Cataclysm (AD&D Ravenloft -> PF1 Conversion) INC Thread

[DigoDragon]

"They know that I know about them.... thats important to know.... I have been planning around their plans.... now I see that they have been planning around my plans.... I must now plan around the plans that are being planned around my plans that were initially planned to outplay their first plans.... a monumental task."

Rose goes a little cross-eyed at Mordu's statement. She shakes it off and takes a look at the book he's been referring to.

"So... what's the motivation behind this cult? Raising the dead isn't a passive action; they got a plan for the animated dead they're collecting, right?"

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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Grey can't really say if the fellow is barking mad or just a good actor but whatever the truth is, he does not trust him one bit "Woah, stop right there. What do you mean you're going to have proof tomorrow?" he says while gesturing at Mordu to slow him down "If you're going to have a stroll in the swamps tonight, I'll tag along."

[samduke]

Millie
Maybe we should all tag along

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Mordu hands rose the book as she gestures to it.

Spoiler: rose

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You are able to skim through the book quickly with your wizard eyes! This reads more like a novel or a fan based fiction than actual academic material. It talks alot about a vague God in "a" swamp, but does not say where. It talks nebulously about cultists and their activities, but the specifics are never really given.

"Well! The swamp god is a god of decay, he surely wishes an army to defend the borders of the swamp from all intruders!"

He looks between Grey and milli.

"Yes you could come tonight. Meet me 2 hours after sundown, we can all catch them in the act!"

[DigoDragon]

Rose has a bad feeling about trekking into the swamp.

"Are... we sure we want go out so soon? What about Jeremiah? His corpse wants to go out for a walk. I was thinking we could follow the body and see where it goes. ...might not be to the swamp."

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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"No, I do not." Grey answers back to Rose "But I fear if we leave this fellow to his own devices we are going to have another corpse tomorrow - or worst." that said he shrugs, doesn't seem that convinced himself that would be a good idea "And I would keep the corpse-digging as a last resort, to be honest. These people looks on edge. Have you seen the Constable? He might not be alone in wanting an easy solution and here we have some 'Calibans'" Grey air-quotes that word and grimaces in contempt "coming to town and exhuming the freshly buried dead."

[DarkOne-Rob]

"How do we keep getting into these situations?" mutters Cheyanne from the back of the room. She has begun to be a bit more nosey, looking into the man's book shelves (if she sees any) and trying to get a better feel for if he's a madman or just obsessed. She keeps an eye about her and doesn't make it obvious, but she even approaches any other doors to listen discretely at them for sounds from the other side. "I don't think we have anything to add, Mr. Mordu. We just got here and learned of this plague of undeath today. I'm shocked at how your little town handles this whole thing at all - it's more than a little strange. Where I come from we would ensure the dead stayed that way after the first couple rose back up..."

[samduke]

at Cheyanne's Comment Millie chimes in - Where I come from the dead would have been burned for a fortnight after the 2nd had raised, to stop it from occurring.

[DigoDragon]

"No, I do not." Grey answers back to Rose "But I fear if we leave this fellow to his own devices we are going to have another corpse tomorrow - or worst." that said he shrugs, doesn't seem that convinced himself that would be a good idea "And I would keep the corpse-digging as a last resort, to be honest. These people looks on edge. Have you seen the Constable? He might not be alone in wanting an easy solution and here we have some 'Calibans'" Grey air-quotes that word and grimaces in contempt "coming to town and exhuming the freshly buried dead."

"Yeah... it's just... they're walking away on their own." Rose rubs her shoulder with the opposing hand. "Maybe we should camp out at the graveyard then? Like, let the corpse naturally... err, unnaturally shamble out and follow?"

"Where I come from we would ensure the dead stayed that way after the first couple rose back up..."

"Hmm? Oh, you meant as in rise up... nevermind."

at Cheyanne's Comment Millie chimes in - Where I come from the dead would have been burned for a fortnight after the 2nd had raised, to stop it from occurring.

"Yeah, but seems to be against their beliefs here. At least, says the preacher?"

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Spoiler: Cheyanne

Show

Looking through the door into the back room you see a book shelf, stepping in you notice this is his bedroom.

On the bookshelf are a variety of books and scrolls, taking a quick moment you see they are on Souragne and other countries, but you do not believe you recognize the names of the other countries. There is one other book of note, older than any others. The title, and information inside is written in a language you don't understand.

Mordu looks between the members of the group.

