Haunted Hollow

In the Tavern, by Tomopteris

"**Haunted Hollow**" (1x03) is the 3rd episode of *Dun-Johns & Dragons*.

## **Synopsis**

### **Previously on *Dun-Johns and Dragons***

In the previous episode, the party defeated two giant scorpions that were in the cave bears' lair. They also found a magical pool of acid in the cave, of which Dugluss took a sample for later examination. Taking whatever useful bits they could harvest from the bears and scorpions, they returned to Westerhaven to collect their reward and sell what they could. While there, Zander spotted someone fleeing from a dilapidated house in terror. Zander caught him and upon questioning, he said that he was a thief and something evil was in the house before escaping again. The party decided to investigate the house.

### **Part I**

As the party approaches the house, the day seems to grow a bit darker. Zander tries to sneak in through the window the thief climbed out of, but knocks over several items quite noisily. Magpie follows, but Stone and Father Buckitt have less care for stealth; Stone uses Father Buckitt as a battering ram and breaks in the front door. They find themselves in a sparsely furnished room, unnaturally dim and covered in a thick layer of dust. As they move through the room, they hear a strange whispering echoing all around them. Father Buckitt uses Divine Sense, but detects nothing. Magpie casts Thaumaturgy and yells, “Is anybody there?” but gets no response. Yoolna investigates a grandfather clock standing in the front room; in the bottom, below the pendulum, she spots some kind of spying device involving a mirror, and a pair of eyes watching them before disappearing. They hear the whispering voice, much clearer now, saying “Leave! Leave!” and then *“Die!”* A black specter wreathed in darkness and purple smoke descends from the ceiling and the party rolls initiative.

Several party members try to attack the specter, but nothing seems to have any effect. Magpie pulls out a magic wand and casts Fireball, to her apparent surprise; it doesn’t seem to affect the specter, but does significant collateral damage to everyone but Stone (including herself). It also sets the clock on fire. (Stone quickly steps in and casts Cure Wounds on Zander, who is looking particularly singed.) The specter continues to float around, but does no damage and shows no effect from any of their attacks; finally, Dugluss casts Detect Magic and learns that it’s an illusion.

The specter continues floating around whispering *“Die! Die! Die!”*, but after realizing what’s going on, the party mostly ignores it. They focus their investigative efforts on the clock; Zander smashes the mirror Yoolna spotted in the bottom, but they can’t find much else unusual about it. Father Buckitt decides to destroy it; it takes several increasingly comical attempts for him to actually land a hit, but he eventually smashes it to smithereens with his hammer, though this still doesn’t seem to have much of an effect.

Yoolna discovers a trapdoor in the next room and the party descends. At the bottom of the stairs, a small corridor doubles back behind them, and a slightly larger one goes on ahead. At the end of the small corridor, they find a tiny room beneath where the clock had been in the room above; it contains a stool and lots of broken clock and mirror bits, as well as a worn-looking copy of a book called *Trysts and Trolls* by T.S. Ballsworth, which Zander pockets. As the others slowly back down the cramped corridor, he runs ahead to show it to Magpie, who recognizes the author’s name but pretends not to. He reads a passage out loud and she silently mouths along, clearly knowing every word by heart.

They carry on down the larger corridor, and after some twists and turns, see torchlight coming from a large room at the end of the hall. Zander casts Invisibility on himself and walks into the room.

### **BREAK**

The break starts at 1:44:35, ends at 1:58:18

### **Part II**

Zander, invisible, investigates the room. It’s full of tables and chairs, and a lone tiefling with purple skin, dark hair, and black eyes sits at a table in the middle, rolling a coin back and forth on her fingers. From the shadows along the edge of the room, he hears faint whispering; he finds at least one cloaked figure armed with a crossbow on each side, but can’t tell how many more there may be hidden in the darkness. Back in the hallway, he fills in the rest of the party; they decide to have him post up next to one of the crossbowmen, ready to make a surprise attack if hostilities break out; then, while Yoolna and Magpie hang back in the hallway, Stone and the dwarves casually walk in. With their dark vision, they can see all the way to the edge of the room, and can see the thirty or so cloaked figures in the shadows, all armed with crossbows. The tiefling sitting at the middle table invites them to join her for a drink and asks where their friends are.

