Camil will depart the macabre sitting room, moving through the group to his right, and check the sole door to the southeast? Can someone ask Lavanor to come up? I'd feel better with him and Scout up here with us.
I think its safe, let's see what's behind door number two...
This bedroom features a child-sized bed, a chair next to a toy box, and a looming stone fireplace big enough for a child to get lost in.
You hear a child sobbing.
Suddenly you are that child. Your parents are fighting. Your mother, wielding a torch, and your father, festering with tumors and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other. You know whichever of them survives will be coming to kill you next.
Suddenly Zherxikas runs to the bed and crawls under it, as difficult as that is. He turns and with tears running down his cheeks he turns to watch the door but does not seem to notice you. His breathing slows and he seems to come to himself.
Lavanor waits as the group starts heading up the stairs to determine the location of the noise. Not wanting to get too separated, he points at the guard still downstairs.
"Let's head upstairs. Keep watch at the top of the stairs with Scout. If you see or hear anything coming from the first floor, let us know," he says as he hands the man his everburning torch before leading the remainder of the group up the stairs.
Kizzy begins a bardic performance, jumping right to the chorus for dramtic effect, hoping to inspire her new comrades...
Say what you wanna say, and let the words fall out, honestly I wanna see you be brave...
Kizzy tries to figure out what specific bad thing just happened to Zherxikas.
It is actually knowledge religion but you suspect a haunt was triggered when the door was opened. Why it hit Zherxikas and not anyone else could be due to personality, things in his past, or perhaps it was random. A haunt can last a few seconds to a minute, some rare ones go even longer.
In game terms, think of a haunt as a ghostly trap.
Runt gapes at Zherxikas, wondering if it was a spell, a haunt, or if he saw something.
"That was odd. Uh. Did you see something, Zherxikas?"
I wanna see you be brave, from what is you..
Kizzy changes up the words to the song, adds emphasis to a word in the new lyrics and gives a head nod at that point towards the bed.
Figuring she is to busy to talk normally and is trying t multi-task by doing her performance thing and telling everyone about the haunt, Runt asks,
"AHA! It was a haunt. See I told you all there would be a haunt in this manor. you know, they can be really hard to get rid of. Should we leave, Kizzy? What does this haunt do?"
Kizzy nods and smiles as Runt deciphers her message, Runt had been expecting a haunt, but she shrugs and nods to Zherxikas, to point out he is still hiding under the bed. She continues her song....unsure what to do about it.
Forest stands near the entryway to the attic room, weapon and shield hanging limply at his sides. "I don't know anything about ghosts and I can't do anything about ghosts. What are we doing? I still support the 'burn the place down' plan."
Zherxikas, you okay? the Varisian looks at the tiefling curiously, thinking about what could possibly cause the otherwise stoic magic user to cower under a bed.... We should check all these doors, and make sure nothing's able to surprise us, we've gotten lucky so far... but I'm not confident there isn't more awfulness afoot here- and with the necromantic symbolism in that parlor we could be in for a shock... he grimly looks at the others, and checks the next door going clockwise...
Grinning at Forest's suggestion the gambler nods, his eyes slightly wide from the alchemical elixir, Let's wait and see who's here, and take it from there?
Zherxikas exits the room and rejoins the others in the hall quiet and contemplative. Camil then checks the next door and finds no traps.
With no traps, he nods to the others to indicate he is opening the door. It turns out to be a narrow staircase leading down. It was probably a servant's staircase.
"No point in going back down. Let's keep looking for a way up."
Kizzy stops her performance,
Tell me what you saw, it is all part of the song being told here and although we don't know what verse was sung, we should listen to it so we learn the song? She asks Zherxikas after he recovers.
"There was something about that room... I felt like suddenly I was that that weeping child. Your parents are fighting. Your mother, wielding a torch, and your father, festering with tumors and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other. You know whichever of them survives will be coming to kill you next."
Camil checks the set of double doors, finds that they are safe and opens them. A stone fireplace sits in the northwestern portion of this chamber. Paintings hang on the walls to the north and south, each covered over with a thick sheet of dusty cobwebs that obscures its subject from view. Another pair of double doors are on the far side of the room.
After a quick examination of the room, Runt heads for the double doors at the end and pauses for a moment to check for anything odd.
Camil will definitely lift the sheets to examine the contents of the paintings, a clue might be contained within their subject matter. Huh, wonder what this is under here? he'll say as he crosses the dusty room.
Casts a spell and looks about the area....
Camil gets the three paintings on the north wall cleared of cobwebs. They are labeled Vorel, Kasandra, and Lorey Foxglove. Vorel is a tall, middle-aged man with long dark hair, a clean-shaven face, and dark blue noble’s clothes, while Kasanda is a stern-faced brunette woman with wisps of gray in her short hair and a flowing blue dress. Lorey is a dark haired child in a white dress. Another five paintings are covered over with cobwebs on the south wall.
Meanwhile, Runt finds nothing odd about the doors and proceeds to open them. The furniture in this bedroom, while dusty and unkempt, does not exhibit any major signs of water or mold damage. The one exception is a dark stain on the desk near the northern window.
Well, that's a disappointment, but these all appear to be relatives. Let's see what's on the other wall. as the gambler wanders across the room to inspect the other five paintings. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'd rather have an inkling of what we're doing rather than just going in blind...
Kizzy moves into the center of the room, as much to view the paintings as to allow others access to the room if desired. She spins with the grace of a dancer as she surveys the paintings.
