In the Light of Black Stars (Strange Aeons)

Game Master Thackery Baxter J Thorington

With the press of bodies around the 'old woman', the horror struck oldest member of the gang can do nothing but gape in horror. Instead he turns, and moves to ensure nothing uses the distraction to attack them from behind.

Hearda steps forward and raises his mace, his face a mask of savage bestiality as he tries to bring it down upon the creature's skull. His foot slips on a piece of rubble, throwing the arc of his blow wide.

In the room, Hearda steps forward and raises his mace, his face a mask of savage bestiality as he tries to bring it down upon the creature's skull. His foot slips on a piece of rubble, throwing the arc of his blow wide.

End Round 1. Begin Round 2. Kalas, Feliks, Amber, Dvarin, and Nathaniel UP

Taking advantage of his position and the fact that they have the creature surrounded Nathaniel withdraws his slender blade from its flesh only to have it dart forward once more, seeking to fell it.

"Oh my god...!" Amber gasps as the creature sinks its claws in Kalas, malevolence shining in its eyes as it gazes at them all.

"You're no doctor and we're not your test subjects!" she hisses, anger temporarily burning away her fear as she raises her bow and fires again. Though anger does steady her aim it's not enough, the shot flying wide once again as the chaos of the melee distracts her.

Kalas silently swings his blade at the monster again. His face a mask of pity.

Best make an end of this quickly. Feliks drew out his crossbow and loaded it.

Dvarin draws and loads his crossbow, readying it to fire.

Sorry, life interfered

As the mad creature giggles, Kalas silently swings his blade at the monster again. His face a mask of pity. But, his wounds are great, and a great pulling on his side, throws his arm wide. His sword strikes one of the corpses hanging from the wall, severing a rotten limb to fall to the floor.

My experiments! You've ruined it! You've ruined it all!!!! The creature boils with rage, its gray flesh warping and twisting as it loses control of what passes for concentration within its fractured psyche.

Behind Kalas, Dvarin Feliks load their crossbows as Amber takes aim with her own bow. "You're no doctor and we're not your test subjects!" she hisses, anger temporarily burning away her fear as she raises her bow and fires again. Though anger does steady her aim it's not enough, the shot flying wide once again as the chaos of the melee distracts her.

Taking advantage of his position and the fact that they have the creature surrounded Nathaniel withdraws his slender blade from its flesh only to have it dart forward once more, seeking to fell it. His blade strikes true, and the creature's arms flail through the air as its flesh foils and warps, twisting and taking numerous forms before returning to the melted gray of its true form. The ruined corpse falls to the ground, gasping its last.

End of combat. there's a door leading west. within the rubble of the room, you find 2 cure light wounds potions.

"We'll need the head," Feliks said, sighing.

It needs to be done, Kalas grimaces momentarily, but swings his blade down and cleaves the head off the creature's corpse.

Hearda grimaces in distaste at the grisly sight, his civilized half repulsed by the barbarity of the decapitation. "Let's drop off the head at the guards right now, then we press on." He grins mirthlessly, "Should give them something to look at to pass the time."

Presuming the corpse's head has been deposited at the guards here...

Hearda moves to the door and examines it closely, opening it should it prove unlocked.

Kalas, you should drink one of those potions.

Kalas quaffs one of the potions to get himself back in fighting shape.

Good point, will do!

Amber looks away as one of the others set to the grim task of severing the creature's head, though she can't help but feel a small bit of relief.

At least we know they can be killed...

"Do you really think those guards will let us pass once we finish their task?" she whispers as Hearda moves to examine the nearby door.

"Perhaps one head will be enough to convince them." the old man says, a grim tone is his voice.

Hearda returns to the others, whispering softly. "I found another door leading out of here. Also found a corpse that I don't think we want to get too close to here. It looks...infected." He glances around the area for a long pole or other instrument. "If I can push the corpse out of the way, then it should be safe to get around it."

"Friend," says Dvarin, stepping forward towards Captain York He locks eyes with him, a half smile on his face, just a hint of teeth, before continuing. "Is this necessary? You can tell that this corpse is fresh. If we were dopplegangers you would know by now. Let us pass, so we may all seek our way to escape this place."

"Come," Nathaniel beckons to Dvarin. "It seems there is little to no point to argue. At least, grisly work though it is, it is almost over. One more, yes?"

"Two." adds the old one quietly "Unless we head back downstairs for our prisoner."

"That's right," Amber whispers, surprised that none of them had thought about it before. "There's still the one we left locked up downstairs..." She didn't particularly want to brave the tower of corpses a second and third time but she knew that it might be necessary if they weren't able to find a third creature somewhere on this level. "Let's look around here as much as we can before we think of trying to go back down," she shivers.

