INUH's D&D game

ClockworkUniverse

(This is the in-character thread. If you're not playing in this campaign but want to comment on it, please stick to the out-of-character thread)

As you regain consciousness, the sight that greets you is almost as disturbing as the dreams you had. The dying gray light of sunset peeks through slits in the boarded windows, barely illuminating a yawning courtroom replete with pews and a towering bench covered in cobwebs. A shadowed mural on the domed ceiling above depicts a goddess of justice locked in mortal combat with a trio of evil gods, holding them at bay with her shining sword. You find yourself in a jurors' box, and you are not alone. In the other chairs, figures stir in the darkness, each emerging from troubling dreams into a new nightmare.

Hatter

"This... looks ominous." Sareth lurches to his feet, trying to regain his balance, then examines the room more closely. "Nice decorations. Classy."

It takes a moment for his blurry mind to register the figures nearby. Sareth's lips curl in a smile. "Oh. Oh, I get it. This is a courtroom, isn't it?"

All Nines

Killian's eyes crept open at the words of another man in the room, and he took only a glance over the box he was in. He pushed himself up from the chair he had been placed in and stood on the edge of the box, looking up at the mural in the courtroom and then at the largest bench in the room. The fact that this was a courtroom was plain, but the finer details -- the mural, the boarded windows, and the cobwebs -- left him wondering for a second before realizing that this was the old courthouse that was closed down after the trial of an executioner a while ago. Still rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he turned to see a single man already awake -- likely the one who had made the observation that roused him from slumber -- and eleven other people still asleep.

"Hello, there," Killian said to the other man. "I don't know about you, but I can scarcely remember the last time this courtroom had any people within."

ClockworkUniverse

(I should have clarified: there are 13 people in total in the room. The PCs aren't the only ones here.)

delta534

"What the hell just happend and how the fuck did I get here," Engelin mumbled as he woke up. As things became clearer, and the true nature of his surroundings became clear, he leaned over to a nearby juror and whispered "this is not going to be good, is it."

ClockworkUniverse

A gnome with a twisted nose in a raggedy, filthy jester's suit and caked makeup begins to stir. He looks around the courtroom and frowns.

"Is this some kind of joke? Because it isn't funny, and believe me, I know funny."

All Nines

"I'll say," Killian says to the fool. He then turns to Engelin and says, "Well, once the rest of these here 'jurors' are awake, we can look for the exit. Or you could look without them, if you'd prefer, really. But I think I'll stay for now. This is not the sort of place where a little man like me feels safe."

ClockworkUniverse

A half-orc with an imposing build sits up and looks around.

"Hmph. What the hell's going on here?"

His eyes land on the gnome. "Ebin Blithoddle? That you? Who're these folks? What's going on here?"

The fool, Ebin, starts laughing an extremely obnoxious laugh, revealing that he's missing a few teeth. "Halgrak? Halgrak Five-Toes?"

Ebin stops laughing when Halgrak shoots him an annoyed glare. The fool then takes out a sap and starts nervously twirling it on his finger. "No idea what this is. I just woke up, same as you."

Hatter

"So you've been here a while," Sareth reasons. "Alright."

He glances at the gnome, then bows, entirely without irony. "My name is Sareth D'Aran, at your service. May I inquire as to why we have been brought to this... place?"

ClockworkUniverse

The gnome laughs the same annoying laugh.

"Nah, I just got here, same as you. I haven't been here in this courthouse since they closed it down...wow, must be ten years ago now."

Hatter

Sareth looks in the general direction of the judge's seat, then at the witness box. "As I said, ominous. Fortunately, we don't appear to be the defendants, which makes this a better experience than last time I was in a courtroom." He squints, then looks over at the gnome. "Your eyes are better than mine. Do you see anyone else in the room, outside of the jury?" 

ClockworkUniverse

As you glance around the room, your gaze lands on a small evidence table in the corner with a bloody axe on it.

Ebin goes back to twiddling his sap. "No...well, I mean the three of you weren't on the jury, if that's what you mean."

An aging dwarf begins to stir and speaks in a gruff voice: "Is this tha old courthouse? Am I havin' a nightmare? Seems like they woulda started ten years ago."

Hatter

"You must be from the same town, then." Sareth's eyes narrow. "Where, precisely, are we?"

ClockworkUniverse

Ebin continues twiddling his sap and Halgrak glares laconically at the axe, so the dwarf explains.

