Adventures of Krinsblag: School's Out

When last I wrote we had discovered a noticeable draft in a school library which probably had some undead as its cause. Deciding to hold off on poking that particular monster with a stick we went through the other rooms of the schoolhouse, discovering that someone had recently done an inventory of all the valuables in the town (most of which we had already grabbed) and a list of names, most of which had been crossed off. A continued search turned up little else and we decided to investigate the rest of the school before tackling whatever was hiding in the library. In one classroom we discovered a desk with particularly unusual graffiti, specifically the phrase "Want to get out" carved over and over into the desk. We did not have long to ponder this mystery though, as a gibbering horror the name of which I've forgotten came out of a supply closet and began attacking us. What I do know was it looked like a floating disembodied skull and hands and all attempts to cut it with my sword left me cutting nothing more than empty air. I was left to stand impotently in the corner with Grovetender while everyone else quickly dispatched the monster with magic. It was, by far, one of my saddest moments.

As soon as that gibbering horror was sent back to whatever hell it came from we again noticed the draft and a ghost entered the room demanding to know what was going on in his classroom, and became quite friendly when he discovered we had killed the monster. The ghost explained he was Deris Marlinken and had been headmaster of this school four hundred years ago before the event which had destroyed Absalom. Deris explained that although he had died, it seemed quite a few of the townsfolk had survived before they suffered some ill fate in the aftermath of the fall of Absalom. However, he has only recently become a ghost and does not quite understand why he's here rather than in whatever afterlife the gods have deemed appropriate for him. What he has figured out is that someone has been raising his former students as undead and he's been working to put them all back to rest. (We suspect Corrister may be behind the necromancy, but Deris was unable to confirm the identity of the man responsible.) Between Deris and ourselves all but two of his students have been put back to rest. Deris also mentioned that the two demigods who had burst into No Fun and facilitated our escape to the Isle of Fuck You had never left Absalom before, which implied that something very importantly mysterious had happened. Personally, it doesn't seem terribly important because not even Deris could tell us what would make them leave the island, so it puts us in precisely no position to do anything about it. Whatever the hell it is. 

We asked Deris if he could check the house covered in vines as, being a ghost, the whipweed and assassin vine would be unable to harm him. A short while and quite a few explosions later Deris had cleared the house of plant life and confirmed that none of his former students had been inside, which meant they probably weren't inside the town. (Interestingly the house proved to be Deris's house when he was alive and we vehemently denied that we had anything to do with his silver possessions going missing.) Deris suspected that the two remaining students may be at the town graveyard, a short distance away in a forest to the west of town. Deris also believed that his grave may have been disturbed recently, explaining his return to this plane in ghost form, and he would investigate himself but for some reason he was unable to leave the confines of the town. We assented to his request that we would investigate and planned on heading out into the forest the next day, as it had already grown quite late and none of us relished the prospect of prancing around a haunted graveyard in the middle of the night. 

Personally I'm still suspicious of Deris, but much of that seems to be because everyone else we've run into so far has either been entirely unhelpful or actively trying to dick us over. Deris doesn't seem to fall in either category, although part of me suspects that heading into the graveyard might be part of a nefarious plan of Deris's design. Not that we were going to stumble blithely into the graveyard in the first place, of course, but I'm still concerned. Feron tells me that I'm just paranoid and I need to relax, but he's been eating parts of his mushroom hat pretty frequently and seems detached from reality most of the time so I suspect he may be wrong. 

In the morning Deris saw us off from the edge of town  and we headed out into the Blight, along a dirt path leading towards a forest. As we proceeded deeper into the forest the path continued to disappear and the vegetation grew considerably denser. Unfortunately for us it proved to be yet more assassin vine which was so eager to give us a nice, big, bone-crushing hug. I think I certainly got the worst of their attention, Feron said the vines are carnivorous and I guess they just wanted a big, meaty meal. Their decision to hug me proved a fatal mistake, though, as I managed to kill two of the bastards with my bone-blades.* I'd have rather cut them up with my sword, but they didn't really give me the option to maneuver and most of my time was spent trying to keep them from eating me alive. We've manged to clear out this particular patch of forest, but if we stay anywhere too long the vines will be able to come after us. I just hope we won't have to do a lot of heavy bushwhacking to get to this graveyard. 

- Krinsblag

*Editor's note: Krinsblag's outsider bonding means that he has spikes growing out of his body which can be used against creatures (or plants) that decide to grapple him. This has not been mentioned before because it hasn't come up. Krinsblag also can make his armor turn into shrapnel twice a day, but again this hasn't really come up.