Episode 13 – Zombie Church and their debut album Flesh Door

Fossar breaks into the room an says “What is happening?!”  Everyone pauses for a moment and Charlotte just stares at us.  She starts move toward the door.  Thaddeus throws a sleep potion but she resists it.  Fossar swings at her and connects twice with the sharp side of his shovel and she is bleeding profusely from the head and neck, but still takes off running.  Maverick pushes her towards the corner and she falls down.  Magnus shoots her with a stun gun but she resists and still tries to get out the door.  Fossar knocks her down and she is bleeding out.

We heal her and tie her up.  Lucille look at her and casts a spell.  She says that the spirit infecting her will need to be killed to free her from it.  If not she will die anyway.

We leave her and head through the door she wanted to use. Lucille stays with Charlotte.  We open the door and see a dark room.  Jimmy goes in first followed by Fossar and Maverick.  We see a room with alcoves with 4 corpses in each.  The door slams shut and the the corpses sit up and start vomiting blood.  The blood rapidly rises up to our ankles and keeps going.  Magnus teleports us quickly back to where we came from.

We head to the next door in the entry room.  It open onto stairs that go up.  We start heading up the stairs to another door.  It does not budge when we try to open it.  Magnus lights a stick of dynamite and we run back down to the entry room and close the first door.   BANG!  We head back up the stairs,  and see a cruciform room.  In it are parts of zombies that are recollecting themselves and we see them forming larger zombies.

Jimmy charges in and attacks two of the zombies. He swings but does no damage.  Fossar runs in and swings wildly.  He dismembers one of the zombies and wounds another.  The zombies attack and miss us.  Maverick charges into the room and shoots.  He drops one and hits another.  Magnus and Thaddeus step in the door and shoot, which evaporates another zombie.  Maverick drops the last zombie with three well placed shots.

We search the rest of the room but there are just caskets and body parts.  There is a door on the far wall.  We blast this one open as well.    Beyond is a large room with pews and an altar.  The pews are full of zombies and there is a large worm towering over the altar.

They attack us but miss.  Jimmy hits and wounds one.  Maverick drops that one and wounds another.  Fossar charges and wounds one of them, but his shovel breaks.  Thaddeus hits the worm with a potion.  Magnus also hits it with a fireball.

Fossar is shovel-less but still tries to kick the zombies.  Pointless much?  Maverick shoots two of them and wounds them.  Magnus launches another fireball.  It fries 3 of the zombies and wounds the worm.  They all swing at us, and miss.  The worm moves closer, and Tommy Hawk gets a surge of adrenaline.  The worm attacks Fossar with his tongue and drags him in closer.   It also misses Thaddeus, who throws a potion back.  Jimmy dispatches one zombie and wounds another.

Thaddeus throws a different potion (banish) and we see the orange energy get pulled out of the worm, and it is now making  a different sound.  Clearly whatever was motivating it was removed from the creature.  Fossar breaks out of the tendril and tries to pull its tongue out but fails to move it.  The remaining zombie attacks Jimmy but misses.  The worm strikes at Jimmy and wraps him in its other tongue.  Maverick hits it with a bolt, but again it seems unfazed.  Jimmy tackles the tongue and slices himself free.  Magnus blasts it with a shotgun.

Maverick tries to deal with the devil and cast a spell, but it backfires on him and he has a headache.  He still shoots and hits it.  Fossar kicks it again in frustration, to no effect.  The worm bites Jimmy and gives hm a scar.  He attacks back and shakes the worm.  Angus misses.

Jimmy and Thaddeus wound the worm.  It bites Fossar.  Everyone else misses.

The worm and zombie attack and hit Maverick, but he magically ducks and evades the damage (thank you cards).  He shoots back and  wounds it, but it is still moving.

The worm bites Jimmy and he falls down and is bleeding out.  Maverick finally puts the worm down.  We heal Jimmy, and find the strongbox on the dais.  We open it and see a lot of papers including the founding papers, 2 sets.  One set has Jenkins and Otto Strauss, and another that does not have Otto’s name.

We take the box and catch up to the people heading to Paradise  Falls.  We take the papers with us and head back to town.

 

Session 5 – Mopping Up the Moat House

We head down the stairs to an area we haven’t explored yet. It is a man-made cavern (room 30) that opens into a natural cavern that is quite large but enclosed. There is a large pool here. We start searching around, but something moves in the water. It appears to be a large crayfish. Dardenne fires at it with arrow but doesn’t do much damage. Hadrian goes to attack it but almost slips into the pool. He swings again and slices it in half. We drag it to the surface so we can eat it.

Looking around, we find some treasure. There is a platinum pin that Filarion puts on. A scroll is also found with spells on it. This is an 8th level scroll with the 2nd level spells Push, Stinking Cloud, and Fly. Dardenne takes this.

We come back up the stairs and go left through another hallway. It twists a couple of times and opens to a room with lots of alcoves (Intact Crypt – special #). We start checking it out but don’t find anything. At the end of the room is a sarcophagus. We move to check it out but we are ambushed by zombies from behind. Hadrian cuts one of them in half, Dardenne slices another and Elauthin takes out the third.

We look around further and find that one of the crypts has a hole in the back. We start check it out but Darius is looking at the sarcophagus. It emits a huge burst of energy and Darius drops. Hadrian grabs him up and hauls him away just as it emits another burst. We heal Darius and he tells us that before the pulse occurred, he saw two bodies behind it. Filarion tries to use his grappling hook to grab them, but he hooks his leg instead. Painfully, he pulls it out and has Darius toss it instead. He manages to hook both of them and pulls them out.

The two people are searched, and it looks that they have unicorn sygaldry. On them we find several items including cleric spells, druid spells and a staff. Mord takes the staff and briefly passes out. He wakes up with a smile on his face and says that it provided a direct connection to his god. It is a very powerful magic item. Filarion takes the breastplate with the unicorn on it.

We decide to try to get into the sarcophagus. Dardenne casts Detect Magic and sees that the lid is covered by runes which must be causing the magic. Filarion sees on top of the coffin the design of the body underneath and it looks like it is an evil wizard. Brother Gregory uses the scroll to remove the magic for a while, and Elauthin, Dardenne and Hadrian push the cover right off and it smashes into the corner. However, the runes are still active.

Looking in the coffin, we see four spell books and a wand along with the robe-covered corpse. There are two rings. We take everything and sequester ourselves in the pool room for the evening.

Dardenne checks the wand and sees that it is indeed magical. He uses it to check the other items and sees that the shield and one of the rings is magical.

Later, Dardenne goes out into the hallway and tries to check out one of the spell books — the blue one. He opens the clasp and suddenly there is a burst of cold air that almost freezes him. He wraps the clasp with cloth so he can’t accidentally touch it again and looks in the spell book. There are several first, second and third level spells in the book.

