"Stupid book. Stupid house. We should go out side and burn this place down, then kill what comes running out."
Once the traps are searched for, the tin can with a sword will once more proceed in to disable any dangers.
"Keep selling that idea master Darlock, chances are, eventually I'll agree with you.
However...I wonder if there may be a basement the fire would not touch, or worse, a secret exit they could use to avoid us."
Sayniek looks at the windows:
They look evil, but valuable. I do not wish to damage someone else's property, but feel that perhaps we should destroy these windows so that some fool does not attempt this necromantic process.
Camillo scratches his head. "I don't know - they are hardly a detailed instruction manual. I don't think most people would even know what it was without someone with Vidar's knowledge around. I see little need to destroy them, especially not right now."
"And that is not even taking into account that they may be trapped or otherwise more than meets the eye...if we can find nothing else of interest here, I suggest we move on."
"Yes, let's leave this for another day."
Moving on to the next room.
"Yes, another day..."
"Burn em. That's still my vote."
"As I said before, the idea has merits, but if the necromancer makes his lair here, there is a chance that people taken from outlying farms might have been abducted and taken here for...processing.
I would not risk burning an innocent, especially not a child."
"Well, since you put it that way..."
"I am not complaining, if I had any sense I would be more than happy to listen to you, but this whole situation has got my ire up.
I want to find the man...no...the CREATURE responsible for this string of...atrocities and deliver such a beating to his hide that even Pharasma will raise an eyebrow in surprise when he stands before her."
Camillo chuckles at the image. "Aye, that's a goal worthy of pursuing, right there."
Kithian grins and slaps Vidar on the back. "See, hang around me long enough and your Ulfen blood will show true! Hells, I might even forget your a mage if you keep that kind of talk up!"
Sayniek rolls her eyes and chuckles as the big men discuss beating the necromancer.
Personally, I would not give him the time for a beating. One who commits such crimes deserves nothing more than a quick death so that his soul can sink into the cesspool filled pit for which it is destined.
The group manages to find a moment to let off some steam as they contemplate the windows then move on the room across the hall. A quick check of the doors later and Sayniek leads the group into a chamber that seems to serve as a gallery of sorts.
Another set of double doors mirror the entrance on the far wall while the northern wall features a large stone fireplace. Paintings hang on either side of the fireplace as well as the southern wall. Well, frames with myriad cobwebs that obscure their contents, at any rate. Each frame is coated with the thick webs and it is clear that whatever upkeep was being done did not include the hangings in this room. Whatever lies beneath is completely obscured...
The tin can raises her hand before her companions begin to charge into the room.
Let me search. If there spiders or something else poisonous, I have the thickest armor and my Lord has provided me with strong resistance to such things.
With that, Sayniek carefully moves into the room, at least as carefully as a tiny metal can can move. As she does so, she very carefully moves aside the webbing with her sword to see what lies beneath. The entire time, she will detect evil on the area, knowing that there is going to be a continuous background fluctuation of residual evil in the place, she attempts to block this out.
"Hrrm, it is a pity that I do not currently possess the prestignation cantrip, it would have allowed me to carefully clean the surface of those paintings.
There might have been a clue...then again, probably not.
Unless this room has been deliberately made to appear this way, I would say It has been overlooked as being of no particular interest."
Cristiel flicks her wrist at the paintings and speaks a few words in elven, "Vilissë poita-ti emma.". A simple, invisible, arcane spirit materializes as Cristiel's motion to the paintings sends the little mindless being to go over and start cleaning their surface. She nods to Vidar, "Fret not. I came prepared."
Vidar coughs in his hand, seemingly grumpy enough to mutter, "Show-off," but really just trying to hide his smile.
Perception checks and reflex saves please
Perception
Telex
Perception:
Reflex:
Cristiel, Sayniek, Vidar and Cam notice the temperature in the room drop precipitously before the room erupts in chaos though it is only the bard and the magus who are fast enough on their feet to act...
As the paintings erupt with mold and spores, Cristiel, at the back of the group, dives backwards out of the room into the hallway. "Quickly, cover your nose and mouth! Out of the room!"
Fort Save:
Fort Save (if needed):
Fort sv:
Cam and Cristiel dive out into the hallway with the magus yelling at the group, Quickly, cover your nose and mouth! Out of the room!
