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The revenant dodges the ball of fire, his eyes hellbent on Urzok.
V̕ęr̢҉y ̵̕w͝él̀l̕.
Urzok looks at the war razor in his hands and shouts ”You're s+&@, you know that? DO IT!” as he shakes the weapon in anger. Almost immediately, a strange black energy manifests out of the weapon and enshrouds the half-orc, whose skin grows pale and pallid, catching everyone, even the revenant, completely off-guard!
Round 6/7
====================
Boodiddly
Jevar (-1)
Urzok {not wearing armor; wounded 2}
Revenant (-66 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Shakur
====================
"We're gonna have to talk about that if you live!" shouts Shakur. Did he just become undead himself or something? He's...he's aware I'm against that, right?
Shakur sustains the spiritual weapon, which quickly moves up to the revenant and takes another stab.
Shakur then shyly tries to throw a rock.
"If Urzok goes down, I've gotta get in there to help him!"
Boodiddly hurries out the door, still plinking away on the violin.
The dagger of force follows the revenant out of the door and slashes! The revenant attempts to dodge out of the way, but his spasming muscles from Jevar’s bottled lightning keeps him from moving fast enough! The Pharasmin then chucks a stone at the revenant, but it catches on the partially-broken door and flies off-trajectory.
The Revenant looks up at the fleeing Urzok with utter contempt. ”GET BACK HERE!”
With a forceful burst of speed, the revenant rushes straight at the half-orc as he swipes at him!
The revenant opens a large hole in Urzok’s shirt as he also opens a massive wound!
Round 7/8
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Boodiddly
Jevar (-1)
Urzok (-15) {not wearing armor; wounded 1}
Revenant (-78 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Shakur
====================
Goodness, I fear this skirmish is going to take a tour through town soon!
Jevar continues running after the pair and waves the sphere of fire to pursue the revenant.
Urzok roars as he slashes back at the Revenant before backpedaling around the house. "So eager to die again?!" he taunts.
________
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Shakur bolts out of the building into the streets before maintaining his spiritual weapon again. Not this day. Not yet.
Okay. Uhh. Maybe this day.
The revenant howls in pain as the ball of fire engulfs him, followed immediately by Urzok slashing straight through his shoulder, severing one of the revenant’s arms completely! On his last legs, the revenant glares at Urzok.
”I will...kill you...if it’s the last...thing I do!”
Round 8
====================
Boodiddly
Jevar (-1)
Urzok (-15) {not wearing armor; wounded 1}
Revenant (-108 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Shakur
====================
Boodiddly Strides twice north and casts inspire defense.
The revenant, now on his last legs, growls as he rushes forward and slices at Urzok with his one remaining hand!
Round 8/9
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Boodiddly
Jevar (-1)
Urzok (-50) {not wearing armor; wounded 1}
Revenant (-108 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Shakur
====================
Jevar yells out as he continues to follow the revenant and Urzok.
I think we almost have it. It appears to be getting desperate!
Just rounding the corner, he stops and in hard motions points at the fireball with two fingers of one hand and directs it back to their persistent, undead foe again.
Jevar extracts and palms one of his bottled lightning concoctions.
Urzok groans as the Revenant gives him another savage swipe. With what little energy he has left, he slashes again with the Jagged Blade before putting more space between them. Damn it hits hard!
________
"One more hit like that and Urzok is done. Boodiddly, got any healing left!?"
Shakur bolts forward before sustaining his Spiritual Weapon again.
Shakur will then move a bit more.
Jevar notes this request and offers Hmm, I've got some healing amongst my mixed concoctions, but I have to get over to him.
He scans the distance between them and imagines how it might work in the coming moments.
"He's too far away for it to do any good!" Boodiddly yells back, sprinting as fast as his little legs will carry him towards the undying horror. Spreading his arms wide, he tries to sing bravely to steady his nerves (as well as those of his companions) even while watching the revenant's talon-like claws get much closer to his face than he would prefer.
