"Just leave this to me." Max said cockily.
Taking his time, it is more than 40 minutes of concentration on his part.
You can swear that eyes are watching you all the time here.
With two separate clicks, Max fell back sweating.
"There. That should do it." He said.
Searching through the chest you realize that Pentheru was a businessman as well as a noble, and the concealed chest served as a safe for some of the family’s cash assets.
The chest contains 20 small gold ingots, each bearing a seal.
A successful Knowledge check can identify the seal as that of the Keleshite sultan who governed Osirion at the time of the Plague of Madness, 2,215 years ago.
Each ingot is worth 25 gp.
While doing a standard Detect Magic on the treasure, Ibrahim the Sand Mage got a ping from an unexpected direction.
He turned and pointed up at the old wasps nest.
"I have detected a Magic source there, in the nest." He said.
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As Max works on the old bronze chest Ibrahim casually picks up some sand that blew into the bedroom lifetimes ago. Letting the silt slip through his fingers the sand seemingly defies gravity as it starts to swirl eventually making figure 8's around his outstretched hand. After several moments he turns and points towards the old wasps nest in the corner of the room.
"I have detected a Magic source there, in the nest."
With a boost, Max is able to carefully determine the old wasp nest has been abandoned for years.
Reaching in, he felt around until he came across a strip of cloth. Pulling it out and brushing off old mud, you see that it is a magic headband; but not a common item.
This is a Dead Man's Headband. (UEq 248)
Outside the room, you see several other double doors in the walls around a center room open to the sky, with a balcony overlooking the central courtyard on the ground floor.
"Let us check out the the doors closest to us before proceeding to the balcony."
Moving to the other set of doors south east next to the stairs, Max carefully opened them and peeked in.
He gestured to the rest of you to come over and take a look.
You see the walls of this room are decorated with a scenic vista of a river valley running through a desert, resplendent with verdant life and greenery near the shores.
Only a few pieces of lacquered furniture remain in the chamber.
A faint, musty odor of decomposed wood and fabric lingers in the air.
You aren't sure, but it looked like a fancy guest bedroom.
The body of a human man lies on its back in the small alcove to the east.
Unlike most of the remains in the house, the body is only a year old, and its flesh is in a state of advanced decomposition.
The head is missing.
You notice that the body’s head seems to have been pulled off rather than having been cleanly decapitated.
You find clumps of hair on the floor beneath the body’s headless shoulders.
You put these clues together to identify the telltale signs of a vargouille’s victim.
When you search the body, you see no valuables except for a simple gold wedding ring worth 50 gp. An inscription in Osiriani inside the band of the ring reads
Before heading in, Inferis tells her companions about the headband. "Hey, that is a Dead Man's Headband. It can ..."
Upon looking into the room,
Inferis looks at the ring on the body, "It says, “To Akar from Panhet, Love Eternal.”
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Ibrahim kneels and examines the decapitated decomposed body
"This body is only a year old. The flesh is in a state of advanced decomposition but nothing like the century old bodies in the rest of the home. In addition, the body’s head seems to have been pulled off rather than having been cleanly decapitated. And look here." Ibrahim rolls the body to reveal clumps of hair concealed beneath the the corpse. "I doubt this hair belonged to our corpse. I wonder what kind of foul beast would do something like this."
Inferis listens intently to Ibrahim's descriptions before becoming concerned. Looking around, "Those are the tell tale signs of a vargouille's victim. We should be on our guard."
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Walking back out of the guest bedroom to the balcony area, Ibrahim assess the groups choices. "Three doors before us on the other side of the walkway. The false guardian statue that fled was in the room below us. We should also be prepared to encounter vargouilles along with any other remaining denizens of this house. Anyone have preference on a door?"
After asking his question Ibrahim examines the door and listens for any movement behind them.
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Cerastes frowns at the reminder of vargouilles possibly haunting this place and begins to scan the ceiling as he and Ra advance. The oracle pulls out the finely wrought spear he acquired from the tomb in anticipation as they approach in tandem the most southern of the remaining doors, and again prepare to open it once Max gives them the ok.