When Hearda returns and makes mention of a likely-infected corpse blocking one of the passageways, she grimaces. "Surely we can find something to push it out of the way with. And if not, then...then I guess you could use my st...wait. I thought I had one, but I guess I must've lost it with the rest of my memories," she sighs.

Kalas steps forward to see with his own eyes the corpse Hearda mentioned, "It's... writhing. Whatever is inside may burst out if you attempt to move it. Our safest course of action may be to avoid it or... burn it."

Dvarin stands at the door, observing the writhing corpse. Generally when a corpse is moving it means one thing: undeath. Dvarin closes his eyes, attempting to assert necromantic power over the corpse or whatever is causing it to move.

Oops... I misremembered and thought we had killed the first one. So, since Nate was kinda against killing a prisoner, two left it is. :-)

Dark energies well within Dvarin and call out to the writhing flesh beneath the stones. For a moment, the corpse seems to respond, twisting and pulling up towards the necromancer. But, his hold is fleeting, and the dead flesh does not respond, but the writhing continues within its skin.

Hearda"I've seen it's like - though I have no idea where." guesses the oldest one, sighing as he pulls out vials. "Some foul vermin germinates within that corpse-womb. Undoubtedly when they hatch they will seek some other victim to infect and infest in turn. 'Ware they bite you, but should they get past it is all too easy to imagine they horror they would unleash in the bloody mountain of the dead we climbed to get here."

"We need fire. Cold in a pinch. Acid if you've nothing better. I've a few vials I can repurpose, though using purified acidic catalyst for such a purpose is an expensive necessity. These however..." here he holds up three tiny crystal flasks with gold leaf lettering "... are alchemist's fire."

"Does anyone have, or see, anything flammable? If not, take these, and let's prepare. Everyone keep a level head. Kalas, Hearda - keep your weapons handy in case my guess is wrong."

Amber stares for a moment, unsure of which possibility was more horrifying - the walking dead or hordes of insects or other vermin. Then she swallows hard. "Some of the furniture we've seen might burn...or whatever ruined clothing and bedding we can scrounge."

Hearda reaches into his pack and produces a simple piece of wood, one end soaked in a dark pitch-like substance. "Save your flask, Old Man. I have...a source of fire here. A simple torch, but it will do the job." He scans the area where the doppleganger met its grisly end, finally settling upon its blood soaked robe. Ripping the cloth into several large strips he wraps them around the end of his torch. "This also should do the job...Amber."

Presuming everyone is OK with this, Hearda will light his torch and move to set the corpse on fire.

Kalas nods at Hearda, "Do it. It's our safest bet."

"Right," Amber nods, almost idly wondering if the dried blood would make the torch burn better. She quickly gives her head the tiniest of shakes, banishing such thoughts from her mind.

"Some of us can cover you," she adds, readying her bow.

"Just a little bit of protection," Nathaniel offers as he puts a hand on Hearda's shoulder and mutters a few arcane syllables. As he finishes there is a momentary light blue glow coming from his hand and warmth suffuses the half-orc briefly.

"There. It may help if something goes wrong."

Casting resistance on Hearda.

"Make sure you jump back as soon as it goes up!" advises the old man, a vial still held in each hand, and his stick resting against a wall.

Hearda reaches out with the torch, the light filling the hallway. He touches the flame to the corpse and sets it alight. The body arcs back, the skin on the stomach distending outwards. Its mouth opens impossibly wide and the hair stretches out, twisting and braiding together like long tentacles. The reach out and grab a heavy stone. Then, with a great pull, the head severed itself from the neck. It stands in the air, supported by its hair like some perverted arachnid.

To the sides, its hands sink impossibly long nails into the corpse's wrists, ripping away at flesh and freeing each other from the body. The two limbs scrabble about the floor, leaving twin trails of blood and ragged bits of flesh in their wake.

The stomach distends one final time, and explodes. Viscera lash in the air flapping about the stones and air like the writhing tentacles of some great abyssal beast!

Oldest One and Feliks are UP!

By all the gods, what now? Feliks thought. He set his gaze on the crawling -a head!-. He drew out and loaded his crossbow, trying not to think too much about the horrors before him.

Stare on the head, -4 to its perc and concealment vs. it until F's turn next round, then invis.

My laptop is down. I've been trying to get access to a computer to check the map, but everyone is now waiting on me... so...
The old man jumped back as his disastrous prophecy proved woefully inadequate for the horrors they faced.
Instantly the vial left his hand, sailing through the air towards the maximal concentration of necrotic abominations.

The vial slips from his fingers, twirling end over end in the air. The room seems to wait on baited breath as the vial connects with a bit of bone sticking up from the chest of the corpse. Silence fills the room as the air rushes to the shattered vial. Then, fire explodes towards, covering Hearda and two of the hands with sticky, burning substance as the corpse itself is engulfed in flames. The entrails writhe in the air burning and flailing, dripping necrotic ash in their wake as the undead monstrosity collapses under it own weight into a pile of smoldering ash.

