Over he shoulder, Zoli adds, "Don't open the chest yet though--I want to check it for traps first!"
Then she heads down to the door.
Eugeni grabs the papers off the hook, and begins reading over them as he also heads to see who is at the door.
The group heads off to investigate the knocking at the door, which continues for about 20 seconds before halting abruptly. At this point, the Rangers are about half-way down the staircase leading to the lower level when the silence fills the cabin once more.
When the knocking stops, Zoli picks up the pace.
If nothing unexpected happens first, as soon as they're all downstairs she opens the door slightly to peer out.
Jeevika and Elthariel hurriedly follow Zoli off the stairs as well.
Ryli stays at the ready, watching and listening as Zoli opens the door.
A loud crack followed by a mighty hammering sound suddenly fills the cabin as its walls begin to shake and groan, almost as if the structure were giving up its purchase on the cliff edge and sliding off! Everyone is able to keep their feet, though Jeevika is shaken so much that she must brace herself against the wall!
__________
Zoli picks up the speed and leaps down the stairwell, parkour-style.
"Everyone OK? Let's get out of this stairwell and down to the door...or at least a window where we can see what the f&+% is going on!"
Eugeni flies out of the stairwell and down to the door with Zoli.
At the very last moment, Jeevika miraculously manages to steady herself and quickly hustles down the stairs.
Ryli jumps down the stairwell after Zoli. She begins to plummet, but the magic of her ring of feather fall activates and she floats down to the ground safely.
You all hop down to the lowest level with minimal trouble and land at the base of the stairs. As you gather your wits and bearings, you note that the hammering continues, but the faint images of starving dwarven ghosts can be glimpsed out of the corner of your eyes. You all suddenly experience painful hunger pangs, so severe they double you all over! However, the discomfort is all you feel, and quickly regain your composure!
__________
Zoli looks over at Jeeves. "I know, I know, we've gotta get out of this damn house. The sooner the better.
"I have half a mind to ignore that knocking and just get back to checking out that chest--hopefully we'll find what we need there--but I guess we've got to look."
As they talk she continues hustling toward the door
"Yes, this place is getting to me as well. We're enduring much. Let's hurry and be done with this place," Ryli agrees, following Zoli to the door.
"I hate haunts," Eugeni comments.
Remembering what Zoli said earlier about how Father Zantus destroyed the haunt at Foxglove Manor, Jeevika unleashes a wave of positive energy upon the undead and then continues to hustle for the door.
Jeevika channels her energy, but the one channeling does not seem to have been enough to thwart the haunting! Opening the front door reveals nothing but the oppressive thickness and howling wind of the storm outside.
Voices can now be heard, in most cases wordless cries of pain, but now and then snatches of sentences like “eating us…” or “don’t let him…” or “so hungry….” The hammering continues, but now the starving ghosts seem to notice the group for the first time.
The ghosts appear to try and push into each of you in a swarm, but your mental fortitude and arcane wardings seem to prevent anything from happening! However, the lurching of the house continues, causing Jeevika and Ryli to have to brace themselves, and Elthariel and Lorthan to fall.
__________
Despite being unable to move, Jeevika manages to channel another wave of positive energy at the haunt. Normally, to channel positive energy, she would have to present her holy symbol; however, it appears that the cunning Jeevika took steps to make her armor a holy symbol for an emergency such as this!
Seeing that noone's at the door, Zoli curses, "Dammit, I should've known! Back to that chest, then!"
Zoli singsongs the little charm to speed her exits and then does her best to sprint back up the stairs to the room with the chest.
"All right, then," Ryli sighs. She swift Wild Shapes into a medium air elemental and flies straight up the stairwell and zooms to where the chest is located.
The house continues to lurch violently, seeming to grow in intensity! Elthariel manages to stand and stumble slowly towards the others as Zoli and Ryli whisk by, but Lorthan cannot get his footing and now Jeevika is also knocked to the ground by the hammering and shaking of the house!
__________
"My certainty grows by the moment that these haunts are merely attempting to distract us from whatever lurks yet in the unexplored crannies of this dilapidated midden. Zoli, make hast to discover what yet evades us, before the restless dead turn us into a Ranger martini!"
Making a mental note to invest more in her channeling should she survive this house of horrors, Jeevika once more channels a wave of positive energy through her holy reliquary instruments. This final burst absolutely dwarfs the previous two.
