While you contemplate, the now-bloody revenant smashes into the stone door once more, a groan escaping its undead lips, its eyes wild with fury.
Selena nods at Seldon's wisdom. I will try then so we don't get too close to the revanant. Stand back though as I don't know if this will work or what is on the other side of the door..
Knock from arcane bond
Watching the revenant closely and quietly, Mirela suddenly has a vision of herself in such a pitiful state. Shaking her head to dispel the thought, Mirela pipes in nervously "Do you think this is where Aldern is hiding? Has she led us to him... I'm not sure I even want to know what, or who is behind that door."
As Selena fires of her spell, Mirela flinches as the door gives. Whispering quietly to herself, the young acrobat draws her blade "Desna have mercy on my soul."
"We should hit it while its distracted." Tunder wrings his hands around Rumilda in anticipation.
"Much as I don't like it, she's looking for something other than us. I'd like to see what that is."
While Tunder takes the measure of the undead revenant, Selena casts her portal opening spell on teh locked door. With a loud crack, it opens just as the revenant charges it again; with the door unlocked she stumbles over it, but her cry as she falls is more of triumph than pain.
The stumble by the revenant allows the party to enter the room first. The air in this damp cavern reeks of a horrific stench -- a foul combination of decay, brine, and mold. The cave contains a rickety table, its damp surface cluttered with all manner of what appears to be garbage: empty bottles, bits of clothing, crumpled paper and more, lying in neatly organized rows. A painting leans against the far side of the table, facing a large leather chair that sits nearby. The chair's high back and cushion are horribly stained by smears of rotten meat and its arms are sticky with blood. A smaller table sits against the southern wall, its surface heaped with plates and platters of rotten, maggot-infested meat. The horrific stench of the room seems strongest to the west, where the cave's wall has been overtaken by a disgusting growth of dark green mold and dripping fungi. At the center, a patch of black tumescent fungus grows, its horny ridges and tumorlike bulbs forming what could almost be taken to be a humanoid outline. What appears to have once been an exquisite puzzle box the size of a man's fist lies smashed on the ground at the fungoid shape's feet.
Looking more closely at the table, Mirela sees her missing earrings, and some of her courtesan's clothing, that she didn't know was missing. There is also a brush of her hair, and some other cast off items, like used potion bottles or scrolls. There are a number of charcoal drawings, on water-damaged parchment, done in a child-like hand, most depicting Mirela in various erotic poses and scenes. All in all, it is a creepy shrine to the Varisian rogue. A letter written in a graceful hand is mixed in with these items.
The painting leaning against that table is a living likeness of human woman but it has been "repainted" with blood and bits of rotten meat into a disgusting caricature of Mirela's lovely face.
Sitting on the ruined leather chair mumbling to himself is what remains of Aldern Foxglove. As you enter, his eyes widen in fear and delight, but as he sees Mirela, he stands and cries out in a guttural voice "You! You've come to me! I knew my letters and gifts would sway your heart, my love! Let us consummate our....our....HUNGER!"
And with that he moves to attack the young girl.
The Skinsaw Man - Round 1
26 Revenant
19 Mirela
13 Seldon
11 Skinsaw Man
8 Selena
6 Barek
5 Tunder
With an ear splitting screech, the revenant, still lying on the floor cries out once again, her mournful wail instilling fear in every heart. She then scrambles off the floor as her move action.
Seeing the disgusting black-green fungus growing on the west wall, you feel an overwhelming compulsion to eat some.
Protected this time by his warding spells, Seldon manages to maintain the presence of mind to fire a volley at the ghoulish creature before them.
Tunder steels himself against the undead's cry.
Barek freezes at the Relevant's scream.
Entering the room, Mirela slowly recognizes that many of the objects littered about are her own. Glancing at the paintings, her eyes widen as her heart starts to race. This is very bad...
Fighting her own desire to run as far away as she can, Mirela finally rests her eyes on Aldern himself. Holding up the back of her hand over her mouth in disgust, she shakes her head and responds "No, no, you... stay away from me Aldern!"
Hearing the revenants frightening howl, Mirela finally looses her nerve and cowers in place "This is it... I'm done for."
Selena takes in the sight of the table and chairs. As she glances over everything she barely registered the mundane items as belonging to Miri. There was so much to try and decipher at once that the gory menagerie was almost lost on her.
Know arcane the nature of the fungus was lost on her along with everything else.
Will save
Selena was again immune to the scream of the revanant but felt that somehow she was missing something important.
The Skinsaw Man - Round 1 - continued
As the revenant lets loose another baleful cry, it all becomes too much for Mirela. Dropping her weapon, she backs away into the corner, not wanting to get too close to the undead revenant either. She mumbles incoherently, her eyes wild with fear.
