He vomits up a person and I get funny looks, what have I gotten into. I pass the key to the gate off to the last person who goes in and keep the others. I also won't be joining you upstairs, I do believe my talents would be better spent elsewhere. I will procure us rooms downstairs for when you finish as well as see if I can get a hold of a guest registry. It could serve us well to know who else has passed through here recently. I recommend locking the gate behind you I...have a feeling it isn't just for keeping people out.
I then head back to the lobby. If there is no one there I go behind the desk and start studying the manors records. If someone is there I will explain that we have been left in charge of the establishment for the evening and that I need there full cooperation.
If needed:
"Agreed Gentlemen. Brogol, start on the left side of the room. I'll start to the right. The absence of footsteps suggests nothing living is up here, and perhaps nothing corporeal as well. Don't open a door yet, but examine them, and everything else. And remember, if you're in trouble, run. Who has the key? I'd appreciate if you don't lock me in here..."
Holding a crossbow bolt aloft, its tip suddenly springs into light, which the Doctor uses to go up and down the walls, and across the floor, taking in every inch of the room, including the three large doors to the right side.
The Doctor finds the dust cloying, and before long his searching is distracted by sneezing and wheezing.
Brogol shuffles along, his upside-down eyes peering intently around the room, especially into the hall's dark corners. Occasionally, a thin misting of blood erupts from the boy's nostrils. "Stay close wizard. I'll keep you safe."
"What is is I am looking for Doctor? Ghosts can be invisible and can float through walls right?"
Ivan gives Brogol a sidelong glance as the . . . thing . . . exudes a red mist from its upside down visage.
"He calls you a wizard. Is Brogol a familiar of sorts? Like the raven Mircalla has?"
"I believe Brogol was talking to Edward, Droht."
"The boy is --"
"I'm his assistant, as I have been for four years, since the Doctor pulled me off the streets of Caliphas."
Brogol turns his head, blinks, and peers intently at the Droht from the sides of his eyes. "Despite everything, I still serve the Doctor."
"Um, yes. The boy is my assistant, and he has always been faithful and astute. As for what we are looking for, I suspect it is beyond one of these doors..."
". . . I see . . . "
Edward looked at the fading light
"Ivan. We don't have the time." he looks to the doctor "There will be conversation later."
"If it might be behind a door, let's open one."
"Agreed," Aldous says, swinging open the farthest door down the hall, on the right side...
Millair takes the key, but doesn't leave the gate, propping it open with the heel of his foot. "Fine, see about the rooms then, better plan than what that lot is doing."
The door opens easily, inward, the dust in the air swirls past you, into the room, filling it like a thick mist. The room feels damp, the colors that should have faded over the years of neglect, are inversely saturated, like an oil painting freshly wrought. The room is about 40' wide and 20' deep, adorned with a large brick hearth, plush chairs and a menagerie of items from smoking pipes to ancient halberds and bastard swords. In the hearth, a dying fire smolders.
"Huh, nice weapons, but . . . This is . . . Not possible, not real, but my eyes see it."
Does Ivan feel the heat or smoke from the fire?
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Edward enters the room
"I agree. Who would keep a fire going, if the rooms are empty?"
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"Maybe a parlor trick, something to fool the fops that come this way looking for a phantasmic encounter."
Ivan says, but not with his normal conviction.
Aldous enters, his crossbow drawn and at the ready, taking in the room with a look of mixed fear and wonder. "Fascinating. An astute observation, Droht - a parlor trick perhaps." Examining the weapons, the Doctor looks for any signs of who they may belong to, searching his memory for any recognizable sigils or styles of the weaponry that would have been used in these parts. Then he moves onto the pipes, more piqued by a personal interest than any academic one, studying the style of the pipes and sniffing at the bowls, trying to pick out the type of tobacco smoked in them.
Brogol enters alongside the Doctor, stopping for a second to take the room in. "Reminds me of Gerhardt Gochman's work, Screams In the Night.
Making his way to the hearth, Brogol peers into its dying embers. "Were there a fire going when you approached? Smoke rising from any chimneys?"
Edward - who had been heading towards the fireplace, discretely turns away to stand with the doctor.
"Your cynicism does you credit, Droht."
"The sun is almost gone. Do you want me to check another door or do you intend to carefully study this one first?"
Edward started, spinning around to face... nothing
"Illusion!" he spat "En Guarde."
The Doctor slams his fist down on the table, turning and raising his crossbow at the unseen threat. "En guarde? Where Edward? Where?"
Amos readies his sword and slowly paces around the room, intensely looking for the strange presence. Took quick for any to truly register until it is too late, a noose falls from the rafters and tightens around Amos's neck, swinging him up off the ground. His sword clatters to the floor as the room fades into a musty grey, all is revealed as Amos struggles vainly to free himself from the noose. The shadows darken and all can feel a malevolent presence in the room. The figure is gone, but he laughs all the same.
"What the!?"
Ivan runs forward and bear hugs the devil worshippers legs and lifts upwards in an attempt to take the weight off the Warriors neck.
"Cut the rope! If his neck doesn't break first the lack of air will kill him! Be quick about it!"
"I've got no blade! Where is the creature! Brogol, to the Chel!"
Spinning, the Doctor surveys the room, looking for the threat, his crossbow raised at the ready.
Brogol shuffles forward and blowing a fine mist of blood into the air, helps Ivan lift Amos.
