As Kizzy steps into the room, Marcellano moves to follow her. Focusing to maintain his spell, he gazes intently at the mirror. Perhaps the problem lies in the mirror, not in the woman...though I have little hope of that.
Aloud, Marcellano says, "My lady, I don't know what you're afraid of, but I can tell you it won't be solved by sitting here hiding from the mirror. We can help you, but only if you get up and come out of here with us."
"The mirror. I cannot take my visage any more. The mirror." the pitiful creature cries and holds her arms in front of her face.
"Allow me to help," Marcellano says, still watching the woman uneasily. He waves a hand at the mirror and murmurs a word, and a spiral of dirt appears on the surface of the mirror and slowly grows outward. It takes a few seconds to cover the full mirror, but it serves to obscure the reflection.
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Adolina approaches carefully, trying to avoid any squeaky floorboards. This goes out of the window as she comes closer and hears the voices. One of which is Iesha! Completely forgoing caution Adolina runs into the room, barging through the others crowded in there and crouches by the cowering figure.
"Iesha, Iesha! It's me, it's Adolina. I've cone to find you! You've been gone months, I was so worried. What's your slimy beast of a husband done this time?"
Reaching out she puts a hand on the hunched shoulder, which feels as cold as ice...
"Iesha?"
Qetsiyah's dark eyes widen in shock and then narrow in suspicion as the red-headed stranger pushes her way through them to crouch near the weeping figure.
"What the... who?" She frowns in confusion and turns to Marcellano with an almost accusatory look on her face, as if she expects that the wizard must have conjured the stranger out of thin air somehow.
Her thoughts whirl with questions, but decides that if this is some kind of distraction attempt to placate the ghoulish woman she ought not interfere. Instead, she turns her watchful gaze back to the scene, her hands tightening their grip on her falchion in case the reaction to obscuring the mirror and summoning a ginger is a violent one...
Marcellano yelps as the red-headed half-elf pushes past him. "Don't look at me!" he hisses to Kizzy. Raising his crossbow, he keeps it pointed at te two women. "Who are you? And where did you come from?? This building isn't safe."
Cadas hated this house. She belonged under the open sky dealing with weather and the elements. She trudged along wondering if the house was too wet to burn and also wondering if she might meet this Foxglove who seemed to be infatuated with her here. She must have been daydreaming as Adolina burst past her as otherwise her keen senses would have heard her coming. What? Wait. Who are you? She says to Adolina raising her trident threateningly.
Yes, quite different Robin.
Finallhy confirming that there is no magic in the room, Marcellano turns his attention fully to Iesha, letting his spell lapse.
As soon as Marcellano covers the mirror with a layer of dust and dirt, obscuring the reflection, the woman stands up and unleashes a baleful shriek. She then cries out, “Aldern! I can smell your fear! You’ll be in my arms soon!" She looks past everyone and even ignores the half-elf, but starts for the door, walking at a fast pace.
"I'm afraid Iesha Foxglove is no more," Marcellano says grimly. "She shows all the signs of having completed the transformation into an undead creature." He steps smartly to one side as she approaches, watching warily, and more than prepared to shift out of the way if she lunges at him.
"I have...gleaned something from Caizarlu's spellbook that might let me force her to obey our will. But it is chancy, and I have only the reserves to do it once. If she is truly headed for Aldern...perhaps we need not restrain her. Not yet, at least."
As Marcellano pronounces that the woman is indeed undead, her sinking heart feels like it turns to leaden lump of dread and plummets into her stomach. Though she had gotten no answers, she felt sure she had the right of it. This woman had been Aldern's wife, and he must have hurt her, maybe even killed her and then locked her in this room. She hoped Iesha would settle for nothing less than vengeance on the man who had done this to her. But unfortunately, there was a man very close by who smelled of ghoul... and she was headed right for him.
Keeping her face and sword toward the undead she calls over her shoulder to her friends. "Back up! If she will lead us to Aldern, we should follow... but don't let her touch you! Robin, check the doors at the end of the hall. Maybe we can tuck in there and she'll go past us. Marcel, stay behind me." She spoke with a tone of command, her protective instincts having kicked in, she was unwilling to risk letting the undead brush past them as the red-head had.
