"What's all this commotion about?" says Neronius, trying to peer past the crowd into the room.
These birds begin swarming around the chamber. They don’t seem to be paying much attention to the group until Tolbold shoots a Ray of Acid towards the swarm. As they are flying, they dip and dive around the blast leading the ray to hit the wall.
They swirl in a funnel and then they all fly towards the door to exit this chamber.
Carrie swings out at the creatures as they begin rushing through the double doors. Her attack misses as there are too many of them to focus on
Members of the original jury begin to run away attempting to now throw up besides Malgrim that whips out with the spiked chain that is wrapped around his waste. His attack seems to hit the birds because oyu see feathers go flying as they are ripped from the birds. But, it doesn’t seem as effective as it normally would.
Initiative: Round 1
Trevor
Zinli
Carrie
Tolbold
Creatures
NPCs
Neronius
"Finally! Something we can actually fight!" Zinli takes a step back for better aim, and points her loaded pistol at the nearest crows ganging up on Tolbold.
Ah! Nooooo! Trevor flails around with his Rapier.
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"Ghastly things," observes Neronius dryly. "But instinctively adverse to fire, I would suspect!" With surprisingly dexterous hands given his bulk, he unpockets flint and steel and lights a torch!
"Gaaaah...!" Carrie groans in disgust as the stench of rotten flesh surrounds her, though she manages to keep it from turning her stomach.
Clenching her jaw, she swings her free arm downward, hoping to knock at least one of the undead birds to the floor.
"Stay still, damn it!" she growls through her teeth.
Seeing the birds having no problem pecking at her despite her focus on dodging, she swaps her focus to offense instead.
With what seems like a thunder clap to those unfamiliar in the room, Zinli takes aim at the sword and her bullet rips through some of the birds, feather’s falling to the ground.
Neronius moves away and lights a torch
Trevor slashes out with his rapier, just missing the fast flying swarm.
Carolyn punches out and with a few landing blows, along with the help of everyone else, the mass of birds fall in half the size.
Initiative: Round 2
Trevor
Carrie
Tolbold
Creatures
NPCs
Zinli
Neronius
Tolbold loses his lunch as the stench overcomes him. He backs away sputtering.
Tolbold gets sick from the stench and pecking of the undead birds, he quickly backs away from them.
The swarm continues to surround those closest to them and encompass Trevor and Malgrim.
Malgrim stands his ground and attacks back out with his spiked chain. This time the attack lands, it doesn’t look as effective as it could normally be. Rekkart turns and looks in disgust that he fled and walks forward drawing a longsword and in a swing cuts down a few of the birds.
The few birds that are fluttering around don’t look as if they will last much longer.
Initiative: Round 2
Trevor
Carrie
Tolbold
Creatures
NPCs
Zinli
Neronius
.
Trevor keeps slashing
Zinli reloads her weapon, and takes aim again - a lot more accurately this time.
"BOOM!" she cries out as another loud thunderclap echoes in the room. She begins to laugh heartily, the way a child would while trying out a particularly exciting new toy.
Seeing the strangers' blades and chains making short work of the creatures, Neronius quickly discards his plan to splash the swarm with alcohol and set them alight . . . thus saving a fine bottle of wine! He keeps the torch raised high, however, in case any stray winged creatures break free . . .
With torch held high, Neronius takes a position around the columns that would make it difficult for these birds to peck at him. Zinli reloads this strange device and again the thunderclap echoes down this great hall.
As many more birds fall others flutter away through the boards in the window dropping as they do. Looking at your feat you all see birds that already of the look of death on them. As if they have been dead for weeks. Suddenly there is movement under the feathers as maggots appear and begin to cover the birds as they eat them. As time seems to appear to pass quickly over these birds the maggots tourn to flies, then they fly off. The remaining carcass rots then turns to dust. All this happens in seconds, if you would have blinked you’d miss it.
The jury members regroup around you all. Ebin again laughs a nervous laugh; “What has two wings but doesn’t fly, has two eyes but doesn’t see, and has two legs but doesn’t walk?” he begins to chuckle at his own joke before the punchline is delivered; “A dead bird.”
Killian, the man in white, rolls his eyes “Well the gods be with us that those things,” he looks towards Zinli; “scared off any other critters that have made this their home before we come across them.”
Looking over the group; “Is anyone majorly hurt? I have Iomedae has blessed me with ways to heal. I can’t do it a lot, but I tis handy in a pinch.”
“What has two wings but doesn’t fly, has two eyes but doesn’t see, and has two legs but doesn’t walk?”
"A scarecrow!" Zinli blurts out before the gnome delivers the punchline. "Heh - wasn't that far off!"
“Is anyone majorly hurt? I have Iomedae has blessed me with ways to heal. I can’t do it a lot, but I tis handy in a pinch.”
