Tag: Death

Hall of Mirrors

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ReveliaLeave a comment

A nap! Those crazy revelers took a nap amid all the chaos they’ve caused! A long one, too. Before heading back out into the fray. Chopping down a couple more of the clown thralls gone feral and confusing a couple cornslobs on their way back to the casino. Is this any time to be gambling? Really?

Too bad for them it’s all a mess in there. They try and break open a Handy Helper, but they don’t even stop to loot the machines. The Countess and Dirk are hiding upstairs, and the Dispara is in so much of a hurry, she agrees to help them escape when this is all over.

They the whole mess of them climb their way back up to Sophie’s Lab and murder her! To her credit, she takes a couple of them down with her. Honestly surprised it wasn’t more. I thought for sure her lightning would have taken more down. She should have kept a couple of the Candelbrauns with here, those flesh piles did her no good whatsoever. Then they looted the place clean, even the storage room and the cauldrons. Who knows what kind of alchemical mess those were. The hall of statues had a couple folks starting to stir, but they just stabbed poor Pinky straight in the forehead instead of helping her out. Sure, she’d gone feral, but maybe they could have helped her. Maybe.

Two laughtenants down and one pet – Heckna was mad enough to open the door, inviting them all into his home. And the fools just walked right in. Or well, got slurped in by the house’s tongue, but that doesn’t bear thinking about. Not to the Funhouse proper, no, first they have to navigate the Hall of Mirrors.

Doesn’t take them long to get through the antechamber, fortunately for them, all touching the same mirror. Well, almost all, but we’ll get to that later. And on into the Distortion Room. Where three poor clowns had gotten trapped and gone feral since the red moon’s rising. Put them right down, but got all stretched out in the process. Does a body good to get a little stretched now and then. Then on to the Mirror Image room.

Where they must fight themselves. A classic! With the blood moon, though, things are a little more desperate. The images wanting escape and wreck havoc even more than usual. Kentaro and Tormirr put theirs down fast. Poor Elian is still dead over Tormirr’s shoulder, so his duplicate is dead the instant it entered the room. Sweet Valara charmed the fight right out of her duplicate. Zephram just kept trying to mop his alter away, and he him. Eventually they wore each other down, but it really is hard to tell the difference. Dispara took her dupe’s weapons right away, but still nearly lost her fight. Tazrin needed Kentaro’s help to hold his nimblybimbly duplicate so he could get a few well-placed shots in. It was quite a mess in there, but Zephram’s already cleaning up after everyone so they can take a breather.

Players Beware

Into the start of the dungeon of this section of the campaign. Hall of mirrors and then the Fun House proper. I’m glad they got to the duplicate room. You have to meet expectations sometimes. And it was great to not have to run a fight other than the initiative. I had time to calculate experience for the night. They’re leveling quite fast right now with everything going on. The rest of the Hall of Mirrors don’t have to be fights though, so it might settle down again for a bit. Then the Fun House which has a good mix, as well. I might change up the fights a little. Want them to play with all the toys. I don’t think we’ll get through to Heckna tonight, but the group likes to surprise me. Lots to do, though.

Really have to get my brain into Ravenloft and the next half of the campaign. The guys have offered me resources, but I don’t know which ones to ask for other than “everything?” But at least once we get there, it will be all 2nd ed monsters to play with instead of all the silly circus folks and translated stats. So much to read and create.

The Scarecrow King

On By ravonlockeIn Belladonna, MarathonsLeave a comment

Fires have started around town. 4 specific places.  A couple guards peel off. Barty goes to distract the guards We sneak in and lock the door behind us. Barty ghosts in. Then quietly attack the four scarecrows inside. We eat spme berries and Barty dispels the ward on the trapdoor..

We head down the trap door. Down spiral stone stairs intina catacombs. North chanting,  east combat, west nothing. We head towards the green lit chanting. Finding a guard post. We blow them up. Then Anwin shoots the scarecrow down.

Onward. To a large vaulted chamber with pointy alcoves. Cultists carry materials morth. 4 Scarecrows guard them. Battle signs to the east. Green ritual chamber to the north.  We join battle.

We head forward, berries in hand. Another large room, filled with bodies of dead cultists. And a staircase down, where the glow comes from. Briar found a box in a pillar. Barty dispels the trap. A small black iron hourglass flowing upwards. Briar takes it more more cantripping, and my potion for recovery. 

A tattered priest with burning eyes and eight skeletons come up behind us. Acolyte Mordin. They are sweeping up here and will join us below.

We head down another spiral staircase. Death rites on the walls and pulsing green light from below. Chanting and light from the left. Quiet from the right. Eye goes right. We go left to a semi-circular antechamber with four pillars, with cultists kneeling in prayer. Grren seeps through the far door, which is guarded by a cultist who appears to be Corvus, wearing the black armor of a knight, and four massive scarecrows. We take them all down. I am a tired, injured, wolf by the end.

Massive cathedral room. Glowing green throne. 13 villagers around it glazed and chanting. Lord Blackbriar on the throne with the shadowy Pumpkin King above him.  6 scarecrows behind the cultists.  We bomb Corvus. The scarecrows bomb us to death (Barty, Briar, and me).  Arwin knocks out more of the cultists and Lord Blackbriar kills himself to complete the ritual. The Scarecrow King manifests into the world.

The lich queen enters with her horde and raises the dead to fight again. We rejoin the fight. His throne is destroyed and he is banished back to the netherworld. The scarecrows melt to the floor. The “volunteers” are alive but unconscious. 

The lich queen is satisfied with us kerping our word. She didn’t intend to give us unlife. Grats on your unlife. They will be taking back the temple ward of the city. We cannot attack her. We are bound to the goddess of death. We may leave, but are welcome in her ward. 

We gather up Rico and the survivors. Heading back out into the city through the undead army. The city awakes in confusion and horror. The Lord is disgraced. The rogue guild gains political power. 

We are given a writ of nobility and a manor on the edge of town. Time passes, the Sycthe has half the power in the city. The cult is scattered. The city negotiates with the Lady Templar Lich. 

In the spring, we receive a message. The goblins – the barrow collapsed. Large things moving in the darkness below. 

In Which Zero is Cremated Alive

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, ZeroLeave a comment

Description:

A note was later added that this next entry was six months after the last. The intervening entries have not been found, but reports show Zero was active in Sigil during this time, repeatedly dying and returning to life in spectacular and mostly magical ways.

Here, she has awakened on an autopsy table, and is greeted by a skull and, one would guess, an awful miasma of smells. She learns that people are dying and then waking up, and this is making people angry. A flying cat returns her red marble to her, fantastical you say? She was often seen in the company of one Cordon the merchant who had such a flying cat he called Chroma.

It appears that next, she and others she awoke with, for surely at least Cordon was there, and given records of the time, probably an entire group of characters who had been gallivanting around the city together, decided to sneak through the darkened mortuary. If you thought the cat a delusion, she next appears to have witness skeletons and ghosts having a puppet show. I only report what I see in her drawings, you should see her paintings.

It appears they may have next encountered a Duskman and a flesh golem in another room. He, very likely, objected to their attempts to leave and looks to have called a couple minotaur skeletons to help dissuade them. Though it looks like they found a doorway out, and a zombie manning at least one side of the hallway. It looks, however, as though Zero may have perished once again in a horrific fire. Perhaps an incinerator, instead of getting out of the Mortuary that time.