Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Adventures in Kalamar! - (Now) Forging Darkness
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="wsclark" data-source="post: 781" data-attributes="member: 97"><p><strong>Session II - Graveyard Stomp, by Pug</strong></p><p></p><p>When we left off, I had thrown in my lot with an impressive group of adventurers, strong, brave and wise folk who for some reason felt that I could be of some use to them. I just hope I don't let them down too badly.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, we went to see this strange man, Veoden, who had a proposition for us. He wants us to bring him mithral, in the form of a fallen star, which wouldn't seem so bad except that there has to be a horrible curse involved. He is willing to pay 100 gp (that's right, one hundred gold pieces), for every pound of mithral that we bring him. I could set up my family for a long time with some of that money!</p><p></p><p>So here's the story that he told us: many years ago, a star (made of mithral) fell to earth somewhere to the northwest of here. Lots of folks tried, and failed, to find it. One person, Walker Dairoo, claimed that he had found it, but he wouldn't tell where. He did, apparently, have a map. He also, apparently, had a curse, and he died on 18 Harvest of some year or other. His son inherited the map and the curse, and died on 18 Harvest of some other year. His son inherited the map and curse, and, you guessed it, died on 18 Harvest of yet another year. Finally, we come to Atuur Dairoo, the only one in the family with enough sense not to have a son of his own. Predictably, he died on 18 Harvest 738. The map was supposedly buried with him, and that took care of the curse. That is, unless somebody's stupid enough to go get the map from him. Which, of course, is exactly what Veoden proposed that we do.</p><p></p><p>After some discussion, we agreed to head to the graveyard and get the map. Veoden told us just where we could find Atuur Dairoo: in the biggest mausoleum in the graveyard. Fortunately, that meant we wouldn't have to actually dig up any graves. I for one wasn't too clear on how grave robbing and serving good go together, but Lulla and our paladin (what was her name again? oh yeah, Shaedra), two of the most devout people I've ever met, assured me that it was all right, particularly if by our actions we could relieve the curse which may still lay on Atuur and his kin.</p><p></p><p>We headed off to the graveyard that very evening (17 Harvest) arriving there about 10:30 PM. <em>(DM's Note: There was much debate whether to go to the cemetery that night or the next morning. The group reluctantly agreed that the town would be much less likely to be upset by not seeing them poking around there.)</em> The gate was locked, but the wall is easy to scale and we did so with no trouble (it reminded me of when I did that as a child on a dare). We found the mausoleum fairly quickly. The word "Baolo" was written faintly on the outside of the crypt. If I weren't such a complete idiot and had paid any attention to the town history my mother was always going on about, I would have known that Baolo was the name of a prominent family here in town a long time ago, and that we were in fact in the wrong place. But no, as usual, I proved completely worthless and we tromped on in (after Daloren showed off another of his remarkable scores by picking the lock to the place). Specifically, I tromped right in; with Chin the monk and the paladin close behind.</p><p></p><p>The crypt itself was a mess. The caskets were open, there was stuff strewn all over, and the bones of various dead Baolos were scattered about the floor. That is, they were scattered about the floor until they started to get up and move around! You heard me right, all of a sudden there were four living skeletons in that place, and they started going after us. Well, I took a mighty swing at one of them with my greataxe and completely missed him. Meanwhile, Shaedra destroyed another with a single blow. I'm so worthless to this group; it's only a matter of time before they realize that. Anyway, we managed to destroy them all (Chin took out two with his bare hands! I've never seen anything like that). I even got a lucky shot in on the last one and took it down, but not before it managed to rake me with one of its claws (how clumsy I am!).</p><p></p><p>Since we still thought we were in the right place, we set about searching and re-consecrating the place, which took us a good long time. By the time we finished searching and cleaning, it was close to 2:00 AM. Needless to say, we didn't find the map, but we did find a surprisingly large amount of coin (around 50 gp worth!), some gems (7 of them) and a scroll tube made of bone. And in fact, there was a scroll in the tube, which Lulla informed us, was magical in nature. Apparently, it contained a spell which would give one of us complete protection from evil beings. (Unsurprisingly, it wouldn't be long before, thanks to me, we completely wasted this wondrous and powerful spell). However, we found no map, and it was only then that we realized that this was in fact the crypt of the Baolo family, not the Dairoos we were looking for.