The Mysterious Evil

[Slartibartfast]

GM

Hello World! Welcome to the reincarnation of The Mysterious Evil, comedy D&D game that has no visible purpose!

Posting Rules:
((OOC chat done in double parenthesis))
"Talking should be done in your character color and quotation marks"
Thoughts should be in your character color and italicized.
Your character name should be at the top of your post in Bold and may be in your character color.

The character color in the example was green, but you may pick any one you like. If two characters pick the same color, we'll sort that out when it happens.

[Slartibartfast]

The King's Throne room is large, and appropriately decorated. The Royal Guard closes the door behind you as the group enters the room.

Map Spoiler:

Spoiler

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Map Key:
G = Royal Guard
M = King's Advisor (a Mage)
K = The King.
Brown Border = Door
Grey border = Stone or Rock wall (stone here)

((Newbie Note: I placed you as the first letter of your character's name. I'll change it to your color when I know what that is, but for now Ronold is green and Friar Krispen is red.))

((Newbie Note: The character color of the King is red. The character color of his Advisor is blue.))

"Ah! Renaud, Shia, Heredoth, I see you have returned with some new recruits to replenish your fighting force. Do you deem yourselves ready for my next task?"

[BurntOfferings]

"Good" Friar Krispen

The halfling doesn't wait for an introduction from his taller companions. Stepping forward, he offers a barely minimal bow and says, "Greetings, oh King. I am Krispen Tealeaf, cleric of the great and terrible goddess Vulkoria, may her mountains forever smoke. What task do you have for us?"

[Krursk]

Renaud de Mountaban

((Renauld will take teal as his color because I feel like having a character color now))

Renaud says nothing, remaining in stoic silence, knowing that if he speaks, it will ruin the image. Glancing around, he notices the guards have slightly better security measures in place on their moneybelts, although he does a quick Detect Good on all of the rooms occupants for the sheer thrill of never having used it before.

[Firesong]

Heradoth

"Ready? I deem we are, your Majesty." Heradoth remains stationary, although his robes continue to sway - it isn't clear whether it's momentum they picked up when he walked or due to an unseen breeze - and make him appear somewhat like a creature from the afterlife himself when taken with the glowing red eyes typical in elves from (very much) warmer regions.

[FreakyName]

Ronald

Ronald chose to stay silent and near the back, deciding its better to let those who've met the king speak to him. For now the goblin would only watch and listen.

[Slartibartfast]

"Very well. Send in the Scroll with the new information."

Apologies for the cliffhanger, but I have to go to bed now and can't describe the next part right now. Expect my posting to suck a bit due to homework and occur only in later hours (after homework has been finished).

[Slartibartfast]

The messenger boy brings back a scroll to the king.

Some servants spread out a large table and place chairs around it for each of you. The scroll sits before him on the table, still sealed.

"Come, Be seated. This is a matter of grave importance, and you won't want to be on your feet when you find out."

The king's adviser mutters something in his ear, apparently taking his leave, and vanishes in a BANG and a poof of smoke.

[BurntOfferings]

Krispen

"Grave importance, you say? Well then, it's a good thing we count a necromancer in our number!" The halfling takes a seat at the table, chuckling at his own joke. He stares intently at the scroll, curious as to what's written inside.

[Slartibartfast]

The King smirks at the Friar's joke. "You know, that might very well be true."

((As a side thing here, I was using this as a posting regularity check, to see how often I should expect you guys to post, and see how much time I have to think up the next adventures.))

[Slartibartfast]

((Gonna assume you all move up and sit down for now. I seated Taquar too so there could be an even number of seats, no other good reason. :P BTW I update that map there on the link almost every time I post, so you can look at it and it will be different.))

"Well then, now that you are seated, we shall begin."
He picks up the scroll, deftly breaks the seal with years of practice, and lays it out on the table. The scroll reads:

Great King Rafelonious,

Please heed our plea! Here in the village of
in the village of Galorina, merchants and
commonfolk alike are found dead in their
beds, only to rise from the grave and seek
out and attack those who were once their
friends! And also there are rats coming to
the village bringing in a vile plague that
hangs about one as a green cloud of putrid
stench so thick you can actually see it!
Those who contract this plague are soon
found as zombies haunting us further! We
cry to you to help us before we are all
slain!

