The Weathered Slab
| The Weathered Slab | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2024-01-23 |
| Storyteller | Indi |
| Tier | Trainee, Medium |
| Player Characters | Bonko, Boophis, Mutt, Pomba, Taru, Victoria, Vliegen |
| Rewards | 300xp, Holy Waterx5, Dread Ampoule (Moderate)x3, Weapon Potency +1 Runestonex2, Antidote (Lesser)x2, Antiplague (Lesser)x2, Soothing Tonic (Lesser), Grim Ring, Gold necklace with peridots, 50gp |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Unseelie |
| Downtime | 0 days |
Associates explore the use of a magic slab for training purposes. They survive, but barely.
Log
Much of the log is crossed out, as Taru apparently reworded sentences or sometimes even rewrote entire sections of text. Notes on how specific phrasings and topics might move audiences in certain ways are in the margins and were seemingly crossed out as an afterthought. The formalities necessary for a log are squeezed into a corner of the paper.
There were seven of us: Mutt and Pomba, stalwart, strong and always taking point; Vliegen, felling enemies by the dozens with his devastating wind blades; Boophis the wise, supporting us all from the back; Bonko, ever cheerful; myself, of course, fighting with them and bolstering them where I could. And finally one other, but their tale is one of merciless cruelty, not fit for an evening like this. No, today's tale is one of trials taken, succeeded and failed. Of what seemed humorous turning into grave danger. Of triumph in the face of certain death, thanks to the bravery of one man.
As you may have heard, we were to investigate a stone slab summoning hordes of undead if moved. Our journey took us to a small island, the village and castle on it long deserted. We discovered the latter had been resettled in time by the most strange inhabitants. They had added a makeshift forge, including what some of the others called a 'casting couch', cranberry juice had been spilled everywhere, and, inexplicably, several medical training skeletons were lying around. However, these later settlers were also long gone by the time we arrived.
The slab itself was easy enough to find, it rested on a pedestal, prominently placed at the end of a long hall deep within the castle. At this point it still seemed like an easy, at times even outright humorous mission—the slab depicted a caricature of an undead next to something resembling a wind instrument, and while when Pomba took it from its place an ominous voice intoned "return the slaaab!", this was followed up by an attack of undead rabbits of all things. Vicious, certainly, but the only thing remotely threatening about them was their odour.
Things became a bit more serious once we dispatched them. Skeletal warriors swarmed in from the rooms we crossed earlier, armed and armoured, but these too we fought through without much issue. Behind them, though, the true challenge awaited. Not only a stronger skeleton, guiding its brethren with music played on its own ribs, but also a truly gigantic mass of zombies, slowly making their way in our direction. And over all this, those of us who understood the language of the dead could hear the summons for even further and stronger opponents!
Never deterred by a challenge, Pomba and Mutt charged in, quickly dispatching the leader of the skeletons. This alone did not deter their advances. As all of us worked together to destroy the horde of zombies before us, more and more skeletal archers took position outside the windows, peppering us with arrows. All the while Bonko, guided by his fearless curiosity, led two haunted straw dolls on a merry chase, preventing their cursed giggles from affecting us for most of the fight.
When we at last had destroyed all of the zombies, my own sword slaying the last, the next foes were already upon us. Ghouls advanced on Pomba, attempting to take the slab from him, though guarded by Mutt as he was, they stood no chance. And from another door more and more disembodied hands swarmed over us, only held at bay by Vliegen's command of the winds. Their source was soon revealed: Not bodies they were removed from as one would think, but one bigger hand, as large as a person, disgorging them from its own rotting stump.
Slowly we were being overwhelmed. First Vliegen was brought down by a well placed arrow, and while I managed to heal him quickly, he was soon followed by Boophis. As if that wasn't enough, even stronger creatures joined them! A massive undead, towering far above us, blocked our way back to the slab, and in front of us shadowy creatures appeared, slicing through our very life-force with their tentacles. I can personally attest to the pain the latter can cause.
Then, finally, as we were fighting back to back, ready to take our last stand, Pomba took all of our fates in his hands. Braving the attacks of the hulking monstrosity before us, with only Mutt protecting him as the rest of us held off the other undead swarming our position, he daringly danced between its legs and charged back to the pedestal where it all began. With Vliegen fallen as he held off half a dozen hands at once, and the shadows winding up to end all of us, Pomba thrust the slab back to its place and all the undead returned to dust.
Now you may think, what fools we are! Why even disturb the slab?
But you see, it has a noble purpose! Each enemy slain, and there were many we brought down, takes from the power of an ancient, imprisoned evil.
A note is attached to the sheet, just as hastily scribbled as the formal details.
Slab currently powered by some sort of lich, power source can likely be changed?
The slab counted our progress with tally marks and rewards appeared at the pedestal over time.