The next morning after some rest, we go down the tunnel where the ghouls came from and find their nest. We find a spell scroll for the cleric, and see around here a bunch of narrow caverns that go into a maze. We decide not to risk it and go to the outside and the other end of the caverns.

Entering the other area, we wind our way through several caverns and end up at a closed gate. We try to lift it but cannot. Eventually we find a secret closet with a lever that lifts the gate. We go up and see that we’re at the entrance of the moat house. We realize that we have missed something and go back down. Almost immediately we see a secret door that we missed. Inside is the nest of the ogre, where we find a very find elven cloak and a chest. There is treasure in here.

There are two doors in this room. Darius picks one of the locks and we see something moving. We think they are undead but they are actually starving prisoners, two humans and a gnome. They are thankful that we’ve saved them and move out.

We continue on and find a room of junk. Further through, we see what appears to be another burial area. We are attacked by zombies. After the first wave, several more run at us. Brother Gregory turns several of them and we take the opportunity to attack them as they flee.

After the battle we search the adjacent rooms and find a bunch of equipment here. There is so much that it takes us a long time to load it up.

We start heading upstairs and two oozes attack Hadrian and Darius.

Session 1 – Kung Fu Tournament

The year is 1840 in central China, which is near the end of the Qing Dynasty. We are north of Chengdu in the city of Fuxian (Fu County, now known as Mianyang). It is a sub-tropical, semi-mountainous region.

There are several kung fu schools in Fuxian, the largest being San Chuan (literally “Three Fists”) at 150 students, which is run by Master Shifu, one of the three original masters that founded the school. He is elderly and kind, but firm. This school teaches a variety of styles and is fairly progressive in its outlook, mixing wrestling, forms, weapons along with sparring, acrobatics and iron body training.

Smaller but no less influential is the Black Lotus school, a very regimented group of 50 students who are less kind to styles other than theirs, and also any outsiders. Black Lotus is headed up by Coiled Snake, a master of the Shaolin snake style, along with his son Spitting Snake. Here the training is focused on endurance drills such as horse stance and practicing forms with heavy rings on students’ arms. Anything less than perfect in technique and skill is not tolerated.

We meet two students of the San Chuan kung fu school: one named Zizou Ming (literally “Smart Ass”), an 18 year old of average height and build who has been studying at the school for a couple of years. His family sold his sister to be able to afford training with the venerable Master Shifu. Zizou has been training in wrestling, forms, and specializes in the rope dart weapon.

Tiaowu Jiu (literally “Dancing Wine”) is a mountain of a man at 6′ 2″, towering over his other countrymen. He started out as a dishwasher and janitor at the school several years ago, and now at age 20 has finally been accepted at the school after proving himself. He is often still treated as the janitor, however. Also he is addicted to rice wine, and hides clay pots full of it around the school for when he has a hankering to drink. He swears that drinking helps his fighting ability. His specialty is in brawling, and very few challenge him in this regard except for the higher level students.

Lung Po (literally “Broken Dragon”), 17 years old, began training at the Black Lotus school last year after finally being accepted. He has been hanging around there since he was a young boy, always waiting for his chance to become a student, but was never allowed to train because of his low standing. After showing his martial prowess and his acrobatic ability which he uses to bounce around obstacles with ease, the teachers finally let him begin training. His weapon specialty is brass knuckles with claws, and thrown knives.

It is mid-summer and very hot, and the students at both schools are training hard. At San Chuan School, Zizou and Tiaowu practice their forms and then transition to wrestling. Tiaowu is winded after a few wrestling matches with the large SiHing nicknamed Big Nose (his real name is unpronounceable), and sneaks away for a nip of wine. No one notices him. Zizou is paired with Mei Mei, the daughter of Master Shifu, who is notoriously arrogant and proud. After beating Zizou soundly in the first round, he comes back and throws her. Her face is red with anger at the humiliation, and stalks off.

At the Black Lotus school, Lung Po has spent the whole morning in strength drills and forms, and is now practicing staff forms. He does not like staff at all, preferring smaller and more agile weapons, and is not doing well. However even worse for wear is his friend Fei Wan (“Flying Over”), the only person at his social level at the school. Fei comes from a rich family, but is so terrible at martial arts that the other students shun him. Fei tries hard on the staff but trips and accidentally breaks it in half. Lung helps him up and finds him another staff, but one of the SiHings, a temperamental man named Barking Wolf, yells at him and beats him. Fei gets up to try again and breaks a second staff. Barking Wolf grabs him by the nape of the neck and drags him into the building, fuming.

Lung Po uses his acrobatic ability to sneak away from the other students training and bounds to the second floor, looking down at Barking Wolf and Fei Wan, and sees Barking Wolf begin to beat his friend senseless. He gives him several body blows and then superman-punches his face into the floor, knocking him out and dislodging several teeth. Without even thinking, Lung loosens his belt as it’s his only weapon, then jumps onto Barking Wolf’s back, choking him out. Before Barking Wolf can fight back, Lung strikes him in the side of the head and knocks him unconscious. He drags the limp SiHing into a closet, and notices a small scroll sticking out of his robe. He snatches it and then tends to Fei Wan, taking him gingerly to the barracks and binding his wounds. He is still mostly knocked out but cries in pain. Lung goes back to the training floor and resumes staff work, hoping that no one saw him leave.

At San Chuan school, it’s lunch time and as Zizou gets his bowl of soup and goes to sit down, Mei Mei pushes past him and sits down in the chair instead. Zizou squeezes next to her and asks her what her problem is. She says that he must have cheated in order to win, since she is a much better fighter than him. He denies it and says that he meant no disrespect, but she is having none of it and walks off in a huff.

Near the end of lunchtime, Master Shifu comes out and says that their school has been asked to participate in a city-wide kung fu tournament tomorrow morning, and he wants the kwoon spotless before they leave. All students will spend the remainder of the day cleaning, and tomorrow morning they will leave for the tournament. He is planning on asking several students to perform their special techniques they have been training for. All are dismissed and go to begin the cleaning work.

Zizou gets a bucket of water for cleaning and again runs into Mei Mei, who is also carrying a bucket. He apologizes again for upsetting her and says that perhaps he just got lucky. She thinks it over and finally agrees, saying that maybe that’s what happened and perhaps if he was lucky today, that he would be unlucky another time. She “accidentally” spills some of the bucket’s contents on his shoes, which did not contain water but mud, and walks off with a smirk. Zizou is glad that she did not douse him entirely, and thinks that he is making progress with her. Nearby, SiHing Big Nose asks Zizou how he got Mei Mei to notice him — Big Nose has been trying for years.