Bravely standing his ground, Seldon fires two arrows in quick succession at the Aldern thing. The first shot sticks in the smelly creatures chest with a sickening thunk, while the other flies wide of the mark, ducked by the wily nobleman turned ghast.
After rising from his chair when the PC's entered, the now injured Aldern falls to his knees in front of the chair sobbing. "Save me!" he cries looking to you plaintively. "I don't want the Hurter to come back. I'll do anything, just keep him away. He is horrible. Please save me from him."
Barek feels an overwhelming desire to go near the abhorrent fungus on the wall, and take a bite. Able to hold himself together for now, the pugilist falls prey to the baleful cry of the revenant, and remains stuck where he his, frozen in fear.
Going through her options Selena tries to figure out what is the best course of action to help the group. With the haunt having opened her mind earlier to other magics she has other more powerful options at her disposal. The question was should she try to remove the fear that had overcome Miri and Barek or should she quicken the rest?
Tunder gets closer to Aldern. "You're the one that's been menacing my friend? Don't worry, the hurter will end your pain soon enough."
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack
Tunder gets closer to Aldern. "You're the one that's been menacing my friend? Don't worry, the hurter will end your pain soon enough."
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack
[dice=To Hit]1d20+8-2 [dice=To Hurt]1d10+4+6
The Skinsaw Man - Round 1 - concluded
Selena, faced with choices about her actions, finally decides to cast a spell on her allies that will speed up their actions and give them a boost to attack and defend against this fearful lot.
Oblivous to his cries for aid and mercy, Tunder swings his axe at teh undead thing that used to be Aldern Foxglove. The ghast sees the attack coming and is able to dodge the merciless blade, as a cold, evil look comes into its eyes.
The group can actually the features on Aldern's face changes as the personality in his broken brain changes. The ghast stands and bows to the group, breaking into a wide, evil grin. "I wonder how your deaths will affect your friends. What things you have done that will now go unfinished. What will those broken promises spawn, eh? How will your murders shape the world?." he whispers in a clear cold menacing voice. He grabs a long war razor from the table next to the chair, and licks the blood and gore off it with a long, inhuman tongue.
End of Round 1
The Skinsaw Man - Round 2
26 Revenant
19 Mirela (panic ends this round)
13 Seldon
11 Skinsaw Man (10hp dmg)
8 Selena
6 Barek (panicked 2 more rounds)
5 Tunder
With a growl of anger, the revenant pushes past the party, shoving and bullying her unseeing, uncaring way through the crowd to the front, facing what was once Aldern.
Shocked to see her, the Skinsaw Man cries out "Nooooo, not you! Forgive me, my darling! I...I...am out of my mind. Please grant your poor husband forgiveness!". Still holding the war razor, he drops to his knees at her feet, clutching at her cold, undead legs for mercy.
The revenant, which used to be Iesha Foxglove, reaches down and caresses the cheek of the horrific ghast, softly and tenderly. For a moment, you feel that she will grant what he asks....
But then, with an explosion of rage and violence she cries out again raking at him with both one of her claws as he kneels before her and grappling him murderously to her cold body.
Tunder feels a bit embarrassed for witnessing an intimate moment between two undead. Then he realizes that they are undead and is ok with being here to slay them.
The Skinsaw Man - Round 2 - continued
With only limited ability to channel positive energy left this day, Seldon relies on his weapons and Desna's luck to help make a difference. Considering the ghastly Foxglove as the bigger enemy, he fires his longbow at the man, who is wrapped in a deadly embrace with his former wife. Muttering softly, the elf frowns as the arrow flies wide of the mark once again.
Gathering her wits about her, Mirela observes the love, hatred and rage that seems to have consumed the corpse of Iesha Foxglove. Speaking only loud enough for Selena ahead of her to hear, Mirela murmurs with a tinge of awe "Only someone who was truly in love with someone at one time can have that much rage towards them."
Moving forward enough so that the horrid couple could hear her, Mirela calls out "Aldern, how could you try to seduce me, when you had someone in your life already, somebody who loved you?" Calling out to Iesha confidently, Mirela adds "He has betrayed you Iesha, in more ways than you know... he presumed to replace you, but I was having none of it, you should know that much."
The Skinsaw Man - Round 2 - continued
Mirela foregoes any attack on either of the undead, instead focusing on the love triangle that she has unwittingly been drawn into. Egging on the anger of Iesha's revenant, she watches to see what will transpire.
The Skinsaw Man, grappled in a hug of rage by the revenant, tries to escape from her grasp. Even though the ghast has inhuman strength and good leverage, he cannot break free of the steely grasp of his former lover. He moans in frustration and anger.
Barek still remains panicked, his eyes wide with terror, and looking for an escape.
