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Torgrin oozes along in the crawlspace beneath the manor.
When the shapeshifter reaches another rotted-through section of the floor, he peers up and sees at least two figures in the room above him. They look human, a male and a female, wearing studded leather armor with bucklers and armed with composite longbows, rapiers, and saps. They seem to be waiting in ambush.
"Bash" finds herself alone on the south side of the veranda.
Makoa and Kifah wait by the door on the north side of the veranda.
Calling out for Torgrin to wait, Serge smashes through the boards covering the window next to him.
Shikaree and Karayan hold their positions a few feet away from the base of the broad stone staircases, the nagaji medium with bow ready and the dhampir mesmerist waiting for the muscle to clear a way into the Irrica estate.
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"Apparently the roof is in better repair than we had first thought", Makoa says hopping down. "Gozreh let your light shine" Makoa touches Serge's unlit torch which now glows with Gozreh's light. "You can safely toss it in without burning the manor down". Makoa tells Kifah to HEEL in orcish as he prepares to follow Serge into the manor.
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Makoa climbs back down from the roof and casts light on Serge's torch.
Serge takes a look into the dimly lit manor. From the window, the paladin can see the once-grand hall now lies in ruins. Marble pillars support a painted ceiling above an ornately tiled but bloodstained floor. Broken glass and debris cover the floor. Stern portraits look down from gilded frames hung above the reach of goblin vandals.
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Torgrin is waiting to see if the two respond to the noises outside this room, as soon as they open the room's door he will emerge from behind and alert his comrades of the trap while attacking from behind.
If the two instead stop and prepare for an ambush in this room, then Torgrin will travel under the house to the others and find an entrance near them.
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Serge turns and whispers. "It's a little dark. Broken glass, debris, and stern-looking portraits. I don't see anything dangerous, but let's be careful. Come, follow me."
He motions for the others to follow, and climbs through the window and into the manor, holding his arms up to help anyone else wanting to climb in.
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Standing in the east end of the Grand Hall, Serge sees--with the help of the light spell on his torch--a set of double doors behind him to the north and another set of double doors across the room in front of him to the south.
Torgrin sees the two figures in the room above him turn to look at someone on their right, then they nod and each nocks an arrow to their bow.
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Makoa and Kifah enter the manor through the broken window. A moment later, Torgrin slithers through the rotten floorboards onto the north side of the veranda, silent as a church mouse.
"Bash" follows the hunter and the wolf into the manor, while Shikaree remains at the top of the northern stone stairs, and Karayan holds his position in front of the manor, a few feet east of the broad stone steps.
Inside, Makoa moves up next to one of the marble pillars in the Grand Hall, careful to avoid the blood stains, broken glass and other debris on the ornate, tiled floor. The painted ceiling must have been quite spectacular once upon a time.
Then the hunter looks at the stern portraits in their gilded frames. All eyes turn to regard the half-orc!
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Torgrin pops his head through the broken window and whispers urgently and just loud enough to be heard in the near area.
"Friendsss there are two roguish looking lads with bows waiting behind that door at the end of the hallway, maybe a third I couldn't sssee. There could be more in other roomssss."
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As you move across the Grand Hall, everyone, except "Bash" (as well as Torgrin and Karayan still outside the manor), notices the dour eyes in the stern gold-framed portraits turn toward you, following you as you move.
"Bash"
Serge
Makoa
Shikaree
---
???
---
Torgrin
Karayan
Kifah
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Shikaree recalls that when a haunt is triggered, its effects manifest at initiative rank 10 in a surprise round. A haunt can have virtually any effect identical to an existing spell effect, but often with different—and distinctly more frightening or unnerving—sensory or physical features than that spell effect normally has.
On the surprise round in which a haunt manifests, positive energy applied to the haunt (via channeled energy, cure spells, and the like) can damage the haunt's hit points (a haunt never gains a Will save to lessen the damage done by such effects, and attacks that require a successful attack roll to work must strike AC 10 in order to affect the haunt and not merely the physical structure it inhabits). Unless the haunt has an unusual weakness, no other form of attack can reduce its hit points.
If the haunt is reduced to 0 hit points by positive energy, it is neutralized—if this occurs before the haunt takes its action at initiative rank 10, its effect does not occur. A neutralized haunt is not destroyed, and can manifest again after a period of time—to destroy a haunt, a specific action must be taken in the region to end the effect forever.
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"Makoa! Well done," Shikaree beams, flashing a way-too-fang-filled-maw at the half-orc. I wish I had such abilitiess of my own, perhapsss in time-- oh, oh, but we're meant to be ssneaking, yes, oh dear. I'm sssorry-- this is just all sso--"
Shikaree claps a scaled hand over their own mouth and tries to resume the appearance of a dignified, experienced Pathfinder agent who is totally helping lay an ambush with their colleagues, and not spazzing out. Totally.
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Looking about the Grand Hall, a large portrait on the southern wall shows the Irrica’s extended family shortly before the war. According to the engraved plates on the frames, one of the visible figures is a young Althea Irrica; another figure is Dremlut Irrica, depicted in his Hellknight armor. The northern wall bears a portrait of the family’s last patriarch, Rutillo, bearing the Irrica mace as a symbol of his authority.
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"Excellent technique, Makoa," Serge says, his voice kept low as if he expects the paintings to reawaken at any moment. He stows his holy water again and retrieves his greatsword.
"Something worries me about these paintings, Marcie. The painted portraits seem charged with terror and despair. Their expressions seem a reaction to someone or something they see but is not depicted in the paintings." He gazes over them once more. "Perhaps the mood had some connection to the haunt that was neutralized."
"I am no detective, but I would guess something else within this manor must be causing this reaction." Serge turns again towards the double doors at the south, and knocks again once everyone is ready.
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After examining the portraits, Makoa and Kifa tiptoe through an open door into a room to the south. Lit by lantern, this former salon’s furniture is mostly intact and shows signs of recent habitation. There are two doors in the western wall of the room.
Marcie follows Serge toward the double doors at the southeastern end of the grand hall, but Torgrin, adopting yet another new form, elbows the dwarf bard out of the way, wanting to stay closer to the paladin and his aura of goodness.
Shikaree pauses in the Grand Hall, taking a quiet moment to contemplate and to appreciate the history of the place.
Karayan waits outside on the veranda, wondering how much longer his companions will take to finally clear the dilapidated manor, confident someone will scream, if there's any real danger.
Having pronounced his critical impressions of the haunted figures in the portraits, Serge gets back to business, heading to the double doors, behind which Torgrin had said a couple of ne'er-do-wells are lurking. Ever courteous, the paladin raises a gauntleted fist and makes a polite knock.
A cultured male voice from the other side of the doors responds, "Em... Yeah..." Cough. "Hello there. Who's that knocking at my door, uninvited like?"
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Shikaree hurries after the others as the nagaji realizes this is not merely to be a painting-examining incursion. The nagaji takes up a place in the back of this smaller room.
"Oh! Are you the current Master Irrica then?" Shikaree says innocently to the voice. "Then we are visitors wishing to pay our respectsss. May we talk?"
"We might be able to make it worth your while," Shikaree adds as the notion penetrates that mere politeness might not do it.