Another D’Amberville Unearthed
We awoke once again refreshed and began to examine the strange chapel. Haughty statues of various D’Ambervilles mutely surveyed our progress. Barakor’s sword detected magic on them but it was not clear what the nature of the spell was. The monk meanwhile, most advanced party member together with Saladin/ Grom suddenly heard a noise, a scrabbling scraping, moaning noise.
Barakor investigated and saw a hand emerging through the floor. As he went to assist or tackle whatever was emerging, a statue unexpectedly unleashed some kind of power against him and he exploded in flames. There was some confusion; I was also affected by a statue as I passed it, though it felt to me like a positive effect.
The underfloor apparition turned out to be another of the somewhat deranged D’Ambervilles: Magdelene. She had been buried there for some reason by her brother Charles. She made several murderous remarks about his future prospects and I get the feeling that she was not full of brotherly love at this moment.
However, she definitely took a shine to Eldras making a number of less that subtle remarks suggesting that she had ambitions to entertain him in an intimate manner. He seemed a little ambivalent about the prospect* but we learned some more from the recently excavated lunatic.
* To say the least
She seemed rather unhelpfully ignorant on topics such as the location of her brother or Stephan, but amongst other titbits she fed us:
• Stephen is dead
• Murdered by his brother Henri
• Who is also dead
• Killed by Stephan’s curse
• Stephan is buried in a tomb that is located on another plane
• Eldras is hot
• Barakor is not hot
• Holly is a simpleton
• As is Grom
• Grom may find a way to becoming an orc here
• Others may well be in the east wing
• Only dead D’ Ambervilles are featured amongst the statues
• But Stephan and Henri are not featured
• Stephan brought the family here after the war
• Although some of the family are rather unpleasant, Blood is thicker than water
Scouting westwards Holly suddenly collapsed, affected by another statue. She instantly developed a high fever and soon after lapsed into unconsciousness. Fortunately Ripven was able to cure her with his newly learned Cure Disease spell, avoiding what seemed likely to be a fatal outcome.
We then moved on, skirting the many statues nervously and finding a corridor through the west door that had three exits. Opening the first, Barakor found a monastic cell with three amber robe clad monks within who instantly attacked. The other two doors also flew open and three more figures attacked our flanks. Magdelene fainted helpfully at this point.*
* Later revealing that she remembered them as ex lovers prior to their deceasement.
Zionestes drove the lead zombie for such it was, back on the right but two more came on. I fired two magic missiles at the leader on the left and Grom stepped up to protect me. Barakor drove all three of his zombies away and he followed in to destroy them with help from Holly. Ripven tripped over Eldras who had brilliantly hidden in shadows in a moment of comic genius.
Roscoe helpfully decided to watch the back initially, but he and Ripven eventually moved to assist Zionestes. After Eldras, Holly and Barakor finished the centre room’s zombies they moved to assist with the others. I injured another zombie with a well aimed dagger and Grom finished off that side whilst Roscoe Zionestes and Ripven finished the right after Ripven turned the two remaining on that side.
The west was a dead end and we retreated back into the chapel and searched the altar, Barakor immediately locating a trapdoor. We descended immediately down a long stairway that led to an ante chamber where Ripven heroically threw himself against the exit door, injuring himself slightly.
After Barakor demonstrated his patented door opening technique with his usual aplomb, we entered a vast disused alchemical laboratory loaded with all sorts of equipment but no apparent materials of any sort. As the last of us entered the door slammed shut and a choking black dust poured in to the room knocking us all out.
I then had a dream, very vivid and powerful, in which I discovered that all plant life had been demonically possessed but heroically I discovered an artefact that saved the day and returned plants to their normal benign selves. On waking, we found that we had all experienced powerful dreams, some of us bearing serious wounds to prove it.
Eldras had a dream in which he was pursued by a boulder which almost crushed him.
Barakor had a dream in which he was attacked by a giant spider which he killed. He had a serious spider bite to prove the reality of it.
Holly dreamt that she was falling off a huge cliff to certain death, but she woke as she landed, presumably avoiding certain death.
Grom dreamt of a world locked in the throes of a great war, with cataclysmic explosions destroying entire cities, flying machines sending streaking fire at each other and then a great flying machine flying away from a world to land at a distant shoreline to build some kind of fortress city. He believes that it represented an episode from Allerzoi history.
Roscoe reported a dream in which he was captured by lizard people and kept in a cage. He was freed by a passing mage who took pity on him.
Zionestes had a dream in which he saved a nobleman in the Estagrad and became a lord of that small country as a reward.
Ripven was a real mess, he had clearly taken a hell of a beating in his dream and he confirmed that he had been in single combat with a manticore that he had fought long and hard before finally being defeated by it. He had used two spiritual hammer spells, all his healing and exhausted his healing staff in the process.
If Magdelene had a dream, she showed no sign.
