Miron turns to Drazh, and looks like he is going to say something, then stops. And nods.
"You have a good point, Drazh. We have eliminated the key threat here, as I doubt this Brotherhood are to be found so close by. I am willing to leave finishing this until tomorrow."
He begins to move, then adds:
"You have a better sense than many avowed followers of Abadar. Perhaps something to consider.", he says with a slight smile.
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”Aye. As my grandpa always said, gold can buy many things. But it can’t buy honor. Speaking of which...he also said that he once worked in a haunted mine. The mining team had a Cleric on staff who just channeled whenever haunts were near. Didn’t get rid of them but it quieted them down. Maybe ye can try giving it a taste of Adabar?”
Stepping around Miron and Drazh as they talk of how best to loot the manor, Marten examines the ruined puzzle box. His shiny boots and crsip, black suit look out of place in this filthy room.
”Maybe ye can try giving [the haunt] a taste of Adabar?”
"I worry that we won't be able to bring the necessary magics you seek without great effort, Master Anviltamer. This here," he points to the puzzle box, "was a phylactery. For a lich.
"It no longer functions. Actually, I believe it was never completed, thank the gods."
Marten raises his gaze to the humanoid figure in the black fungus.
"However, it makes me wonder who that is.
"Does anybody know anything about this fungus?"
Ferocia stomps on the ghouls for a while, making sure they're all dead. Then she wanders over to the others. She ignores their talk of fungus and phylacteries, but when it comes down to talk of leaving she shakes her head.
"Ghouls got as far as the farmlands. I'm fine with leaving haunts while we go get a priest, but we need to search the rest of the house. If we miss a single ghoul it could kill people while we're off dawdling, and spread that disease you guys were talking about. Let's check this place for more undead. When that's done we can leave and bring back a priest or something."
The fungus seems unnatural to Drazh he's seen some like it before that are fairly harmless. Strong alchemical concoctions and fire can often clear mold.
Miron considers these opinions then speaks, looking at Ferocia.
"We have eliminated several ghouls and their leader. However, there of course may be other ghouls and undead remaining. That said, I strongly suspect that we have slain the most active of their ranks, if not all. We must balance that against the danger of haunts, perhaps that is how Azalia got injured."
He looks to Drazh.
"The means by which I channel divine energies differ from that of a normal ordained cleric. I can hunt and battle undead, but I cannot clear them out en mass at once. But I am not sure there are more potent clergy to be found in Sandpoint, even Father Zantus. We would need to go to Magnimar for much more assistance than we can provide ourselves."
He continues.
"How about we begin moving back towards the entrance, hunting undead as we go, and then assess our condition and resources?"
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”Aye. And as for this fungus, it’s nay like anything I’ve seen before. Likely not natural. Marten, burn it with fire or acid, would ye? I’d search this room before we leave.”
With that his familiar poked it’s head out to use prestidigitation, so that Drazh might be protected from the vile stench of the room as he looted the place.
"A phylactery," Marten over-enunciates the word for Drazh's benefit, "is a component of a spellcaster becoming a lich. It holds the caster's soul, thereby preventing death but also life. It is a foul form of undeath."
Marten indicates the ghouls outside the room as an example of undead, but he pauses as it registers that Ferocia is out there stomping her way though ghoul flesh. After a moment and a quick shake of his head, he comes back to the conversation.
"The point is this: the process for becoming a lich is secretive, but I do know that it is long and difficult to complete. Whomever achieved even this much," Marten indicates the puzzle box again, "has or had knowledge and power that we should not ignore. If this haunt is connected to anyone even thinking of becoming a lich, then we need to make it a priority."
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Anneka reads Marten's lips. "And what about this...fungus?" She asks/signs. "I've never seen anything like it!"
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Azalia helps Drazh loot, strangely silent, preoccupied with wondering at her vision of Aldern coupled with his death, and worried that the previous attack of the ghouls might turn her into one of them. Did it all mean anything?
She searches perfunctorily, still in shock, running it all over and over through her mind, trying to remember if she encouraged him or if there was anything she could have done better or differently...
As he searches the room first Drazh feels an odd urge to eat some of the fungus but with Anneka's warding magic easily pushes this sensation aside.
