Present:
Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – AndrewPhoebe - Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
- MARMALADING Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
- Bush Tucker. Human Rogue from Spite - Darryl
- Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
- MARMALADING Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
- Napolean Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
- Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
- Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven
By Phoebe Lacrosse
We were lounging around in the Velvet Glove inn awaiting the return of the reconnaissance party of Griza, Balder and Malcolm. They had gone to reconnoiter the "haunted" house of the Masimos (Selena and Loris) in preparation for us all to investigate the place. This was the place with the blue door that had infected the dreams of our spell-casters over the last week or two.
The three arrived back at the inn, breathless and wide-eyed, but before they could report anything, they all sank to the floor coughing and vomiting marmalade.
Marmalade was always fickle, so we tucked up the two gnomes (Malcolm and Balder) and put them to rest in a trough in the basement.
The Masimo House
We had a portent that Joe Manco (who was Marmalading too) and Griza's marmalade maladies would be temporary, so we plonked them both in a wheelbarrow, and everyone headed to the Masimo house. It was 5 be'light [2am].
Griza had left the door unlocked, so we all went inside, and began to explore.
First was a kitchen. This place had not used in years, five to ten, but it had been hurriedly abandoned. The cupboards still full of food (very rotted, now dry); all the crockery and utensils were there.
"Remind me why we are here?" asked Red.
"The dreams," said Phoebe. "The dreams told us. That, or 'exposition'."
We methodically explored the house, room by room. Points to note:
Napolean fumbled a Detect Magic and he turned into a bright light. This turned out serendipitous, as a moving glowing druid is better than any lantern or Continual Light. Plus this light is sentient.Animated clown toy - There was a living room, lounge, dining room, withdrawing room, and a waiting room on ground floor. Upstairs was all bedrooms and hallways.
- A fancy necklace and gold ring was found in a woman's bedroom. The necklace was magic.
- Bush Tucker tried to pick a door, but failed and we resorted to shoulder-charge.
- One bedroom had a hole in the floor which connected to a living room below. The lower room had bat guano all over the floor. The upstairs bedroom was full of bats - normal bats. We did not go in, wisely. Maybe there was a Ring of Wishes hidden deep in the bat guano, but none of us wanted to search, arm-deep in maggoty guano (and Joe was not awake.)
- In a locked child's bedroom, the bed had been slept in recently. Magic was detected, and it came from some kind of gnome-sized clown toy (not undead). As I approached, it lunged out and grabbed my ankle with an icy grip. We hacked and we smashed it to pieces with sword and mace, and still the severed hand clung to me with tenacious strength. Eventually, I managed to prise the horrid thing off. We then chopped the cursed toy into little bits.
- We happened to revisit the clown room an hour later; the nasty clown had reformed. We let sleeping clowns lie this time.
- As we were about to tackle another locked bedroom, Griza coughed up marmalade and awoke (as predicted). With his trap and lock skills, we got into the room tout suite. It wasn't a bedroom, but was a study, and had magical torches which sprung alight when we entered. Heaps of books and papers lined the walls. On the work bench were vials containing teeth, pickled ears, noses, blood, and other foul things. Necromancy, I bet.
- There was a scroll tube which Detected Magic. Napolean checked it and it was a Priestly scroll, but then started to feel himself lost in the text. He managed to pull his eyes away [made a Divine Defence roll], and avoided the Cursed Scroll.
There was some money here: 200gp and four Identify gems. But it was noted that this room had been rummaged through in the past. Maybe when the owner left hurriedly? Maybe robbers more recently (but why did they not take the gems?).Phoebe finds some new boots - There was a poison needle trap in the desk, which Griza deftly dismantled while Bush Tucker looked on in awe "Crikey, mate. Yer good".
- In another room, I got half way across the floor when the others screamed at me from the doorway. I looked down. My (suede) boots were melting ! I quickly withdrew, yanked them off, and threw them onto the room - where they dissolved utterly. It was some kind of fast-acting fungus or mould.
- Luckily there were some smart and stylish kid-leather woman's boots in one of the bedrooms, which fitted me perfectly.
The Basement
Under the stairwell was a secret door into a little room with a trapdoor and ladder going down. Galena could sense undead down there.
So, I put a rope harness on Galena and Red lowered her down the shaft. If need be, Galena could be yanked out in a trice. Napolean cast Protection from Evil on me, and so I climbed down the ladder after her.
It was a basement. It had a single exit tunnel. There were three large cages here. Two had dead husks of naked women - maybe dead for five years. The third cage had its bars bent and torn as if something escaped. They were thick iron, so this 'something' was pretty strong. There was a hair clip in this third cage too, suspiciously bright and uncorroded.
Suddenly, there was a skittering noise from down that tunnel.
"Here it comes," muttered Galena. I drew my sword.
 |
| Skeletal rats greet us |
Galena called on the power of Vingt-et-un: "Snake eyes, rats! Vingt-et-Un bids ye to get hence!"
Vingt-et-Un smiled on Galena and three of them turned tail and fled. The other two I took on, and killed them in two swipes.