Selena lets the quarrel play out before her but she does prepare to cast a spell should one of them change tactics and go after the group.
"The stars may not grant us another lucky break! Let's put him in the ground and consecrate this cursed place!"
Tunder takes a 5'step to the side and aims an axe blow at Aldern
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack, haste
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack, haste
edited for haste attack
The Skinsaw Man - Round 2 - concluded
Selena readies to conjure a pit to prevent one of the undead monsters from turning on her allies, in the meantime, she is content to watch the drama play out.
Tunder, however, wants to end things quickly, and with his magical haste on board takes two mighty whacks at the Aldern/ghast/skinsaw man. Even in his grappled condition however, the ghast thing is still wriggly enough to avoid Tunder' rapid (maybe too rapid?) axe blows.
End of Round 2
The Skinsaw Man - Round 3
26 Revenant (grappled)
19 Mirela
13 Seldon
11 Skinsaw Man (23hp dmg, grappled)
8 Selena
6 Barek (panicked 1 more round)
5 Tunder
The Iesha/revenant still ignores everything but the object of her anger. She continues to grapple the ghast, squeezing him fiercely around the throat. The Skinsaw Man gives a choking, throttling sound as the claws constrict mercilessly around his windpipe.
Barek is backed up against the wall just staring at the two undead locked in a vicious struggle. The large man can't seem to bring himself to act.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Seldon looses another arrow at Aldern, not one to let an opportunity like this go by.
The Skinsaw Man - Round 3 - continued
Even grappled and held by the revenant, the Aldern ghast is a difficult target. Seldon's shot into the scrum of wrestling lovers still manages to miss him, even from close range.
The Skinsaw Man - round 3 - continued
Seeing a real opportunity to strike, Mirela moves up to flanking with Tunder, and stabs the grappled ghast in the side with her rapier. The precision damage sinks the stabbing weapon deep in the undead flesh of her stalker.
Worried now, Skinsaw then roars out in anger, his veins bulging on his head as he strains to break free from the revenant which is squeezing him to death slowly. His efforts are in vain however, as the anger-fueled wife continues to hold him in her icy grip.
Tunder growls in frustration at his misses. He swings again.
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack, flank
Seeing that Miri moved up and is attacking directly Selena switches tactics from preventing either the revanant or Aldern from escaping to attacking herself. Focusing on Aldern first selena releases a ray of positive energy at the ghast.
Disrupt undead point blank shot with precise shot for vs grapple touch AC +4 for cover
Rumilda (Waraxe): 2H, power attack, flank, haste
The Skinsaw Man - round 3 - concluded
Selena lets loose a ray of positive energy that strikes the ghastly Aldern who cries out in pain as the good energy disrupt his undead flesh.
Tunder also lets go with his war-axe, attacking twice in his hasted state, and scoring good hits against the grappled foe both times. The second hit is all that poor Aldern can take, and he slumps to the ground, defeated.
The revenant, seeing the object of her hatred fall, turns to you, eyes wide. What almost passes for a smile crosses her lips as she starts to crumble, ending up in a rain of dust and powder on the floor.
End of combat
As a reminder, this room, in addition to the fallen corpse of Aldern Foxglove, has a table full of Mirela memorabilia, from a lock of hair to her missing combs to some of her jewelry that she didn't know was missing. There are also things like used potion bottles and other discarded items among the shrine.
A portrait leans against the table, marred and messed by blood and gore and Aldern's meaty hands into a caricature of poor Mirela.
The black and green fungus that Barek really wanted to sample comprises most of the west wall. It grows in what could almost be a humanoid outline. On the floor near this strange growth is a shattered puzzle box.
With the immediate threat resolved and the Revanant disposed of as well the sudden lack of a foe leaves Selena slightly empty as she has nothing to focus on. Trying to fill that void she turns to her training at times like these and casts detect magic to scan the room for anything of interest. While doing so she looks at the others, Do, uh, we need to take a piece of him or it back to show Sheriff Hemlock proof of what happened? I really don't want to touch that thing myself.
If nothing detects as magic then Selena will start going through the rest of the items to determine what they are and what purpose they might have.
A detect magic scan of the room reveals several auras, most on the body of Foxglove himself. On Foxglove, his armor, war razor, 2 rings, and a folded up mask appear to be magical. Also on Foxglove is an extravagant noble's outfit, a cameo (with a tiny drawing of Mirela inside), and a key.
From the west corner of the room, there is another aura that appears in among the fungus. Do you go looking for it?
The potion bottles are long-used perhaps ones that Mirela herself might have used or touched. There is no more value in identifying htem but on the table there are two other things of note. First a stack of charcoal drawings that appear to be of Mirela in a variety of erotic poses. There are several dozen, all apprarently done in the same hand. Most of the paper is blood-spattered or foully stained in some other unspeakable manner.
