The night was dark and full of wet mud, but that was still way better then dragon so Miranda could keep her spirits up. It also helped that she didn't quite sink as deep into the muk as her companions. A toothy yawn and a few hours later she's still keeping the pace. "If it wasn't for the smell, insects or dragon, this isn't all bad!"
Varuzhan would simply fly over this swamp if he didn't have a busted wing. He could keep it up for a while yet, but the swamp was not so easily escaped. Still, he knew a thing or two about navigating terrain. Even if his preferred terrain was the mountains.
He started to feel fatigued from his efforts. If only he could figure out how to travel more efficiently. Or just consume something for a burst of energy?
That's when he notices the mushrooms growing from a rotting log floating in the swamp. It was tricky to tell in the darkness, but he felt pretty confident that they were invigorating.
There was some urgency in the movement of the group.
If it was a wish to leave the bogland behind and return towards civilization, or simply a healthy dose of respect for the blue dragon hunting for you - either way, everybody did the best they cold to keep going at a swift pace.
By moon and stars, you reached dry land about two hours before dawn. You cut across some plains to the road you followed days earlier, and move along it for about an hour more. Then the group stops, considering options to shelter for the day.
You already did a forced march to get here, and could not enter the city unless the right guards are on duty, anyway - so it is somewhat of a no-brainer that you will lay low during the day. The question is but where, and your companions are split in their opinions, turning to you to decide.
Straight towards the coast, there is an abandoned tiny fishing settlement. A dozen houses, at most - all the young ones went to Kintargo, the old ones died or moved. In the past, the locale had been used by smugglers or pirates to lay low, wait out storms, or do some repairs. It's farthest from where you are, and you will likely only reach it after dawn, but it would allow you to lay low for a while.
A bit towards the other direction from the road, there's an old ruined mansion. Presumably haunted, structurally unstable, and used for dares and dates by Kintargo's youth since dozens of years. With the martial law, it's unlikely young lovebirds will interrupt you there - but there's always the chance someone - or something - else already moved in to shelter there.
Finally, close to the road, there's an abandoned waystation, which used to provide shelter and food to travellers. Kintargo, as many other cities, did not open their gates at night. But there was simply a distinct lack of travellers coming at night from this direction, and the city proper was close enough that people travelling on the day moved on to the city - so the locale was given up by the city. The waystation would be closest and probably structurally most sound, but it's also located close to the road, so may make it easier for someone to notice you.
Varuzhan shares his find with Boros as his energy starts to flag. As they escape the worst of the swamp and reach a sort of crossroads, he chimes in. "Can't let some old ghost stories trouble us. The mansion is the right balance between getting away from the road and not getting caught outside when dawn breaks."
Plus, we might get to see a ghost! Miranda keeps that thought to herself. But she does nod in agreement with Varuzhan.
"Well, let's have at it then." Nez shrugs.
The soldier gets the mushrooms down with only a slight twist of his lips to betray his opinion of their taste and texture. Still, it keeps him going and that's what matters. It also leaves his wits sharp enough to respond to Varuzhan's casual dismissal of the mansion's potential dangers. "All too often, those old stories have an unpleasant core o' truth to them," he points out. "Best we assume that's the case here and not go in fat, dumb, and happy expectin' otherwise. That said, the mansion's the least likely place for us to run into anyone who might take undue interest in our business, so that's my choice as well."
"Aye, aye, always be cautious, but I don't fear anything in the mansion near as much as a do the dragon deciding to flatten it on a lark."
With the decision made, the group heads towards the old mansion. There is no trouble on the way, and it seems abandoned.
There are remains of a low wall surrounding it, but even undamaged, the wall would at best have served as a polite suggestion to please stay outside the property.
The front door is missing, and on the side of the building, where it would seem there was an outdoor seating arrangement, or a terrace, a large part of the wall that may or may not have contained a door of uncertain size is missing - both provide easy entrance into the mansion.
You slip inside and find yourself in the entrance chamber. There's a second floor, some rooms branching off, and even a stair descending downwards into darkness.
Most of the furniture that had once been in the room seems to have been checked - by visitors and animals - being abandoned and out in the wild has taken it's toll on the interior. What remains there is in various states of "damaged" from time, claws and weather, but mostly still sufficiently in shape as to be recognizable.
