>>865556
What if that uncovers more enemies and gives them a free turn? No thanks.
Go for a disarming grapple. All hail the mighty grapple!

>>865525
well? finish her. just regular attacks from all will do at this point. no stances or grapples.

The Enchantress 2018/02/08(Thu)10:23 No. 865854 ID: 202f5b
File 151811421142.png - (59.60KB , 1168x771 , 16.png )

The thief's hands are quivering as he nocks his next arrow. Perhaps you should tell him it's only going to get worse from here.

Thief: bugger bugger bugger
Roll 10+3=13. Hit! For 5 damage.
His arrow hits her just under the left eyesocket and crumbles bone as it pins her brains to the wall behind her.

Thief: HA

She giggles once, like you've just told her a scandalous secret, then crumples to the floor.
Unlucky auntie. She's going to need quite a bit of needlework before I can get her back on her feet again. If we weren't so close I might be upset with you, baby.

The Enchantress 2018/02/08(Thu)10:24 No. 865855 ID: 202f5b
File 151811423974.png - (136.14KB , 605x561 , 17.png )

The thief's arrow has snapped on the wall behind Miltrud. Down to 14 now.

Thief: bollocks there goes dizzy
Thief: she was one of my sharpest
Mage: Did you name your arrow for Dizzy Delicious
Thief: yup out of scarsmouth
Mage: Do you name all your arrows after prostitutes
Thief, digging Bess out of the Eastern door: helps em fly straighter

The door Miltrud took hangs now ajar. It's quite dark beyond. Hardly anything can be seen.

We're back down to 0 actions, baby. Your turn.

No loot? Guess aunt isn't the kind to wear extravagant jewelry.
Let's see where this side door lead. Since Miltrud came from there alone there shouldn't be anyone else waiting for us.

Pop open a barrel from the closet, then enter Aunty's entrance.

Grab Miltrud and throw her off a cliff, or use her as an undead torch.

Proceed through the door Miltrud opened, continue onwards.

>>865855
pry open the barrel the skeleton hugged.
light up and have a look at the eastern room.

Tell the thief that he did a good job. Gotta keep that moral high.

>>865855
Advance into the room that thing just came from

How would the two of them rate Dizzy, for comparison?

The Enchantress 2018/02/08(Thu)20:39 No. 866008 ID: a3aa10
File 151815119734.png - (233.51KB , 1197x577 , 18.png )

The Thief gets to work ransacking my possessions while you light a torch and lead the way into the hallway Miltrud introduced herself from.

The room beyond contains:
>Slick stone-tile floor, ancient but scrubbed obsessively clean
>A door leading south, plain and severe, with a too-far-to-glean symbol carved into its keystone
>A sheer pit about five feet wide, all up and down the hallway like an earthquake's fissure and stretching downwards
>On the far wall, a portrait

Hello again, baby.

The Enchantress 2018/02/08(Thu)20:40 No. 866009 ID: a3aa10
File 151815122130.png - (304.55KB , 950x620 , 19.png )

It's been a while since you've seen me. I thought I might leave this here for you.

The mage averts her eyes. Good to see that pale pussycat can get some color to her cheeks.

The thief stands in the doorway behind you.
Thief: opened one of them barrels, boss
Thief: wine, i reckon from the sight and smell, though i aint tried to drink it yet
Thief: cor who's the tart

Mage: That "tart" is--or was-- the Enchantress of Cradoom, and were she still alive she could vaporize us all with a syllable
Thief: thats the stiff who owned this place yeah
Mage: Correct
Thief: i didnt know she was thick
Thief: rest in peace

>>866009
Let them think she is dead. It will only cause them panic at this point.
Sounds like the door in the hall is locked. Time to check out the remaining smaller room back there.

>>866009
Probably safer not to have drunk the wine, we don't know if we can trust things in this place not to be untainted.

>were she still alive she could vaporize us all with a syllable
And if she were dead, would that make her any less of a threat?

Lich might be a better term nowadays.
Aggressively ignore balcony until we reach the second floor. Investigate keystone symbol first.

