Eoghan grabs Justin by his shirt collar. "Wait. Remember the last few times we went into a room? Dayo got possessed and a scarf decided to strangle Vy. Let's take a look first to see if anything is in here to jump us."
Eoghan stands in the door opening, almost certain something will come out and tear his face off.
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[dice=Perception check, +1 for traps]1d20+12
"If there's a possessing spirit in this room in would be that of a young child. Given Dayos maintained proficiency with his oversized meat chopper, I would hypothesize that you could coax a few spells out of me, even while so possessed. I doubt however that you could stand toe to toe with the denizens of the dungeon in such a state. But if you'd prefer to be the one playing with dolls....? "
You carefully file into the room, with justin going to check out the chimney. There is plenty of old sooth in the chimney.
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"Oh no, no no no nononono, this isn't happening, not again. I've had enough of this house and all its creepy haunts."
Eoghan runs out of the room and runs down the stairs again.
From downstairs:
"Nope. Not going back up again until that crying child is dealt with. No good can come of these messed up apparitions. Let's torch the place, I say."
"It seems to me that, when one is possessed, they do things that are not in their nature."
Vy seemed speechless and breathless for a few moments, but he finally finds his voice.
"I..I finally felt what it would be like to have parents...and it was the most horrendous experience"
He looks around bewildered.
"foxglove...the one we met in Sandpoint, the one we went hunting with...he didn't seem that..out of the ordinary, did he? I think...I think both of his parents wanted to kill him...after one of them killed the other."
Vy stares at his hands, at the fur and the black nails.
"I'm not sure if I'm...IF he was Foxglove"
"Human relatives can be rather difficult to tell apart yeah, specially because they change so much when they get older. I've had the occasional moment when I mistook the son for a father I'd met a few summers before. Makes for some awkward reminiscing.."
Dayo considers Vitro's words.
"On my island, most of my people deviate little in physical appearance. We even maintain the same hairstyle. Males can still be distinguished from females, but you would be hard-pressed to determine parentage by appearance alone."
After catching your breath, you drag Eoghan back upstairs and continue to the next door. After checking it for traps, you carefully open it.
The large room features two padded chairs and a long couch facing a wide alcove lined with stained-glass windows. These windows depict a diverse
array of animals and plants—from north to southare a large pale and ghostly scorpion, a gaunt man holding out his arms as a dozen bats hang from him, a moth with a strange skull-like pattern on its wings, a tangle of dull green plants with bell- shaped flowers, and a young maiden sitting astride a well in a forest while a spindly spider the size of a dog descends along a string of webbing above her.
"Is glasswork a common art form around here?"
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"Is glasswork a common art form around here?"
"This is more than I've seen in my life. Not much use for it back home and mica sheets don't stain well. "
Justin is definitely weighing the party killing him if he suggests bringing them back for sale, but on the other hand the helmet was crazier and he's 2/3 on crazy items being very valuable...
"Those windows are decidedly iffier than the ones downstairs. Remind me again who lived here?"
"At one point, a family."
Dayo moves in to inspect the windows.
"Doesn't seem very family-friendly to me. Whoever had this made was into necromancy and didn't showing it."
"Foxglove used to live here, before my parents..before HIS parents died. He went to the orphanage where I lived after that. I do remember him as a child, but he was taken to family in Magrimar soon after"
Vy looks around.
"I remember him telling me this house was in ..his...family for a long time"
Dayo draws his sword at Vitro's mention of "necromancy".
"An appropriate location to relocate, then, if you're interested in that sort of activity."
With nothing more in the room then mold and dust, Eoghan carefully checks the door opposite in the hallway, and cracks it open.
A stone fireplace sits in the northwestern portion of the chamber. Paintings hang on the walls, three on the north wall and five on the south wall, each covered over with a thick sheet of dusty cobwebs that obscures its subject from view.
The three portraits on the north wall:
The first portrait Justin uncovers is of a tall, middleaged
man with long dark hair, a clean-shaven face, and
dark blue noble’s clothes. The name placard under the portrait, when cleaned, reads Vorel Foxglove.
