PBEM - Episode 354. Back, Recheck, and Ghoul

The question came up, what happens to an undead that you turn that can't flee? The answer occurred this turn.

Follows:

THREE HUNDRED FIFTY FOUR

(I/C)

The group was silent, looking in at the room, the ghoul was the only noise making gasping sounds as it twisted and tried to remove itself. Lannis picked up a loose chunk of stone for the floor and tossed it at Duchess, saying, “Yo! Shebitch!” in a harsh whisper. “I don’t trust it. Everyone should kill her again.”

“Monsieur, I don’t tink she can lie dere in a pool o blood an not blink as long as she did.”

“You’ve never pissed off a woman before, I can tell. Their stares are deadly.”

“We sure she’s dead?” Lyra asked with a frown. “Maybe we should light her on fire or something. I’d hate to see this bitch come back.” 

Brendon held up his hand, “Let me go check. Big Brain’s right, I don’t trust it or her.” The Scout made his way to the body giving her a once over. He pricked her forearm with his dagger and got no reaction. Crouching low he put his hand in front of her face, and then slowly moved his thumb until it touched her eye.

She didn’t blink.

Sidling back, waving his hand, and making a “ewww” sound, Brendon motioned the group to come in. “She’s dead. Stay alert, don’t know if she fucked with anything.” He began going through her pack and pouches, unlacing the buckles slowly and with care, waiting to find a wire, needle, or trap.

Kovid stepped up to Brendon and offered to help, “You know, I still have a suspicion there might be something hidden behind her bed maybe behind the wall. Need to check it out for traps before I poke around?”

He stood up, “Leave the body alone. Let me go with you Little Man. I’ll help you look behind her bed.” As they walked to the back end of the room, Brendon asked, “Maybe we could hide her and the chests in the secret chapel room.”

Wyn cleared his throat. “Hey dwarfriend, un moment!”

“Yeah?”

“Cen ye crab walk dis shelf out of de way like ye did in the library a few days ago?”

Sure, hang on.” Kovid said, heading back to help the elf move the bookcase.

From the archway, Lannis was nodding his head, directing the party what to do. “Scrappy McGee, you’ll get back to the body after Puffinstuff and Angry Ron Jeremy move the case to check for magic girl porn and treasure. Why don’t you two go see if you can put some quiet speed holes in Walmart Shane while I try and keep this wreck of a Saturday afternoon on the rails for a change.”

“Thanks, Big Brain,” the dwarf grunted, taking one side of the shelf while Wyn did the other, the two of them sidling the case away from the wall.

"Alright Kovid, what you want to do first when lifting is lock the knees,” the Magic User advised, using the Ishtari Rod as a pointer, “after that it's all in the back. Fast jerking movements makes the job go faster."

Sighing, Abraxas pointed back at the ghoul on the wall. “Señora Lyrite, let's put ghoul este en el Afterlife, si? Let's send this Undead back to Dead. So... El Cabeza? O El Cuerpo? Donde hacemos strike?"

“Agreed,” she nodded, “We can’t have someone unchaining this thing and it being used against us later. Ghouls are a huge issue. Best to put it down now while it’s still restrained.” She looked back. “Hey, Momma’s Boy, you think you do 2 things at once and watch us as well what’s going on in here?”

“Roadwarriror, you have no idea how many things I can do at once.” Lannis waved idly back into Mirabellis’ room. “You two go do your cleric killy stuff and try to not make more of a mess than you’ve made of your life.”

“Douche.”

“You should try it,” he retorted.

Wyn thanked Kovid for his help and then said, “Monsieur Du Lac. Dese are for you,” he handed over 3 arrows from those we had taken from the fallen goblins, keeping 5 for himself (Brendon total normal arrows 15, Wyn total normal arrows 19).

“Thanks, Wyn.” He tapped the dwarf, “Come on let me go check that wall for you, I want to get back to her body.”

“Keep up the good work, Precious!” Lannis cheered on the Scout, getting a friendship finger in reply. Wyn was checking over the back of the bookcase with care, remembering there had been a glow from the detect magic earlier. Lyra and Abraxas were staying out of reach of the ghoul, the two of them discussing exactly how to hit it for maximum effectiveness.