Feliks uses this moment to fix his gaze upon the skittering head and loads his crossbow. But, the head sees him still, and launches at the halfling, teeth bared and dripping oozing pus and saliva. At the last moment, the Feliks ducks to the right, and the thing's teeth clatter uselessly against the floor!

The claws both shake themselves like wet dogs, comically trying to fling the burning fluid from their rotting flesh. But, it is to no avail, and the burning oil still clings to their forms!

Next Up, Everyone else: Nathaniel, Kalas, Hearda, Amber, Dvarin

Hearda stands paralyzed with fright as the corpse transforms into something not meant to be seen. Gripping the end of his torch tightly, he takes several gasping breaths trying to focus on the now instead of fleeing away from this place.

By the Gods what is THAT!

It is not of this world...Strike NOW!

The searing pain from the burning fire jolts him back to the now, and he stares at the foes surrounding him now.

Must...not...yield here...

Gliding to the wall he concentrates on the crawling head of the corpse, trying to take advantage of the halfling as a distraction. He swings his torch as hard as possible trying to shatter the biting skull.

Though Amber screams with fright as the body seems to just...pull itself apart, there's a spark of recognition in her eyes as well. "This...it's a haunt! It'll keep coming back over and over unless the body is destroyed!" she cries as she steps forward and raises her bow once more, taking aim at the snapping head.

Kalas steps forward and attempt to split the head in twain with his blade. Unfortunately it his blade hits only the tiles of the decayed floor.

Dvarin draws and loads his crossbow.

His eyes widening in equal parts surprise and disgust Nathaniel nevertheless clings to his stoic nature and retains his sanity despite the sight before him. Moving to support the half-elven warrior he attempts to stab at the head with his slender blade.

"This place is just full of surprises it seems," he attempts to quip. He does not fail entirely, although the slight shake in his voice does detract from the remark.

Sorry this is late. Life kicked me in the teeth this week

"This place is just full of surprises it seems," he attempts to quip. He does not fail entirely, although the slight shake in his voice does detract from the remark.

Kalas follows next, hot on his fellow dreamer's wake. He swings his sword, but the crawling hand hops to the right, easily dodging the blow.

Hearda stands paralyzed with fright as the corpse transforms into something not meant to be seen. Gripping the end of his torch tightly, he takes several gasping breaths trying to focus on the now instead of fleeing away from this place.

But, the pain from the fire brings him back to reality.

Gliding to the wall he concentrates on the crawling head of the corpse, trying to take advantage of the halfling as a distraction. He swings his torch as hard as possible trying to crush one of the crawling hands. But, pain still gnaws at his arm, and the blow swings wide, striking the stones instead. Next round, the fire will burst into flames

Meanwhile, in the small confines of the room, Dvarin loads his crossbow while Amber's own arrow flies wide of its mark.

End round 1 start round 2. Oldes ONe and Feliks UP

Feliks fixed his gaze on the nearer of the hands and shot it with his crossbow, taking pains to avoid any shot that would risk other Dreamers.

Oldest One?

The old man fumbled another vial from his pouches, tossing it on the abhorrent abomination.

The sticky oil clinging to the animate hands catches fire. Thick, black smoke rises int he air, devouring away at their necrotic flesh. The hands writhe, and bounce, trying to put out the flames, but to no avail. Instead, the Oldest One tosses a vial of acid behind them, hoping to catch them in its spray. The glass shatters easily against the stones, splattering the two in strong-smelling liquid. The flames sizzle, momentarily, as the caustic water mists over the hands. But, then, the chemyc reaction begins. Dead flesh blisters as water boils within. They pop and spew foul fluids of dissolved flesh and bones. Soon, what the flame does not take, the acid consumes, and the two hands are naught but puddles of smoldering refuse on the stones.

The way is clear, though some are still wounded. The door waits just across this small devastated hall.

End of combat.

Hearda stands transfixed as the acid consumes the vile necrotic flesh of the corpse hands. His gaze grows unfocused for a moment, until the smoldering pitch on the back of his arm draws his attention back to the present. He hurls the useless torch away from him, where it clatters on the ground and hurriedly wipes the burning tar from his arms. He then moves to the door and presses an ear to the wood, trying to hear any noise from beyond it.

Kalas takes a deep breath and sheathes his blade, "Well, time to move on then." He follows behind Hearda at a reasonable distance and awaits the other man's signal.

"Well done..." Amber murmurs as the old man's bottled fire puts an end to the rest of the strange, haunted corpse. "But if there is one of these, there's likely to be more scattered around this place."