Act 2 Synopsis
Our would be heroes left the barrister's lounge into a narrow hall which wrapped around the inside perimeter of the building, past a steep set of stairs leading up, and ending at a doorway into another large room. Searching around a table it was apparent that this was the bailiffs quarters. Killian thought it wise to search one of the large cabinets in the room. As he grabbed for the handle the doors erupted sending shattered wood across the room. A horrid ghoul burst forth wearing what was left of a bailiffs uniform and a hand axe lodged in its chest. The creature lunged out of the cabinet toward Killian and Valeros; it's veins had been ripped out which then floated up like marionette strings as a child's voice laughed wickedly. Everyone in the room leaped to action and after several square hits the monster slumped against Killian. Valeros and Killain wasted no time having at the provisions found in the cabinet; namely 8 potions. Kyra had no sooner worked free one of her bolts from the wall when the ghoul stumbled back to its feet and clawed at her. Killian took no notice of the surrounding battle, walked right between Kyra and the ghoul, then began looting the other cabinet! Everyone else however turned and faced off against the monster which now had a death grip on Kyra's throat but they once again knocked it down. This time Kyra drew her scimitar and hacked the corpse up into small pieces. Soon the party worked their way back to that last stair case leading up.
Into the bell tower, through a metal hatch, the group found themselves with a great view of the dilapidated neighborhood of Beldin's Bluff. Some searching and investigating yielded nothing. Everyone was about to leave when a nasty, undead, stirge swooped down and surprised Killian. The horrible creature looked like a cross between a harpy zombie and a monstrous insect. Darting from the creature's mouth was a grotesque tentacle tongue with a hole which it injected into Killian. It was all he could do to resist the horrible sucking from the creatures fleshy nozzle. The rest of the party surrounded the creature and it was an orgy of weapons assaulting the stirge which thankfully knocked the creature back a bit and released Killian. However the ghoul stirge wasted no time injecting his victim again but this time Killian could not resist and the monster and it began sucking out Killian's innards! After draining his constitution Tablark and Madge made some parting swipes at the creature as it took flight from the tower into the night sky. As the party regrouped and patched themselves up as best they could a few realized that Sir Cole was no longer with them. Someone recalled him mentioning heading down stairs...
Sir Cole had decided not to even head into the bailiffs quarters and went exploring for himself back on the main floor. Heading down the north east hall there were several doors and the hall ended in a group of small jail cells. Behind one of the northern doors was the gallows. As he stepped inside his original vision struck him but this time more vivid and richer detail. When he came to he witnessed the croaker walk up the steps to the gallows and over to the noose that he was hung from. The paladins morale was crushed and he quickly closed the door.
Proceeding down the hall and into the holding quarters he found 4 small cells who's doors eerily swung too and fro despite a lack of wind in the room. While searching the second cell Halgrak scrambled out from under the bed only now he was gangrenous ghoul who's skin wiggled and writhed with a horrible bacteria. The ghoulish Halgrak clawed away at Sir Cole who sliced him here and there and eventually struck the creature down. Luckily, being a paladin, he was immune to the affliction that overtook Halgrak. Further searching of the cells turned up a message scratched into the bottom of a bed from Jarbin Mord to his friend Sveth.
Off through another door to the west; Sir Cole found the confession chamber. Many different implements here were used to procure a confession from the accused before a guilty verdict could be issued. The flaying rack, restraining chair, and iron maiden were prominent features. While searching around he approached the iron maiden when suddenly the door flung open and a ghastly monster, that must have once been a cleric, attacked the paladin. This beast savagely clawed, kicked, and bit Sir Cole. The fight was clearly not going well for our paladin but the tide soon turned in his favor with a devastating thrust from his longsword into the creatures chest. Unfortunately this was not enough to finish the ghast and Sir Cole fell under a barrage of clawing and biting.
