The Life and Times of a Deadman - Episode 41 - Into the Dream: The Shard, the Spider, and the Hag

In the morning after their grim discoveries, Audrey Rose gathered the team to share what she had uncovered from the Paginarum Lethargica. They spoke at length about the ritual that would allow them to enter the dream realm, the importance of the Dream Shard, and what would be required to defeat the growing threat. The conversation was thick with tension and debate—the path ahead was perilous, and time was quickly running out.

Key pieces of the puzzle were coming into focus. The Brotherhood of the Spider, led by a man named Nahum, currently held the Dream Shard. The house on Hook Street, now a crumbling ruin, had once belonged to Nahum and was originally a temple to the Sovereign Host before the family had built a manor house atop it. The group also learned of a place called Mogul Tar, located in the Baesch Mountains, which might prove significant later.

While Audrey Rose was urging Zita and Sabrina to speak with the magistrate and secure official backing, Bosley quietly slipped away with London. Zita, catching on, followed discreetly. Together they negotiated terms with the magistrate: the group would be paid 1,500 gold per person upon delivery of the Dream Shard and proof of Nahum’s death.

Meanwhile, Audrey Rose continued analyzing the grim mathematics of the dream corruption. At the current rate, the entire city would fall under its influence in just thirteen days. Learning the ritual to counter it would take six. The odds were grim.

The group began attempting the ritual, but their first attempt failed. On the following night, however, they succeeded. It was now Day Eight.

With the ritual complete, the group stepped into the dreamscape. A dense fog surrounded them, and an eerie, oppressive silence hung in the air. The twisted landscape mirrored the Fallen District, distorted and uncanny. Shards of corrupted dreamstuff began to swirl, slowly forming into a towering spire.

A faceless, winged gargoyle flew silently overhead as the party suddenly found themselves standing before Lady Kerrington’s house. A crashing noise tore through the dream as metal groaned somewhere nearby. Movement flickered in the corners of their vision—shadows and half-seen horrors.

Audrey Rose gave a warning, moments before a bloated, dog-sized flea with a drill-bit proboscis lunged from the shadows and slashed into them. As the group rallied to fight, the creature vanished into the mist—only to be replaced by six grey-skinned humanoids: cultists of the Spider, closing in with blades drawn.

A chaotic battle erupted. Blades clashed and spells flashed through the dream-fog. Eventually, the cultists and their monstrous companion were vanquished, their forms crumbling into fragments of nightmare.

Then came the cackling.

From the mists emerged an old woman with curling ram’s horns—Sally Scrabblebones. She held Lady Kerrington by the hair, her form limp and unconscious. With a crooked smile and a mocking tone, the hag sneered, “Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do.” And with that, she vanished into the sky, taking Lady Kerrington with her.

The group stood in the dream-fog, bloodied but alive, realizing they had only just begun to uncover the true horror of the dream realm—and that Sally Scrabblebones now held one of their few allies captive.

The Life and Times of a Deadman - Episode 40 - Whispers in Waking: The Dream Key and the Book of Secrets

After a restless night, Zita gathers the group to share a vivid and troubling dream. Audrey Rose suggests that the benevolent rainbow-horned creature in Zita’s dream might be a baku—a rare fae that feeds on nightmares and offers peaceful sleep in return. She also identifies the dream’s sinister orange-horned presence as a night hag, extraplanar entities from the Astral Plane that trade in mortal souls and wield powerful magic.

Later, after their morning practice, the party visits Madam Kerrington’s estate in the Fallen District. The area is now crowded with tents and lean-tos. Dahl observes that most of these makeshift homes appeared within the past two months. When Zita asks one of the squatters why they’re camped there, he explains that it's the safest place to sleep—elsewhere, people’s dreams are under attack.

Audrey Rose recalls something from a previous meeting with Madam Kerrington: a name—Sally Scrabblebones, a night hag active in the area. When Manored, Kerrington’s butler, lets them in, Audrey Rose whispers to Zita that Kerrington herself might be Sally in disguise.

Inside, Kerrington waits for them in the drawing room. She admits to attempting to summon Zita through dreams, seeking to instill urgency. As Zita recounts her dream, the group discusses the baku again, especially its role in shielding against natural and drug-induced nightmares.

Zita confronts Kerrington, asking why she appeared as a night hag in her vision and whether there is a connection to Sally Scrabblebones. Kerrington acknowledges that Sally is real and known in the region but denies any personal dealings with her.

