"They should all be locked in the jail, in case they turn," Shaedeen suggests rather callously. "Treat them as much as possible, but don't give them the chance to get loose and infect half of Sandpoint."
Cator is speaking with Father Zantus, and the older priest moves to wake up one of his acolytes, a boy of about eleven. The boy runs over to Hollie's house, and wakes up the paladin. After a few minutes to get dressed, Hollie is able to get to the Cathedral to see a bedraggled priest speaking with the party's loremaster.
Zantus seems to have been waiting for Hollie, who also roused Shaedeen from where she was sleeping, and both were accompanied by Draxtherian. The boy has returned to sleep.
Zantus answers Cator's question, "just to fill you in Hollie, Cator asked what it would take to cure the disease - and the answer is - a lot of care from skilled hands, and a few days of work, but even such a thing might not work. I will have to expend many resources to keep them alive, and I have no more scrolls in my stores." He looks Haggard, and tired, "you truly will need a spellcaster more powerful than I am. Perhaps your brother, young man? I am no adventurer, but he's surely learned a thing or two about magic. Otherwise, we need scrolls of cure disease. Each are quite expensive. The general store may have some, you could try there, or the next closest settlement - Magnimar."
He wrings his hands, "though - I will tell you that they are powerful enough that such scrolls - I would not be able to use them without a chance of failure. Where is your brother, anyway? And the sylph?"
"Krovek is going to be a few hours behind me, I think."
Cator considers whether Krovek could successfully heal the disease
"Krovek can cure them when he gets back, and has time to rest."
Hollie sighs in frustration. ”So we wait for the others to get back, and hope he can help and maybe Vorshali has something useful. And we do what we can to keep them stable in the mean time?”
Cator reassures Hollie "Krovek can handle this. We just need to buy enough time for him to get back and to rest and restore his abilities. Zantus, do you need anything else to keep them stable until that time?"
Zantus says, ”no, I don’t think you can help.”
Hollie offers to tend to the wounded, and Zantus nods gravely, ”any help would be appreciated- I only have two hands.” He offers to let her stay at the cathedral to work.
*************************
By 6:00 am, Krovek gets into town with Lunal and the skittish horses. The form of Rogors Craesby follows along quietly, wan but still healthy and strong.
Krovek communes with the spirits of nature and moves into the cathedral.
Linda Hambly, on death’s door, is cured of the debilitating ghoul fever. The other two look to be unconscious but stable.
Krovek moves to sleep on a cot nearby, exhausted.
Hollie breathed a sigh of exhausted relief that one is better. But hearing that the others will have to wait does not sit well with her. She splashed some water in her face and then immediately set out in search of the scrolls at the Feathered Serpent.
”Vorvashali! Are you hear?” she calls out as she enters the establishment. ”Please! It’s urgent!”
The flamboyant and eccentric Vovashali calls out from a back room, "what? Who is that?" He emerges after a few minutes, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, but with a crooked and friendly smile. "Good morning - you look like you've been through a lot, miss. Oh!" A look of recognition dawns on him, "you're Hollie, aren't you? Seen you around town. You and the others helped protect the town last week. Thanks for that!" He grins, "what can I do for you, dear?"
As Hollie explains the circumstances, his smile fades a bit, and he watches her face, "yes, yes, of course. Let me rummage here a bit." He moves over to a large cabinet with different labels on it, and snaps his fingers, then begins to rummage. After a few minutes, he retrives a scroll with spindly writing, and runes that look laden with positive energy magic. "Afraid that this is the only one I have - sorry dear." He holds it to Hollie along with his hand out, as if requesting payment. When said payment is dropped in his hand, he smiles sadly, and passes it to the Paladin. "Best of luck, I'll contact some folks in Magnimar to see if we can get restocked, but it'll take a few days at least."
Hollie provides the payment and thanks him sincerely. ”Thank you, a life may have been saved by this. If you have any way to rush along another copy, please do so. I would be so grateful.” she says before giving his hand a light kiss and darting out and back to the cathedral.
As she rushes in, she holds up the scroll and says ”Vorvashali had one!” as she hands it to Krovek.
The big druid wakes up groggily, and moves to heal the second-most injured of the two remaining ill farmers.
