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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 3834970" data-attributes="member: 16069">Dungeon Crawl Classics #11 The Dragonfiend Pact For 2nd Level CharactersTurn 36: Just Rewards.The Drow Wizard shimmers for a second and is gone.And in his place is Malchor, the owner of the Wellow Inn, his magical Disguise Self spell is over.“Malchor… You…” Cas begins.But the Innkeeper doesn’t stir.“He’s dead, let’s fleece him, grab what we can and get back to the Church.” Newt heads off to check out the papers on the desk, Anya follows him over.Cas wanders over to the Innkeeper’s body, bends to start his search.Malchor’s head shoots up, the Healing Potion- now empty, falls from his grasp.“HA HA HA. You’ll have to try harder than that.”He touches Cas, barely brushes his leg.Cas screams, like a little girl.“My eyes.”It feels like acid burning his eyeballs, he staggers back flailing wildly, and then suddenly stops. The other members of the Goodman Gang turn and instinctively draw weapons- ready again for the fight.Cas blinks once or twice, arms out before him, staggers forward testing the air with his hands, his feet inching forward, scuffing the ground, making sure of the surface.He stops.Grins.“No, you’ll have to do better than that.”“You bastard.”Malchor leaps to his feet, dagger back in hand.The Goodman Gang dive back into the fray again, Jim slashes with his axe gouges a deep furrow in the Innkeeper’s chest, Malchor grits his teeth, the pain, and slashes back- cutting Jim badly across his face. Blood gushes from the wound; Jim staggers backwards his face pure horror show.Ala is quickly to him, spills her sword, and pumps Healing into the screaming Ranger.THwungNewt’s bolt hits an invisible barrier, Malchor’s Shield of Faith, he begins to coat another bolt with poison“Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.”The Innkeeper screams, the adventurers take another step back, widening the circle around him.Except for Bec.Who rushes forward.Swings his two handed sword with all his might.And cuts Malchor clean in two.“Shut up, I mean, Sandwich.”The Barbarian looks around at the other adventurers; they seem not to have noticed his speech.“Thank feck he’s dead.”Newt sums up their feelings succinctly.The Gnome sets to, spots a metal strongbox under the bed, drags it out and gets on with opening it.The other adventurers spread out to thoroughly search the chamber, and yet return having found nothing of interest, even the papers on the table are blank sheets of parchment.“Arrrgghh.”Newt withdraws his hand quickly, the poison pulses from the needle protruding from the end of his finger, he feels… weak.“You OK?” Ala is quickly there to help.“Poisoned.” Newt shows the spot.“We need to get you to the Church.” Cas cuts in.“Money first.” Newt nods at the chest.And thirty seconds later, and still being supervised by Ala and Cas, he springs the chest open. There’s a pile of coins, gems and jewellery within.Soon after the gang trudge out, down the passage, and emerge from a river bank running through a farmer’s field, a little way south of Gleethorpe. It’s a straight road, actually no more than a farmer’s track, back into the village, and passed the Wellow Inn, which they avoid for now.Thirty minutes later the sextet are back in the centre of Grimbo, at St. Jimbo’s, the Church of Pelor, and before Father Whiskin.Cas’ curse has been lifted, a small matter, a simple ceremony by Father Whiskin and Cas is free from taint, but now the Priest is shaking his head.“Lycanthropy…” He sucks his teeth.Ala and Cas plead with their eyes.“There’s three of us need the cure… Do you have anything?” Cas asks.Ala hopes, she’s one of the three that maybe infected.Behind them Newt waves faintly and then collapses- very poisoned, although it’s quickly established his life is not in danger, he’s found a temporary bed.“Well there’s Wolfsbane…” Father Whiskin offers.“Will that work?” Ala worries.