When the crew meets up together, Idun presents her purchases, some various holy waters and balms, "Well, I hope these'll work. If it was that simple though, you'd expect it to have been done a long time ago."
"Ok ladies, if we're staying in town overnight, Let's go pay Brodert a long-ish visit. I've got a proposal for him."
Assuming Dora and Idun are game, the party heads to Quink's place... Slipping inside, Khamul introduces Dora (and Idun if necessary, I can't recall if they have met) and then gets down to business. "Ok Brodert, I got a proposal for you. I think we've found some honest to god Thassilonian stuff. In return for you help in appraising and identifying all of the stuff we've found, we'll let you have a peek, and even a fondle..."
5 ranks from Trickster Spirit +3 trained +2 spirit bonus +1 int +1 guidance
5 ranks from Trickster Spirit +3 trained +2 spirit bonus +1 int +1 guidance+1 seance bonus
At Quink's place Dora politely converses and introduces herself.
Idun also does her best to aid.
Brodert Quink’s Place
It doesn’t take much convincing for Brodert to want to look at the artifacts you had uncovered. He hastily takes notes on everything you show him, tossing out what he calls ‘typical junk’. You spend most of the evening conversing with him on the objects and where you found them. He is a stickler for details.
- The ornate mace is a masterwork mace, worth about 400gp to the right buyer
- The bejeweled holy symbol is worth around 100gp to a jeweler
- The punch of coins contained 46gp
- The bearer bonds are worth 100gp each, there are five of them.
- While the flowers are worthless now, the black ivory coffer is worth 75gp
- In total, the collection of trinkets might yield you 25gp
- Coffer of gold bars total 400gp
- The scrolls and holy books of Aroden might fetch you 50gp as a reward from the church, or possibly other favors
- The real rod that Zarque has put into safe keeping is almost priceless. The fake that you have is worth 500gp to a collector.
- Coin pouches from the Bloody Knuckles gang total 28gp
- Grenz has Red Fist’s Handwraps. They are blessed with Magic Fang+1
- The rest of the handwraps are practically worthless and the crossbows could be sold for 50gp for parts, total
- Platinum coins x21, worth 210gp
- The Glowing ring is a ring of jumping
- the war razor is a +1 weapon
- the brass key you haven’t found where it goes and the drawings of yourselves are too crude to be sold as art
- Not sure if you spent all your writs, but each of you at the time had 500gp worth.
- The wand is a wand of false life and has about 30 charges left
- the surgical tools are worth 50gp
- Cai’s spell books will net you 450gp to the right buyer
- Writ for 600gp
- The expensive wine bottles are worth 100gp each to a collector. You have four.
- The occult trinkets will net you 75gp if you can find someone to buy them
- The painting is very rare, done by a Shalelu, possibly related to the local ranger. It is worth over 1000gp.
- The vials have a now inert chemical mix in them.
- The copper key goes somewhere…
- Then you have 20 more platinum coins, worth 200gp total.
- The two Sihedron Medallions can be activated with the word ‘Thassilon’ and they grant the wearer a form of unlife temporarily. (Casts False Life, once per day.)
"Jackpot!" crows Khamul, after the medallions are identified. He tosses one to Idun and puts the other one around his neck...
Come the morning, Khamul is up early, intending to head off to Foxglove Manor as soon as possible...
Toilday, 22 Lamashan 4707, 10:37am. 59 degrees, Calm, Partly Cloudy. The road to Foxglove Manor.
You leave as early as you can in the morning, having Bethana make you a fine hearty breakfast to keep you going through the day. Several eggs, how you like, and some cuts of sausage from the butcher. Served up with a heavy tea and honey, it will tide you over long past high sun. At least, that is what Bethana claims, and she is never wrong about food.
You pass a few farmers coming into town this early to buy supplies and some other travelers who are just leaving down the Lost Coast road. After an hour, the throng of people dwindles to almost nothing. After another hour you start to realize that it is slightly warmer than it has been the last few days, and you welcome the sun’s rays on your skin. Soon however, you make a turn away from the idyllic farms and remember that over night, things can get really scary for the townsfolk, so you hustle along and turn towards the path that leads you back to Foxglove Manor.
Upon arrival, you find that the swarm of crows that you dealt with before you left have returned to their roosts upon the many high points of the manor. They glare in your direction, as if daring you to enter once again.
