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"So, you're visitors... or researchers... yeah." The voice pauses. "Well, then, of course we want to welcome you into our home!"
The doors swing open, and a swarthy man wielding a whip and wearing masterwork studded leather armor and a buckler steps back toward his two companions. He begins an oratory exhorting them to feats of courage. "Fear not, brave Bella and Jaym, these tresspassers are no threat to us! Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and I, Tavetti Alfino, was here first!"
The inspired man and woman loose arrows at Serge and Marcie, drop their bows and draw their daggers. An arrow clangs off Serge's armor, but Marcie takes a direct hit.
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
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Jaym (Yellow)
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Marcie's face grows so red you'd swear steam started screaming out of her ears as the arrow sinks into her leg "You've done it now you bunch of squatters! Hell have no fury like a Steeltoe shot!" She pulls out a sap with a flick of her wrist and starts laying down a sick slow beat with her war drum before ducking behind the mass of metal known as Serge 'Tankian'.
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Serge shrugs the arrow off, but little flames appear in his eyes when Marcie is struck. "This will only end one way if you choose to go down this path, Tavetti. Surrender your weapons and beg for forgiveness, or be taken down by righteous fury!"
He swings his two-handed blade at the man with determined force.
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Marcie gets mad and beats her drum. With a sap. The performance is an inspiration to her new friends.
Serge takes umbrage at Tavetti Alfino's underhanded ploy, and the paladin cuts down the man, who falls to the floor, blood pooling around him, still spurting a pair of severed arteries.
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
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Jaym (Yellow)
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Shikaree steps out of the salon and into the hallway, loosing an arrow at Jaym, but the missile careens off the wall.
Bella looks in horror at her fallen leader lying at her feet and at her comrade's grievous wound. She looks for an exit and, spying the rotten floorboards, steps back and climbs over the furniture, dropping down through the hole into the crawlspace beneath the manor.
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
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Jay (Yellow)
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Karayan responds to the sounds of combat, entering the manor, and taking a position next to Shikaree.
Torgrin is outside the manor on the veranda, near a hole in the rotten boards, peering down into the crawlspace.
The wounded Jaym tries to escape and live to fight another day. He follows Bella, climbing over the furniture and dropping down through the hole.
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
Torgrin
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Jay (Yellow)
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Serge experiences a pang of remorse for cutting down Tavetti Alfino. Today's penance costs a charge of his wand of cure light wounds.
Marcie moves over to the hole in the floor and looks down at the fleeing Jaym and Bella. She pulls a pinch of wool from her spell component pouch and blows it at Jaym. The man's frightened expression goes blank, as if he's forgotten who and where he is for a moment.
"Jaym, what's wrong?" A frantic Bella asks. "Snap out of it! We need to get the hell out of here. Now!"
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
Torgrin
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Jaym (Yellow)
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Makoa calls Kifah to him, and his companion lopes to his side. Then the hunter threatens to send the wolf into the hole after Bella and Jaym, if they don't surrender.
Down below in the crawlspace, Bella drops her weapons and throws her hands in the air. "Okay. I surrender. Please don't kill me or Jaym."
However, the dazed Jaym doesn't even seem to notice Bella or the screaming half-orc and menacing wolf above him.
Serge
Marcie
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Tavetti Alfino (Purple)
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Makoa & Kifah
Shikaree
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Bella (Red)
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Karayan
Torgrin
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Jaym (Yellow)
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"Of course we will not kill you. We started this by trying to talk," Shikaree says sadly. "But you have my promissse that we won't slay you. Come out. Pleasse tell your friend to as well. Jaym, is it?"
Shikaree moves to the mouth of the hole and calls in, "Jaym? Please come out, we will not hurt you." The nagaji eyes Kifah. "...probably."
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Marcie stops drumming and questions Serge quickly "Is he still alive? Be nice to get him to answer our questions, but first ONE of you three needs to fix the hole you put in my leg with your damned arrow!" She glares at them and starts searching through their things for anything that could heal her wounds..
"My name's Little Bo Peep for all that matters. We're just here to find some info, next time don't shoot first then ask the questions!" Sheesh, that's OUR job!
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"Say no more, Marcie," Serge says, tapping the dwarf with his wand at her request.
Afterwards, he binds the three up carefully, using a length of his hemp rope, and applies some additional healing to their leader in hopes that he will awaken and spill it.
"Now that that's done, indeed, we have questions for you. We are Pathfinders instructed to investigate this manor. Why are you here, and why did you attack us? Surely you are not just common thieves." He gets in the leader's face.
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You bind your prisoners, strip them down to their small clothes, and Serge tends to the wounded.
Now that you have the opportunity to look around and search the place, this room must be where the bandits camp between raids. The room is well-lit by lanterns, and bedrolls and other personal gear are stacked along the walls.
Bella and Jaym each had studded leather, buckler, composite longbow (+1 Str) with 20
arrows, rapier, and a sap. Tavetti Alfino had masterwork studded leather, buckler, rapier, shortbow with 20 arrows, whip, and a disguise kit.
The bandits are surprised you've spared their lives. Tavetti Alfina answers Makoa, "We're the only ones here. Search the rest of the house, if you don't believe me."
In response to Serge, he says, "We're sort of 'prospectors,' seeking to improve our fortune by relieving others of their 'prospects.' No harm in that, surely. Just nature's way."
"'Why are we here?' There's only three of us. When somebody finds this place, they naturally want to check it out, looking for loot. That spooky thing out there in the big room with the pillars and paintings makes things easy for us. Did you see her, the Black Angel? You don't act like you did. Or we'd have made short work of you lot."
