Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement

A Town Out Of Time (Part I)

Arriving in the port town of Gallegos, you discover that there are no signs of life anywhere. Reggie elects to dive overboard in his full plate armor and swim to shore so he can scurry down into the town’s mine and explore while The Pale Mist and the rest of its passengers dock and disembark. Reggie emerges from the mine with a chunk of quartz as Thogun detects a faint rustling movement across town.

Moving away from the docks and into the town proper, you head to the local tavern and find the residents there seemingly frozen in time. While Thogun explores more serious endeavors (like casting Greater Restoration to confirm that the affliction isn’t related to the Petrified condition), Whispersail and Reggie explore other avenues, like whether they can move around and pose the residents, and whether the laws of gravity apply to them.

As you continue to pursue the source of the noise, Whispersail casts an illusion to try and convince Reggie the sound everyone else hears is the spoken word “chicken farts.” The actual sound of the disturbance actually happens to be a roaming Maurezhi demon, which Antonio sneaks up on, but Reggie doesn’t fare as well with trying to replicate. Alerted to your presence, the Maurezhi attacks and, despite the quick finish where Whispersail and Antonio made short work of it before Reggie could even take a turn, the skirmish alerts five other Maurezhi in the vicinity. They all attack and while you make short work of these lesser demons, before you can finish off the last one, you are unsettled by the sounds of additional unholy forces arriving...


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273 words

Written for "The Bradbury"