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Sic Pixie's Carrion Crown Adventure Path
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<blockquote data-quote="Sic_Pixie" data-source="post: 5825067" data-attributes="member: 52403"><p><strong>Novelty of a secret door.</strong></p><p></p><p>Sayuri wakes with a hangover … again; “why do I do this to myself?” She has to ask. Descending the stairs she is greeted by a large breakfast of Fried Eggs, Bacon, Sausages, Tomatoes, Beans and Toast; her stomach growls in apprehension and she passes with some dry toast and coffee. Hursk is busy cramming his plate with as much as it will hold and proceeds to consume it followed by copious amounts of coffee and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. The breakfast is finished by the loud proclamation of satisfaction which is Hursk belching to the tune of an Orcish war chant; they leave soon afterwards to pick up Jack.</p><p></p><p>Jack wakes in his cell at the Temple and proceeds with prayer and meditation; joining in with the temple morning service. When this is finished he notices the telltale lurking shadows in the entrance to the Temple. One large and hulking with a protruding tusk and the other small thin graceful and waiflike; he walks over to join his boon companions and they greet each other; wishing each a good morning. </p><p></p><p>They decide to take a look at what the temple could provide and visit the quartermaster; after he checks Jack’s credentials he hands over a small package containing several vials of holy water and advises them that they have a small discount as worshipper and inquisitor of Pharasma. The party buys some healing and restorative potions; enquiring if there would be more powerful items available the Quartermaster sadly directs them to the head priest as he hold these items under lock and key. Father Vauran is happy to see them all this morning his pickled old face creasing in smiles as he motion’s them to chairs; they pose the request for more powerful items and the Fathers face seems to crease even more as he thinks. Leaving the room he returns with a long heavy bundle wrapped in oilskins; this he presents to Jack. Upon unwrapping Jack finds a Silver Morning Star of exquisite workmanship. The head is fashioned into the shape of a grinning silver skull with spikes around its brow and over its head; the eyes and mouth glow with a lurid blue flame. Father Vauran advises “Jack; this weapon is on loan and will need to be signed for; if this can’t be returned it will need to be paid for; if later you wish to take it with them you will have to stump up the funds. But for now it is on loan for the duration of your stay here; It has powers and if you call to Pharasma while wielding it you gain the benefit of a healing enchantment which can be applied to yourself or to whoever you strike with it. This is limited to only a few times a day but it could be useful; it might have more powers but these I don’t know about and are barely even worth mentioning. Now unless you have more things you would like to buy I suggest you go and put it to good use.” With that he ushers them from his room; closing the door behind them with a sigh and a grin as they take the nasty weapon away.</p><p></p><p>Looking at each other as they leave they consider the uncommon generosity of the Temple as they walk to the Restlands to investigate the gravesite in the light of day. Upon reaching the desecrated plot they find that all the graves have already been re-dug and are awaiting the interment of the bodies again. If there were any signs of foul play it most likely would have been removed by the over enthusiastic grave diggers. They search anyway and find nothing out of the ordinary.</p><p></p><p>As its only late morning they decide to take a walk around the prison to see what else they can discover; walking the mile or so round the village they notice that the villagers are traveling in groups and looking around nervously. The party guesses that this is due to the mini Zombie invasion the night before; the villagers are happy to see the party and wave at them as they pass.</p><p></p><p>They soon find themselves standing before the gates of the Prison; the looming dark mostly abandoned structure standing before them. As they pass through the gates Jack is struck by the sudden fear of the place and its imposing presence; he soon shakes off this feeling and says out loud “yup it’s haunted” With a smile to Sayuri and Hursk they proceed into the grounds. Sayuri and Hursk show Jack the markings on the base of the walls and he comes to a similar conclusion that these were used to somehow trap the ghost of the Prison Warden and take it away somewhere. They pass into the building entering the foyer and scanning around; they first take a look at the large and very solid metal door they were unable to access the last time they were here. This door defeats Jack’s attempts to open it and causes them to turn away in disappointment; following this