She introduces herself as Makaria Quest, and says they have stumbled upon a drinking establishment belonging to The Penumbra. She orders them to explain themselves, and then she will decide whether or not they can live. She also says if the rest of the party doesn’t want crossbow bolts in their necks, they should show themselves immediately. Magpie and Yoolna come edging out of the corridor, and Zander walks up to her, still invisible, intending to to shake her hand, but she reaches out to shake his first, before he reveals himself. At the sight of another tiefling, Magpie hangs back, partially behind Yoolna. Makaria asks how they came across the establishment, and Zander explains how he saw the terrified person fleeing from the house, at which point said person appears in the doorway behind them, casually tossing a dagger into the air, and says, “I told you you should’ve run!” Makaria, addressing him as Finnick Mulder, tells him off for leaving in such an obvious manner.

Zander, acknowledging their being clearly outnumbered, asks what they need to do to leave alive. Makaria says she needs some expendable people to go explore a dungeon formerly inhabited by an arcanist and bring back the treasures contained therein. If they are successful, she will pay them fairly and decide whether or not she can trust them; she mentions the trust of The Penumbra can be a very beneficial thing to have. Stone isn’t entirely convinced, and makes some bluster about how much damage they did upstairs, and how much trouble they could cause if they wanted to, but Makaria says they don’t concern themselves with defending the upstairs. She introduces a gnome named Milton, the resident arcanist, who was the person watching from the bottom of the clock and who cast the specter.

She gives them a map with the location of the dungeon and orders them to bring back everything they find or else. Magpie edges forward and drops the jewelry from her scarf onto the table in front of Makaria, saying, “That’s to pay for repairs,” then darts back behind Yoolna. Makaria grumbles, “I don’t need your trinkets,” while at the same time scooping them into her pockets. Zander compliments Milton on the specter; Milton thanks him and asks if he found his book; Zander says he hasn’t seen it.

They retire to a nearby pub called the Maiden’s Cellar on Father Buckitt’s recommendation and discuss their plans. Zander snags a table and spreads out the map while Buckitt orders drinks from the barman, Dierro. He also gets a parsnip for Zander. Zander gives a bit to Carrot, who also asks for a taste of the beer, Zander obliges by dunking the sword into his drink. Noticing the others’ odd looks, Zander takes the opportunity to introduce them to Carrot and tell them a little bit about himself. He explains that he is “cursed, in a sense” — he’s sold his soul to some kind of being, which he doesn’t know much about, but which possesses his sword. He shows them Carrot, with which Dugluss is immediately fascinated; he examines it from a craftsman’s point of view [Dave messages Trelawney the results, so we don’t know what he found]. Yoolna also uses her pendant to cast Detect Thoughts on Carrot, but can’t seem to find an entity to latch onto. Dugluss is slightly concerned for Zander’s sanity, but doesn’t say anything.

Zander says that in the past, some people have called him evil, which brought him great sorrow, but he wouldn’t call himself evil, and he doesn’t get the sense that this being is exactly evil, either; it mainly just seems to *really* like vegetables. Father Buckitt says, “We may have only known each other a short time, but already you’ve proven yourself a worthy ally who I would trust with my life.” As a cleric, Stone is uncomfortable with someone selling their soul, but acknowledges that desperation can sometimes drive people to extremes. Zander appreciates their understanding; he says, “I won’t go into details right now, but I wouldn’t put anybody in the situation I was in. I did what I had to do at the time.”

He also mentions that this is the first time in a long time he’s had anyone to travel with, and if the others aren’t afraid of having him around, he’d like to carry on that way. The others immediately agree, and comment generally that it’s nice having friends.

They have a few drinks, and as the night draws to a close, Dierro asks Buckitt if he’ll be having his usual room; he says yes, and the barman leads them to a large storeroom. As they prepare to bed down for the night, they discuss the assignment from Makaria Quest; they don’t trust her, but they also don’t want to walk around in danger from the Penumbra’s crossbows. They’re also interested to see what treasures they might find in the dungeon. Buckitt asks about Magpie’s magic wand; Dugluss examines it and discovers it is a Wand of Wonder.

They bed down for the night; in the morning, when they open the door, there is a note pinned to it with a dagger saying only, “Tick tock”. Yoolna takes the dagger and they all decide they’d better carry on with the quest. As they leave the pub, there seems to be an unusual number of people in the streets, all heading in the same direction. They learn from a passerby that the Baelor Butcher has struck again.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Dugluss Deep-Forge
* Father Buckitt
* Magpie
* Stone
* Yoolna
* Zander Brushspark

## **References**

**Art:**

Explosion by Erian