"Whatever has happened here is not good, and I'm certain something other than human was involved. If only Rexel had listened and moved to the farmhouse with the others..."
Illonna nestles down to rest for the evening. Overnight, she ponders the dagger as well as the priests who carried it.
– there is nothing specifically unusual about the dagger which the priest had been using – it is certainly Abadarian in origin however some of the symbols have been partially scratched away…
The night in the farmhouse passes without incident… indeed, in stark contrast to the previous night, there are very few untoward noises out there in the darkness. Early, the sun rises to reveal another misty morning in Holver’s Ferry – and with it, shouting from the room where Silam Oddle has been restrained, ”Where am I?!?!?! What’s happening?!?!?! Let me go!!!! Now!!!! NOW!!!!” – the accompanying bangs suggest that the chair to which he has been tied is being smashed against the wall…
– both Zoreck and Astraea feel a fever coming on during the night… come the morning, both are suffering from sore heads and a chesty cough… a little aggravated by the weather conditions.
Illonna rushes about in the early morning attending to the various afflicted. First checking in on the people they had knocked out over the last two days and making sure they were properly fed. The it comes to Zoreck Astraea: drink lots of water and don't exert yourself.
Finally she prepares to confront Silam. She cracks the door open and slowly enters, keeping her back to the wall.
"Silam? My name is Illonna. You're in a farm house just outside of Holver's Ferry. You were very sick Silam, you need to try and calm down."
While Illonna deals with Silas, Drancis turns his attention to Zoreck and Astraea. "It seems like you have picked up...something... Let me see what I can do for you." He looks over each of them trying to ease their growing symptoms.
success
fail
Rikkan follows Illona into the room, checking on the massive man struggling against his bonds. If he won't calm down, we are going to have to ....incapacitate him. We can't trust him being left with the others.. He looks around at the others, wondering if they were thinking e same as he.
"Thanks..." Astraea says in quiet appreciation of Drancis' treatment. She gives him a kind smile, but the moment is almost immediately ruined by the banging and screaming coming from Silam.
She sits up and adjusts her scarf and hair, hoping to look presentable, and goes to Illonna's side to help. "Silam, please be careful- you could hurt yourself. You're with friends. There's no need to panic." Actually, there are plenty of reasons to panic, she thinks, but he doesn't need to hear that right now.
Silam rages and shouts… and initially, as Illonna tries to calm him, it seems that he will charge the one-armed paladin – but, with Astraea stepping in and helping to talk him down, his breathing gradually slows and he calms down… ”Friends? You are Friends? But…. But…”, Silam suddenly collapses in tears, ”I don’t… don’t deserve to have Friends… no, I am a bad person… my friends… I… I… I took them… took them to it!!!! I had to!!! I had to!!!!”
Locke spends his morning silently worrying over Astraea and Zoreck. Please, whatever gods still care about this place, do not let what happened to the villagers happen to them.
----
Locke tries to be as unassuming as possible as he joins Illona and Astraea in speaking to Silam. "Silam, whoever or whatever forced you do that is the badness here, not you. We will protect you and stop all this badness. Astraea is right, we are friends."
"He's right. If you want us to help you, we need to know what happened."
Drancis chimes in here, having followed Astraea and Locke up the stairs. "We don't blame you Silas for your actions. We removed a...growth from your body and I think that was influencing your actions." He does a double take on the last part of Silas's statement. "What do you mean Silas? Who were you taking them to?"
"Who were you taking them to, and where, click, where did you take them to," the ratfolk chittered as his whiskers trembled. "Maybe we could go find them."
Silam feels the back of his neck, wincing at the soreness, ”You took it off??? Oh… Thank You… Thank You!!! I am free of the voice in my head… at last!!!”
”There’s a creature… some kind of an ooze-beast… in the catacombs in the old Manor. It could speak words right into my head without any need for hearing – and it could make me do stuff… terrible stuff!!!”, through sobs, Silam ‘confesses’, ”The master diseased me and then made me spread the disease through Holver’s Ferry… and I couldn’t tell anyone… I tried but the voice was always there… stopping me from ever telling. Even when people went crazy I couldn’t do anything… and then it got worse, the creature… Vuelib… it made me take people to the Manor… many people… my friends!!! They were my friends!!!”. Silam breaks down once more… heaving sobs wracking his body….
"Did anyone else have that thing put on their neck? And the creature's name was Vuelib? He has bad tings to the people of this town, Silam, as you must know."
Composing himself, Silam responds to Rikkan's questions, "I think it was Vuelib... It 'sounded' like Vuelib but maybe I didn't 'hear it' right... I never saw anyone else with that growth... I think that creature was only using me... I think so anyway"
"In the old Manor, you say? Can you give us directions," Rikkan asks as he already began putting together an investigation of the place in his mind.
Drancis speaks up, "Do you remember seeing the Sheriff at all? Is it possible she went to the Manor as well?"
Drancis’ question sets Silam off again, he bangs at the floor in despair, ”I took her… She came to the Orphanage and I smashed her head until she fell over… and then I took her to Vuelib!!!”, with imploring eyes, he looks at the friends, ”Will you rescue her? Could you get her back??? The Manor is half a day from here… past the Orphanage on the same path – just keep going along the shore of the lake… it’s easy to find”.