“It should, probably… Pelor willing.” The Priest trails off.Cas nods.Ala, Jim and Bec are ushered further into the Church, made comfortable in a side room; a pair of acolytes appear and the Wolfsbane is administered, and a minor sedative- it doesn’t take much to put the three to sleep.“Pelor will watch over them here, they’re safe.” Father Whiskin clutches Cas’ arm, Ala sweats and twitches as an acolyte mops her brow. “Wolfsbane is a poison, they’ll have a fever for a while, we’ll see to them, go… You need to tell the authorities what you’ve found.”And so Cas and Anya depart- straight to Lady Arabella’s residence, Cas knows the way.An hour later the pair find themselves in a once serious looking dark oak panelled office, now complete with a collection of dolls from every nation, a very large make-up bag, and an unfeasibly tall pair of patent leather stiletto shoes atop the desk. Behind which sits Lady Arabella, lost in her fathers massive chair.“NO.” She plunges through a dozen or more expressions- shock, horror, terror, fear, confusion, wanton, trepidation, et al. Cas and Anya continue with their story.“NO.” And again with the exaggerated facial expressions.Till finally she flings herself around the desk and at Cas’ feet, she claws her way up, pawing at him as she goes.“Owwwww my brave Cassy. Owww how absolutely awful, you must have been so frightened, oh but no. No. You know no fear, don’t you Cassy-wassy… You’re so fearless… So… without erm fear.”She’s rubbing his arm, thigh, chest, arm again- his bicep, her eyes glisten, she licks her lips. She moves onto his thigh, perches there.“So very hard, I mean… brave.”Cas gets up very quickly, Lady Arabella thumps onto the floor, it seems her hand may have strayed somewhere off limits. Cas is beetroot red.“Ahem, I think we should get off now, we should report this to the appropriate authorities.” Cas clicks his heels, turns around, and then swiftly back, bows and helps a smiling Lady Arabella back to her feet.“Arabella.” Cas nods and then strides off, with a pronounced limp.Anya watches on, less than amused.Lady Arabella readjusts her dress, leans back on her father’s desk and grins at the retreating Paladin’s back; actually it’s his bottom she’s staring at.“Lady Arabella?” Anya approaches, “our reward.”Arabella’s reverie is broken; she shuffles around the desk, opens a draw, hefts a large purse of money onto it, mutters “thanks”, and rushes over to the window to watch Cas’ awkward retreat. She never looks once at Anya.“I’ll leave this with you.” Anya reveals the huge tome found on the altar, Malchor’s diary, but Arabella doesn’t even signal she has heard.“He killed your father.”That gets her attention, Lady Arabella turns, her hand shoots out, she grabs at the back of a chair to steady herself.“I’m sorry, really. I know what it’s like to lose a parent…”Anya flees the scene, the sound of Lady Arabella’s tears echo through the huge empty house. A little while later at Grimbo Police Station, on Vicky Street, Cas sits at a desk in an interview room and tells his tale again.“Right, and who gave you permission to investigate this matter?” Captain Khan enquires.Cas looks non-plussed for a second, then states clearly, “Lady Arabella Ross, who I believe, is the Council Member for Gleethorpe.”“Hmmm.” The good Captain smiles.“Leave it with us… we’ll investigate.”And stands and makes to leave.“That’s it?” Cas is less than impressed.“Hmmm. Oh… Thanks.” Khan smirks and limply proffers his hand.  Cas is up and out of the Police Station almost before his chair hits the ground.Khan watches the paladin leave from a window, the door behind him opens, he doesn’t turn round, only stiffens slightly- alert.“So that’s him?”“Yes, sir.” Khan replies.“How did he seem?”“Angry, sir?” Khan hopes he has the right answer.“Good… Good, that’ll do for now.”“Yes, sir.”“And Khan…”“Sir?”“Keep an eye on them, all of them.”“Yes sir, I’ll…” Khan turns to discover he’s alone in the room, suddenly confused, he can’t remember the sound of the door shutting, strange, he thinks.Next Turn: Review</blockquote>

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