"Nah, I'm good," the gunslinger has a look around the room while the wounded get treatment.
Carrie shudders and steps away from the bird corpses as the maggots come into view wriggling and writhing. She looks away in disgust, only to glance back and see that they've vanished. Breathing a sigh of relief, she brushes dirt and feathers off of her tunic, "I should be fine, they only nicked me a little."
Tobold throws up as the maggots emerge and then straightens up. He looks around a little embarrassed and says "Well, that was disgusting. Shall we take a look around in there after any healing is done and see if there was anything important in there?"
I have been pecked a bit but seem to be doing ok.
Rekkart looks at everyone’s wounds and using a little of the water from his waterskin and strips of cloth he cleans them and covers them the best he can; “That will have to do for now. If… when we get out we will all need to get to the temple. We will want a priest to cleanse these wounds.”
Regrouping from the battle your eyes really turn to the destruction of this room. Nothing is usable beyond firewood. The destruction doesn’t appear to be that of bored youth, but of someone that has built up malice for what this room represents.
To the north you see a door that remains closed. An aged, engraved plaque hangs from above. Judge’s Chambers.
Carrie shakes her head in annoyance as Rekkart dresses her minor scratch, but nonetheless nods in thanks when he finishes.
"Well, unless someone wants to pick a different mystery door, I say we open the one in this room," she addresses the group whilst pointing to the Judge's Chamber door with her thumb.
Without waiting for a response, Carrie carefully begins wading her way through the debris in the ruined courtroom, being as careful as she can to avoid waking up whatever else might be living under the wreckage. When she reaches the door, she presses an ear up to it.
"Sounds ominous! Just what we need!" Zinli strides towards the door, just in case there's some more action waiting behind.
Trevor shuffles behind Zinli.
Carrie listens intently at the door. It is difficult through the sound of the large group moving through the courtroom. Then you have Malgrim throwing broken bits of wood attempting to get them stuck in the plastered walls and ceiling. She hears nothing through the cold door.
Battle Map
This lavish room of cold marble is festooned with a large but mangy polar bear-skin rug and an ornate desk of darkwood carved with an old motif of cherubs grappling with vipers. Behind the desk in a high-backed leather chair rest a skeleton in judge’s regalia, a long white beard still draped down the front of his robes. A rusted iron spiked chain still dangles from around the neck of the skeleton. Near the desk lays the desiccated skeleton of a large dog, a few of its ribs broken and its skull cracked.
Since nothing is happening, Zinli abruptly opens the door. "Nothing!" she says cheerfully.
She crosses the threshold to have a better look at what's inside. "Helloo skellies! You're not going to move or talk, are you?"
"Wouldja stop throwin' crap? I'm tryin' to—Whoa!" Carrie glances back while still pressed against the door, only to stumble forward into the room as Zinli suddenly opens it. She does her best to not fall flat on her face, spreading her arms out in effort to maintain balance.
With a grunt of exertion, she narrows her eyes slightly at the gnome, "You coulda warned me you were gonna do that..."
Taking a moment to scan the room, she gasps as she notices the skeletons, turning her focus to the broken dog bones, "Aw, poor dog," Carrie laments as she walks over to the skeletal remains on the floor. Squatting down next to them, she gently prods beast's rib cage with her finger, "what kinda horrible person would do such a thing?"
Tolbold lets the others into the room first after his last experience. He stands in the door acid at the ready should anything appear.
Don't antagonize them, we don't know what will happen!
Zinli opens the door and nothing happens. Carrie moves in to check on the remains of the dog that clearly is the victim of abuse.
The way the dog’s remains are laying, you get the sense that it had fallen trying to protect its owner.
“Don’t worry about me, you don’t want to slip and fall breaking your neck.” Malgrim says as he looks in the room with a smirk.
Touching the dogs wounds, Carrie sees the dog shuffles and begins to growl a deep guttural roll as its ribs slightly shift and the pieces of its skull adjust back into place.
Initiative: Round 1
Everyone
Jury
Dog
Initiative
.
Although his body is sluggish, Neronius' mind is hard at work, trying to figure out who's behind it all!
"Slip and fall, huh? Like you?" Carrie snipes back at the hobgoblin, rolling her eyes and giving a short chuckle.
Carrie's hand recoils as the dog's bones begin to reassemble. "Oh, no..." she yelps. Gripping onto the edge of the desk, she pulls herself back up to a standing position and takes a small step away from the rattling skeleton.
"Uh... Good undead doggy?" Carrie stammers, attempting to placate the dog.
Trevor grips his club and rushes in. I knew this would happen!
", "Aw, poor dog. What kinda horrible person would do such a thing?"
"Someone who really wanted to get to its master, by the looks of it."