The Varisian man dodges out of the way of both the dagger of force and the ball of fire, barely standing after the solid hit from Urzok with the Jagged Blade. Rage flowing through his eyes, the one-armed revenant glares forward as he weaves past Shakur and Boodiddly—a slight limp in his movements—as he lunges forward at the half-orc, only managing to blurt out two words:
With a powerful swipe, the revenant opens five parallel gashes across Urzok’s chest—enough to knock the wind from the half-orc and cause the Jagged Blade to fall out of his hands! The revenant’s bloody mouth twists into a smirk as he looks down menacingly at the unconscious Urzok.
Round 9/10
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Boodiddly
Jevar (-1)
Urzok (-56) {not wearing armor; dying 3; prone; unconscious}
Revenant (-121 from “2” attacks [before resistances])
Shakur
====================
Jevar visibly huffs and puffs as he jogs to keep up.
Wow, I hope that nobody I've killed comes back at me like this. Vicious!
He finally gets just to the far corner of the building where he sees the revenant standing over Urzok, and lobs his alchemical bomb at it.
Boodiddly hurries around the edge of the building, grabbing a pebble off the ground and throwing it at the revenant in a desperate attempt to keep it from attacking Urzok’s limp form.
Boodiddly telekinetically chucks a pebble at the revenant and feels its skin resist the blow—but all this resistance managed to do was slow the pebble’s momentum enough to prevent it from shooting out of the other side of the revenant’s body. Bleeding from the “bullet wound” from the pebble, the one-armed Varisian man slumps to the ground in clear pain. He writhes in pain, unable to move any further. With his remaining hand, he grabs Urzok’s collar and looks the unconscious half-orc in the eye as he painfully gurgles out to speak to him.
”My name’s…Klyn….Murik…….”
The revenant grip weakens, and Klyn’s undead body falls limp, his clawed hand landing mere centimeters from Urzok’s jugular.
Shakur’s magical floating dagger disappears as he rushes over to Urzok, pulling out bandages as he hurriedly tries to patch up the dying fighter!
As soon as Urzok's eyes open, the fighter finds Shakur on top of him with a dagger to his throat.
"Listen here." he says, obviously seething. "You're going to answer me nice and clear, or my nice ends. WHAT DID YOU DO? In case you haven't noticed, creating undead -- even unintentionally -- is against everything I stand for. And whatever you did to this man caused him to be SO ANGRY about his death that he raised as an undead bent on destroying you. You're going to speak, slowly and clearly, about what you did.
"After that, you're going to tell me what you did to your skin back there. You secretly an affront to nature or something? You've been responding to my healing just fine, so I'm going to assume you aren't secretly an undead yourself. Just....explain."
As others approach Shakur and (likely) try to pull him off of Urzok, Shakur resists as much as possible. "You stay out of this," he shouts.
Jevar's arm is about to let the bottled lightning lose when Shakur and his dagger fly by.
The wizard quickly stows it away and rushes over to urzok to help with the healing.
As he's pouring the vials down Urzoks throat he frowns and softly appeals to Shakur. I'm quite certain he didn't intend for this outcome.
Urzok groans as he's thrust, yet again, back into consciousness. He's barely blinked when Shakur places a knife at his throat. F$*+ me, out of the frying pan and into the damn fire.
"I remember he stole from Lowls. I remember being pleased that he ordered me to fix the problem. I also remember not answering to yours or anyone else's !" he shouts, shoving Shakur off of him and standing up.
"I remember beating his face in," he continues. "And I remember liking it, like I've liked fighting everything else we've fought in this nightmare." He looks at his thick, calloused hands. "Nothing makes me feel more alive than a fight. And I won't apologize for that. If that meets your definition for 'unintentional' undead, then it looks like you're going to have to kill me for your close-minded faith."
He raises his fists and tucks his chin, his eyes harden as they stare straight into Shakur's.
________
"Intentional or not..." Shakur mutters under his breath as he picks himself off his a$$ before he breathes. "One day the gods will smite you. Take my word for it."
He then turns to Jevar. "Any ideas on when your past is going to come back to haunt us? The rest of us have had a turn."
