Duendewood: Don't Fear the Reaper

 We continue on to the houses on the northern edge of the village; it's... just an empty house. There's 32 GP under the mattress, but nothing else worth noting. The next room has 22 GP, but again - it's basically an abandoned house.

The next house has the table set; the food has been scattered by scavengers, and in the next room is a box with a little wooden toy boat sitting on a desk. There's a half-written note on the desk; it's addressed to a little girl name Leesa, and hopes she enjoys the boat... and then it cuts off abruptly. This would have been a bit over a month earlier. We add another 33 GP, then circled around to the open-fronted building.

Pretty clearly, this was where the fishermen brought their catches; it's full of bones and rotted fish. The enclosed area in the back seems to be a fishery, with quarters for the workers. There's a cold room with preserved fish in it; Azrael thinks there might be a permanent wall of ice built into the ground. There's also a couple of bedroom-cubbies on the far side. More searching yields a coffer with 247 GP, plus a note from Morrell to Reeves explaining how business has been booming since he made his "special deal". The next line offers to intoduce Reeves to lord Malafar. (Remember that Lord Morrell lost a hand "in an accident at the fishery" -- we sure did.)

We head off to the last building and Ruin again opens the door. Someone has rigged a crude trap; a bag of flour swings down. Ruin catches it in his hand and rips it out of the ceiling.

There's a privacy wall, and beyond that we find a common room with a half-eaten fresh meal (carrot and bread) and a glass on the table. We hear a door click shut.

We leave Azrael and Martini to block the way out, and Azrael moves forward and opens a door, and... just barely avoids stepping on a scattering of crude caltrops.

The room is a small kitchen, though it's not currently very well provisioned. In a barrel there are some improvised weapons or torches-- sticks coated in lamp oil and like that.

Ruin moves on the next room. This one does look abandoned; there's a small bed, but everything is musty.

The last room looks lived in, with clothing all over the floor and a slept-in bed. Ruin asks Geddy to watch the trap door and checks the room; then he opens the trap door.

The guy inside is a sailor, who looks very scared. He thinks we're Kaz-es until we set him straight. "Two times a big fog came over the whole town, and the Kazes and Cassadias made us stay indoors." The guy's a half-elf name Huey (it's short for hu). He hid when they came around at the end of their stay and gathered everybody up, and after that he couldn't come back out on account of all the zombies.

Geddy flies him back to the boat.

The graveyard next door appears to have had various zombies raised from it. Otherwise, though, it's untouched. We head south from there to the Mayor's house. Ruin opens the door and steps inside, and immediately gets a lightning strike to the chest. "Hey guys, I detected a trap."

Martini steps in and neatly dodges the next lightning bolt; she immediately rips a panel off the wall and deactivates the mechanism behind it, shutting down the trap.

There's a hallway heading back into the house, and a lot of blood on the floor; the younger noble couple, we recall, didn't like Malafar and wanted him gone... and apparently that didn't work out so well for them.

Geddy follows us in and casts Detect Magic.

The first room is the lord and lady's bedroom. There are still pieces of them scattered on the floor in here. Ruin crosses to the chest, Martini checks it over and we find an amulet of Enlarge Person with 46 charges and Gauntlets of Ogre Power +2. Gems worth 700 GP and a bag of 1,300 GP.

We proceed on, finding a kitchen and then a study. On the desk in the study is a letter demaning that Lord Morrell stop his association with this Hierophant Malafar. The warehouse is not his private property, to lock people out of or turn over to this horrible dark priest. We add a sack 140 GP. Next is kids' room with no kids, and beyond that we find a common room that shows signs of blood and a ritual; it looks like maybe some bodies were drug to the inscription on the floor.

It's not actively magic anymore, but somebody used it to Create Undead, probably more than once.

Ruin tries the north door, and finds the noble family: husband, wife, two kids.

They're all Mohrgs. Mohrgs are horrible, skeletal undead creatures with pulsing viscera in the middle with worms coming out of them.

Azrael isn't fazed; he casts Black Tentacles, grappling everyone except one of the kids. Martini follows up with arrows. Geddy drops Haste on us. Cindy Lou comes out and licks Ruin's face, but Ruin shoves it off. The other three are trying to struggle free, but they're still caught. All three of them take damage from being crushed. Azrael follows up with an empowered Fireball, damaging all of them but also Ruin.

