Login

***sköldpaddor*** · 04-20-2021, 04:41 PM

Week 0 (if you have no idea wtf this is, start there)

Our cast of characters (please split grading moneys accordingly):
@hhh81 as Cassius Darrow as Aengus Voerlin
@Ruggsy as Ruggs McOoooh as Beiwraek Zutsar
@Naosu as Ryan Shepard as Dorn Tallstag
@GeckoeyGecko as Simon Takshak as Otho'khent
@lespoils as Jean-Uhtred Ragnarsson-Tremblay as Cassian Thunderbuns "Thunderbones" Deephollow
ME as Gunnar Söderberg as the Dungeon Master

We begin where we left off, outside a spooky looking house with some little children standing out front next to a fierce looking halfling with lightning tattoos on his body. (Gunnar asks everyone if they have darkvision. Almost everyone says no, JURT says yes, Cassius says he will check, there is a significant chance he does not know what that is and is probably texting Johnny Hamilton about it, in the end it turns out basically no one has darkvision and we light some torches instead.)

JURT the halfling tells them there’s a monster in the house, which gets Aengus’ attention. JURT introduces himself as Thunderbones, and tells them that the children are Rose and Thorn. Thunderbones and his friends came here and his friends went inside the house while he stayed outside with the children. Rose and Thorn also tell our heroes that there is a horrible monster in the house and that they don’t know where their parents are.

Aengus can see that the children are unhappy and he casts shape water to keep the rain from falling on their head. The little boy hugs Aengus’ leg and Aengus asks him not to touch him, so he stops. The party hear some horrible inhuman howling noises coming from deep within the house, and make their way inside, lighting their way with torches.

They come into an entryway in which there are several portraits of snooty-looking aristocrats. Otho immediately begins taking portraits and putting them into his bag. There is also a shield bearing a coat of arms (which appears to be a golden windmill on a red field of crops), which Thunderbones takes.

Our heroes proceed into the main hall of the house. There is a black marble fireplace at one end and a red marble staircase at the other end. There is also a longsword hung over the fireplace. Otho takes the sword down and leaves it on the floor for no reason immediately apparent - Beiwraek picks the sword up and equips himself with it.

Aengus and Otho investigate the floor and find halfling-sized tracks heading up the stairs, so they decide to head up the stairs to try and track down Thunderbones’ friends. Before they all head upwards, Dorn does some stealthy peeking into a few of the other rooms, and identifies a a kitchen and a dining room.

The party make their way up the stairs to a landing one floor above, and are immediately confronted by the site of a halfling lying motionless on the floor there at the top of the stairs. Thunderbones immediately recognizes it as his friend/party member Marthia - Otho checks and confirms that Marthia is very dead. Thunderbones is very upset.

Otho does some kind of lizard last rites (“may the swamp see your remains put to the best use”) and begins preparing to eat the remains. Thunderbones clearly takes issue with that and stops him (Otho is somewhat confused because he cannot imagine why someone would not want their remains put to the best use, but he does stop trying to eat Marthia).

The party immediately decide to continue up the stairs (there are additional rooms on this floor which Dorn peeks into, but remain unexplored for now). They make their way up to the next story, where they come face to face with a black suit of armor standing against the wall. Otho approaches, and the armor comes to life and attacks them!

Our heroes fight the scary armor (Otho throws one of the portraits he pilfered downstairs directly into its face hole), and Thunderbones deals the killing blow to avenge his dead friend by fiercely thrusting his swords into the armpits of the armor and up into the face, then headbutts the portrait even deeper into the face (side note: Thunderbones might be angry).

Once the armor is defeated, it collapses as if it was never alive, just empty armor pieces. Dorn explores this floor a little more, peeking into rooms - he discovers a closet with another dead halfling inside, but leaves that for the moment and goes to check out a bedroom instead, then comes back to the closet to try and loot the dead halfling. As he enters the closet, a broom in the back corner springs to life and rushes at him to attack!

Dorn closes the closet door and goes back into the hallway and informs everyone that there is a broom attacking. Otho goes right in to check it out and a fight ensues. Otho is knocked unconscious at one point, but the party does manage to dispatch of the broom. After that, Thunderbones identifies the dead halfling as his other friend Henry, who seems to have been beaten to death by the boom.