terrible defeat they return to the hole in the floor that leads to the dungeons. </p><p></p><p>Hursk decides to go first and checks down the hole making sure there is nothing obviously nasty awaiting him down there; deciding it’s safe he expertly ties off his rope; grips it tightly making sure it’s secure and then proceeds to climb down the hole. However Hursk is not a great knot person and it slips dropping Hursk 20 feet to fall on his ass and injuring his pride; to make matters worse Sayuri drops through the hole after him alighting upon the cold and dusty floor with an innocent expression as a 20 ft drop is nothing to a Monk. Smirking prettily at Hursk as he gets back to his feet while rubbing his lower back and ass; Jack ties off his own rope and making sure it’s securely tied expertly clambers down the rope to stand for the first time in the lower prison levels.</p><p></p><p>Having already explored to area to the east and south they make sure Jack is aware of these area’s and proceed to creep stealthily to the north to where the many relatively fresh bloody decorations on the walls are evident from their previous incursion to this level. They make their way to the location of Matthious’s sad demise and find the remains of the headless charred skeleton that ironically decapitated Matthious; Jack felt a shiver down his spine as he looked upon the sharp blood smeared axe resting in the boney grasp of the remains of Gurtis Vortch and carefully bends to pick up the axe; easing it out of the grasp of now immobile Gurtis.</p><p></p><p>While Jack is inspecting the remains and the axe; Hursk and Sayuri investigate the room that Gurtis emerged from. The room is unremarkable containing only burnt remains of a cot, desk and other items which are less identifiable; they quickly proceed into the Northern prison where a dark Oubliette is waiting. </p><p></p><p>From where they are they can see all the doors are open and the iron grate covering the oubliette while closed is not locked and a rope is tied to the grating. Hursk leads the foray into the room and is rewarded by the emergence of a terrifying sight; a dark ghostly apparition rises out of the oubliette with a soul searing scream of pure anguish. The whole party feel the scream reverberate through their own souls; in horror they notice that this ghostly apparition in carrying a large hand axe which is swings at Hursk with a solid blow; Hursk cries out in pain as he feels the negative energy comprising the axe bites deeply into his flesh and stares in shock as a spurt of blood turns into mist and is absorbed by the grinning apparition with the glowing red eyes. Sayuri steps up and casts a spell, however she steps too close and the wraithlike creature before her strikes out thankfully missing, the spell goes off and two balls of force erupt from her hand and slam into the incorporeal creature tearing off its ectoplasm and casting it to the winds. The wraithlike creature turns and faces Sayuri its burning red eyes making her soul cringe inwardly while she grins impudently at it. Jack moves up behind Hursk and heals a small part of the damage inflicted and therefore stopping the bleeding damage the wraith inflicted. The Lopper (which is one of the 5 major evil spirits haunting the prison) strikes out again with his axe towards Sayuri but she gracefully dances out of the way and the wraith screams in outrage at the blood it’s denied. Hursk yanking out his large sword swings a vicious blow at the apparition; Hursk feeling the intense cold through the length of his sword turning his fingers blue as they touch upon the grave while his sword whistles through the creature meeting some resistance and causing another small rent in the substance of the creature. Sayuri retreats into the corner and conjures some protective amour around herself while Jack moves around trying to gain a better position to attack, striking at the creature with his mace which connects and causes some minor damage. Hursk takes the brunt of the attack again as the Lopper swings his axe catching him on his shoulder, blood spurts and repairs the wraith while Hursk yells more to inspire himself than anything else. Stepping back Hursk summons a greatsword of force and directs it to attack the Lopper; Jack drops his mace and pulls out his new Silver Morningstar swinging it in a vicious arc and connecting with nothing throwing him off balance which the Lopper takes advantage of forgetting about Sayuri and slashes him across his arm; Jack feels the terrible cold of death as his skin ruptures in several long gashes and blood mists into the air drifting to the spirit repairing some of the damage it had received. Sayuri casts a spell and opens a rent in the fabric of time and space drawing through a powerful Demon which looks like a half melted candle; the Lemure lashes out at the spirit and tears a few small rents in it’s fabric while Sayuri starts summoning another critter to assist. Hursk drinks a potion to restore his vitality and to stop