The woman breathes more easily. There remains only one more infected person in the Cathedral. Krovek grumbles and goes back to sleep.
Zantus moves to hug Hollie, "thank you, Hollie, this eases our burden a great deal. The last young man you've got here - I could probably keep him stable indefinitely now." He sits down and pats the sickly fellow on the arm. "Depending on what you want to do next."
Hollie accepts the hug before slumping down into a chair. ”I…I don’t know. There are problems and threats popping up everywhere. And we are only so many.”
She leans back in the chair, the exhaustion starting to set in. ”Could…could we send a rider to Magnimar to try and get more scrolls? I can pay for the expense. We also need to collect that poor man at Habe’s, though I’m loathe to hand that man the corpses of ghouls as payment. But if we don’t, an innocent man’s life is at stake…”
She looks pleadingly to Father Zantus ”Is there anyone we can call on to tend to those two things? Shalelu? The Sheriff?”
Cator sits up in the cot he was sleeping in "Well, it will take a day to get extra scrolls back from Magnimar if we send a rider. Once everyone has rested we can go back to collect the ghouls corpses. I don't know about sending anyone else there on our behalf - more ghouls could turn up."
Zantus shakes his head, "that's not up to me, Hollie - but the Sheriff is busy with patrols, and Shalelu is gone - off to deal with goblins. Is there anyone else you can ask?"
Hollie stands, her arms and legs trembling. ”I can’t…I can’t rest until I know these people are safe,” she says in exasperation.
Draxtherian looks on at her with sympathy and concern on his face.
Cator realizes Hollie didn't know the news about Cator so he gets up from his cot again and says "Oh, Hollie, turns out Rogors is a ghast. He was turning into some sort of mindless slave when we got too close to Foxglove manner, and he asked us to mercy kill him, which Krovek and I were totally prepared to do but Lunal convinced us to bring him back here. I think he is fine now so good call Lunal."
Cator then heads out of the Cathedral and finds Rogors and asks him how he is feeling.
Hearing word that one of the victims she had hoped to save had, in fact, turned already seemed to crush what strength Hollie had left. She slumped down to the floor, staring at it in dismay. Then word sinks in that they had brought them here, and she grits her teeth and pushes herself to her feet again. She weakly begins walking out the door, Draxtherian hopping up to help however he can.
Lunal gives a concerned look after Hollie. "Oh come now...we knew that there were already lost victims, if anything we should be happy we managed to keep him alive rather than having to mercy kill him." They roll their eyes. "And yes the boys thought there was no alternative to killing him, as if rope didn't exist."
Hollie doesn’t answer Lunal as she exits the cathedral. She then spots Cator near the tied up man…how had she missed him before? He didn’t look like an undead, but definitely had something wrong. Even so…
She willed herself to see if he had an evil aura about him as she approached.
”So, they tell me you are an undead. Is this true?” she asks, more blunt than she might normally be given her fatigued state.
Rogors is silent for a moment, and he appears to be watching the ground in front of him.
He doesn't look up at Hollie, but says, "yes."
Hollie’s hand shifts to the hilt of her sword, still resting in its scabbard. ”What part did you play in all of this madness?” she asks.
Draxtherian, nowhere near as tired as Hollie, circles around in front of the bound undead thing and snarls his teeth in anticipation.
He grunts, his eyes closed, his head down, ”I’ve killed for him. I started the ghoul infestation. When he controlled me, he made me do it. But he didn’t count on the entanglement.” He chuckles to himself, ”I’ve made my peace with my life and soul long ago - all are forfeit.”
He looks up, and asks gruffly ”d.. did you save the woman, at least? Linda?” His face is difficult to read.
”Father Zantus seems confident she will pull through,” Hollie says reluctantly, somewhat surprised by his concern for a victim.
She turns and paces a bit before giving him one last look before heading back put he stairs to the Cathedral. Once inside, she seeks out Father Zantus…again.
”Father…I’m not so sure how to think about this…thing. It is clearly evil, and is a confessed undead, and has taken part in the chaos going on. But it sounds like it is against his will, and he…it…seems repentant and concerned for the victims. Is…is there a way to reverse the curse of undeath? Can he possibly atone for his crimes?”