Warn the others that you've been here before, back when this place was sane. The layout is completely different, but it's made up of its former components, this painting included.

(BTW cut the painting from the frame and keep it to resell)

And that old undead hag who Thief just killed was a particularly memorable spinster - the enchantress experimented on her for kicks to "always speak her mind". Even her freshly murdered corpse wouldn't shut up.

Almost everyone in this castle died, and you don't want to talk about it. One of them came back. You're almost certain everyone else is going to come back.

Hmmm, Ovbiuslly you have been here before. Guess we are going to find out sooner or latter why at some point. Let them in the dark, it will make things more interesting.

Enter the first door to your right, let's see what is inside, leave the barrels alone.

>>866009
I think it wouls be beast if we left out the fact that shes still alive

The Enchantress 2018/02/09(Fri)11:03 No. 866149 ID: 202f5b
File 151820301850.png - (167.53KB , 667x423 , 20.png )

You investigate the keystone.
Carved into it is a fish.

The Enchantress 2018/02/09(Fri)11:04 No. 866150 ID: 202f5b
File 151820308560.png - (311.38KB , 1197x866 , 21.png )

A wall of warm, humid air as you enter the southern room.

It contains:
>A small, ornamental table, with a black square box about the size of a shoebox on top, inlaid with silver
>A carved ashwood stool before the table
>A miniature pond, neatly walled off by a two-foot high stone wall, with an estuary trailing into a low tunnel in the wall
>On the west end of the room, a rough-cut wooden table, flanked by two clay pots holding brambled flowers
>On the table, a meat cleaver, sitting in a brown splotch of dried blood
>A simple and severe door to the South, in appearance similar to your entrance
>A sturdy door to the West, jambed in brass

My pond catches your torchlight and throws it in a reflected tangle onto the ceiling.
I used to sit at that little table for hours and watch the fish swim around in there, just letting the ink bleed off my quill and ruin my treatises.
The fish are all gone now. But we've still plenty of ink.

Do you think there would be something interesting in the tunnel? If not, let's see if the west door is connected with the other part of the building, or if it just ends in a dead end.

Box box box, what's in the box?

The Enchantress 2018/02/09(Fri)18:57 No. 866252 ID: a039ca
File 151823143119.png - (24.60KB , 726x475 , 22.png )

You reach for the box. Your mousey friend steps in front of you.
Thief: hold on there boss
Thief: lemme earn my cut eh
He hunkers down nearly underneath the table and flicks the box's release with the tip of his stiletto, then raises it with a slender telescopic pole from his thieves' kit.

A puff of white powder spits into the air as he does so, falling like snow onto the dungeon floor.
Just a little surprise for you and your friends, baby. To keep things interesting.

Thief: reckon we ought not touch that stuff boss

Within the box, atop the Enchantress' stitched sigil:
>A quill with a reservoir of ink above the tip
>A small iron key

The Enchantress 2018/02/09(Fri)18:57 No. 866253 ID: a039ca
File 151823145547.png - (301.50KB , 1197x866 , 23.png )

Thief: no gold????
Mage: Quiet
Thief: what a rook
Mage: Shhhh shut up
Thief: scuse me
Mage: Do you hear that

From the antumbra of the pond tunnel: a soft, churning splash.
Something's moving in there.

The fish have returned! Quickly store the contents of the box somewhere the powder won't come into contact with your stuff.

Fish are not noisy,especially if they don't want to be seen. Something is in there, and its coming. Try the key in the west door. If it doesn't fit, try the other one, but be quick.

We could prepare a grease fire, if we had the materials. Whatever's using the aqueduct won't expect flames icing the water.

>>866323
All materials you had on hand entering the dungeon are listed in the beginning posts. Beyond those you have the clothes on your back and whatever you can find in the dungeon.

>>866362
Try to go through the south door

Hum the Jaws theme as you hug the wall.

The Enchantress 2018/02/20(Tue)21:15 No. 869111 ID: a039ca
File 151919013623.png - (313.53KB , 1197x866 , 24.png )

Picking the discretion part of valor, are we?

It's just as well. I keep forgetting to feed that thing.