Back at Black Lotus School, at lunchtime Lung Po sees some of the teachers discussing something in the hallway where he fought Barking Wolf. He comes forward to inquire what they are looking at, and one of the SiHings says that they found blood on the floor, but they are not sure what it was from. He suddenly realizes who he’s talking to and orders Lung Po to move along, and he complies. Nothing more is said about it, and Barking Wolf does not reappear.

Later in the afternoon, Lung Po and the other students practice horse stance with a candle or sharpened stick underneath them, and heavy rings are placed on their arms. Lung Po has placed the stolen scroll in his pants, hoping that no one finds it. Spitting Snake, the Shifu’s son, comes around with a small heated cauldron that he places between students’ arms to hold up as well. Lung Po’s arms burn, but he makes it through the trial. After this, everyone is told to prepare for evening meal and lights out. Fei Wan is still in his bunk, whimpering with pain, but seems to be recovering. After lights out, Lung carefully reads the contents of the scroll. The letter is from Shifu Coiled Snake, and apparently Barking Wolf was being thrown out of the school for misconduct. He was to leave by the end of the day, which explains why he was so hard on Fei Wan. Lung quickly hides the scroll in another student’s bunk and goes to sleep.

The next morning at breakfast, Shifu Coiled Snake announces that they will be leaving for a tournament shortly, and everyone will be ready to go right after the meal. Everyone runs to comply. The school leaves, and Lung Po and Fei Wan, the lowest standing among the students, take up the rear.

At San Chuan School, Zizou is chosen to take one of the school banners to the tournament. As he is walking, he notices Mei Mei next to him with a larger banner. She does not acknowledge him, but he sees that he still has her attention. Tiaowu grabs a nip of wine before leaving and hurries to catch up with the group.

At the tournament, five schools are participating. San Chuan, Black Lotus, the Crane School (nothern longhand and shaolin techniques), the Five Element School, and Lo Han School (a mix of kung fu and tai chi students). Vendors have brought their carts selling street food and wine, and townspeople are crowding around to watch. The day begins with demonstrations, and Master Shifu does not disappoint with a mesmerizing spear form. At one point he shoves the spear into the ground and appears to defy gravity as he balances on it with one hand. Shifu Coiled Snake follows this with a spinning form that leaves the audience dizzy, and breaks wood and bricks as he spins.

After this the students begin to perform, with demonstrations of acrobatics and iron body displays. Big Nose shows his iron head technique, with students breaking pieces of wood over his head. Next is forms. San Chuan starts out. Zizou is chosen to demonstrate the rope dart and provides a flawless presentation of the form. Next is SiHing Lozu then Mei Mei. She has difficulty with her rhythm, though, and Zizou sees this. He encourages her by pantomiming the form and showing the rhythm, and she improves. She has a slight smile as she finishes and everyone applauds. Zizou and Tiaowu also perform to good responses.

Sparring and wrestling starts next, and Tiaowu is paired with Big Nose. The fight goes on for several minutes with Big Nose using his iron head against the big man. They continue to trade blows until Tiaowu advances with a ridiculous combination, striking Big Nose in the leg, body and finally the head. He lifts the SiHing above his head and hurls him into a vendor’s cart. Wontons go flying and everyone cheers. The man who owns the cart curses Tiaowu out, but he is grinning from ear to ear. After this, when others are fighting, Tiaowu goes to a wine vendor and gets a free bottle of wine, which he downs immediately.

Zizou fights Mei Mei and it’s a draw. Zizou respectfully looses his next fight but then beats the next oppent.Zizou then fights Lung Po and loses once, then wins twice. The two warriors are respectful to one another. Zizou continues on and defeats 2 more opponents.

Lung Po fights ??? and wins?

Tiaowu fights Spitting Snake in an incredibly long battle. Spitting Snake throws dirt in his eye.

Tiaowu fights a Lo Han student, and loses?

The inter-school matches conclude, and after observation by the Shifus, the final contenders for the day are chosen. The first match is a student from Five Elements against a Lo Han student, and Five Elements wins. The second match will be Zizou against Lung Po, and the third match will be SiHing Lozu versus Spitting Snake. After this the winners are to fight.

As Zizou and Lung Po are getting ready to fight, a commotion is heard in the crowd. Men with robes and hoods are coming through the crowd with swords, scaring the townspeople and slashing at anyone who gets in their way.  Master Shifu barks at them to stop what they are doing immediately, but they still advance. He tells his students to get ready to repel the fighters. Coiled Snake tells his students to snap to attention as well.

The first four men go down easily, with the students from both schools working together. Master Shifu takes one out with precise strikes to several nerve points, paralyzing him. Mei Mei stuns one of them, and Zizou grabs his rope dart and slashes one of them across the back with a spinning move, whips it around his leg and then out to strike the second man in the face, taking him out. Tiaowu and Lung Po join the battle and the other man is taken out.

This leaves just one, who takes his mask off and reveals himself to be Barking Wolf. He addresses Shifu Coiled Snake and says that he will pay for shaming him, and even if he dies that his revenge will be complete. He lunges at Coiled Snake, ignoring all the other attackers, but Tiaowu tries to grab him. He slashes Tiaowu savagely and the big man falls down, unconscious. Mei Mei and Zizou both attack, but are unable to bring him down. Mei Mei slips while kicking and twists her ankle, falling to the ground. Lung Po leaps at Barking Wolf from behind and slashes him with his brass knuckle claws, and Barking Wolf falls, bleeding out.

Barking Wolf continues to crawl toward Shifu Coiled Snake, but passes out short of him and expires. Coiled Snake looks up at Lung Po and nods, which is the most attention and respect he’s ever paid the boy. He then turns sharply and walks away, motioning his students to follow him.

Episode 12 – Beating off evil

Maverick starts rounding up wagons and horses to transport people from Spar City.  Thaddeus stays up late and works up a new potion to deal with the strange new creatures we have been finding.

The next morning we find a bunch of people (5) sitting outside of the Long Draught.  Magnus approaches them and asks what they want.  They have covered themselves with symbols that match what Lucille  was drawing on buildings.  They immediately bow down to her.  She asks what they want and they say they are following her holy writings.   Some of them claimed that she protected them and helped them find food and good fortune.  They ask her to tell them the path. She tells them to help Maverick load the wagon.

Robert quits his job and says F@(k this I’m moving to Montana.

We jump in the wagons and start to Spar City.  We have horses tied to the back of the wagons.  Jimmy is out in front as our scout.  We raise a huge cloud of dust as we ride, moving at super speed.   Thaddeus is snoring in the back of one of the wagons, but Jimmy senses the spirit of Grey Owl speeding us along.   We don’t stop, and soon we the outskirts of Spar City.  We see smashed buildings and fire scars.   We see someone in the road in front of us.

