DROWNED SORROWS - Revised fiction and a few quick stats!

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#1

She cries. You would cry too if you were in her place. She cries for the life she once lived, she cries for lost love, and she cries for the physical pain that she suffers. I reckon the pain alone would be enough to draw tears, but rest assured that she cries for those other reasons as well. She has to live with her pain and regrets, but I will drown in her sorrows.

Mardigan the Magician was a damn fool. He was a world renowned wizard and scholar, and he was filthy rich because of it, but he was also a fool. Those riches of his drew so-called friends and female admirers like shit draws flies, and they took what they could from him while he had his nose in his books.

Mardigan could have made a wife out of any woman in the kingdom, but he chose Celia Leone. And who could really blame him? Celia’s beauty was unrivaled, as was her notoriety. Celia Leone was better known as the Weeping Widow, due to the fact that she had lost two prior husbands to sickness. Two very wealthy husbands.

Celia had it better than ever with Mardigan. Her life was perfect. She had fame, she had coin, and she had as many lovers as she could hide in plain sight under Mardigan’s nose.

Greed eventually lead Celia to convince one of her lovers to help her to murder Mardigan in his sleep. She would have lived happily ever after with all of his fortune if it weren’t for one thing. Mardigan had prepared for his eventual demise. He had been oblivious to his surroundings for so long because he had spent much of his time in his study, becoming acquainted with the dark arts. Mardigan was preparing to become a lich.

The lich’s revenge was ugly, and it was calculated. It’s not really known what happened to Celia’s lover and co-conspirator, but Celia herself was imprisoned in the luxurious mansion that she killed to obtain. Suspended in the air high above Mardigan’s trophy room, cursed and undying, and crying forever for her lost love and the life she once knew. She must have been there for at least four hundred years by the time I laid eyes on her. It must hurt like hell to be that old.

Treasure hunting is a job that tends to have more misses than hits, but I had a good feeling about this one. I thought my life would turn around when I found the map to these old ruins. Mardigan’s lost fortune, untouched for centuries and all mine for the taking! I got in easy enough… but the damn door closed behind me, and it won’t open back up… and the Weeping Widow won’t stop her damn crying. Can’t reach her to shut her up… This room is sealed up tight now and I can’t find any way out…

So many tears… That wailing… I can’t think straight… How long have I been here? The water is up to my chin now… I suppose I’ll drown in her sorrows.

THE WEEPING WIDOW

Room Target Number - 12

The Weeping Widow is suspended in air high above Mardigan’s treasure filled trophy room. Her tears cause the water level in the room to rise three feet every 1D4 ROUNDS.

The door to Mardigan’s trophy room will become magically locked and require 4 HEARTS of effort to open.

Those who hear the Widow’s wails require a CON save once per round or suffer crippling anxiety, essentially forfeiting their actions for the round.

The Widow can be given mercy via the sweet release of death, ending the threat of her cries, but she is magically fortified by Mardigan’s curse and has 4 HEARTS. All attacks against her are HARD!