"I'll let you decide if you wish to join me this evening, two hours after sundown, by the church graveyard. If not, come see me after lunch tomorrow."

He looks a little longer at Cheyanne.

"Our little town is a bit close minded"

He looks to Millie.

"I'm sorry for anything you might have to go through"

He then looks to rose.

"Thank you for looking after Luc"

Luc, addressed speaks in broken words.

"The on descend shall evil of night the land,
at near are signs of hexad this when hand
In sorcerer the Daegon house the born,
Though shall unliving, unlife, life scorn
The mother stern of child lifeless found
Heralds evil of night a time unbound"

Mordu nods
"Yep.... thats a thing."

[DigoDragon]

Rose simply nods when it is mentioned that she's helping keep Luc safe. Once the strange, broken man speaks again, Rose has to point it out.

"I'm still with Millie that Luc is speaking backwards... though the relevance is something else." She starts going over what Luc said, reversing the words.

[DarkOne-Rob]

Cheyanne looks at their host with a distrusting expression, though it softens a bit at his words, as if she regrets her paranoia. She shakes her head says, "I appreciate that, but it's still very hard to trust you, or anyone here for that matter. Everyone is strange and closed off...fearful. I can't help but feel like this would be simpler if not for the way some of your laws and customs work..." With a sigh the monk finally admits, "I don't have a better idea, so I may join you tonight - we will see. Don't wait for me long, though."

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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"That is new." Grey says when Luc starts muttering new verses of his weird little poem. He points at Luc with the thumb and asks Mordu "He said what seemed a name. Daegon. Rings any bells?" then the Oracle shrugs "Well, going to follow you tonight as well. I actually prefer being active at night, too bad the rest of the world is quite enamored with the sun."

[Darius Vibrtrar]

"Daegon..... Daegon.... Daegon. That's a proper name... he said house, maybe its a family name? No Daegon family around these parts. Maybe he heard it elsewhere?"

Mordu nods to the group.

"So I shall see you tonight! Be ready for investigation!"

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Feel free to move to the next place of investigation, you could even go to the general store for supplies.

[DigoDragon]

Rose

Once the party has exited and out of earshot from their host, Rose comments softly to her companions, "I don't believe Mordu has any proof at all of what he said. That book of his read more like fanfiction than anything academic. His heart is in the right place, but he might be grasping at straws out of desperation to resolve this mystery."

She continues going over Luc's odd prose and trying to put the words in the right order.

"The night of evil shall descend on the land.
At this hexad of signs are near when hand...?"

Rose scrunches her nose. "No, that's not right. Wait, maybe--"

"When this hexad of signs are near at hand."
"The house Daegon the sorcerer..."

She snorts. "Okay, this is tough. Uh, in the house... right, then born-"

"In the house Daegon the sorcerer born."
"Though life, unlife, unliving shall scorn."
"The lifeless child of stern mother found."
"Heralds time a night of evil unbound."

Rose turns the words over in her head a bit more before concluding. "Yeah, this, uh... quite a story Luc is telling us."

[Darius Vibrtrar]

This large, cluttered building is the village’s general store. Its run by Deruno and his family, Deruno is a rough looking man with a mustache, his wife is a dark haired woman who tends the shelves, they have a strong looking son moving stock from the back to the front. Deruno sells traveling equipment, foodstuffs, household goods, and goats milk.

"Welcome to Tarascon, we have much to offer to travelers."

Their are a variety of "simple" weapons available for sale, but they do not have any martial weapons on display.

Short Spear - 1 Golden Frog
Spear - 2 Golden Frogs
Long Spear - 5 Golden Frogs

"Well we've been having a bit of a dry spell in terms of visitors, on account of the murders... you know they keep finding Red Licorice at all the scenes? Though I hear Lady Grissom was seen in front of the cemetery before she went missing"

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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"You might be right." Grey says when they are finally outside and Rose shares her own insight of the fellow they just met "But since we wanted to have another look at the cemetery regardless, I wonder if having Mordu with us might keep the locals away - we could just say we were protecting him." so he shrugs and frowns when Rose tries to make some sense of the poem Luc has recited. Grey still keeps some distance from the their charge, looking a bit uncomfortable around him but starting to acknowledge that maybe the weird man might hold the key for whatever they got involved to.

