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As Katarina states, the light indeed does shine from the cracks of the doorway further down the hall. Having exhausted the resources of the lab and rendered the haunt dormant for now, you push on, carefully treading down the corridor of the old haunted mansion.
Pushing open the door with a creak you are sure echoes around the house, you look into the room beyond. This spacious reading room is covered in dust. Expensive furniture hides under sheets, except a round table whose polished stone surface is completely clean. A large, open box carved with skulls sits near the table, and a mirror hangs on the door to the north.
In the east of the room, a grand armchair covered in a dust sheet glows with a spectral radiance, the light you saw from the Lab doors.
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Ashton and Alexis once more feel the creeping frost and decrease in temperature indicating a haunt in the Manor. Rushing to the chair, Alexis once more summons forth with her Positive wand, though the energy does not discharge on the dust sheet, finding nothing to strike. Looking around you see the focus of the haunt. Lady Illrigarde's desk...
Lady Illirigarde appears in the table’s re ective surface, though she appears tired. A box carved with skulls is closed behind her as she furiously tries to align two delicate silver disks etched with compass directions. She looks down at a book, and lightning ashes brightly outside. When it subsides, the box is open, and the tiny winged creature is hanging from the nearby bookcase. It leaps at her throat with hate in its eyes, and the vision fades.
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Alexis shakes of the terrible feeling induced by the Haunt and starts moving towards the desk. However, from out of the shadows tiny darts fly out against Alexis, Ashton and Theoden. None find their mark, out behind bookshelves three small goblin-like fey stare at you with hatred.
for
for
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Theoden
Katarina
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Fauxish
Ashton
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Eldren
Alexis
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** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
Alexis shakes of the terrible feeling induced by the Haunt and starts moving towards the desk. However, from out of the shadows tiny darts fly out against Alexis, Ashton and Theoden. None find their mark, out behind bookshelves three small goblin-like fey stare at you with hatred.
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Though she knows she can do little against the haunts they've encountered, these other little creatures very much seem to be made of flesh and blood.
And if they're flesh, they can be made to bleed!
Kat steps forward, using her mind to grasp one of the skulls in the box and fling it at the nearest creature.
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Theoden aims his crossbow and lets loose a bolt, the Mite's natural resistance takes away some of the bolt's power but it is not enough and Theoden nails the creature to the bookshelf it had been hiding behind. Katarina hurls a skull but this bounces off the Mite causing no harm.
Hearing a snarl, you look up to see a tiny construct matching one of the creatures you have seen in the haunts in the Manor. It is deformed and twisted and its eyes are filled with a gleaming hatred. It leaps and Theoden and tries to sink its teeth into his flesh.
for
The creatures fangs find the meat of Theoden's arm but he is able to fight off the drowsiness induced by the creatures poison.
Theoden 17/18
Katarina
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Fauxish
Ashton
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Eldren
Alexis
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"Living foes? At least they should be a little easier to manage," Ashton muses as he moves forward...
And stops next to Theoden, attempting to help him finish off the pesky little construct.
Towards the closest of the little gremlin-like creatures. "Not sure what you are, but I can't let you keep throwing darts like that. Very rude, you know!"
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Theoden lands a solid blow to the raged Homunculus and it squeals in some sort of agony but is still standing. Ashton's ghostly fists narrowly miss the target, grazing off a more reinforced section of the tiny construct.
Fauzish leaps across the room, a solid kick connects with the Mite but the force of the blow is sapped by the Fey creature's natural resistances.
The Mite wearing faded purple locks eyes with Theoden and takes on a fearful aspect, trying to make the Man quake in fear, but Theoden is made of sterner stuff and keeps his resolve. The Other Mite cries out in shock at Fauxish's sudden appearance and lashes out with a small dagger, Fauxish effortlessly deflects the blade however.
Theoden 17/18
Katarina
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Fauxish
Ashton
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Eldren
Alexis
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Sadly true to form, Alexis' swing has plenty of weight behind it but wildly misses its mark. Theden fares better and his solid chop brings the Homunculi low. With a shriek the Creature collapses into pieces and frost around the table shatters and melts away, you can feel the malevolence of the Haunt fade away.
The Mites look at each other fretfully and then at you, seeing no means of escape they sneer.
Theoden 17/18
Katarina
Fauxish
Ashton
M
Eldren
Alexis
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"Nice one Theoden!" Kat cheers as the man pummels the tiny construct to dust. She moves past Alexis and the others and rounds one of the bookshelves, moving to where she can get a decent aim at the mite fighting against Fauxish. Her path clear, she uses her mind to fling one of the books on the shelf at the mite.
"Time to catch up on your reading!"
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Beneath a punishing onslaught of blows from a determined party, the mites fall quickly. Catching your breath from the brief combat you peer around the room. The Manor immediately feels different, almost lighter and you notice it has been getting gradually better since the tiny constructs death.
Your gaze falls upon the mirrored surface of Lady Illrigarde's writing desk, where before it showed the horrifying memories of a tortured experiment this time the scene is more serene. Lady Illirigarde stands in the surface holding one of the silvery disks in each hand. You instinctively know that this is no haunt, but perhaps a chance to talk with the deceased?
In a whispered voice she asks "Why did you come here?"