the bleeding; Jack also summons curative energies to restore his health and to stop the bleed while the Lopper scores another slashing hit upon Jacks shoulder sending the coldness of the grave into his soul and wrenching out some more of his vital essences. Sayuri summons a rat faced hound and directs this to attack the Lopper much to its annoyance and then starts summoning another hound. Hursk Summons his god’s power and directing it outwards in a positive burst healing up Jack and himself; stopping the bleeding damage and making the Lopper scream in pain as much of his form is ripped asunder by the powerful positive energies. Through summoning, positive bursts and general smack downs the Lopper is finally brought down and dissipates into red mist that falls to the floor in a bloody puddle. </p><p></p><p>The party stands around breathing heavily as the long combat closes; they look at each other. Hursk and Jack are covered in blood; mostly their own. Sayuri is as clean as she could be in this dusty dungeon without a speck of blood upon her. They all sit down for a few minutes to recover from the exertion and to heal themselves up. Exploring the Oubliette they find several items of interest in the bottom including a set of keys.</p><p></p><p>They set out again back to the main room and setting out west towards Reapers Hold; the portcullis before them is closed but the doors either side are open. They all try very hard to move silently down the corridor; they all fail horribly however tripping over imaginary cracks in the floor, kicking small boulders down the corridor and cursing loudly when they stub their toe or sneezing uncontrollably. They eventually examine the door on the right first cautiously listening at the door prior to opening it. (As if anything inside didn’t hear them and would not be sitting quietly waiting for them) The door creaks open revealing a room empty of obvious problems; however they do see a winch in one corner which could open the portcullis. The rest of the room seems to be full of things less interesting than a goblins lunchbox so they pass over to the other door. Taking this cautiously again they bend to press their ears against the door and discover to their relief that rot grubs had not been placed in the door just for this eventuality. They hear nothing on the other side of the door nor in the rest of the prison so they cautiously open the door; seeing nothing of great interest inside bar a few skulls on the desk with a large hammer, a table and chairs with a cot in the corner Sayuri steps into the room and approaches the desk to investigate. As soon as she approaches the desk a few things happen; firstly she feels an intense pain in her head as if her skull is trying to break itself apart; secondly she notices that part of some skull fragments on the desk start vibrating as the pain started. Additionally there is a very dead Dwarf lying on the floor by the desk not in direct view of the door; Sayuri stumbles from the room grasping her head in agony. As soon as she left the room the pain faded though the memory of it was still there; Hursk Strides into the room and grunts in pain as his head explodes in pain. He approaches the desk and the apparition of a dwarf rises up from the floor grasping a huge hammer while the skull of a female Dwarf hovers nearby. The Dwarven skull is obviously female and is missing a wedged shaped sliver of bone from one side. This is the Mosswater Marauder; or at least the ghost of the insane Dwarven mass murderer previously known as the Mosswater Marauder. The Dwarf strikes Hursk resoundly on the head; Hursk staggers back stunned as the ghostly image of a wedge shaped sliver of bone wrenches itself from Hursks head and drifts to the floating skull of the Dwarfs murdered wife; this sliver tries to fit itself into the damaged skull, fails then fading away to nothing. Hursk staggers around as though drunk as the three skulls on the Desk rise up and streak towards him some of them crashing into him causing some light bruising. Hursk roars in anger trying to shake off the feeling of lassitude that comes from a nasty head wound and strikes out at one of the floating skulls smashing it into pieces. The Marauder screams in anguish as one of his pet skulls is shattered appearing as it to stagger back a step as if hurt. Jack wishing to avoid the pain walking into the room causes fires an arrow from the doorway at one of the skulls and misses horribly; Sayuri runs into the room around the Marauder and performs a spinning kick at one of the skulls catapulting it into the wall and causing a mini explosion of bone shards. Screaming in fury the Marauder swings at Sayuri missing by a large margin; Hursk brings his sword down upon the last remaining skull also obliterating that into a series of fragments. To their surprise the apparition is still standing as they assumed that by smashing the skulls he would be defeated. Jack not wishing to be left out moves up next to Hursk and brings his morning star down upon the skull of the dwarven corpse the apparition is hovering over; this causes the dwarven apparition to do nothing but grin wickedly at him causing his stomach to churn in disquiet. Hursk casting a curative spell reaches out and touches the apparition; its glowing red eyes turning towards him in surprise as the holy energies rend its tattered form consigning its soul to one of the many hells as it screams in frustration and fades from sight.