We had a choice of east or west exit and went west again. A maze of corridors was revealed but we found a room containing a pool. Within the pool of silver liquid floated a glass sphere. Within it, we could see a piece of transmat key, the sort many if not all of us had dreamed of by now, the sort we had recovered from the pool in the forest, the sort we knew Roscoe had stolen from the cat people.*
*Tip for thieves. Be aware of the difficulty of keeping secrets in a party containing six characters of a suspicious nature, three of whom have ESP.
Eldras attempted to lasso it but quickly discovered that the liquid was acid. We stretched a rope across the pool and nudged the sphere towards the edge where I levitated it clear of the pool and Barakor shattered the sphere so we could recover the key.
I have skipped over an interesting point here: Whilst I rested to learn Levitate and our clerics recovered their healing powers, Eldras and Magdalene slipped away and according to my sources enjoyed intimate relations.* My source indicated that Eldras put up token resistance and then not much else. It took us four hours to recover our spells, but Eldras only needed four minutes to perform his duties.
*There was a good deal of foreplay involving inappropriate touching. Phil remains in a serious but stable condition.
After recovery of the key was accomplished, we had a chat with Roscoe, who when subjected to a little of Grom’s orc like charm quickly revealed how he had been holding on to a third key part for the general good and which he was only too happy to hand over at this point, again, for the general good.
We then proceeded to another room, continuing with our westward ho! Policy. This one contained an apparent daemon, apparently confined in a pentagram. He hailed us heartily as rescuers and introduced himself as Gerard D’Ambervile. The room, which had another exit opposite, also contained a large horn hanging on the wall.
We had a debate with the daemon and Eldras tricked it into revealing that it was not a member of the D’Amberville family by using the wrong name for Magdelene. Grom agreed to release the beast and broke the containment pentagram. It immediately moved to attack him but it was struck down despite its creation of a zone of darkness.
Its three attacks were only partially successful though Grom was temporarily paralysed before it was slain. Its potentially fatal bite fortunately missed. Roscoe, despite hitting it failed to damage it with his lack of magic weaponry, my magic missiles did little but Eldras with his trusty backstab in particular did better.
After the battle, Barakor, intrigued by the horn blew it. This appeared to have little effect, but then, presumably attracted by the noise three tigers burst through the west door. Holly was badly hurt and Zionestes was also bitten but the three were quickly despatched, in particular by Eldras whose Gut ripping sword put on a splendid display.
The three tigers took human form after death, for they were weretigers. Zionestes healed Holly but she had the same look of disquiet that Eldras had after his sexual encounter with Magdelene, though who had the more serious risk of disease was a coin toss if you ask me. Rest time again…
Kravaine
Zombies 35
Saving the world from plants 100
Recovery of third key portion 100
Death Demon 100
Were tigers 200
Total 535
Eldras
Characterisation & Roleplay 70
Using ESP 50
Zombies 35
Recovery of third key portion 100
Testing Pool acid 100
Tricking the daemon 100
Death Demon 100
Were tigers 700
Total 1255
Barakor
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Healing 50
Freeing Magdelene 50
Discovering magical nature of statues 30
Detecting secret door under altar 75
Zombies 90
Giant Spider 515
Recovery of third key portion 100
Suggesting we levitate the key not the sphere 50
Death Demon 100
Horn 1500
Weretigers 200
Total 2810
Holly
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Using ESP 50
Hearing Magdelene 20
Zombies 35
Sphere recovery plan 100
Recovery of third key portion 100
Death Demon 100
Weretigers 200
Total 655
Saladin/ Grom
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Zombies 35
Dream interpretation 100
Suggesting Use of Levitation to recover key 100
Recovery of third key portion 100
Explaining to Roscoe the merits of revealing the first key part.
50
Death Demon 100
Weretigers 200
Total 735
Roscoe
Zombies 35
Recovery of third key portion 100
Death Demon 100
Weretigers 200
Total 435
Zionestes
Healing 50
Zombies 35
Becoming a lord of Estagrad 100
Recovery of third key portion 100
Death Demon 100
Weretigers 200
Total 585
Ripven
Characterisation & Roleplay 20
Healing 50
Saving Holly with Cure Disease 300
Zombies 35
Spiritual hammer use 50
Recovery of third key portion 100
Death Demon 100
Weretigers 200
Total 855
Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU*
589 21,480 22,069 32,500
(6) 5
Eldras T*
1381 19,364 20,745 42,500
(7) 6
Barakor F*
1546 C*
1546 12,067/
12,067 13,613/
13,613 18,000/
27,500
(5/6) 4/5
Holly M
655 18,850 19,505 22,500
(5) 4
Grom/ Saladin F*
809 20,759 21,568 35,000
(6) 5
Roscoe T*
479 15,995 16,474 20,000
(6) 5
Zionestes C*
644 17,181 17,825 27,500
(6) 5
Ripven C*
941 13,618 14,559 27,500
(6) 5
*EP Bonus applied
23.2.14
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