TNT Part 1 - Descent into Chaos

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Tu [Shane], a full complement at Darryl’s new place.

“It wasn't long, when she flickered out,
  Brought down so hard, with silver and might.
  But sev'ral of us, were struck by the hag.
  They failed their saves, it could be bad..?”

The magic resistant undead

But so far it did not seem so bad. As we were standing around in the cellar of the Ravished Incubus Inn, having been unable to open any of the locked cells or the locked exit door in the MALACHAI shrine, and having retreated up the stairs and through the magical secret door, both Scuttle and Ouzo finally appeared down the stairs.

The cellar was very plain, essentially an empty room with a passage leading to a wooden door, and the secret magical door to the shrine that we had already explored.

“Let’s check that other door at the end of the passage, now that we have our lock experts back” suggested Oliver.

Ouzo, closely followed by Scuttle, give the lock a once over and declared no traps were present. Scuttle stared at the lock for a time, whisked out his trusty pick, slid it into the lock, and gave it a wiggle.

“Snick” went the lock.

“You can open it now” stated Scuttle.

Bear stepped forward, silver long sword held in his right hand, and twisted the handle with his left, ready to confront whatever terrible monsters might be waiting behind the door.

“Thunk” complained the door.

“It’s bloody locked” grumbled Bear.

“Oh” exclaimed Scuttle, “it must have been unlocked already. Seems I locked it”

The door swung open to reveal a storage room full of crated dry-goods, barrels of ale, spare laundry, and other Inn supplies.

“Bah” exclaimed Bear and wandered off while the store was searched by the others. After we had discovered a whole lot of boring nothing there, we assembled back in the cellar, and turned once more towards the secret magical door.

“A locked door and locked cells you say” asked Scuttle, flexing his fingers and grinning.

Gathering everyone together, including Bear who had just appeared back down the stairs with a bulging backpack and an extra two-handed sword, we triggered the magical transporter one by one and re-entered the MALACHI shrine.

Ouzo, closely followed by Scuttle, give the locked door a once over and declared no traps were present. Ouzo stared at the lock for a time, whisked out his trusty pick, slid it into the lock, and gave it a wiggle.

The pit trap below

“Swish” went the pit trap lid.

“Shiiite” yelled Ouzo, dexterously flinging himself off the collapsing floor and back into the room.

[Ouzo failed his “open locks” roll and triggered the trap that he and Scuttle had failed to “find”. Ouzo had to make a roll against half his dexterity, which he did, or fall into the pit that was revealed when the trap was triggered. He successfully jumped back before falling into the gaping maw of the pit]

“Eewwww” exclaimed Ouzo, “it really stinks down there!”

Scuttle was quickly attached to a safety rope and made his own attempt to unlock the door.

“Snick” went the lock.

“Swish” went the pit trap lid.

“Shiiite” yelled Scuttle, dangling by the rope over the open pit.

But he had successfully unlocked the door and once the hinged lid had swung back up, we were all able to cautiously cross the trap lid and head through the door into the room beyond.

A dark and stinking room.

It was essentially a narrow ledge overlooking a forty-foot drop into a charnel pit. We could make out bits of bone and skeleton, rotting flesh, and years of rubbish all suspended in a semi-liquid matrix of putrescence. A wafting miasma of death and gore enfolded us, and we staggered back coughing and retching.

“What if one of those dead things down there was carrying something?” wondered Ouzo.

And sure enough, once Oliver had cast a Detect Magic, he reported that there was a source of magic somewhere down at the bottom of the pit. Oliver was quickly attached to a safety rope and lowered in. After about ten feet he reported back that the pit trap discharged directly into the charnel pit. After about thirty feet he noticed that his dagger was vibrating and yelled for a rapid extraction.

“Pull” Oliver yelled, “It’s another of those damn white wispy hard to hit undead things”

Damn white wispy hard to hit undead thing

Back at the top, Oliver quickly followed everyone else back into the MALACHAI shrine and closed the door. But the white wispy hard to hit undead thing just flowed under the door like the bad smell and formed into a humanoid shape in front of us.