Shakur dusts himself off before walking back to his bedroll. "You're going to explain what happened to your skin there. But tomorrow. I'm tired. I'm going to bed."
Urzok exhales with relief when it becomes clear Shakur is backing off. He has nothing to say at his damning.
Now that's a question I can try to answer. Bloody blade, more trouble than it's worth. He scoops up the Jagged Blade off the ground and sheathes it. A minute or so after Shakur leaves, he makes his way back to his own bedroll, sheathes Red destiny, and collapses. I've got to stop pissing other people off.
________
Jevar averts his eyes and tries to avoid the confrontation after administering his elixirs. He's starting to walk away when Shakur addresses him.
Me? How am I supposed to know when we're still putting together what happened before we were taken there.
He looks down at the raven on his shoulder, who just buries her beak in his collar.
He sighs and looks around at their surroundings. Given that attack, are we going to be safe here? I'm starting to think one floor up in an Inn doesn't sound so bad. Probably not as good a place to keep watch though...
Comfort and personal safety or progress... sigh. How exactly is this group advancing my work? Well, I suppose we're pushing along towards answers better as a group. I'd probably give up on it on my own.
GM, now that a Revenant isn't trying to kill him, can Urzok try to use his knowledge religion to know if we need to do something about the corpse? Also, he'd want to know if this Revenant rising is because he is cursed or something (and therefore should be expecting more Revenants to jump us in the middle of the night) or if this is more of a one time incident (not that I'd take it as a promise that we'll never fight one again, of course). Finally, he'd want to know more about how these things are formed. Iirc, the only information Urzok actually knows (based on what was shared) is that it is because he killed some guy and the guy was mad about it (which doesn't make any sense to him since he's pretty sure nothing he's killed was happy about it).
Revenants come about due to an individual who feels utterly betrayed or abandoned to die a gruesome death, rising with the singular purpose of enacting revenge against their murderers. Like most undead, things such as a curse or powerful necromancy could jump-start a dead person’s rebirth into a revenant, but it is just as likely that it occurred “naturally” through enough powerful emotion on the deceased’s part.
Boodiddly waits for Shakur to storm off before taking Urzok’s massive hand in his own. ”I... Um, well, I think you’re a nicer person than that now,” he says softly. ”And I think he’s scared too - but he fought to save you too. So, uh, you know that saying about actions being louder than words?” He pats the half-orc gently before retiring to his own bedroll, thoughts rolling around in his head like an unpleasant canon.
This is all so confusing - are we even the same people we once were when we can’t remember anything past waking up in the asylum? But at the same time, we’ve clearly been shaped by our pasts, even if we don’t know what that past was or how it shaped us. And then if it all suddenly came back, how would we reconcile our actions now with the person we suddenly understood ourselves to be?
Jevar does a rudimentary fixing of the now-broken door so that the amnesiacs can sleep in peace . And the amnesiacs go to sleep.
*
*
”Doom! Flee this place!”
The amnesiacs are awoken by the all-too-familiar sounds of an all-too-familiar doomsayer. They wake up and, over the course of so long, are struck with the mundanity of their current circumstances—especially following the hell that was Briarstone Asylum.
Before going to bed, Urzok gives Boodiddly a nod and a grunt. "Hope so. Thank you both for the healing," he says, looking at Jevar too.
Urzok wakes up and puts his armor on, then takes his breakfast in silence. When he sees Shakur is ready for some sort of conversation, he draws the Jagged Blade and sticks it into the table. "There is more to this thing than we thought. I wanted every edge I could against that Revenant, so I reached out to whatever magic is in it and turned it on. I couldn't tell you what happened to me exactly, but I don't plan on doing it again," he admits. "What did it look like to y'all?"
With the month of calm, Urzok spends his time walking around town in a cloak with his hood up. He doesn't talk to many people, besides his therapist, and seeks as much time as he can in isolation. Especially where he can see the water.
________
Got it, thanks! Before sticking the knife into the table, he thinks to it: "Shut up and we'll talk later."