"I can't see it! Watch it doesn't strike again!"
The Earl whipped into motion, conjuring and flinging a small ball of acid at the rope in one smooth motion. At the same time he swept the area with his magically heightened senses.
Nooses fall from the rafters, one for each of your heads. Thankfully, none find themselves around your necks!
As the acid splashed against the rope around Amos' neck, the room screeches in pain, but the rope pulls tighter. The nooses hanging near your heads tremble, then knot in, transforming into something more like ceiling suspended maces.
Initiative Order:
Edward
Aldous
Brogol
Ivan
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Edward raised an arm and chanted, waving furiously.
Aldous steps away from the rope and fires his crossbow at it, trying to figure out what, exactly, is happening. "Is it an illusion? Animate room?"
Brogol lets go of Amos and steps into the rope that tried to ensnare him, grabbing and twisting at the rope with every once of strength.
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Ivan strains to keep Amos from strangling. Seeing the doctor has no blade he makes a one handed slash at the rope hoping to sever it.
Several of the ropes focus their attacks against Ivan as he attempts to save his struggling comrade, allowing for Edward to cast his magic unimpeded.
Aldous and Brogol are able to inflict some damage on two of the ropes, Ivan makes good progress on Amos' noose as well, but the converging animate ropes deal 10 damage to him for his trouble.
As you leaf through the contents, you can see that all manner of rich nobility has visited this place, though a few of the names have been crossed out. The current occupants are Lords Gaster, Herre and Lady Tousel. You can't tell much about who they are, or what they're about, only that they're nobility.
thick, dark blood starts to seep up through the floorboards. The puddle bubbles and steams as it spreads out into a pool the width of Edward's outstretched arms.
Suddenly a hand reaches out of the pool and flops around like a drowning man reaching for ground. Finding the edge it is joined by another hand and a soft, lumpy, protoplasmic yet anthropomorphic thing heaves itself out of the pool.
Edward is casting again as it surges to its feet. Harsh, guttural syllables pour from the wizard's mouth and he gestures to the ropes.
A mote of red light spits from his finger, veers upwards and explodes on a rope in a burst of fire.
The roiling flesh of the creature lashes out with half formed limbs against the ropes dangling from the ceiling.
"I think it's the embodiment of Lord Beumhal's wickedness. Keep at it, and we'll drive it off!"
The Doctor aims and fires another bolt, reloading in quick succession as he continues talking.
"Ivan, let the knight go! Drive the ropes off, and it will drop him!"
I think.
Brogol continues tearing into the rope nearest him, more instinct and animal fury at this point than anything else. A high, despairing wail escapes the boy's throat as he swings and rips.
Ivan growls with frustration as he lets Amos go to better engage the ropes seeking to snare him. He draws his ancestral Kindjal with his off hand and went to work with both blades targeting the ropes in conjunction with his allies.
"We must make short work of these. And we must talk about these strange . . . powers you posses."
The Droht turns away another rope with the long curved blade.
"After we ensure our survival that is."
The rope darkens and alights as the fire touches it, quickly burning to cinders. The spirit controlling the room roars vainly as his tendrils into the mortal world are hacked and burnt. Aldous severs his. Brogol rips apart another. Ivan's expert swordplay fells two in quick succession, including the one holding up Ivan...whose body falls limp to the floor.
The shadows recede from the cursed room, this furniture and tapestries moth eaten and soiled. Dust whorls about from the disturbed fixtures.
Ivan sheaths his blades and rushes to check on Amos.
"Was that a ghost? Or the house itself that attacked us!?"
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Aldous drops to a knee, drained and horrified as he watches Amos's corpse hits the ground. Sighing, the Doctor closes his eyes for a moment and breathes deep, before opening them and rising to his feet. "He's gone, Ivan, felled by the malevolence of this attic. It isn't a ghost, exactly, but something very similar. An unquiet manifestation, not quite sentient, caused by the terrific anguish of a once-living being."
Casting a quick glance to Brogol, the Doctor continues. "It could be the Lord of this manor, or one of the many victims of his terror-filled end days. We must find this spirit and put it to rest, or it will prey on others again."
"How we make it rest, well, I assume if we can find out who the haunt was, or what motivates it, a means will present itself. The best way we can honor Amos is to send this haunt on to its final rest, so that no one else can be harmed."
Removing a slender ivory-colored birch wand from his pack, Aldous touches the ends to the rope wounds that Ivan suffered. "Now then, let me take care of the living."
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Edward steps back in shock at Aldous' words, instructing his new minion in the harsh, dark tongue of hell to go through the door and run around the corridor opening all the doors.
Once that is done, he kneels by the fallen Amos.
"I don't know much of the Lord of Hell's funerary rites, but I'll see you get a good funeral Amos." he solemnly tells the corpse - then remembering Amos' lord and the danger of promises given in haste quickly adds a few standard clauses "That's not a promise, or a contract, just sentiment."
"Hummm, he has some good gear I suppose the living should use it right? Hopefully he passed on knowing I tried to save him at least. Hopefully he is enjoying the fruits of his contract with the Arch-Devil, but I will still offer up prayers to our Lady of Graves that she lets his soul go where it most deserves and his rest remains quiet."
"Shall we clear the other rooms?"
The frightful screams of Edward's summoned monster echo down the hallway...then are cut short.