Everyone climbed down the ladder to the basement except Bush, who cowered at the top of the trapdoor, scared because he didn't have a magic sword.
"Let me know when all the undead are gone," said Bush.
Just then, Joe, lying next to Bus at the top, spluttered and woke up coughing large hunks of grapefruit peel. He soon joined us below too.
Another three rats arrived. Galena turned them too. She now held six at bay. She cajoled and herded them down the tunnel and it opened out into another rough-cut room. We all followed except Bush.
The only exit from this room was a small tunnel leading off from a ledge, the height of two men off the floor. Griza climbed up and snuck down that tunnel.
Thirty seconds later, there was a wail and a scream. Griza came rushing back, hell-for-leather, shrieking and hollering. With no time to climb down, he leapt off the ledge, and soared to the ground in a graceful arc ... and landed solidly and HARD, on his back, knocking the stuffing from his body. [ Someone failed his Jump roll. ]
 |
| Husk of a woman |
With her came the stench of the grave; musky rotted meat, tinged with eau de maggot.
Galena held forth her holy dice, tried to turn the creature, and failed [ even though she rolled a 1 ]. She suddenly realized why and shrieked "It's a wight!"
Joe drew his double-axe and I drew my magic sword, and we strode forth - as one - to meet the horror.
The rest of the group cowered behind Red, behind us, edging nervously towards the exit, but they knew that if the wight got past us, they would not get two steps before she would be on them. Galena kept a weather-eye on the six turned rats, keeping them at bay. Back down the tunnel, Bush, who had bravely crept down the ladder, paused at Griza and Galena's shrieks, his face ashen. He quietly returned to the ladder.
Joe went high, I went low. He raised his mighty magic axe and brought it down with all his power.
Apparently, Vingt-et-Un, the goddess of Luck, hadn't scorned us after all, because Joe's mighty axe sliced off half the wight's head.
My sword plunged full depth into her foul belly, and out her back piercing her black heart. And then Joe brought his axe around for another right cut and left sweep, and chopped off her head.
[ Another 1, a critical for Joe, which was an extra unopposed attack. Plus Shane had used Joe's talent (cost 2 luck) which gave another D10 worth of damage. This combined with my hit, did 32 points, in just one round. ]
A ragged cheer came from the group. We promptly set about chopping the creature into little pieces and pouring holy water on them. We didn't want any risk of it reforming
The wight was wearing an amulet. Napolean checked: magic, but not evil.
The skeletal rats were flagging, now that their mistress was gone. One fell over, and the rest lost interest in us. I suspect they will quietly die now.
We assumed that the wight was Selena Masimo who committed suicide. If you believe the old rhyme about elf women:
An elf maiden's love is intense as the sea,
An elf maiden's trust is as loyal can be.
But if she be scorned,
And loss is unmourned,
And takes her own life; a wight she shall be.
That, or it was magical experiments by Loris her husband.
We returned to the basement to the base of the ladder. Bush, unsure of all the noises from the tunnel, had retreated back to the top.
"Bushie, are you still alive?" asked Griza.
"Yer not undead, are ya mate?" said Bush Tucker.
Phoebe heard this, lowered her voice and wailed "We are undead!" Then trailed off into hysterical screeching laughter.
"Freak'n oath. Fuck that!" Terrified, Bush fired an arrow ...
... and missed Griza by a hair's breadth.
"Oi! Cut that out!" snapped Griza.
"So yer not undead then?"
"Who? No, course not!"
"Well, someone was playin' fuckin' jokes. You don't play jokes when I got me bow loaded," ranted Bush. "You can do that as often as you like mate. Guess what? Every time you do, guess what I'm gonna do?"
"You do that," mused Griza. "Guess what? You will become short-lived."
"We will wait for Balder to wake up," said Phoebe. "Then he can Identify all the items." (The amulet, the hair-clip, and the necklace)
We had a few days before we were scheduled to meet Alexandra Montrose's patron. So we rested, cured up, and recharged spell points. There were no nasty dreams; good sign.
Leaving Emerald
 |
| Thursa Demont Smackwater Jack Priestess |
Thursa explained our mission. We were to travel to the Great Tower of Quek, two weeks travel klibwards from Emerald City.
"The mystics tower?" I said naively. Because that is what Balder had called it. Thursa acknowledged that there were in indeed mystics there, but she didn't call it that.
We got our wagon greased up, bought in heaps of supplies. And bought four riding horses. Joe and I were good riders, so we would run van-guard or rear-guard. The rest of the group were non-riders, so they would stay on the wagon. Red was the best wagon driver, so that was his job, backed up by Bush Tucker.
Thursa and Dahma had their own wagon.
We said our good-byes to Montrose and headed klibwards out of Emerald City. I chatted to Thursa about our previous exploits. She was, of course, interested in the Smackwater Jack incident we had in the Spite Delta (this was where Red Leicester met his end), and the meeting with the Spite city Smackwater Jack priestess Iva Scales.
Dahma listened on stoically.
No comments:
Post a Comment