If you want to take a look around, do tell where you're headed, and if you are just "checking the perimeter" to see if you are safe, or actively checking the rooms you visit - if you do at all...the house does seem empty enough as is, so if ghost stories don't scare you there's probably no reason why you couldn't just set up camp and go to rest.
"Well, looks sounds enough so far," Boros offers after a lingering look at one of the holes in the wall. "So barrin' somethin' that I can't see, we shouldn't have to worry about this place comin' down, or one o' us goin' through the floor." With powder currently at a premium following his ad-hoc explosive device, the soldier readies his rapier and mace in case of trouble. "Probably be a good idea to take a look around before we settle in, make sure we're not sharin' space with someone or somethin' minded to bother us while we sleep."
"Oh I'm sure they wouldn't mind some company." Nez winks, but draws her blade anyway.
"Yeah no, let's make sure there's no surprises." Miranda was down to take a look around the place for the most obvious of signs.
You start sweeping the mansion - the ground floor, open to weather and wildflife, has definitely seen better days. Some small critters may have had a mind to lair in different rooms or locations, but the repeated visits by humans may have scared them off. It's still muddy, dirty, and mostly empty.
You notice that apart from the side with the terrace that was broken open, the mansion has remarkably thick walls center walls bearing load. Several of the room entrances have two sets of doors, with a small 5-foot "corridor" between them.
As you make your way upstairs via a grand curved stair in the entrance hall, you see the upper floor is in much better condition. The rooms to the doors are closed, and their interior mostly intact, if dusty and aged. Some rooms are less dusty - one with a large double-bed has likely been visited by several couples on romantic dates before the lockdown. Another contains a sort of library, and it seems someone was checking the books at most weeks ago.
As you progress, after having checked about half the rooms, a set of hovering lights appears around the corner at the end of the corridor.
Moments later, a sound akin to a scream echoes through the mansion.
Boros is more than a bit interested in the library's contents--he's not the usual meathead one might otherwise expect in light of his highly physical career and boorish personality--but the need to clear the mansion for a safe stay overrides his urge to go book diving. Still, the soldier has a definitely expectant air to his search of the rooms after the library, and it's quite clear how he intends to spend his time waiting here.
The sudden light and the subsequent scream which indicate that his plans have quite likely been thoroughly disrupted draws a stream of utterly foul cursing in all four of the languages that Boros is fluent in, and the combination of fatigue, stress, and pique draw a rather unexpected reaction from him in response. Pointing his rapier at the lights, he yells down the corridor at them. "No, absolutely not, you shut that s#~& up right now. You hear me? I'm not havin' it, not today. You take your little lights there, shove 'em up your ass if you have one, and get f!+!ed right back to whatever hole you crawled out of!"
Nez jumps at the screaming, but, glancing around and a moment to collect herself, inspired by Boros' bravery, she gives her own taunt. "Oy, lights and noises? Any popinjay wizard can do 'em."
She casts ghost sounds, to make- spooky ghost sounds.
"Maybe don't invite the spooky ghosts to do *worse*..." Miranda squeaks. Though she was a bit curious to see what it could do - but not that curious! Reaching to touch her magnifying glass she casts a Detect Magic cantrip. Just in case it wasn't a ghost, but someone pulling a prank.
The lights pause, then vanish at Boros words, and Nezaris heckling.
Moments after, a translucent pale blue middle-aged man with rags for clothes, unkempt and unshaven, floats around the same corner the lights did before: "Leave. . This is no place for you. Go back, or [u]stay ever[/u]!"
"Seesh. I don't think this place is even actually haunted. That smells like an illusion spell." she quietly informs her companions, no longer worried. If anything, almost disappointed.
Catching Miranda's quiet words, Boros looks briefly over his shoulder at her, then switches his gaze to the "ghost" at the hall's end. Keeping his voice down, he asks what he thinks is a very important question. "Can a spell like that be sent on its way without the caster bein' close by to tend it? Like, say, out o' sight around that corner there?"
Miranda knew that her illusions wouldn't be super helpful if she couldn't see them. But also that she wasn't the end-of-it-all illusionist...
With sufficient magical power, almost anything was possible - powerful casters both arcane and divine were able to re-shape reality itself, performing miracles or fulfilling wishes beyond the ability of lesser casters.
So the question was less IF it was possible and more how much arcane might was required to accomplish something.
For the current situation, Miranda draws a blank on trying to determine what spell could be used in such a manner.