It seemed all hope was lost for the paladin as fell to the ground unconscious. It was just then that Valeros rushed into the confession room with the rest of the group in tow. Killian made the mistake of standing too close to the restraining char. The ghost of Mords young son, Gabe, shoved Killian into the chair! He was instantly strapped down and Gabe began turning the screws on the head vise to crush Killian's skull. Valeros, Tablark, Kyra, and Madge were able to finish off the ghast but not before it bit down onto Valeros' shoulder leaving a burning, infected, wound. After the monster fell Tablark laughed about the idea of helping himself to Killian's loot before unstrapping him but it was merely in jest and he quickly freed the man. Kyra saw to Valeros and determined there was no poison in his body but he was clearly ill from something. With a bit of magic and some potions they were able to revive Sir Cole and get him back to his feet.
Heading back down the east wing hall Valeros wanted to peek into the gallows. Opening the door to the eerily chilled room he too saw the visage of the croaker march up the gallows to the noose. ZOINKS! Valeros slammed the door shut and everyone moved on to the next door. This door actually led outside but directly into a large cage where a stockade stood in the middle. In the distance was the ruin of Beldin's Bluff; between that and the cage was the graveyard where those hung with no better arrangements were buried by old Mord. Hands erupted from the earth around the graves and soon zombies began pulling themselves out. It seemed nobody had the testicular fortitude to enter this room; ZOINKS! The door was slammed shut and off they went.
Down the only stair case yet to be traversed the party found themselves in the dank basement of the courthouse. To the right Sir Cole entered a stone room glazed in frost and obscured by a light fog. From what he could make out; this was the morgue as small steel doors lined the walls and there were a couple of stone slabs with bodies laying on them. To the left of the hall was the old records room now knee deep with a mix of salt water and sewage. Some monstrous water centipedes chased the paladin out of the room and into the hall where he made short work of one but two others ran the opposite toward Killian who's morale broke and he turned to shove his way passed Valeros and everyone else. Valeros was having no deserters to this party, grabbed Killian, spun him back around and pushed him forward. Killian recomposed himself and stomped one of the bugs to death then kicked the other one down the hall at Cole. With out hesitation or effort the paladin raised his sword and sliced the centipede in half right in mid flight.
Searching the records room turned up documents about Daben Blossomheart which was Madge's father. Clearly it detailed how he was convicted and hung for stabbing a nobleman to death and robbing him. The halfing was crushed by this evidence as she was in stanch denial of any wrong doing by her father. Madge ran from the records room and into the morgue crying. Before anyone could react to her everyone heard her sobbing turn to questions "Daddy? Is that you?" followed by the moans and groans of zombies then muted sounds of bones breaking with a final yelp from Madge. Now our would be heroes snapped into action and quickly setup a cleverly tactic to deal with the zombies.
Valeros tossed Cole a bottle of brandy which he fashioned into a Molotov cocktail with great haste. Stepping into the room he held the now lit firebomb behind his back and waived his other hand shouting to get the zombies attention. This worked quite well and they slowly closed in on the paladin. As he swung his other arm around to throw the cocktail it slipped from his hand, dropped at his feet behind him, and exploded! This scalded his ass thoroughly and some splashed onto Kyra. Then everyone moved into position allowing just enough room for them to come through the door one at a time to be rendered by the party from all angles. Like sheep to the slaughter the mindless undead filed through the doorway; barely getting in a hit before they were chopped down. Kyra presented her holy symbol to one with such force that it destroyed the corpse in a fiery blast. Minutes later the group had slain most of them, breached the room, and finished the rest off.
Tablark was the first to start making his way down the hall back to the stairs leading up to the main floor. As he paused to wonder just what other horrible undead may be up there he heard the distinct sounds of battle. Steel on steel clanged while two men shouted at one another. Tablark called for the attention of everyone and they all filed upstairs toward the great hall. They came upon a man of considerable panache barely fending off a dashing gentleman. The tall man adjusted his top hat gallantly and assaulted with a barrage of thrusts, parrys, reposts, and finally gashed the heavy man in the arm. As he stumbled back from the attack the older gentleman rolled his ankle and fell with a yelp.
What will our adventurers do? Will they step in just in time? Who are these two men and what brought them here? We'll find out in act three of Hangman's Noose!