When the conversation shifts to the Clavis Somnus—the mysterious dream key—Kerrington expresses interest in performing a psychometric reading on it. Zita agrees and takes her hand, triggering a vivid psychic vision:

• Scene 1: Zita finds herself back in the submerged dome temple, but it’s dry. Mira, the woman who gave them the key, is at the altar. Forrest Greevely approaches her, apologizes, and hands over the Clavis Somnus in hopes of resolving a misunderstanding.

• Scene 2: In the wreckage of the now-fallen house on Hook Street, Fral Tan—the missing nephew they were hired to find—uncovers the Clavis Somnus and a dark tome bound in silver.

• Scene 3: The house appears intact again. A bald, heavyset man is being pulled by tentacles through a portal. As he escapes, he drops the Clavis Somnus.

• Scene 4: That same man is later seen in a library, gleefully studying the same silver-bound tome.

Zita recalls that Fral Tan had indeed stolen a book along with the key. Audrey Rose connects this to a previous lead: a religious book taken by Josef Barvasi, one of Mira’s associates. Kerrington suggests that Zita may be developing the rare "gift of dreaming" and recommends they find the missing book. Audrey Rose proposes questioning Myra about Josef, while Zita is eager to return to the submerged temple.

During a group huddle, someone remembers the gang they dealt with in earlier shiver dealings—the Barvasi family. Audrey Rose links Josef Barvasi to the stolen tome. They set out, but when they arrive at the old house on Hook Street, guards tell them part of it remains flooded and under investigation. Zita identifies them as members of the Townsend Agency, and after recognition, they’re allowed limited information.

The party splits up to gather intel. Sabrina learns that the Barvasi gang has gone into hiding following a bloody purge of their associates. She arranges a meeting with the remnants of the gang for 100 gold—and a vague threat involving his vocabulary.

At dinner, the group regathers at a bar, where a street urchin, pale with fear, tells them to follow her to Rook’s Roost. Inside, Shroosh—the gang’s contact—sits in a daze, turban in his hands. The place is wrecked. Around ten Barvasi gang members lie dead, killed within the last day.

Sabrina comforts Shroosh, who reveals the gang had come to hide. He left briefly and returned to a massacre. Audrey Rose inspects the bodies, noticing strange puncture wounds the size of small drill holes. Sabrina takes a severed leg and arm, convincing Audrey Rose to store them in the bag of holding for analysis.

Back at Kerrington’s, they ask her to psychically investigate the remains. Zita touches her hand and experiences a sudden vision: A man at a door says he’s heading to a bookshop on Winding Way. Then chaos—flashes of violence and sickles shaped like spider legs. A mangy, flying creature with a metallic growl flits through the carnage.

Following this new lead, the group travels to Winding Way. The bookstore is trashed, its door kicked in. Behind the counter is a freshly killed body with similar wounds. Bosley hears whimpering and finds a 15-year-old girl hiding in a cabinet. She describes how someone burst in and slaughtered Diogorgio with a spider-like blade. She never saw a special book.

Searching the store, Bosley finds a crate of unsorted books, including a suspiciously old ledger that seems unrelated to the shop’s current business. Audrey Rose and Bosley investigate magically. They discover a bookmark of deception—an item that conceals both a book’s content and magical aura. When removed, it reveals the silver-bound tome they've been seeking. Audrey Rose quickly restores the bookmark to hide the book again.

The next morning, after a night of rest, London returns Zita’s constitution. Audrey Rose begins studying the mysterious tome. The group has finally recovered both the Clavis Somnus and the long-lost book—but the mystery only deepens, and dark forces seem to be one step ahead.

The Life and Times of a Deadman - Episode 39 - The Maw and the Medani: A Journey Through Shadows and Celebration

After narrowly surviving the events at the tower, the adventurers embarked on a perilous trek back to the train. Their path was plagued with crumbling buildings, treacherous terrain, and relentless hordes of ghouls. Exhausted but determined, they reached the train and delivered the horn to Uncle Jonathan.

Unfortunately, Sabrina, Dahl, London, and Audrey Rose all fell ill with ghoul fever. Thankfully, London was able to cure the entire group. After a debriefing with Uncle Jonathan and Erix, the party prepared to continue their journey.

Audrey Rose requested that London learn Restoration by morning, intending to question the enchanted painting about the mysterious book. She and Uncle Jonathan began cataloging the artwork recovered from the tower. Meanwhile, Zita attempted to bond with the Warforged, hoping it would imprint on her. Sabrina went to sleep, London gnawed on a shoe, Dahl scanned the train with Detect Magic before heading to the weapons cart, and Bosley examined the mysterious titan.