Bear, Gillard, and Tu took up their silver weapons and laid into it. Well Bear and Tu laid into it with their silver weapons, but Gillard’s weapon was not silver and not being one to miss a good fight, she also leapt into the fray and just parried. The rest of the party stood back and cheered them on. Scuttle slipped around behind and leapt from the shadows to deal a mighty back-stab.

The creature was soon killed, although Bear took a chilling touch to the arm. [One point of damage through his three-resistance chain mail armour, and he also failed his saving throw]

Oliver was out of spells so Debbie, who had a detect magic spell available, was quickly attached to a safety rope and lowered into the pit.

“Oh god” Debbie complained, “it stinks. Yikes … what is that?”

“Pull” Debbie yelled, “It’s another of those damn white wispy hard to hit undead things”

Back at the top, Debbie quickly followed everyone else back into the MALACHAI shrine and closed the door. But the white wispy hard to hit undead thing just flowed under the door like the bad smell and formed itself into a humanoid shape in front of us.

Bear, Gillard, and Tu took up their silver weapons and laid into it.

“Whoa” exclaimed Myrtle, “déjà vu”

The creature was quickly dispatched, and we all crowded around the top of the pit and peered down. Well, all except for Scuttle who was bored of these repeating battles and wandered back into the MALACHAI shrine for a good “browse”.

“Is it the same creature reforming each time?” wondered Myrtle.

“Is the magic treasure still down there?” wondered Oliver.

“Let’s kill it again” grunted Bear.

“Let’s be smart about this” stated Tu.

“BLAAAAM” boomed the MALACHAI shrine behind us.

We rushed back to find Scuttle lying unconscious beside the dark alter of MALACHAI. Whiffs of black vapour were rising from his body, and both his arms were blackened. Myrtle cautiously dragged him back from the alter and examined him.

“I can’t find any physical damage” noted Myrtle, “so there is nothing to heal”

As we were standing around bemoaning Scuttle’s fate, he twitched, coughed up some black phlegm, and sat up.

“What?” he queried groggily, “Just don’t touch the alter!”

“Just you wait here Scuttle” instructed Tu, “We have a plan. And don’t touch anything else!”

Myrtle, who also had a detect magic spell available but was much more perceptive than Debbie, was quickly attached to a safety rope and we prepared to lower her into the pit.

“BLAAAAM” thundered the MALACHAI shrine behind us.

Lightning trap

We rushed back to find Scuttle lying unconscious in front of one of the empty cells at the side of the room. Small crackles of electrical energy were discharging from his body, and the smell of ozone could be detected, despite the overpowering stench of death from the adjacent charnel pit.

Myrtle cautiously dragged him back from the alter and examined him.

“Yup” she confirmed, “electrical burns. He’s out till we heal him”

“Don’t touch anything else Scuttle” chuckled Tu, “We have a plan. You just wait here!”

Myrtle was trussed up with the rope and lowered down into the pit.

“Pull” Myrtle yelled, “It’s another of those damn white wispy hard to hit undead things”

Back at the top, Myrtle quickly followed everyone else back into the MALACHAI shrine but did not close the door. Bear and Myrtle crouched quietly to one side, while Dexter, Gillard, and Tu stood ready in an arc to the other side. Scuttle remained unconscious, propped against the wall by the exit stair, with the rest us between them.

As the white wispy hard to hit undead thing formed itself into a humanoid shape in front of us, Dexter, Gillard, and Tu rushed in to defend while Bear and Myrtle crept back to the pit.

While the battle raged, Bear threw a few more lashes of rope around Myrtle and lowered her headfirst down towards the putrescence at the bottom of the pit, where she was to cast her Detect Magic.

Myrtle is lowered into the pit

“Are you sure about this Bear?" complained Myrtle.

“Yup” confirmed Bear, “It’s much better to see where you are going in case there is another one of those things, and those extra lashings will ensure you don’t fall into the goop!”

Myrtle cast her Detect Magic, only to find that there were no longer any magic sources in the pit.