With a sudden lurch, the haunting stops! All of the spirits surrounding you vanish...except for one. Before you floats a balding dwarf with a dark brown beard, the same one you encountered before both eating the dust as well as in the storm outside. His facial features are curiously indistinct—he has no eyes, for example, and when he speaks, his lips barely even move. As he speaks, bite-sized bits and pieces of him tear loose and fade, leaving him a growing patchwork of red, until finally, not enough of him remains and the entire thing fades away.
”You... you are alive? You do not hunger? Ah... that is what I sense in your blood. Greed. You seek the City of Greed. You should abandon your quest, lest you end up like me. Cold. Dead. Eaten. But I suspect you cannot be swayed. Know then that I know the way to Xin-Shalast. I can show you the way, but only if you bring me my brother. He died on a ledge in the mountains a mile’s walk north from this cabin. I can feel his soul out there, still hungry, still insane. Bring his bones to me so that I might reconcile with him. Once he is at rest, I will show you the way so that I might rest as well...”
"Ah, the sweet sound of progress. We will aid you, spirit. There is much more at risk than the satisfaction of our greed."
From the top of the stairs Zoli hears the spirit become coherent as the house stops shaking...but figures she's close enough to the chest that she ought to keep going.
She approaches it cautiously, looks it over, and attempts to open it.
The leather trunk holds only mundane articles of rough clothing, a few grooming items, and various small trinkets of Shoanti manufacture.
Zoli comes back downstairs. "Nothing left to see up there.
"Spirit-friend, we will do our best to find your brother's bones, and give you both the peace you deserve.
"What can you tell us of where to find him? Anything else to look for beyond a ledge a mile's walk North of here?"
Eyes wide, she says, "Oh. In that case...nevermind?
"Eugeni, how long more will your Life Bubble last us? Do you think we can find these bones and get back in time?"
"...I am more than willing to help put these spirits to rest, but do we really need to walk a mile in a godsfrosaken blizzard? After everything we just went through? Could we at least wait until Ryli can calm the weather as we originally planned?"
"I suggest we take Lorthan and Elthariel back to the ship, then I carry the three of you to the ridge. As a huge air elemental, I could fly you all easily and swiftly, I expect," Ryli suggests. "Either that, or I shape into a wooly mammoth."
"Riding a mammoth's always been on my bucket list! Only thing cooler might be riding an Oliphant.
"Let's go!"
Jeevika shakes her head in obvious disappointment; however, as if recalling something important, she suddenly pauses and begins to think...
"If we just blindly keep charging into danger, Karzoug will be constructing his new summer estate in Magnimar next month. If we must leave today, then I am going to calm the weather myself. I will not compromise further on this. After continuously conceding to the desires of the group, I should be allowed that much."
Unless something interrupts her, Jeevika proceeds to spend that next hour and a half trying to calm the weather...
"Caution seems prudent to me as well."
Jeevika spends a large amount of time to attempt to alter the weather, but the storm refuses to relent. The snow storm is, if nothing else, a bit stronger. The night has crept on as well, and it now is nearing midnight as you linger in the cabin.
"...Well, that was fruitless," mumbles Jeevika. "I believe that we now have further verification that this weather is unnatural. So... shall we now trudge a mile through the blizzard as the hour nears midnight? Or shall we relax in Eugeni's interplanar mansion until morning? Obviously, I vote for the second."
While Jeevika is preparing her spell, Ryli heads out into the blizzard in huge air elemental form in order to find Olympus. Protected by life bubble and his own high-altitude adaptations, she expected him to be fine. However, she decided she would feel much better with her friend with her. Once Olympus is found, she does a bit of aerial scouting to determine the extent of the unnatural weather.
When the spell doesn't work, Ryli shakes her head in irritation. "I told you that the storm was unnatural! I'm so glad you've proven me right. It's not like I knew what I was talking about or anything."
The opposite side of the cabin! You are certain you didn’t vere off course or get lost. Something is wrong here.
"Hence the 'further' adjective I used," Jeevika counters with a shrug. "Besides, as I recall, you planned to make a similar effort as I did, and now we know how it would have likely played out. Regardless, it's all water under the bridge. Now, as midnight approaches, shall we depart into the storm, or shall we wait until morning?"
Ryli returns from her foray into the weather, shifting back into her centaur form. She tosses her hair and tail. "Okay, I'm for going now. I traveled to the ship, except I was at the cabin again. I didn't lose my way. This whole thing is the work of unnatural forces. If finding the brother's bones and bringing them back here will break the spell, then we do that."
"...While I truly believe that a druid of your caliber would never get lost, even in this weather, I think the reason you could not find the ship is because Titanicus is most likely still keeping it aloft and mobile," Jeevika says sincerely.