Jimmy rides up to the person.  He sees that it is a kid.  We stop behind Jimmy rides around in front of the kid.  It is the kid, and he is drawing on his sketch pad.  He says this is a bad time.  Jimmy looks at his sketch pad.  The town on the pad shows huge tentacles crushing the buildings.  We feel a sense of unease that is extremely strong.  There is something very wrong with this town.  Maverick asks if there are people in the church.  Lucille detects arcana on the kid.  She can tell that he is slightly magical.  He says that he is not going into the town and starts to walk away.   Thaddeus mounts his own horse and we start moving into the town with Jimmy, followed by the wagons.  We notice that there is no vegetation around the town, and all of the field around it are dead and cracked.  The church is the only thing standing.  We see bones all over the ground.  Some have meat on them but others are bare.  There is no sound but the carrion birds.

Lucille says not to touch the bones, but we can’t stop the horses from stepping on them.  Thaddeus’ horse rears and starts running out of town.  Lucille talks to it and suddenly it turns around and heads back into town.   We get to the church.  Lucille sees the energy coalesce around us and warns us to watch the bones.  Jimmy starts riding around to crunch up more of the bones.  We see recent signs of activity, such as freshly dug graves with crosses on them.

We move up to the church.  Lucille does not detect anything from the graves, but there is a lot of magical energy coalescing in the area. Jimmy tracks around the graves, and sees the tracks go straight back to the church.  Charlotte jumps down and looks at the graves.

Maverick shoots one shot to let anyone on the church know we are here.  There is a sound like a large exhale and we see skeletons pop up around us.  They seem to be made out of many different people and are screaming in pain and rage.  They pick up stick and attack us. Charlotte shoots one with a shotgun and it disintegrates.  We see an orange energy as the skeleton disintegrates.  Jimmy lets out a war cry, WHICH WE HEAR.  He is surprised, but still jumps off his horse and still tomahawks another skeleton.  There is still blood coming out of the skeletons, which is weird.   The skeletons move in.  One swings at Jimmy and misses.  One swings at Charlotte and his arm falls off.  One swings and Thaddeus and connects, and another hits Maverick.   Maverick returns the favor and blows three away.  Thaddeus shoots another in the face.   Lucille is obviously casting a big spell, and 4 zombies pop up out of the graves of the townspeople.

Joker for Maverick.  He mows another three down.   Charlotte blows way one of Lucille’s zombies.  Jimmy cuts down two in front of him.  Magnus blows away the third, and the ground rumbles as the last zombie sinks into the ground.  Lucilles shouts not to kill the last zombies, which are hers.  We ride up to the church and announce ourselves.  After some convincing the doors open and we see a women and man.  They see Lucille’s zombies and shut the door immediately.

Maverick flies up to the steeple (this is new).  The group in the church shoots up at Maverick and misses.   Charlotte talks to them and tries to persuade them, but fails miserably.  Thaddeus also tries to persuade them to come out.  The woman opens the door and  tells everyone inside that we are friends.  Magnus pulls out a bowler hat and convinces them to come out of the church.

They open the doors and 40 people come out.  We load up all of the people on the wagons, plus putting the rest on the extra horses and the backs of ours.  The person we talked to initially is Madame Lorelei, and the guy is Fred Lawson, former proprietor of the General Store in Paradise Falls.   We ask about the town papers, but Lorelei says she hid them under the floorboards of the church and they heard noises under there so they haven’t gone back. Once they arrived at Spar City there were 80 people here and things were OK, but this spring the vegetation started dying off and supplies ran out.  A few weeks ago, there was a large fight in the center of town over who was hogging the remaining resources and the townspeople massacred each other, even the women and children.  The survivors from Paradise Falls barricaded themselves into the church and were spared, but the town was destroyed, and soon after the corpses rose up and attacked them.  They have been hiding in the church ever since.

We load up everyone and escort them out to the edge of town where the weirdness ends.  Then we go back and go into the church.  It smells from all the people living here for weeks, and is extremely dark.

We find the loose floor boards and climb down to a small crawl space.  Maverick and Jimmy crawl down.  Both notice that there are racks of old moldering books, and notice that there are a lot of foot prints around an area where there was obviously a box.  The tracks lead up to a wall behind the box.  The Indian sees nothing, but Maverick finds a secret door.  Two passages lead off, and we follow the right into a large room.  There are catacombs under the church.

As we walk into the room we feel the same rumbling as above.  The lights go out, and a voice says it has heard of us.  It says ‘I  have heard of you, and I thought that you would come. ‘  We see a vision of ourselves in our idealized selves.   We are captivated for a few seconds, and then we see the same orange tentacles rise up and the visions turn to evil.

Corpses start piling out of the walls.  Jimmy runs up to two of them and drops one.   Charlotte blasts another one.  Maverick drops another three.  They attack and miss us all.  Magnus shoots one, and Lucille controls another.    Thaddeus blasts another.

Thaddeus moves quickly and blows away another.   Jimmy drops the last two.  We see the energy drift out of their bodies and go under the wall.  A door is visible.  Charlotte opens the door and sees a hallway.  She charges in……

We see another large room where the light is sucked out of the room and we hear the voice again, but instead of ourselves we see of others being pulled apart by the evil orange tentacles.  They all are affected and then start behaving strangely.  They are all possessed.   One is another woman from town, and Lawrence is also affected.  Off in the distance we see the kid furiously writing and drawing a huge mosaic, which shows each of the people being affected by the tentacles.  The voice says “My brother told me about you, but I will be the one to destroy you… “  As Charlotte turns to look at us, her eyes are orange.

Episode 11 – MILFs-Marms I’d Love to Fancy

We are still in the Hunting Grounds and running away from the scene of the sacrifice.  Jenkins’ spirit is following us.  We see some people to the side of the path, and hear screams, but we heed Grey Owl’s advice and keep moving to the exit.

We finally get back to the gate.  Jenkins’ spirit thanks us for freeing him, but says he cannot leave.  He can answer our questions for a few minutes.  He says that once the mine dried up and after his wife died, strange things started to happen in town.  A group of people said they wanted to leave, led by Lorelei, the madame of the brothel at the Paradise Hotel. Jenkins tried to convince her to stay, but he was also worried about the future.  He gave her the town papers, which was a contract between him and the townspeople to share all of the mine’s wealth.  He put the papers in a strong box, and only his daughter Dolly knew about Lorelei taking it. The group of 60 people left and went south toward Spar City.