Dora takes a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for what may lie ahead. She turns to her fellow adventurers and nods, indicating that they should proceed with caution.
As they approach the manor, Dora scans the surrounding area for any signs of danger. She listens for any sounds that may indicate that they are not alone, but all she can hear is the distant cawing of the crows.
When they reach the entrance, Dora checks the door for any signs of tampering or traps before cautiously pushing it open.
“So this is it?!“
"Ah yeah, careful for the crows. They attack you when you try to leave. Can't imagine that's normal behavior, right? Can you check if they're like, being magically controlled or something?" Idun asks Dora as they make their way to the entrance.
Before setting out in the morning, Khamul visits the Sandpoint Cathedral, where he seances a Heirophant Spirit...
Upon observing the returned crow swarm, Khamul is visibly disturbed. "Damn, they've regrouped, I was hoping we'd seen the last of them. We could try chasing them off with our missile weapons before we go inside?
Dora looks at the crows.
Dora explains that these crows are not normal by any means, considering some of them barely have feathers left and a few are almost skeletal. In the daylight, you can see that they are more like corpses. Dora recalls reading about creatures that are affected by strong necromantic magic, turning them into twisted creatures of darkness. This is only one of thousands of these types, called a carrion swarm. They tend to attack only at night, at their strongest. For now, they appear to only be watching you.
Pending party approval of a pre-emptive strike, Khamul backs his hound away from the manor and gets ready...
Dora looks at Khamul. "So you want to combat these crows now? I would be up for the challenge. Just asking."
Dora looks at Khamul. "So you want to combat these crows now? I would be up for the challenge. Just asking."
"They swarmed us when we left the mansion - in the middle of the night. Without Grenz and I have called a non-warrior spirit, they could be trouble. I don't know if they will stay dispersed, but it's worth a try doing it on our terms rather than theirs. Spread out a bit so they can only swarm one of us a time. Everybody have a blunt weapon to hand, and missile weapon for when they approach... Even a thrown rock may help disperse them."
Taking his own advice, Khamul pull his little morningstar out of his pack hanging it off his saddlebow, in easy reach. He pulls his dog 10' to the side, and drops a bullet in his sling. Then he waits for the others to say they are ready...
+4 Dex
3 bab +4 dex +1 size +1 guidance -6 fourth range increment
+1 str
Dora nods.
"Okay, then let us do it!" she says. She waits until everyone is ready and then starts casting a burst of radiance spell on the crow swarm.
Khamul sends a rock sailing towards the center of the flock on the roof above the entrance, as it nails one of undead birds, a burst of light from Dora scatters the rest of them, sending them in a spiral towards the sky. When they come back down, they land on the roof, as if they were unimpressed by your display. The other flocks simply stare at you.
Along with the other's attacks, Idun looses an arrow.
"Why are they just remaining there? Are we not hurting them? Can they reform indefinitely? Do they have orders like those scarecrow ghouls?" Idun is uncertain. She wishes they could just burn the whole building down.
"Not sure we're doing more than wasting our time here. I guess we go in, cause it looks like those birds can ignore us all day..."
With one eye on the sky and the other looking for signs that something has changed, Khamul heads up to where we had entered before... Presumably nothing has chained up and/or relocked the doors .
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger+2 spirit bonus (wis, Heirophant)
Idun follows Khamul's lead.
Upon entering the manor for the second time, you feel a sense of unease as the floors still creak and the ever present combination of dust and mold fill the air with a grit that irritates the skin. Entering the foyer, you are greeted with the sight of the chimeric creature that before attempted to attack you until it was subdued. Now, it seems lifeless, but looking onto its eyes, you feel like it is still in there, watching. That’s when you notice a warm breeze wash over you, and it’s not from outside.
"Where did that come from?"
Khamul tries to figure out what's going on in this haunted house...
and another +4 to detect danger if applicable
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+2 spirit bonus (wis, Heirophant)
You get a sense that the ‘breeze’ came from the direction of the stuffed creature. In fact, as you look at it, you start to see a sneer form on its face.
"Get out!" exclaims Khamul as he dodges into the side passage out of line of sight from the taxidermy. From this 'safe' postion, he continues "Last time it launched a bolt of fire at Grenz, and beating on it didn't help..."
