There are eight portraits in total, three to the north and five on the southern wall, upon removing the webbing from the closest one, you see it portrays a tall and thin middle-aged man with a narrow face and a thin mustache.
Zelinda faces the other way, weapon and shield ready, but looking back at the painting. "Not a very attractive fellow, is he," she comments, he voice a little strained from stress. She turns the other way, looking towards Cal and adds, "Relative of yours?" She makes sure to give him her best smile, showing the jest for what it is.
Cael lifts his head in mock solemnity, "Sir Francois Bartholomew Ghadswork the Fourth, was a very near kinsman of mine. You shall not besmirch his name in my presence peasant!" He holds the pose for a moment before dropping it in a fit of laughter.
Norm smiles at the good hearted banter before removing the webbing from the next painting.
Ansgar keeps himself interposed between the others and the paintings as Norm cleans them.
The second painting portrays a young woman with long red hair and an impish smile.
You can also see both paintings have plaques, it seems the man's name is Traver Foxglove while the woman is called Cyralie Foxglove.
"Seems to be portraits of the Foxglove family. Anyone knows the name of the current owner? Could it be him?"
Norm continues to clean the remaining pictures, one by one.
The three following portraits to the south show a man named Aldern Foxglove that Ansgar recognizes as the noble from Sandpoint, as well as two women named Sendeli and Zeeva Foxglove.
The portraits to the north show Vorel, Kasanda, and Lorey Foxglove. Vorel is a tall, middle-aged man with long hair, a clean-shaven face, and dark blue noble’s clothes, while Kasanda is a stern-faced brunette woman with wisps of gray in her short hair and a flowing blue dress.
"Well that one is Aldern Foxglove of Sandpoint." Ansgar says pointing out the image. "Though I don't know much about any of them."
While looking at the revealed painting, Zelinda starts to shiver. "Did it suddenly get cold in here?" she asks, visibly shivering. She looks around, expecting something bad to happen.
"What are you talking about Blondie? Is there a draft or something."
The temperature in the room 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 ghoul-like 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!
"Get back!" Ansgar exclaims at the sudden burst of cold and fungus.
"What is going on?!" Cael cries as he dances back.
Norm steps away from the doorway in disgust.
"Nasty! Ansgar, are you okay??"
Zelinda tries, unsuccessfully, to cover her face with her shield, but inhales a good amount of the spores, and tries running out of the room immediately.
The room returns to normal as quickly as the fungus spread just a second before.
Everyone but Caeldren can see tiny splotches of mold and tender red bumps on their own flesh, but only on themselves.
Catching her breath outside the room, Zelinda takes stock her her condition, and notices the the mold and red bumps on her exposed skin. Agast, she calls out, "What in the hells?! Is everyone else okay?"
Norm tries to rub on the spots of mold to get if off
"Except for these spots that looks like mold....hey, didn't you get splashed too? You was in the middle of this?"
Ansgar looks himself over. "I've got mold spots as well... But I don't see any on the rest of you."
Ansgar casts detect magic on everything again.
"What are you guys talking about? Mold spots? It's gone now. It had to be magic though it came so fast and disappeared again just like that. The portraits though, that was... disturbing. This place is creepy as hell. Stone face, do you think we can leave now? I've about had my fill if this."
"Oh, I've got it, too," Zelinda replies, "Don't you worry about that." She tries to rub the mold off her arm, to see if it can be removed manually.
"Does anyone know how to get rid of it?"
Norm looks at Zelinda and Ansgard, confused
"What are you talking about? You don't have anything, they are only on me"
He keeps rubbing the spots.
"No idea how to get them off, they seem to be stuck!"
"Maybe we should move on. Whatever it is with this room, it don't seem to like that we are here"
Zelinda looks to Ansgar, "Do you know anything about this infliction?"
"I am afraid I do not." Ansgar says, "Other than that it is not magical, and we can only see the affliction on ourselves given everyones reactions."
Ansgar thinks for a moment, "Unless it is some type of illusion, this may be serious. I feel nothing but soreness now, and if it is to get worse then I think we should push on before we are too weak to continue."
Looking around the room again, [b]"My only other though is that it is there to keep us away from the point of origin. Some of the portraits changes when the cold and mold came, maybe to show how they died? I think I want a closer look. Everyone stand back or leave the room."[/b
Once everyone has backed away, Ansgar will go over to the portrait of Vorel and look behind it, followed by the portraits of Sendeli and Zeeva. If he finds nothing, Ansgar looks behind the rest of the portraits.
Norm ducks around the corner and peaks in to the room from the outside
"Be careful!"
Ansgar carefully inspects the back of all portraits but doesn't find anything of note.
"Find anything?"
Once Ansgar had confirmed there isn't anything Cael asks "So next room then boss?"
"Maybe do a more thorough search of the room, not just the pictures? Maybe what ever it was has spent their powers?"
Ansgar, not great and searching for stuff, will head to the next set of doors. "Let me know when you are ready and we can head to the next room."
Norm looks back and forth between the room and Ansgar a few times, before taking a deep breath and doing a search of the room, keeping on guard
Norm takes some time to inspect the room as well and concludes there is nothing to be found.
With the search over, you group up next to Ansgar as he opens the double doors into the next room.
The doors open into a bedroom, the furniture in here, 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.
Ansgar will look around the room and cast detect magic, and move over to the desk to examine the stain if he finds nothing dangerous.
Norm peaks in from the door.
Seeing Ansgar moving around and not getting harmed, he will move in to help with the search of the room, focusing on the rest of the room, while Ansgar look at the stain.
After carefully searching the room, Ansgar and Normornigan don't find anything of note. The stain on the desk seems to be dried blood.
As he is about to conclude there is nothing of interest in the room, Normornigan notices the appearance of a dagger on the desk, he is sure it was not there a second ago.
Norm stops dead in his tracks and sounding a little shaken, he points at the dagger
"Where did that come from?? I KNOW it wasn't there a second ago! What foul magic is at work here? The whole place seems cursed! Don't touch it until we have examined it! Ansgar, is it magical?"
Ansgar detects magic, making sure to sweep the entire area as well as concentrate on the knife.
While the dagger certainly seems supernatural, it doesn't register any kind of magic aura to Ansgar.
Norm slowly moves closer, not taking his eyes off the dagger
"Do...do we dare to touch it?"
"I think we should... " Ansgar picks up the dagger.