Zita and Sabrina observed the location where they had first acquired the weapons cart. A nearby warehouse glowed with unnaturally bright light. Then came a deafening roar. Alarmed, Audrey Rose urged Uncle Jonathan to accelerate the train. He hurried to the front cart to assess the situation.

Sabrina climbed atop the train to investigate. In the distance, she spotted a fast-approaching light—revealed to be a monstrous train-like creature, crawling on countless centipede legs with a gaping, tooth-filled maw. She hurried to the rear cart and tried to disengage it. Casting Glitterdust, she exposed a massive glowing eye on the front of the creature. It lunged and bit off half the train, pausing to chew.

In a frenzy of chaotic improvisation, the group used black powder, a ballista, and a storage cart in a makeshift trap. The resulting explosion bought them precious time, and the adventurers left the wreckage behind. They took shifts watching from the rear of the train. During London’s watch, the creature reappeared. Zita fired the ballista, striking the creature’s front car.

Sabrina proposed a bold plan: destroy the conductor stones beneath the tracks to slow the pursuing monster. Audrey Rose convinced Uncle Jonathan to stop the train. In ten frantic minutes, they dug up 30 to 40 feet of stones. It worked. The creature never reappeared, and the party finally reached Braelin safely.

The next morning, they debriefed with The Dead Man, Charlie. Dahl recounted their harrowing experience, and Charlie asked whether they had encountered any of the green worms seen in the Mournlands. They had not.

Barnsworth distributed their accumulated messages. London subscribed to the local newspaper. Later, three well-groomed young men—Barnsworth’s nephews Tar (a House Kunderrack bookkeeper), Elain (a sleep-deprived university student), and Jerrain (a muscular House Cannith apprentice)—brought food to the group. Their appearance and behavior suggested Barnsworth was attempting some matchmaking. Sabrina suspected as much.

Audrey Rose chatted with Elain about becoming an alchemist. The group settled into Braelin life, enjoying weeks of celebration, shopping for magical items, and brewing alchemical potions.

One morning, Sabrina arrived at breakfast completely plastered, having spent the last three days in Velvet—the dragon-themed red-light district. She brought extravagant gifts: a gem-encrusted collar for London (100 gp), a fine perfume for Zita (300 gp), and a bottle of luxury wine for Audrey Rose (300 gp).

Audrey Rose raised the topic of the Medani offer. Initially hesitant, Zita was swayed by the revelation that the Medani seal would grant them access to noble circles. The group agreed to meet the Baron to negotiate the price, hoping their recent fame would give them leverage.

Shortly after, Audrey Rose and Dahl received an invitation from Jamey Rook, a mystery writer, for lunch at Beef Hooked, a restaurant in the Grayflood shipyard district. Audrey Rose asked Zita to tail them in disguise, just in case. London, meanwhile, was distracted by the sound of sweeping. Curious, he followed it to two ratfolk: Purchase and Daz. After a brief exchange, London purchased their lunch—an artisanal pastrami sandwich—and took a glorious nap.

Elsewhere, Bosley discovered Vlatex, a bustling café and tea shop in Goblin Town. Its sign read (in Goblin), “You want coffee, maybe you get coffee, maybe you get punched in face.” The seven-foot-tall bugbear Vlatex, impressed by the agency’s exploits, offered to buy rare cultural artifacts from Darguun. Bosley gained a new contact.

Back at the agency, Zita prepared for her undercover assignment with lipstick and disguise help from Dahl. Audrey Rose consulted Sabrina about Beef Hooked. At the restaurant, Jamey—modestly dressed but stylish—invited Audrey Rose and Dahl to lunch, hoping to base characters in her next novel on them. She saw through Zita’s disguise, but the meeting ended peacefully, albeit strangely: they neither asked many questions nor paid any fee. Zita remained suspicious. Audrey Rose explained that Dahl simply wanted to talk.

A few nights later, as Zita left the agency, she began to float—an experience she found oddly unimportant. She drifted above the Fallen district and spotted Madam Kerrington’s house, surrounded by tents and shanties. A rainbow-colored wooly mammoth flew circles above it. Inside, the house was in ruins. In the sitting room, the autowriter sat idle, and a couch had been overturned. Zita inserted paper into the autowriter. It began to scribble: Help, help, help—and drew a familiar key.

Beneath the couch, she found a disturbing figure: Lady Kerrington’s body, but with a hideous hag’s face adorned with orange horns.

