Neva gave a half-nod in partial agreement with Vyshael. But she disagreed slightly.
"But if there is any chance the brother, or anyone else for that matter, is left alive, then waiting will only decrease that chance. I suggest we risk it."
If everyone agrees to move forward, I can even cast clairvoyance to scout the front part of the house. It takes 10 minutes.
Raliscar chuckles, "Oh, I'm ready here an' now if th' rest o' you've the stomach for it! But, ah, Rutter'd mentioned vampires earlier? Should we be expectin' some o' those fangy neck-biters in particular?"
Rutter sighs. Maybe I should move to Magnimar. I bet a big city like that has heard of windows...
He takes the long way around the manor, casing it from every side, looking for windows on the ground floor hidden by the hedges and for balconies or windows on the second floor that don't face the street and could be latched by a grappling hook or could be reached by climbing the hedge close to the wall.
Returning to the group in the front, he compares notes. "Dead or undead inside, huh? I thought we were joking about more vampires. I'd like to get some other things if we think that's what we're walking into. Should just take me the time to get home and back."
In circling the hedged in yard of the manor, Rutter cannot see any of the first floor windows through the thick, restrictive, hedge wall. From the south and east side of the manor, he can see a second floor balcony overlooking the yard itself, but it is a long shot from the hedge, and only visible from far enough back to see over the hedge itself. Much like the first floor windows, any visibility is covered by the heavy shades drawn over them.
After deciding to gather some supplies before tackling whatever may lie within the manor, the group heads out to find what they are looking for. Though it took a couple hours, finding places to buy what they need that were still open for business, they were lucky that what they wanted was easy to find. Supply and demand lately has been more focused on supplies more in line with battling the rampant disease over anything else. After their purchases the group is able to return to the manor with not much of the day spent.
"Right then. So now that you big spenders 'ave lighter purses, are we ready for th' kickin' in the door part?" His face falls in feigned disappointment as he looks at Rutter before adding, "Or are we aimmin' for a more subtle entrance? You playin' monkey up the back?"
"Well, a few more minutes, Raliscar. Let's ask Pharasma to share her sight for a moment."
Neva sat down not far from the front door and began a lengthy series of prayers and invocations. After a few minutes, she made some complex gestures of ritual supplication and finally pulled her fingertips up to her closed eyes and held them there, perfectly still. To hold one's hands so still for so long should have been impossible.
Vyshael chuckles, "Not so much big spenders as trying to be ready for the worst.. Guess I'll be an archer today."
Neva concentrates and before long her vision is filled with the view as presented by the sensor. Just within the door, the interior is dark, with all the shades being drawn as they are. She has only the vision of the sensor itself, which present everything to her in the simple grey light of the Boneyard. She can see two closed doors to her left and right, and can tell that the room opens a little further in. Beyond that, not much else can be seen. Though she thinks she may periodically spot something moving past in the darkness ahead.
HP: 56/56
AC: 22 (13 T / 19 FF)
CMD: 19
F/R/W: +8/+9/+4
Ranger's Focus (+4/+4): [ ] [ ]
Level 1 spells prepared (1+1): gravity bow [ ] [ ]
Necklace of Fireballs: 6d6 [ ] // 4d6 [X] [ ] // 2d6 [ ] [ ]
Silver Blanched Bolts used: 0/20
-Ongoing Effects-
Favored Terrain (underground/dungeon): +2 to Initiative, Perception, Stealth, & Survival for ALL party members
Barkskin (+2 AC): 0/30 minutes
I saw something moving, but it's well away from the door. We're going to need some light. We can open some curtains once we get in there. Let's get set.
Neva, for her part, got up from the ground and began whispering prayers over herself an several members of the group.
Rutter hands a scroll of Prot from Evil to Neva. "When the time is right, please. For me or anyone else."
While Neva checks the inside with her spell, Rutter checks the door for traps.
After getting the 'more-or-less all clear' from Neva, he tries the door while she starts buffing the party. If it's locked, he pulls out his lockpicks and begins working.
Raliscar gets an excited gleam in his eye as Neva emerges from her still trance, but then looses it as Rutter starts working on the lock. "You lot really don't appreciate a good door-kicking, do you?"
He hides his own grin in his beard and readies his large crossbow, though he holds off on loading a bolt into the cradle.
Vyshael places a hand on his blade, feeling its familiar energies as he casts a light spell on the shaft of his bow. Not the weapon I'd prefer to go into combat with, but it'll do...
He chuckles at Raliscar's comment, saying, "Don't lump me in with them. The thought of a good door-kicking certainly appeals to me." With that, he draws a silver-blanched arrow from his quiver and nods his readiness.
Felgar nods to Neva.
The darkness not be botherin' me.
Neva took Rutter's scroll and cast the protective spell right back onto the halfling.