“Crap” she yelled up to Bear, “Literally! Now get me out of here immediately”

Back at the top, Myrtle straightened herself up, glared daggers at Bear, and gave the signal for Dexter, Gillard, and Tu to switch from defence to attack. The fight was soon over. Scuttle was gathered up and we headed back up the stairs to the cellar of the Inn. We checked in to make sure that Dravid (the brother of Odette, who was working in the Inn and whom we had left tied up in his bedroom before exploring the cellar) was still secure.

Not only was he still secured, but he was also lying in a huge pool of blood with his throat gaping open like a backpack. The weapon rack on his wall was missing a large sword.

“Just where did you get that two-handed sword, Bear?” asked Myrtle quietly.

“Um” replied Bear, pointing at the rack.

“We’ll talk about this, and that bloody rope, later” exploded Myrtle, “For now though, I need to rest”

We secured ourselves in the lounge area while Myrtle and Oliver took a spell recovery break. The one and a half hours passed quietly. Scuttle rested in his unconscious state on the floor. Ouzo twitched uncomfortably in one of the armchairs. Debbie sat at the table and cleaned her flute, trying not to make a sound. Bear and Tu stood watch while Dexter and Gillard took a small nap.

Once spells were regained, Myrtle cast a Heal on Scuttle, and we planned our next move. Patrick the suspected guard was still asleep in his room upstairs, and he was the only known threat left in the building. A sneaky break in and assassination was devised, and the cunning plan set into action.

Ouzo and Scuttle crept silently up the stairs to the sleeping quarters and along the unlit corridor to Patrick’s door. All was dark and silent, nothing stirred. First Ouzo, and then Scuttle, checked the door for traps. They silently signalled to each other, nothing. Quietly laying an ear to the door, Ouzo detected the low huff of deep sleep from the other side. He cautiously slipped his pick into the lock and silently flicked the ancient mechanism open. With barely a whisper of sound Ouzo laid his hand on the door handle and ever so slowly turned it.

“WHOOOOP WHOOOOP WHOOOOP” went the magical screamer trap.

Abandoning stealth, Ouzo let go of the handle and hurled himself back down the corridor and down the stairs. Scuttle was close behind, and they both spilled into the common room where we were all waiting. The whoop of the alarm was shockingly loud in the darkened Inn and a rapid whispered discussion took place.

“Why didn’t you just attack?” queried Bear.

“I can sneak, but I’m not a frontal attack sort of guy” stated Ouzo.

“Patrick must be a mage” noted Oliver.

“Let’s go alert the REAL Temple” suggested Myrtle.

And all we took off out the front door and into the street. Bear took up the rear to make sure Patrick was not pursuing us, and we turned down the road and hurried towards the REAL Temple.

“Scatter!” yelled Myrtle as she spied an orange streak of light spearing down from the upper-level windows of the Inn towards us. We scattered.

A fireball erupts 

Well, we all scattered except for Bear, Debbie, and Scuttle who did not quite comprehend the urgency of Myrtle’s bellow and were left standing in a small cluster in the middle of the road.

“BOOOM” went the Fireball and all three of them were enveloped in a globe of flame and flung backward to the ground.

Bear jumped up immediately, shaking his head, his armour blackened and his hair sizzling. Debbie and Scuttle lay unmoving, puffs of smoke rising off their unconscious forms.

Tu swung his bow upwards towards the windows, just in time to see the curtain twitch closed.

“Cool” exclaimed Oliver jealously.

Gillard retrieved one of the precious Healing potions and poured it down the unconscious Scuttle’s throat. Myrtle raced back and Healed Debbie, although not enough to bring her round, and then also Healed Scuttle who had also not revived after Gillard’s healing potion treatment.

Bear, Dexter, Ouzo, and Scuttle shared two of the Invisibility potions and faded from sight. They planned to head back into the Inn to deal with Patrick. As we watched the front door of the Inn slip open and closed again, shouts and the sound of hurrying footsteps echoed from down the street. A squad of town guards quickly arrived, led by a red faced and puffing sergeant.

