The First Episode

Technically the first episode of The Black Dice Society was not episode 1. The debut Episode - Session .5, The House of Lament, aired live from GaryCon Gaxmoor 2021. It is untitled.

**Act I.**

Our story begins with each of our heroes arriving alone at a wooded crossroads in the dark. Through the rain, they see a hooded figure in the distance. It looks at them with  piercing yellow eyes before spreading huge black wings they had mistaken for a cloak and leaping into the air, disappearing.

The mist retracts, revealing the six strangers to one another. Valentine, a beautiful red-haired, half elf who is very overdressed for such a place, sees Tatyana looking for her, and connects to her bodyguard telepathically. She reassures Tatyana, a 6’5” air genasi with white hair, blue skin and rippling muscles, that she is safe. Valentine and Tatyana step forward together to meet the others. They recognize Desmond, a human who wears a wolf’s tooth necklace and carries swords and a bow. He recognizes Valentine and Tatyana in turn, but not the other three at the crossroads.

Brother Uriah, a tall, thin, nervous-looking human wearing a heavy coat and armor, recognizes no one, but Fen seems oddly familiar to him. Fen is a tall elf with greyish-purple skin and white locs with purple tips that match her eyes. As she brandishes her longsword, Fen’s smile shows a hint of fangs. Uriah asks if he’s still in Darkon, that he was on his way to Il Aluk, and Fen tells him they are not. Valentine interrupts, wanting to know where they are, and all six of them begin to examine their surroundings. Valentine and Uriah discover a pile of large black feathers and a planchette where the cloaked figure had been standing. She picks up the planchette, and they wonder about the cloaked figure’s intentions.

While the others discuss, Tatyana and Nahara, an aasimar with long, curly black hair and feathered black wings dressed in red and gold armor, have a vision. In their vision, a woman in armor urges her exhausted knights to charge a castle in the distance, shouting of traitors. When their vision ends, the Mists part and all of the strangers can see a light in the distance.

As more of the strangers introduce themselves to the group, Nahara examines the large black feathers that the cloaked figure left behind, noting that there are six, one for each of them. She can tell the feathers are more like her feathers than those of a bird. Each member of the party takes one of the feathers. Upon picking theirs up, the feathers make Uriah feel safe and Fen gets the feeling that the creature was friendly toward them.

Valentine is about to put the planchette back where she found it, but a mysterious voice speaks in her mind: “Keep it , child.” So she decides to keep it.

Resolving that not much could be more dangerous than standing out here in the Mists, the party is about to walk toward the light when Nahara says, “Just for my own peace of mind, you’re all not dead, are you?” At this, Brother Uriah raises his Eyes of the Grave, which show him that not just Nahara, but Valentine and Fen also register as undead-adjacent. He begins to panic while Fen, Valentine, Nahara, and Desmond look on in amusement.

And it’s not just the dubious nature of these strangers that causes Uriah anxiety. The place he currently finds himself feels bad to him, and that’s in comparison to Darkon, which is one of the most infamous Dread Domains. As he struggles with all of this new information, the Mists part to reveal a manor house attached to a black tower that is all that remains of an ancient fortress.

Tatyana recognizes the tower from her vision of the fortress, and says that the knights must have lost if this is all that remains. Fen and Desmond continue to tease Uriah’s frayed nerves, causing him to fidget with his holy water. As the group moves toward the house, Desmond takes rear guard while Tatyana takes point with Uriah following close behind, as she promised to protect him when she introduced herself.

**Act II.**

Outside the house, they meet Laurie and Jennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove, published monster hunters whom Uriah recognizes from having read their book. Jennifer (the science twin) is excited to meet a fan of her work, and chats with Uriah while Tatyana bonds with Laurie (the stronk twin) and helps carry the twins’ heavy equipment into the house.

Jennifer reveals that the party has arrived in Borca, just outside of Sturben, and Uriah realizes he must have been plucked up by the Mists to have come so far from Il Aluk. Fen also realizes she has been taken far away from where she just was (domain not named because spoilers).

Hearing that the twins are famed monster hunters, Nahara becomes nervous and Desmond aloof. Noting his reaction, Jennifer begins to question Desmond, becoming increasingly more suspicious, until she withdraws a vial of green liquid and drinks some of it. She says she would like to question Desmond further at another time, and Desmond tells her he’s ready whenever she is. But Jennifer seems hesitant to continue their conversation in front of witnesses.

Absolutely witnessing all of this, Valentine asks Desmond telepathically what that exchange was about. Desmond is not sure who’s talking to him and is hesitant to answer at first, but finally reveals that he believes it has something to do with a curse he picked up a while back. Valentine says that’s fascinating and breaks the telepathic link without revealing that it was she speaking to him.