The second portrait is of a stern-faced brunette woman with wisps of gray in her short hair and a flowing blue dress. The placard reads Kasanda Foxglove.
The third portair is of a young girl with a narrow face and dark hair in a light blue summer dress. Judging by her looks, she is the daughter of Vorel and Kasanda. The placard reads Lorey Foxglove.
Dayo winces and clutches his chest after the daughter's portrait is revealed. A tear falls down his cheek before he regains his composure, but his brow remains furrowed with worry.
"Something isn't right. We need to hurry to the basement."
Justin spots that these portraits are dated 4635 AR. They are nearly a hundred years old. If Lorey survived whatever happened in the house, she would have died from old age by now.
"I can't explain it," Dayo says as his voice returns to a higher octave, "something's not right. But I feel we have the ability to fix it."
Dayo won't, but if others do he'll wait until they're finished.
"Just a second Dayo, we'll come with you."
Vitro assists Justin in clearing the other portraits.
The first two paintings on the south wall are of adults.
A thin man, with a mustache and thin face, who is clearly related to the man in the other painting. The name under the portrait reads Traver Foxglove.
The woman in the portrait is young, and has long red hair and an impish smile. The name reads Cyralie Foxglove.
Mom! Dad!...No, that can not be..however...I AM a foundling...it could be possible. Me..a Foxglove? No.NO. Neither of them shows my...my animal features. This house. This terrible house. It has been doing awefull thing to my mind. And to theirs. We need to resolve this! And fast!''
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Mom! Dad!...No, that can not be..however...I AM a foundling...it could be possible. Me..a Foxglove? No.NO. Neither of them shows my...my animal features. This house. This terrible house. It has been doing awefull thing to my mind. And to theirs. We need to resolve this! And fast!''
"perhaps your friend isn't a wolf but a fox? I'm not sure of the difference "
"Neither am I."
Justin dusts off the remaining three portraits. There are three children, one boy and two girls. Their names read Aldern, Sendeli and Zeeva.
With the last portrait cleaned, the temperature in the room suddenly drops
dramatically. Breath frosts in the air and fingers of rime slither across the walls. The figures depicted in the portraits suddenly shift from paintings of living people to those of dead folk.
Kasanda and Lorey slump into misshapen, tumor-ridden corpses.
Traver grows pale as a long cut opens in his throat and blood washes down over his chest.
Cyralie blackens and chars, and her arms, legs, and back twist as if broken in dozens of places.
Aldern’s flesh darkens with rot, his hair falls out, and he deforms into a razer toothed monster.
Both Sendeli’s and Zeeva’s portraits frost over but otherwise remain unchanged.
Vorel’s entire portrait, frame and all, 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.
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Everyone should have a +4 to anything disease related from the antiplagues
Justin has a +2 on top from clean living. Which the second he's through the door and its shut, he will demonstrate by stripping, mixing soap and water and running over his fur as fast as 2 paws and a prestidigitate will allow....
"no one.. said.. the price.. of knowledge. will be so disguisting. Well except the necromancer ... "
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"We go. Now."
Dayo leads the group down the stairs.
Vy keeps looking at the painting of Aldern. He keeps thinking that Aldern is the one Foxglove they've seen alive. His Parents and Grand-parents are clearly depicted as dead, Except for him, and the frozen ones. Yet he is a child here yet...
While Vy is looking and thinking, he absent-mindedly takes out a brush and combs himself clean.
While Dayo tugs on a slippery soapy ratfolk, the boards above your head suddenly creak. As if someone was walking around in the attic upstairs...
Vitro frowns at the eerie manifestation and instinctively slides into a slightly lower, more in tune with the earth stance, but otherwise doesn't seem as shaken.
"In the basement, in the attic... busy place this. What do we do first? Find out what's up there? It could be another haunting or some kind of undead?"
"How do we get up there?"
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Doors. Hallways only lead to more hallways
Eoghan takes a moment to check the doors, before opening them.
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.
Mini-Dayo enters the room, sword out, and waits for something to ambush them.