Black Tom's page

Dear friends,

As you have no doubt noticed the game has been limping for a while now. Due to reasons outside the game my energy has been severely depleted these last months and now after a bout of Covid on top of everything. I feel a mere shadow of myself and don't know when I will recover.

It has been a privilege to be able to game with you but rather than continue to disappoint you and myself I will have to bow out. If anyone should feel up to stepping in and running the game they have my blessing.

Thank you for all the fun moments and happy gaming.

The most obvious thing out of place is the door itself, which has been lifted off its hinges. This means that you and the morlocks (the same two that you encountered here before) see each other from afar.

The morlocks go on 17 so if you beat that you may act. If someone would like to bot Eddred, I would be much obliged.

The stairs go up.

Back to the morlocks you go with a packed lunch from Wrin. You manage to descend the stairs without incident to revisit the door that you nailed shut. How do you want to approach?

I put a marker on the map at your current position.

I was thinking if you needed to move any of the weapon runes or something like that. But if not, let's return to the lighthouse. Any particular place you want to continue exploring?

Do you need anything in the way of equipment or are you ready to go back to the lighthouse?

Sorry to hear that. Take care.

Wrin muses: "I think our enemies may have overplayed their hand. That little exhibition must have taken a lot of power and it may take a while for them to gather enough power to do it again. Then again, you never know. I shall consult with the stars again tonight. Meanwhile, why don't you get rested and take your time to prepare. Whatever is down there it is sure to be nasty."

Wrin looks a little wistful. "Alas, there is no scholar here, especially not of the arcane. If it concerns the occult, I'm probably your best bet, but for local history and such, you might want to consult the Dawnflower Library or speak to Vandy."

She shudders a little and draws her shawl tighter, even though it is a warm day. "At least I know what they did, though. They folded the corners, bringing there to here and then to now. That is how they brought the monster upon you and raised the dead to harass the living. But sadly I have no idea how they did it or why. It must have taken a lot of power. So much fury unleashed on this little town. I dread to think of what they may do next.

The mayor, being a man of action and slightly ill at ease in Wrin's company (to say nothing of Tindertwig and Dirtbag and their table manners), gets up early. "That is good advice. I shall go and have a word with our friends at the Osprey Club. At least forewarned is forearmed and whatever comes our way, they will not catch us by surprise again.

The battle ends as Henry smashes the beast onto Hilde's blade, killing it instantly.

After patching up your wounds you retreat to town to be healed up. If you enjoy sleeping under the stars you are welcome to stay at Wrin's place, but you are also offered free board at either Crook's Nook or the Rowdy Rockfish.

Wrin asks you over for brunch at noon, after a good night's sleep. The mayor is there, a bit rattled over the "raising the graveyard business". A number of people have already been sent to try to gather the bones and try to restore the place somewhat, but he wanted a word with you first. Wrin serves a very nice brunch of scrambled eggs, cheese, toasted bread, fruit and strong, sweet tea. Both she and the mayor are anxious to hear your take on what happened this night.

With a last heroic effort Henry brings the monster down.

Congratulations! That was a harrowing battle. You all get 110 xp and a hero point.

After a tense wait you realize that there are no more monsters popping in, so you are able to return to town and get healed up by the combined efforts of Wrin and Vandy Banderdash, the local halfling cleric of Sarenrae.

You are hailed as heroes, although the mood has been quite ruined by the fact that the townsfolk will have to rebury the remains of their loved ones and forebears in the morning. Wrin is looking especially grim, even though she has no kin in Otari.

The poison spray does 11 damage to Henry, who is also slowed 1.

Correct, Hilde gets to deduct 1 point of damage from this and the former spray. I just forgot about it.

Henry: No, sorry, still a hit.

Henry feels the effect of the poison. He is clumsy 1 and needs to make another save. You feel like you are wearing the monster down but none of your blows really seems to land.

The desperate monster carefully manuevers and manages to spew some more bile at Henry, Hilde and Dirtbag (Step-Spray Toxic Oil) (Reflex 21)

Then you are up again.

Eddred and Henry manage to hurt the monster still more but it still fights on furiously.

With Tindertwig down it focuses its efforts on Henry Strike-Strike-Strike It bites him for 17 points of damage and a Fort 21 save.

Then you are up again.

This time Tindertwig is affected by the venom and becomes clumsy 1. The monster manages to bite him again for 13 points of damage so this round he needs to make two saves. Strike(T)-Strike(T)-Strike(D)

On the other hand you all (except Hilde) manage to land blows on it and it looks pretty badly beaten up at this point.

Your turn.

Tindertwig shrugs off the poison, but the monster seems to evade all your attacks.

Annoyed at Tindertwig's resilience, it tries to bite him again and again. Once it connects for 14 points of damage and a new save.

Your turn.

Henry and Tilde each take 2 points of damage from the bile.

The creature clicks in a menacing way.

