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The back door leads to a dark hallway within the tavern that extends some fifty feet then turns to the right (from your point of view). On the far wall you see a pair of doors, and a third one around the corner. A forth one lies on your right just before the end of the hallway.
The first leads to a dining area, with dusty dishes and silverware still laying out to be used. For just a moment, you catch a glimpse in your mind's eye of a noble woman leading a séance at this table, with a small assortment of others around, they all turn to look at you with dead, ghostly eyes. One speaks, but no sound comes from his spectral mouth, and suddenly, the room seems to burn away, as if in a sudden inferno, sending ash all around, blinding you. When you are able to look again, you see only an empty room.
The next door leads to an old stable, now sitting in the dark and great disuse. You do not find anything of interest save for another possible exit that has been chained and boarded shut from the outside. Another door reveals an old bed chamber, likely used by the tavern's last owner, but it has already been ransacked, leaving you with but one other door.
This musty common room is coated with thick layers of dust. Dozens of black candles, animal skulls, and occult idols are arranged as decorations through the room. One table near the center of the room is decorated with human skulls and a crystal ball. A spread of harrow cards lies face down on the table and two chairs are pulled up to it. One chair sits empty and the other holds a skeletal corpse.
As you approach, suddenly soft green lights begin to flicker on all around the room, and a robed figure appears, walking towards an empty chair near the motioning for you to follow.
“Welcome, travelers. Have you come to seek the wisdom of my harrow reading? These are strange times and those without guidance risk great peril. Stand before my table and learn your fate.”, as the robed figure lays out nine harrow cards, face down on the table before you. . .
"Only Gorum knows my fate and him alone I follow ...'
Oloch casts Guidance upon himself ...
Yoon giggles. "It's an illusion!"
"But a fortune reading sounds like fun. Can I go first?"
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The illusionary figure places nine cards onto the table in a square and flips three cards at a time to perform the reading. First it flips the left column (the past), then it flips the middle column (the present), and finally it flips the right column (the future). The information below presents the three cards in each column, listed from top to bottom, and the reading the illusion recites after each flip.
“The Eclipse is strong in the past. This card represents loss of purpose. I see a curious creature that fell from its original path. Now it wanders blindly, far afield under shadows of the mind.”
“Ahhhh, The Midwife. She is a conduit of creation, but she does not create alone. I see a creature in the present that also creates many things. It dreams of strange places and uses its mind to make these places real. But The Midwife is misaligned. The world will not like what this creature makes.”
“The Carnival is a card of illusions and false dreams. Danger lies in your future, but it is not the danger you expect. The Carnival is the most important card for you because it is a card for fools. It was foolish to come here. . .”
Suddenly seven skulls appear on the table around the harrow reading, which begins to fade from view just as the robed figure does. They seem to (un)light up with some sort of dark energy, then raise a foot or two from the table. Two of them burst into hellfire, and then thy each fly out to attack each of you.
The two flaming skulls choose to fly at both Enora and Yoon for an unknown (random) reason.
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Oloch takes a swing at one of the skulls moving to attack ...
for
"Ah! Beheaded!" Kyra exclaims as the small hoard of flying skulls attack them. "Little more then vermin."
"Though they're usually not flaming" she adds hesitantly.
She suddenly holds up her holy symbol, making a silent intonation, before crying "Begone!" and a flash of holy radiance emanates out from her.
DC 12 Will for half (They do not get to use any channel resistance they may have)
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Between Kyra, Oloch, and Andowyn, all but the two flaming skulls crumble into ash and burn away as you hit them. The remaining two do not take long to be extinguished themselves, and as they also burn themselves away into nonexistence, suddenly the harrow deck returns to the table, though this time in it's sealed card box.
You sense some sort of magic still lingers within those cards, though it's not from the cards or the deck itself, but know this is precisely the sort of thing that Dr. Quolorum is eager to study.
Greetings,
I hope you enjoy fresh air, because I need your skills to protect me in the wilderness tonight. As you may know, strange red lightning often strikes in the foothills near Lantern Lake, and my instruments indicate that another strike is due this evening. I’m told this lightning leaves behind ectoplasmic residue, so I would like to collect a few samples in my new ectoplasm field containers before it all evaporates. Hopefully this will provide us with more insights into the strange phenomena of this region. I have attached a map to a local hilltop where I would like to meet. The hill should be close to the next lightning strike,_but hopefully not TOO close. I’m sure it will be fine.
Dr. Quolorum
Tonight the sky is clear, and the stars are out, which helps provide ample light to view the blackened hilltop that Dr. Quolorum marked on his map. A scorched crater sits at the summit of the hill surrounded by a ring of tortured earth.
Agonized faces and grasping hands are formed in the dirt around the crater, as if the ground itself were once alive and in great pain. Stunted shrubs covered with red thorns are scattered across the hill. Seemingly oblivious to this unusual scene, Dr. Quolorum wanders about the hilltop humming merrily and checking his instruments, as you approach to meet the good doctor. You startle him as he first notices you, then calls out, “Hello! Good to see you’ve arrived. Make yourselves comfortable because the next strike shouldn’t occur for a while yet. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.”
Yoon looks up after Kyra's channel.
"Aww, you blew them up before I could." She does a mock pout only briefly. "But that was still pretty neat. Can you show me how to do that?"