"... I don't know. Buuuuuuut..." Miranda takes a cautious step forward and turns Invisible . "Can't be terribly dangerous if this is how they ward off intruders. Right?" Hoping she wasn't wrong - and this Illusion required concentration like her own - she snuck forward. "Talk to it - or something. I'll look."
Taking the instructions given by Miranda, Boros speaks up to (hopefully) conceal and distract from her effort at sneaking along. "You got some ghostly s*!& in those ears? Because I distinctly recall tellin' you to get f%$$ed. I aim to get some sleep today, good sleep, and I aim to do it here. You don't like that, you're free to hoist up whatever's left o' your balls and come over here and do somethin' about it. Otherwise, go haunt a rat or somethin'.
The ghostly figure focuses it's gaze at Boros, and starts floating towards him with an outstretched hand, clearly intending to touch the Soldier:"You are not welcome here!"
Once the ghost starts moving closer, Boros takes a moment to silently hope that Miranda is right about her analysis of what the ghost actually is, otherwise he's reasonably certain that he's about to get thoroughly f@!@ed, and not in the fun way either. Giving his weapons a considering look, the soldier then raises the cold iron bludgeon in preparation. "Yeah, and unless you got a deed tucked away somewhere that says you're the owner o' this dump, you're just offerin' an opinion on the matter, not somethin' the rest o' us actually have to give heed to."
Nez lets the brave Boros take the lead, cheering him on from a slightly less forward posture. You know, just in case.
The ghost approaches Boros, who is ready to strike as well. Despite the leisurely pace, the ghost suddenly dives forward towards Boros, almost taking the Veteran by surprise. Almost.
The ghosts touch connects as Boros brings his bludgeon down on his opponent.
Boros feels his body freeze up, as his muscles no longer follow his commands.
He is paralyzed, utterly helpless as the apparition...is hit by the bludgeon, which maintained it's downward momentum.
Very un-ghost-like, it acknowledges the hit with the non-magical weapon with an expression of pain, then backs away, continuing to be very unghostlike in both body language and spoken one:"Oww...what the f&%+...what is wrong with you people."
Nez, behind Boros, notes that Boros suddenly smells worse than he did before. So much so, in fact, that she feels sickened by the stench.
Feeling his body become unresponsive, the soldier can only hope that someone else is capable of handling things before whatever this ghost is does worse.
Some gears are turning in Miranda's head. She couldn't see the illusionist... Because the illusion *was* the illusionist. At least Boros percussive testing seemed to point towards that...
Miranda is pretty certain what just happened to Boros stinks of Ghoul Touch, especially after she sees Nez wrinkling her nose and backing away every so slightly.
The ghost is still recovering and complaining.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Hey, ghosts can't get bludgeoned!" Nez points out before going to tackle the man. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing against someone who appeared to be able to paralyze people with a touch, but, well, Nez wasn't at the top of her game maybe after the long day of marching.
"And they certainly don't talk like *that*!" Miranda exclaims from her invisible position behind the other "ghost". She hoped a sorta old-timey accent would be a better sell. And that this actually was that - or close enough. All she had to draw inspiration on was the written word and that one time at the opera. She softly taps a few steps closer and tries to fan up a small breeze before retreating again. "I am most offended. Psh! Wait until I tell Nick. He does not like being mocked!"
Nezari rushes at and grapples the ghost.
Something indeed highly unusual - until the blueish color fades, the transparency passes and she finds herself grappling the same unkempt, unshaven middle-aged man she saw moments before.
While Boros remains frozen, and Nez wrestles with the transparent blueish man, Miranda throws a few quips their way - but the Ghost seems preoccupied with trying to escape the grapple, and his only verbal response seems to boil down to :"Let go of me. Stop, Let go!"
Make my mate start movin' again then!" Nez just focuses best she can on holding onto the man, despite the state of her stomach from the stench.
"I can't if you strangle me. Let go of me and I can fix him.", the Ghost answers.
Nope, he's not gonna fix him.
The soldier can tell that the suspiciously solid "ghost" is lying, but has little way to communicate that knowledge in his current state.
Miranda frowns. It didn't work like that did it? Unless the "ghost" had another spell of course. Regardless; the unpleasantness should only last half a minute tops so that was definitely the less risky option.
"It shouldn't last more then half a minute tops." she goes back to her regular voice. With one hand pinching her nose she scuttled up to the pile of limbs. "If it doesn't pass by then you can stop strangling him."
