"Thank you for the key. This visit should be very interesting." Mavaro searches his memory for any tales he has heard of the manor or other events related to the Lady.
"Hmmm..." Merisiel says to herself as she tries to recall anything useful local information about the manor or Lady.
A disapeared woman with a penchant for reading cards. Should be interesting perhaps yes?
She said to no one in particular. The knowledge of this land and its histories were beyond her.
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Merisiel knows that villagers in Dunhob used to tend the manor grounds, but stopped going there years ago. People who used to work there claimed that mirrors in the house behaved strangely, showing things as they once were, rather than how they are now. This became apparent as the building began to decay.
She is also familiar with the concept of haunts, and knows that positive energy and holy water are the most effective ways to keep them at bay.
Mavaro knows the mansion had been commissioned by Lady Illirigarde only a few years before her disappearance. The manor quickly gained a reputation for being haunted. The last time anyone is known to have entered was twenty years ago. The man was found screaming loudly, and behaved oddly for the next several hours.
Oloch stares at the haunted mansion.
"Do we just try the front door?" he asks.
"I agree. Unfortunately, I only have 4 pieces of gold I can contribute. Maybe I could sell my rope and grappling hook. I doubt I'll need them in the manor."
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Also, Dr. Q gave you two crystal/metal cubes to store etheric compasses in if you find them. Who would be carrying those?
I'm afraid I don't, my dear. I used the last of it as coolant for my aetheric frequency tranducer over there., the gnome says apologetically.
Part III: Manor
The decaying edifice of Illirigarde Manor stands before you. The gothic facade shows signs of disrepair, and paint peels off of every decoration. The squat, one story building is surrounded by what must have once been a magnificent garden, though many plants have grown into tangled, thorny messes, while others have withered from lack of attention.
A coat of arms is carved into the stone stairway leading to a pair of imposing double doors. No light shines from the windows, and on closer examination every one has curtains drawn.
"...So, those foolish people probably think horseshoes protect them from ghosts." Merisiel finishes explaining what she remembers about the Manor house.
"Oh, we're here. Let me check the door for traps." The elf then moves up to the door and examines it carefully.
I will begin searching on this room on the left.
The ninja began moving torwards the room his eyes darting to and fro looking for anything out of the ordinary or dangerous.
Oloch watches the house as Merisiel checks for traps.
"I'll carry the other device from Dr. Q." Mavaro waits to see if anyone finds anything, but watches the house while they do.
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No traps are found, and it's clear this door hasn't been used in some time.
Opening the front door, you see that dusty sheets cover the furniture of the front hall—all save a large portrait flanked by unlit candelabras above the fireplace directly opposite the front door. The portait depicts a woman, dressed in a maroon dress with relatively little ornamentation. Her face has been torn from the canvas, with only a widow's peak remaining.
The room smells musty and old.
Oloch enters the room apprehensively.
"Someone didn't like that woman," he observes wryly.
Merisiel also follows the others into the room with her rapier drawn, "Wow, I thought the last place was creepy. Hey, you know, we really should have brought a cleric with us for this deal."
"Yeah, where is that Kyra when you need here." Mavaro says with a grin. He draws his own sword. "Why leave the widow's peak?"
Indeed strange.
She said like the others scanning about searching for anything else strange.
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While looking at the literally defaced portrait, Reiko notices a brass nameplate. It appears someone or something attempted to scratch off the name, with little success.
Lady Rena Illirigarde
There are also words crudely carved into the wooden picture frame.
HATE...Bad...Terrible...hate her!...haTE...
In addition to Oloch's keen insights about the damage to the painting, he also notices a small hole, seemingly clawed or chewed out of a nearby wall.
"Strange that hole. Shall we go through the door and see where it leads?"
"I wonder if we should plug that hole with something, but I'll go ahead and check the door now for traps." Merisiel says as she makes her way over to the portals in question.
(+1 if trapped)
Oloch looks around.
"Let' go through the east door then," he suggests.
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You open the door to a dark hallway. Almost immediately, the lamps on either side of the door ignite, giving off flickering candlelight. They are quickly followed by their immediate neighbors, and soon the whole hallway is lit in both directions.