Zinli's gaze shift from the dog skeleton to the one of the judge, waiting for any sign that they will reanimate. She is not particularly surprised by the growl. "Yeah, that was expected," she gives Trevor a nod while she reloads her gun.
Carrie steps back from the dog that seems to have come back to life. She stands guarded for what might happen next. Zinli’s eyes are on the judge, no movement. Trevor grips his club while Neronius catches up.
“The dogs undead?” Rekkart says as he draws his blade and moves in a protective stance between the dog and most of the group. As Rekkart leaves Patrissa behind she looks besides her and stands close beside Neronius.
The dog stands up and begins sniffing the air. The air rolling through its hallow skull gives a low whistle. The dog jumps onto the desk and leaps its way towards the door attempting to push past Rekkart. Midair, Tolbold’s lets fly an Acid Ray. The ray hits the dog and looks effective, but it doesn’t stop the dog from moving forward.
The dog is able to nimbly move through Rekkart’s offensive stands and lands between Ebin, Tolbold, and Malgrim. The sight of this dog causes Ebin to cower in the corner and he begins to cry; “no… stay back…” while Malgrim slowly steps backwards.
Initiative: Round 2
Everyone
Jury
Dog
"H-hey now... WHOA!" Carrie continues trying to calm the skeletal dog. Startled by its sudden leap onto the judge's desk, she instinctively tries to strike it.
"OhmygodsI'msosorryIdidn'tmeantohityou!" She cries out when her forearm smashes into the beast's bony body. As the dog scampers into the courtroom, Carrie follows behind as best she can, pushing past Zinli and Rekkart and attempting to maneuver in front of the dog.
"Hold on a minute, doggy!" she calls out to the skeleton, "You leave those (mostly) nice people alone!"
"Keep doing out!" Zinli calls out from within the room. "It definitely wants to hit us!... Sods, it's way too close!"
Since she doesn't want to drive a bullet into anyone, and the small rooms are way too crowded, the gunslinger drops her pistol with a swearword that would make some sailors blush. She reaches instead for her gnome pincher, which she brings down on the dog like a small club.
Trevor looks slack jawed at the bouncy dog and stays where he is.
Keeping well away from the clamor, clatter, and shouting, Neronius trudges with ponderous footsteps around the courtroom, giving it the once over for any interesting clues that may shed more light on what's happening here.
Carrie strikes the dog as it passed her, but it continues to where it is going. Zinli clubs the dog and whatever force was holding its bones together vanishes and they fall to the ground. Silence once again.
Malgrim pushes past the divider that would separate the observers in the court room from those taking part in the trial. Patrissa moves out of his way as it appears he would walk right through her; “I’m trying the back door. I’m not going into another room where some dead creature wants to pick my bones clean.” The hobgoblin makes a punching flinch at Halgrak and the half-orc steps back along the wall.
Malgrim laughs; “Ha, always a coward…” Hitting the threshold of there is a sudden Gong ~ Gong Malgrim pauses in his tracks and looks at the clock Gong ~ Gong his eyes focus on something “no… it couldn’t be…” An unseen force slams shut the doors behind him, holding it closed. Gong Patrissa runs away from the doors and quickly locks in besides Rekkart.
A harsh staccato whisper builds to the rasping croak of a strangled man that echoes through the entire courthouse. Malgrim screams frantically over the horrid sound. “No! Get away from me!” Gong “You’re dead! I saw you swing!” Gong “No!” The jangling of a chain and a wet gurgling follow. Gong Then all goes silent.
The pressure against the doors ceases and they slowly open, just a crack. Halgrak doesn’t move towards the door, but he can see through the crack. The half-orc smiles ever so slightly. This is the most emotion that has come from the man.
" “I’m trying the back door. I’m not going into another room where some dead creature wants to pick my bones clean.”
"It's not a good idea," Zinli calls out. She bends down to pick her pistol, and checks it for any sign of damage. To an untrained eye, it looks just wonky as before, but she still nods to herself with a satisfied little smile. She sheathes her pincher, but keeps her grip on the loaded pistol for now.
She jumps when the clock resumes its ringing, and stays very, very still while Something is obviously happening to Malgrim. She is quiet for several seconds when all falls silent again. "Well," she finally speaks. "That's one street gang without a leader."
"I suggest we all stay close to each other, right, folks?" Out of morbid curiosity, she can't help but try to peek through the crack to see what happened to the hobgoblin.
Not again! Carrie cowers as the clock tolls once more, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation for more horrible visions. When the assault never comes, she opens an eye and slowly straightens back into her normal stance.
She feels her blood run cold as she listens to Malgrim's protests and the life being strangled from him. When the ringing stops, Carrie clenches her jaw in horror as she pieces together what just happened.
"Did... Did he just...?" she squeaks out.
"Die? Oh, yeah. Definitely."