Dora gets in immediately and tries to touch the creature with her clw wand.
Idun tries to follow Dora's lead, and grabs a Holy Water and throws it at the thing.
As the great beast starts to become a flaming monstrosity, Idun takes out her holy water and throws it while Dora rushes in with a healer’s wand glowing with light energy. There is a bright flash and suddenly the room returns to its chilly state and the statue is as still as it ever was.
Khamul peeks back around the door frame and says "Well, now you've met the weirdness of this place Dora. Clearly, you knew what to do to stop these things. There are a lot of them in here, so spill.. "
"I still think burning the whole place down then blessing the ashes isn't a bad call." Idun offers the barbarian's solution to evil places.
"I still think burning the whole place down then blessing the ashes isn't a bad call." Idun offers the barbarian's solution to evil places.
Khamul is firm when he replies: "I suspect we will end up there as well, but we will go through all the steps of the dance; then it will be legal."
“Well, you should know that things like this haunt usually return unless something is done to permanently end the curse on the manor! So let us see what we can do about it!“
"What's a haunt?" is Khamul's immediate response to Dora's comment.
Then he continues "I think perhaps the first place to start looking around at figuring out the actual mystery is that hidden lab downstairs. So down through the kitchen. But let's be careful, if the bird swarms outside reformed themselves, I wonder if the rat swarms in the kitchen will have as well..."
"The returning part we kind of figured out by trial and error now, but, yeah, we were hoping your expertise could help us find that curse and how to eliminate it." Idun nods.
Dora thinks.
“Haunts are almost alive remnants of negative energy. Well, you already told me that this house is somehow cursed, because so many members of the family that lived here have somehow been corrupted or perished for some strange reason, correct? Then let us see if there is something that we can do! But this requires research, so I do not know if we will be really successful!“
Having been here before, you remember the easiest way to the kitchen is down the stairs. You creep down them, wary for anyone or anything that might accost you. Once at the kitchen, you spot several rats cleaning up the mess that was left after the last encounter. They lick the blood and spattered remnants of other rats from the floors and walls. When your light reaches them, they scatter to the many holes throughout the walls.
"Seems it's still safe here, mayhaps the rats weren't part of the spells on this place? I guess onto the lab then?" Idun offers, after their entrance doesn't result in a rat attack.
Khamul creeps warily down the stairs, pausing at the bottom to assess the scene.
Seeing no swarm, he replies to Idun, "Welp, they ain't here, so let's go".
He's quick to cut through the kitchen, heading to the lab. At the entrance he pauses and speaks up "Ok, when we came in here, Grenz felt a compulsion to read all the books. He fought it off, but he felt like this was where the whole story started. So, everybody brace themselves against things crawling into your heads. Dora, you're star of the show, because you're the one who knows about magic and stuff...". He takes another few breaths, using his psychic magic to protect himself and his companions as best he can.
As you approach the door to the workroom, having left it unlocked as you passed through the first time, you feel a sense of unease and dread before opening it. The workroom still appears as if a wave had gone through all the books and materials, as they are soggy and molded. Trepidatiously going through, you spy the same strange books on the table, but this time, they are already opened and you can see pages moving about, as if someone were reading them presently. The birdcages also now have birds in them and they look eerily similar to the ones outside. Their eyes follow you as you enter.
"If we don't find anything here, maybe the room where that ghoul was chained? Something was clearly wrong with that, and might be related to a curse." Idun suggests, keeping a vial of holy water held in hand.
Dora nods and casts detect magic.
She takes a deep breath to calm her nerves and steps inside and takes a closer look at the books on the table.
As she examines the pages.
Dora steps closer to the pages, sensing a strong necromantic presence. She can feel a presence as she approaches, almost pushing her back. Then, the pages seem to beckon her closer…
Suddenly, Dora draws her dagger and moves to Khamul with a delirious look on her face.
"Eeep!"
to see if I am flat footed
+4 dex
-4 if flat footed
4 (Dex) +4 (Armor) +1 (Shield)+1 (Size)
Suddenly, Dora gets a grip on herself! She turns to read the book.
“Ahh, sorry! It is compelling to read the books, but after a while I realized they are nothing but a journal of lost voyages and missed opportunities. I think we can safely ignore them!“