A week later he was walking home late at night, and the man with glowing eyes rode Jenkins down.   He didn’t kill him but someohow infected him with a magical curse. After that he sickened and eventually died.  Thaddeus asks what so special about the papers.  Jenkins explains how the town was founded — he came out West in the early 1860s with a land investor from out East named Otto Stauss.  They found silver and started mining, but it took years to get the town growing.  They started the compound in those years and hired miners.  Jenkins’ idea was to share any wealth from the mine with everyone in town, but Stauss was not a fan. The town papers were signed anyway. After the mine didn’t produce for a long period Strauss got tired of waiting and eventually left, but Jenkins and his family stayed. Stauss’s son stayed on but moved to a shack SE of town.  The papers were re-written to remove Stauss as one of the founders. Jenkins kept on and brought in the sheriff, reverend and others.  Then about 1875 they found ghost rock and silver and things started going well.  Then in 1879 his wife died, the mine slowed and dried up, and people started leaving.  More criminals came into town and caused more problems.  Finally he asks us to at least save some of his family if we can’t save the city.

We fall out of the portal into the shore near the pond.  Grey Owl welcomes us back.  We ask about a shack to the SE, and he says he is aware of one.  We thank him and start heading back to town.

On the way back we hear gunfire off the side of the road and up on a low rise.  We go in to investigate, and it appears that a battle is going on between two forces.  Most of the party starts up the hill while Lucille and Thaddeus continue down the road.  Lucille casts a spell and charms one of the men to put down his gun and walk toward her.  Maverick casts speed and the rest of the party moves up the hill.  We see  group of Soapy’s cowboys attacking a group of people dressed in stitched-together clothing, probably drifters. Fossar shovel f***s two of them and Maverick shoots another.  Jimmy throws knives but misses.  The bad guys shoot at the drifters and one falls.  We all move in.

Maverick drops the last two cowboys.  Magnus runs up to the drifter who dropped and dismounts.  Charlotte convinces another one to lower his gun, but that one sees Jimmy and calls out to him.  It is Glenn and the Dust Boys. They greet each other warmly.  Magnus heals the one who was hit.

Maverick searches the bodies and we find $45, and an assortment of rifles, pistols, and shotguns.  Glenn, a big talker, tells us that they roamed through here and they jumped these cowboys.  They almost had them….

Magnus invites the group to come to Paradise Falls, as we have dealt with the criminal element. Glenn says that they also killed a few that they saw fleeing the town. The Dust Boys agree to accompany us back to town, maybe.  They are a little scared of us, especially Magnus’ gadgets and Fossar’s shovel (and missing eyes).  Glenn also tells us that Jimmy was found half mauled to death, and being pursued by some large unnatural creature. He took Jimmy into the Dust Boys group after he recovered, and gave him his name. They leave.

Meanwhile, Lucille reanimates one of the corpses, and it starts piling the other corpses.  The zombie then takes a torch and goes and lays on the pile.  The corpses start burning and we head back to town.

It is now completely dark, and our only light comes from a magic rock Lucille has.  We hear a strange noise from the side of the trail, like something eating to the left of the trail.  Fossar vaults off his horse and runs toward the noise.  He sees a tall obese grotesque humanoid creature that is eating a pile of dead bodies.  The creature moves toward him, but Fossar swings quickly and connects.  The ghoul shakes it off and attacks back but misses.  We all move up on the trail, but can’t see into the dark forest.

Jimmy runs into he trees and throws a lasso over the ghoul, pulling him off his feet.  The ghoul jumps up and bites Fossar, wounding him.  Lucille uses Mind Rider to see where Fossar is and what he’s doing. Fossar swings back and drops the ghoul, spraying gore everywhere.  Lucille rapidly drops mind rider, as that is some disgusting shit.

A moment later, a man with a horse and cart comes out of the darkness, and calls out.  He tells us that his name is Augustus, and he is lost on the trail.  He is coming from Spar City.  Charlotte convinces him to come with us to Paradise Falls.  We finally roll into town well past midnight.  Some people are still awake and cleaning up the town.  Lucille goes to the sheriff’s office and the rest of us head to our saloon.  Maverick and Magnus talk to Augustus, and Magnus intimidates him.  Augustus tells us that he came from the west from Silverton.  When he got to Spar City it had been decimated, and the only building still standing is the church.  There are bones and gore everywhere, so he left in haste.  We all retire for the night.

The next morning Magnus and others go to talk to Rusty.  Lucille, meanwhile, is busy painting meaningless voodoo symbols on all the buildings in town (just for effect). Magnus tells him that we saw his father and he gave us a lead on the papers, and also what we learned from Augustus.

Maverick heads to the compound to talk to Jenkins’ daughter. Her husband Jed answers the door then calls for Dolly.  When Maverick start to tell her he talked to the ghost of her dead father, she closes the door in his face.

Thaddeus asks Augustus for more detail about Spar City.  Augustus says that the church was barricaded and appeared to be fortified.  The rest of the town was destroyed by combat, with claw marks in the destroyed buildings.  He saw horse and wagon tracks in town, along with fresh dead people as well as skeletons.  With Thaddeus’ knowledge, he determines that Augustus is a total fraud snake oil salesman. Thaddeus lets him know that he is on to him, and Augustus makes a hasty departure.  Spar City is 14 miles, or 1/2day  away by horse.

At noon, we head to the town meeting. The posse is all there except for Jimmy, Charlotte and Fossar, and Ollie O’Malley, Robert Ford and Bat Masterson are there too.  Rusty tells us that 15 townspeople died and 5 women were raped.  Ollie’s Bar, the Yellow Canary, The Dancing Club, a hotel, and several homes were destroyed, and many other buildings were damaged.  Currently the Grand Hotel is being used as a triage ward for the injured.  Magnus promises to help heal anyone else who is injured. Robert Ford volunteers to lead the rebuilding effort, along with some miners and the blacksmith, who he says remains neutral and passive about almost everything. He is pretty sure that he can get him engaged.  Bat Masterson says that the supply chain is imperative, so we should find out what happened to the supply depot west of town in Clear Creek.  We tell them about Spar City, and volunteer to go there and save the remaining townspeople (if there are any).  We need to be back in a week, so that then we can work on the supply chain.  Magnus tells them that we saw zombie miners in the mine, and warns them to stay away from there.  He wonders if the missing townspeople could be there instead of Spar City, but they don’t think so — the mine was in operation until last month. Rusty then calls for a vote for Sheriff, and nominates Robert Ford.  The posse tries to convince Lucille to let there be a vote, since she will be leaving town to help with the rescue effort.