Zantus looks surprised at such a question, and tired, the middle-aged priest shakes his head, ”I don’t know, Hollie, I’m barely above a neophyte. You’d know as much as I do, I expect.” He cocks his head, ”I suppose we have to trust your judgement, but if he was involved in the ghoul attacks - it seems clear enough to me. I am no priest of Pharasma, though.”
Hollie nods at his wisdom.
He’s right. If he were a living person, how would he be judged? He claims to have been controlled…
She sighs.
”I…I think I need to rest.”
Cator asks Rogors "What exactly is the entanglement?"
"My soul, boy, it's not owned by me, remember? I guess Old Foxglove, didn't count on that." He takes a beat, "you should get some rest, you look beat worse than a polecat baffled about the head."
Cator replies "no wait but explain it. So when Foxglove is close he can control you but when you are not near him, your deal with Alocer frees you from his control? Also while we are on the topic what is Foxglove's plan?"
Shaedeen sashays up, interested in hearing what Rogors has to say on the matter.
He grimaces, "I can't say I understand, boy, but I was his thrall after I was made - a thrall that kept my skills. Hunting skills. A typical... well, ghast, is all hunger and malice. He needed cunning." He flexes against the restraints testing them to ensure they are still in place, "but he didn't know of my life before I worked for him. What I gave up." He frowns, his bushy beard distorting, "I'm guessing Alocer doesn't take kindly to his deals being broken. I was promised a long 'life' and he's enforcing it."
He looks darkly, "his plan? He was going mad before he was turned - but I can't say why. I know he had intended to make an army of ghouls. His next stop was to kill that damned necromancer - the one who owns habes - he saw the guy as a threat. Overwhelm the sanitorium in an attack, turn the others, keep building the army. The others - those that lost themselves in the taint of undeath - they are loyal across any distance." He looks down darkly, "whatever pact he made - it makes him more powerful than most other undead or ghouls" He looks at Shaedeen, "and... beggin' yer pardon miss, I think he's obsessed with you. You were to be turned as the finale of the first step of his plan. As far as I know he intended to take out Sandpoint next - at night, when you were asleep. That was to happen in a few days."
He looks up, "he may even have other ghouls - ones you didn't kill, burrowing, lying in wait. You had better deal with him, and soon, or the bastard's minions will rip this place apart."
Hollie eventually returns to her home and falls into her bed, not even changing out of her clothes before falling asleep. She laid there fast asleep on her back from exhaustion, one foot dangling off the side of the bed, an arm draped across her eyes. Her boots were even still on.
The next morning, she woke up and cleaned herself off in the wash basin before putting on clean garments and then her armor and travel gear. She then sets to rounding up the others.
”If this man at the sanitarium is in fact a necromancer, then it finally makes sense why he is so interested in recovering the ghouls bodies. If he is a threat to Foxglove, then we should convince him to come back to town both for questioning his role in all this as well as his own protection. If he resists, then clearly he has something to hide.”
"Hmm, the solution is right in front of us."
Lunal smiles. "He wants to go after that man at the sanitarium? Let him. Those two deserve each other. And we will be waiting to clean up whoever survives, finishing them off in their weakened state."
Shaedeen remain unusually silent. Being the root cause of a madman's plot to slaughter innocents did not sit well with the teen; she began to realize the weight Hollie had felt from her twin's plot to destroy Sandpoint.
"When did Lord Foxglove become a ghoul?" she asks Rogors. "Any what has he got against Sandpoint and its citizens?"
The party remains speaking to Rogors and Hemlock while they hatch their plans. The odd ghast says, "maybe a week or so ago? Something seemed to break with him - and he intended to devour me - but something stayed his teeth." He looks at Shaedeen, "jealousy? You seem to have found a home here, of a sort. He wishes that you make your home with him. Forever I believe. But he's been taken with madness. He cannot relate to the living any more." He looks uncomfortable, "though it's a fair estimation that you'll appreciate it if he can turn you to being a ghast like him."
Hemlock rubs his forehead, "alright, I'll put this guy in a cell for a few days, ask the father to consecrate it if he can. You folks do what you need to do. We'll try to keep the town guarded."