</p><p></p><p>Doing a quick search of the room Jack discovers an irregularity in one of the walls; he is certain there is something hidden behind the wall; Sayuri and Hursk however are not convinced. Hursk especially is very convinced that Jack is making it all up (Hursk rolls 2 perception checks both a natural 1) and is quickly loosing patience with Jack; while Jack lights a torch and is waving it before the supposed entrance; allowing the soot to scorch and hopefully show the opening he discovers a minute hole that could possibly be a keyhole. He goes through the keys they found in the Oubliette and finds one to match. With a click and twist the wall turns into a door and Hursk is amazed at novelty of a secret door. Behind the door they find several sets of amour a number of weapons and a large iron bound oak chest; looking through the amour they make a note of the quality and find its all masterwork; the same seems to be with the weapons. This is a veritable hoard of valuable equipment and they dance around in happiness considering the estimated value of all these items. Jack starts examining the chest considering the value of these items he takes special care to look for anything set up for the unwary thief; finding nothing that should cause any concern he uses another one of the keys to unlock the chest and flipping open the lid discovers several bundles which radiate magic. Sayuri happily grabs these and lays them out on the table expressing that these will all be hers now; Hursk and Jack look at each other carefully and keep quiet for now. They quickly gather up the items and transport them in several trips to the entrance of the prison while Hursk runs back to the Village for some horses to carry the loot.</p><p></p><p>Back at Kendra’s house; Kendra offers to identify the items for the party which they readily agree to. Sayuri is still under the impression that they are hers; this is an impression that is soon to be called to question.</p><p></p><p>They soon step out to the Laughing Demon for dinner having a round of Corpse Chowder and Liquid Ghosts to wash it down with. An early night follows to the surprise of everyone who has known them the last few days.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sic_Pixie, post: 5825067, member: 52403"] [b]Novelty of a secret door.[/b] Sayuri wakes with a hangover … again; “why do I do this to myself?” She has to ask. Descending the stairs she is greeted by a large breakfast of Fried Eggs, Bacon, Sausages, Tomatoes, Beans and Toast; her stomach growls in apprehension and she passes with some dry toast and coffee. Hursk is busy cramming his plate with as much as it will hold and proceeds to consume it followed by copious amounts of coffee and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. The breakfast is finished by the loud proclamation of satisfaction which is Hursk belching to the tune of an Orcish war chant; they leave soon afterwards to pick up Jack. Jack wakes in his cell at the Temple and proceeds with prayer and meditation; joining in with the temple morning service. When this is finished he notices the telltale lurking shadows in the entrance to the Temple. One large and hulking with a protruding tusk and the other small thin graceful and waiflike; he walks over to join his boon companions and they greet each other; wishing each a good morning. They decide to take a look at what the temple could provide and visit the quartermaster; after he checks Jack’s credentials he hands over a small package containing several vials of holy water and advises them that they have a small discount as worshipper and inquisitor of Pharasma. The party buys some healing and restorative potions; enquiring if there would be more powerful items available the Quartermaster sadly directs them to the head priest as he hold these items under lock and key. Father Vauran is happy to see them all this morning his pickled old face creasing in smiles as he motion’s them to chairs; they pose the request for more powerful items and the Fathers face seems to crease even more as he thinks. Leaving the room he returns with a long heavy bundle wrapped in oilskins; this he presents to Jack. Upon unwrapping Jack finds a Silver Morning Star of exquisite workmanship. The head is fashioned into the shape of a grinning silver skull with spikes around its brow and over its head; the eyes and mouth glow with a lurid blue flame. Father Vauran advises “Jack; this weapon is on loan and will need to be signed for; if this can’t be returned it will need to be paid