Plagues and Princesses - The Lucying - Session 17
So when they arrive at stereotypical creepy house, it’s easy to find the wee trail of blood leading to a bookcase. Behind the bookcase are some stairs that lead to the dungeon below.
First room has a pedestal, with a flower on it, and 5 doors, 2 on each side, and one at the end, which has 4 locks. The arrow points to the room you just came through, and the petal made of white glass, fall and shatters on the floor. Approach it, and it the arrow spins, pointing to the room just to the left of where you came in.
This room is a puzzle room, with a table and bookcases filled with mysteriously blank books. Years ago Finnula wrote Emmett a polite brush-off letter in response to his advances, but it’s been torn up. Using the words provided, you could make 2 versions - the one Finnula wrote, or the one Emmett wants to read. Writing his letter will cause a book to fall from the shelf, and reveal the key.
The petal nearest the room you came out of shatters, and the arrow spins to the door opposite the book room. There are two thrones inside, with an flower-golem perched on each. The Emmett-Golem has a key where his heart should be, but getting closer to either will cause the Finnnula-Golem to try and beat you to death. She packs a punch. Drax levitates the key out of Emmett-Golem's chest, and you quickly flee the room.
Same deal with the flower petals, pointing to the room with the mirror. The room is lined with mirrors, reflecting scenes from Finnula’s life, a smile, taking a bath, at a ball, culminating in a huge one behind a black curtain on the far wall, featuring Finnula feeding her baby. It’s live. They look for a memory that is out of place, not a happy moment. They find one with of a violent altercation between her and her husband, and smash it. They're persecuted by shards of broken glass. Then they find one with a lock in it, Finnula smiling while looking through a jewellery case. Behind that one is an alcove, with a key in it.
The room with the heart is next. It’s simple enough, do enough damage, the heart dies, and you can get another key falling from the ceiling. However, it’s Emmett’s heart, and remembers every cold word said to him. Good news - it’s willing to share them. Bad news - they affect you in quite a tangible way. Anything that made Emmett feel small, gets repeated and reduces your height. Someone made him feel ugly? Guess who gets pus-filled boils! Destroy the heart, and remove your various ailments.
They’ve got all 4 keys now, and can unlock the door, into that weird room with the rug. Don’t step on the rug. It’s a trap, but the real trick is the writing which appears on the door. Backwards it’s a love poem, so you must go back through the door. Sorry about the 5 foot drop into darkness. The next door you have to kiss (ewww) to get through to the next room. This room has a bed and fine silk sheets. Once again, there’s 3 doors other than the one you came through, one with 2 locks. Bodie sits on the bed, and becomes rather amorous. This is directed at Drax, and many lewd comments are sent his way, till Gre drags him off the bed.
The first room to the right opens you up to a dream version of Emmett’s future. There’s a lovely boy who runs up to you crying “daddy!”, and Finnula waiting with love for you to come home. She’s made a nice meal, and you need a will save to want to disbelieve it. Everyone makes it but Dom, who takes a few rounds to break out. But when he does (Finnula will insist she’s real, and cry and such), the illusion will break, and it’s actually a dungeon, complete with shackles. There’s a key on the hook on the wall.
The next room, with the two ghosts, has two graves, one for Emmett, and one for Finnula. The epitaph says how wonderful they were and how much she loved him. Start digging to engage the ghosts, which are placated by Dom's excellent bluff. He pretends to be Emmett JR, and they give him the key to their home. They hold hands, and go to the bed of unnatural horniness, and begin to bang.
Through the 2-lock door, you find Henley in a cage, made of 2 portcullis spanning the width of the corridor. He warns you not to step on a pressure plate in the floor. He's been trapped in here since he fwooshed ahead of the party, and really needs to wee. You stand on the pressure plate, letting down the second portcullis, and after some searching, he finds a button at the far end of the room, lowering the first one. You proceed into the little underground bedsit where Emmett is holed up. Henley lurks outside the door, not sure of what side to cast his vote on.
Dom gets right up in there with some very angry lines of questioning, which distract Emmett from his big-bad fuckoff spell. He eventually tires of being interrogated, and opens hostilities with a mindstab. Gre and Bodie then beat him to death. Once the wizard is dead, Henley jumps in and casts fireball, claiming he's helping.
Ememtt's body and persona effects are rescued from the inferno, and taken back to the capital. His corpse is cut into multiple pieces, and buried in different parts of the realm.
Henley begins his punishment with helping the guild locate and destroy all of Emmett's bunkers. He has a long road to redemption.
Finnula tells her husband to fuck off. She eventually remarries, and has 2 other children, both white. She settles in Dunthorpe with her new family.
Hilde persecutes Damien for spousal abuse. When he is released from prison in 10 years, he can only find work as a lowly captain of the guards.