Surprisingly, despite our bank of heroisms-du-jour -- whether that be arson, or throwing people out of windows, or rather ill-fated forest hikes -- all this family seemed to be interested in was propping up their progressively deteriorating house. While I found their single-mindedness admirable, it did seem a bit excessive. ... Creepy, actually. We began to suspect that is was, in fact, the house itself that was the source of corruption. It's fortunate that the family was completely oblivious to our increasingly criminal activities, because it allowed us to investigate more fully. Sure enough, a closer look of their strangely unburned roof (although not from lack of trying on our part) revealed a large, glowing symbol. After a short discussion, the tall dwarf reduced the cursed roof to a pile of kindling. Winning! ... Sort of. Because instead of saving the family, they were turned inside out and suffered horrible, agonizing deaths. Wonderful.
It seemed about the right time for a speedy exit, when we discovered a nearby corpse missing half his face and his left arm. He was also clutching a free drink coupon from a brothel up the road. Now, I'm usually suspicious of free drink coupons in the first place, but especially other peoples' unspent free drink coupons. Suspecting trouble at the brothel (after all, could there be another reason for an unredeemed coupon?), we set off.
Now, brothels put me on edge. I get that same sort of feeling I get walking into a casino, just sort of... defensive. Have to play smart, now. These places almost always end up being breeding grounds for anonymous degenerates. Shockingly, my mates didn't waste much time before redeeming the coupon and plunging themselves into sad, desperate female genitalia. I sat back and played along as much as I could, while trying to get information out of the girls.
First red flag: the place is dead. The girls look bored. That's never a good sign. After some investigation, we discovered that by some luck, girls killed by Therans reanimate into horrific, tentacle-y monsters. Incidentally, they also reanimate into much better dancers, which seemed to be cause for considerable animosity amongst the normals. Seeing as though my party mates had just become very ... good friends with these girls, they were determined to destroy their corrupted, unnatural, albeit more talented, competition. Sometimes they're so chivalrous. But they lack subtly. I was left to get us into the star dancer's room, which was trivial considering I knew I could manipulate her low self-esteem and hopeless hunger for fame, which the promise of a feature in the next issue of Tentacle Monthly. She totally fell for it -- win! -- and we got in, but the fight didn't go so well. In fact, it was such a disaster that we determined that burning down the whole complex was the only other solution. Subtly doesn't always work, after all.
So, another charred, hollow shell of civilization behind us, we went in search of the Therans who began this mess. We followed our leads to a nearby village, where we were told their airships stopped for a time. Interestingly, they stopped right above the house of one Charles D. Ward, the same slimy miscreant from Gnarles Barkley. Although he wasn't at home, a quick look told us that this house, too, bore the same glowing mark as the dwarf family's homestead. So, natually, we gave it the same treatment: burning to the ground and destroying the roof. How do you like them apples, Charles D. Ward?
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