After giving the wall a once over (no roll needed), Brendon gave Kovid a thumb’s up, allowing the dwarf to check the wall while the Scout returned to the body and resumed cataloging her items and what she had.

“Ok,” he said, taking 1 item at a time and moving it aside. “We have, let’s see. 50’ of rope [10], 2 small sacks [1], 6 iron spikes [2/per], a small mirror [10], hmm…a set of thieves tools [10]…hang on.” He unrolled her set and then his own, checking them both against each other. Taking a few of her prods that were in slightly better condition than his own, he swapped them out and rolled up both sets again. “Ok, where was I?”

“Scout tools,” Lannis suggested.

“Yeah. Ok…necklace with some small white flowers on it.”

“Wolfsbane,” the Magic User offered.

“Right. No more werewolves?” Brendon asked.

“Who knows with this goofy castle.” He shrugged. “What else?”

“Let’s see. Belt pouch. 21 copper, 7 silver, and…13, no, 15 gold crowns.”

“She is a shitty thief,” Lannis groused. “Seems paltry.”

“Yeah,” Brendon kept looking. “Short sword, nothing special, both Wyn and mine seems a lot better. There’s a ring on her right hand, gold band, some writing on it. I can pry…it…off. Got it.” At that point, he looked over at Wyn. “Hey! This ring feels like it’s pulling my hand to you.”

“Dats weird.” The elf frowned. “Is it a ring of elf locating?”

Brendon walked over, holding the ring and moving his arm up and down slowly. “No. I can feel a faint buzz and pull.” He walked closer and closer, moving the ring about until it stopped at the gold bracelet the elf had taken from the battle in the Adepts’ room. “Here. It’s pointing..here. At this.”

Wyn looked at the bracelet. “Dis was hers, right?”

“Yep.”

“She lost it during de battle when I hit her, yes?”

Brendon nodded, seeing where this was going. “Yeah. Hit her and the bracelet just fell off.”

“And I picked it up, and I put it on, Oui?”

The Scout nodded. “And that bitch was able to find us wherever we went afterwards, her and her pet goblins.”

“Ugh,” Wyn twisted off the bracelet and held the ring to it, feeling the same pull and buzz the Scout was talking about. “She played us. Well done, you bitch.” He sighed, laying them aside for now (Master and Slave tracking Set – range up to 3 miles). “What else she have?” he sighed, “Anyting dat is potion like?”

“Aye,” the Scout replied, “she has a bandolier with 3 potions left on it.”

“What are they?”

“Poiton of…Invisibility. Potion of…Healing. And Potion of…Invulnerability.”

“Whoa!” Kovid exclaimed. “What’s THAT do?”

Lannis (Int >13, no roll needed) looked at the vial. “It’s pretty good. Makes your skin act as if it’s tougher than platemail, and most everything else that might kill you doesn’t. Master Brooklyr had a few of these brewed when he would sell then to the pugilists who would come by when they had their challenge fights.” (Gives effective AC of 18 and a +2 on all saves for 7-12 turns after drunk)

Kovid meanwhile had gone all over the wall (<Stonework, Yellow 2) convinced there was a secret door there, but his rigorous searching turned up nothing and he returned to the Scout dejected. “I was sure there was gonna be something there.”

“It’s ok, Little Man. It’s the Castle’s fault, not yours.”

Wyn had been searching over the back of the case with diligent care (<Int Search, Orange 3) when he found a section near the base that had been cut away and reset in place. With care he used the tip of his dagger to pop the back off and then coaxed out the sack from within that jingled promisingly. “I found sometin,” he said with a smile. Once free, he slid it out and unwrapped the top.

“What you find?”

Opening the back revealed it was filled with copper and silver coins. Quickly sorting them and counting them up, Wyn said, “Tree hunnerd copper pieces and tree hunnerd silver pieces, mes amis.”

“Oi,” Kovid sighed, “That’s a lot of copper weight to carry.” He shrugged. “But fuck her. Anything else?”