Depending on how the "Next morning" timeline develops, there might be more :)
Assumption - Thanks to excessive Restoration, the DC drops 2 every week.
Week 1: Rest and Therapy
Madness DC is now 13
Week 2: Rest and Therapy
Madness DC is now 10
Week 3: Rest (probably can't afford more therapy, but that'll depend on who else is still using the therapist)
Madness DC is now 7
Week 4:
Madness DC is now 4 (pending any therapist impacts)
If he can (idk if he can do anything while resting, but I doubt it), he'll model for Lelwyn and/or gather information about Count Lowls when he can.
Prepared Spells
1st: command, mage armor, unseen servant
2nd: dispel magic, flaming sphere, invisibility
Cantrips (2nd): acid splash, light, produce flame, shield, tanglefoot
Advanced Alchemy Infused Items
- Bottled Lightning, Lesser (2)
- Eagle-Eye Elixir, Lesser (2)
- Elixir of Life, Lesser (2)
- Elixir of Life, Lesser (2)
Quick Alchemy Batches 1
As soon as he's done studying his book, Jevar invokes his typical morning fortification of armor.
Jevar greets the day outside of hell, but still listening to the bellows of the doomsayer, pondering what long-term efforts he should get underway...
Jevar begins surprising the group from timing to time, speaking as somebody else. Someone more excitable, who doesn't know Oreb, it's quite disturbing.
After one week of rest during downtime...
After that, Shakur will spend whatever time and gold he needs (and has left) curing his sanity damage.
Boodiddly spends the following day in the market, trying to get a sense of his surroundings as well as a bow for his violin. A friendly merchant waylays him for a time, and he walks out of the shop with a promise to return and a claim slip in place of the instrument.
After picking up the violin the following morning, Boodiddly spends the rest of the week performing at the Silver Wagon. Whenever the doomsayer comes to preach outside, the gnome quickly trots out to join him - but the bard's musical choices are completely opposite the mad prophet's message, and each performance turns from horror to comedy. He even cheekily sets out a hat for coins from the audience.
Boodiddly spends the following week socializing and performing at the inn, "accompanying" any troublemakers until their faces match his hair and helping make the regular patrons feel more comfortable and at ease as they sip their drinks.
DC 14 -> 12
Crit Success: DC 12 -> 9
Success DC 9 -> 3
Crit Success: DC 3 -> 0; Melancholia is cured!
GM Screen
Shakur learns that the doomsayer actually works for Count Lowls and has a room up at Iris Hill.
Shakur gets 4 gp from modeling for Lelwyn.
Through his various New-York-style playing-on-the-side-of-the-road, Boodiddly earns a total of 9 gp.
Through information-gathering (and sometimes feigning ignorance as he pretends he’s a tourist), Boodiddly learns that the doomsayer has apparently been doing this for ages, but has started only recently ramping up his “proselytizing” given recent events. He lives in an abandoned house on the edge of town The doomsayer himself tends to avoid the gnome, save for the moments he’s accusing him of being an agent of the Briarstone Witch.
About a month ago weird stuff started occurring: people disappearing in the middle of the night, strange murals “marking” people’s houses, weird lights coming from “the witch’s cave,” and the supposed return of the Thrushmoor Terror—the spirit of a sobbing old widow that attacks anyone she sees, who hasn’t been seen in years. Concerned, the people showed up to Iris Hill about a month ago to seek help, but found that Count Lowls had left town, leaving an “exotic princess” in charge. She advised awaiting the count’s return, for “he would know what to do.” The people went to Fort Hailcourse to get help from the magistrate, but were refused because apparently the magistrate had left town too and setting up a night watch was “impossible.” The Sleepless Agency also couldn’t help, because they didn’t have enough agents in town to look further into the situation. So folks have spent their time just biding their time for the count, locking their doors in hopes that they won’t be targeted next.
Jevar heads out to the market to acquire scrolls... and then spend many exciting days transcribing them into his spellbook using his own special shorthand.
Urzok, I have a new spell that's going to make you an absolute beast!
Same Assumption - Thanks to excessive Restoration, the DC drops 2 every week.