Pressing them back if necessary, Kizzy backs slowly into the hall, keeping herself between the undead and her friends.
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"I'm afraid Iesha Foxglove is no more," Marcellano says grimly. "She shows all the signs of having completed the transformation into an undead creature." He steps smartly to one side as she approaches, watching warily, and more than prepared to shift out of the way if she lunges at him.
"I have...gleaned something from Caizarlu's spellbook that might let me force her to obey our will. But it is chancy, and I have only the reserves to do it once. If she is truly headed for Aldern...perhaps we need not restrain her. Not yet, at least."
"Don't try and enchant her! She doesn't want you..." Adolina seems downright upset. "She doesn't even recognise me. If she's going for Aldren then that's where we need to be - the man was unpleasant when she married him. I'll wager he killed her! Why else would she be up here locked away in the attic? Please, come with me. I heard what you said earlier - you want Foxglove too and Iesha, what's left of her, knows where he is!"
Adolina will try and leave the room to follow Iesha unless stopped. She won't offer violence but is clearly impatient at any delay. She also has tears leaking from both eyes although she ignores them.
Cadas is more than slightly irritated, but does not raise her weaoon. This undead should be put down, like all undead. I will find Aldren in good time, or he will find me. Of this I am sure. You barge in here like its your house with no regard for our mission. Why should we trust you?
Robin quickly moves down to the end of the hallway hoping that the door is unlocked and when he tries it, he finds the door opens smoothly. Entering the room with everyone else following, he sees that the ceiling of this room angles down steeply, leaving only four feet of headroom to the southeast. A low cot and a dresser are the room’s only furnishings.
Meanwhile the creature moves at a brisk pace past everyone, and is heading for the stairs down.
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"You strike her and you will answer to me as well as to her, priestess." There is a sudden undercurrent of steel in Adolina's voice. "As to what right I enter this house I could pose the same question to you. My name is Adolina and I lived near the Foxgloves in Magnimar for this past year or more. Iesha is... was... my friend. When she disappeared I feared the worst and set to tracking Aldren down. I found the existence of this house a few days ago. When I arrived this morning I saw the front door open and followed your tracks inside."
She pauses and delivers a very level look at Cadas. "I can claim friendship of the family and their best interests in my defence. What reason do you have for being here?"
Cadas' eyes grow larger and her eyebrows raise. Robin has seen her with this expression before and it has never ended well. She takes her first steps in pursuit of the undead...
Qetsiyah breathes a sigh of relief as the undead moves swiftly past them, but the emotion is short lived as Cadas and the stranger quickly begin exchanging heated words.
Hoping to quell things swiftly so they could deal with the issue at hand, she spoke to Adolina first, answering her question.
"I am sorry for your loss, but you and Iesha are not the only ones who have been made to suffer at Aldern Foxglove's hands. We came seeking the mastermind of several recent and brutal murders. There is little doubt it is him."
"Cadas, I understand how you feel about the unnatural given your faith. But Iesha did not attack us... I think that indicates some of her spirit remains. Look at how she moves with such purpose, such focus on her vengeance. Who are we to deny her when it is the last thing left to her? I do not think she will become her husband's tool. She might just be the key to his undoing... Think on how he obscured but did not destroy her portrait. He may be stricken with guilt at the sight of her, giving us a chance to seize an advantage. Come, we must not lose sight of her, no matter what we decide." And with that she entered the hall again, following after the creature.
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Adolina nods politely towards Kizzy, her long red hair rippling at the motion. "Thank you lady. I understand your reasons for being here entirely - it does sound like something Aldren would do." She too enters the corridor, intent on following Iesha. "I understand that my friend is dead, do not doubt that. But you are right - she has not gone. I will follow her as far as I may. If we find her husband then I will slay him. If not then I will put her to rest as best I can. Are you willing to help me in this at least?"
Her gaze rests mostly on Kizzy, sweeping over Marcellano as they all leave the room.
Lowering her weapon but still shooting Adolina a look that could kill Cadas responds to Kizzy. Your words have wisdom warrior. Let us follow this thing to see if it's purpose is indeed aligned with our own. It may be that to interfere with it here could curse it beyond its current condition. I would not desire that. Turning to Adolina but addressing her friends she adds As to this one, I have to say she is either very brave and loyal to her friend, or very stupid. What type of fool travels alone in these undead riddled lands? We've put down near an army of ghouls ourselves in the last few days. Having had her say she seems to ignore Adolina for now and follows the undead, taking point.