Poker Alice and Lawrence walk in and Alice says she should be the sheriff.  We all vote for Robert, except for Lucille, Lawrence, and Charlotte who vote for Alice.  Magnus tries to talk her into staying, but she walks away.  He goes after her and says that she really helped during the siege and that the town needs her. She still grumbles but promises to help protect the town while the posse is gone. Robert takes the badge, and we get ready to head to Spar City early in the morning. Horses for everyone and two wagons are procured to hold the townspeople we are bringing back.

<metagame> Jimmy uses the “Spurred On” card, so our posse’s pace is doubled for one day.

Session 4 – Darkness, Silence, Oil and Caltrops

Hadrian charges through the fire, taking some damage and his armor starts on fire. He swings his sword and wounds several. The others don’t risk running through the fire and take some shots from the other side with arrows and spells.

The men attack Hadrian and wound him into near-unconsciousness. He stumbles back through the fire and heals himself. Brother Gregory lays hands on him as well and he recovers.

Suddenly we are covered in darkness, and it becomes completely silent. Someone has cast silence and darkness spells in this area. We work our way back to the hallway entrance but the darkness goes on for a long way. We finally emerge and reconvene at the end of the hallway. We spike the door behind us and the other one next to us that leads to the gnolls. After an hour of rest, we hear rattling at the door that leads to the gnolls. Later, there is banging on the door we came through. We decide to leave, but leave them a present–we squirt several oilskins worth of oil underneath the door and light it on fire. We hear screaming as we hastily leave.

We spend a day back in town and heal Hadrian up to full at the temple. We re-arm and the magic users re-memorize their spells. Dardenne casts Identify on the armor he recovered after we fought the assassins, and finds that it is +3 magical chain mail. He dons it and the group moves back to the moat house.

We enter the same door we were at before, and all the bodies are still here. At the end of the hall we open a new door and see a nicely appointed room, but there is nothing here. We loot the bodies of the guards and find very standard weapons and armor, but a good amount of gold, silver and some platinum.

We move back down the hall to the gnoll door and open it. There is a long, narrow diagonal hallway here. We do not detect any traps and continue on. At the end there is a turn and another door. Darius opens the door and sees several gnolls here. Dardenne quickly casts a sleep spell on the ones that he sees and several fall asleep. Darius throws an oilskin at the back row as a molotov cocktail and they start on fire. We see behind them several bugbears and an ogre. We slam the door and spike it, then squirt oil underneath the door and light it. We then lay down caltrops and more oil in front of the door and wait.

A short while later, we hear commotion down the hallway behind us and several bugbears are coming up. Mord casts an entangle spell and several of them are completely bound. We move up and take out several of them with arrows, including the ogre. The mage gets away, however, and casts more darkness on us.

After the darkness dissipates, the gnolls in the far room ask to be let go. We wait until the darkness dissipates but the fire and caltrops are still there. As soon as the binding goes away, the gnolls turn and run.

Episode 10 – Magnus Invents the Bug Zapper

Maverick and Magnus notice that Lucille is staring at the gravesite at the funeral.  She is sweating and looks shaken. Maverick asks her what is wrong.  She says she needs a horse, and needs to go to Grey Owl now.

Rusty asks Magnus for help in rebuilding the town.  We will meet with him tomorrow.  He is also talking to Bat Masterson andRobert Ford, not Lawrence.

Lucille tells us that she saw a bunch of visions over the grave site.  First was a floating vision of Soapy and he was talking to someone she couldn’t see.  He was begging not to be punished, but ends up being burned as punishment.  His spirit is destroyed.  Next she sees Edward O’Kelly being reassembled from the parts that we left him in.  He begs for death but is brought back anyway.  Next Jenkins is floating Christ like over his own grave and then gets pulled down by orange tentacles.  Finally she sees a vision of a dragon’s head made of orange fire.  It looks right at her, opens its mouth, and blasts fire at her.  She sees Grey Owl standing between her and the fire, but she sees him burned and fall to the ground.  Here endeth the vision.

We grab some of the newly freed up horses and head out of town.  The town tries to have a meager banquet for the funeral, so we give them the bacon, not a euphemism.   We also see the girl that Maverick gave food to when we first rode in.  She smiles and waves as we ride out.

As we ride through the forest we hear a loud buzzing coming from the trees on both sides of the trail.  We see giant wasps dropping out of the trees.  Magnus casts a wall behind the party, right in front of the wasps.  Most of the party rides on but Maverick slows and turns. 2 of the wasps hit the wall, but one slides around it and attacks Thaddeus.  It hits him, but he is able to recover and gallop away.

Maverick just got two jokers in one deal.  No really.  He shoots the one wasp that made it around the wall.  Really, really shoots it.  Bug goo rains to the ground.  Lucille, Charlotte, and Thaddeus keep riding.  One surviving wasp slides around the wall and attacks Magnus.  It stings him, but does not damage him.  He unloads with the lightning gun and Magnus invents the bug zapper.

We regroup, but more wasps swarm out of the trees, including the extra large queen.  Magnus evaporates one.  Maverick blasts the queen with a bolt, and two shots, but she is still up.  Lucille casts a windstorm that blinds the queen and one other.  Thaddeus blasts the queen with a scattergun and puts her down.  Charlotte blasts another one.  Several of the wasps attack the party, and Charlotte is hit.

Maverick gets another Joker.  No really.  He drops three wasps.  Charlotte ends the last wasp.  Jon hates reshuffling.

We finally get to Grey Owls tepee.  It is really quiet, but we still have the same sense of calm.  Lucille opens the tepee and sees him on the floor.  Thaddeus tries to heal him but he declines.  Lucille heals him.

He explains that we need to help Jenkins, and that Lucille possess all that she needs.  She must enter the hunting grounds, and rescue Jenkins.  The Manitou is trying to turn Jenkins into a dark spirit.  Lucille must find him in the hunting grounds and rescue him.  The sprits there can not be killed but can be dispersed.  We need to find him and remove the tendrils of evil that are penetrating him.

Grey Owl starts the ritual.  While he’s starting, Magnus imbues a device that can be used to cast Smite on mundane weapons, allowing them to damage the spirits.  Grey Owl gets more heated in his ritual, and a tear in reality appears on top of a pond next to his tepee.  We see a strange land and sky beyond.  We jump through the tear, and land roughly in the new world.

There is a starry sky, visible through the haze.  There is a little ambient light, but we can’t tell where it is coming from.  The ground is sandy and rocky.  We hear a constant low level of screaming, but cant tell where that comes from either.   We move forward, but see other creatures try to get back out.  A burst of energy stops them and the vanish into dust.

Lucille stops and casts a spell.  A spirit appears in front of her that takes the form of a bison.  It sniffs her, and then lowers its head.  Lucille asks it where she can find Jenkins.  The buffalo turns, and disappears, but we see glowing buffalo tracks leading off in the distance.  We follow the trail, but off to the sides we see the ground moving.  We make rock markers as we move so we can find the way back.  We hear some screaming that is getting louder.  We crest a ridge and start down the steep rocks on the other side.  Lucille slips and starts to slide, but Magnus quickly teleports her to the bottom of the ridge.  The rest of us climb down after her.

