Part 31: I See Dead People

Update 20: I See Dead People




"Back to normal at last! That's the last time I step into a random magic pool in the middle of a cave."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Tarquinn."
"Oh, Little Drew, how I've missed you. Let's never part again."
"Drewjitsu, stop talking to your wang and help me cover the pool with these wooden boards before Jostiband comes back here."
"Wait, how exactly are you going to secure them? With nails? The floor's made of solid rock!"
"If you have a better plan, I can't wait to hear it. If not, start hammering."

Several hours later...



"Might as well get some training done while we're in town. Not that I need it with this sword, but the rest of you aren't so lucky."
"Well, you know what I always say: it's not the size of your sword that counts, it's whether you can incinerate someone with the power of your mind."
"I... don't think that's quite how the saying goes."
"What saying? I was just pointing out that I can set him on fire and he can't."
"But why would Tarquinn want to set himself on fire?"
"... never mind."



"The full powers of the blazing sun have been entrusted to me. I must not fail in my sacred quest. I will find the Inner Sanctum."
"And once you've found it, it's okay if the rest of us just take a bit of a look around for treasure, right?"
"Not so fast. I would be remiss in my duty to Radaso (may his light shine eternally) if I did not demand at least an equal share of any valuables, plus all artifacts of historical importance. All for the greater glory of the true church, of course."
"That's all very well, but does anyone have any ideas on where to find this Inner Sanctum? We've been searching for over a year and we're still no closer to finding it."
"How about looking for information in Dusk? It used to be a lost town, and we can't find the Inner Sanctum so that's lost too. Maybe the Inner Sanctum was lost because the only people who knew how to find it were in Dusk!"
"Makes sense to me!"



"Well, I can't say I have any better ideas. To Dusk it is, then!"



"Now, let's see here. According to this map I've been working on, there's a big part of the northwest corner of town that we haven't explored yet. It's at least worth a look."



"Here we are!"
"Hey, does anyone else smell rotting meat? I think I might have left my rations out in the sun for too long again."



"Or I guess it could be a pack of hungry ghouls seeking to rend the flesh from our bones so that they may feast upon it. That's okay, I'll just cast Turn Undead and--"



"Huh. Okay, time to smite them the old-fashioned way."

And smitten they were. Even without magic, ghouls are not much of a threat. Pressing on further, the party soon discovered where the ghouls had come from...



"Forbidden, eh? Well, then, there's a chance that we could be the first to plunder it. In we go!"



"So now we're graverobbers. I do believe we've hit a new low."



"This is a terrible idea, you know. There's quite obviously going to be some kind of deadly curse behind that door. Surely there are easier ways for us to satisfy our unending lust for wealth?"
"Maybe, but none of them are right here in front of us."



"I told you so."



"Hey, my magic is working again!"



"Two can play at that game."



"Whew. Well, at least we all survived."
"Hey, are you sure that killing undead in a city populated entirely by undead is such a great idea? For all we know, we just broke into the home of a whole bunch of law-abiding citizens and murdered them while they were trying to defend themselves."
"Yeah, but they're still undead so it's okay. Besides, Preacher knows Restore Alignment, right?"

There's no obvious reward for killing all those vampires, but there is a reason to go into this room: it's the only place in the crypt where it's possible to use magic and rest. If the party wanted to rest or heal without entering this room, they'd have to walk all the way back out of the crypt, possibly exposing themselves to random encounters along the way.

Why is being able to rest in the crypt so important, you ask? Oh, you'll see soon enough.

"Enough talk. We've got a crypt to loot!"



"Wow, I've never seen so many dead bodies in one place before. I mean, I've never seen so many that were already dead when we got there."



"Looks like some of them need to be reminded that they're dead."

Even without magic, the wights fall easily to the party's might.



The next fixed encounter is with a group of phantoms, which barely pose more of a threat than the wights.



"Dammit. I knew I shouldn't have lent my earplugs to Drewjitsu."



The party was victorious, but not before half of them were incapacitated by the banshees' wailing. Good thing they have a convenient formerly-vampire-filled room to rest in, isn't it?



Spectres are powerful, but not as deadly as banshees. Tarquinn and Successhands were knocked unconscious during the battle, but the outcome was never in doubt.



Last but not least, the party had to fight their way through a group of mummies.



Their attacks can cause disease, but apart from that they pose no real threat -- and a party not strong enough to cure disease has no business messing around with this crypt yet.



"Well, we've successfully broken into a crypt and desecrated the bodies of about fifty citizens of Dusk. I hope you're all proud of yourselves. Our ill-gotten gains had better be worth it."



"Oh, great. It's going to be a deathtrap or something, isn't it?"



"Huh. That's pretty good. Of course, an amulet that protects from paralysis woulda been a whole lot more useful before we ran into those damn banshees."
"Well, I think we've got what we came for. Time to turn around and go--"



"-- heeey, what's this? There's another sack here."



That's right, folks. Normally, to get this treasure again you'd have to reset the state of the town by leaving Dusk or visiting the inn, meaning that you'd have to fight through the crypt again when you returned (or if you were feeling particularly sly, Etherealise through the back wall of the crypt, grab the treasure and run away from the first monster encounter). But thanks to a bug in the Mac version of the game, the treasure doesn't disappear when you take it, so it's possible to just keep stepping on and off it and collecting loot until the cows come home. I'm not going to abuse it at the moment, so we'll settle for two amulets and a small fortune in gold and gems.



"This is the most shameful day of our lives."
"It sure is, if by 'shameful' you mean 'profitable'!"



"Great, so now I'm wearing two amulets around my neck. I feel like a hip-hop star or something."



"We found a new magic shield in the crypt too. It'll be just great for the next time something tries to attack us with electricity. Meanwhile, Preacher's got my old Fire Shield, which will only be useful against any of the ten or twenty monsters that cast Fireball... dammit, I think she got the better end of the deal here."



"I've traded in my Lightning Bow for a Flaming Bow, and Tarquinn gave me a magic ring!"
"There's only so much jewellery one man can wear. Two amulets is pushing it. Two amulets and a ring is right out."
"Why? Magical interference or something?"
"No, it just looks fucking ridiculous."



"I'm feeling a bit left out here. The only new equipment I've got since last time is what I was born with."



"On one hand, we're all horrible reprobates for robbing that crypt. On the other, I've got a better shield now. I suppose things could be worse."



"How come Preacher gets new spells and I don't? Oh well. At least I've got this magic robe, because my terrifying mental powers just weren't terrifying enough before."

Well, we've now seen more or less everything there is to see in the town of Dusk -- but we haven't yet explored the cavern beneath it. Tune in next update for a dungeon that's much, much more frustrating than I'm going to make it look!