"Ten years back, the executioner here, a cold-hearted bastard by the name o' Jarbin Mord, killed his wife and son with that axe over on the table there. So he was put on trial. It was th' last trial this courthouse ever saw; there was an earthquake th' day before, so they abandoned the building right after they hanged the bastard. Looks like someone didn' like our verdict, though."

You hear the sound of a match striking and turn to see a hobgoblin sitting in one of the juror's chairs. He takes a long drag from a cigar from the golden case sitting on his lap, pauses a moment, then says "What I don't get, though, is why they didn't bring the entire jury here. There were, of course, 13 of us. You three" -- he indicates Sareth, Killian and Engelin -- "and three of the sleepers weren't there. So the question, then, is what are you doing here?"

Hatter

"Maybe the brought me in because they thought I'd be partial to the defendant," Sareth replies, noting that the dwarf never answered his question. "Maybe the original jurors weren't available. What happened to them after the trial?"

ClockworkUniverse

The hobgoblin takes another drag from his cigar.

"Dunno. I only met them for the trial. That was years back. I'd say it was water under the bridge, but, well..." -- he gestures around the courtroom -- "apparently not."

Hatter

"This Jarbin Mord fellow - the executioner. When he was executed, who was the one who pulled the lever?"

ClockworkUniverse

The hobgoblin shrugs. "I was just on the jury."

The dwarf makes a fist. "I woulda liked ta pull th' lever meself."

Hatter

"Ah."

Sareth considers this for a moment. "What can you tell me about Jarbin Mord? What was he like as a person?" 

ClockworkUniverse

The hobgoblin is looking at the axe.

"Way I heard it, he didn't talk much or have many friends. Between that and the fact that he killed people for a living, there have been a lot of more surprising murderers."

Dynamod

Alandur woke up with a terrible headache, like he had been drinking too much hard liquor. a thumpin in his head harder than any drum beat in battle.

"where. the 'ell am I..." the dwarf grumbled, his vision distorted from the sleep in his eyes and the noise in his head. He tried to get up but hit body wouldnt allow it. from his peripheral vision he could see the shapes of others with him.

Hatter

Sareth points at himself. "Sareth. Meet Ebin, Halgrak, Engelin and Killian. Don't ask us why you're here, because we have no idea either."

Dynamod

"Well thats bloody beautiful innit?" he mumbles to himself. pushing against the floor with his arms, he leans against the wal. "Suppose my names Alandur. Considerin' the circumstances, I won't say nice to meet cha."

With his vision clearing up a bit, Alandur takes a good look around the room.

delta534

"Dwarf, I want to thank you for that information It helped me make sense of a vision/dream I had before waking up here. Now Sareth,Ebin, Halgrak,Alandur, and Killian did you all have a strange dream before waking up here as well." Engelin threw out there.

ClockworkUniverse

The jester frowns, then grins.

"Sure you didn't just get clonked on the head or drugged or whatever?" I wouldn't be surprised if that gave you some weird dreams."

Hatter

"I have many strange dreams," Sareth says, his lip curling. "Though I suppose that given our present predicament, it may be pertinent. Did you dream of your own execution as well?"

delta534

"No, my dream invovled a good looking women, a dark figure looming over her and her possible death. Though your dream of your own execution does help confirm my suspicions about a few things."

Dynamod

"No, not exatly..." Alandur said. "I remember... a monster? Or was it a man?" He wasn't quite sure himself, really.

Hatter

"And yet every one of us has had a strange dream with malevolent overtones," Sareth says. He thinks for a moment, then speaks. "Is anyone here acquainted with arcane lore?"

ClockworkUniverse

The dwarf speaks up. "Well, I'm not a wizard or anythin' like that, but I figure if the murder occured in th' hangman's apartment in th' attic and the killer was executed here in the courthouse, seems pretty obvious that some sort o' haunting or another's gonna happen."

All Nines

"Thus why I don't feel safe," Killian chimes in after some moments of silence. "Perhaps the hangman feels that he was wronged. Perhaps he just wants to take his frustration out on someone. Or at least, the dream I had was not one of fright, but one of . . . one that felt wrong, entirely. In any case, this courthouse gives that same vibe, even now that I am awake. Or maybe I'm just bored of this chattering and would like to move my legs a bit. Or maybe I am just offering a new perspective. You decide which; I don't even know." Killian laughs to himself.

"Good thing my captor was kind enough to leave me my knives." Killian's belt is full of blades.