Nuri shudders and moves away from the scarf on the floor. "Burn it," she says flatly, looking to the fireplace.
Wren walked to the windows and took a long look around the area. "How strange. These stained-glass windows obscure what would be a breathtaking view of the Lost Coast. It doesn't seem that any right minded architect would install windows to block this view. It's just strange."
Victor picks up the scarf and moves to the fireplace. "We are going to need some wood and obviously something to light it with." Looking around, "Let us just use a chair or desk. Anyone got a light?"
Victor takes the scarf back into the room it was discovered in. Smashing one of the fallen chairs he moves to build a small pyre in the fireplace. Inside the hearth remains a bookend carved to resemble and angel with butterfly wings. One wing is broken, and as Victor moves it to make his fire he notices it has a dried blood stain, a clot of hair, and possibly a chunk of bone stuck to it.
"What the...?" Victor studies the object a moment before removing it from within the fireplace. "Okay, this is kind of sick, I must say." He takes the bookend - then throws the scarf in the fireplace - and goes to show the others what he's found. "Now, I have not yet burned the scarf but I found this. Looks like someone was killed with... this?" He looks at it, a bit confused. "I do not know, it does not make any sense how this thing could kill someone and why this would be in the fireplace." He shrugs. "I will leave this with you all while I go back and burn the scarf." He then moves to do just that.
"I wonder if the scarf had something to do with this murder weapon? Maybe that is why it was enchanted to try and take its revenge?"
"We don't know anyone was murdered," Nuri answers sharply. "Perhaps there was an accident. Or someone killed a dog, or a goblin, or ... or a ghoul."
"When we are done here, perhaps we'd be best to burn it behind us. There are certainly dark forces at work here that the innocent and naive must not be allowed to stumble upon."
Once the fire is built in the hearth, Victor takes and lays the scarf in the midst of the tinder. Striking a flame, in a few moments white smoke is flowing up the chimney and a little bit into the room. The smell of the burring wood is mixed with a foul oder like death as the scarf is quickly consumed in the blaze. In an instant the fire is burning hot, much hotter than a scarf and chair would or should burn, but half a moment later the blaze snuffs out, the smoke clears and a pile of ash is all that remains.
Returning from his fine work, "Okay, Nuri, the scarf is gone. Burnt to a crisp. Now we..." he looks around at the others as if waiting for something, giving it a moment or two before, "Okay, well, if there is nothing else down here to try and kill us I will try my luck upstairs where the spooky noise came from. Nothing could possibly go wrong up there, I am sure," he says with obvious sarcasm in his tone.
With the scarf finally dealt with, Eponine will go with Victor to the second floor. Once they get to the stairs, she'll slow them down and check each step for traps or structural weakness.
Once the scarf is reduced to ash Victor is eager to go upstairs and search for anyone who needs aid. Eponine follows him, but keeps him from rushing up the stairs so she can check for boobytraps. Once satisfied they are safe, they ascend up one flight. Upstairs you find a hallway with several closed doors.
Wren follows the others, making sure she remained closeby. She had stopped trusting anything in this house.
Eponine will check the door to the left (between her icon and Victor's).
She'll listen at it and check for traps. If she detects nothing, she'll open the door.
The door is not locked or rigged in anyway, it is stuck in the frame but a good shove gets it to swing free. Beyond is a narrow hall with a stairwell descending back down to the first floor.
"Servants' stairs?" Nuri ventures a guess why two staircases would be so close together.
Victor shrugs, having no idea as he moves forward and checks the double doors on his left.
Wren follows the two, noticeably quieter since her insistence on bringing that magical scarf almost got one of the others choked out.
Victor opens the double doors on the left side of the hall. A stone fireplace sits in the northwestern portion of this chamber. Paintings hang on the walls to the north and south, each covered over with a thick sheet of dusty cobwebs that obscures its subject from view. Another double door leads out on the wall opposite of where Victor is standing.
"There is not much in here except for more doors." He then turns and steps next to the double doors directly behind him, opening them as well.
Eponine just glances around the dusty room, curved blade dangling loosely in one hand. She focuses on the floor a moment before following Victor.
Survival to look for recent activity (other than us) in the dust.
Eponine scans the floor, but it seems no one has been upstairs in several months.