A vargouille is larger than a human head, typically between 12 and 20 inches high with a 15- to 35-inch wing span. Vargouilles are not natives of the Material Plane but can often be found there nevertheless, occupying graveyards, ancient battlefields, or anywhere one can find remnants of death and decay. These hideous monsters come from the fiendish outer planes, where they flop and flap through strange and haunted skies in constant search of fresh souls to torment. In these nightmare realms, vargouilles play a role similar to that of a raven or vulture, although they augment these roles with a malevolent delight in causing pain and anguish that no scavenger bird could ever hope to match.
Vargouilles attack by swooping in on their opponents, shrieking them into paralysis, and then biting them with rows of razor-sharp teeth. When multiple vargouilles take up a common cause and fight as allies, they overwhelm their victim with bites and shrieks, tearing it to shreds.
A vargouille can kiss a helpless target. A kissed opponent begins a terrible transformation that changes the creature into a vargouille within 24 hours (and often much sooner). First, over a period of hours, all the victim's hair falls out. Within another fer hours thereafter, the ears grow into leathery wings, tentacles sprout on the chin and scalp, and the teeth become long, pointed fangs. During the next few hours, the victim loses his ability to resist and slowly loses his capacity for reasoning. The transformation is complete a couple hours thereafter, when the victim's head breaks free of the body (which promptly dies) and becomes a vargouille. This transformation's progress is paused by sunlight or any light spell of Daylight or higher, but stopping the transformation requires remove disease or a similar effect. The transformation is a disease effect.
Max carefully approached each door, listened, felt and sniffed at them, then returned.
Returning to you, he said; "I don't hear nothin', but I smell somethin' rotten in the northeast AND east doors. I don't get nothin' at all in the southeast door."
Inferis, comments "Well, vargouille are larger than human heads...."
Inferis starts handing out some wax, "here, put this in your ears."
Inferis looks at Ibrahim confused, "What?!?" Looking to Ra, she nods to the eastern doorway.
You make entry easily, as the door is not locked.
A large lacquered desk, now in poor condition, sits in the center of this room.
Bookcases stand along the eastern and southwestern walls, sagging as if ready to collapse at any moment. Their shelves have fallen out, and the piles of dust at their bases are all that remains of books and scrolls that failed to survive the long years.
The lacquered wooden frames of what might once have been divans stretch along the north and south walls, but their upholstery has disintegrated.
The single door in the western wall behind you is the room’s only exit.
TACTICAL SITUATION
Inferis scans the room searching for magic.
Searching among the ruins turns up a few items of small interest but no great value, such as a broken set of scales, the Pentheru family seal (for marking documents), and scattered pieces from a marble chess set (no board is present and half the pieces are missing).
Inferis detects no magic in this room.
Eventually, Cerastes locates a brass key in one of the desk drawers.
Going back out into the balcony overlooking the central courtyard, you move north to the next eastern doorway.
Forcing it open you see...
Most of the contents of this room have fallen apart or otherwise been reduced to dust from the dry desert air. A foul, cloying smell fills the room.
You see a blackened, bat-winged fiend's head. Tentacles dangle from chin and scalp, and its fanged mouth hangs agape. Glaring at you, it shrieks so loudly it pierces even your wax plugged ears.
Seems to you like it was waiting for you.
Inferis looks at the key, "I think that key belongs to the chest in the master bedroom."
Inferis, thanks to the wax in her ears, is able to resist the creatures scream. She levels her wand and shoots a blue ball at the creature.
Round 1___________
Cerastes_____
The faint scream focuses Cerastes' attention on the flying abomination. The oracle flings his spear across the room trying to pin the thing to the back wall. He draws his serpentine longsword from its scabbard in preparation with closing with the thing.
Standard action: 5' foot step forward with spear toss. Move action: Draw longsword.
Inferis 'al Marris_____
Inferis, thanks to the wax in her ears, is able to resist the creatures scream. She levels her wand and shoots a blue ball at the creature.
Ra-Khefer_____
Ra Charged.
(npc) Ibrahim_____
Ibrahim, saving his spells, used a sling to fire a stone at the creature.
Miss.
(npc) Max_____
Miss.
Enemies________
The Vargouille attacked Ra with a Bite attack.
for a possible damage plus poison (fort DC12).
Vargouille: 29
Round 2___________
Players take their turn in order of posting, enemies will go last.