“What’s going on?” yelled the officious sergeant, “What’s all this disturbance? Spells in the street are highly illegal you know”

Myrtle tried to explain, but the guards just picked up the unconscious Debbie, and escorted Gillard, Myrtle, Oliver, and Tu “Back to the guardhouse to assist us with our inquiries”

Meanwhile, back inside the Inn, Bear and Ouzo had crept up the stairs towards the public bedrooms while Dexter and Scuttle waited down in the bar area. Ouzo led the way up and Bear followed, chain mail chinking and his heavy footsteps creaking on each step.

“Ouzo, where are you?” Bear whispered.

Ouzo had slipped ahead and was just then slipping through the open door to Patrick’s room, which was empty and looked as though Patrick had packed up and gone. Nothing was left.

When Bear finally clumped into the room, Ouzo whispered that Bear should head downstairs and check on the others while he waited up here for a short period to see if Patrick would return, or if he was hiding invisibly somewhere nearby.

“But where are you?” Bear whispered, before turning and heading back downstairs.

Scuttle enjoys his invisibility

Scuttle had climbed up onto the top of the bar and was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the bar and swinging silently while he listed to the noises on the Inn. He heard Dexter tiptoeing on and through the door behind the bar into the living quarters. He heard Cellar the cat padding along behind Dexter and through the door. He heard the shouting of the guards out in the street as they argued with Myrtle and hustled all those outside off to the guardhouse. 

He heard the clump-clump of Bear footsteps as he climbed up the stairs, padded along the corridor, and climbed back down the stairs. He listened quietly while Bear crept around the bar and through the open door to the living area.

“Psst, Dexter, Scuttle, where are you guys?” whispered Bear as he passed.

Scuttle giggled silently to himself and listened as Bear clumped through the door to the living area. He heard Bear whispering to the air, trying to find Dexter, or Scuttle himself. He heard Dexter move slightly in the armchair on the other side of the wall as Bear clumped past towards the rear bedrooms. He heard the creak of the door from the rear of the living area and Bear’s footsteps as he pushed past the door and along the rear passage towards the stairs leading down to the cellar. He heard Bear’s footsteps descending the stairs into the cellar, and he even heard the pop of displaced air as Bear presumably triggered the magic secret door leading onto the landing at the top of the stair leading down to the MALACHAI shrine. Then he heard nothing more. He leapt silently off the bar and padded through the door into the living quarters.

Dexter had settled quietly into the big armchair in the living area and watched as Cellar the cat followed him in and leapt up onto his invisible lap. He had also listened as Bear had clumped through the room and out the back door. He had no idea where Ouzo or Scuttle were, but he could track Bear’s movements in from the bar, through the living area, and out into the rear corridor.

“Psst, Dexter, Scuttle, where are you guys?” whispered Bear as he passed. He did not notice the little black cat curled up in the air just above the seat of the big armchair.

Dexter giggled silently to himself and prepared to follow Bear. As he quietly flicked Cellar off his lap and pushed down on the arms of the chair to begin raising himself to standing, he felt a waft of air across his cheek.

“Let’s go Dexter” whispered Scuttle from right beside him, “Bear’s gone down into the MALACHAI shrine all by himself. We don’t want him to steal any more treasure that might be hidden down there!”

Dexter nearly shat himself but held it together and managed to squeak out an affirmative reply.

They moved off quietly towards the rear passage and the stairs down to the cellar. Cellar the cat followed silently.

“Ssshhh” whispered Scuttle, “you’re almost noisier than Bear”

Scuttle followed Dexter along the rear passage, through the back room to the top of the stairs, and down the stairs into the cellar. They crossed the small room at the bottom of the stairs and triggered the magical secret door and arrived at the top of the stairs leading down into the MALACHAI shrine. All was silent, no sounds of Bear’s clumping footsteps or chinking of his chain mail, in fact no sound of anything except thick silence. Scuttle gave Dexter a gentle tap on the hip, and a slight push to encourage him to head down the steps. Dexter silently started the decent.

“WHOOOOP WHOOOOP WHOOOOP” went the magical screamer trap.