We see a rocky grotto.  Jenkins is laying on a slab in the center, and is surrounded by demons, who are glowing orange.  The demons are dancing around Jenkins, and orange tentacles are invading his body.

Now Lucille gets the Joker.  She casts fear on the group, but it has no affect.  Three of the demons run at the party and attack, and Magnus and Charlotte are wounded.  Magnus casts a wall in front of the demons.  Thaddeus runs towards Jenkins.

Maverick also runs up and drops two of the demons.  Magnus teleports in and grabs Jenkins, but Jenkins can not teleport away with him.  Magnus appears without Jenkins.  Thaddeus runs in and starts cutting tentacles.  He cuts one away, but realizes we need to get 19 more.

The rest of the party moves up.  Charlotte, Magnus, and Maverick all shoot tendrils but nothing happens.  Lucille manages to cut one, but Thaddeus misses.

The party keeps sawing at tentacles and another several snap.  Maverick find and axe and with a might swing snaps several of the tentacles.  He swings again and several more snap.  Thaddeus also cuts a few.  We are now half way through the total.  Lucille also cuts some more.

We keep cutting.  Thaddeus slices a few more.  There are just a few left.  The demons respawn and charge us, but Magnus puts up a wall to keep them back.  Finally Maverick snaps the last tendrils.  We see Jenkins spirit float free.    Several of the demons hit the wall, but the rest move up on us.  One hits Maverick.

Thaddeus tosses a blast potion over the wall and hits two of them.  Magnus evaporates another one with the lightning.  Maverick drops another demon.

We start running towards the hill to escape from the grotto.  Magnus teleports the whole party out of there.  Jenkins spirit follows us away.

Episode 9 – Deal with the Devil, Joker’s Wild

The party goes through the bodies and divides up some loot, including Colt Pacemakers, leather armor, some knives and money.

There is still a lot of shooting and shouting in town, mostly from the west, in the vicinity of city hall.  The party regroups and heads that way.   There are eight guys on the stable and next to the sheriff’s office.   Maverick drops two of the guys on the roof.  Magnus  lights them up with the lightning gun and evaporates the last guy on the roof.  Charlotte runs back to Thaddeus and gets her Colt Dragoon back.  Fossar runs up the wall of the stable and lands on the roof of the stables.  Jimmy moves up.  They throw dynamite back at us and Magnus and Fossar are wounded.  The entire front of the stables is destroyed.  A few more shoot and Magnus drops.  Thaddeus runs up and throws one of his potions which explodes and drops two of guys.

Maverick drops two more of the cowboys.   Thaddeus shoves a potion down Magnus’ throat and Magnus wakes up.  Jimmy runs up and throws his knives and knocks the cowboy back.  Alice and Fossar move up.  The cowboy is shaken and can’t act.  Magnus is pissed, jumps up and evaporates the last cowboy with his lighting gun.

We hear more voices and fighting coming from the theater nearby.  Magnus kicks in the door and we see 5 cowboys fighting several townsfolk.  Maverick just got his third joker in a row, no shit.  He pushes into the room and drops 3 of the cowboys.  We are all very impressed.  Fossar runs in and cuts the head off another cowboy with his shovel.  Jimmy runs in and tomahawks the last cowboy.

Several townsfolk come out including Robert Ford and Bat Masterson and the big Russian guy, and several others townsfolk.  Several of them are wounded, but Lawrence and Thaddeus heal some of the wounded.   The others go through the bodies and find $85, some cheap guns and knives, and bacon.   Also a shotgun and 6 Colt Frontiers.  Magnus heals Fossar.

Things have calmed down in town and people are starting to come out.  Charlotte talks to the townsfolk and persuades them that the sheriff, the reverend, and Soapy were all in cahoots.  Lucille is now the new sheriff.  The townsfolk were trying to stop the cowboys from getting to city hall.  Big Ed was wearing some kind of armor and he and some others took over city hall.

Magnus tries to teleports the party into the mayor’s office but the device fails.  Maverick peeks in the window and sees 5 cowboys and a deputy confronting  Rusty.  Rusty is looking through the papers but says ‘ it is not here’.

Maverick shoots through the window and drops one cowboy and wounds another.  Charlotte shoots but misses.  Magnus throws dynamite in the window and mists two more of the cowboys and creates a new door to city hall.  Fossar and Jimmy jump through the window and drop two other cowboys.  Thaddeus throws in a potion and one of the cowboys falls asleep.  He is dispatched.

Maverick drops the deputy.  We climb into the room and question Rusty.  Charlotte calms him down and has they were demanding papers not he founding of the town.  Big Ed is upstairs with his dad and is still looking for the papers.  He says that they had a big guy with knives and several others.

We charge up the stairs and Fossar runs up the side of the building and in through the window.  We see 4 cowboys and Big Ed, who is threatening and torturing Jenkins.

Jimmy runs-up and tomahawks Ed, and Maverick shoots him.  Ed is wounded but still up.   Big Ed hits Jimmy and wounds him.  Fossar smashes through the window and takes the head off one of the cowboys.  Thaddeus throws a potion and Jimmy and one off the bad guys fall asleep.  Magnus tries to conjure a device and fails.  Charlotte taunts Big Ed’s manhood and he is vulnerable and shaken.

Thaddeus shoots Big Ed but he is not wounded.  Maverick casts three bolts and wounds Big Ed severely.  Jimmy tomahawks BigEd and drops him.  Magnus blasts one of the cowboys and Fossar shovels the other.  Charlotte shoots the last cowboys and drops him.

We hear shots from outside the window and see several other cowboys heading out of town.  We heal Mayor Jenkins, then rifle the bodies.  We find 4 more Colt Frontier pistols and $40.   On Big Ed we find $225 and some steel weave armor with hand blades attached.  Jimmy takes the armor and Fossar takes Jimmy’s old armor.   Total money $350.

We talk to Rusty but he does not know here the towns founding papers are located.  Jenkins is alive but is still crazy and non responsive.  The townsfolk are putting out fires and routing the last of the cowboys.  Rusty had no idea where the founding papers fro the town are, or why they would be important.  We head to the church and Deacon Barton is dead but the reverend is not there.  We have Lucille do mind rider on the knife while the rest search the church.  Charlotte finds a loose floorboard in the reverends office and finds a chest with $1500, gold, and some gems.  It is a small fortune.

We regroup with the townsfolk.  Several bars burned down and some houses were damaged.  Ollie agrees to run our bar and start to figure out how we will run the town without the Sheriff.