There was a time, baby, that you would have dove into that pool with a dagger between your teeth to face whatever was sloshing around in there.
But the years lay change upon us all like snow or dust or a particularly assertive gravedigger. Yes, even me.
Come and see.

You skirt along the wall to the Western door.
It's unlocked. The key is for something else.

You enter into an uncomfortably small antechamber. On its north wall, a curious instrument made of copper and glass, with an eyepiece sticking out of its front. It is attached to a squat brass cylinder, from within which you can hear something gurgling.

There are two torches in sconces on the south wall, emitting a flickering light. There is a curtain to the west; it billows gently at the base, suggesting a room beyond it.

>>869111
Go west. Let's start the encounter in a brand new room!

>>869113
This, the current room is FAR to small to fight anything in

>>869111
Back then, she was sexy and you were stupid. And then you both @#$%ed up. And now you're either going to live or you're going to @#$% up and die.

Peek west, this place is small but should act as a good chokepoint.

I'd rather roll for an encounter in the known quantity of the last room than the one beyond.

I have a feeling that the west is gonna connect to the main room we entered at the beginning. I vote we go there for the encounter.

(Loving this art and writing style btw)

The Enchantress 2018/02/22(Thu)20:49 No. 869611 ID: a039ca
File 151936135789.png - (296.00KB , 1197x866 , 25.png )

On your final action you step toward the curtain. Roll result: 4.

As you quietly approach, voices from the other side of the mildewed curtain pin you in place. Two. You listen.

this hand is new. it's shaking. whose hand was this?

Some Cradoomish drifter's. A hhhuntsman before a delver, i think.

who told you that? valentin? its tendons dont know how to draw a bowstring. look. i'm shaking.

Are you sure it's the hhhand? Are you scared, sweetling?

i'm not scared.

I am. A little. Getting stabbed hhhurts, you know.

maybe me too a little. what if i don't shoot straight?

We don't hhhave to kill them, sweetling. Only start to.

but what if this is the last time? what if they reach her?

They won't.

i love her.

I know. I do too.

Thief, whispering: what in fuck are they gabbin on about

>>869611
*whisper* "About how they're going to utterly fail to protect their mistress because of us. At least one of them's an archer. Get ready..."

Raise your shield, try to block their attacks and protect your allies. The other two should focus on the offense.

Bust in there. Shield up with the thief covering and moving to either the right or the left side of the door depending on where the foes are.

The Enchantress 2018/02/26(Mon)10:46 No. 870281 ID: 5ad0eb
File 151967080417.png - (174.38KB , 1000x621 , 26.png )

You move through the curtain.

In the room beyond:
>Four high pillars, connected to a vaulted ceiling thirty feet up
>Two quadrupedal beast statues, flanking:
>A grand staircase upward onto a balcony
>Two armed figures

I don't believe you've met my two newest retainers. I love doing introductions.
This is Niclas. That is Tanja. They've heard so much about you.

The Enchantress 2018/02/26(Mon)10:46 No. 870282 ID: 5ad0eb
File 151967081889.png - (237.85KB , 1200x720 , 27.png )

Initiative results:
Party 4
Enemy 2

Turn around, Niclas says. He sounds rather gallant, doesn't he, when he avoids that H of his. Walk away.

>>870282
Charge the nearest one and keep him ocupied while your thief and mage focus down the archer

What, no "Hello?" No "How are you?" Not even a "Have at thee?" How haughty.
Keep a defensive position and countersnipe. Tanja should have a hearty supply of arrows to reclaim afterward - and you might find some in her quiver too.

The archer lacks will, they are nervous. Strike them without fear. The warrior though, that one is ready.

>>870289
Actually, the archer lacks sightlines from here, doesn't she? Thus, so do we. Everybody focus the tower shield. Magic Missile!

>>870282
"Counter-Offer: Flee or Suffer."

Shield bash the warrior. Mage uses a flashbang, Rouge dashes in to backstab while the archer's distracted.

"You know we cannot, just as you cannot. Prepare yourselves."

Less talk, more battering ram. Chaaaarge!