Chapter 1Who's Laughing Now?Having received all the information they need, James, Bruce, Jordan and Samuel proceed out of the tomb and onto the road, leaving both Philip and Vincent behind.
All four of them proceed on the trail away from the cottage. They venture through the foreboding woods for about a quarter of an hour until they reach the cobbled road to Richardsburgh. From here, you can go to the east and to the west.
[Bruce willpower: 1]
[James willpower: 6]
Suddenly,
Bruce starts screaming!
"There's no way out! It's a labyrinth, I tell you! A labyrinth! We're all going to DIE!"He is about to collapse in hysteria when
James, visibly irritated by his panicking, punches him in the liver, where the melancholic and choleric fluids are said to reside!
[James strength: 4+1=5]
Bruce is too preoccupied with thoughts of imminent death to try and dodge the blow, and it connects! There is a flash of clarity in his eyes! The fear inside him reels! He straightens out and clears his throat.
"Right then. Where were we?"James has KO'd Bruce's fear! Who knew physical violence was a viable method of psychiatric treatment? Science has triumphed once more!
Jordan, meanwhile, decides that he's had enough of walking around unarmed and proceeds east, away from the rest, looking for some people to waylay and rob.
[Jordan search roll: 1]
Jordan proceeds, moaning about the walk like any true zombie would. There don't seem to be any people around here. There is a little bear, though. He attempts to rob it, but it doesn't seem to have anything worth stealing. He starts to ponder how best to execute it for this horrible insult when a
far larger, angrier bear shows up, murder on its mind. Specifically, Jordan's murder.
At the same time,
Samuel chooses to go west. In less than an hour, he has reached the small village of Richardsburgh. Richardsburgh is composed of fifteen small houses spaced in a circle around the major landmark of the area, the Errant Spark Inn. The inn is famous throughout the north for its service quality, friendly staff and well-trained servi. It is also the prime hangout for students of the nearby
Erland University of Divine Mysteries, also known as the
University of Magic. As such, it gets vast amounts of traffic throughout the year.
Samuel walks through the peaceful village and settles down in the shadows near the front entrance of the inn, waiting for some drunk, hapless victims to come out.
[Drunk, hapless victim roll: 3]
The door opens, and Samuel hears the sound of a
jolly folk tune played on a lute and accompanied by many singing voices. A mildly inebriated gentleman of about 30 or so years dressed in peasant clothes comes out of the inn. He is carrying a splendid oaken walking stick. He is slowly walking towards the edge of the village, admiring the object in his hands.
"Man, I should cheat at cards more often! Wait till my wife and kids see this! They'll be so happy to hear that they don't need to do any slave-work this week!"Samuel decides that this victim is about as good as any.
[Samuel vs. Cheater: 6 vs. 5-2 (surprised and mildly inebriated)]
Samuel leaps from the shadows with skeletal alacrity and grabs the Cheater! Using the power of pent-up frustration and greed, he locks his bony arms around his neck in an iron grip and tries to snap it! He doesn't really manage the neck snap, being somewhat of a novice at killing people, but he does crush his trachea nicely after about five minutes of effort! The Cheater suffocates, having never seen this coming until it was too late.
Time to loot! Samuel grabs the
splendid oaken walking stick and carefully undresses and searches the farmer. He finds fifteen copper coins and some
loaded dice! He takes them and grabs his
clothes, too. Having looted everything, he returns to the shadows.
Meanwhile, back at the mausoleum,
Vincent attempts his signature laugh. Having no vocal chords, he has to settle for chattering his teeth like some infernal contraption of amusement.