As you set foot inside the room, you feel a sudden itching on your face and an overwhelming desire to claw off a mass of tumors and boils. The sensation vanishes as quickly as it came.
As she enters the room, Rixa's hand twitches for a moment, then gently rubs/scratches the side of her face. "Definitely some sort of disease. Come on, let's keep moving. I don't think there's anything worthwhile in this room." she leaves, casting a glance back at the room as she does so.
I dunno, a clock-wife sounds like something you'd actually find... maybe in a steampunk setting with living constructs. o wo
Through the northern door, an iron tub sits in the middle of the room, the floorboards around it sagging with the tub's weight. There don't seem to be any creatures inside it.
A thorough scan revealed nothing. Unlike the lower floors, this place didn't seem quite as aggressively haunted, though the background evil was no weaker.
Through the northwestern door, this once fine chamber has been destroyed. The bed is smashed, mattress torn apart, walls gouged as if by knives, chairs hacked apart, and paintings on the walls torn to pieces-with one exception. A portrait hanging on the northwest wall seems to be untouched, although it hangs backward, its unseen subject facing the wall.
Shalluk shuddered at the rage expressed by this room. It was...relatively clear what was likely on the other side, but he knew he had to check. He examined the room, focusing on the painting, and if nothing came up he flipped the painting around again.
Perception + Detect Undead, Sense Density, Sense Magic, Sense Life:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
Zelani followed into the destroyed room. Seeing Shalluk check out the painting, Zelani moved towards the bed, running a hand over the smashed material as she looked around...
Flipping it over, the portrait reveals a beautiful dark-haired Varisian woman in a thoughtful pose.
Shalluk Only:
As you see the image, you feel a sense of dizziness wash over you and you stagger slightly. A moment later, you feel pure rage for the women behind you-
Will DC 16:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
-but the feeling passes as you get control of yourself. The feeling vanishes as quickly as it came.
Shalluk froze as the feelings of rage and anger rolled over him. After a moment he turned to the others, his eyes glowing even more eerily than usual. "Another haunt. Rage, this time." He looked around the room. No surprise there.
Rolling his shoulders, Shalluk looked over the painting.
"They never stop, do they? I'll be happy to leave this place in ashes once we're done here." Rixa, content with her examination of the room, prepares to move onward with her allies.
Aside from the quality of the painting - clearly commissioned from a talented artist - there didn't seem to be anything of interest. The door right next to this one led to some stairs going up. There were also the stairs going back down to the entrance area (probably not too important) and the western double doors.
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 set of double doors exits to the west.
So, another room beyond. Interesting. Shalluk scanned the room and began to move into the room once he was sure there was nothing too dangerous, bar the likelyhood of another haunt.
Perception + Detect Undead, Sense Life, Sense Magic, Sense Density:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23
As Rixa clears the last of the cobwebs away, the temperature in the room drops dramatically. Shalluk's sensory magic only has a moment to ping before the figures depicted in the portraits suddenly shift from paintings of living people to those of dead folk. Two slump into misshapen, tumor-ridden corpses. Another grows pale as a long cut opens in his throat and blood washes down over his chest. A fourth blackens and chars, and her arms, legs, and back twist as if broken in dozens of places. A fifth - recognizable as Aldern Foxglove - darkens with rot, his hair falls out, and he deforms into a ghoul-like monster. Two more portraits frost over but otherwise remain unchanged. The last - the biggest and most prominent - erupts into a sudden explosion of fungus and tumorous growth. This wave of fungus and disease washes over the entire room in seconds before the room suddenly reverts to normal.
Fort DC 15 (Shalluk):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21 Fort DC 15 (Zelani):1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14You have contracted an unknown disease. Rixa is immune.
Shalluk paused as the display occured, looking from painting to painting. "I...did not expect that," he murmured, and looked back. "Is everyone alright?"
Zelani shivers for a moment as the chill hits her, before her dark eyes grow wide in horror at the changing portraits.
She jumps back at the explosion, clearly quite on edge, and coughs as it washes over her. Zelani looks over to Shalluk tiredly at his question, "I'm...not sure..." she replies quietly before she continues to move towards the next doors intending to open them and put this room behind her...
As Rixa struck forward, her blade caught on the edge of one of the panels, sinking perhaps the width of two or three hairs into the wood before a sudden, jarring stop. They no longer seemed active... but at the same time, the pictures felt far more durable than they should have been, and there was no sign of magical reinforcement protecting them.
In the next chamber, the furniture in this bedroom, while dusty and unkempt, does not exhibit any major signs of water or mold damage. The one exception is a dark stain on the desk near the northern window.
Eying the paintings one last time, and concerned by Zelani's answer Shalluk focused on the new room and scanned it. His abilities were working, but whatever was here wasn't static, so it might not help - yet Shalluk could see no other option. He wanted this place done as soon as possible.
Perception + Detect Undead, Sense Magic, Sense Life, Sense Density:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (6) + 11 = 17
The dark spot was prodded, but didn't react to Rixa. If anything was likely to set off whatever might be there, her presence and actions didn't seem to be it.
Looking confused, Shalluk asked, "I...believe that was the whole of this floor." The crossbow glanced at the stain again. It seemed unlikely it held nothing when so many of the rooms had. "Shall we seek answers up the stairs?"
Zelani nodded in agreement and after a glance at the spot Rixa had poked, moved to head back towards the staircase leading up that she had seen earlier...
Nothing of note happened on the hallway. Rising up to the attic, you found... more doors. (And a new map!) No simple storage place, then, but actually a chamber with quite a lot of rooms in it. And worse, if some of what you'd heard before was true... One door, on the eastern side of the hallway, did seem to be a bit better than the rest.
Well, it was a wealthy family's mansion... but yes, there were quite a lot of doors.
A desk and a chair sit in the middle of this drafty room. Chimneys rise to the west, while to the east, two intricate stained-glass windows are set into the wall. The northern window depicts a dark-haired woman with pale skin, large green eyes, and a black-and-red gown; with both hands she wields a jagged iron staff. The southern window's lower half has been broken and patched with canvas; what remains of its upper half depicts a handsome man dressed in regal finery and a crown of ivory and jade. Small scorch marks mar the wood near the broken window. A battered and ruined telescope lies on its side near the desk and a large trap door in the roof has been tied shut by several lengths of rope.
Tilting his head, Shalluk looked around. He was...concerned...by the sealed attic - especially since he had rather assumed that this was the attic. Could attics have attics? That seemed unlikely, somehow. But the stained glass windows at least lacked the horror of the previous ones.
Trying to keep one eye on the attic hatch and one on the telescope - which Shalluk presumed the most likely thing to have a manifestation - he looked around.
Perception + Detect Undead, Senbse Life, Sense Magic, Sense Density:1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16
Rixa, now familiar with the mansion's tricks, moves to the telescope to smash it before it could trigger a haunt, but keeps a keen eye out for danger as she does so.
No haunts go off as you search the room. Checking carefully, it seems the trapdoor is wedged shut and would take a phenomenal feat of strength to rip open, while the telescope is beyond repair. The figures in the glass could probably be identified, but it would likely take someone with a good knowledge of history to puzzle them out.
Shalluk shook his head. He had neither the strength nor the knowledge to go further into the mysteries of this room. "Unless one of you has business here, let us carry on to the next room."