Eldarin, Elder of Galorina

"As you can see, they are having a little bit of trouble down there. I thought it was a hoax, so outrageous it seemed. But this here is the tenth letter this fortnight, and it's high time I sent someone to investigate. I want you five, uh, six-" He looks doubtfully at Taquar the Skeleton for a moment. "-and go see what's going on down there, and fix it if you can. I'll be waiting here. You're going to be one of my elite squadrons right now, as I am in desperate need of more. There are too many troubles in the land right now, and I cannot attend to them all at once... Regardless, these are your orders. Talk to the people, especially the elder, and try to find out what's going on. Please try and handle whatever it is yourself, I don't have many resources to spare. I need more good men like you to help me keep the land in one piece, it is going to be a difficult path. Do you accept? Will you travel this difficult road with me?"

[FreakyName]

Ronald

Ronald grimaced at the news. Undead were hard to kill, and green gas even harder. In a slightly higher than could be expected pitch Ronald said,
"With all due respect, that sounds scary and deadly. Your road is one I don't even want to be near let alone travel on. Got anything less plague and undead filled? Ya'know, maybe you need the candy from a baby taken or your advisor's pockets picked. I think that'd be a lot safer for me, a lot more rewarding too."

[Krursk]

Renaud

Renaud pipes in his two cents Seems to me, all we need to do is kill the rats. Then we just sit outside of the town and pick off anything that tries to escape. Worst comes to worse, we torch the place off the map. Undead won't be a problem anyway, we have a Paladin

[Firesong]

"As effective as your plan sounds," Heradoth comments dryly, "The fact that the plague seems to be hanging around in a green cloud and raising those who die from it as undead seems to indicate that even if we do kill the rats and impose a quarantine on the town, something will remain after we leave; furthermore, it's entirely possible that that something will attempt to kill us while we sleep for interfering with is." That should be enough to demonstrate the necessity of actually dealing with the problem. Neat trick, though, that cloud, he reflected.

[BurntOfferings]

Krispen

"Torching the place is good. Fire has always been used to purge the land of various blights. The zombies will cower before the divine might of Vulkoria, so we have little to fear from them. I must confess that the green mist sounds very interesting, though. I wonder if it will be possible to collect a sample for study?

"So, oh King, where is this little hamlet? I confess my knowledge of geography isn't what it could be."

[Slartibartfast]

The king pulls out a map and points out the village for you. He also says you can keep the map.

"Remember though, these are peoples' homes. I would like to believe we can save torching the village as a last resort. There are still many people left, and they want their houses in tact. I need to keep as much peace between me and the people as I can. You probably don't know, as I have been stifling the rumors, but much of the kingdom is suffering in similarly disturbing and unexplained ways. This is as much a peacekeeping mission as it is a purging mission. Remember, you are my emissaries, and as such should watch yourselves. I'm just trying to keep the kingdom from revolting and to hold it in one piece..."

You realize now how tired the king is. He seems like he hasn't slept well all month, maybe even longer. Sitting up with late night reports, worrying about what will happen to his poor kingdom, teetering around the news of horrible happenings all over his little world. This guy's had it rough; it's kinda amazing he's held up this long.

"Well, I am afraid we must part ways now. The servants will help you with whatever you need for the coming journey, but I have too many other matters to attend to now, if you'll excuse me."

Gracefully, a pair of guards come up to escort you out.

[Krursk]

Renaud

Renaud takes the map ((because someone has to)) and walks out the door. While outside, and conveniantely out of earshot of the guards he begins a talk about the game plan. I think we should still keep "torch the town" as a backup plan. It is possible that adventurers have a better chance than commoners at resisting the cloud

[BurntOfferings]

Krispen

"Burning works for me, but I grudgingly accept that there may be other, possibly even better, ways.

"So, when do we leave?"

Spoiler

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I see that www.rpgwebprofiler.net has been down a few days. Is it coming back? I should've left the good friar on tangledweb.

[Slartibartfast]

OOC POST

Sorry I been gone awhile. Homework calls ya know? Friar, You still are on both sites. And both sites do that occasionally, you know that!

