"This is not ideal for you, but I cannot help but support the necromancer here."
Event[]
According to local rumour, the necromancer has taken Hull town's dead deep into the haunted bogs.
"You must traverse the disorienting marshes, open the cursed door, and then!" Nobody knows that awaits behind that door..."
You traverse the disorienting marshes....
Wheel Gambit (Fast, Press Select at +1.25 cards from Success)
Success
- You squeeze past a fallen swamp cypress and come face to face with a small stone door blocking the way into a cave.
- The door has no handle. Carved into the surface is a pair of stone hands, cupped like a beggar. The palms are stained with dried blood.
- 1) Use your blood. (Draw 1 Life Pain Card)
- You slice your elbow and let the blood drip into the cupped hands.
- The player draws a Life Pain Card.
- Something clicks, and the stone door grinds open.
- Steps lead down into a flooded cave, lit by smoking lanterns.
- You descend the slick, stone stairs until you are standing knee deep in chilly water.
- The air is thick with the stench of death.
- A) Press on.
- You wade silently through the water.
- Severed limbs in various states of decay bob on the surface of the water.
- The corridor ahead of you is blocked by a dangling spike trap. Cruel and jagged, it sways gently overhead, threatening to tumble down at the slightest provocation.
- 1) Press on.
- Chance Cards Gambit (1 Huge Success, 3 Huge Failure)
- Huge Success
- (insert text here)
- Huge Failure
- With a terrible snap, the jagged metal structure drops from the ceiling.
- The player draws 3 Max Life Pain Cards.
- The cavern opens up beyond the spike trap. Abandoned corpse-wagons are stored here, their contents spilling out into the tepid waters.
- A) Press on.
- A burial shroud floats by as you slosh through the water.
- ["What hideous soul could do such things?" Ariadne's usually-cheerful face is set in a grimace.]
- You continue through the cavern. A sinister chanting resonates in the distance.
- In the gloom, you barely stop yourself from walking into the path of a pendulous stone scythe, swinging back and forth in the tunnel ahead.
- You spy a wooden lever on the other side.
- Old blood is caked on the blade of the heavy stone scythe. You think you see a clump of hair.
- 1) Jump through!
- Precision Gambit (1 tiny stationary Huge Success, 1 large moving Huge Failure, 3 medium moving Huge Failure)
- Huge Success
- The stone blade barely misses your body as you roll underneath.
- You wipe the cold sweat from your brow and pull the lever. The blade creaks to a noisy halt.
- Failure
- You fling yourself back before the blade takes off your head.
- Too soon!
- Repeat gambit
- Huge Failure
- (insert text here)
- The smell of death fills your nostrils and brings tears to your eyes.
- A) Press on.
- The chanting gets louder and louder as you step into a large chamber and come face to face with a macabre tableau.
- Corpses rise from a deep wide pit as the necromancer, his robes soaked with blood, manipulates them with dark magic, tearing flesh from bone.
- The chanting reverberates loudly through the cavern, its source unknown.
- "Oh a visitor!" The chanting stops abruptly, and the rising bodies tumble back into the pit.
- "Hello there!" The necromancer wipes his bloody hands on a cloth, taking umbrage at your horrified stare. "Oh no! This isn't what it looks like."
- "I'm trying to find this man, you see. I promised to resurrect him, along with his whole troop, but I can't remember any of their names!"
- "So I've just been resurrecting anybody that I can - hopefully he's one of them. Don't look at me like that, the system works! I've got a few of them already-" A small group of skeletons wearing ancient armour wave at you, sheepishly. "-this last chap is the only one left."
- "Say what you want about me," the necromancer sniffs, "but I don't break promises! If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it!"
- 1) Suggest that he ask the skeletons.
- "How foolish! They can't speak! Oh but-" he slaps his forehead in realisation. "They have hands and can write, presumably!"
- The skeleton troop gesture at each other excitedly.
- The necromancer hurries to a table, sweeps a torso onto the ground, and pulls out a quill.
- One of the skeletons walks to the bureau and awkwardly pens a name.
- "Thim...the...Vigilant! Oh, we've got it!" The necromancer dances around, happily. "This wall save me a lot of time and pain - I get a lot of arrows shot at me, you know."
- "Thank you! Here, you're from Hull, aren't you?" He points at a familiar carriage across the cave, still piled with the corpses you had collected. "They should all be there."
- The player gains 8 Fame.
- The necromancer smiles. "I know! You should take this lot out for a bit of fresh air and adventure! I won't need them hanging around now. Just let them come home once in a while to see if their friend is back."
- The skeleton troop wave their spears and rattle their bones gleefully.
- The player gains this card's token.
- Encounter Ends.
- 2) Suggest that he try the Great Library.
- B) Turn back.
- 2) Let [your Companion] jump through! (Lose [your Companion] for 3 turns)
- 3) Turn back.
- B) Turn back.
- 2) Let [your Companion] go through.
- 3) Turn back.
- B) Turn back.
- 2) Use [your Companion's] blood. (Lose [your Companion] for 3 turns)
- (insert text here)
- 3) Give up.
Life Pain
- You slip and fall in the mud, landing awkwardly on your elbow.
- The player suffers the drawn Life Pain.
Warm rain soaks your cloak and dampens your spirit.
1) Continue your search.
- (insert text here)
2) Give up.
- The necromancer will stay hidden in the marshes.
- Encounter ends.
Unlocked By[]
Acquire the token for Carriage of the Departed.
Token Unlocks[]
For convincing the necromancer to stop stealing corpses, your Supplies have been added to.