Jenkins daughter comes to us later in  the day and lets us know that he passed away from his wounds.  There is a funeral the next day.  Rusty speaks but has a tough time talking.  His sister does not seem to be on the same page as Rustywhen it comes to the town’s Founding Papers.

<metagame> The party used ALL of their bennies this session .  Level up to veteran.  </metagame>

Episode 8 – On the Hotel Roof Click,Click, Click, You can suck my F***** D***

Charlotte is gang walked out and taken behind the hotel.  Charlotte sees Soapy, the Sheriff, and Edward O”Kelly.  Soapy says “I hear you are looking for me.  You picked the wrong town”.  Edward wants to kill Charlotte, but Soapy gestures no.  A bunch of other men go into the hotel and start killing people in the hotel.  The sheriff stays back from Edward.  The sheriff protests and tries to get Soapy to start but Soapy shuts him down.  Soapy says “What would your sister think of this?”

Magnus teleports us out of the basement to behind the hotel.  We engage.  Thaddeus throws a potion that knocks out several of the guards.  Fossar grabs on to the walls of the hotel and climbs up onto the roof.  Who knew he invented parkour?  Jimmy runs up to the corner, but holds on to his precious tomahawk.  Magnus runs up to the corner and teleports next to Charlotte.  He grabs her and teleports her back around of the corner of the hotel.  Maverick deals with the devil and starts running up to the hotel corner.

People inside the hotel start shooting out the windows.  Maverick dodges one bullet and has a hole in his shirt , but another hits Charlotte, but she is unfazed.  Another shoots at Thaddeus but misses.  Soapy runs away like the bitch ass that he is.  The Sheriff shoots at us  and hits Jimmy.  Jimmy is wounded.  Thaddeus is hit but takes a sip from a flask in his coat and is fine.  (It does work!)  Lucille casts Fear Loas and the Sheriff and several of the henchman panic.  The one henchman runs away and the sheriff is shaken.

Thaddeus throws another potion that explodes and kills one henchman and wounds the Sheriff.  Charlotte hides between the windows of the hotel.  Jimmy splits one of the gunman in half and throws his other tomahawk at the sheriff, who takes it in the forehead and dies.  Lucille runs over to Charlotte and touches her shirt.  She sees Soapy in the hotel.  Fossar  shovels one of the guys on the roof and then throws his shovel at the other one but misses.  Maverick blows away one guy in the hotel.  The other ones are shaken but recover.  They shoot back and wound Maverick.   Magnus runs up to the last standing henchman outside and wastes him.

Thaddeus and Maverick take out another two guys in the hotel.  Fossar takes other hit from the last guy on the roof, meanwhile the one henchman is still asleep.  Maverick gets hit again but shakes it off.  Fossar runes, slides, and gets his shovel, then hits the last guy on the roof, knocking him silly.  Jimmy ends the sleeping guy by turning him into hamburger.  Lucille picks Charlottes cuffs and she is free.  Charlotte then hits the last guy in the hotel who drops.  Magnus heals Jimmy.

Charlotte shoots at the last guy in the hotel and misses.  Lucille heals Maverick.  Fossar swings at the last guy on the roof and misses.  Thaddeus drops the last guy in the hotel.  Magnus heals Jimmy, who then dives through the hotel windows and comes up in one of the rooms.  Two cowboys are raping a woman.  One takes a tomahawk in the face.  Those cowboys try to respond.  One takes a swing and shakes him.  Maverick vaults into the hotel and sees two cowboys behind the desk, who drop with severe lead poisoning.

Charlotte follows Maverick through the window.  Magnus drops one of the cowboys in the room .   Fossar finally kills the last guy on the roof and busts through a window on the second floor.  Maverick busts into another room and shoots one guy while the other looks surprised.  He wings Maverick.  The rapist shoots at Jimmy and misses, so Jimmy ends him and castrates him.   Lucille takes the sheriffs badge and hat.

Edward O’Kelly walks out of one of the upstairs rooms and runs at Fossar.  As Edward runs up, Fossar uses his shovel to greet his face, but Edward does not take damage.  Edward does stick Fossar with his knives.  Maverick kills the last cowboy in his room.  Jimmy in his rag kills the woman in the room.  Thaddeus runs upstairs and shoots Edward, followed by Charlotte.

Thaddeus drills Edward again.  Edward turn and runs to Charlotte and knifes her.  She is shaken.  Soapy jumps out a window on the second floor and lands clumsily.  Lucille casts an entangle on him but he escapes.  MAverick busts out a window and shoots him.  Magnus teleports in and hits him with a shotgun, then teleports out again.  Charlotte shoots Edward at close range.  Jimmy runs up to the stairs.

Magus leans out a window and shoots Soapy in the street.  Lucille casts again and entangles Soapy in the street.  Jimmy runs upstairs and tomahawks Edward to death.   Thaddeus leans out the window and shoots Soapy.    Fossar wakes up and smashes Edwards corpse with his shovel.   Maverick leans out the window and drops Soapy in the street.

That ends the combat.  Thaddeus and Lucille heal Fossar, and others search Soapy .  We start clearing he hotel.  As we clean up we see Lawrence shooting some people, and we see another woman, Poker Alice, who is shooting at others.  They are killing other cowboys near the general store.  Lucille looks at Edward and determines he was a Harrowde, undead.  Maverick takes Soapy’s Peacemaker pistols and $600. Plus a really nice Bowie knife and a pocket watch.   Jimmy picks up Edwards knives.  Lucille takes the sheriffs badge.

Magnus and Charlotte run over and help Lawrence and Poker Alice.  They eliminate the remaining cowboys.  It looks like the remaining cowboys are at the town hall.

Session 3 – My Friend the Bugbear

Met a new PC – Paul’s Ranger Elf – Elauthin Torgil

We enlist a former family to run the Merchant Post.

While searching the ruined moat house, we are attacked by giant ticks, lizards, and rat swarms.

We found a camp of previous raiders in Room #7. Can be bolted on the inside.

We camped, and were attacked by bugbears through. Hole in the outer wall of room 7.

We befriend a bugbear who is paid by the master, whose name is “Lareth the Beautiful,” a disciple of Lloth. 8+ gnolls are in the tribe. The master hired an ogre — they all stay away from the undead crypts.

The bugbear draws a crude map of the outpost for us.

The bugbear takes us to an entrance to the tomb that takes us right to the master. He gets the door open and we all pile into a narrow hallway. We fight nearly a dozen soldiers armed with hand weapons and crossbows. Our bugbear friend dies in the conflict.

Filarion throws a keg of oil into the group and burns several down. A second wave comes at us from the other side of the fire.