Chapter 33: Nightmare House

[Scott308]

Ingrid Esthof

I believe we are pushing our luck if we stay any longer. Those creatures of shadow are too much for our divine power to drive off. We should flee while the lights keep them at bay.

Ingrid will offer her assistance to one of her weakened companions as they make their way out of this house of horrors.

[jemmus]

Faron
I'm about a physically useless as possible. A hen peck or a stubbed toe would finish me.

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo tries to get a final decision on where they go from here.

"I agree that we are not in good condition, but where do we go from here? Can we leave? Can we rest in here? Upstairs maybe? Back to the abandoned building outside?"

[SocraticLawyer]

My magic will not contain the shadows for long.
I believe they will pursue us, unless we can escape the Dreamlands, says Urdur. Let us return to the waking world. We can attempt again at strength. We have at least slowed the assault of the innocents in the city.

If the others agree, Urdur attempts to use the Dancing Lights to hold the shadows at bay while the group leaves. If not, he goes with the group.

[ravenn4544]

Mouser labors to ask in his weakened condition, "If we leave - will we be able to get back and finish things?"

[SocraticLawyer]

Mouser labors to ask in his weakened condition, "If we leave - will we be able to get back and finish things?"

I believe so. There is another holiday in 6 days.

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo agrees to leave the premises now, if that is the consensus of the party.

"We cant do much in this condition anyway."

"Is there anything we can steal from here to get money for some real accommodations for a while?"

[Urson]

Jerome
Jerome slumps, his physical weakness and his near- brush with horrific death combining to leave him barely able to stand. He shoots a scowl at Long Bo when the man mentions 'stealing', but doesn't repremand him.
We are all near-dead. We must retreat, with intent to return.

[Inferno]

The Accursed Mansion, The Dreamlands
Day Three. After Midnight. Monday, December 26th, 576 CY





With torches and Urdur's eldritch illumination to keep the ravenous shadows at bay, the doomed heroes flee for their lives; their harrowing work not yet done.

They limp into the blood-soaked kitchen of horrors, through the great fireplace and out into the surreal beauty of the grand entry hall.



Mercifully nothing waits there to meet them.

They move toward freedom, opening the great, main doors and are shocked at what they find beyond.

The world outside has turned into something else. Hookhill is gone. Only ruins remain. The howling landscape is barren and infested with a strange fungi.

In the distance, the dark mountains to the east reach up into the unnatural, writhing sky and upon them something dreadful looms.



The blood of Mouser, Ingrid, Jerome, Long Bo, Telkis and Urdur runs cold.

It is the Dark Mother that haunted their dreams in reoccurring nightmares as they sought Amity Mantle of the Ashblood Colony.

The Dark Mother. Whose avatar, a shadow given flesh, was the doom that came to Briarsgate.



The Dark Mother. Long did they dream of that colossal abomination, coated in eyes within eyes and speaking in the voice of a thousand screams, sleeping beneath the dark mountains, blighting the land with an infestation of unnatural evil just by Its insidious presence.

They had dreamt that the Dark Mother (or 'Shub-Niggurath' as Mouser once called It in a voice that was not his own) was older than Time, a daemon drawn down from the stars themselves. A creature beyond the bounds of infinity. A terrible shadow that strides the incalculable gulfs of the universe, serene, primal and unending, to sow death and madness in Its wake.

They had dreamt that when the stars are right, It could plunge from world to world through the endless abyss of the sky, casting entire spheres into the fathomless chaos of eternal night. But when the stars were wrong, It could not live. And yet, It could never really die. And so It slept, potent and patient, waiting on the turnings of the cosmos.


"Slept?" Or merely existed here, beyond the waking world?!

The beleaguered heroes struggle to comprehend what their eyes behold!


Reactions?! (And please Save vs Spells in order to act! Wisdom modifiers and Jerome's Protection From Evil count.)


Map:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.





PC Status:

Faron, Human Thief 5: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 1/22, Glowing Sword, -7 to STR
Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 3/4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 1/19, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, -7 to STR
Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 5: Move: 6", AC: 3(1), HP: 14/25, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 2/5 2nd lvl, 0/2 3rd lvl, Torch
Jerome, Human Paladin 4: Move: 9", AC: 3(1), HP: 2/23, Laying Hands: 0/1, -9 to STR
Long Bo, Human Druid 5: Move: 9", AC: 2(1), HP: 27/38, Spells: 2/6 1st lvl, 0/4 2nd lvl, 0/2 3rd lvl, Torch, -8 to STR
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 5: Move: 9", AC: 0, HP: 27/37
Urdur Shimmerstone, Gnome Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 3/11, Spells: 0/3 1st lvl, 0/2 2nd lvl, Torch, -8 to STR

PC Magic:

Protection From Evil, 10' Radius (Jerome)
Glyph of Warding (Ingrid)
Fairie Fire (Bo): +2 to hit S3 and S4. Duration: 13 rounds
Dancing Lights (Urdur): Duration: 2 rounds

Player Resources:

Tale of Terror (the story so far)
A Dark and Terrible World (maps)
Blasphemous Iconography (the story so far in images)
Desperate Struggles (clues and player notes)

[SocraticLawyer]

Schvløøst whispers Urdur to himself.