Sadly the rest of you are not fast enough on your feet and are caught unawares as the paintings, now exposed due to Cristiel's cleaning magic, change from standard portraits of the previous tenants into gruesome visages as mold and spores erupt in the room from one of the frames.
The effect is over in but a few seconds and those of you caught in the room stand intact and seemingly unaffected. The paintings look normal and clean, each of the frames seemingly holding a picture of a member of the Foxglove family. (There are placards on the bottom of each and the group can investigate them if they like.)
Cristiel remains outside in the hallway after the fungal bloom dissipates, keeping her free hand close to her mouth and nose, "Is everyone alright? I've rarely seen mold act so... lively."
"I do not believe that was a ...natural occurrence.
But the spell you performed was a mere cantrip, not imbued with any positive energy, so I do not believe it was a reaction because the house is saturated with necromantic energy...that MAY be a positive thing for us..."
Despite his words, Vidar seems uncertain, which is not at all normal for him..
Rullis starts scratching at his arm as he walks up closer to one of the pictures, tilting his head as he does so. Swinging his pack around, he kneels and begins digging in it pulling out his first aid kit and a vial of liquid. After choking down whatever was in the bottle, he stands and says, "Come look at this. Do you see it? There is another picture underneath the first." He continues to stare at it between times digging in his first aid kit and making attempts at cleaning his arms with some of the contents.
After shrugging off the mold as just another irrelevance to the blessed of Ragathiel, the party's tin can walks over and examines what Rullis is pointing at.
Perception:
Somewhat abashed at such an extreme reaction to apparently nothing, Camillo takes overly long brushing dust off of himself after diving and rolling out of the room past his friends.
Finally strolling back in, he peers at the indicated picture, looking over the little paladin's head. "Is there? How can you tell?"
Kithian shakes his head as the others look at the pictures. "My vote still stands."
The group recovers from the incident and looks around the room. Rullis is able to describe quite clearly something that none of the rest of you can see no matter how hard you look:
The various pictures have placards with names. Each of them look like respectful classic portraits meant to show the family as it once was when it lived in the house or the anscestors that once graced the house in ages past. However, Rullis is able to describe something entirely different.
Pictures for Kasanda and Lorey Foxglove while normally appearing as simple portraits for younger teens look to Rullis as though they slump into misshapen, tumor-ridden corpses.
Traver Foxglove looks pale as a long cut in his throat shows blood as it washes down over his chest.
Cyralie Foxglove looks blackened and charred , and her arms, legs, and back are twisted as if broken in dozens of places .
Aldern Foxglove, a portrait of a hale youth in the picture looks aged to Rullis. His flesh has darkened with rot, his hair fallen out, and deformed into a ghoul-like monster.
Both Sendeli's and Zeeva's portraits have a patina of what Rullis would sewear is frost but they otherwise look nornal.
Vorel Foxgloves portrait, it in of itself showing an intense angular man looks ruined with fungus and mold to Rullis. The frame and picture lingering with dank black mottled decay that only the cleric can seemingly sense or describe.
"What in the hells is going on with this place?"
"Well...I would hazard a guess towards an answer being "nothing good" at this juncture."
"Really? Wow. We keep you around for what reason again?"
"My sparkling personality of course, not to mention that I'm the only bugger here who can grow a proper beard."
"You may have a point, though the wee one could give you a run for your gold when he hits puberty. "
Vidar raises a finger in an "about to pontificate" gesture, opens his mouth and...pauses.
It dawns on him that for a 6'6'' halforc packed with muscle, EVERYONE in the party could be considered the "wee one" in truth.
"That...may be a fair point..."
Camillo studies the portraits and listens carefully to Rullis' descriptions. "Do we know anything of the other Foxgloves? We have met Aldern, of course, and I'm a little concerned that his portrait displays a monster in your eyes rather than the man we know."
Obviously searching his memories, "It's been years since I have thought of the Foxglove rumors," and to himself, "What were the tales again?"
Nothing comes to mind for Rullis but the ghost stories and barroom whispers of years past drift to the front of Cam's memory. There were always stories, nothing overt mind you, about the oddness of the Foxgloves. Vorel being oddly intense and mistrusting. Wiling away in his home and being hard to deal with during issues of city business. Rumours of family illness and accidents. Of course the death of Vorel and his wife as well as Aldern's other siblings was never fully explained. Always publicly described as no more than "accidents" with little detail. Always whispered in secret as the bill coming due with dark pacts of magic or some family tendency towards madness.