Dexter and Scuttle threw their hands up and over their ears.

Ouzo, back up in Patrick’s room on the top level of the Inn, was jarred from his silent stakeout, leapt up and raced down the stairs and through the various rooms towards the shrine. As he burst through the magic secret door a deep voice echoed up from the MALACHAI shrine below.

“Come any closer and I’ll kill your friend”

“You’re trapped down there” yelled back Dexter, “Harm him and we’ll take you out”

“Hahahaha” echoed up the stairs from below.

“Scatter!” yelled Dexter as he spied a bright white streak of light spearing up the stairs from below.

A bolt of lightning flew up the stairs

They scattered. Well, Dexter flung himself back and to the ground while Ouzo and Scuttle were still clustered together at the top of the stairs when …

“ZAAAAP” went the Lightning Bolt, and both were struck by a crackling bolt of energy and flung backward to the ground.

Dexter was up in a flash and charged down the stairs to engage Patrick. He correctly reasoned that Wizards were not great hand to hand fighters, and if he could just get into combat before Patrick got off another spell, he would be fine.

Scuttle’s ears were ringing as he lay on his back at the top of the stairs. He could barely make out the sound of Dexter running down the stairs, or the faint crackles of lighting earthing from his body. Of Ouzo, who had been standing right next to him, he heard nothing. Then he heard another pop from below, and a crump as if a body in studded leather armour had fallen to the ground.

“Oh crap” he quietly gasped and flipped himself up onto his feet and silently padded down the stairs. As Scuttle arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he saw Patrick dragging an unconscious Dexter across the floor towards the cells. Patrick withdrew an amulet from around his neck, waved it at the magical lock on the cell, which then swung open, and bent back down to drag Dexter in.

Scuttle was still invisible; he had not attacked anyone, and the potion duration had not expired. Lifting himself onto his tiptoes, he silently launched himself across the room and plunged his dagger into Patrick’s exposed back. Patrick collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, falling half over Dexter and half into the open cell.

The evil wizards head

Scuttle was now visible, but that did not stop him stabbing Patrick in the back repeatedly with his dagger, slicing through Patrick’s neck and totally removing his head, dragging the body into the open cell, and stripping the body of all its equipment and items.

“Shoot me now you ugly wizard” muttered Scuttle as he worked.

Scuttle did notice a slight throbbing noise from the direction of the dark alter. It was not like this earlier, but the alter was humming, as if charged with power. Recalling his earlier mishap with the alter, Scuttle kept well away, and kept half an eye on it in case anything evil appeared there.

A few minutes later, Bear suddenly appeared in the adjacent cell, so Scuttle used Patrick’s amulet to open the door and dragged him out. A quick dash up the stairs revealed Ouzo slumped against the wall at the top of the stairs, his hair still standing out like a porcupine and his leather armour scorched across the chest area.

“Lucky I didn’t trip on him” noted Scuttle, as he pondered checking through Ouzo’s pockets.

Back downstairs he did check through Dexter’s backpack though, having recalled that Dexter was probably carrying one of the few remaining Healing potions. This was duly located, upended over Dexter’s mouth, and then tossed aside as Dexter suddenly sat up.

“Watch out” he yelled, then looked around, “Oh, all sorted I see”

Scuttle puffed up his chest and proudly exclaimed “I’ve killed the MALACHI Priest”

Just then Bear groaned and gently fingered the huge egg swelling at the back of head.

“Who hit me?” he grunted.

Bear was able to gather up the unconscious Ouzo, and they all returned upstairs to our bedrooms. Ouzo was laid out on his bed, and they decided to rest and wait for morning before hunting down the rest of the part at the guardhouse. Scuttle, realising that the Inn was now empty except for themselves, though it would be sensible to quietly head back to the bar and investigate the till.

“BLAAAAM” went the till, and Scuttle was thrown back by the blast, slid across the floor smashing past a set of chairs, and coming to rest under one of the tables. He did not stir. And no one heard.