“Butt fuck?” Lannis asked.

“What?”

“You said…know what? Never mind. What else, Wyn?”

“Dere is a necklace ‘ere. Pearls, string o dem.”

The Magic User bent over laughing, wiping his eyes. “Are you serious? She has a pearl necklace? HAHAHHAHHAAHA…SNORT…AHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!!” The rest of the group just looked at the wizard until he finally calmed down and wiped his eyes clear. “Ok, ok, so sorry. What else?”

“You really have like the brain of a 12 year old, don’t you?” Lyra asked from the other room.

“Come on, it is funny.”

Brendon looked over the necklace  and smiled. “Worth 300 crowns back in Specularum.

“Dat is good at least.” The bag was empty but the hidey hole did have 3 potion vials in it. He pulled them out, they were all identical. “And here we go. 3 Recall Potions.”

“Alright, that’s very nice,” Lannis agreed.

While all this was going on, Abraxas had positioned himself on one side of the restrained undead, holding the Scythe as low as he could and still swing it effectively as well as stay out of the ghoul’s reach. He had gotten another burst of healing (1d4+1, Blue 2 = Heal 3!!!)  “I am going to hit it above the bolt, in the capeza. Si?”

Lyra was on the other side, holy symbol in one hand and brandished, Flail in the other. “Works for me. I have a turn undead ready in case this goes pear shaped. Not sure how effective it’ll be against ghouls, but if anything looks less than kosher, I’m going to blast it.”

“Si. It’s not like it can escape, Hahaha.” He laughed, getting a weak chuckle in reply from Lyra. The ghoul, seeing the Fighter getting ready to swing was twisting and looking about, legs braced on the floor, hands out as if it could ward off the blow it suspected was coming. “Hokay. Uno…Dos…TRES!” and he swung hard (>+7 to hit, +2 held, Blue 9), the Morrigaan weapon giving a whistle as it parted the air and slammed ABOVE the bolt as intended, crashing into the ghoul’s head (1d8+4 damage, Blue 4+4=8 Damage!) with a crackling THUD.

(<+3 to hit, -2 grab, Black 12) The blow would have killed an ordinary being. But the undead, still with the Scythe in its skull, reached up with both hands and GRABBED the weapon at the back end of the blade AND at the shaft and gibbering and hissing, tried to PULL the weapon and Abraxas closer

“Ah!” The Fighter snarled, digging his feet in and holding on to the end of the Scythe. “LET…GO!!” (Combative Str check: Abraxas Blue 11 (under 7) vs Ghoul White 15 (under 3)) The Fighter was able to lock his leg and stay just outside the ghoul’s potential reach, halting the pull forward, but was at a loss as the ghoul did not let go of the Scythe and was shaking the weapon while cackling and spitting brown stained spetum at Abraxas.

“Hang on, Big Guy! Aine! TURN this thing!” Lyra commanded, her holy symbol bursting with white light that bathed the ghoul from head to toe. It spasmed and whirled on the Cleric and SCREAMED, letting go of the weapon, as the holy light washed over it (Auto Turn ghouls: 2d6 hd: White 4+6=10 HD). It howled as if in terrible pain, shrieking to high heavens as Lyra’s turning tried to drive it away, but it was held in place by the bolt around the neck.

“ARE YOU BOTH FUCKING CRAZY?!” Lannis yelled at them. “Every Orc in Mordor’s going to hear that racket!”

Time now is Day 8, 1:38 PM

(OOC)

Explore XP (Duchess room): Everyone get 45 xp.

Treasure XP: 321 copper, 307 silver, 15 gold, Necklace 300 gold: 348 Divided

Combined Explore and Treasure – Everyone add 103 xp

WMC no matter what, end of next turn. Will be DOUBLE chance if you can’t kill or silence the ghoul next turn. Let me know who wants what from the items found (assuming you have time to divvie it up if WMC goes poor). The bracelet and ring combo was how Duchess always knew where we were today. Let me know who’s doing what and how soon fast. Please look at pic for placement – there are 3 possible ways into this room as well as how far each person is or isn’t from the screaming ghoul.