Her free hand reaches for her dagger. It might have been good to get something like a sap or something for times like these - but if it was between more "ghostly" magic or stabbing a ghost she had made her choice.
"Look, lets not do anything rash here. Who are you guys? Exorcist? Mercenaries? Did those kids parents hire you? If so, I can explain. I just stumbled on them, minding my own business...definitely didn't stare or anything...", the 'Ghost' starts to try and justify itself.
Nez pauses for a moment. "F#%$, exorcist mercenaries sounds cool."
If Boros could speak, he would be yelling at Nezari to focus and not get distracted by this liar. Of course, if he could speak, then he could also move. And the ghost would find himself on the receiving end of a thorough beating, courtesy of one tired, aggravated, and thoroughly-done-with-all-of-this-s*!&-today soldier.
Miranda vaguely remembers something about missing children and a locked up school. From ages ago, before a huge dragon started chasing them. Still, might as well squeeze whatever clues they could get out of this one! "...Keep talking.." Also, hopefully Boros would be able to move again soon. So let's fill that time with something.
The ghost sounds increasingly frustrated:"About what? You come here and raid me in my own home. Without telling me why you are even here. Yes, I'm squatting in a ruin. Not a crime last time I checked. You'll also not find valuables with me, or I wouldn't be here. So just tell me what you want with me."
Boros feels his bodily autonomy returning to him, and the stench subsides.
Regaining control over his body, the soldier hefts the mace and steps up alongside Nezari and her grappled target. "Don't owe you any sort o' explanation about us or our business," the soldier says while pressing the mace's head firmly into the side of the "ghost's" face. "In fact, the more you know about either subject, the more inclined I am to do my part in makin' you into a real ghost hauntin' this place." And he's dead serious about that. While not the sort to kill out of hand, Boros also knows that a potential source of the party's location and activities, wandering loose and with unknown loyalties, is a significant risk.
"So, just robbers and thugs then. That's cool. Nothing to do with me, so you can let go of me and mind your own business. Sounds great.", he manages to reply, still in Nezari's chokehold.
By now, the transparency and blueish hue have faded for all of you, the dishevelled man looking exactly like a live-version of the ghost from before.
"Alright, we all good with that? I'm good with that, we don't want none of this swamp, so we'll be gone on the morrow." Nez's hold starts to loosen. It seems she's forgotten about the school situation.
"Hey now, maybe we have some heart. *What* was that about staring at children?" Miranda pokes the man/ghost/squatter. In general, she agreed with leaving him alone (probably tomorrow though). But specifically, this little bit of information didn't feel right.
"Not children. Youths.", the man coughs as the grip loosens. "You see, I live here. For years. I do the ghost thing to not have to deal with murderous strangers that want to hasten my demise - ", he glances at Boros, but manages not to point a finger.
"Been doing that a while. Before you know it, youths from Kintargo started showing up having dared each other to visit the haunted house, or stay a night. Needless to say, not great for being left alone out here. So I figured I'll leave them alone, so they can tell the others it'll all made up. But I had to keep track of what they do. One of them had the nerve to piss in my library. Bastard. Gave him a good scare."
He points towards the room with the books, then continues:"So the next thing, there's young couples coming. With youths trying to impress their crush. And they...er...did couple things. But I had to...er...watch so they wouldn't do anything...like that library boy. I admit I may have enjoyed watching and possibly got carried away a bit and there's a chance I had not noticed my invisibility running out, and there was a lot of screaming and throwing things and I figured they told on me and no one was here for the last couple weeks which was very peaceful but I suspected because of that incident and...look, I just want to be left alone here."
Snorting in amusement at the run-on confession, Boros pulls the mace back so that it's not an immediate threat to the babbling "ghost," but it's definitely ready for any shenanigans that might be attempted. "Right, so you're just a squatter and opportunistic pervert. Well, I got good news and I got bad news for you. The good news is, you won't have to worry about any o' us pissin' on your books or whatnot. But that's where the bad news comes in, because we're stayin' over for a bit, and you'll be tied up in a corner to make sure you don't go runnin' off."
The soldier's amused expression then drops and is replaced with a flat glare. "And if that's not to your likin', then we go straight to knockin' you over the head until the twitchin' stops. Which is also what'll happen if you decide to slip your ropes and run."
"Uh... Is that how we do things? If someone told me that I'd figure it's time to fight to the death now, rather than have my throat slit after I let myself be tied." Nez seems a bit startled by Boros' ultimatum and looks around to the others to confirm.