"I am sorry for what that creature did to you Silam. We will rescue everyone we can and put a stop to this Vuelib so no one else will be hurt," After stating this he looks around at the others determination in his eyes to see this through, "This creature may be much more dangerous than everything else we have faced, I would blame no one for staying here, but I hope we will see this through together friends." It feels so refreshing to have so many people at my back
* * *
After the fight with the fallen priests...
As Zoreck rifles the pockets of the former priest of Abadar, he mutters, "Huh. Looks like they scratched out their symbols of Abadar on their stuff, but they don't seem to be using any symbols of their new god 'Vuelib.' Brother Tharll back home always told me that priests needed to channel their god's power through a symbol. Weird..."
* * *
At Rexel's last night...
"You're right, Astrea! I see that goo as well. Some kind of alchemy, maybe?"
Zoreck then starts rifling through Rexel's shelves of alchemical reagents to see if there are the components to make gunpowder.
* * *
Now...
Zoreck seems a bit groggy in the morning and rubs his temples a bit. His voice is also a bit hoarse. He focuses on repairing his postol from last night's misfire-- which he succeeds in doing by giving the gun a solid whack against a doorframe. He catches the dislodged bullet and charge, and re-loads the gun.
During their questioning of Silas, Zoreck eyes the man suspiciously, but seems to believe his change of attitude. He nods at the suggestion that the weird tumor-thing had been used to control him.
"I've heard tale that the Technic League uses weird artifacts like that to keep their prisoners in thrall to them, and to make them do things against their will." He looks to his companions, "I think we need to go there and put an end to this Vuelib!"
He pauses, and adds, "But I'd like to take a few minutes back at Rexel's lab, if it's okay with you guys."
It's progress. So "Vuelib" is some kind of weird blob monster? Well, I don't know how we're supposed to kill it, but... at least we know what's to blame now. And then there's the Sheriff; if it is what it sounds like, and the Sheriff had her head caved in by Silam... would she still be alive when they got to her?
Well, we have to try, at least.
"Silam, we understand that you weren't in control of yourself when you did all those things," she says, hoping to comfort the obviously distraught man. "We'll do everything we can to make sure Vuelib can't hurt anyone anymore. So, um, basically what Locke said."
She sighs and paces around the room, gathering her thoughts, tugging at her scarf as she does so. "All right, then, let's swing by Rexel's before we head out to the Manor. Anybody have any idea what we're going to do about this Vuelib character when we get there...?"
"Let's get all of the townsfolk together in a safe spot, click. Go to Rexel 's, hen head to the manor. We have a chance to sleep and be warm tonight. Lets don't waste it. Get good sleep."
Zoreck looks at Astrea quizzically. "What to do when we find this 'Vuelib?' I was thinking of shooting it a few times, then chopping it up..."
"Actually, I am curious to know more about it. It is certainly intelligent and has a purpose in its actions." Drancis replies thoughtfully. "One question on my mind is...how many more of these creatures are there?"
"I won't deny some curiosity about this creature, but... Its actions have been despicable, if it means saving people we kill it first and ask questions later," Locke pats Drancis on the shoulder to show he isn't offended by the younger man's curiosity.
"We draw close to the source of this wickedness. No doubt we'll find even Rexel at the manor, and we will need to act decisively if we are to be effective."
It takes a while to relocate the surviving villagers from the farmhouse over to the ‘safety’ of the Hapless Harpy – with Silam having been reassured by the friends’ promise pursue Vuelib, he helps to carry the friend’s first captive and Vorthad (both of whom remain catatonic) across the village green… underneath the cover of the huge tree and past the dew covered bodies of the mad clergy. It is a strange morning – everything seems peaceful and, through the clouds, the sun provides occasional warmth - yet the village remains irrevocably scarred by the events of the last few weeks and, ahead of them, the friends know they must face Vuelib…
Rested, well fed and reassured that they are leaving the villagers in safety, the friends make their way to Rexel’s apothecary… it is as it was left, ransacked, turned over and abandoned… but there are enough materials and tools there for Zoreck to manufacture the gunpowder he needs. Sadly, a second look in daylight provides no further clue as to the cause of Rexel’s disappearance…
…and so, following the map taken from the sheriff’s office, the friends strike out on the trail towards the Aravenhode Manor…
The trail back as far as the orphanage, now nothing more than a burnt shell of a building, is familiar and feels somehow reassuringly ‘natural’ as it meanders through the woods and along the shoreline of the lake. The path past the orphanage is a little harder to navigate, time and nature have partially reclaimed the trail… the occasional overgrown bramble needs to be cut from across the path and, on at least two occasions, the friends have to backtrack when they take a wrong turn… Eventually the forest disgorges them at the shore of the lake once more…
A long, narrow, stone bridge — barely wide enough for a single wagon — arches over Lake Shimmermere, connecting to a small island of rocks and windswept weeds. The jumbled ruins of a fortified manor house dominate the dreary islet, its upper floors and watchtowers having long since fallen into piles of rubble at its base. Vines, creepers, and prickly weeds cover the tumbled stones, atop which a dozen or so crows caw and flap.