Eddred's ray strikes and seems to weaken it, and Tindertwig takes a chunk out of it with his dogslicer but the monster fights on. Its jaws close on Tindertwig's arm for 20 points of damage (and a Fort 21 save). Henry misses and Hilde is still reeling from the shock.

You are up again.

The creature croaks something in Undercommon as it attacks:

It flicks a leg and unleashes a quill at Dirtbag for 8 points of damage, then turns and spews a spray of toxic bile at Henry and Hilde. Ref 21

You are all up.

Only a few minutes later the eerie blue light again sweeps over the cemetary, basking it and you in its glow. Then suddenly it goes dark again but a horrible glistening scaly spider-like monster has appeared from nowhere in your midst.

The monster goes on 28, so if you beat that you can act.

Happy New Year to all and welcome back.

After dispatching of the undead uprising, I guess you'll want to take a moment to heal up. There are a few undead still stuck in the ground that are easily dispatched and apart from that all is calm for now.

Under your combined assault the skeleton collapses into a pile of shards.

You get 160 xp for the fight and a hero point each for sticking with the game so far. I hope to see you again after the holidays. Game resumes on Monday January 3. Happy holidays!

The skeleton desperately claws at Henry, but the only attack that even comes close to hurting him is promptly blocked by his shield.

You are all up again. Let's see if you can finish it.

Foes are dropping right and left so I made some adjustments.

Eddred takes down the teal zombie with another well-placed arrow. Dirtbag looks a little confused but moves to bite the orange skeleton in the legm sending it collapsing into an inert heap. Tindertwig and Hilde cut down the blue zombie.

Henry to go, then the remaining skeleton.

Eddred puts an arrow in the throat of the zombie, but it still fights on even though its head barely hangs on to its body. The undead shamble towards you. Henry blocks a skeleton's claw with his shield. A zombie grabs Tindertwig, doing 8 points of damage. It tries to take a bite out of him, but the wily goblin escapes.

You are all up.

Henry and Tindertwig cut down the purple zombie before it even has time to strike. Eddred is up, then the undead.

Starting Monday I will be going away for the holidays so the game will be on hiatus for two weeks, until after New Year's Day. Happy holidays to everyone and thanks for your patience.

Tindertwig destroys another skeleton while Henry punches a zombie.

The undead move in for the kill, but you manage to evade their ponderous swings.

You are all up.

Tindertwig positions himself and by sheer bloodymindedness manages to shatter the skeleton. But more and more of the ancient mouldering corpses rise from their graves and move to attack. Some of them are mere skeletons, while others retain a measure of desiccated flesh. You easily avoid their feeble grasping claws... for now.

The skeletons and zombies all miss their attacks. You are all up.

Hilde's rapier barely scratches the bones of the skeleton, but Henry brings it down. Unfortunately there is a lot more of them emerging from the soil.

Battle map updated. Tindertwig and Dirtbag are next, then the undead.

Henry steps over the low stone wall that encloses the cemetary. He manages to crush the skull of an emerging skeleton, but then another that has managed to crawl out lurches towards him. You can see more undead in the distance, although only a few seem to be left.

The skeleton and its peers go on 6, so if you beat that, go ahead and take your action. You can see three more skeletons approaching from different directions. They are all about 30 feet away at the moment.

As you cautiously approach the graveyard, you are relieved to note that most of the dead have gone over the edge, but there is still movement here and there as the long dead claw their way up through the soil. It is hard to tell how many there are.

Do you have any particular strategy for how you want to approach this?

Map updated. You find the graveyard in the lower left corner.

I may have pushed on a bit but my intention was that you have a full day to replenish supplies and spells, since you came home in the morning and the wake starts at night.

Wrin is not very talkative today. She just brushes off Henry's inquiries and smiles wanly. "It's nothing. I get these from time to time. Bad weather among the stars, I suppose. Congratulations, by the way. I hear that you are local heroes now."

So you are, it appears. The wake is a rowdy affair and most of Otari is there. Even the mayor and Captain Longsaddle make a point of showing up. The only notable person missing is Wrin, who is still ill. Ca.rman Rajani sips blackberry ale in a corner and shoots a dark glance in your direction from time to time. There is much dancing and carousing.Yinyasmera makes a great show of presenting your reward and offering you a lifetime of free lodgings at Crook's Nook. The three hapless explorers seem to have recovered and you are subjected to a number of drunken hugs as well as a lot of more or less incoherent stories of poor Kenny's past exploits.

As the night wears on, you are starting to think about how to extricate yourselves without being too rude (except for Tindertwig, who is busy stuffing himself). Then suddenly you hear a scream from outside. It is Wrin who has appeared, looking all dishevelled. She points in the direction of the ruins and screams: "It is happening! Look!"

