Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Previous Chapter 33 The Search For Dark Gifts — Next Chapter 35 The Tower
Being an actual play of Curse of Strahd, using Precis Intermedia Games’ Iron & Gold, with Mythic as the GM.
34 - A Lich In Time[1]
Back in the library, Hrelgi sat down with one of the books while Ninefingers searched for another secret door[2] on the western half of the room.[3] He got to the end of the wall and started again. Ninefingers muttered, “There has to be another exit. It doesn’t make sense that there would be only one.”
Felewin was checking his shield. Hrelgi was coveting books by title. Uthrilir was over in a corner, praying. Ezmerelda and Kasimir were exchanging information.
Ninefingers made a satisfied sound. He knocked three times and the door opened into the library.
The room it revealed was empty.
“Closet for cleaning supplies?” Uthrilir asked.
“Almost certainly a hallway,” said Ninefingers. “I’ll find these doors and then I need you lot in with me before we go farther.”[4]
“Done.” He used the mallet on a loosening rivet, then re-fastened the leather covering. “Ezmerelda, when we get somewhere warmer, I would like that skin to make a new leather cover for the shield.”
Ezmerelda shrugged. “Of course.”
Ninefingers said, “Got it!”
They followed him into the small hallway, and Ninefingers opened the door. The next room was tall and contained the trappings of royalty: the furniture was orate, the rugs and tapestries were exquisite, and small tables everywhere held lit candles in candelabras. (There were no wax drippings.) Everything was covered by thick dust and cobwebs.
Standing in the centre of the room was a decrepit skeleton clad in tattered robes. Red pinpoints of light burned in its eye sockets. It asked, in a quavering voice, “Do I know you?”
Before Felewin could answer, Ninefingers said, “Yes.”
“I’m afraid…you have the advantage of me. I do not remember you.” He wheezed, a dry chuckle. “Of course, I don’t remember my name either, so you have twice the advantage of me.”
Mindful of Felewin’s penchant for the truth, Ninefingers carefully said, “We’re here because of Strahd.”
The skeleton — “Lich,” Hrelgi whispered — waved him off with a bony hand. “I’m not interested. I just want to stay here with my books and spells.”
“We’ll accept that. If you would just take us out?” Ninefingers asked.
“Oh. I don’t see why you’d need my help.”
“The skulls,” said Ninefingers. “The trap in the room with the feast. Easier to get by if you show us.”
“Well….I guess. Certainly. Rahadin, that was your name,” he said to Hrelgi. “I approve of the change of look. Much more colourful.”
“I thought it went better with the amber,” said Hrelgi.
The lich wheezed again. “You’ve managed to suppress the screaming, that’s good.”
“I’m with people,” Hrelgi admitted, not knowing what he meant.
“They are an odd lot. I’m sure I’d remember them. Well, let’s be off.”
He glided to one wall, found a secret door, and opened it. That led into a tall hallway with an iron chest fastened to the ceiling. Another secret door led them into a room with a statue of the faceless wizard; at the statue’s feet were the corpses of two wizards. With the cold, it was impossible to say how long they had been there.[5] The lich traveled through an archway to a set of amber doors that led them out onto broken balcony they had seen.
The lich asked pleasantly, “You’ve met Neferon?”
“No, haven’t had the pleasure,” Ninefingers said.
“Arcanoloth in the statue. Quite likes being alone, has another few thousand years left on his contract.” The lich shook his head. “Don’t know what we’ll do when he’s done. I hope I’ll still be around when he’s gone.”
“Are you not immortal, sir?” Uthrilir asked.
“Have you taught him nothing, Rahadin? The body of a lich must be renewed regularly, which is easily done with magic.”
“Which I assume you have done?” Uthrilir asked gently.
“I’ll get to it soon,” the lich said evasively.
“May I renew your body for you?” Hrelgi asked.
“Oh. Of course, that would be lovely. But, let me say”—and here he lowered his voice but it was still easily audible to everyone in the room—“that I don’t quite remember the spell. If you could renew my mind, that would be the loveliest thing.”
“I do not have that skill, I’m afraid,” said Hrelgi. “But I can help your body.”[6] She touched him while murmuring the words of the spell.
“Why, that feels marvelous. I am sure that demilichdom is far in my future,” said the lich. The red spots of light in his eye sockets were brighter now, but still not large. “I shall remember that good deed.”
“My pleasure, sir. Shall we continue?”
“Of course. He led them into the feast room, where nothing happened.
There were no flame skulls in the hallway, and the lich stopped, confused. “Is this the right hallway? There are usually flame skulls here, and they never leave the hallway. I told them not to. It looks like the right hallway…”
“Go back and consult your texts,” Hrelgi said. “We can make it from here.”
“Of course, of course,” the lich said. “Why are you here again?”
“Strahd,” said Hrelgi.
“Strahd can’t leave!” the lich said angrily. “You tell him that. The vestiges here made his home, and they feed off the turmoil he creates in this world. They won’t let him leave, won’t let him return his dark gift. In fact, I have half a mind to destroy you all as a message!”
“But then how will he hear the message?” Hrelgi asked. “Let us go and tell him.”
“Right. Right,” and suddenly he was calm again. “Off you go.” The lich turned around and re-entered the feast room, saying “Hello” to something in there.
Ninefingers asked, “Run?”
“Run,” agreed Felewin.
It was night by the time they returned to the room with the fissure, and the mountain folk were gone. Felewin checked the horses, who seemed fine. The exiting mountain folk had tramped a path through the new snow.
Hrelgi heated a section of wall for them, and they bedded down for the rest of the night.
In the morning, Felewin asked Hrelgi, “Do you think you can create a rend to the building of the pass?”
Hrelgi got the faraway look that meant she was consulting her internal map. “Almost as good: I can get us to the Luna River crossroads. Getting horses and everything will exhaust me but I think I can do it.”
“From there, we can take the trail to the wizard’s tower,” said Ezmerelda.
“Could you get us to the Raven River crossroads?”
“Too far. I can’t do it in one try, and I will probably be so exhausted from the first rend that I doubt I will be able to do more.”
“That’s what I was thinking: the pass and indoors; you rest up, and then the Raven River crossroads. That minimizes the time we spend on the road.”
Hrelgi thought about it. “I can probably do that.”
Ninefingers said, “What was that thing about Rahadin and screaming?”
Kasimir said, “The spirits of every person he has killed is trapped and screams at you in a psychic cacophany.” He noticed lint of some kind and picked it off his cloak.
“I hope we don’t meet him,” said Ninefingers.
Previous Chapter 33 The Search For Dark Gifts — Next Chapter 35 The Tower
Monsters
We met the lich but never needed combat. In the same sense, the nothics are essentially plot devices.
Game Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: Waste Technology (PC Positive)
[2] Mythic: East or west? 78%, west.
[3] Ninefingers fails his first Investigation roll (rolls a 10, margin -1). Second roll is 7, margin 2, which succeeds. The next roll is a 2.
[4] Mythic: North or west? 67% West.
[5] I’m going to say that the statue has no effect while they’re with Exethanter the lich.
[6] Hrelgi needs to roll F. Materia/Salubrity. If she had F. Mentus, she could combine that with F. Materia to heal his mind, but she doesn’t. Hrelgi rolls a 5, margin 4, so she helps the Lich’s body.
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