Aldern,
You have served us quite well. The delivery you harvested from the caverns far exceeds what I had hoped for. You may consider your debt to the Brothers paid in full. Yet I still have need of you, and when
you awaken from your death, you should find your mind clear and able to understand this task more than in the state you lie in as I write this.
You shall remember the workings of the Sihedron ritual, I trust. You seemed quite lucid at the time, but if you find after your rebirth that you have forgotten, return to your townhouse in Magnimar. My agents shall contact you there soon—no need for you to bother the Brothers further. I will provide the list of proper victims for the Sihedron ritual in two days’ time. Commit that list to memory and then destroy it before you begin your work. The ones I have selected must be marked before they die; otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste.
If others get in your way, though, you may do with them as you please. Eat them, savage them, or turn them into pawns—it matters not to me.
—Xanesha, Mistress of the Seven
There is a portrait of the woman ye found as an undead in the attic it is worth 200 gp. This is smeared with blood creating a caricature of Azalia?
A small silver key ring worth 10 gp sits on the table amid the rotten meat, with two keys on the ring. The larger of these two is a tarnished iron key set with a round opal worth 100 gp—this is the key to Foxglove’s townhouse in Magnimar. The smaller key is made of bronze and has an unusually long tang ending in a set of three notched blades. The head of this key resembles a roaring lion.
Chime of opening (5 charges)
Disturbingly... erotica of Azalia done in charcoal.
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Drazh pushed aside the compulsion. For a brief moment the desire to burn the entire house down came into his mind, but he pushed that away to. He held up the portrait and looked with distaste at the blood smears. His familiar went to work cleaning it up . As he went through the rest of the loot, absent mindedly passing the much more important note to someone who cared to read it, he came across the charcoal drawings. His eyes went wide as he crumpled up the one he found and tossed it to the ground.
"What the fook...? A good thing we put that monster down. If I felt any remorse in looting the abyss out of this place, it's gone now."
Ferocia takes the note and reads it.
"Sounds like... " She pauses. When she starts she tries her best to sign the words out for Anneka, but she clearly only has figured out about a quarter of the words. "Aldern recently paid off a debt to the 'Brothers,' whoever they are. But it was someone else who turned him into a ghoul. Someone named 'Xanesha, Mistress of the Seven.' She gave him instructions about how to perform something called a 'Sihedron Ritual' before killing people. Then... she gave him a list of people to use it on and free reign to kill whoever else however he wanted. Sounds like the ritual... takes the greed from their souls so her master can use it?" Ferocia raises an eyebrow. "No idea what that means, but its clearly why he was carving stars in people. Anyway, there's no mention of who this master is. There is mention of his home, though. It says if he forgot anything to go to his townhouse in Magnimar, and one of Xanesha's minions will contact him."
Ferocia hands the note off to someone else and frowns. "I want to go to Magnimar about as much as I want a star carved in my chest." She groans loudly.
Then she wanders off to keep exploring.
The western half of this foul-smelling cavern is heaped with bones, each scarred by the scraping of teeth. Most of the bones have been cracked open for the marrow within.
This long cave stinks of rotten meat. The source of the horrifc smell is readily apparent—a swath of carcasses is strewn about the floor of this place.
A monstrously sized, undead bat with mottled, decayed flesh and eyes that smolder with an unholy green glow. It stirs as your group draws near.
Known in some circles as ghoul bats, skavelings are the hideous result of necromantic manipulation by urdefhans, who create them from mobats specially raised on diets of fungus and humanoid flesh. Upon reaching maturity, urdefhans ritually slay the bats using necrotic poisons, then raise the corpses to serve as mounts and guardians. They carry the same ghoul fever and paralysis affect as a ghoul.
Drazh
Azalia
Marten
Ferocia
Miron
Anneka
Skaveling
Anneka nods encouragingly to Ferocia as she fumbles the hand gestures. It was nice to see her trying. She bites her lip while she thinks, then says/signs: "The star, the sihedron carved into the bodies, we've seen it below Sandpoint and in Thistletop, as well. This isn't a coincidence. There was a stained glass window upstairs that contains a seven-sided box. Could that be the...f-i-l-a-c-t-e-r-y, Marten?" Unfamiliar with the word, she misspells it in sign. "Again, seven sides. There's got to be some connection there. And whoever this Xanesha person is must know something about it."