Save vs Spell (12) [1d20+6]=5+6=11 Come on!

The gnome stands, transfixed. He can think of nothing but the living horror before him. That beast which should not be but ontologically is. If he had the strength to do lift his dagger, Urdur might stab out his own eyes to end the madness of seeing The Dark Mother.

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo just stands there dumbfounded by what they see outside.

Save vs. Spells (14) [1d20]=12

Without exiting, he prods at the nearby ground with his spear shaft, wondering if this whole uncomfortable visage is just one mass delusion.

"I don't think we're in Hookhill anymore."

[jemmus]

Faron starts at the sight of the monstrosity. He observes his comrades' reactions with alarm. They seem to already intimately know this horror. Good gods and goddesses. Is the town really gone? Or are we still in Dreamland? Is it the physical Briargate of the world we know, or the Briargate of Dreamland?

[Scott308]

Ingrid Esthof

Seeing the eldritch horror that has haunted them for too long now, the young cleric is paralyzed with terror and revulsion. Weeeeeell...fuck. uncharacteristically falls from Ingrid's mouth.

Save vs. Spells (14): [1d20]=4

[ravenn4544]

Mouser trudges along, and then stops dead in his tracks. "That is NOT where we want to go!"

Save vs Spells (12) [1d20]=11

[Urson]

Jerome
Save VS Spell: 14 Stat check [1d20]=20
Jerome halts at the door, sagging into himself. Then, oddly enough, he stands tall- as if the blasted landscape had actually enlivened him. His jaw is set, but his eyes are wild.
We are cornered, my friends. Like the bear, we must rise up, intent on taking the Evil Ones with us into the Eternal.

[ChubbyPixie]

Save vs. Spells (11): [1d20]=16

"We've got to go back in," says Telkis, resignedly. After all they'd seen, he'd been half expecting this.

If any are unable to tear their eyes away, he will help turn them around and lead them back, starting with Ingrid.

[Urson]

Jerome
Jerome helps shepherd the most-troubled back inside.

[Inferno]

The Accursed Mansion, The Dreamlands
Day Three. After Midnight. Monday, December 26th, 576 CY







Horrifically, impossibly, the world is changed. And looming above it is the Dark Mother itself!

Here in the Dreamlands, beyond the waking life of Men, humanity spends the other half of its existence scarcely remembered. Here ancient unspeakable evil, said to be dormant and sleeping, stalks the world.

In disbelief, the grey druid prods the ground beyond the mansion's threshold and finds it unsettlingly real.

Ingrid and Urdur, perhaps knowing too much, are stricken by some nameless madness. The doomed heroes guide them back into the house that shifts between dimensions. Removed from the incontrovertible evidence of the true nature of reality, Ingrid and Urdur recover their sanity, barely.

If their calculations are correct, it will be five days until the stars are right once more and they can hope to return to their world. Somehow, they must survive for five days within this living nightmare.


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. Lighter areas are visible. All else is from memory.





PC Status:

Faron, Human Thief 5: Move: 9", AC: 4, HP: 1/22, Glowing Sword, -7 to STR
Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 3/4: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 1/19, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl, 1/1 2nd lvl, -7 to STR
Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 5: Move: 6", AC: 3(1), HP: 14/25, Spells: 1/5 1st lvl, 2/5 2nd lvl, 0/2 3rd lvl, Torch
Jerome, Human Paladin 4: Move: 9", AC: 3(1), HP: 2/23, Laying Hands: 0/1, -9 to STR
Long Bo, Human Druid 5: Move: 9", AC: 2(1), HP: 27/38, Spells: 2/6 1st lvl, 0/4 2nd lvl, 0/2 3rd lvl, Torch, -8 to STR
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 5: Move: 9", AC: 0, HP: 27/37
Urdur Shimmerstone, Gnome Illusionist 4: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: 3/11, Spells: 0/3 1st lvl, 0/2 2nd lvl, Torch, -8 to STR

PC Magic:

Protection From Evil, 10' Radius (Jerome)
Glyph of Warding (Ingrid)
Fairie Fire (Bo): +2 to hit S3 and S4. Duration: 12 rounds
Dancing Lights (Urdur): Duration: 1 round

Player Resources:

Tale of Terror (the story so far)
A Dark and Terrible World (maps)
Blasphemous Iconography (the story so far in images)
Desperate Struggles (clues and player notes)

[SocraticLawyer]

Urdur comes back to his senses, much to his dismay.

We need to rest. Let's fortify one of the rooms and keep a watch.

Does anyone have one of those light stones that Ingrid made for us? I lost mine in the sewer. It might help keep those shadow-things at bay.

Urdur heads inside with the others. If they agree to rest, he offers to take second or third watch, hoping that his strength will return with a few hours rest.

[ravenn4544]

Mouser sighs, "It's decided then. We stay." He looks frustrated and helpless as he looks for help to make his way to a secure room in his weakened state.