She readied the crossbow to enter behind the others.
Raliscar grabs Neva's hand as she starts to read from the scroll, "Whoa there, lass. I know yer fidgety an' saw somethin' past the doors an' all, but there aren't many scrolls out there with long lastin' magics in 'em. You sure yer wantin' ta draw it out now? Might best be saved fer when we're sure o' what we're facin'."
Neva nodded to Raliscar, put the scroll away, and took a deep breath to calm herself down again.
Vyshael says, "Before we go in... Rutter, when you looked around and saw that the windows were boarded, any idea how hard or easy it would be to undo that? Just in case. "
After making preparations, the group just waits on Rutter's success with the lock on the door. After a brief moment, he hears the resounding click of tumblers releasing their hold. The way ahead is no longer blocked.
Rutter puts away his picks and pulls out his silver heavy mace. He eases the door open and slips inside quietly.
Felgar puts up a fist, giving Rutter a moment with his Silver Waraxe at the ready.
Neva let Rutter sneak in a bit, repressing her desire to light up the interior with magic.
He'll let me know when he needs help, she told herself.
As Rutter opens the door, a wave of the stink of rot and decay washes over the group. The smell is clearly that of many a dead body left to fester inside the stuffy enclosed manor. Rutter takes a creeping step or two inside, the light from the door gives him a brief glimpse of the interior of the main hall. The room opens a little, and inside he can see a blood-slick floor with bodies piled around the edges of the room. Each one of them is dressed in garish outfits, each one more elaborate than any clothing he has ever worn. There are figures jerking and swaying like hellish dancers across the floor cleared of bodies. They do not seem to react to the door opening.
Neva almost gagged on the stench. She tried to breathe shallowly as she peered into the darkness.
Careful, Rutter, she urged silently.
"Gods below-" Raliscar's oath is cut off by a wave of disgust that chokes the words from the his throat. The grisly sight is far worse than any the boisterous dwarf has ever seen and it steals his ornery spirit just as it drains the blood from his face.
He stares, dumbfounded and horrified, at the carnage and macabre dance in the foyer.
Vyshael whispers a brief incantation, Let's see just what type of magic is doing this...
Rutter's mouth drops open at the gruesome menagerie, and the familiar feeling that he's in over his head returns. Already feeling the party move in behind him, though, he quickly sidles to the right and gently tries the door.
Felgar grimaces and walks in with his Axe drawn.
As Felgar and the others move in, the two dwarves are able to get a much better look at the entire scene with their natural ability to see in the dark. Vyshael's elven sight also lets him use the light coming from the open front doors to take in the carnage of the scene.
It is obvious that a massacre took place here. Upon the marble floor and
heaped in the corners lie more than a dozen corpses, each clad in garish outfits of sequined velvet, revealing silk, and colorful feathers. Masks of all shapes and sizes—each competing with the last in terms of elaborateness—adorn the dead. In several cases, though, these fanciful adornments have fallen away, revealing withered flesh covered in nauseating facial tumors. Upon a bloodslick space cleared at the room’s center sway three couples, all obviously dead, the odd movement is that of them making a mockery of the dancing they had done in life.
Rutter turns to the door beside him, quietly turnig the know to open the door. The room is empty save for a finely crafted divan and matching armchair, placed around a short mahogany table. Heavy curtains lay closed over the windows in the west wall, and a door exits the room to the south.
The dead suddenly cease there macabre dance, turning to face the newcomers, as a sing-song voice rings out from beyond the balcony on the second floor, interspersed with the gleeful giggle of child-like delight. "tee he he he. Oh look my friends, it seems we have latecomers to the party. tee he he. How rude of them to arrive more than fashionably late. tee he he. Let's not be rude back, invite them to dance. he he he." With that the dead lurch forward toward the group in the doorway.
Vyshael says, "I'm not much in the mood to dance, thanks., and reaches back, placing a hand on his sword while tracing arcane patterns with the other. He then throws his hands forward, a grey-white mass of sticky strands firing out and filling the back half of the room, hoping to entrap the walking dead.
"Wait, what did they say?" Neva queried from the back, her concern overcoming her patience.
She moved into the shadowed hall, and the foul smell and sounds of shuffling told her all she needed to know.
"You shall not be!" she shouted, raising her spiral talisman of Pharasma in an angry fist.
Rutter ducks into the empty room and moves to the next door, looking for a way around.
Felgar moves up to the edge of the webbing and attacks the enemy in G7 with his Silver Great Axe.
Vyshael mutters an incantation and almost as if shooting out from the wall behind the zombies, a burst of large sticky webbing flies out in multiple directions. The zombie in the center of the room seems to be missed by many of the strands, but the one near the corner of the stairs leading up gets glued to both banisters.
