going to go the full twelve rounds. Winning initiative, Tu swung again, felling the winded Harpy, this freed Ouzo from being mesmerised. Unfortunately, he was still tied up [in retrospect, tying them up my not have been our smartest idea] . Using his rope skill, Ouzo managed to free himself quickly and joined the fight. Tu intercepted the blows of the remaining harpy before it could rip apart the hapless Debbie [one hit - 3 damage. With only 5 h.p. things aren't looking good for Tu]. The remaining Harpy smacked its lips. Another fumble! This time from Tu. Fortunately the harpy misses completely and Ouzo sidles around for the backstab. The next round, Ouzo's slides his blade into the spine of the creature, doing ten damage! The harpy turns to face its tormentor, and charms Ouzo again. Tu siezes the opportunity and smacks it for another six damage, Oliver for one. Still it stands and turns to deal to Tu. If Tu falls only, the mighty Oliver remains. Fortunately, winning initiative, Tu managed to deliver the killing blow.].

As soon as the second harpy dies, the mesmer is gone. Myrtle quickly healed Tu, and Bear. Congratulating themselves on escaping another perilous fight to the death - it was time to investigate the harp's lair. Surely there would be riches beyond the dreams of men, hidden in the attic. Sifting through the piles of harpy droppings, feathers, bones of small animals and skeletons of other unfortunate victims - we found nothing.

It was at this point Scuttle had his brilliant idea! Remembering Tu's finding of the ring in the owlbear, Scuttle decided to disembowel the harpies. [ewww. This was pretty messy. Moreover, the stomach's contained nothing but the stinking remnants of their last meals - rats]. 

The desk in the study was a different story. Searching the study, Bear opened the drawer to find get stabbed by yet another needle trap [lol, because Ian burnishing his reputation as  a trap magnet]. Inside the drawers we found some potions, a couple of scrools, 100 g.p.s, and silver flute and a rod which upon investigation telescoped into a quarterstaff. We also found a telescope which we could look out upon the town.

[Piling together the loot and walking through the rooms, Myrtle quickly discovers that the flute, telescope, scrolls, three potions and quarterstaff are all magical. It was time to beat a hasty retreat as Myrtle's slow poison on the unfortunate Ian/Bear. only lasts an hour. Battered and bruised, the party withdrew to our base, paid for Bear's cure, and spent a day getting the items identified, and to consider our next steps.

The flute adds +1 to ov - if Debbie plays it, that's +2! The quarterstaff is +1 ov/dv, the telescope has 150' infravision at night (but it's 10kg, and bulky), the scrolls are spider climb, and ventriloquism. The potions are of healing, neutralise poison, and invisibility. Meanwhile, the local mages guild is able to add gold leaf to the robes of every member for free guild using the exorbitant fees they charge for identify. We are poor again.

Needing funds, we decided to take on the job that has been on offer for a very long time - the art heist. We still don't know the cause of the visions, but they lead into the derelict centre of town, and since sneaking in seems relatively easy, we decide to continue our lucrative explorations

Before we can take action, we are visited by a Real priest, who offers us a new contract. There is another altar to the god of death which has been reconsecrated in town. Oliver's arm is newly blackened, and his knife is back to being magical. The priest offers us some leads - Lynley Inwood, and Ruby Jeffrey are two of the thirteen leaders of the death cult. The house we just investigated belonged to Ophelia and her mage husband who were also connected to the group who seem to be using the symbol we noticed as a code to recognise cult members, and safe spaces

We decide to kill two birds with one stone as the contracts seem related, and take on both].