Outfoxed

Goro, Larkin, Raef, Roddy, Sugar, and new recruit Edith were sent to clear out the tomb of a Golden Age trickster called Volpae, located deep in an ancient cemetery forest. Outside the tomb, they encountered Ombre, an enchanted six-tailed fox claiming to be the old trickster’s pet -- and after they debated the merits of poking her with a stick, she gamely went along with their graverobbing.

The gang glazed over the trickster’s museum to his own vanity (although Roddy immediately stole his trademark mask, preserved behind glass), and quickly moved on to the trials waiting deeper in the tomb. Larkin answered a riddle, and through teamwork they made it past a couple of Volpae-centric quizzes, during which they learned that Ombre could help them if they asked her to, but it would cost her a tail each time. They quickly decided they could figure things out on their own.

Everyone but Sugar was deeply, constantly suspicious of traps and tricks at every step along the way, with their suspicions only growing each time they did well and everything went as planned. Also, Roddy stole some more merch.

They played a shell game against a silver construct that Roddy caught cheating, then moved on to a large room that presented them with a blackboard on which to play hangman. After four incorrect answers, a real gallows appeared in the room and had to be pacified with a sacrifice before the game could continue.

Sugar cheerily obliged.

Luckily, Raef and Roddy made several key guesses before things could get any worse for Sugar, and the puzzle was solved without anyone losing their head.

After this they progressed to the final room: Volpae’s actual burial chamber, where his fox-styled sarcophagus waited in the center of the room, and six less-ornate tombs lined the back wall. Once they were inside, those tombs cracked open and six fox-mask wearing skeletons shambled out and started towards them, arms outstretched.

Our heroes leapt into action, easily dispatching most of the skeletons. Unfortunately, the tombs opened up again and more undead poured out. After a bit of a false start, Goro was able to pacify most of these skeletons, buying the gang time to confer over what they should do about this never-ending skeleton problem.

“What if we blow up the tombs?” Larkin suggested, surprising no one.

And so they did: everyone ran back into the previous room while Larkin used her last two sticks of dynamite to try to blow up anything and everything she could. When the dust settled, however, everything was still in place. They took the moment before the tombs cracked open again to hastily investigate the room, and Edith’s gut told her that there was some solution to be found here that involved the skeletons. She’d noticed that they were unarmed and moved quite slowly. Maybe they weren’t actually hostile -- maybe they could be communicated with.

Remembering the mask that Roddy had stolen back in the museum, Goro and Sugar worked together like a well-oiled machine to steal it from him, and Sugar put it on to try to talk to the skeletons. When they emerged from their graves again, the one nearest to her simply patted her cheeks and took off its own mask to give to her. After fulfilling their quests with everyone else, the other skeletons climbed back into their tombs to continue their dirt naps.

From behind the gang, Ombre said, “Wow, good job, guys. You sure did kill some skeletons. So, you ready to meet Volpae?”

And so Ombre revealed her true form -- she had been the trickster all along. Back in the day she’d been known as Volpae, but at some point she’d gotten bored of the whole thing and decided to set up this dungeon to entertain enterprising adventurers.

Sugar raised her hand and asked, “Hey, um, quick question, with the gallows thing -- what would’ve happened if we’d lost?”

Ombre brushed this off, claiming she wouldn’t have been hurt. Everyone was still very suspicious. She was, after all, an admitted trickster.

The rewards Ombre offered for completing her dungeon helped to soften the blow, however. She gave each of our heroes a magical item suited to them, and a small bag of gold apiece. This wasn’t enough for Goro, though. He offered the trickster a place in the Graverunner’s Guild … if she would pay the exorbitantly high joining fee. It was Ombre’s turn to be suspicious, but Goro committed to the grift, and soon they were headed back to Skyport with her in tow.

Goro rushed into Ripley’s office ahead of the others, trying to quietly signal for her to go along with whatever nonsense he was bringing to her.

“Goro, we’ve fucking been through this,” she said.

After a moment, Ombre was clued into what was going on and patted Goro’s shoulder, respecting the attempted scam. Our heroes filed out of the room for Ripley to interview Ombre, and she ended up joining the guild as a spy and scout.

(Later, everyone compared how much gold they'd been given. Goro was outraged to find out he'd gotten less than Sugar and Roddy. Somewhere, Ombre had a really good laugh over it.)