Even as Felgar moves up, he notices that the strands spread out into the adjoining room, where two zombies sit before a cold dead fire, in comfortable-looking armchairs. While a third stands behind them with a silver tray, as if attending them, just on the outer edge of the webbing, barely missed. The one closest to the burst held firmly in its seat. The dwarf swipes hard at the closest zombie, splitting the decaying body almost entirely in two as gore spills out to dangle suspended in some of the nearby strands.
Neva rushes to the fore, and calling upon the power of Pharasma, sends out a wave of positive energy with the intent of returning the undead back to their inanimate form, as her goddess demands. Most of the zombies list from the balst of energy, appearing weakened and barely functioning, less so than normal. Except for the one in the middle, untouched by webbing, and its neighbor, they seem to have avoided the stronger effect of the channeling. The one stuck firmly to its armchair also managed to avoid the greater effect.
Rutter, in search of a way to encircle the group of undead collected in the main hall, rushes through the side room to the door on the other side. The deeper he goes, the darker it gets. He opens the door to reveal a small foyer, with two more doors in it. One to the south and one to the east.
The zombies lurch into action, in a sense, as they either fight to free themselves or move through the webbing. Most of them manage to do so, except for the one stuck to its chair, and another further back in the room. Due to their slow movements, just the tearing off of loose flesh and meat as they pull themselves from the webbing is too much for them. The only exception is the one that managed to avoid the webs and most of the channel. Other than that the two outside the web in the north parlor, can only either stand or move closer to the group.
Felgar attacks the zombie in E6, and then cleaves into the zombie in E7.
Shaking his head and himself into action, Raliscar takes aim at the zombie that's seemingly more resilient than the rest and looses a bolt right into the center of its forehead. "I'd warn ye of taken steps toward Neva an' me cousin, but brainless undead ain't th' type fer listenin'." He then glowers up at the darkness of the balcony and shouts, "I don' know who ye are or why ye've done all this, but we'll see an end to it an' to you, whatever ye are!"
HP: 56/56
AC: 22 (13 T / 19 FF)
CMD: 19
F/R/W: +8/+9/+4
Ranger's Focus (+4/+4): [ ] [ ]
Level 1 spells prepared (1+1): gravity bow [ ] [ ]
Necklace of Fireballs: 6d6 [ ] // 4d6 [X] [ ] // 2d6 [ ] [ ]
Silver Blanched Bolts used: 0/20
-Ongoing Effects-
Favored Terrain (underground/dungeon): +2 to Initiative, Perception, Stealth, & Survival for ALL party members
Barkskin (+2 AC): 1/30 minutes, 2/10 rounds
Rutter opens the door to the next room, and then realizes the whole house is probably dark. He makes his way back to the front hall, wondering again why halflings are blessed with such talent for stealth when they can't see in the dark. It's kind of hard to hide if you have to carry around a lit torch.
He returns to the front hallway, where it sounds like the party is making quick work of the zombies. He finds a spot just out of immediate reach of the undead and prepares to step into the breach at the next opening.
Neva reached up and touched the corner of the wall above her head, making it shine with steady light.
"There's someone up on the balcony!"
Taking aim, Raliscar fires off a shot right into the skull of the foremost zombie. Normally, a head shot means nothing to a mindless creature, but the amount of destruction he caused with that single bolt seemed to make a difference.
From up above, a voice calls out, sounding somewhat pouty "No fair, no fair! You can't dance with webs and gods. Tee he he Look at the dwarves dance, I didn't know they could. Round and round, spinning twirling, you should play more fairly with my friends. he he hee" Her voice then turns to some sort of incantation, but without seeing it, there no way of knowing what she's doing.
Rearing back with a swing from over his left shoulder, Felgar brings his axe around into the collarbone of the zombie in the doorway to the parlor. He manages to follow on through its body to hack the one right beside it in two as well.
Neva tries to find a nice object in the gloom, and manages to locate a wall lamp. With a quick chant she causes the thing to glow with magical light. The main hall is lit, but the light catches of so many points of webbing moving that it creates an odd shimmering visibility. The space of the balcony is visible, at least around the railing from where the team is, yet there is no sign of the speaker.
Rutter pulls out his silvered heavy mace and then steps into the breach alongside Felgar. He waits until one of the zombies comes closer and begins its attack before he swings.
Vyshael says, "Light the web and burn them."
The zombies continue to struggle against the powerfully sticky webbing filling the hall's interior. Those that had broken free before, get stuck when they try to move, and those that couldn't get free, spend their time just managing to make it. Only one of the zombies managed to get itself free enough to move in and swing at Felgar. Its heavy-handed strike just glances off the dwarf's hefty armor.
Vyshael steps into the room and fires over the dwarf at the lead zombie, pushing some of his innate magic into the bow as he does.
for