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Marcie agrees to the healing once she doesn't find any means on the 3 captives. "You're so kind Serge, you really know how to treat a Lady." The middle aged (go ahead, ask her how old she is, I dare you) Dwarf helps the others search around the room through the gear and is a bit disappointed in not finding anything connected to their mission.
"We'll need to search around the rest of the manor if these three aren't too helpful." She turns to Torgrin "Would you search underneath the place deary? You've got a knack for getting into dark cracks and crevices it seems..." She lets that innuendo linger before chuckling to herself slightly. "Afterwards we'll just have to search this place from top to bottom."
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Torgrin somehow blushes through his current reptilian skin. "Err I..I'd be happy to m'lady."
They don't see me as a horror, but useful, a part of their team Torgrin thinks wistfully.
Torgrin will squeeze down into the hole in this room and check any other rooms with holes into them, when the opportunity arises.
But his recent positive thoughts seem distracting
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When no one responds to Tavetti Alfino's suggestion, the bandit leader shrugs. "Suit yourselves."
When you finally take a look around the neglected grounds, you find nothing notable, except for the old well. A stone statue of an angelic figure looms over it.
You begin your search of the manor's interior. Torgrin spends some quality time down in the crawlspace, but finds nothing of interest.
You've already been to the main entrance, where the broad stone steps lead to the open-air veranda and small vestibule. The main doors are locked and barred from the inside.
You've already been in the Grand Hall, where Tavetti Alfino said there's some kind of haunt with a 'Black Angel.' Makoa neutralized it, at least temporarily, before it fully manifested.
Shikaree, Makoa and Kifah have already been in the former salon. It looked mostly intact, like the bandits had been using it. The adjacent side rooms contain only fallen plaster, dust, and old cobwebs.
You move to the north side of the manor, skirting the area you believe triggers the haunt.
Working south to north, you enter another salon. It appears a fire in the southeastern corner of the room has destroyed most of this room’s contents; walking through it is difficult. The adjacent side room contains only fallen plaster, dust, and old cobwebs.
The small room in the northeast corner of the manor appears to be a simple shrine to Asmodeus. It's been thoroughly vandalized.
To the west of it is a library. Fragments of books and broken furniture are scattered throughout the room.
The room in the northwest corner of the manor appears to have once been the office of the Irrica family's patriarch, Rutillo.
This once-luxurious office has been thoroughly ransacked, and goblin vandals have defaced the walls and furniture. A dead crow, relatively fresh but burned and blackened, has been nailed to a plaque on the western wall. A gilded portrait frame over the desk has been covered with paint and blood, obscuring the image beneath.
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Marcie makes the rounds with the others throughout the manor, poking through the debris and tapping the walls for hidden compartments. She also appears to be a bit of a scavenger, picking up some mostly broken items and eyeing them up, placing a few interesting looking ones in her backpack.
When they get to the room with the Crow she looks at the walls and instantly recognizes the goblin's work
"The burnt bird is the territorial mark of the Scorchfeathers goblin tribe." She remarks "Goblins are weird, they don't write nothin' down. Everything is symbols and stuff like that. Dirty vermin!" She hawks up a fat, green loogey and spits it on the crow.
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Standing with the group in the office with the group, "Yes I recognize the mark as well. We might have to track them down to find out what they have seen. Getting ready to leave the room Makoa looks closer at the blood stained painting . Look, I think something is behind it" Makoa flicks his spike chain out trying to "carefully" knock the painting aside.
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When Makoa knocks the painting off the wall, it clatters to the floor, falling on its face. You hear a muffled voice say something unintelligible.
A piece of parchment is affixed to the back of the portrait with alchemical glue. On it is a hastily updated handwritten copy of Rutillo Irrica’s last will and testament, dated the day he and his family were killed.
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Serge looks at the note curiously. "Ravaged by goblins and left for dead. And yet, another mention of this angel. Curious."
The paladin paces the room. "I'm afraid we may have to take Tavetti's advice and allow this angel to speak with us. Should it become dangerous, we know we can quickly silence it with positive magic. A savage angel of vengeance..." He scratches his head. "My worship is known as the General of Vengeance. I realize it is likely Irrica used the term loosely, but I cannot lie about being interested by this coincidence. And we may learn something from it."
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When Marcie asks a question, the fallen painting speaks again.
Makoa picks it up, turns it over, and asks another question.
The portrait speaks again, and now you can hear it clearly. "I am Asmodea Irrica, daughter of Rutillo and heir of the House of Irrica."
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Shikaree reads the crumbling old parchment as Karayan explains it is merely an echo of the woman, unable to truly answer, at least right now. The nagaji's face crinkles with thoughtfulness.
"Yes, it seems these items must be traced through more clues available to us now, barring them being in some corner of the rubble we have not ssseearched. But the diviners of the Ssociety may know more?"
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As you leave the Irrica patriarch's office, Marcie casts one last angry glance at the dead crow. Where the phlegm and saliva of her well-aimed loogie dribbles off the goblin fetish, she notices that the plaque it's nailed to has two hooks, as if it had once held something, an object perhaps two to three feet long. Judging by the hooks, whatever it was might have weighed about five pounds. A scepter, perhaps, or some other device similar in shape, size, and weight...
The goblins likely looted it, because it's nowhere to be found.
Having discovered what you could inside the manor, there remains the question of what you will do with Tavetti Alfino and his minions, Bella and Jaym. Oh, and one last look around the estate's grounds might be fruitful...