When they arrive at the general store, Grey takes a look at the longspear - at least weapons look familiar enough; in the meantime he chats with this Deruno, mantaining a matter-of-factly attitude to match the roughness of the owner of the store "Yes, we have been informed about the Red Licorice." he nods before asking questions "What could you tell us about Lady Grissom? And you have any idea why she would be at the graveyard?"

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Deruno nods about the licorice.

"The lady Grissom lost a nephew recently, its possible that she was visiting... well, his tombstone I suppose. This is a rather close knit village, by marriage or blood nearly everyone is in some way related to another, if you go back far enough. I myself came upon this village in my travels, before I settled down with my wife from here."

The dark haired woman nods, she seems to be carefully watching half of the group as if to prevent them from doing anything nefarious.

"I see you are Eyeing the long Spear, would you be interested? Anything else you might want?"

[kinem]

Ted says ”Hello, I’m Ted. Do you have any bows or crossbows for sale?”

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Deruno looks to Ted.

"Heavy Crossbow for 50 golden frogs, Light Crossbow for 35 golden frogs, and for ammunition, you can get 10 Bolts for a single golden frog"

[DigoDragon]

"You might be right." Grey says when they are finally outside and Rose shares her own insight of the fellow they just met "But since we wanted to have another look at the cemetery regardless, I wonder if having Mordu with us might keep the locals away - we could just say we were protecting him."

Rose acknowledges Grey with a nod and follows to the general store.

She keeps an eye on Luc, and just browses for now (Perception (1d20+2)[13]).

[kinem]

Ted says ”Very good. I might be better off with a sling actually. Do you have slings and bullets for them?”

[samduke]

Millie waits outside with the others and Luc

[DarkOne-Rob]

Cheyanne leaves Mordu's house quietly, her expression deeply troubled. Apparently she's unwilling to share too much of her thoughts as she follows everyone to the general store. Once inside she makes a brief effort to look about before she notices the owner's wife glaring at her. Then with a sigh she steps back outside. "Hardly worth trying to talk to some of these people if you've got mixed blood. I've never had such trouble before," she says unhappily. "I don't think I even show my orcish heritage much, though it is part of why my family sent me to train at the monastery. Seems the people here are just looking for a reason to distrust us. Do you all think it's even worth it to try and help them out? They don't seem to want the help much..."

[Darius Vibrtrar]

Dureno looks to Ted, a little disappointed.

"Yea... 10 bullets for a silver serpent, you get a free sling if you want with a purchase of 30 or more bullets. Or you can buy one for a silver serpent."

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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Grey nods at the woman asking him about the longspear and then rummages through his pouches to find the handful of coin requested; he smiles, warm and friendly "Given what is happening around here, I feel safer with a pointy stick in my hands." he muses while he pays for the weapon. He then takes a look around, trying to see if there is anything that might strike his interest (and maybe even be of greater value than these people believe) and tries to get some more information out of the family "We've heard there is some kind of weird cult in the swamps. Have you heard anything perchance?" he then shrugs and keeps the conversation going "Heard the undead rise from their graves to go who-knows-where, might be the swamps?"

[Darius Vibrtrar]

He tilted his head in confusion.

"A cult in the swamp? never heard of that, we dont see much for people going out into the swamp, its dangerous out there, you know?"

He returns to upkeep of the shop after selling you the spear you desire.

"Yea, I was guard for hire when I was younger, I prefered sword and bow myself, but I get wanting something sharp in hand."

[Bunny Commando]

Grey - HP: 17\17 - Conditions: None - Active Effects: None

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"We are aware. We arrived through the swamps." Grey says with a shrug, wondering if a swamp where no one really goes might truly be the perfect hiding spot for a malicious group of necromancers. Still there's no point in sharing such opinion with this Deruno, so he grabs the spear and takes his leave with a polite goodbye to join the rest of the group waiting outside.

"So. Any idea where we could go now?" he asks the others "I am still partial to having a conversation with this Tarascon's fellows."

[DarkOne-Rob]

"Go ahead - I'll stay with you, even if no one here likes talking to some of us. You seem to have a way with this," answers Cheyanne, content to be the...intimidating(?) backup to Grey's friendly face.

[DigoDragon]

"Yeah, same. Might as well get that chat in-- never know who will croak next in this... friendly town," Rose comments, throwing air quotes on that last part. "The warmest reception so far seems to be Luc here, and he's like, not all there."

Rose turns to Luc. "No offense buddy. You've seen some things out here that would of destroyed a lesser person. Hang in there, you're doing great."