DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games LMP: Lost Mines of Phandelver N-3.1.1 The Old Owl Well

DM
It takes some residual healing magic and a full night of rest to get the wounded members of the party back to full health and strength. The weather has taken a turn for the worse and an overcast sky forcasts a gloomy day. You head onward towards your goal and reach it at about the middle of the day after the wolf attack. As you crest a low ridge, you spy the crumbling ruins of an old watchtower standing amid the rugged hills. The place is so old that the walls are only mounds of rubble enclosing a courtyard of sorts, adjacent to the broken stump of an old tower. A colorful tent has been set up in the middle of the courtyard, but no one is in sight.

Chandan

He wraps his yellow silk scarf around his lower face, and pulls up the hood of his threadbare robes.

Rain always dampens Chandan's mood for drinking, and the woebegotten look of the ruins doesn't alleviate that. At least the gaudy pavilion teases a warm welcome.

Staying low and using the rugged terrain, he scurries from cover to cover, forwards for a closer look, keeping at least 90 feet of distance from the ruins and tent.

With the many remarkable abilities in the party, the monk is certain someone more stealthy than he can reconnoitre within the crumbled walls.

Sidling up to his nearest companion(s), he whispers.

"Tent out in open for all to see. No sentries. Occupant is unafraid. Maybe they know something we do not."

Davroar

He turns around to when Chandan catches up to their position and replies in a quiet voice, "I was told that the prospectors where chased out of here. Could be their tent left behind?"

Turning his attention back to the front of their group, he waits to see if Jaliera might send Whisper up to give them a birds eye view of the area.

Chandan

He ponders Davroar's suggestion. It's possible...

"Hmm. If local prospectors used such bright tent, small wonder someone see them and chase them off." Is his comment.

[I was imagining the tent as more of a brightly-coloured Mediaeval-style pavilion, rather than a camping tent/bivouac. Any cues, Nep? ]

Kriv

He coldly appraised the scene, taking in the architecture of the watchtower to try and establish by whom it was raised. Quietly, he instructed,

"Jaliera, the tent suggests occupation. Could you awaken your owl and see if it can give us some perspective?"

History roll?

Kallista

"Or the tent of the one who chased them off." She relies to Chandan and Davroar. She glances towards Jaliera to see if she wants to send her new friend to take a closer look.

Jaliera

She is already waking her owl and whispering instructions. Once Whisper is ready, she holds her aloft so she can take over and scout over the area looking for any signs of life.

DM
Whisper flies over the area but heads back quickly. Something bothers her. She communicates that it is a bad smell.

Kriv

He glances at Chandan briefly.

Chandan

While Jaliera's owl makes it pass of the ruins, the old monk twizzles his grey hair, looking around with narrow eyes, and paying most attention to the direction the owl isn't in. Behind, for example.

The gaudy pavilion is too incongruous, too much of a curio, it feels like a lure, which would make the scene before them a trap.

Jaliera

She questions Whisper further, asking if the smell is like that of rotting dead, knowing that the animal will have come across that before. If not, making she can compare it to something else she knows.

DM

Whisper agrees with Jaliera's description. It is rotting flesh - at least from the owl's perspective.

Jaliera

She shares this news with her companions.

Chandan

At that he scowls. Rotting flesh? The dead. He knows that smell better than, well, almost anyone, given his background.

The old monk turns to the rest of the party.

"Maybe I go, tip-toe up to tent? You wait. If I am attacked, you come to the rescue." He says this last with a grateful smile.

Kriv

He nodded his assent, his reptilian features not betraying if that was at face value or with ulterior motive.

"Give us a signal if you need us to advance."

Davroar

"Careful Chandan. Rumours I heard it was undead around here."

Jaliera

She sends Whisper aloft again to watch the area for any movement so that she can watch Chadan's back. She picks up her bow and nocks an arrow, ready to help.

"Be careful" she murmurs softly.

DM
Chandan cautiously moves forward. Although it's already been three days since that bath, the smell of soap and cleanliness has not yet been overpowered by the stench of not having bathed. So he smells somewhat fresh and that must be what triggers the events that follow. A number of men - they really look like dead men, start shambling out of the tower. The grey, hollow look in their eyes indicate that they are not alive.

Chandan has not yet made it over to the tent and doesn't know who or what is inside. He can ascertain that he'll not make it to the tent before the zombies catch up to him.

OOC: I guess this is as good a time as any to roll initiative. There'll be no "tactical map" for this encounter. It'll all be theater of the mind. BTW, that's what the module encourages as it's a training module.

Kriv

The dragonborn noble watched the monk creep forward impassively, awaiting a signal or retreat.

Kriv initiative
AJ rolled 1d20+1 and got 5

Kallista

She too watched as Chandan moved ahead, ready to retaliate if any foes appeared.

Kallista Initiative
Zeim rolled d20+2 and got 5

Davroar

Seeing the men shamble out, he readies his sling.

Davroar Initiative
Dugan rolled 1d20 and got 17

Chandan

For someone who's spent much of his life disposing of the dead, Chandan is remarkably unsettled by the undead. Perhaps it's like a carpenter, suddenly attacked by man-eating furniture, not only is it against the natural order, it's also a professional indignity.

The smell, the dead eyes and the rotting flesh don't bother the monk, it's that it's animated and is bent on harm that vexes him.

Should he fall back, fleet-footed and join the ranks of his comrades? Tactically sound, yes, but what if there are innocent travellers in the tent?

Whilst highly unlikely, Chandan can't take that risk. The zombies have to be stopped.

Scrambling for the right words, the old monks yells in the direction of the tent.

"ZOMBIES ON YOUR LAWN!"

He would give 'the signal', but he can't recall what it is. So he spins the spear above his head and prepares for work.

[Initiative, rolled 17+3=20.]

DM
Chandan calls out a warning towards the tent as the zombies shamble out of the tower and a moment later the flap on the tent flies open and a stout, red-robed figure with sallow skin, a shaved scalp and a black tatoo on his forehead steps out of the tent and calls out
"What is the meaning of all this?"