Vesper's Diary: Contemplating Beautiful Torture While the World Sleeps

 A write-up on my ACKS campaign run by Tenkar on G+ on Saturday night, from the POV of my character Vesper, the Nightblade.

Well, we went back into these caverns again.  Now we encountered ghouls, ice things, and statues and stone spiders.  What the fuck.  The only thing I can think is that this was a dragon's lair.  I will interrogate the entire village harshly if need be to determine what the hell we are into here.  We told the villagers we would help deliver them from their own guilt coming back to haunt them, by virtue of killing off the ghouls of the women they poisoned and gave to the dragon.  Presumably the dragon died by eating them.  When did this happen exactly? Where's the dragon corpse?  Where are the bones?  Not even a dragon tooth on the village inn wall?  Something stinks here, and it ain't the lizard man for once.  Speaking of which, I've heard you can make a powerful suit of plate from the scales of a dragon, and red dragon scales give extra protection against fire.  I don't know if this is true, but I would love to find out.

I will pose to the group in the morn that we ask the villagers a few things, under pain of death, or at least horrible torture if need be (note to self, may need to have the lizard man and the countryboy scout out the land around while I do this—-I think the mage may be on board for this form of research, but I will have to feel him out):

1.  Where was the dragon's lair?  When was the dragon killed?  Where did the sacrifice take place exactly?

2.  What happened to his corpse?

3.  What happened to his treasure?

4.  If the dragon ate the women, how are they corporeal now as ghouls?  Red dragons burn shit right? I assume that means he burnt them before eating.  Which would have likely burned out the poison.

5.   Were the women buried?  If so how did they get the corpses from the belly of the beast?

6. What is the history of the area as relates to the burial area we have been exploring?  It went from mausoleum, which seems to old for the ghouls we are killing to be the women sacrificed to the dragon, to a weird ass fucked up lair of some sort.  Likely a series of rooms and traps designed to protect the dragon and his treasure.  Or something else.

7.  How the fuck did a podunk little shit village like this manage to develop a poison that killed off a dragon which is powerful enough to have such guardians as ice things and stone things and spider statues?  If indeed it is his lair.  If its not, we need to learn more on the history of this place before we go in.  Blackmarsh may have more info on it, as I understand the temples there have detailed histories of the lands around, and have a rich resource by way or funded and endorsed adventurers who may have info they relayed to the priests.  

8.   If we get no good answers from the villagers, I am tying as many of the children up as I can find and bringing them with me to the next excursion to act as trap detectors.

9.  If we can't get more info before heading in, I will vote to go to Blackmarsh to determine better what we are in for if we dig further.  I don't want to go in blind.  Killing ghouls is one thing.  But I don't like puzzles, especially ones that may lead to my death.  Especially if I think someone is holding out on me in terms of info that may help to keep me alive.  I could give a fuck about this village and the worthless dogs that dwell within it.  I just want the loot, magic and power that stems from the slaying and explortation.

It's so hard to keep up my mask as a goody-two-shoes with this group.  I must work harder at it, so it doesn't slip off at the wrong time.

Now I must meditate on the many torture techniques I learned under my master, to my great pain and enjoyment, as my companions do that human thing called sleep.