Sunday, March 12, 2023

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 18 - She was on my side?!?!

Audrey Rose enters the room and sees a fireplace moving toward Sabrina. She throws a shock bomb at it. Zita loads her crossbow. Hendra closes in and slashes her long sword at the fireplace. Tweetie Bear crosses the room and chips away at the fireplace. Sabrina stares intently at the fireplace, and Bosley casts acid splash. The fireplace pursues Sabrina and bites her.

The companions determine that this is a large animated object. Audrey Rose shocks it with a bomb. Zita fires the crossbow and buries a bolt into the wall. Hendra also attempts to hit it but misses. Tweetie Bear scratches it. Dol moves towards Sabrina and heals her with the wand. Sabrina attempts to heal the fireplace and then steps away from it. Bosley casts another acid spell. The fireplace continues pursuing Sabrina and bites her. 

Audrey Rose throws another bomb. Zita rushes to a flank position with the intent of double daggering it, but she misses. Hendra charges in and slashes the construct. Tweetie Bear enlarges; Sabrina goes into full defense mode, and Bosely casts more acid splash. 

Audrey Rose throws bottled lightning and then watches as Zita performs a beautiful double dagger attack that kills the construct. 

Various members of the party notice that a previously closed door is now open. Sabrina goes outside and notices tiny footprints. 

Dol opens one of the inside doors. She finds a simple bedroom with a queen size bed. The party works its way around the house opening doors that lead to bedrooms and bathrooms. Tweetie Bear opens a door that shows endless dark stairs going down. The group lines up and heads downstairs. Sabrina and Dol light up torches, and Hendra pulls out an everlasting stone. Dol warns the group that this area may be shadow planed. She pulls a garter on Tweetie Bear and lights it up with a light cantrip. One of the shadows along the wall slips out of the wall ready to attack. 

Zita neither hears nor sees the shadow. The shadow caresses Dol, and he drops. Tweetie Bear blinks out of existence. Audrey Rose yells, “What the hell just happened?” Sabrina yells, “Run!” A shadow appears next to Hendra and hisses, “We are powerful.” It strokes Hendra, and she suddenly feels weaker. Bosley casts Ray of Frost on the shadow. Audrey Rose throws a bomb at the shadow holding up the line. Zita prepares an attack. The shadow closes in, and she stabs at it. “Ow, that stung,” hisses the shadow. It strokes Zita. The other shadow attempts to stroke Hendra again but misses. Hendra retaliates by slashing at it. Sabrina stares at the creature and attempts to Forbid Action on it but nothing happens. Bosley activates his boots and rolls behind the shadow. He stabs it from behind with Ray of Frost cold damage and disintegrates it. Audrey Rose disintegrates the shadow with an explosion of fire. She grabs Dol’s body and the group retreats. 

Dol awakens on a park bench. Given the colorlessness of the place, she thinks she’s in Dolor, which is where souls go when they die. Tweetie-Bear sits next to her, apologizing over and over again. She suspects that Tweetie-Bear’s connection to Dol is what allowed her to bypass the line. Celestial sigils appear that say, “Relax. The worst has happened.” Dol eventually gets bored and starts singing about bottles of beer on the wall. A voice behind Dol interrupts her. A ten-foot-tall figure dressed in black plate armor with the head of a vulture is standing behind Dol. This is a type of fiend called a Purroloth; a creature associated with violence. He asks if Dol would like to go back. Dol attempts to negotiate. He holds out his hand and shows a collection of very small cubes. "You can go back for a very small favor," it says, pouring the cubes into Dol’s hands. Dol awakens with a scream and is still very weak. Audrey Rose checks her out and determines that they've been drained of strength and need higher levels of healing magic. 

Audrey Rose insists that Dol had no pulse. The group doesn’t believe her. 

Zita proposes the group go to the other shed and knock on the door. They discuss whether to negotiate with her or kill her. 

The adventurers make their way to the chicken house. Zita finds no traps on the door. There are chickens inside. Zita makes her way to the outhouse. The outhouse looks brand new and has the smell of new lumber. Zita opens the door. The bathroom is unoccupied. Zita lifts the seat and there’s no hole. She calls Audrey Rose over to help her investigate. Audrey Rose sees a brass plaque at the top that says Crowner and Company Lab. She thinks it’s a Sharn-based company. She lifts the seat and finds a hole with a ladder. Audrey Rose looks down and sees that the ladder ends at twenty feet. 

Hendra climbs down to investigate. The room is a ten-foot by ten-foot holding cell. There are two humanoids chained to the wall. They are Tamaso and Jardy, the graduate students from Sharn. They came here with the professor who sold them to the witch. Hendra brings them back up. Audrey Rose looks them over; they are malnourished, so she feeds them and provides them with water. They’ve been down there for a bit. They know nothing about the professor and where she’s gone. 

Dol and Sabrina want to set up an ambush for the witch. Zita and Audrey Rose want to take the graduate students back to the school. 

The group decides to camp out near the outhouse. They’re going to leave the students and Dol in the secret room below the "outhouse". 

During Audrey Rose’s watch, everything goes quiet in the forest. She feels like someone is watching her. She gently nudges Hendra awake and tells her that someone is watching her. Hendra comes awake and listens intently. She turns quickly to her right and for a split second, she sees a small figure wearing tattered clothes and with a long grey beard and hair. The rest of the night goes uninterrupted. 

The next morning the group searches the house. They don’t find anything of interest. In the ceiling, there is another trapped door. Bosley shifts the couch over, and Zita climbs up and checks for traps. She opens the door and unfolds a ladder. 

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