NIGHTWICK ABBEY: The Purple Eater of People, Session 10

 

Art by Chris Huth. Crass, art-destroying graffiti by me.

Previously in Nightwick...

The Party

Blossom (Rogue 2)
Bertol (Rogue 2
Mayfly (Magic-User 1)
Sumac (Changling 1)
Hirelings: Curly, Pavel, Kunrat, Assmus, Ticze

At the Medusa's Head...

In the prior days, the party was able to pour over their previous incursions into Nightwick Abbey to decide a path forward. Instead of seeking the deeper depths as before, the party decided to try and "fill in" the center gap on the map. The previous exploration did yield a door to a room with a strange pantomimed dance. Mayfly marked out that this slow dance room must stretch from door to door as in Figure 1 below.

Fig. 1: Our map of Nightwick
at the beginning of Session 9

Now the party has a "request" from Halfdan the mage to descend to the gardens of Nightwick and bring back clippings. And the party did previously find the second level as well as an alternative route to the second level. Finally, an astute player remarked, "the hardest thing on the 1st level is harder than the easiest thing on the 2nd level maybe." Meaning that instead of taking on the Butcher (Figure 1 south) or the Deermen (Figure 1 north), going to the second level might yield easy silver.

However, Mayfly was curious about the empty middle section in the map above (Figure 1). There appeared to be a few doors we could try (marked by an "?") that might yield the silver we seek. So the group agreed to try those routes and finish the exploration. After all we did have a scroll with Fireball on it.

RIGHT TOWER: The party's favorite mainly because the Left Tower contains a faction of Deermen early on. The party exits the many-columned room using the southeastern door. 

GOBLIN COUNTRY: As has happened many times before, the party's proximity is met with a booming voice, "WHO DARES TRESPASS IN THE GREAT GOBLIN KINGDOM!?" Sumac the Changling attempt to converse in goblin, but unfortunately never quite learned the language. Bertol the Theif tries next: "We don't want anything you got, so leave us alone!" Which pretty much does it. Mayfly mentally calculates how much silver he lost paying them off previously...

THE LADY'S ROOM & DINING HALL: The party travels south past the pool and into the four-column room devoted to The Lady. Then turned west toward the dining hall. Hearing nothing at the door, the party enters.

THE DINING HALL: The thieves spread out to check all doors. Listening they only hear the tell-tale THWACK! THWACK! from the west door. Don't want that! The party tuned to the north door to see what riches or death (real 50/50 in Nightwick) were on the other side (Figure 1). And they were met with a suprise...

THE SILENT DANCE: Instead of finding a new room, the party was surprised to find the room with the silent dance going on. They watched as two groups of dead participated in an elaborate dance that was one part folk dance and one part ritualized battle always ending in swords thrust into the "guts" of the other. The halls of the room depicted the grounds around the Abbey at the height of its power. Presiding over this bizarre display were two figures each wearing a golden crown!

The figures seemed to not react to light. Their dance was elaborate enough that attempting to move into the room might result in being impaled on their swords. It was decided to just knock them off. What could go wrong? 

Well, what could go wrong was not knocking the crown off and instead drawn the attention of 10+ undead minions. The party thankfully had initiative, closed the door, and ran full retreat back through The Lady's marked territory (rationalizing they would not pursue... and they did not).

Fig. 2: How the actual space
worked out in Session 10

PILLARED ROOM: So, back north the party went to the pillared room and tried the southwestern door. This too leads to the SILENT DANCE. And so a clearer picture of how vast this room really was began to appear (Figure 2). The party noticed a little further to the west was another door.

RUSTED SWORDS: Opening this western door the party could see a sizable room littered with hundreds of rusted swords. Small puffs of the stuff floated up threatening inhalation. But a glint filled Mayfly's eyes with the promise of treasure. Sumac had a good solution: pouring water would keep the rust-dust from filling up the room as we pilfered the shiny silver scattered on the floor (600 SP). 

[PC NOTE: Solid OSR move using common equipment, water, to avoid a lethal trap, kicking up rust, to get some treasure. Real MVP stuff from the Sumac player. This really is a nice example of what "player skill" means. 

Sumac MVP!]

THE SILENT DANCE: The party was reluctant to leave those beautiful crowns. So three options were laid out involving oil flasks and torches; a gecko on the end of a fishing pole; using our precious fireball spell. In the end, two crowns worth 1000 SP in total were worth the spell expenditure. With the power of literacy, Mayfly read from the scrolls and fire erupted in the hall burning all inside (at a space distance from the party).

...and back to town

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