Marcellano lets out a sigh of relief as everyone turns to follow the undead, murmuring only, "Sandpoint is a small village, Cadas. Not everyone--and certainly no one from as far afield as Magnimar--would know what has been happening here."
As they leave the room, he falls in beside Adolina. He speaks quietly, keeping one eye on Iesha. "Adolina, was it? My name is Marcellano Gallenica, originally of Abken. The Shoanti woman ahead of us is Cadas, and back there are Robin and Qetsiyah." He hesitates slightly before continuing. "Let me first say that I am sorry for your loss. After that, please permit me to give you two warnings: The first, which I suspect you know, is that your friend Iesha is dead. Whatever semblance of her consciousness animates this creature now is only that--a semblance. For a creature this far gone, there is no return--nothing we can do, as far as any scholar I know has discovered, will return her to the land of the living. When this is all over, for safety's sake we shall have to slay her.
"The second, and harder, is that if we do find Aldern Foxglove in this house, you will have to stay your hand, at least partially." He raises his voice enough to ensure that Cadas hears this part. "There is much that Foxglove has to answer for, and he will--but first I think it best that we trap him, if we can, and force him to answer some questions of our own. We need to know how he came by this disease himself, if he did, and how and why it's spread."
Falling in behind Iesha, with Cadas leading the group, you follow her down the stairs, around the 2nd floor and down to the 1st floor, where she goes down a set of stairs to the basement that you have not been down yet. The first room you come to in the basement: a large oaken table, its surface covered with moldy stains and rat droppings, sits in the center of this large kitchen. Shelves line the walls, and an oversized fireplace dominates the northeast portion of the room. The shelves in the southwest wall are in a much greater state of disarray. Iesha however goes directly to the southern door and opens it and continues on.
You continue to follow her, and enter another room. This room looks to have once been some sort of arcane workshop, although it now lies in ruin. A row of soggy books sits on the northern end of a workbench along the western wall. At the other end of the workbench, what looks like three iron birdcages sit, each containing a dead diseased rat. To the east, two stained-glass windows loom. The northern window depicts a thin man with gaunt features drinking a foul-looking brew of green fluid, while the southern one shows the same man but in an advanced state of decay, as if he had been dead for several weeks. His arms raised and head thrown back in triumph, his rotting body turns to smoke and spirals into a seven-sided box.
Cadas continues to the open door immediately to her left, but when Kizzy enters the room, she stops, stares blankly for a moment then walks over to the workbench and picks up a book. She continues to stare blankly and then a few moments later bends over in agony.
DC 14 Will save please. Pass - you may continue on. Fail - you are filled with terror at the knowledge that Vorel has already succeeded in transforming himself into a lich, and must flee at top speed upstairs to try to find you and rescue her . You will attack anyone who tries to stop you but will break off the attack if they let you pass.
Kizzy blew out another little relieved sigh, giving Cadas an appreciative nod and ruffling Robin's hair affectionately before turning to Adolina. "There's no doubt that I want a piece of that bastard. Looks like our purposes are aligned, for now." She gave the half-elf a level look, her eyes dropping to linger on the scimitar at the redhead's hip. She had a good feeling about this stranger, but she was naturally suspicious and very protective of her friends.
As they pursued the undead, she could not help a rueful grin. It was not so long ago that she herself had gotten off on the wrong foot with Cadas. The Shoanti priestess was not known for her people skills.
Her eyes glaze over as she touches the book and her face contorts with pain and rage simultaneously as she tries to hold herself steady.
After a few heartbeats, Qetsiyah shakes off the near crippling urge to bolt from the room, laying waste to any who stand in her way. A sheen of sweat on her brow suggests she has only managed to come back to herself by sheer determination.
She does as Robin commands, dropping the book immediately as she realizes what has happened. "Oh! Bad book... very bad book." She looks between Robin and Marcellano with fear in her eyes. "This may all be worse than we thought... I think that Vorel started all of this. When he became..." She broke off, having to swallow a lump in her throat before she could finish, "...a lich!"