Did some ghost strangle him? well... maybe we should go see. Trevor pushes open the door.
Tolbold walks into the judges chamber and examines the judge, particularly the chain around his neck.
"Very interesting," says Neronius. "It seems apparent that a vengeful spirit is taking out its displeasure with the members of the jury responsible for the end of its mortal life. But what interests me," he continues, "is why we have been brought here . . ."
As the door into the great hall opens you can still hear the reverberation ringing out from the grandfather clock as the seventh chime fades. Your eyes first look to the floor where you might expect a body to be laying. Instead you see a pool of blood.
drip… drip… drip… eyes darting to where the dripping comes from and your met with Malgrim’s still swinging boots. He is hung from the rafters by his own spiked chain. If there was any question if there was a way to revive him, the chain is so deeply imbedded into his flesh that the blood is still pulsing from his body as the nerves in his muscles still twitch.
Meanwhile, Tolbold makes his way into the judges’ chamber to look around. You find several things in these chambers. You see that when the judge was killed he was in the process of drafting a letter. What you find is this blood stained parchment. It appears to be brittle where the blood has dried and it also looks incomplete.
You also find a small rack that would normally hold 6 flask, but only 3 remain.
You find that all 3 of these are potions of different kinds.
- Potion of Lesser Restoration
- Potion of Bear’s Endurance
- Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
Looking over his body there are only two things of note. A Masterworked dagger that sits in an ornate emerald and silver sheath . You also see that the spiked chain is remarkably similar to the blood soaked one that now rest around Malgrim’s throat.
With Neronius’ comment of the spirit taking out its displeasure on the members of the jury Patrissa begins to sob uncontrollably and buries her face in Rekkart. With a sigh and an eye roll Rekkart responds; “You did say you had kin that was on the jury?” He things for a moment; “It could be sins of the father has been passed onto you.”
“What keeps ropes positive?” Ebin moves from the door towards Zinli “Their attitude is knot-able!”
"Sorry, but that one's hanging by a thread," Zinli answers Ebin with a grin.
She moves in front of the door to block him the view. "Trust me, he's not ' looking cute," she shuts the door with the back of her foot. "You've seen enough horrors."
The gnome moves closer to Tolbod to inspect his discoveries. "Oooh, shiny dagger!" she whistles in admiration, flipping the blade with an expert hand. "Light and sharp. Great work. Keleshite steel, maybe. It's good quality, but still affordable. Dwarves are just impossible about their export taxe. And elves? Not much better. Anyway, what does the note say? "
She grabs it, puts her goggles on, and reads it aloud for everyone slowly, misreading and correcting herself often, deciphering the text as she goes. When she's done, she pauses, before lifting her goggles again. "So wait. The guy was innocent after all? I don't get it. I had a dream he killed his wife."
"That's not fair! He can't blame me for somethin' my dad did!" Carrie shouts in panic and anger at Rekkart's observation, tense from the hobgoblin's sudden death.
She winces slightly at Ebin's poorly-timed joke, giving him a short and angry glare and barely stopping herself from saying anything, then shakes her head to get the thought of Malgrim's death off her mind.
She tilts and scratches her head in thought as Zinli reads the letter, "Maybe it's not the ghost of that Mord guy hauntin' this place, then? If the judge here had a letter sayin' he was innocent the whole time, why would he want to keep people away from findin' out?"
"Or maybe he's just too caught up on his death to think about it. I dunno how ghosts work, I'm not a cleric or whatever."
Trevor manages to duck out of the way.
I'm afraid I don't know anything about daggers. If there has been an injustice, we should bring the evidence to light! Make a public announcement about it to hopefully lay spirits to rest.
Tobold pulls out a little set of glasses and studies the vials for a moment and hums to himself. He then calls out and says "I think these might be magical."
He then carefully and respectfully takes the spiked chain from the judges neck and walks over toward Malgrim's corpse. He says "I don't know what is going on here but I believe that Malgrim killed this judge because he was going to let the justice system know that Mord was framed." He turns to the original jurors and says "How about you tell us what happened during that trial and maybe some of you might survive the night?"
His white knuckled grip releases from his sword as Rekkart speaks up; “That man was not innocent. He brutally killed his wife and son. The sight would change you forever…”
Killian, the older gentleman, adds in; “He’s right, and look what he has turned our courthouse into! His spirit must be defeated if we are to taste freedom once again. We cannot end up like Malgrim.”
Ebin slinks into himself with embarrassment about his joke, until he potentially misreads the gnomes smile.
Tolbold turns the emerald and silver sheath over in his hand. Outside of the price of a well crafted dagger, this sheath is worth 100 gp.
You look around the judges chamber and this courtroom and you don’t find anything else of use.
"Back to the big room and then last door to the left?" Zinli suggests enthusiastically.