They continue to explore this floor after taking the dead halflings both back downstairs. They discover some bedrooms, and one in particular has a ghostly woman in it. She tells them her name is Margaret, and through talking to her, they learn that she is a nursemaid, who looked after the children. Margaret seems to realize briefly that she is dead (“Yeah,” says Beiwraek, “you’re definitely dead.”), but that knowledge seems to come and go because she acknowledges it and then almost immediately becomes insulted that anyone would imply such a thing.

She begs them repeatedly to not wake up the baby - they investigate the nursery within this nursemaid suite, where there is a crib covered in a black shroud. They pull back the shroud to reveal a baby-sized bundle of blankets, but they leave the bundle alone and head back out. When they leave the nursery, Margaret is gone (she has phased out of existence, which Otho observed).

The party decide to go back downstairs to the second floor, where they explore a bit more and locate a room with musical instruments in it. There is also a dog in the room - he is wearing a collar and seems friendly and immediately follows Beiwraek around. Otho begins to fiddle around with a harpsichord; Thunderbones is frustrated and tells him to stop horsing around.

Dorn makes his way downstairs by himself at this point and further explores the dining room and kitchen area. He finds some food in the pantry which he gives to Otho (so hopefully Otho will stop trying to eat the dead) but they quickly discover that the food, while appearing fresh and tasty, tastes like sand.

The rest of the party explore the second floor a bit more, finding their way into a study with some extensive bookshelves, a desk, and a couple of chairs. A lot of investigating happens here - Beiwraek takes a book of zombie erotica and Otho discovers a secret door into a small room.

Otho investigates the room and locates several items - some legal-looking papers (deeds to the house and a windmill somewhere), a dead body holding a letter, some spell scrolls, and some assorted books of ominous-looking writing. The secret door has swung shut behind Otho but the others eventually discover where he went, and they all look over the things together (including Dorn who has rejoined the party). The letter is a very condescending note addressed to “my most pathetic servant” and signed by Strahd von Zarovich (click here if you really want to read it).

The party is still trying to figure out how to get into the basement (where they were told the monster is), and they begin trying to investigate the house for a way down. They’ve determined that there does not appear to be any entry to a basement on the first floor, but after some investigation, they do notice that something seems kind of strange about one corner of the room - some missing space which seems consistent throughout the three floors they’ve been on. They head back up to the third floor, where Beiwraek (who, by the way, is still being followed by the dog), has an epiphany about a wall, which he pushes on to reveal another secret door, and behind it, a staircase leading upwards (yes, upwards).

EVERYONE GETS TO BE LEVEL TWO NOW! What lies at the top of the secret staircase? Will the party ever figure out how to get to the basement? Will we find Thunderbones’ last missing friend? FIND OUT NEXT TIME.

***Ruggsy*** · 04-20-2021, 04:47 PM

not just any zombie erotica
SPARKLY zombie erotica

nyumbayangu · 04-20-2021, 04:51 PM

Will there be a many handed alien creature that feasts on humans in this story.

I hope not.

**_Blitz_** · 04-20-2021, 05:05 PM

So wait, Dorn was pointed out as the Rogue. What is everyone else playing?

GeckoeyGecko · 04-20-2021, 05:41 PM

04-20-2021, 05:05 PMCapt_Blitzkrieg Wrote: So wait, Dorn was pointed out as the Rogue. What is everyone else playing?

lizard god

*hhh81* · 04-20-2021, 07:00 PM

I notice you explicitly left out what Aengus/Cassius was doing during the investigating of the house...

@Capt_Blitzkrieg Aengus is a Githzerai Druid, Beiwraek is a Firbolg Cleric, Dorn is a Rogue, Otho is an Artificer(?), and Thunderbones is a Barbarian

**_Blitz_** · 04-20-2021, 09:06 PM

04-20-2021, 07:00 PMhhh81 Wrote: I notice you explicitly left out what Aengus/Cassius was doing during the investigating of the house...

@Capt_Blitzkrieg Aengus is a Githzerai Druid, Beiwraek is a Firbolg Cleric, Dorn is a Rogue, Otho is an Artificer(?), and Thunderbones is a Barbarian

Interesting bunch. Should make for a fun campaign. I do like that you're not sure on Geck's character; all Artificers should foster that kind of uncertainty.

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us