Anneka's never been to Magnimar, and the idea of going is really sort of exciting, but she understands why Ferocia would hate it. She claims the little chime. If they're going to the big city, they may very well need to break in somewhere.
"Ferocia, wait!" She hurries after the truculent dwarf, just as the ghoulish bat appears. She reaches out and touches Ferocia, warding her the way she had done Drazh.
On a whim, Marten creates a sign language word for "phylactery," grasping his fingers together as if to form a cage in front of his sternum and then closing that cage tight.
"It's possible that the box you saw in the window was a phylactery, but I would imagine that most would not want to advertise what they are using for that purpose. I understand that the phylactery is the key vulnerability of a lich."
When he notices the what Drazh has found, Marten almost casually throws a lightning bolt spell at the undead bat.
Ferocia lets out a snarl and stalks toward the weird bat, slashing at it with her claws.
The assault of magic and brute force lays the undead bat low.
Two of the three dead humans among the skaveling’s victims are long-dead Varisian nomads with nothing of much value on their remains.
The third however, is the corpse of notorious one-armed bandit Shaz “Redshiv” Bilger, suspected of organizing the robbery of nearly two dozen merchant convoys along the Lost Coast Road over the past decade. Proof of his demise presented to the law at Magnimar is worth a 500 gp reward.
Pearl ring worth 300 gp
An adamantine longsword
Hat of disguise
56 gp.
Marten stands over one of the bat's victims, a one-armed man with distinctive features that Marten studies for a moment before speaking.
"Since we're heading to Magnimar, the local law enforcement there might be interested to know that we have found this man's remains. He's a local bandit with a 500 gold bounty, I believe. It might make for a good introduction before we go 'trespassing' into Foxglove's townhome."
Miron muses out loud, thinking to sign along with his words.
"I wonder if we will find any more bodies with the sihedron carved into them. That is presumably the mark the note referred to. When we have fully purged this place and retrieved all of value, putting it to the torch sounds like a good idea indeed. Then, Magnimar."
To return so soon. But duty calls. Loudly.
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Azalia burns all of the drawings and pictures of her thoroughly, leaving nothing but ash. She thinks that visiting Foxglove Manor is a great idea so that she can burn that too, but she says nothing; just going along.
Two wine racks line the walls here, their shelves empty and dusty. Mounds of broken glass bottles clutter the floor.
You notice something interesting on the top shelf of the western rack—a
hinged and hidden compartment in the back wall. Beyond is a narrow nook in which are hidden eight fine vintages of wine from the famed Vigardeis vineyard in distant Cheliax. Each bottle is worth 100 gp.
Ferocia picks up the bandit's corpse and carries it with her through the house.
Once a pantry, this room has become a flthy, reeking lair of what must be hundreds, if not thousands, of rats. Swaths of fur cling to everything, and mounds of rat droppings cover the floor.
Two bunks stand in this room, relatively free of dust and mold. A single chair lies on its side between them.
The caverns below and the basement are cleared, the ground floor and higher levels might still hold secrets.
"Most direct, Drazh, but I agree. We are in good condition to proceed. And we may find a suitable container and chemicals to preserve Bilger's head or other identifiable parts. Lugging an entire corpse to Sandpoint, let alone Magnimar, sounds unnecessary."
A mahogany table surrounded by chairs sits in this room. Twin freplaces loom to the west, while to the east, stained-glass windows obscure what could have been a breathtaking view of the Lost Coast. Each window depicts a monster rising out of smoke pouring from a seven-sided box. From north to south are depicted a gnarled tree with an enraged face, an immense hook-beaked bird with sky-blue and gold plumage, a winged centaurlike creature with a lion’s lower body and a snarling woman’s upper torso, and a deep blue squidlike creature with evil red eyes.
The box is that which lies broken deep below. The monsters seem not to be
emerging from the boxes but rather being drawn in, and that their snarling visages express not rage, but rather fear.