Once everyone is in the parlour, Jennifer reveals that the house is famously haunted, and that she and her sister have come to cleanse it. Seeing a spirit board laid out, Uriah mentions that they found a planchette on the way here. Jennifer remarks on the coincidence, and that she recently misplaced hers. Confidentially, Uriah tells her that he’s not sure about the rest of his party. Jennifer shares that one of them may become a problem later (hinting to Desmond) and takes another swig of her green liquid.

Brother Uriah offers to contribute the blessing of Ezra to the seance, and Jennifer notes that the lady of the house, who mysteriously disappeared some time ago, was a devout follower of Ezra. Tatyana ruffles Nahara’s feathers by warning the twins that any spirits they can contact are weak because they could not find fulfillment in life and pass on. Jennifer tells her they should pity the dead, who do not move on for all sorts of reasons that are not under their control; a statement which both Valentine and Nahara take deep offense to, as does the house, which creaks and groans as the storm intensifies outside.

After a moment of feeling unsettled, Jennifer asks the party which of three spirits they would like to contact in the seance: The Knight, the Mother, or the Warlord. There is some discussion but the majority of those present choose the warlord (Laurie and Tatyana both want to fight him).

Jennifer asks for the planchette the party found, but Valentine minor illusions one as a test, to see if the one Jennifer lost looks like the one they found. Ultimately they find out it does not, and Valentine gives in and donates the found planchette to the seance.

Meanwhile, Nahara is examining the portraits around the room and notices many of them have cloaked figures in the background with glowing yellow eyes. Also, all of the subjects in the portraits are human and wear a symbol she does not recognize. She points this out to Fen, who does an arcana check that reveals those depicted in the portraits would be allies to them. Fen also tries to identify the green liquid Jennifer keeps drinking. She catches the scent of wolfsbane, and resolves to warn Desmond when the opportunity arises.

Valentine volunteers to help Jennifer move the planchette. Once the candles around the room are lit, the seance begins, and Jennifer invites the warlord to contact them. The candle flames flare up and the planchette begins to move; Valentine is fairly certain it’s not being moved by a parlour trick.

As Valentine asks the spirit who they are, the show goes to break…

**Act III.**

Instead of identifying itself, the spirit uses the board to spell out “H-E-L-P Y-O-U.” When Valentine points out that’s not a name, the planchette moves to the sword symbol on the board. The porch creaks and groans loudly, audible in the parlour, and the planchette spells out “U-N-D-E-R-N-E-A-T-H.”

As the party argues about what the spirit means by this, Uriah guesses that it means underneath the porch. The planchette moves to “YES”. There is a discussion about who will go out to investigate. The twins don’t trust the party. The party doesn’t trust the twins. Impatient, the planchette moves to the sword symbol again, and Jennifer urges them to check the porch quickly, because she’s not sure how much longer the spirit will stay.

**Act IV.**

Annoyed that they lost the battle over who will go and who will stay, Valentine minor illusions a loud clap of thunder, attempting to frighten the twins. Instead, it frightens Uriah. Jennifer says it’s droll to play pranks at a time like this.

Out on the porch, there seems no obvious way to get underneath it. After getting permission to smash, Tatyana simply attacks the porch with with her weapon, showing off with a loud battle cry, which earns her an extra d6 of damage, which is enough to smash a hole in the porch. Uriah produces a vampire hunting kit from his velise and casts light on one of the stakes, disturbing something down below. Nahara fires an Eldritch Blast through the hole in the porch, throwing the party into initiative as the house groans and a swarm of all manner of bugs pours out of the hole and every crevice of the porch. Uriah screams and casts Sacred Flame, missing most of the bugs and doing very little damage.

Nahara casts her red Eldritch Blast at the swarm again, followed by Valentine, who casts Arms of Hadar, her eyes going a milky white as she casts, killing half the swarm with alien tendrils. Tatyana rips her skirt to make a mask so that the bugs can’t crawl into her mouth, then swings her kukri at the swarm, doing further damage to the porch. The bugs that aren’t killed climb up the blade toward her hand, and she smacks her kukri against the rail to try to knock them off.

Desmond wraps some rope around an arrow and lights it before shooting it into the porch, which begins to catch fire for a moment before the flames mysteriously go out. The house groans and the front door slams shut behind them. Fen backs away from the swarm, baring her fangs and hissing like a cat.

The swarm rises up like a wave and crashes over Nahara. Seeing her in danger, Uriah grasps his holy symbol and orders the swarm back, casting Toll the Dead. Out in the darkness a bell echoes, killing all of the bugs except those on Nahara. Then she casts the same spell, killing the last of the swarm.

While Uriah attends to the red welts popping up all over Nahara’s skin, Tatyana feels drawn to whatever is under the porch and crawls through the hole, casting Levitate so that she doesn’t have to touch the ground beneath. She finds a grave-sized rectangle and begins to dig. Seeing what Tatyana is doing, Nahara climbs in to help her dig until they unearth a bronze battleaxe in perfect condition.