for; if later you wish to take it with them you will have to stump up the funds. But for now it is on loan for the duration of your stay here; It has powers and if you call to Pharasma while wielding it you gain the benefit of a healing enchantment which can be applied to yourself or to whoever you strike with it. This is limited to only a few times a day but it could be useful; it might have more powers but these I don’t know about and are barely even worth mentioning. Now unless you have more things you would like to buy I suggest you go and put it to good use.” With that he ushers them from his room; closing the door behind them with a sigh and a grin as they take the nasty weapon away. Looking at each other as they leave they consider the uncommon generosity of the Temple as they walk to the Restlands to investigate the gravesite in the light of day. Upon reaching the desecrated plot they find that all the graves have already been re-dug and are awaiting the interment of the bodies again. If there were any signs of foul play it most likely would have been removed by the over enthusiastic grave diggers. They search anyway and find nothing out of the ordinary. As its only late morning they decide to take a walk around the prison to see what else they can discover; walking the mile or so round the village they notice that the villagers are traveling in groups and looking around nervously. The party guesses that this is due to the mini Zombie invasion the night before; the villagers are happy to see the party and wave at them as they pass. They soon find themselves standing before the gates of the Prison; the looming dark mostly abandoned structure standing before them. As they pass through the gates Jack is struck by the sudden fear of the place and its imposing presence; he soon shakes off this feeling and says out loud “yup it’s haunted” With a smile to Sayuri and Hursk they proceed into the grounds. Sayuri and Hursk show Jack the markings on the base of the walls and he comes to a similar conclusion that these were used to somehow trap the ghost of the Prison Warden and take it away somewhere. They pass into the building entering the foyer and scanning around; they first take a look at the large and very solid metal door they were unable to access the last time they were here. This door defeats Jack’s attempts to open it and causes them to turn away in disappointment; following this terrible defeat they return to the hole in the floor that leads to the dungeons. Hursk decides to go first and checks down the hole making sure there is nothing obviously nasty awaiting him down there; deciding it’s safe he expertly ties off his rope; grips it tightly making sure it’s secure and then proceeds to climb down the hole. However Hursk is not a great knot person and it slips dropping Hursk 20 feet to fall on his ass and injuring his pride; to make matters worse Sayuri drops through the hole after him alighting upon the cold and dusty floor with an innocent expression as a 20 ft drop is nothing to a Monk. Smirking prettily at Hursk as he gets back to his feet while rubbing his lower back and ass; Jack ties off his own rope and making sure it’s securely tied expertly clambers down the rope to stand for the first time in the lower prison levels. Having already explored to area to the east and south they make sure Jack is aware of these area’s and proceed to creep stealthily to the north to where the many relatively fresh bloody decorations on the walls are evident from their previous incursion to this level. They make their way to the location of Matthious’s sad demise and find the remains of the headless charred skeleton that ironically decapitated Matthious; Jack felt a shiver down his spine as he looked upon the sharp blood smeared axe resting in the boney grasp of the remains of Gurtis Vortch and carefully bends to pick up the axe; easing it out of the grasp of now immobile Gurtis. While Jack is inspecting the remains and the axe; Hursk and Sayuri investigate the room that Gurtis emerged from. The room is unremarkable containing only burnt remains of a cot, desk and other items which are less identifiable; they quickly proceed into the Northern prison where a dark Oubliette is waiting. From where they are they can see all the doors are open and the iron grate covering the oubliette while closed is not locked and a rope is tied to the grating. Hursk leads the foray into the room and is rewarded by the emergence of a terrifying sight; a dark ghostly apparition rises out of the oubliette with a soul searing scream of pure anguish. The whole party feel the scream reverberate through their own souls; in horror they notice that this ghostly apparition in carrying a large hand axe which is swings at Hursk with a solid blow; Hursk cries out in pain as he feels the negative energy comprising the axe bites deeply into his flesh and stares in shock as a spurt of blood turns into mist and is absorbed by the grinning apparition with the glowing red eyes. Sayuri