"We definitely need to rest before confronting anybody. No point to go and fight if we will just get wiped out doing it."
”Then let’s get some rest today and hurry to the Foxglove estate this evening to put an end to this before he can cause anymore death. Then we can decide what to do with Caizarlu. Anyone opposed?” Hollie asks.
Shaedeen simply nods at Hollie's assessment. "We rest, then we ride."
Cator walks wordlessly back into the cathedral, finds a cot, and collapses.
The morning and afternoon pass uneventfully, and after an unsteady and uneasy respite, the party mounts up and readies to make their second-longest expedition since arriving in Sandpoint - to the manor of Aldern Foxglove. Nothing seems to attack the town during the day, whether because they aren't there or because Hemlock's redoubled patrols seem to be dissuading the attackers, it isn't clear.
Foxglove Manor was built decades ago by Vorel Foxglove, a merchant prince from Magnimar. He and his family lived there for 20 years before the entire family perished from disease. The surviving Foxgloves of Magnimar shunned the place for 40 years, until Traver Foxglove moved back in.
Aldern Foxglove recently returned to live in the manor, but he had a hell of a time hiring locals to aid him in the reconstruction and repair of the old building. Until Aldern moved back in, the place was cared for by a man named Rogors Craesby (a retired woodsman) who came in 3 days a week from nearby to air the place out, check for squatters, and make minor repairs.
Foxglove Manor is known as the “Misgivings” by some locals, particularly by Varisians. It certainly has a bad reputation—sightings of strange lights in the attic windows, muffled sounds of screaming from above and below, and even rumors of a huge bat-winged devil living in the caves below the manor are but a few of the tales told about the place. The Foxglove family lived there as recently as 2 decades ago, but then a fire burned down the servants’ building, Cyralie Foxglove was found dead—burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house—and Traver Foxglove was found in his bedroom, dead by his own hand. The children, including young Aldern Foxglove, were sent away to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.
Foxglove Manor is over 80 years old, and has been the seat of the Foxglove family the whole time. Some sort of tragedy struck the family a few decades ago, and no one’s lived there since. Common rumor holds that the place is haunted.
Aldern Foxglove recently returned to live in the manor, but he had a hell of a time hiring locals to aid him in the reconstruction and repair of the old building. Until Aldern moved back in, the place was cared for by a man named Rogors Craesby (a retired woodsman) who came in 3 days a week from nearby to air the place out, check for squatters, and make minor repairs.
Foxglove Manor is known as the “Misgivings” by some locals, particularly by Varisians. It certainly has a bad reputation—sightings of strange lights in the attic windows, muffled sounds of screaming from above and below, and even rumors of a huge bat-winged devil living in the caves below the manor are but a few of the tales told about the place. The Foxglove family lived there as recently as 2 decades ago, but then a fire burned down the servants’ building, Cyralie Foxglove was found dead—burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house—and Traver Foxglove was found in his bedroom, dead by his own hand. The children, including young Aldern Foxglove, were sent away to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.
Foxglove Manor is over 80 years old, and has been the seat of the Foxglove family the whole time. Some sort of tragedy struck the family a few decades ago, and no one’s lived there since. Common rumor holds that the place is haunted.
Foxglove Manor is known as the “Misgivings” by some locals, particularly by Varisians. It certainly has a bad reputation—sightings of strange lights in the attic windows, muffled sounds of screaming from above and below, and even rumors of a huge bat-winged devil living in the caves below the manor are but a few of the tales told about the place. The Foxglove family lived there as recently as 2 decades ago, but then a fire burned down the servants’ building, Cyralie Foxglove was found dead—burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house—and Traver Foxglove was found in his bedroom, dead by his own hand. The children, including young Aldern Foxglove, were sent away to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.
Foxglove Manor is over 80 years old, and has been the seat of the Foxglove family the whole time. Some sort of tragedy struck the family a few decades ago, and no one’s lived there since. Common rumor holds that the place is haunted.
The trip to the manor is uneventful in terms of monsters or dangerous beasts, but as time goes on, it appears that the weather may start working against the party - something confirmed after a short while by Krovek, who notes by the time that they return to the farm that the remainder of the trip will likely be drenched in rain, a soft-spattering of which makes the dirt roads less usable, and the horses whinny in dismay.
