The count asks for help – part 2

Previously, our Kai adventurers received requests for help from Count Gerrich and the City Watch. There was also a new Kai initiate, Chaosbreaker. He wanted to play in the first session, but couldn’t due to an unforeseen circumstance. When I offered to host the second Lone Wolf game, he was excited.

He’s the best thing a DM could have other than dosing the players with sedatives to stop some of the most ridiculous plans I’ve ever heard. Somehow his presence discourages the wilder preposterous ideas. He breaks the chaos, get it? Chaosbreaker seemed unhappy because he wanted in on the wrecking-the-DM-nerves action too. I’m just glad I don’t have to keep inventing NPCs every time I introduce a plot point…

A few notes first. Due to the unwieldy nature of my friends and the freeform properties of the game, I only planned story plot points. They were loosely tied to each other, and could be rearranged in a different order if need be. This gave me the best chances of digging myself out of a story dead end, and the most amount of flexibility in dealing with whatever my friends were going to throw at me.

As a result, half of whatever happened during this game session were not planned by me. I’ll let you puzzle out which parts were improvised by me. *smile*

On the hunt for clues

They were really interested in what the count’s sister was up to. I also deliberately gave them a couple of days before she arrived in town, just to see what they would do. Hey, a DM’s entitled to some fun, right? Then I gently reminded them she won’t be in town until an unspecified number of days later, only that it was soon. They decided to investigate the strange lights incidents requested by the City Watch then.

It was then that Chaosbreaker suggested that maybe the sister and the incidents were linked. Hmm… *arched eyebrow*

The first thing they did was to ask for the last occurrence of the incidents from the City Watch. It was about 2 days ago. Where? An abandoned house. Who reported it? A shopkeeper who lived a couple of houses away.

Were there people taken? Yes.
What kind? The gentry and peasants alike.

“Indiscriminate kidnappings…” mused Torturer.
“Any rise in the number of missing persons?” asked Chaosbreaker.
“No more than the usual rate,” replied the officer at the City Watch.

Was it always an abandoned house? No. What happened to the people living at the house if the strange purple lights occurred there? This was a good question. The residents were shunted to a corner of their room. They were unconscious most of the time, and they knew something happened only because they woke up at that corner in the morning. One guy vaguely remembered hearing some moans of pain and chanting.

A ritual.

They asked for the address of the abandoned house in the latest incident, and the shopkeeper who reported it. They also tried to see if there’s any discernible pattern to the incidents. I said there wasn’t. The better way would be to map out the incidents and let them decide for themselves. I wasn’t quite prepared for this line of inquiry… Then again, maybe I could use this to my advantage…

And my thoughts were lost when one of them said maybe the sites of the incidents form a pattern of the male sexual organs. And that it points to some place where more sinister plots occur. I think it was at that point that I forgot what I wanted my 5 strange lights incidents to do.

Oh yes, there were 5 incidents. They actually asked for a timeline. I’m impressed.

“Eh, don’t make the DM draw it out,” said Beastmaster as I was preparing to write on a piece of paper. Archer offered to draw the timeline.

18d, 15d, 10d, 6d, 2d

So the first incident happened 18 days ago, the next 15 days ago and so on. I had to be careful with the timeline to make sure it tied consistently with my story.

At the shopkeeper’s house, they interrogated questioned asked him about the incident. There wasn’t much of a testimony. I was so scared about Beastmaster plunging his spear immediately into the poor guy that I kept it short. No point creating a couple of paragraphs of back story when it’s made irrelevant by 6 inches of steel in the body.

“I was restless that night, so I went to the window to get some fresh air. Then I saw the lights.” said the shopkeeper. “I heard about the few incidents, even though the City Watch were keeping it under wraps. I went immediately back to my bed. That’s the house. Now leave me alone.”

A bloody find

They went to investigate the abandoned house. It had 2 storeys. The first floor showed the usual signs of disuse. It was dusty everywhere. The furniture was in slight disarray. There were signs of abandonment but the occupants weren’t in a hurry to leave. I was going into full storyteller mode, and I went a little too far…

“There were some rats scurrying along the walls…” I said.
“I capture them and probe their minds.” said Beastmaster. Oh no…
“They don’t have any recollection of the strange lights.”
“Oh, the mindfog’s affected animals too.” remarked Torturer.

Then came my next stunner.

“I use Mind Over Matter and hover the rats around me.” announced Beastmaster.

So Archer proceeded to the stairs, Sixth Sense at full power, an arrow nocked at his bow. Chaosbreaker followed closely behind. Blender and Torturer brought up the rear, together with Beastmaster and his halo of hovering rodents.

No attacks.

The second floor was bare except for a cupboard at the corner. Torturer held a dagger backhanded style, whipped the cupboard doors open and stabbed inside. Empty.

In the centre of the room, was a patch of red. Torturer used his skill in Hunting to determine if it’s blood. I ruled that that’s possible, and said he identified it as blood. Human blood.

There was a murmur of excitement and suspense then. A blood ritual. I could feel my friends getting into the story. DMs live for these kinds of moments (some of them anyway…).

Up next, a worried librarian.