It was an unusual design choice to fit the rooms with arguably the best view of the Lost Coast with windows one cannot see through.
"Monsters being sealed away? Such as that barghest?" , Miron muses out loud and via signs.
Ferocia dumps the corpse on the floor by the front door of the house. "I'll pick him up on the way out." Remembering Anneka, she tries her best to sign what she's said.
Then she follows the others and inspects the windows. This time she remembers to sign her words -- sort of. It's a clumsy attempt, mostly because she only remembers to sign about half the words. "That box is the fila-majig we found downstairs. So... this is what? Instructions on how to make your own fila-whatever? Or... boasting about how someone tried?"
"Wait... Are these windows original? Who built this house? The original owner is probably the lich, right? Or, attempted lich?"
She shakes her head. "I don't understand rich people."
An unusual design choice to fit the rooms with arguably the best view of the Lost Coast with windows one cannot see through.
Think there is a secret room or something?
Azalia looks.
"Most direct, Drazh, but I agree. We are in good condition to proceed. And we may find a suitable container and chemicals to preserve Bilger's head or other identifiable parts. Lugging an entire corpse to Sandpoint, let alone Magnimar, sounds unnecessary."
"The bounty is only for proof of his demise. I'm sure if we took the corpse to the Sandpoint Cathedral for disposition, a letter from Father Zantus or Sheriff Hemlock should suffice."
She shakes her head. "I don't understand rich people."
"Nobility's rampant greed and lives of excess seem to create vulnerabilities to eccentric personalities, which in turn seem to make them susceptible to... well, some sort of malignant influence, for starters."
Azalia can't see any signs of a hidden door or compartment.
As Ferocia moves to dump the body at the front door the face of the manticore twists to appear more human and it catches fire it's tail swinging towards her head. She rolls out of the way. Before she can respond it's flames go out and it returns to it's original pose and appearance.
Ferocia scoffs at the manticore. Looking up at the house she remarks aloud, "You'll have to do better than that."
She waits another moment, curious if the house or its spirits will respond... She shrugs, then stalks right past the manticore to join the others at the windows.
"Perhaps the rest of this manor will show additional clues. Say, behind that door to the south."
Azalia checks for traps on the door to the South.
This library features two chairs, one of which lies on its side, before a stone freplace. A scarf, its reds and golds contrasting with the drab palette of the room, is draped over the side of the fallen chair. A book sits facedown on the floor between the chairs. A stone bookend, carved to look like a praying angel with butterfly wings, lies on its side in the fireplace itself.
You notice the scarf is fluttering despite a lack of breeze in the room.
There's a door leading west.
Curious, Anneka kneels and turns the book over to view its title.
"Watch out for the scarf!" Ferocia remarks quickly. "It's moving."
The book appears to be based on Varissian history but as Anneka kneels down Feroccia's warning comes as the scarf flies towards her throat! A ghostly Aldern appears before her as it wraps around her neck tightening.
Dread fills Anneka's heart as she feels her husband Aldern begin to choke her with her own scarf!
Anneka collapses to the ground as the ghostly image of Aldern Foxglove disappears the scarf still tightly around her throat.
Drazh finds dried blood on the book end.
The scarf though clearly more than mundane is of fine Varissian manufacture would sell for 100gp.
Ferocia hurries over and checks on Anneka. She fishes out a potion and pours it down her throat.
"You alright?"
Remembering Anneka can't hear her, Ferocia waits for her to open her eyes, then clumsily signs, "Healthy... you?"
Anneka clutches at the scarf around her neck, desperate for air. As the room fades to black, she'd swear she can hear own scream.
Sputtering and choking on the healing potion, she jerks upright in Ferocia's arms and pulls the scarf from her neck. "Iesha!" she exclaims, not bothering to sign. "Aldern's wife. Iesha. He, he strangled her to death here, with this, her own scarf. It's no wonder her spirit was intent upon seeking him out..."
She stands unsteadily, folds the scarf carefully, and tucks it into her her pack. At least some part of Iesha would be free from this place.
She claims her healing wand from the floor and gives herself a few taps with it, rubbing her bruised neck tenderly.
Miron ponders if there is anything else the group can do to free Iesha's spirit, up to and including arson.