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One skull flies forward, trying to smash into Oloch, but completely misses the hulking half-orc.
Reiko knows that these Undead skulls are called Beheaded. Apparently, some of them are capable of igniting. Mavaro knows that the flaming ones do additional fire damage, and can cause targets to catch on fire. He also suspects that, due to their occult connections, these creatures may be vulnerable to mind-affecting effects, unlike normal undead.
Now Up:Merisiel
On Deck: Three of them
Followed by:Rivani
"You're a pretty lousy fortune teller." Merisiel says drily as she draws her rapier and waits for one of the floating skulls to come to her.
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A flaming Beheaded dives towards Rivani, but a well timed jab from Merisiel catches it in the eyehole, shattering the skull.
Another dives directly at Merisiel, who brings her rapier up again to fend it off.
Unfortunately, it ducks under the blade, and manages to smash into the elf's sword arm.
With Merisiel distracted, another successfully makes it to Rivani, dealing a sharp blow to her head.
Up now: Rivani
On Deck: Yellow
Followed By:Mavaro, Amiri, Oloch
Amiri lets out a "Hmph" And draws her monstrous sword. She moves to flank the skulls with merisiel.
nope
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Rivani's tankard hits the head with a satisfying thunk, denting the undead cranium.
The Ninja swings her blade as she finds herself the target of the next skull. She is unable to fend it off, yet quick enough to dodge its wild dive.
Amiri's mighty swing hits the one attacking Mersiel, completely obliterating it.
Now Up:Mavaro and Oloch
On DeckRed (flaming Beheaded)
Followed By: Reiko (beginning of Round 2)
Standing right next to the blue skull, Mavaro draws the one-eyed sword and stabs at the skull.
Oloch steps back and swings mightily at one of the skulls.
"Let me tell you your fortune!" he yells.
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Oloch adds to the growing pile of bone chips littering the floor as yet another undead falls.
As he moves back, he places himself directly in the path of the remaining flaming skull, which aims straight for his head. As it approaches, Oloch hits it with such force that it goes flying backwards, crashing into the bar, mercifully now unlit.
Now Up: Reiko, Merisiel, Rivani
Then: Yellow
Finally: Amiri, Mavaro, Oloch
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A piece of broken chair leg levitates in front of Rivani, then flies across the room to impact the remaining skull.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Merisiel moves to flank with Reiko and tries to impale the last skull with her rapier.
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Between Rivani's bar fighting skills and Merisiel's grace with her rapier, the last creature falls out of the air, defeated.
The air in the room feels a little fresher with the undead gone, and, though the room's contents have still suffered decades of neglect, the room feels somewhat less unpleasant.
As things calm down, you all notice a faint glow on the table. It appears to be coming from the harrow deck.
"That is interesting. Let's have a look." Never having heard that curiosity killed the cat, Mavaro walks over to the table and looks at the glowing harrow deck.
That was...strange.
The ninja began with weapon drawn still trying to ascertain if anything else in the place was liable to animate and attack them.
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The cards Mavaro sees are clearly high quality, hand-painted cards. This was not the deck of some marketplace fortune teller, but someone with skill. The deck gives off a gentle, inviting glow.
Now that Reiko has moved into the room a bit more, she can tell that the trail she saw in the dust leads towards the door to her right.
"Yeah, definitely." The elf agrees with Reiko's assessment, "Maybe they'll be even weirder stuff in another room. Which door looks more promising? Maybe the one the that doesn't have an outside exit?"
Whichever door is suggested, Merisiel checks it for traps.
The footprints i saw lead this direction, perhaps that is the wisest exploration choice?
She said to the elven rogue motioning torwards the door the trail led through with her blade.
"What do you think Rivani? Is it magical as well." Mavaro has a look at the cards as they are laid out to see if he can make any sense of them.
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Rivani surmises that this deck is unusually powerful. Rather than simply telling the future, it attempts to help prepare one for that outcome. It's unclear how, but probably related to the transmutation effect detected earlier. The effect appears suppressed right now, for some reason.
The spread laid out by the illusory creature is gone. It seems likely that array was an illusion as well.
Merisiel does not detect any traps on the door.
"Looks good to me!" Merisiel announces to the group as she opens the door to the storeroom, walks inside, and looks around.
(+1 if there is a trap)
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A body lies in the dusty hallway, arms and legs askew at unnatural angles. One desiccated hand still holds a rapier, which seems to have survived the years unexpectedly well. The other clutches a card, seeming to match the deck you have already found.
"Another body! This sure is a violent little town." Mavaro walks up to the body and takes a look at it. "Broken bones. Looks like that's what he died of. Wonder if it was the skulls?"
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This close, Mavaro can see the card in the man's hand is The Demon's Lantern. Additionally, he has a pair of vials, both filled with clear liquid, attached to his belt. Somehow, these survived the pummeling that brought down their bearer.