steps up and casts a spell, however she steps too close and the wraithlike creature before her strikes out thankfully missing, the spell goes off and two balls of force erupt from her hand and slam into the incorporeal creature tearing off its ectoplasm and casting it to the winds. The wraithlike creature turns and faces Sayuri its burning red eyes making her soul cringe inwardly while she grins impudently at it. Jack moves up behind Hursk and heals a small part of the damage inflicted and therefore stopping the bleeding damage the wraith inflicted. The Lopper (which is one of the 5 major evil spirits haunting the prison) strikes out again with his axe towards Sayuri but she gracefully dances out of the way and the wraith screams in outrage at the blood it’s denied. Hursk yanking out his large sword swings a vicious blow at the apparition; Hursk feeling the intense cold through the length of his sword turning his fingers blue as they touch upon the grave while his sword whistles through the creature meeting some resistance and causing another small rent in the substance of the creature. Sayuri retreats into the corner and conjures some protective amour around herself while Jack moves around trying to gain a better position to attack, striking at the creature with his mace which connects and causes some minor damage. Hursk takes the brunt of the attack again as the Lopper swings his axe catching him on his shoulder, blood spurts and repairs the wraith while Hursk yells more to inspire himself than anything else. Stepping back Hursk summons a greatsword of force and directs it to attack the Lopper; Jack drops his mace and pulls out his new Silver Morningstar swinging it in a vicious arc and connecting with nothing throwing him off balance which the Lopper takes advantage of forgetting about Sayuri and slashes him across his arm; Jack feels the terrible cold of death as his skin ruptures in several long gashes and blood mists into the air drifting to the spirit repairing some of the damage it had received. Sayuri casts a spell and opens a rent in the fabric of time and space drawing through a powerful Demon which looks like a half melted candle; the Lemure lashes out at the spirit and tears a few small rents in it’s fabric while Sayuri starts summoning another critter to assist. Hursk drinks a potion to restore his vitality and to stop the bleeding; Jack also summons curative energies to restore his health and to stop the bleed while the Lopper scores another slashing hit upon Jacks shoulder sending the coldness of the grave into his soul and wrenching out some more of his vital essences. Sayuri summons a rat faced hound and directs this to attack the Lopper much to its annoyance and then starts summoning another hound. Hursk Summons his god’s power and directing it outwards in a positive burst healing up Jack and himself; stopping the bleeding damage and making the Lopper scream in pain as much of his form is ripped asunder by the powerful positive energies. Through summoning, positive bursts and general smack downs the Lopper is finally brought down and dissipates into red mist that falls to the floor in a bloody puddle. The party stands around breathing heavily as the long combat closes; they look at each other. Hursk and Jack are covered in blood; mostly their own. Sayuri is as clean as she could be in this dusty dungeon without a speck of blood upon her. They all sit down for a few minutes to recover from the exertion and to heal themselves up. Exploring the Oubliette they find several items of interest in the bottom including a set of keys. They set out again back to the main room and setting out west towards Reapers Hold; the portcullis before them is closed but the doors either side are open. They all try very hard to move silently down the corridor; they all fail horribly however tripping over imaginary cracks in the floor, kicking small boulders down the corridor and cursing loudly when they stub their toe or sneezing uncontrollably. They eventually examine the door on the right first cautiously listening at the door prior to opening it. (As if anything inside didn’t hear them and would not be sitting quietly waiting for them) The door creaks open revealing a room empty of obvious problems; however they do see a winch in one corner which could open the portcullis. The rest of the room seems to be full of things less interesting than a goblins lunchbox so they pass over to the other door. Taking this cautiously again they bend to press their ears against the door and discover to their relief that rot grubs had not been placed in the door just for this eventuality. They hear nothing on the other side of the door nor in the rest of the prison so they cautiously open the door; seeing nothing of great interest inside bar a few skulls on the desk with a large hammer, a table and chairs with a cot in the corner Sayuri steps into the room and approaches the desk to investigate. As soon as she approaches the desk a few things happen; firstly