Back in the guardhouse however, the persuasive and extremely attractive Myrtle had convinced the officious sergeant, with the help of the letter of engagement from the REAL Temple, that it would be best to alert the local REAL Priests and Paladins of the potential dire circumstances back at the Inn.

The REAL Temple was alerted, and everyone assembled outside the Inn. There were the town guards, protesting that Odette Pearson was a well respected and honorable member of the community, the Priests and Paladins of REAL, sleepy eyed and disheveled, but also aware of Myrtles reputation and our recent discoveries, and us, Gillard Myrtle, Oliver, and Tu. Debbie had been left back at the guardhouse, still unconscious from the Fireball.

In we all went.

And there was Scuttle, lying unconscious on the floor under a table, totally covered in blood.

Myrtle gasped in horror and rushed forward. But she quickly ascertained that this was not Scuttle’s blood, and he was only lightly unconscious from electrical burns.

The Paladin of REAL stepped forward and Laid on Hands. Scuttle sat up.

“I killed the evil priest of MALACHAI” he stated boastfully.

Everyone trooped up the stairs to the bedrooms.

“What happened to him?” questioned the sergeant, seeing Ouzo laid out unconscious on his bed.

Everyone followed Myrtle down to the MALACGAI shrine.

There were gasps of shock and horror as the REAL Priestess stepped into the room, sensed the evil taint and noted the humming alter charged up at the head of the room.

“We must leave this room immediately” she commanded.

We were taken back to the REAL Temple and questioned for the rest of the night. Our stories must have aligned as they apologised for our trouble and thanked us for our excellent work. They Healed most of our injuries and informed us that the Toluene Priests would be summoned immediately and would be here as soon as possible.

It was determined that Bear and Dexter, who had both felt the full draining effects from the white wispy hard to hit undead thing [i.e., failed their saving throws] had lost one point of CONstitution, permanently. Or until “healed” by a powerful Priest anyway.

“Can you wait here for another day or two?” asked the REAL Priestess.

During our wait, we checked the whole town for any more of the witches coven symbols (nothing) and cast a Detect Magic over the recovered items to see what was magical(Patrick’s dagger, a travelling spell book, and a leather bag). The leather bag was quickly revealed to be a Bag of Holding, on account of us finding heaps and heaps and heaps of goods and equipment inside it, including Patrick’s main spell book. Not surprising, both the spell books included Fireball, Invisibility, and Lighting Bolt!

Once Brian Crab and his REAL hangers on arrived from Toluene, they quickly cleared up the MALAHAI shrine below the Ravished Incubus Inn, cast the appropriate Restoration spells on Bear and Dexter, and showered us in magical rewards. Actually no, not that last rewards bit. What he actually said was that once the entire coven had been destroyed, we could claim our contracted reward.

Myrtle tried it on with some old favourites like “incurred incredible hardship”, “subject to significant expenses”, and ”consumed large quantities of our healing potions”, but Brian Crab was not hearing any of it.

“Get off to the Saucy Hills then” he suggested.

 

…. Read more of our journey to the Saucy Hills in TNT Part 2 – The Saucy Hills

Preview:

The third one was already blinded by Myrtle’s Light spell so it should prove easier to kill than the other two. It was thrashing about in the undergrowth, swinging its massive club in wild arcs in every direction.

The horses were still rearing and neighing shrilly in a panic, and Cellar the cat had disappeared into the surrounding forest. The giant boulders that the creatures had previously been throwing at us were scattered around the campsite.

Tu’s armour was sporting some large new dents, and his crushed chest was still causing breathing difficulty.  Gillard lay sprawled on the ground where the previous creature had clubbed her into unconsciousness, for the second time! A slow trickle of blood seeped down her face from a rapidly swelling contusion on her forehead.

Myrtle hurried to her aid as Bear, Dexter, and Ouzo charged at the savage creature. It was time to end it once and for all.

In a rapid flurry of many blows, and a strategic dodge of its huge club by Bear, the creature eventually toppled over and hit the ground with a resounding crash.

“Smackwater” exclaimed Bear, “Lucky there were only three of those brutes”