Dramatis personae
Ash, a squire (John)
Xóran, a fox-man scout (Roman)
Kim, a thief (John)
Mayhem, a short barbarian (Steph)
Caleb, a yellow-robe wizard (Joe)
Kôštē, a cleric (GMPC)
Villûdē, a guide (NPC)
Quid occurrit
First up, they heal themselves after the fight against the mummy and skeletons. Ash takes the broadsword from the skeleton, while Xóran takes the other from the mummy.
Then they head south. Right away, they find themselves in a room with many skeletons lying in beds, which Caleb incinerates with a Blast Ball. Caleb stars in the next room to the south of that one, spotting some Evil Runes, casting Levitate on himself to float over them, then casting Explode on the floor to make the jump over them easy enough for everyone to do it.
After a few twists and turns, they find themselves in a smithy, with rusty swords. Kim is able to find a flagstone in the floor on the western wall, and, after letting everyone rest again, pulls it up, opening a door on that wall.
They go through the door and into a garden of mushrooms. Xóran tosses a meal of rations (he never said what, but one figures some of the monster meat they’ve been keeping) at the mushrooms, which do nothing. The mushrooms have grown a little bigger than a fist, with a flat top and a rusty hue. Caleb has seen them before in one of his books and knows that they can raise one’s heart rate enough if in a potion, but has trouble harvesting. The only way out is a hallway to the south. Kim, after covering her face and nose, takes a moment to listen down the hall, but hears nothing.
Kim and Xóran lead the gang into it and take a turn, and see it lined with pretty paintings. Xóran, Kôštē and Villûdē stare at one to the north that is of a sage, while Kim stares agape at one of a wizard on the south wall. As Caleb casts Create Fire on the painting of the sage to break their gaze, a woman in a pink dress walks into the edge of their light.
Ash grabs a sack and puts it over Kim’s head as the woman walks towards them. In accented Mannish, she tells them to put away their weapons. Xóran, needless to say, nocks and arrow and fires; the woman dodges. “Please save your arrows for later, I could use them,” she tells them. Caleb lobs an Explosive Fireball at her, but she also dodges that’s blast and swiftly moves towards them.
Something is amiss with this woman. Whatever it is, Xóran drops his bow and draws his swords. Kim pulls off her makeshift mask and she turns, while Mayhem, who has started to move towards the woman, spots a fetching painting and stares at it. Everyone else moves to fight, and the woman wiggles her fingers.
Uh-oh.
Xóran howls, which doesn’t bother the woman in the slightest. Ash moves up to strike, but misses, as likewise does Caleb. Luckily, Caleb also missed Ash. The woman swats Ash with her staff, which Ash parries. While everyone still moves to fight, Ash takes another swing at the woman, and this time hits her. It doesn’t do as much damage as he would have though, however—something is amiss with this sword!
Villûdē slaps Mayhem, and Caleb casts Flaming Weapon on Mayhem’s axe. The blonde woman in the pink dress suddenly looks less cute to Xóran and Ash after she waves her hand, with Xóran stunned. Forever after will he not trust blonde human women. Kim takes a shot at the woman and misses, and luckily also misses Xóran. Mayhem rushes forward to strike, but breaks Caleb’s spell as he does so.
Ash knows something is amiss in spite of this woman’s evil eye, and takes another swing. However, her brace of her staff to his blow makes him drop his sword. No! Not his beloved new sword! The woman starts to back off, and the gang moves to press her. Mayhem makes a wild swing and misses, and Caleb misses with a Fireball. Ash grabs his sword as the woman wiggled her fingers.
Xóran snaps awake to see that the gang had moved a bit down the hallway. The woman parries Mayhem’s swing, then tries to make a swing at Ash who then parries. Things are like this for a few seconds—Mayhem and Ash pressing the woman back, while she keeps parrying. Kim takes a couple of shots in there, while Xóran sees a picture on the wall of the blonde woman—the one of which the whisper in his ear spoke. Unluckily, Xóran again stares at it like an idiot. Caleb moves forward with the Continual Light torch, and yells at the others to keep the woman in the light.
The woman keeps stepping back, and Mayhem drops his axe and grabs some rope. As the rest slink back, he tries to snare the woman with his rope, but misses. Ash stabs the picture of the blonde woman with the sword, snapping Xóran awake again. Caleb gets the woman with a small fireball, who backs off. Xóran awakes, and reaches behind the picture and takes the emeralds, and gives one to each of the others, keeping the rest. They turn and leave the dungeon, and make sure to slash the paintings as they do so.
They relaxed outside, as the evil turkeys were asleep.
Res aliae
Roman’s nephew Joe played Caleb and Chris’s cousin Steph played Mayhem. Ten character points for the last two sessions.
The players know what’s amiss with the blonde woman—she’s a lich—but the characters don’t.
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