The dwarf nods and puts his hand on Ventus comfortingly. "C'mon. Sooner we kin git through this an' fin' thuh cryin' wumin, sooner we kin go home."
Seeming to take some comfort from the cold adamantine of his blade, Pirknok helps Ventus up and urges the group to continue on.
This large room features two padded chairs and a long couch facing a wide alcove lined with stained glass windows. These windows depict a diverse array of animals and plants—from north to south are a large pale and ghostly scorpion, a gaunt man holding out his arms as a dozen bats hang from him, a moth with a strange skull-like pattern on its wings, a tangle of dull green plants with bellshaped flowers, and a young maiden sitting astride a well in a forest while a spindly spider the size of a dog descends along a string of webbing above her.
Seeing more evidence of... something, Eli stares at the windows, trying to figure out what is going on in this house.
I'm sure it's got something to do with these images... Something magical is involved.
Damn! Still it eludes me!
Eli's heart sinks and he begins to look even more pale and nervous.
Pirknok shrugs a bit. [b]"Ah don't think wur gunna learn ennythin' else here. C'mon, let's keep movin'.
"Maybe if we smash the windows?" Jessamy asks, having no clue what they might mean.
"The 'Death's-Head' Moth is Urgathoa's symbol...
Perhaps someone in the Foxglove family was a worshiper?" Ysme muses aloud to herself. At Jessamy's suspicions regarding Adventus' habits, Ysme scoffs. "Pesh? No."
"What did you see, Adventus?"
"A scene of a child's terror. Parents twisted by something malignant, killing each other then coming for the child." Another image burned permanently into his mind that he would rather forget.
"Urgathoa? Not familiar with that one."
"Goddess of Undeath & other...
perversions." Ysme answers Adventus' unspoken query. "Could you tell if the child was a boy or girl? Haunts are almost always tied to events of particular importance to the place they are encountered."
"I couldn't say, it was form my point of view."
Considering Adventus' words, Ysme nods. "All of you, if anyone experiences another Haunt, please tell me as much as you can of what you witness. That well tell us more about what happened here than we could learn back at Sandpoint." Nodding towards Pirknok, possibly in acknowledgement of his argument.
Eli nods to Ysme. "As soon I have something relevant to share, I will." he says.
The dwarf frowns deeply at Ventus' description of his vision. His breathing quickens slightly and he glowers at the house in simmering anger as he heads northward to the next room.
This entire bedroom is caked with a thick, spongy layer of dark green, blue, and black mold.
Pirknok doesn't enter or bother looking around, just wrinkling his nose and moving on to the next room.
Heading west...
An iron tub sits in the middle of this room, the floorboards around it sagging with the tub’s weight.
Jessamy looks around. "It's different, but it's just ... the same everywhere."
Pirknok looks at Jessamy with a puzzled expression. "You ain't makin' enny sense, gurl."
"I mean, everything's so ... run down. It was nice once, and now it's just ..." she trails off, with a sad shrug.
"The floor looks rotted in there. I wouldn't go in."
"As I implied, the entire house is subject to supernaturally induced corruption & decay." Ysme responds to Jessamy's observation.
"Not goin' in there, then. Let's keep movin'."
This once fine chamber has been destroyed. The bed is smashed, mattress torn apart, walls gouged as if by knives, chairs hacked apart, and paintings on the walls torn to pieces—with one exception. A portrait hanging on the northwest wall seems to be untouched, although it hangs backward, its unseen subject facing the wall.
"Did this just happen? Maybe this is a clue!"
Pirknok looks around the room and moves to the backward picture. He glances at his companions before lifting the picture from the wall and turning it over to examine it.
(Undead 13)
(Tracking+2 Undead gets another +4)
Still shaken from his earlier encounter, Ventus joins the others in looking over the room.
Jess doesn't see anything immediately dangerous or signs of faulty architecture.
Ventus spots footprints in the debris, familiar clawed footprints. They seem to match the muddy prints seen at the mill. And they're fresh, within the past few days.
When Pirknok turns the picture over the whole house shakes and an angry presence fills the room.
Pirknok seems to grow dizzy and stagger.
"Did anyone else hear that?" he asks, paling.
"NO!" yells Pirknok, shaking his head furiously. He glances around at his comrades with rage-crazed eyes, but there's an unusual pain and fear in them as well. Gulping in breaths of air, he stares hard at his katana, his chin quivering with rage and fear and pain and restraint. After a few moments, his shoulders relax and his breathing slows to normal, but he continues staring at his weapon in silence.
Jessamy jumps as the house seems to shudder and at Pirknok's yell.
"I heard it. Something below? Maybe we're going the wrong way?"
The picture is a portrait of a beautiful dark-haired Varisian woman in a thoughtful pose.
For those that have met her, the woman in the portrait shares several features with Ada Foxglove.
The picture is old, quite a bit older than Ada was.
Pirknok shakes his head a few times as if trying to clear it. He glances around at the group, his eyes now empty of rage but filled with a look of caution not often seen there. "Herd wut?" he asks quietly, tilting his head at Eli. "Sumthin'... sumthin' tried ta make me angry. Tried ta make me hurt Ysme an' Jess."
He glances down at his sword again with a little shudder.
"Is this kind of thing going to happen every time we step into a room?" Ventus asked, looking weary.
"I'd like to see you try," Jessamy says, her voice challenging. "Though I guess I'm glad you didn't... I'd hate to have to hurt you back." The last is said in a joking tone though her grasp around her sword reveals white knuckles.
"Quite possibly." Ysme replies to Adventus' query. At Pirknok's befuddled rage, she rests a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I suspect that woman was an ancestor of our 'lady friend'. The reaction we just experienced leads me to conclude she was either the source of this...
Malaise, and didn't want us to know about her. she was possibly a victim or loved-one of the original evil...
and it still didn't want us to know about her."
Considering for a moment. "Something doesn't quite fit."
"The murders we have been following had little to do with the sex of the victims, but this impulse did..."
"Do you recall anything else about it Pirknok?"
The dwarf looks up sharply at Jessamy, his eyes intent. Meeting her gaze evenly and ignoring Ysmerelda for the moment, he shakes his head. "Ah don't know wut you think uv me, but ah wudint ever hurt you... or ennywun else here."
He continues to stare at Jessamy earnestly for a few moments longer. Finally turning to Ysme, he shakes his head. "Jus... jus' thet it wanted me ta hurt wimmin. It was real angry at 'um."
" is odd..." Ysme muses. "Is it possible women are particularly dangerous to it?"
"You couldn't tell if it was male or female could you?"
Pirknok frowns as if confused. "Ah'm not sure it wuz even... an it. It wuz just... anger."
He shrugs apologetically.
The door at the end of the hall opens to a hall of stairs leading up into the attic.
The dwarf continues forward, gripping his sword and keeping his eyes open for more trouble.
The stairs appear to be safe and lead up to a musty attic hall.
A large number of wooden planks, rope, and other repair supplies are stored here. The ceiling above sags noticeably; in several areas patches of the sky above are visible.
There looks to be nothing of value in this room.