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Adolina nods to both Kizzy and Marcus. "I know she's not here any more. I do... it's just hard..."
By the time they make it down to the kitchen Adolina is humming to herself, a mournful song with a slow beat. Her footsteps are much more rhythmic, attuned to the song and you're all finding it harder to see her as her form blurs every time she passes through a shadow.
Not understanding the group's dynamic she is already through the door behind Cadas when she hears the word "Lich!" Moving swiftly up to the shoanti womans shoulder she whispers. "Your friends think that one of the Foxgloves became a Lich! If you have anything to protect yourself against the undead I would use it now! We are getting ahead of them!"
Hustling back into pursuit after her reveal, Qetsiyah answers with a roll of her shoulders. "We need to be prepared for anything at this point."
Aldern is no caster, or if he is he hid it well from us. He is a foppish twit, or is very good at playing one. Cadas responds. Have you ever met the man? More money than sense if you ask me.
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"He can be charming when he tries. But that was before he came back here. From what little Iesha wrote to me being here changed him, and not for the better. When I knew him he was charming but middling in almost every way. He had some money, but not as much as the family once held. He had enough sense to make his way in business but not enough to be truly successful. The luckiest moment of his life was meeting Iesha frankly." Adolina seems somewhat depressed by this thought.
"Vorel attempted to become a lich?!" Marcellano exclaims. "That could be...difficult indeed. Kizzy, are you certain that he succeeded in his goal? If so, and if he remains here, we may not be able to stand against him..."
When Adolina and Cadas describe Aldern, Marcellano snorts. "That man I'm not so worried about. From everything that I've heard of him, he sounds like a weak man made stronger by forces beyond his control--one reason I'm so keen to interrogate him." He glances into his scroll case to confirm the fact before adding, "I'm sorry to say that I used my last protective scroll yesterevening--we had to fight off a large pack of ghouls." He grimaces, and his hand goes to his neck, at the memory.
Continuing in their pursuit, Kizzy barks a sardonic laugh. "Marcel, I'm not certain that I'm not still asleep back on my bedroll in that dead farmer's house! But I'm not confused about what that fell book showed me. I saw him researching the transformation, building his phylactery and taking the potion. I think someone tried to stop him before it was done, his wife, maybe... but I don't believe she succeeded. I felt sure he completed the ritual somehow and probably killed Kassandra and Lorey both for trying to interfere."
"I see." Marcellano frowns. "We had best hope that we do not encounter him, then..."
Pausing a few moments as Kizzy overcomes the haunting from entering the room, allows Iesha to get a little ahead of the group. Leaving the exploration of anything in this room behind, you head down the hallway, following her. At the end, there are a few steps down into a room. Piles of broken stone, dirt, and a few ruined pickaxes line the edges of this room. The floor in the middle of the room has been torn up to reveal an ancient set of stone spiral stairs, obviously of much older construction than the surrounding basement, winding deep into the bedrock below. A foul stink, like that of rotten meat, wafts up on a cold breeze from the darkness.As soon as Cadas steps into the room, her eyes go blank and she pauses in mid step.
DC 16 Will Save. Pass - nothing further happens, continue on. Fail - I'll cover what happens in the next post.
Game mechanics:
HP damage - DC 16 Fortitude save for half.
Also another DC 16 Fortitude save to resist catching ghoul fever
You all see Cadas being shaken as if by a mob, and suddenly deep red claw and bite wounds appear on her flesh.
Qetsiyah's brow furrows in worry as she looks around for what might be affecting the priestess. "Cadas? Cadas?! Gods! Something has her! But what?"
She tries to insert herself between Cadas and whatever is hurting her, waving her sword around like a blind woman groping for resistance.
Wounds open up on Cadas' exposed skin and immediately begin to putrefy. The cleric gasps in surprise and calls out I am beset!
Marcellano's eyes light up (in a not entirely healthy way) when he sees the stairwell in the center of the room. "Fascinating! Now this, this looks promising!" Just as he's moving to investigate, though, the invisible creatures attack Cadas!
Marcellano jerks away from the priestess before steadying himself. "What is it?" The wizard mutters the words that allow him to see magic, peering frantically at Cadas and investigating her for any magical contamination. "Is it still attacking you, Cadas?! If it seems to be undead, call down the light of your god on it!"