</p><p></p><p>At this point, we realized we would have to search the whole graveyard. Eventually, we found where the Dairoos are buried. They're all by themselves in a far corner of the graveyard, in (sigh) graves. So that meant digging. Great. And we without our shovels. Even better, Shaedra meditated over the Dairoo's graves for a moment and told us that there was evil emanating from each of them. Off we went, at 3:30 AM, dejected, trudging back to town. We filled Veoden in on what happened and arranged to head back the next night with picks and shovels (conveniently provided by Veoden).</p><p></p><p>So it was that we found ourselves dragging Atuur Dairoo's coffin from his grave shortly after midnight on 19 Harvest (we decided to wait until midnight to avoid the 18th, that cursed day which had claimed all the Dairoo men). We had spent a half hour digging in front of his creepy headstone (which reads "Last of the Dairoo Line/May the Gods Watch Over Him and Keep Him/The Curse is Ended") to uncover the coffin, only to find that it was wrapped with heavy chains and strong locks. This was a disturbing sign. In their desire to keep anyone from getting into Atuur's coffin (or perhaps to keep Atuur from getting out), the townspeople had used locks of such quality that even Daloren couldn't pick them. Eventually, I had to break them open with my axe (finally, a way I could be useful!). At this point, we stood well back and pulled the coffin lid off with ropes. Nothing happened, initially.</p><p></p><p>Then Shaedra approached the coffin (what bravery!) and took a look. Apparently, she saw the map, because she tried to take it out with the tip of her sword. Unfortunately, this activated Atuur, or whatever it was that he had turned into, and he spoke.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong><em>"Doom on those who rob my grave! The curse allows me to destroy defilers!"</em></strong></span></p><p></p><p>The creature then stood up so we all could see it. I don't know what manner of creature it was, but it had ghoulishly pale and clammy skin, a ghoulish grimace on its face, and spoke in a frightening, ghoulish voice. I think I'll call it a "Spooker."</p><p></p><p>The Spooker leaned over and bit (!) Shaedra. I didn't notice immediately, but apparently its bite rendered her instantly paralyzed. I charged in, swung my axe and hit the foul creature. At first I thought I had dealt it such a mighty blow that I had utterly destroyed it. Unfortunately, after staggering around for a moment, the Spooker came back and attacked me. Thankfully, it missed, and we closed in on it. Lulla did something then, summoned the power of her god, perhaps, and we all suddenly felt a surge of strength and well-being. I am sure that without this we would not have survived the fight. Eventually, we did manage to destroy the creature. And this time, we did find the map (and a fancy stick-pin with jewels all over it).</p><p></p><p>We put the remains of poor Atuur back in his coffin, sealed it shut, and placed it back in his grave giving him a "proper" burial with Lulla presiding over the ceremony. Then we covered him back up so that no one would know that he was dug up in the first place.</p><p></p><p>The map is strange, with locations and dates noted on it. Some of the dates are old, some haven't happened yet. One of them is 18 Harvest 738 YND (the date Atuur Dairoo died), but one is even 8 years from now! We will have to puzzle over this some more. In the meantime, we wondered if there might be more information buried with the other Dairoos, specifically with Walker, the one who found the star initially. So we decided to dig up his grave (his headstone reads "May the gods take pity on his poor cursed soul").</p><p></p><p>Half an hour later, Chin and I were standing on the eldest Dairoo's coffin. The good news was that there were no chains or locks to deal with. The bad news was that the coffin was so rotten there was no way to get it out of the hole. So I (stupid, stupid) bashed it open with my axe while standing on top of it. Sure enough, this guy had turned into one of those Spooker things too, and he grabbed for my leg. Lulla, fearing for my wretched worthless life, pulled out the scroll and cast its protective spell on me (losing the magic of the scroll forever in the process). The Spooker burst out of the coffin and was standing between Chin and me. The quarters were so close that I couldn't attack it, so I leapt out of the hole. Before I even turned around to look