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Yoon smiles at the Doctor, and waves. "Hiya. What's that?" She cocks her head at her stuffed owlbear. "Oh, Gom Gom says 'hi' too. Oh, and here's a harrow deck you might be interested in. You told us that tavern would be scary. I've never been in a tavern before, but that one wasn't very scary."
"What exactly are you doing here, with all this?" Kyra asks, hesitantly, looking at all the strange equipment.
Enora smiles at Doctor Quolorum. "What exactly do you expect to find here this evening? Strange phenomena sounds rather cryptic," she observes.
"I didn't ask what he expects to fight...what he expects to find. Quite different, I surmise," the halfling says cheerfully.
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“A fascinating question, isn’t it? I am not completely sure, but I doubt the source is of this world. Amazing, yes? I had asked you to investigate Dunhob, to follow up on a lead on our mysterious Lady Illirigarde. Your notes indicated that her last visit there involved some sort of ill-fated harrow reading, and when I began to study the Harrow Deck you found, and the story around it with some sort of specter, I looked into it."
"I'm uncertain just what that figure was, but I think your intuition was more correct than you had suspected. I think that there is something still attached to that event, still watching if you will. I can feel something. And I think whatever it is is somehow linked to the odd red lightning bursts here. The locals claim that lightning is somehow laced with both a profane and otherworldly energy, and there are claims that if a bolt strikes imparts some of that energy. Of course, we will find out if this theory is true when the next strike occurs. Exciting, isn’t it?"
"When the lightning strikes, we will hurry to the strike crater. I think it is best to prepare for anything. I’m told wild animals and plants react strangely to these lightning strikes. You can protect me on the way and make sure the site is safe when we arrive. When you give the all clear, I will use my ectoplasm containers to gather some samples from the crater. After that, we can all head back to our warm beds."
Kyra, unfortunately, is a little out of her element, without the Dawnflower's light shining down upon her!
"Huh. No animal tracks. There aren't even any creepy-crawlies. No insects. No animals for a while, probably."
"Hmmm ... yes ... exciting ...
... perhaps the animals know the right of it."
"So now what?" Enora whispers excitedly. "We just wait?"
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"I sense some sort of presence here. Perhaps it's dormant? Perhaps it's lurking. We should try to communicate with it. Assuming that doesn't offend the Dawnflower's delicate sensibilites, of course." Erasmus says with a smirk directed at Kyra.
Assuming there's no objection, Erasmus arranges his candles into a circle and lights some of his incense, to create the proper mood for a seance, his second of the day.
"Spirit, I call out to you! If you can, speak to us!
I'm pretty sure that fails, so I'm going to use my Surge ability for an extra D6 to that.
Total of 15 isn't bad. The trickster spirit now has two points of influence.
Enora's cheerful face turns pale.
"The...the wind! It says 'pulled from our home...release us...kill...the dreamer!"
Kyra frowns slightly. "The wind said?" She says, dubiously, looking around warily.
"Just sounded like wind, to me." She adds, though there is a note of uncertainty.
"Dreamer? What in Gorum's Name does that mean?"
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Suddenly, right after receiving the ghostly message, there is a massive thunderstrike right within the nearby crater. It's surprising, and even Dr. Quolorum seems a bit confused. "That is too early. And much larger that I was told. But still, fortune favors the bold, hurry, I need to gather samples. . ."
A chorus of wailing screams comes from somewhere inside these trees, and a red glow casts a baleful light over the area. The smell of ozone hangs heavy in the air, and crackling arcs of electricity jump between the plants here and there. The forest is filled with the sound of rustling branches.
Unsure of just what is going on, the good doctor grabs as many beakers, sacks, and other tools to collect his samples as he can whilst joining the you as you make your way to the crater. Suddenly, when you get close, strange, otherworldly sensation, again causing the hairs on the back of your necks to raise. There is a unnatural chill to the air, and you begin to see your breath as mist.
SURPRISE ROUND (only a single Move OR Standard Action)
Adowyn & Wolf, Erasmus, and Enora
"AAACK!" screams Yoon. "A haunt! Look, spectral hands brushing the trees!"
"Something isn't right, here."
She covers Gom Gom's eyes, and whispers softly to her stuffed owlbear. "It will be okay, don't you worry."
"What ???"
Oloch looks around very confused ...
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Suddenly the forest comes even more alive, as skeletal hands grasping branches, ripping roots from the very ground, and carrying vines become an active threat, encircling everyone and trying to drag them down to the ground, and likely bury them beneath it as well.
To make matters worse, suddenly three howling specters appear, floating just high enough above the ground to avoid being caught in the forest's wrath, but scowl at you while wailing a hideous cry.
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ROUND 1
Oloch () & Adowyn ()
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Specter 3 ()
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Yoon (), Crowe (), Erasmus (), & Kyra ()
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Specter 1 ()
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Enora ()
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Specter 2 ()
Seeing only 1 group of opponents that he might be able to do anything about ... Oloch charges to engage the specters ...
for
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Unhindered by the Haunt's attempts to hold him down, Oloch springs forward and cut's the closest "specter" down. His heavy blade cutting through it like it where water, and even leaving a bit of "goo" on the blade. The "specter" screams in agony, then explodes in a shower of similar ectoplasmic goo.
ROUND 1
Oloch () & Adowyn ()
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Specter 3 ()
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Yoon (), Crowe (), Erasmus (),
Kyra (), & Enora ()
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Specter 2 ()