Tatyana is entranced with it, feeling it will make her stronger and that it wants to help her. She climbs back onto the porch and quickly attunes to her new weapon. The party disagrees about whether this is a good or a bad thing. Uriah is worried the axe might be cursed, and Valentine wonders whether the axe is having a strange effect on her friend.

**Act V.**

While they’re discussing whether or not to tell the twins about the axe, Tatyana strongarms the door open, and they walk into the house again, which feels different. The giant statue in the foyer cracks, and a peryton hatches out of it and attacks. Valentine misses it with a Mind Sliver, but Tatyana lays into it with her axe. Desmond’s double sword attack does less damage than it should. When Fen attacks after casting Blood Curse of the Marked, she crits, cutting the monster in half.

Surprisingly, Tatyana takes this as an affront and turns on Fen with her new axe. As it glows, Tatyana seems to go into a supernatural rage. Valentine tries to Charm her out of it in vain, as Uriah and Fen both realize the axe is cursed, and Tatyana will continue to attack until she can no longer see anyone close by. Uriah calls out to the others to “bind her sight” and attempts to cast Light on Tatyana’s eyes, but fails to blind her.

Valentine rips down some nearby curtains and throws them over Tatyana’s head, trying to blindfold her, but Tatyana throws them off. A voice from beyond calls out that she will kill all of them for him before the party even reaches him.

Nahara casts Arms of Hadar on herself and takes on her Form of Dread: her eyes become a haze of black smoke and her flesh becomes undeathly pale as her wings turn spectral and skeletal. Uncertain of whom to attack first, Tatyana goes into a rage and charges Nahara. But the darkness of the spell moves to intercept, rebuffing Tatyana.

Desmond’s features begin to shift into something more wolfen, and he tells Uriah he was right to fear Desmond while gleefully attempting to grapple Tatyana. Beyond the foyer, Jennifer calls out to her sister that she knew Desmond was a lycanthrope. But even semi-transformed, he is unable to push Tatyana back. Desmond laughs, eager for the challenge, saying this will be fun.

While Tatyana is distracted, Fen jumps on her back and covers her eyes with her hands, succeeding with a crit. Tatyana’s rage begins to dissipate as soon as her eyes are covered, and the same voice from beyond says he’s disappointed. A nearby door is kicked open and the undead warlord himself (the source of the voice) emerges, saying Tatyana is not worthy of the axe. As he attacks her, Fen lets go so that Tatyana can fight back.

On Uriah’s turn, a mysterious voice advises him to call for help, and he does so after casting Guiding Bolt on the warlord, withdrawing his feather to do so. With a terrible scream, the knight from Nahara’s and Tatyana’s vision appears before them, undead now, and begins to fight the warlord. The entire party assists as the two armored undead, who were mortal enemies in life, battle and taunt one another.

Fen sinks her fangs into the warlord, immediately regretting her choice as her mouth is filled with undead flesh and ichor. A silence fills her mind, and many voices whisper to her, asking if she’s lost, if she’d like to go home. She turns down their offer, and the voices are amused at her belief that she has a choice.

Just then, Jennifer and Laurie burst out of the study, shouting that the party shouldn’t be here yet, that they have to come rescue the monster hunters later.

Everyone in the party is overcome by silence and darkness.

**Epilogue:**

Desmond is awakened from a deep sleep by his younger brother, who insists Desmond wake up and bathe to get ready for his brother’s wedding. As the morning bells ring out in Faerûn in the kingdom of Koshmar, B. Dave tells us it is a good place for us to stop.

**Next Episode:** 1 - The Hunt for the Raven Crown

Back to Summaries

**TL;DR:**

Six strangers meet at a deserted crossroads in the Mists. They come upon Halvrest House and join the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins, famous monster hunters, in a seance to contact the restless spirits of the house. The warlord spirit directs them to a cursed axe under the porch, which obsesses the party’s barbarian, making her attack her companions. When they disarm her, the undead warlord himself appears to attack the party, who call upon the knight, his ancient foe, to fight him.

As the seven of them battle against the warlord, they are transported away by mysterious forces as the twins call out to them for rescue.

**Notables this episode:**

Full descriptions of all of our PCs, including Nahara’s form of dread

The only time B. Dave mentions specifically that the story pushes up against one of the player's lines: bug horror, giving the audience and the players a content warning beforehand.

**Firsts:**

Domain of Dread - The House of Lament

Nahara takes on her form of dread

Desmond begins to transform into his wolfen form

Fen uses her Vampiric Bite attack

Brother Uriah rushes to Nahara’s aid

**Crit Count:** 8 successes, 3 failures (if you count B. Dave’s)

**Memorable lines:**

(Semi-above table) Saige/Valentine: The thing told us “underneath…help you,” and we attacked it. Spicy.

Noura/Nahara: …My heart was in the right place.

**Next up:** Episode 1: The Hunt for the Raven Crown

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