back at it, Chin, Lulla and Shaedra had all struck it and it was destroyed. So, as noted before, the spell from the scroll was completely wasted. Or so it seemed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wsclark, post: 781, member: 97"] [b]Session II - Graveyard Stomp, by Pug[/b] When we left off, I had thrown in my lot with an impressive group of adventurers, strong, brave and wise folk who for some reason felt that I could be of some use to them. I just hope I don't let them down too badly. Anyway, we went to see this strange man, Veoden, who had a proposition for us. He wants us to bring him mithral, in the form of a fallen star, which wouldn't seem so bad except that there has to be a horrible curse involved. He is willing to pay 100 gp (that's right, one hundred gold pieces), for every pound of mithral that we bring him. I could set up my family for a long time with some of that money! So here's the story that he told us: many years ago, a star (made of mithral) fell to earth somewhere to the northwest of here. Lots of folks tried, and failed, to find it. One person, Walker Dairoo, claimed that he had found it, but he wouldn't tell where. He did, apparently, have a map. He also, apparently, had a curse, and he died on 18 Harvest of some year or other. His son inherited the map and the curse, and died on 18 Harvest of some other year. His son inherited the map and curse, and, you guessed it, died on 18 Harvest of yet another year. Finally, we come to Atuur Dairoo, the only one in the family with enough sense not to have a son of his own. Predictably, he died on 18 Harvest 738. The map was supposedly buried with him, and that took care of the curse. That is, unless somebody's stupid enough to go get the map from him. Which, of course, is exactly what Veoden proposed that we do. After some discussion, we agreed to head to the graveyard and get the map. Veoden told us just where we could find Atuur Dairoo: in the biggest mausoleum in the graveyard. Fortunately, that meant we wouldn't have to actually dig up any graves. I for one wasn't too clear on how grave robbing and serving good go together, but Lulla and our paladin (what was her name again? oh yeah, Shaedra), two of the most devout people I've ever met, assured me that it was all right, particularly if by our actions we could relieve the curse which may still lay on Atuur and his kin. We headed off to the graveyard that very evening (17 Harvest) arriving there about 10:30 PM. [i](DM's Note: There was much debate whether to go to the cemetery that night or the next morning. The group reluctantly agreed that the town would be much less likely to be upset by not seeing them poking around there.)[/i] The gate was locked, but the wall is easy to scale and we did so with no trouble (it reminded me of when I did that as a child on a dare). We found the mausoleum fairly quickly. The word "Baolo" was written faintly on the outside of the crypt. If I weren't such a complete idiot and had paid any attention to the town history my mother was always going on about, I would have known that Baolo was the name of a prominent family here in town a long time ago, and that we were in fact in the wrong place. But no, as usual, I proved completely worthless and we tromped on in (after Daloren showed off another of his remarkable scores by picking the lock to the place). Specifically, I tromped right in; with Chin the monk and the paladin close behind. The crypt itself was a mess. The caskets were open, there was stuff strewn all over, and the bones of various dead Baolos were scattered about the floor. That is, they were scattered about the floor until they started to get up and move around! You heard me right, all of a sudden there were four living skeletons in that place, and they started going after us. Well, I took a mighty swing at one of them with my greataxe and completely missed him. Meanwhile, Shaedra destroyed another with a single blow. I'm so worthless to this group; it's only a matter of time before they realize that. Anyway, we managed to destroy them all (Chin took out two with his bare hands! I've never seen anything like that). I even got a lucky shot in on the last one and took it down, but not before it managed to rake me with one of its claws (how clumsy I am!). Since we still thought we were in the right place, we set about searching and re-consecrating the place, which took us a good long time. By the time we finished searching and cleaning, it was close to 2:00 AM. Needless to say, we didn't find the map, but we did find a surprisingly large amount of coin (around 50 gp worth!), some gems (7 of them) and a scroll tube made of bone. And in fact, there was a scroll in the tube, which Lulla informed us, was magical in nature. Apparently, it contained a spell which would give one of us complete protection from evil beings. (Unsurprisingly, it