I know this card, its associated with Dexterity and the energies of Chaos and Evil. Its supposed to mean with a harrowing deceitful actions, such as traps or tricks of the mind, theft. I wonder if the dead man here was a theif by trade.
She paused slowly and finally resheathing her wakizashi and peering around. This was certainly a mystery.
"Maybe it served as a warning that the fortune teller was a trap? Who knows?"
Finding nothing new upon her investigation of the body, Merisiel begins to wander around checking out the other rooms.
"Now that we've made it safe for them, let's go tell the villagers what we've found and done. Perhaps they can tell us more, but at the very least, they can take back the building for their own needs."
"Yeah, you guys can go ahead and talk to the villagers. After being hit with a horseshoe for no reason, they aren't my favorite people."
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Stepping back out onto Dunhob's unpaved street, you can see a half dozen faces peeking out at you from behind curtains and slightly ajar doors. The old woman from earlier is now sitting on a chair dragged into the middle of the street, another horseshoe in each hand.
Didn't 'spect to see y'all make it out alive. What'd you find?"
Mavaro goes to speak with the villagers, "Two dead bodies. Both fairly long dead. An illusory robed figure with cloven hooves. A passel of animated flaming skulls. Undead. Which we sent back to the grave. A harrow deck. Two vials of holy water. One of the victims also had a rapier and leather armor. The place is safe now, but still something of a mystery. Do you know what it all might mean?"
Oloch nods as Mavaro speaks, then waits for the villagers to respond.
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"Safe, you say? We'll see about that. Might be you just drove 'em off for a bit. They're still makin' my hip ache somethin' fierce.
Anyways, the one with the fancy sword was Wulfer, some hotshot from Karcau who came round eight or nine years ago. Thought he was gonna find jewels or something. Ha!" The old woman chuckles to herself for a moment before continuing, her face growing more serious.
"The other one'd be Veny. He ran the place back in the day, and Lady Illirigarde used to visit, and talk about all sorts of frightful stuff. One night, she performed a private reading for poor Veny, and it killed him. She said her harrow cards touched the mind of a dreaming evil.
She said she'd return when she learned how to drive out the spirits. That was over forty years ago, and nobody's seen her since. Probably got her self killed doin' more meddlin' where she don't belong."
Did she leave no clues at all to where she was going? Was her home nearby?
She asked the old woman with the incredibly gifted arm warily ready to dodge if shoes went flying again.
"Nuts. They might come back? I hope it doesn't take us forty years." Mavaro thinks Reiko has asked a good question. He just likes to hear himself talk.
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"A dreaming evil... how strange. We should discuss this with the good Doctor."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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The elderly lady's grip on the horseshoes seems to have relaxed somewhat.
"Wasn't just a home. One of those fancy rich people houses. Whatcha call 'em?"
"Manor!" a man's voice calls from an open window.
"That's the one. Close enough, 'bout an hour or so walkin'. Some people in town used to work in the gardens. Buck was the last one left, but the bonechill claimed him a few years back. Boarded up the place not long after the unpleasantness here. They say she died, but no one knows where, how, or when."
Slowly, she pulls herself out of her chair, and begins dragging it away from you.
"I think we've had quite enough excitement for now. Anything else you lot need before you're on your way?"
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You leave Dunhob with a psychically charged Harrow deck, and more questions than answers about the nature of the unusual phenomena Dr. Quolorum is studying. Luckily, you're scheduled to meet him soon, to study some unusual meteorological event.
For recovering Lady Illirigarde's Harrow Deck, you receive the Draw From the Deck boon. This boon may be used once per quest for the remainder of the adventure.
Part Two: Lightning
Tonight the sky is clear, and the stars are out, which helps provide ample light to view the blackened hilltop that Dr. Quolorum marked on his map. A scorched crater sits at the summit of the hill surrounded by a ring of tortured earth. Agonized faces and grasping hands are formed in the dirt around the crater, as if the ground itself were once alive and in great pain. Stunted shrubs covered with red thorns are scattered across the hill.
A gnome, with dark blue hair and a mustard yellow mustache, wanders around the hillside, fiddling with some sort of unusual machinery. He doesn’t seem to notice you.
Mavaro waves his hand in the air, "Greetings! Would you be Dr. Quolorum? We were asked to meet with him here tonight."
Oloch moves next to Mavaro, still looking skeptical of this deck they have found.
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For example:
The gnome looks up, seeming startled by your presence. He calls out,
"Oh, indeed I am! Good to see you've arrived. Make yourselves comfortable because the next strike shouldn’t occur for a while yet. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions."
and quickly goes back to fiddling with his machines.
If I will not be interupting... what exactly do all these devices do? The ninja asked curious as to what the gnome was doing.