Eyeing the ruins of the mansion, Zoreck looks for anything suspicious.
"Any guesses as to where in the manor we will find Vuelib? It looks like a dangerous prospect to stumble through this ruin without thought. It would be very unfortunate if our journey ended from a collapsing floor or wall. " Locke surveys the manor from afar hoping to glean an idea.
"I'd guess the basement. Something like it has no business in the light."
Arvarenhode Manor once had four upper stories, but these levels have long since collapsed, forming a ragged heap of impassable rubble above the partially intact ground floor. The building itself was constructed from tightly-fitted blocks of light-gray stone sealed with white mortar... lending the ruin a slightly ghostly look.
Cautiously crossing the bridge and scouting around the manor, the collapse in the northeast corner of the building is discovered... a massive section of the wall has fallen in on itself, leaving a gaping, rubble-strewn gap stretching from the floor to the 18-foot ceiling overhead. Enough natural light pours through the hole in the wall to nourish a moss-covered tree and to allow swathes of grass to take root among the sunken flagstones underfoot.
Drancis nods in reply to Illonna. "Yes, Silas mentioned the catacombs earlier. That is where the...thing must be hiding." He then looks around for any tracks where the Sheriff may have passed through earlier.
Perception
Rikkan looks around the ruins, trying to find a way into the catacombs the others were referencing. He also wants to avoid any random walls falling in about the group's heads, if possible.
- there are no obvious tracks in to the Manor - however there don't appear any other ways into the great hall of the manor than through the tumbledown hole in the wall or through the heavily warped doors that appear to lead into the same great hall...
Speaking quietly, Zoreck suggests, "Let's walk around the house and look in any windows." He also draws his pistol as he moves toward the west.
Rikkan follows Zoreck, but he doubted the warrior would find anything he had missed. It seemed the only way in is to enter the great hall.
Perception
Assuimng nothing else is detected, Rikkan will then move to the hole in the wall, and look carefully before he takes a deep breath and hops through the hole.
Once Zoreck has returned from his scouting trip Drancis looks carefully at the hole in the ground before climbing into the hole behind Rikkan.
Locke follows the other into the building, grim determination colouring his movements. Your end has come Vuelib.
Looking through the windows into the manor, there is no sign of life... no movement... no noises... nothing. So, having seen a possible staircase in the building towards the north west, the friends move into the great hall...
The floors are unadorned, but the ceilings still depict simple decorations with small, ceramic tiles—though many are now missing or lay shattered and crumbled about the floor. All the walls, floors, and ceilings show signs of age, weathering, and other, more ancient abuses, including cracks, gouges, and a few fist-sized holes. Small bits of rubble and debris—mostly broken stone and the ancient remains of worn, rotting furniture— litter the floor. A 12-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall fireplace dominates the middle of the eastern wall whilst, to the west, two doors lead away from the ruins of the great hall..
...the tree creaks and moans as a trio of crows take flight - their wings beating heavily as they take to the sky...
Locke makes a circuit of the room, inspecting it for magical auras, from the walls, to the fireplace, to the tree.
Rikkan first makes a scan of the fireplace,,creeping around looking for anything long ago hidden that might help the crew.
Perception
Illonna, meanwhile, will set to investigating the staircase that they had spotted from the outside.
The ruined great hall, seemingly devoid of life, is explored by Rikkan, Locke and their friends - Locke reaches out to the aether looking for magical auras... but detects nothing of note. Rikkan, believing that the fireplace may hold some secrets, examines the large edifice - and is also disappointed. With no sign of 'Vuelib' - whatever it may be - Illonna starts a more detailed exploration of the manor; heading towards one of the western doors...
...again, the tree creaks and moans... and a heavy fist smashes into Illonna. The upper trunk of the 'tree' pulls its vine-covered branch back and, with a snarl, unfurls itself into the shape of a gangly humanoid... it's features unmistakably troll-like.
Rikkan pulls his first fire bomb of the day and tosses it at the troll.
RTA with PBS
Damage
"It's a moss troll! Set it ablaze!" Locke watches in satisfaction as Rikkan tosses a fire bomb toward the beast and holds his flag high, chanting a tale of heroic flames.
Spinning at the unexpected intrusion, Zoreck reflexive raises his pistol, points it at the troll, and pulls the trigger. The pistol makes a thunderous *BANG!*, a bright flash, and a puff of gray smoke.
As Rikkan's bomb sends spirals of flame up the tree in which the Moss Troll is standing, Zoreck sends a bullet crashing into the Creature's thigh... a solid thud and a small fountain of green blood tells Zoreck that his aim was true...
Squealing in a peculiarly high-pitched voice, the troll bites at Illonna before - with it's near comically extended arms - clawing at Zoreck...
Locke steps forward, swinging his blade in a great arc, a roar in his chant and a flame in his heart.
Rikkan throws his second fire bomb of the day at the troll.
RTA with PBS
Damage
Drancis flexs his newfound 'muscles' and grabs a large boulder squeezing the 'bubble' around it with his mind. Effortlessly he flings it at the moss troll.
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