As you mill outside and look, you see the familiar eerie blue light from the lighthouse, this time magnified many times. It sweeps over you, bathing you all in the sickly blue light, but mercifully it passes you by. Instead it falls upon the sprawling graveyard located at Otari’s western edge. The soil of Otari’s graveyard roils and churns in the eerie blue light. Dozens of skeletons and shambling corpses haul themselves free from the ground and rush to the south. Without any hesitation, the walking dead plummet over the cliff’s edge to rain down upon the domes of the Dawnflower Library below.

The mayor turns to you with a wild look in his eyes. "Please do something. You are supposed to be the heroes here."

Your journey back to Otari is unhindered by any unpleasantness, but the poor explorers slow you down somewhat, since they are still exhausted from their ordeal.

As you reach Otari you are able to deliver them to Crook's Nook and Yinyasmera looks genuinely relieved and happy to see her friends back. Her smile actually reaches her eyes. She insists on giving you the reward that she posted for news about them (50 gp) and invites you to poor Kenny's wake in the evening. Also you get 30 xp each for the rescue.

Wrin is happy to see you safe and sound, too, but she is not her usual bubbly self. She is very quiet and complains of a splitting headache. She is able to heal you all for 16 points, though.

I guess you might want to do some shopping and repairing, moving of runes and so on while you are in town.

Are you going back to Otari then?

The men give the goblin a puzzled look. Their spokesman turns to Eddred. The words come gushing out of him in his eagerness to please. "We haven't done anything unlawful. These ruins have been here forever and we just thought we'd see if we would explore a little bit. We came here looking for treasure, same as you. We haven't even been inside. We were going to but there was a lot of gremlins flinging poo or whatever at us, so we decided to explore the outside. We saw the drake and figured that it might have some treasure, so we waited until it left and took a boat into its cavern. But then we ran into those bug-eyed monsters. They took Kenny... and I suppose they ate him. He breaks down and sobs. "Please, you can do whatever you wish with us, but just don't leave us here. We don't want to be morlock chow."

With Henry's newfound energy, the timber comes down in less than a minute. Behind the door (already duly checked by Hilde).

Behind the door is a large room. Alcoves along the walls might once have been storerooms, but the stone shelves are all empty. The room smells foul and there are no visible exits.

Three dirty and emaciated men dressed in rags stagger towards you. "Are you here to rescue us?" the bravest of them asks. You notice that they all have a bird tattoo on their right shoulder, just like the dead body you found in the morlock shrine.

There is a lot of junk in the room but nothing of use or value, except presumably to a morlock. They did carry a functioning warhammer each, though, but the once-crossbows are useless to any normal person.

There is nothing particular about the doors. The one to the east is wet and swollen like most doors here, and there is a few timbers propped up against the north one to keep it shut, but nothing you can't fix in a few rounds' work.

There are two obvious exits if you want to press on: the barricaded door to the north and the normal door to the east.

The second morlock goes down under your combined assault. End of combat. Everyone gets 120 xp.

Eddred: Of course you may retcon your action. I should have been clearer about that.

Henry (with two mighty blows), Tindertwig and Eddred finish off one of the morlocks. Hilde throws a dart that misses.

The remaining morlock drops his crossbow-contraption and draws a warhammer. It hits Henry for 13 points of damage, then takes a failed swing at Tindertwig.

You are up again.

The morlocks look at each other gleefully and then execute some form of rehearsed routine where they stack their ballistae on top of each other and both fire at Henry at Eddred, subjecting them to a barrage of junk.

Step-Interact-Strike (both crit)

Henry takes 23 points of damage, while Eddred takes 15. The morlocks high-five each other and start to reload.

You are all up.

You enter the room, stridently in Henry's case and stealthily in Hilde's. This long room smells of rust and grime. Stacks of splintered furniture, pieces of weapons and armor, frayed coils of rope, jagged shards of metal, and other bits of trash lie in heaps along the walls of the room. A cold, unlit forge sits in an alcove to the west. To the north, several heavy
timbers are wedged up against a door to keep it shut.

Two morlocks are tinkering with some kind of ballistae that are sprouting all kinds of weird additions that look both hideously impractical and quite deadly. As you enter, they leer as they relish the opportunity of testing their contraptions on you.

The morlocks go on 22, so if you beat their initiative, you can act now.

Map updated. Sorry, work is killing me at the moment and this is the best I can do. Also Hilde gets a Hero Point for keeping the game running in the midst of confusion.

You hear the sound of metal clanging and wood splintering from behind the doors before you even enter.

With a distinct sense of anticlimax you open the door only to find an empty hallway that soon ends in a set of stairs going down. You spy some sort of muddy cave down there and the air has a stale, swampy tang. You can make out the wreckage of some sort of rowboat down there.

There is also a locked door to your left, which makes for two visible exits: the door and the cave.

So where do you want to go? The door on the left, the secret door or the barricaded door?

Map updated

The stairs look like they have been used fairly recently, but there are a lot more footprints coming up than going down. They are of varying sizes, so probably morlocks.