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The vision in the mirrored surface nods and ponders your question for a moment, fragments of memory re-asserting themselves into a personality. She smiles grimly and her words, though still but a whisper on the wind become more frantic.
"Yes, the Phenomenon, you must find the source and destroy it, far too long as it ruined things here!" She thinks for a moment then lets out a ghostly sigh, "Yes I was once Illrigarde, I am dead now I think, killed by a creation that grew to hate me. Please, to destroy the haunt you must take these."
The reflection holds out each hand, as if offering the silvery disks. Her hands do not manifest from the table, but the vision has taken on an almost soaplike quality which you think you may be able to reach in and take them.
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As Alexis reaches into the reflected realm, she feels as if she pushing her hands through ectoplasm, the visions fights at her intruding digits but unperturbed the Gnome graspshe silver disks and pulls them out. Examining them they look like compasses, Once drawn from the mirror, the compasses are wispy, slimy shadows that slowly evaporate into the air, as if they shouldn't belong here.
Lady Illrigarde begins to speak "These are my greatest work, Ether-" but is suddenly cut off as the vision fades.
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The creations you hold are strange things, putting your collective heads together you would deduce these compasses are set to detect powerful Psychic energies, though they are not set and to set them would be beyond your Ken at this juncture. Maybe the Professor knows more...
ALong with the Boxes provided by the professor is a note, unfurling it you see the next stage of your adventure scrawled on the page.
My valued hirelings!
It would seem the disturbing phenomena in Versex county are only increasing. Apparently disturbed sleep and flashes of heat lightning of a red hue are especially common, and those following the news link these events to the bloody murders of both people and beasts near an ancient Kellid site known as “the monolith.”
I would like for you to investigate the strange monument, search for any clues linking this to the bizarre events, and deal with any dangerous elements to ensure these dangers no longer plague the area. I am particularly interested in ancient Kellid glyphs that might protect against the occult emanations we are dealing with.
Dr. Quolorum
You can again speak with the locals of Dunhob on your travels to the Monolith to see what you know.
The people of Dunhob avoid the ancient Kellid ruins, believing them cursed and dangerous. Dunhob folk wisdom insists that sprinkling iron shavings near the edge of Kellid ruins protects you, since the creatures within are forced to stop and count the shavings before chasing you.
The monolith is rumored to have a Kellid burial complex beneath it, though the few villagers brave or foolish enough to venture nearby haven’t seen anything more dangerous than a few bugs.
Glyphs of great power are inscribed on the monolith, designed to keep a great evil within that would sweep across the land and lay waste to everything.
Kellid barbarians ruled this land before it was Ustalav, and, depending on the tribe, they both worshipped and warded against powerful ancient evils.
When the undead Whispering Tyrant conquered this part of Ustalav, he killed all the living but left many of the ancient Kellid sites untouched. After he was defeated, the Ustalavs reclaimed the land.
Tales tell of a group of Ustalavic nobles who fled deep into the earth through a well below the monolith to escape the Whispering Tyrant—a well that the ancient Kellids knew to be a gateway to evil. After the Whispering Tyrant was defeated in the Shining Crusade, crusaders sealed the well, trapping any surviving nobles below.
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"The people tell me the ruins are cursed and dangerous - then again, they say that about anything of interest. They also say we can protect ourselves from the monsters within by sprinkling iron shavings around the periphery of the ruins, because they will be compelled to count them rather than chase us - that sounds like a compulsion certain vampires have developed, but upon pressing further, I learned from a few villagers who'd actually dared go near the place that while there is a Kellid burial complex beneath it, they didn't encounter anything worse than some of the larger strains of vermin."
"For those of you who don't know, before this land was the modern nation of Ustalav, it was ruled by Kellid barbarians, who both worshiped and feared powerful ancient evils. Their warding rituals, however, were no no defense against the Whispering Tyrant, who, it is said slew them all - but it is also said that, some Ustalavic nobles managed to escape him by literally going underground, by way of a well beneath this monolith, and after the Shining Crusade defeated the WHispering Tyrant, they sealed the well. If those ancient nobles are still down there, then...there'd be no telling what ghost stories they validate."
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Gathering yourself and enjoying a plain breakfast in Dunhob, you make your way to the grim hills where the Monolith is said to reside. The great monolith of the ancient Kellids towers over the barren hillside. A distant flash of red lightning silently illuminates the muggy air, revealing a hole that gapes in the slope like a toothless mouth. Several dozen feet away rises a low mound of dirt and loose rock.
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Alexis takes in the scenery appreciatively.
"See that?" She points to a prominent glyph on the Monolith shaped like an eye in an elongated hexagon. "That's Gorum's Eye, an ancient Kellid glyph of protection. As for the others, let's see...“protection"...“stone”...“grave”...“pit”....and, ah “evil.” Yes! I think we have some worthy work cut out for us!"
And what else should the generally observant Alexis spot but the tracks of a claw-footed humanoid figure with two legs and hands that reach the ground, leaving tracks of their own. These tracks lead to and from the monolith via a newly dug tunnel.
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As you investigate the Monolith and search the area around for threats you find nothing, barring the tunnel this place is strangely devoid of life, as if even animals fear to tread in this accursed place.