Opening the southern double doors reveals an entry room. The sound of the house straining and creaking gives this long, high-ceilinged room an additional sense of age and decay. The place smells damp, the unpleasant tinge of mold lacing the air as surely as it stains the wooden floor, walls, and furniture in pallid patches. Moldering trophies hang on the wall to the northeast: a boar, a bear, a firepelt cougar, and a stag, yet they pale in comparison to the monster on display in the center of the room. Here crouches a twelve-foot-long creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion’s tail fitted with dozens of razor barbs, huge batlike wings, and a deformed humanoid face.
Everyone notices the scent of burning hair and flesh upon entering this room. A moment later, it passes.
"Didja smell thet?" asks Pirknok softly, his eyes darting around the room. His eyes narrow slightly and he holds up one hand for silence as he listens carefully. His hand goes to his sword-hilt. "Lissin!"
"It smells, but it also sounds like someone's sobbing upstairs!" Jessamy whispers.
As the group nears the Southern doors, Ysme pauses briefly & the rest of you notice the tell-tale narrowing of her eyes & increased intensity of her gaze.
Eli frowns. "I don't hear it." he whispers, then looks at the strange trophy beast in the middle of the room.
Eli recognizes the beast as a stuffed and preserved chimera.
"I don't hear it either," Ventus says but draws his sword anyway.
Pirknok follows suit. "Shud we go try ta find whoever it is?"
"Could be another victim could be in need of help or dealing with," Ventus said starting into the house.
The dwarf nods, holding his sword ready and following Ventus closely.
Eli stays right behind Pirknok as he notes to the others what the Chimera is, his longspear in one hand and his other staying near his bandolier of vials.
Jessamy joins the others, eyes and ears peeled for more threats.
Heading through the northern door leads into a long eastbound hallway.
Like the first orcs looking into the sun, Ysmerelda is overwhelmed by the force of evil that fills her senses when she enacts her divine gift. Her weapon clatters to the ground and Betheda whines sympathetically.
Shrieking in pain & shattered confidence, Ysme screws her eyes shut as she grasps her head, her nails drawing faint pricks of blood, her grip is so tight.
"So...
So much...
!"
"What? What's wrong with her?!"
Jessamy looks around to see what the threat is.
"We need ta keep goin', Ysme. Kin ya do thet? Try not ta think uhbout it?"
Pirknok waits for the paladin to calm before nodding and continuing north. "We need ta find thuh stairs. If thet wuhmin is in trubble..." His face is grim, his eyes peeled for threats.
This oak-paneled chamber must have once been breathtaking, but is a sad sight now - the floorboards are warped with moisture and the paneling scratched and spotted with mold. A grand piano, its surface splotchy and keys warped, leans tiredly in the southeast corner.
This room is otherwise empty aside from what sounds like the final notes of a sad song that fade from your hearing a moment later.
Pirknok frowns for a moment in thoughtful study of the room, then shrugs and returns to the hallway to continue east.
This is a simple washroom. An ancient metal washtub stands to the north, a ring of mildew crusting its inner surface. A strange, furtive scratching comes from inside the tub.
"We don't need ta know wut thet is. Let's go." The dwarf closes the door firmly behind the group and continues east.
This dusty room features a long couch caked with white sheets of wispy fungus. Eddies of dust skitter along the warped floorboards as if caught up by a slight breeze, yet no wind is noticeable in the air.
A woman's voice can be heard like a whisper... Lorey...
Pirknok grips his sword more tightly and silently grabs Ventus' arm, nodding toward the fireplace.
Ventus nods and takes out a copper piece. With care, he flicks it into the room aiming for where he estimates the torso of the invisible figure is.
The coin flies through the air and lands among the whirling dust.
There's no noticeable effect.
"Hello?" Jessamy calls out in a soft voice.
Tears flowing freely, Ysme nods at Pirknok's query. Straightening, she steps forward with him & the others. "This entire structure is a sink-hole. Evil is...
steeped into the very walls, the foundation itself. This may be what happened to her...
This kind of rot doesn't happen over night. It definitely doesn't happen so close to a place people live without them noticing."
Sighing, she adds in self-recrimination. "I should have asked why it's called the Misgivings..."
Eli spins in alarm at Ysme's reaction, but seeing nothing he can do to help, he stands awkwardly nearby, sympathy clear on his face, as well as the anxiety of not being able to help his friend.
They're my friends now? What kind of life am I falling into?
"Evil, seeped into the bones of this place. Something horrible must have happened here to create this... pollution." he whispers, looking down the corridor in apprehension. "Let's get that woman out of here and to safety." he says. "Unless that's Lady Foxglove herself."
Carefully, Ventus enters the room.
"Hello?" He calls out quietly, alert for any further reactions.
The eddies in the dust pause for a moment at Ventus and Jessamy’s words but pick up again a moment later with no other change.
Pirknok takes a step forward and hesitantly asks, "Is ennywun there?"
Once again, there’s no response.
The dwarf shrugs. "Ain't nobuddy there... c'mon, let's keep goin'."
Jessamy follows the dwarf, looking back over her shoulder frequently as she leaves the room.
"Am I the only one planning on burning this place to the ground when we're done here?" Ventus asked idly, skin crawling as he followed Pirknok.
"And salting the earth... Ysme whispers in response to Adventus' statement.
"Nuke the site from orbit. Only way to be sure."
"Won't we let all the ghosts and whatnot out if we burn the place," Jessamy asks reasonably.
A mahogany table surrounded by chairs sits in this room. Twin fireplaces loom to the west, while to the east, stained-glass windows obscure what could have been a breathtaking view of the Lost Coast. Each window depicts a monster rising out of smoke pouring from a seven-sided box. From north to south are depicted a gnarled tree with an enraged face, an immense hook-beaked bird with sky-blue and gold plumage, a winged centaurlike creature with a lion’s lower body and a snarling woman’s upper torso, and a deep blue squidlike creature with evil red eyes.
"That ... doesn't look good. We shouldn't open that box if we find it."
She looks around to make sure the box is not in the room.
Besides the furniture, Jessamy sees nothing else of interest in the room.
Pirknok shudders. "Ah don't like this place..."
He grips his sword more tightly as he looks around the room, as if expecting the very walls to come alive and try to kill him.
(27 for undead)
Ventus give the room the once over, his eyes proving sharper than Pirknok's or Jessamy.