Ruin rages and slices at Cindy-Lou Undead three times, cutting the heck out of her. Cindy again tries to lick Ruin, and again fails to affect her.

The other three Mohrgs remain grappled, and again take damage from it. They are *not* doing well, especially the lady, and Azrael drops a stream of Magic Missiles on Cindy Lou Who falls down dead again. Martini puts another arrow in the lady; Ruin switches to his bow and takes a shot at the lady but misses.

Geddy drops some healing on Ruin, to his considerable relief.

The boy and the lady are still trapped, but daddy breaks loose -- though he's moving at half speed through the tentacles. Boy and lady take more damage, and the lady comes apart in the grip of the tentacles. Azrael uses Scorching Ray on the Lord-Mohrg, and Martini tumbles past him into a flanking position. She sticks a rapier in his back.

Ruin still has his bow out, so he puts three arrows in the boy. Geddy turns and places a hand on the former lord... and hits him with healing, burning his face clean off and taking him down.

Bobby (the little boy Mohrg) finally tears loose and gets close enough to lick Ruin, temporarily paralyzing him and taking him out of the fight. Azrael responds by hitting Bobby with Magic Missile and taking *him* out of the fight. We are victorious. The others search the room while Ruins recovers.

It's a banquet hall, so we don't really get any treasure out of that. Once Ruin can move, we head back to the boat -- and put Huey to sleep.

We sleep on the boat, setting watches, and lady Morrell is standing over him, half-undressed. She starts to climb into his bed.

Azrael: "Excuse me? I sleep only with the Darkness on first dates."

Lady Morell: "I can show you tricks like you've never seen."

Azrael: "Lady Morrell, this is highly inappropriate. I think 'tis best if we just stay Hero and Not-Hero."

She goes back to her own bunk.

Morning comes, and we head back out before Huey can talk at us.

We head back to the town hall, and start in through the barracks. Two officer's chambers net 21 and 30 GP respectively; the next door is the soldier's common barracks. We search it and come up with... nothing of value.

Ruin checks the door to the north and hears something moving around beyond it; then we move back into the hallway and move very-not-subtly towards the other officer's doors. We also hear grumbling from further north along the hall, and Ruin peeks around the corner. He's looking into a little antechamber with a much bigger room beyond it; both the movment and the demonic muttering we heard came from somewhere in the larger room.

We duck into a side-chamber and apply Death Ward to ourselves. Ruin heads along a small hallway, and finds himself looking down a longer hall with a row of cells. Surprisingly, there are two (extremely emaciated, nearly dead) prisoners still alive back here. Also? Sliding into the side chamber gives us a view of the villagers: there's a pile of corpses in the big open room.

Ruin opens a door expecting it to lead onto the back of a stage or something; instead, it opens onto a torture chamber. So, Ruin moves closer to the big main room.

Martini peeks around the corner, sees a big figure with a scythe, and backs away. Ruin strides into the room and takes partial cover behind a pew. There's... something, a skeletal being in a robe and hood holding a horrible magic scythe. Of us all, only Azrael understands him; he's the only one here who speaks Abyssal.

Azrael moves out to the doorway and drops an empowered fireball on him. FWAKOOM! (It overcomes spell resistance, *and* the thing fails its save.) Unfortunately, some of his wounds start healing up.

He moves right up next to Azrael, cursing in Abyssal. Lily tumbles past him and puts a rapier in his back, and Ruin charges in and smacks him solidly -- though he's reisting a fair amount of the damage. Azrael follows up with a batch of magic missiles, and some of them get through his spell resistance and do some damage.

Geddy continues singing, and launches a crossbow bolt at the thing... but misses.

It moves in and cuts at Lily, hitting twice and cutting our wizard badly. He's overcome with searing pain as reality goes funky for him and his body goes out of phase.

Martini distracts the thing, and Ruin cuts into it twice, using all his strength. It's still soaking a lot of the damage, but it definitely felt that. Azrael, meanwhile, is enchaosified (that's a word now) and loses a point of Wisdom to draining. Geddy whips out his Wand of Restoration and brings Azrael back to a stable Azrael-shape.

The guy attacks Azrael again, and misses both times. Ruin manages to finish him off.