Horror in the North Tower

10th Ator, 352AS, Kularni

It was the dark of the moon in the month of Ator when Fluff and Smily’s assigned guard duty came round. They were joined by Whistler and two unnamed guards who wore red leather armour.
The tower was part of the Kularni town wall, but obviously was much older than the rest of the town.. A request from Whistler to take his horse with him had been turned down, but it was obvious that the ground floor was a stables of some kind. Climbing up to the next floor, they found a fireplace and some sleeping mats (sacks of straw). There was no firewood. A locked door was investigated but there was no way of opening it. They surmised it led to the top of the tower. A guard rota was drawn up and they settled down for the night.

Fluff awoke to feel icy claws at his throat and a hideous face leering over him, its jaws gaping. He rolled over and stood, yelling an alarm and grabbing his sword. Over on one side he saw the body of one of the guards, torn into several pieces. Another of the creatures stood there. A third leapt out of the shadows at Whistler and raked him with a claw; Whistler felt a burning sensation from the claws passing. He pulled his sword and stood, as did Smily and the other guard. “Ghouls”, the guard screamed, “may Vardu protect us”.

Fluff was clawed badly; he felt a horrible burning sensation spread from the wounds, freezing his muscles in vicious cramp-like spasms. Smily and a ghoul faced off, the ghoul missed but Smily’s sword bit deep. Whistler and the guard leapt forward to attack; Whistler struck a mighty blow and decapitated the ghoul that was about to feast on the paralysed body of Fluff. “Do these things stay dead?”, he yelled to the guard. But there was no answer; the guard lay in two pieces on the floor.

A desperate battle then ensued to stop the ghouls getting to Fluff, who was taking damage but was helpless to prevent it. Finally, Fluff collapsed, bleeding badly; Smily took out one of the ghouls but Whistler was bitten and paralysed by the other. Now it was down to Smily, who faced off against the ghoul. A superb blow, well hit, cleaved the ghoul in two.

Aftermath
Fluff and Whistler recovered from the paralysis, but Fluff was badly injured (below 0 hp!). The picked him up and pegged it from the tower. They couldn’t get out of the town as the gates were locked; but they managed to sleep at Janis’s.

(BJ’s note: The combat was played out in full by Ben and I. It really did go down to the wire; If Smily had failed to kill the last ghoul and it had got him………

All xp awards will be made at start of next session)

Edit: 19.12.08: The changes made to the way that hit points are now calculated means that Fluff got a little bit less hurt. He was still KO'd though.