Second, there appears to be a letter written in a delicate and graceful hand. It is addressed to Aldern Foxglove at his Magnimarian townhouse.
"You shall remember the workings of the Sihedron ritual, I trust. You seemed quite lucid at the time but if you find after your rebirth that you have forgotten, return to your townhouse in Magnimar. My agents shall contact you there soon -- no need for you to bother the Brothers further. I will provide the list of proper victims for the Sihedron ritual in two days time. Commit that list to memory and then destroy it before you begin your work. The ones I have selected must be marked before they die, otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste.
If others get in your way, though, you may do with them as you please. Eat them, savage them, or turn them into pawns -- it matters not to me.
Signed - Xanesha, Mistress of the Seven
Seldon lowers his bow, shedding a tear as the revenant fades to dust. "Never have I heard a tale of more woe than that within these walls. Now their spirits will be at rest." the elf says, sadly. "Perhaps in another place this pathetic creature could have been a good husband. By Desna, I suppose we'll never know..."
Silently rifling through the papers on the desk, sliding the drawings out of sight for Mirela's benefit, Seldon picks up the letter. "What's this?... the Brotherhood... Sihedron Ritual... townhouse in Magnimar... the... Mistress of the Seven?" the elf says, frowning. "As I thought. There is something more at work here. Mirela, I believe you'll be safe for good now, but this conspiracy goes deeper than just Aldern's obsession." he says, turning the envelope over and pointing to the address.
He pauses, glancing around the room at each of the faces in turn.
"... and I think I know just where to start."
"This whole place needs a good burning. Fire will cleanse it. Then cave in the tunnels and bring the house down to the bedrock. Maybe salt the earth and consecrate it too just to be sure." Tunder doesn't much help investigate the area. He mostly stands a not so silent vigil over the corpses of Aldern and Iesha like he expects them or maybe he's daring them to get up again.
Almost shocked that at least part of this nightmare is over, Mirela drops her blade as relief begins to wash over her. For the first time in weeks, Mirela smiles broadly in a manner more characteristic of her nature "I believe you're right Seldon; thank Desna, I'm alive... Aldern is no more," looking sadly on what remains of the revenant, Mirela adds "and his darling wife can finally rest, and so can I."
Moving about the room, Mirela appears somewhat disgusted at the shrine of her possessions and the artistic renderings of her "Sickening; this is what happened to all my things; in hindsight, it all makes sense." Collecting her jewelry and combs back, she shakes her head at the site of a lock of her hair "How on earth did he get this?" Slowly, the realization that he may have done it while she was asleep causes her to shudder "Never mind, I don't want to think about it."
Moving towards Seldon as he reads the letter, she peers around his shoulder to glance at the contents "Magnimar? Mistress of the Seven? What a strange turn of events." Glancing over at Tunder with a rueful grin, Mirela winks "Forget all that for a moment; Tunder is right, and I'll gladly light the match."
As Tunder and Miri talk about lighting the house Selena tries to stall them for the time being. Please delay those actions for a moment. While I agree with you that this place should be destroyed there is more going on than we realized. As is evidenced by the note we should inspect this place more carefully for future clues. Once we are certain we did not miss anything then gladly throw the match. I will even help place the kindling.
With Seldon having already identified 3 of the magic auras on Aldern Selena sets her sights on the rest of the auras that she discovers.
spellcraft ring #1
spellcraft ring #2
These rings are quite nice. The one is empowered to help protect its wearer while the other one is what allowed Aldern to climb up the side of the mill so easily. Once they are cleaned up we should claim them and put them to good use.
The shattered puzzle box also intrigues Selean as it seems out of place here. Miri, is this puzzle box yours? Everything else here is related to you somehow but this seems strange.
know arcane
After focusing her attentions on the box for a bit Selena turns slighlty paler. Never mind Miri. This hopefully does not have any connection to you at all. This is used in necromantic rituals. I could only imagine why it would be down here. Perhaps he was thinking to turn you into a creature like himself?
Lastly Selena detects the faint aura in the fungus. Seldon, a little help here please. I thought I detected a magical aura in the fungus but I am not sure. Would you please assist me in trying to figure it out?
spellcraft on fungus aura
The last item with a magical aura is a Chime of Opening, and while you can tell its there from the spell, you cannot see it, as it is buried under the fungual growth. You'll have to move the fungus to retrieve it.
As you discuss burning the house, the wind picks up in intensity for a few brief moments, and with the water-cavern nearby, the moaning sound that results actually sounds like eerie laughter.
Know nature/ dungeoneering on fungus for removal or extraction of the chime safely