Almost all of you notice two more holes in walls. Even Oloch can see a thin sliver of light coming from underneath a door at the end of the hallway.
"I wonder if there is a pattern to these holes. Let's look at the room at the front of the mansion and then we can make our way toward the back."
It would appear we are.... being welcomed here... though i doubt as friends? you see a pattern friend Mavaro?
She asked fingering the hilt of her wakizashi... finally deciding it was probably better to be cautious and fully drawing it.
"There are creepier ways to be welcomed. I don't see a pattern yet, but they seem strange don't they? Either evidence of a creature or some supernatural event perhaps?"
Merisiel leisurely follows the others into the hallway and makes her way to the door with the light underneath, "This suspense is killing me, I'm going to just open it unless any of you have a better idea."
Before she does that, however, the elf checks it for traps and/or sounds.
(+1 for trapspotting)
"Looks completely fine to me!"
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Merisiel opens the door, and sees that this room’s walls are polished steel, and it contains several workbenches littered with broken glassware and alchemical apparatuses. One alembic stand on the far table glows with an eerie light.
Four tall mirrors hang from the walls. The bare floor suffers blast scars, as if some great explosion had taken place here.
"One of you magical types will probably want to check that alembic thing." Merisiel says to the others, while she looks around the room at the mundane stuff.
Oloch joins Merisiel and looks skeptically at the alembic.
"Why's that thing glowing?" he wonders.
He casts detect magic on it and concentrates to see what he can determine.
With a tiny amount of trepidation, reiko removed the device given to her by the doctor and slowly approaches the glowing apparatus.
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Merisiel notices a green vial that seems to be intact on the left-hand table.
The stand seems to be glowing with a light spell, though it manifests slightly differently than the candles outside.
Oloch, Merisiel, and Rivani also begin to notice ice crystals rapidly spreading across the room's metal walls.
"Oh boy, time to leave!" Merisiel warns the others as she makes a beeline for the door.
"What do you mean? Why?"
Oloch quickly responds to Merisiel's suggestion that they leave, moving right behind her out the door.
"Gonna get cold, fast!" he warns.
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The air in the room becomes frigid. Frost has rapidly spread to cover the entirety of the walls, though the four mirrors remain clear.
Those still in the room see that the mirrors no longer depict the laboratory in it's present, ruined state. Instead, they show a room full of gleaming machinery, and spotless, well polished surfaces.
Two small towers emit miniature bolts of lightning. They strike a tiny figure with limp wings. The creature seems confused and screeches in protest, its arms moving to the left, then right, then left again, like the hands on a compass.
A woman with a strong widow's peak shuts the large book she is writing in. With an annoyed expression, she deactivates the machines and grabs the creature. She flings it into a box, covered in carved skulls.
As she closes the latch on the box, the image slowly fades. As it does so, the frost on the wall begins to peel off and fall to the ground, somehow resembling ash more than snow. As it lands, it begins to knit itself together into hundreds of tiny creatures, twitching with a spark of life.
Mavaro steps back, reaches into his backpack, grabs a flask of acid, and throws it into the swarm.
Mavaro draws his sword and steps up to the mass of creatures, trying to cut into them with his blade.
I wonder what that all means...
She had begun just as the excitement happened Left right left, the order might seem important, she tried to ingrain into her memory what the box the imp thing was thrown into looked like all while skirting around the room trying to figure out what in the heck those things were.
With no other options at the moment she cut at the mass with her Wakizashi
Oloch clumsily removes a flask of acid from his belt and throws it at the swarm.
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These appear to be similar to spider swarms, a poisonous, distracting swarm. These creatures don't seem to be truly alive, nor truly dead. They're too small to harm with weapons. Thus Mavaro throws his flask, but fails to hit the writhing mass.
Bouncing against a nearby door, acid splashes over the creatures, though Reiko is also spattered.
Oloch's acid likewise misses its mark, though mercifully avoids harming his friends.
Reiko's blade passes through the pile of creatures, seemingly causing no damage.