-4 from shakur after the two weeks and before this, and -1 from Jevar's previous week of rest. DC13 down from DC18
Jevar's CHA is +1, so success results in minimum 1, crit success in minimum 2 (from the campaign page).
Days 14-20: rest + therapy
-2 from Shakur (another week)
DC is 9
Days 21-27: rest + therapy
More paying a therapist for nothing :/ I'm guessing he sat in the chair and asked "What do *you* think about that?"
-2 from Shakur (another week)
DC is 5
Somehow I feel like I could have still messed up something.
Nomo days left for learn a spell :/ Probably will just pay the full cost of Enlarge, since Magical Shorthand allows me to transcribe in 10m/level if the full cost is paid.
Boodiddly spends the last two weeks alternating between the Silver Wagon and Lelwyn’s house. He does his best to keep some variety in his schedule so the doomsayer never quite knows when his “accompanist” will be ready for another streetside performance.
For the record, your Dissociative Personality, when it manifests, essentially switches Oreb and Jevar (Jevar has Oreb’s personality and vice versa, because I like the flavor that Oreb is also affected simultaneously to you). But today Jevar just has Jevar’s normal personality.
Net: -18 gp
Debt Payed to Silver Wagon: 54.9/153.6
Jevar: -36 therapist twice -12 scroll of enlarge -12 scroll of mirror image -6 scribing enlarge
Net: -66 gp
Shakur: -18 therapist +11 modeling for Lelwyn
Net: -7 gp
Urzok: -10 runs transferal -36 therapy twice
Net: -46 gp
*
*
The amnesiacs continue about their business, going to the Silver Wagon to present Dena with Boodiddly’s hard-earned cash. They move toward the door, but do so at the same time as another patron leaving the establishment.
”Sorry. ‘Scuse me.”
The patron squeezes past the amnesiacs before stopping and doing a double-take at the group.
”Birdbrain?”
The man adjusts his flat cap and looks on again.
”Birdbrain!” The man puts a hand on Jevar’s shoulder. ”Haven’t seen ya ‘round in a while. Where’d ya get off to?”
Shakur's eyes flash with a stroke of recognition before he backs off. "Pharasma's judgement seat. Now? About time." Shakur puts his hand on Jevar's other shoulder.
"Good luck. Hope your past is better than ours. Boodiddly, let's get that money on the table in case things are about to get ugly. Haven't needed to use these Heals in quite some time."
Jevar gets an utterly confused look on his face, and looks at the man like he has three heads.
Bird... brain? He looks down at Oreb, she up at her master and gives a little, confused bird-shrug.
He quickly regains enough composure to play along with it.
I was... away for some time. When, exactly, did you last see me and what were we doing? I cannot recall... Though it likely sounds innocent to the man it's is still true.
About time it was Jevar's turn. Seeing Jevar's fumbling, Urzok clears his throat and half-steps between them.
"Urzok. You?" he says, extending his hand. Once he gets the man's name, he steps back to Jevar's side.
Would Urzok have had time to talk to the Jagged Blade? He'd basically want to just learn more about the Tatterman. What he is, who he is, motives, etc. Also if he is an undead.
The man looks to the ground and shakes his head with a sigh.
”Jevar, I keep tellin’ ya that ye’ll work yerself to death. It ‘asn’t been that long. Well, I guess it’s been a couple months since our last game. Hmm...” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small bag of coins and begins muttering to himself then shrugs with a grin on his face. ”Ah, screw it.”
The man pokes his head inside the Silver Wagon. ”Oi, Dena! Coupla seats at the bar!”
“Keldrin dearie, didn’t ya say ye were headin’ to the docks?!”
“Ah, wasn’t feelin’ like it today! ‘N I ran into some mates o’ mine!”
“Fine! But there’s no seats at the bar, ye’ll have to settle fer by the wine rack!”
“More o’ an ale man, but wotever works!”