Trouble was stirring once again.

The Life and Times of a Deadman - Episode 38 - Echoes of the Horn: Siege of the Ghoul Tower

The adventurers pressed onward, following the eerie sound of a horn through the thickening fog until they reached a towering ten-story structure. Outside, the air reeked of decay, and the ground swarmed with enthralled ghasts and ghouls. These horrifying undead were known for their paralytic, flesh-eating bites that could turn victims into ghouls, and the ghasts emitted a nauseating stench that made the party uneasy.

Zita slipped forward stealthily to the building’s entrance, with Audrey Rose close behind, moving quietly to avoid disturbing the undead sentinels. The rest of the group followed cautiously. Audrey Rose took her mutagen as they entered the tower, where no doors or traps barred their way. Inside, the structure was a chaotic patchwork of narrow, twisting passages and cramped rooms, seemingly constructed by merging dozens of different buildings. The ghoul infestation was everywhere, filling the corridors with their sickening stench and eerie presence. Even Tweetie Bear’s fur stood on end, his discomfort palpable.

They paused to decide who would play the horn once they retrieved it. Audrey Rose suggested Sabrina, but Sabrina was hesitant. On reaching the ninth floor, Audrey Rose fortified herself with a shield spell. The floor was an expansive, open area with many doors and windows that looked out into the void. There, in the distance, stood a strange woman surrounded by a crimson aura. She wore a professor’s uniform and was undead—but unlike the others, she wasn’t enthralled. She smiled at the adventurers, revealing an unsettling surplus of teeth.

Sabrina boldly announced their intent to ascend to the horn’s resting place. The woman introduced herself as Belleth Zenden, petting Barry the Barrel, a mysterious companion she trusted to watch the others. Audrey Rose speculated whether Belleth was a victim of the horn’s power or already dead before its call. Belleth explained she had tended to this undead flock for months, having learned the horn’s location in Calisart’s vault from the hag Iron in exchange for two university students. The horn had been sounding for weeks, drawing the undead flock to her. Belleth, a native of the region, revealed her dark ambition to take over the world.

Spotting a staircase, Audrey Rose and Zita moved upward, with the rest following except Sabrina, who remained behind to distract Belleth. Sabrina attempted to bluff her way into favor by performing a fake fire bolt spell, which was actually a cleverly disguised dispel magic. The unexpected magic caused some spells to fade, startling Belleth who vanished with a scolding “Naughty girl,” and then commanded the undead to attack.

A horde of undead surged forth, inflicting damage on the group. Zita was paralyzed; Audrey Rose retaliated with a flesh-eating bomb, while Bosley unleashed burning hands and Dahl cast haste. London channeled healing energy as the undead continued their assault. Zita grew nauseated and Audrey Rose was also paralyzed under the onslaught.

Sabrina cast glitterdust, revealing the swarm and blinding many. She called for the group to gather the paralyzed and retreat upstairs. Bosley carried Audrey Rose to safety, and Tweetie Bear rescued Zita, enlarged by Dahl’s magic to aid the escape. London healed the party as Barry watched Sabrina, smiling ominously. Sabrina cast glitterdust again, this time including Barry, drawing the creatures’ attention toward her.

Bosley and Audrey Rose reached the tenth floor, finding an empty room except for a plinth holding a green and gold horn that played on its own. Sabrina hung off the side of the building, blinding the undead below. Audrey Rose checked the plinth for traps before grabbing the horn. Zita attempted to play it, producing a terrible sound. Dahl tried next, but nothing happened. London hurried downstairs where Barry was eyeing him; the undead swarmed him. Audrey Rose tried to play the horn but failed, while Sabrina climbed a window to join the others.

Zita, wearing slippers, descended the building’s side as angry growls followed her. Belith cast a spell at London, which failed, while Dahl rushed to Audrey Rose to retrieve the horn. London retreated upstairs as the undead stormed upward, with Bosley attacking first with fiery breath, igniting several foes but quickly overwhelmed.

Audrey Rose identified the artifact as the Horn of Quintus—an ancient magical item requiring a high skill check to activate. It could enthrall certain undead through performance or device use but risked turning its wielder undead if exposed too long. The horn also carried specific instructions for its destruction.

After deliberation, Dahl and Tweetie Bear took the horn, flying under the cover of fog toward the train station. Meanwhile, Zita used a ghoul’s voice to command the undead inside the tower, signaling it was safe to descend. London healed the weary group and moved to protect Bosley, preparing for whatever awaited next.