Either do a little more roleplay of plan-making or tell me you're gonna head out on your adventure to the little village. Just talk to the DM when you wish to start the next part of the story and begin thy journey! And now the game descends into video-game style... I hope not.

[Krursk]

Renaud

Renaud goes and checks how much stuff he can requisition for zombie fighting purposes (Lots of burning oil. For "zombie" burning. Definately not houses. Also, as many masterwork/special material weapons we can take without having to return. For "zombie fighting". Not selling for gold.) He also checks if the party can get some form of royal discount on shop weapons. Other than that, he's ready to leave.

[Slartibartfast]

Roll Bluff Renaud. These guys might not be total morons.

[Tola]

((Can I roll Sense Motive vs that as well?))

"In our last little 'trip', some of us were forced to melee, and were nearly killed because of it, because we had no ranged weapons. Might I ask whether there are any we can take? Though Undead tend to be...resiliant against these, it's still a better option than having to charge in and let the...*His voice turns into a thing of sheer hate for a second*things*Back to normal* tear at us."

His hometown has encountered Undead a grand total of once. Once was enough to put a deep fear/hatred into his heart.

His next words are almost to himself, though out loud.

"...We'll need to crush their bones. Even fire doesn't STOP them-not till they're nothing but ash. Burn a walking zombie, and now you've got a FLAMING corpse attacking you, infecting you with powers-know-what, and burning you to boot. As if dealing with a simple WALKING corpse wasn't bad enough, what with the resistance to pain and all. They don't care what you do to them, so you need to stop them moving."

[Slartibartfast]

((Go ahead and roll Tola. I may end up rolling for Renaud if he takes too long, but I'm expecting this to be slow paced and it isn't even combat so I'll let him slide for now.))

Ignoring Renaud until he makes his Bluff roll for game mechanics reasons, a servant nods to Tola. "Gettin' something ranged against the Undead would be a wise idea. Haven't had many attacking in my lifetime but they's right nasty beasts; almost got my arm tore off by a zombie once." The man's eyes wanders back to Taquar and he quickly mutters some apology/excuse almost inaudibly, and recovers by asking what kind of weapons you might be needing (bows, slings, etc.).

[Krursk]

((TTW is giving me problems with viewing Renaud's character sheet. As far as I know, Renaud has +2 to bluff from his charisma, so I'll go by that. And Renaud rolls a 1d20+2=5. The dice gods laugh mercilessly. Will Renaud ever score a roll more than a 10?))

[BurntOfferings]

(( For those whose sheets are on TTW:

To get to your tangledweb character sheet, go to http://profiler.thetangledweb.net/ , log in, and download your sheets. They go to www.thetangledweb.net and re-register. Recreate your characters and upload the sheets you downloaded. It's a pain, but it's free, so I guess we shouldn't complain too badly that they didn't automatically transfer our accounts and character sheets. ))

[Slartibartfast]

Now recognizing Renaud, a different servant looks at him. At stares at him. And gives that look that means "What kind of a moron do you think I am?"

[Krursk]

Renaud returns with the rather emotitive stare that means "Sure, you're somewhat sharp, but I can hunt your children down and kill them. See: Evil"

[BurntOfferings]

Krispen

Being somewhat new to the area, the "good" Friar doesn't try to finagle any goods from the King's men. He'll wait until they owe him for his services. For now, he bides him time seeking converts to the might and glory of Vulkoria. His sermons have lots of fire and brimstone and burning ash raining down on the unrepentant villages before the earth shakes and cracks open and swallows them whole. He's holding back on the really hard-core stuff for now, so as not to scare off the potential new worshipers.

(( It looks like I'm going to have to rebuild Crispen. After I moved his sheet to rpgwebprofiler, I removed it from thetangledweb. I can get the stats from invisiblecastle, and I remember his feat, but his skills and equipment may not be exactly the same. ))

[Slartibartfast]

((TTW erased my account during a cleanup or something but I have a new one called "Slartibartfast" to avoid name confusion.))

The servant looks back at Renaud with a stare saying "My wife is a high-level paladin dumbass"

The other servant prompts Tola or anyone wishing to take her place. "What kind of ranged weaponry do you seem to be needing? We've got about a PHB full of stuff in there."

[Krursk]

Renaud, after the most emotative staring competion of his life, and indeed probably of all time, is finished preparation.