she feels an intense pain in her head as if her skull is trying to break itself apart; secondly she notices that part of some skull fragments on the desk start vibrating as the pain started. Additionally there is a very dead Dwarf lying on the floor by the desk not in direct view of the door; Sayuri stumbles from the room grasping her head in agony. As soon as she left the room the pain faded though the memory of it was still there; Hursk Strides into the room and grunts in pain as his head explodes in pain. He approaches the desk and the apparition of a dwarf rises up from the floor grasping a huge hammer while the skull of a female Dwarf hovers nearby. The Dwarven skull is obviously female and is missing a wedged shaped sliver of bone from one side. This is the Mosswater Marauder; or at least the ghost of the insane Dwarven mass murderer previously known as the Mosswater Marauder. The Dwarf strikes Hursk resoundly on the head; Hursk staggers back stunned as the ghostly image of a wedge shaped sliver of bone wrenches itself from Hursks head and drifts to the floating skull of the Dwarfs murdered wife; this sliver tries to fit itself into the damaged skull, fails then fading away to nothing. Hursk staggers around as though drunk as the three skulls on the Desk rise up and streak towards him some of them crashing into him causing some light bruising. Hursk roars in anger trying to shake off the feeling of lassitude that comes from a nasty head wound and strikes out at one of the floating skulls smashing it into pieces. The Marauder screams in anguish as one of his pet skulls is shattered appearing as it to stagger back a step as if hurt. Jack wishing to avoid the pain walking into the room causes fires an arrow from the doorway at one of the skulls and misses horribly; Sayuri runs into the room around the Marauder and performs a spinning kick at one of the skulls catapulting it into the wall and causing a mini explosion of bone shards. Screaming in fury the Marauder swings at Sayuri missing by a large margin; Hursk brings his sword down upon the last remaining skull also obliterating that into a series of fragments. To their surprise the apparition is still standing as they assumed that by smashing the skulls he would be defeated. Jack not wishing to be left out moves up next to Hursk and brings his morning star down upon the skull of the dwarven corpse the apparition is hovering over; this causes the dwarven apparition to do nothing but grin wickedly at him causing his stomach to churn in disquiet. Hursk casting a curative spell reaches out and touches the apparition; its glowing red eyes turning towards him in surprise as the holy energies rend its tattered form consigning its soul to one of the many hells as it screams in frustration and fades from sight. Doing a quick search of the room Jack discovers an irregularity in one of the walls; he is certain there is something hidden behind the wall; Sayuri and Hursk however are not convinced. Hursk especially is very convinced that Jack is making it all up (Hursk rolls 2 perception checks both a natural 1) and is quickly loosing patience with Jack; while Jack lights a torch and is waving it before the supposed entrance; allowing the soot to scorch and hopefully show the opening he discovers a minute hole that could possibly be a keyhole. He goes through the keys they found in the Oubliette and finds one to match. With a click and twist the wall turns into a door and Hursk is amazed at novelty of a secret door. Behind the door they find several sets of amour a number of weapons and a large iron bound oak chest; looking through the amour they make a note of the quality and find its all masterwork; the same seems to be with the weapons. This is a veritable hoard of valuable equipment and they dance around in happiness considering the estimated value of all these items. Jack starts examining the chest considering the value of these items he takes special care to look for anything set up for the unwary thief; finding nothing that should cause any concern he uses another one of the keys to unlock the chest and flipping open the lid discovers several bundles which radiate magic. Sayuri happily grabs these and lays them out on the table expressing that these will all be hers now; Hursk and Jack look at each other carefully and keep quiet for now. They quickly gather up the items and transport them in several trips to the entrance of the prison while Hursk runs back to the Village for some horses to carry the loot. Back at Kendra’s house; Kendra offers to identify the items for the party which they readily agree to. Sayuri is still under the impression that they are hers; this is an impression that is soon to be called to question. They soon step out to the Laughing Demon for dinner having a round of Corpse Chowder and Liquid Ghosts to wash it down with. An early night follows to the surprise of everyone who has known them the last few days. [/QUOTE]
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