More notes float out of the past, a haunted memory of the Foxglove family. What happened here was at best tragic, at worst evil. Please Camil, continue.
"I can detect the linger of necromancy in the past... its powerful." he states.
One of the guards, Curly you think, asks, "This place gives me the creeps!"
One of the others, Moe was it, says, "Shut up you moron and let the experts work."
Runt steps into the room and looks around. She does not touch anything, instead waiting for the 'experts' as Moe put it.
"I could attempt to dispel this magic, but I suspect its more powerful as old as it is..." he pauses, "Based on my experience, I think the family of this place suffered a plague of death and turned on themselves. I suspect we haven't seen the true evil that lurks here, rather these are just manifestations of horrific actions from the past." He shrugs, "There is probably at least the potential of an attic and probably a basement yet."
The items displayed in the windows of the previous room and the residual magic lead you to believe someone was attempting to become a lich.
Kizzy is not able to make any sense of it either. She looks to make sure guard Larry isn’t getting into trouble.
Camil finishes clearing the pictures on the southern wall. The five to the south show Traver and Cyralie Foxglove, their son Aldern, and their two daughters Sendeli and Zeeva. Traver, like Vorel, is tall and thin, but with an even narrower face and a thin mustache. Cyralie is a young woman with long red hair and an impish smile.
As soon as clears the cobwebs from the last portrait, the temperature in the room drops dramatically. Breath frosts in the air and fingers of rime slither across the walls. The figures depicted in the portraits suddenly shift from paintings of living people to those of dead folk. Kasanda and Lorey slump into misshapen tumor-ridden corpses. Traver grows pale as a long cut opens in his throat and blood washes down over his chest. Cyralie blackens and chars, and her arms, legs, and back twist as if broken in dozens of places. Aldern’s flesh darkens with rot, his hair falls out, and he deforms into a ghoul- like monster. Both Sendeli and Zeeva’s portraits frost over but otherwise remain unchanged. Vorel’s entire portrait, frame and all, erupts into a sudden explosion of fungus and tumorous growth. This wave of fungus and disease washes over the entire room in seconds before the room suddenly reverts to normal.
After the room reverts to normal Camil, Zherxikas, Kizzy, and Forest notice tiny splotches of mold and tender red bumps on their flesh. Oddly, others don't seem to notice the spots on you.
You feel drawn to the bedroom Runt entered. As if something important did happen or will happen there.
Camil shakes his head after the explosion of filth, looking down at his exposed arms, Well, that's suitably unpleasant.... I don't know what this is going to mean for us, but we'll have to handle it later on. So, what did we learn? There is some definitely bad stuff happening here, everyone except Aldren looks like they were murdered in these, what did Runt call them? Visions? he shakes his head, trying to work through what they just saw, I think I'm going to need an antiplague tomorrow, yuck...These spots can't be good...
Looking up from his reflection upon getting slimed, he asks, Okay, should we keep moving and checking the other rooms here before we go upstairs? This place is really giving me the creeps in horrible ways I never expected. I mean, we fought little demons in defiled temples, and this place is far worse...
The gambler shudders some, before swinging his scarf back around his left hand, and continues out toward the next door in the counterclockwise, absently rubbing at his forearms in a futile attempt to wipe away the fungal spots which appeared.
The song of the Foxglove's is a dirge; full of dark things, the notes come together, but the song remains... incomplete. But to Camil's point, Sendeli and Zeeva still live; but the frosted fortune of Aldern seems to indicate he may indeed be the source of the ghoul infestation here abouts... sad, I really was hoping to meet Cyrdak Drokkus.
Kizzy stares at her arms. And this is a problem...
Isabella helps Kalaman out from under the bed, but as soon as the group has dealt with one haunting manifestation, another appears.
"Ugh, this place is definitely haunted! Let's hope it just stays frightening for now, rather than becoming dangerous."
Runt calls from the other room, "Haunts. I called them haunts. Did you guys run into a haunt in there?"
Runt is looking at the group with a worried expression, not daring to pass through the door.
"What triggered it? something usually triggers a haunt, you know."
"Well thats the haunt I experienced in the first room... mother and father fighting, child scared." he says. "From what we've seen, its either murder or suicide... and then necromancy." He shrugs. "Necromancy is one of the several schools of magic... but its forbidden to me." He looks over at the bard and cleric, "Perhaps you might know more?"
I only know theories of necromancy from studying magic in general. "Haunts" less so, the undead and religion and goings on that are beyond this world were never really my thing...If we listen, I am sure the other rooms will add to the song and soon we will hear the Foxglove's dirge as a full tragic tune. Kizzy moves into the room where Runt is and looks around. She checks out each window, checking on the horses, and noting the stain on the desk. Making a full circle to return to Runt's side.
Kizzy Is almost certain it is a bloodstain
"This place is very disturbing," he says as he follows Runt into the next room and looks around.
You notice a silver dagger on the desk you had not seen before.
Lavanor walks toward the desk as if drawn.
You don't like the look in Lavanor's eyes, like he is despondent and you can tell he is going for the dagger.
You have just killed your true love and your heart breaks. You are free for the moment but your father is trying to claw his way back into your mind. You must... the dagger. Yes, the dagger. You can pay your penance and stop his plans.
Isaballa says, "My limited understanding of haunts is that they generate fear based on the conditions of something awful that happened while they were alive, and can be banished only by some sort of countermeasure that drives out the hostile spirit or sets it to rest. But that means we need to learn a lot more about what actually happened here."