Victor opens the doors opposite where Eponine is investigating. 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 bell shaped 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.
"Whoa! You all need to come and see this room. It is truly one of the weirdest I believe I have ever seen." Victor steps in and looks around the room.
"What sort of strange art is this? Who would leave such work on display in their home?"
Eponine will start to stroll around the room, seeing what's there.
Identifying objects on display:
Knowledge (any that should be applicable)
Nuri and Eponine study the glass images, conversing in hushed tones.
Together you puzzle out that these are not significantly religious but are defiantly connected to arcane magic. Specifically they represent components used in necromancy spells. The images symbolize scorpion venom, vampire's breath, the tongues of deathwing moths, belladonna, and the heart of a maiden slain by poison.
Roakkad kept pace with the others, keeping a watchful eye out for hidden threats but not examining anything else unless his opinion was asked for.
"Perhaps Aldern had an ancestor who was a necromancer," Nuri suggests uneasily, "and he's been hiding out here all this time -- a mad lich in the attic. That would explain the ghouls and the decor ... but not why there aren't any tracks in or out."
"This is clearly a bad place, with great evil. I hope Aldern is alright. I say we keep checking doors until we find the source of the evil here, lich or not."
Eponine shakes her head at the strange displays. "I still think we need to burn this place to the ground when we are done here. Maybe consecrate the grounds to make sure any evil is purged."
Eponine will check the door at AY37. If she doesn't detect traps, she'll open it and see what's beyond.
As he continues to look around, "I could not agree more, Miss Eponine. Could not agree more."
Eponine waves at the others. When she gets there attention, she cups her ear and with a puzzled expression mouths the word Child?
With her blade in one hand, she opens the door.
Eponine opens the door cautiously to reveal a bedroom that features a child-sized bed, a chair next to a toy box, and a looming stone fireplace big enough for a child to get lost in.
A wave of emotion overwhelms you. You suddenly become convinced that your parents are trying to kill each other, and that whichever of them survives will be coming to kill you next. You see your mother, wielding a torch, and your father, festering with tumors and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other. The vision passes as fast as it occurs.
Eponine opens the door, and lets out a gasp as she collapses to her knees. She falls into a sitting position and wraps her arms around her shins, pulling her knees up to her chest.
"Oh, poor thing." she mutters. "Poor, poor thing. No one should have to witness that." The accustomed alertness in her eyes seems faded, and she keeps muttering "Poor thing."
When the door is opened, Nuri peeks in with interest. "Do you suppose this was Aldern's room as a boy? Eponine? What's wrong? What are you talking about?" She detects magic to see if the elf is under the influence of a spell.
"I saw it. When I came in? The girl who lived here. Her parents fighting, fighting over who got to kill her!"
Unsteady, she pulls herself back to her feet, recovering her blade as she does so. "Sorry, it was just, overwhelming, the vision. I felt her fear..." Even though she seems to be getting back to herself, the dullness behind her eyes still remains.
"Do we need to take a break, Epi? There's clearly been trouble here. The very house seems to be holding onto the awful memories....taking a torch to the place is probably best for all concerned."
"Yes this place needs to be brought down. But let us make sure there is no one within. I know I heard something up here. Of course, the way this place continues to play its tricks upon our minds, odds are that is all that it was. But I could never live with myself if someone were in here if we burned it down. Never." Victor goes blank, lost in deep thought to a time he vaguely remembers, yet, gives him a feeling of great remorse.
She detects magic to see if the elf is under the influence of a spell.
For every 2 points of damage you take to a single ability, apply a –1 penalty to skills and statistics listed with the relevant ability. If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die. Unless otherwise noted, damage to your ability scores is healed at the rate of 1 per day to each ability score that has been damaged. Ability damage can be healed through the use of spells, such as lesser restoration.
Wisdom: Damage to your Wisdom score causes you to take penalties on Wisdom-based skill checks and Will saving throws. This penalty also applies to any spell DCs based on Wisdom.
"If there's anything in here, it's the necromancer and some of his ghouls," Nuri snaps. "I agree with Wren: I'd rather leave and burn the place down than keep opening doors and hearing things that aren't there and having things attack us that we can't fight. Let's go."