Keldrin turns back to Jevar. ”I got me ma’s deck if ye’re up for a few ‘ands.” He motions to the other amnesiacs. ”Ye lot’re free to come along too; any mate o’ ol’ Birdbrain’s a mate o’ mine. Oh! Where’re me manners?” He extends a worn and calloused hand to each of the other amnesiacs. ”Name’s Keldrin Mon, ‘n drinks are on me!”
Without another word, Keldrin makes his way toward the pub of the Silver Wagon, leaving a handful of bewildered amnesiacs in his wake.
*
”Guess she ran outta room by the wine rack.”
The amnesiacs plus one are seated in the relatively small tavern inside the Silver Wagon, on the opposite side of the room from the wine rack. Despite having at least three bartenders/barmaids, Dena herself takes the amnesiacs’ (plus one) order, shooting the occasional vigilant-yet-nasty glance at Boodiddly and Shakur.
With Dena off to fetch their drinks, Keldrin takes off his flat cap to show a messy head of brown hair. He pulls out a harrow deck and mindlessly shuffles it, dealing out a hand of cards to each of the amnesiacs willing to play (he already assumes Jevar does).
”I know it’s yer turn to pay, Birdbrain, but I ‘elped some rich folks at the docks earlier this week ‘n got a bloody good tip from ‘em. Plus I ‘aven’t seen ya in a while!”
He finishes dealing out hands of cards and glances at his for a moment. ”So, where’ve ya been, Birdbrain? Was it fun?”
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Shakur orders the lightest ale available, and likely gets water from Dena anyways. "I've been coming and going for a month, Dena." Shakur says, flabbergasted. "Pharasma, you'd think a man could be forgiven here and there."
He then turns his attention to the game after getting dealt in. "Yeah birdbrain, tell him where we've been." Shakur says, obviously a bit jumpy. The Marriage AND The Twin? Not a bad hand at all.
Shakur plops a card down on the table before blinking for a moment, slowly taking the card back to his hand. "Uhh. Wait. Which....which ruleset are we using? Gathering the Magic or Stonehearth?"
Keldrin... that's a start. Ah cards. What card games do I know...
Just as Keldrin asks is he's up for a few hands, Jevar snaps back to attention. His gaze had been wondering to the ground, with a distant stare, as he struggled mightily to think and recall any details at all about their relationship.
Thank you for drinks Keldrin, you're too kind, unless it's just to loosen us for the card game.
The wizard smiles and winks as he follows his "friend" to the designated table.
As they get seated Jevar again attempts to deflect the next question about where they've been.
Oh... away on business research.
I had dropped the purchase/processing of mirror image from the final downtime allocation, so that scroll should be stricken from the inventory. Otherwise it matches what I came up with.
"Uhh. Wait. Which....which ruleset are we using? Gathering the Magic or Stonehearth?"
Keldrin looks at Shakur with pure confusion on his face as he slowly says a single word: ”Poker.” He clears his throat. ”Not wit’ coins, o’ course. We just use these:” He holds up a number of coasters from the Silver Wagon.
Oh... away on business research.
Keldrin rolls his eyes. ”Thanks.” He raps his knuckles on the table and throws a coaster at the center. ”Call. I meant wot research? Ye’re usually the first to tell me ‘bout progress in yer disa....dicer...Wait, I got this...diss..er..tation...Dissertation! That’s it!” Keldrin leans over to Boodiddly, using his hand of cards to shield his lips as he whispers in a purposefully-not-very-quiet voice. ”I don’t understand ‘alf o’ wot ‘e talks ‘bout, but it’s nice to ‘ave someone to talk to, eh?”
Jevar sighs heavily with resign, throwing his own coaster in the center to call.
Look, sorry, it's just that the last couple of months were more of a diversion from the dissertation. It wasn't pleasant, and frankly it isn't even easy to explain. But, I mean, you! What have you been doing all of this time. Surely there are many things that have gone on that we would have talked about if I'd been here. And, I don't think I'm going anywhere any time soon. Jevar starts to get a more excited look, as he tries to get Keldrin excited about talking about himself.
The details are still at the surface here, but this one could help me recover lost details. Unpleasant as social interaction is, I would be wise to not dissatisfy this one....