The route leading out to Foxglove Manor is a 3-mile hike along a narrow stone path that follows the Foxglove River from the covered bridge where it flows under the Lost Coast Road to the dark sea cliffs overlooking the Varisian Gulf. Here, wild sea birds call out to a roaring ocean that churns hundreds of feet below.
As the party near Foxglove Manor, it almost seems as if nature herself has become sick and twisted. Nettles and thorns grow more prominent, trees are leaf less and bent, and the wind seems unnaturally cold and shrill as it whistles through the cliffside crags. The path slowly rises, bending around a steep corner in the cliffs, and then Foxglove Manor looms at the edge of the world.
The strangely cold sea wind rises to a keening shriek as Foxglove Manor comes into view. The place has earned its local nickname of the “Misgivings” well, for it almost appears to loathe its perch high above the ocean, as if the entire house were poised for a suicide leap. The roof sags in many places, and mold and mildew cake the crumbling walls. Vines of diseased-looking gray wisteria strangle the structure in several places, hanging down over the
precipitous cliff edge almost like tangled braids of hair.
The house is crooked, its gables angling sharply and breached in at least three places, hastily repaired by planks of sodden wood. Chimneys rise from various points among the rooftops, leaning like old men in a storm, and grinning gargoyle faces leer from under the eaves. The weather makes the scene particularly nightmarish, as the steady rain and thunderclouds above illuminate the scene intermittently with flashes of lightning that seem to be striking the ocean, and once even the spire of the building itself, giving off sparks of white light that briefly turn the manor into a simulacrum of a leering jack-o-lantern before returning the scene to the wet and dreary abode that is their goal. The rain doesn't appear to be letting up at all.
The party approaches on the stone road, a relief to the horses for a bit, and sees a set of ruins on the right . It’s impossible to tell how many floors the outbuilding that stood here once had, for all that remains are the sooty, scorched stones of its foundation. To the east, a four-foot-wide stone well sits, partially collapsed, in the corner of the ruins.
”Well, isn’t this straight out of a children’s horror story,” Hollie muses as she dismounts from Midnight. She ties him off somewhere she hopes is safe before making her way towards the manor cautiously.
Shaedeen follows suit, tying off Thunderclap and slipping him an apple to snack on to (hopefully) calm his jittery nerves. Her own nerves, however, are already shot to Hell. As soon as Hollie and Drax aren't looking her way, the runty rogue activates the false life power of her Sihedron medallion.
Before entering the manor, Shae does some last-minute inventory shuffling, mainly with some undead-fighting supplies she bought back in Sandpoint.
before leaving sandpoint, Cator buys 4 vials of holy water and 2 containers of holy weapon balm
Lunal casts light on a rock, then floats it forward with mage hand to help scout the dark building, weaving it about and raising it to see the higher floors. "Yeah, wow, this place is gonna keep me up at night. So we just going in through the front? Might be better to check for a back entrance."
Hollie nods silently at Lunal before changing course and begins circling around the side of the manor, checking for another entrance.
Approaching the front of the building, there appear to be two entrances. A sort of grander "main" entrance, as well as a side entrance.
Hollie moves to begin circling the house, but notices that the mansion is perched relatively close to the edge of the cliff. The space between the drop and wall of the building is as narrow as four feet in places.
Seeing the precarious footing along the back of the manor, Hollie waves off the rest of the group and turns back towards the front. "The manor sits right on the edge of a cliff. It's not a safe approach that way, even if there is another door. If we are going to try an alternate entry, looks like we are going through the side entrance."
She then makes her way up to the side door and gives everyone a chance to prepare before leading the way in, once it's been checked for traps.
Shaedeen slips forward quietly; it's obvious being in this place has her spooked. Still, she does her best to check the entrance for traps.
Hollie and Shae hear faint piano music coming from the other side of the door. It's extremely hard to hear over the sound of the rain, but Hollie and Shaedeen have keen ears.
Cator prepares for battle by casting heightened awareness, mirror image, and heroism, and drawing his sword.