Episode 114 - These Foul Rooms of Horror

Why do all these strange things happen to us? We just want to have a nice night with friends, maybe save the world. Nothing big. Nothing special. But no! We have to go deal with this zany necromancer. Why does he have so many weird rooms? This is zany.

## **Story**

The group is trapped in the house of a necromancer, Riekert Svenson. In an act of uncharacteristic quick thinking, Thom uses Blooddrinker to stop the room from filling with blood. The group demands to know what Riekert wants with them, and try to reason with him. He promises to help them, but first he wants to have a little fun. They must work through different rooms filled with traps. If they emerge successfully, he will tell them want they want to know. They encounter a door that is magically locked, which they discovered they need a key to open. An augmented skill challenge starts. Instead of a number of successes and failures, they have 2 tries to get through each room. Everyone can only use each skill once, and there is no turn order. There are 8 rooms.

In the first room to unlock the door, Thom suggests throwing Harper to the key. After two great athletic checks (rolled by Nika because Bachmann doesn't have his dice), Harper successfully grabs the key. Harper unlocks the door to the next room.

The second room is lit only by candles. In the center of the room is an altar with a wooden carved crow. The group realizes it might be an altar to the Raven Queen, goddess of death. Jaela rolls a successful religion check. She remembers a strange ritual to appease the Raven Queen, and she cuts her hand and drops some blood onto the crowd. The crows mouth opens and a strange light pools out, outlining a door that they hadn't seen before. They go through it.

The third room is empty, and at the far end they see a chunky metal statue of a guard. Harper bluffs the guard, claiming to be the new leader of the castle. The guard swings aside to reveal the door behind him. Harper then makes the guard kill himself, which was a little unnecessary.

In the fourth room there is a portcullis, which is described as looking very heavy, and chain leading down to a big ol' crank. Aludra uses endurance to see how long she can crank. The portcullis yells "no, mommy!" as it goes up. Perhaps there was a ghost inside.

The fifth room is filled with walls of books. A librarian comes and shushes the group. Thom rolls to intimidate. Bachmann says he rolls a 17, despite the fact that he has already admitted to not having dice. None of the group questions this. Anyway Thom shushes the librarian with such power, such force, that the librarian falls to her knees and says "at last, the legendary shusher has come!" And a bunch of other stuff. The librarian leads them out of the room, and Bachmann begs to keep her. They add one librarian to their inventory.

The sixth room is very dark with a great big open space. There are spotlights sweeping around. The librarian walks forward and when the light lands on her, a voice yells "who goes there!" The librarian explains that they work there and are only trying to get through the door to see Mr. Svenson. Out of nowhere hundreds of spikes murder the librarian. Bachmann is upset, tells Michael he's railroading, and Thom gives the librarian a final, soft, shush. Jaela precepts her way through the lights.

In the seventh room is a forest. Aludra attempts a nature check, but fails. A sprite flies up and yells at them. Jaela suggests diplomacizing the sprite, which Harper does. He gets a 31. The sprite is named Lemon Lime. After Harper chats him up and plays bone tennis with him for two hours, they are lead to the door. He is also made to kill himself.

The eighth and final room is empty save for a large door with lots of runes inscribed. Harper makes his friends close their eyes then he strips naked and chants, rolling a Nat 20 for Arcana. When the other three open their eyes Harper is sitting in the corner drinking tea with the metal guard, the librarian, and Lemon Lime. He was able to turn back time with the runes. They're all playing chess. Harper wins and makes them kill themselves again.

They exit the last door and smell potpourri and rotting flesh. Riekert invites them inside...

## **Trivia**

* Jaela's offering to the Raven Queen proves quite interesting, given her later affinities

## **In This Episode...**

### **Cast and Player Characters**

* Michael DiMauro - *Dungeon Master*
* Tim Lanning - Lord Titus Harper
* Jennifer Cheek - Aludra Wyrmsbane
* Mike Bachmann - Thom Vidalis / Steve Meloncamp
* Nika Howard - Jaela

### **Non-Player Characters**

* Riekert Svenson
* A librarian
* Lemon Lime

### **Quest Log Updates**

* [Active] - End the Demon Apocalypse / Kill Fennekin
	+ [Active] - Destroy the Demon Portal device with the Hammer of Sundering
		- [Active][?] - Visit the necromancer, Riekert Svenson, for more information on the Hammer
* [On-hold] - Find Adira Harper
	+ [On-hold] - Investigate the "Devil" situation northwest of Mastwick
* [On-hold] - Rescue Bucky and Ros
	+ [On-hold] - Investigate the "Gnoll" situation southwest of the burning hole where Caer used to be
* [Optional] - Clean up Drunkeros
	+ [Optional] - Investigate the Mind Flayers in the Swamps of Ichtaka
	+ [Optional] - Investigate Yeenoghu's Army
	+ [Optional] - Investigate Pyre ruling Mastwick
	+ [Optional] - Investigate the Church of Bahamut's army
	+ [Optional] - Recruit the assistance of the Dwarves in Deephome
	+ [Optional] - Recruit the assistance of the Elves in Galanthis
* [Backburner] - Find a way to get Steve Meloncamp out of Thom's head