wouldn't be long before, thanks to me, we completely wasted this wondrous and powerful spell). However, we found no map, and it was only then that we realized that this was in fact the crypt of the Baolo family, not the Dairoos we were looking for. At this point, we realized we would have to search the whole graveyard. Eventually, we found where the Dairoos are buried. They're all by themselves in a far corner of the graveyard, in (sigh) graves. So that meant digging. Great. And we without our shovels. Even better, Shaedra meditated over the Dairoo's graves for a moment and told us that there was evil emanating from each of them. Off we went, at 3:30 AM, dejected, trudging back to town. We filled Veoden in on what happened and arranged to head back the next night with picks and shovels (conveniently provided by Veoden). So it was that we found ourselves dragging Atuur Dairoo's coffin from his grave shortly after midnight on 19 Harvest (we decided to wait until midnight to avoid the 18th, that cursed day which had claimed all the Dairoo men). We had spent a half hour digging in front of his creepy headstone (which reads "Last of the Dairoo Line/May the Gods Watch Over Him and Keep Him/The Curse is Ended") to uncover the coffin, only to find that it was wrapped with heavy chains and strong locks. This was a disturbing sign. In their desire to keep anyone from getting into Atuur's coffin (or perhaps to keep Atuur from getting out), the townspeople had used locks of such quality that even Daloren couldn't pick them. Eventually, I had to break them open with my axe (finally, a way I could be useful!). At this point, we stood well back and pulled the coffin lid off with ropes. Nothing happened, initially. Then Shaedra approached the coffin (what bravery!) and took a look. Apparently, she saw the map, because she tried to take it out with the tip of her sword. Unfortunately, this activated Atuur, or whatever it was that he had turned into, and he spoke. [SIZE=3][b][i]"Doom on those who rob my grave! The curse allows me to destroy defilers!"[/i][/b][/SIZE] The creature then stood up so we all could see it. I don't know what manner of creature it was, but it had ghoulishly pale and clammy skin, a ghoulish grimace on its face, and spoke in a frightening, ghoulish voice. I think I'll call it a "Spooker." The Spooker leaned over and bit (!) Shaedra. I didn't notice immediately, but apparently its bite rendered her instantly paralyzed. I charged in, swung my axe and hit the foul creature. At first I thought I had dealt it such a mighty blow that I had utterly destroyed it. Unfortunately, after staggering around for a moment, the Spooker came back and attacked me. Thankfully, it missed, and we closed in on it. Lulla did something then, summoned the power of her god, perhaps, and we all suddenly felt a surge of strength and well-being. I am sure that without this we would not have survived the fight. Eventually, we did manage to destroy the creature. And this time, we did find the map (and a fancy stick-pin with jewels all over it). We put the remains of poor Atuur back in his coffin, sealed it shut, and placed it back in his grave giving him a "proper" burial with Lulla presiding over the ceremony. Then we covered him back up so that no one would know that he was dug up in the first place. The map is strange, with locations and dates noted on it. Some of the dates are old, some haven't happened yet. One of them is 18 Harvest 738 YND (the date Atuur Dairoo died), but one is even 8 years from now! We will have to puzzle over this some more. In the meantime, we wondered if there might be more information buried with the other Dairoos, specifically with Walker, the one who found the star initially. So we decided to dig up his grave (his headstone reads "May the gods take pity on his poor cursed soul"). Half an hour later, Chin and I were standing on the eldest Dairoo's coffin. The good news was that there were no chains or locks to deal with. The bad news was that the coffin was so rotten there was no way to get it out of the hole. So I (stupid, stupid) bashed it open with my axe while standing on top of it. Sure enough, this guy had turned into one of those Spooker things too, and he grabbed for my leg. Lulla, fearing for my wretched worthless life, pulled out the scroll and cast its protective spell on me (losing the magic of the scroll forever in the process). The Spooker burst out of the coffin and was standing between Chin and me. The quarters were so close that I couldn't attack it, so I leapt out of the hole. Before I even turned around to look back at it, Chin, Lulla and Shaedra had all struck it and it was destroyed. So, as noted before, the spell from the scroll was completely wasted. Or so it seemed. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Adventures in Kalamar! - (Now) Forging Darkness
Top