Treasurefox's Rise of the Runelords (Inactive)

Game Master TreasureFox

Cleo is not recommended to open any doors anymore... so she is waiting patiently WAY in the back.

Wilhim grimaces before taking the lead again and opening the closest door.

good luck sir...

Furnok braces for more mold

back from vacation :)

Wabbit shares the point position with Wilhim needing his trap skills and hoping to prevent Wilhim's hair from turning even MORE green through another mold encounter

Wabbit and Wilhim meticulously investigate each room before going to the next one. None of the doors are trapped. First, they discover a room that was in the process of being repaired, but for whatever reason was never quite finished. Then, they found several store rooms that had lumber and tools in them, but nothing else of interest.
Map has been updated

"I think the sobbing is coming from that room." pointing to B22. Cleo manages to say with her shaking and hobbled breathing. "Let get to them and then out of here as quickly as possible."

No sense dallying then.

Just to be clear, what do you guys expect to be here?

"Honestly" Cleo sighs, which turns into a hacking cough to bends her over in nausea "I... I expect it to be some... kind of trap... but it could be... someone or something that needs our help. Even the slim chance of that..." the cough takes over again, but you get the point of her pathetic speech.

Cleo approaches the door and finds that the weeping isn't coming from here, but of the door further down (B24).

Unlike the other doors, this one is locked shut. Wilhim doesn't find any traps, and opens it after a try or two.
This room is cold and damp; an old armoire stands near the east wall. The ceiling slopes down to only four feet high to the northeast, leaving little room for a small window. A full0sized mirror in a dark wooden frame of coiling roses leans against these bricks angled toward the tiny window. The frame of a woman kneels in front of the mirror, weeping uncontrollably.

Fear the worst, but unable to leave a person crying so, Cleo stumbles forward, "Hello... um... miss..."

diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 - 2 - 2 - 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 - 2 - 2 - 1 = 24 sickened, shaken, and -2 charisma

"Please, can we help you? Whatever has broken you so, we want to do what we can." the halfling girl moves to the sobbing woman, reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You are not alone."

The skin under Cleo's hand feels ice cold. Looking into the mirror, she sees the woman for what she truly is: Undead. This woman with long, raven hair is pale white with vacant eyes. Blood stains smear her mouth, and her layered dress of blue has been soiled. Her long nails come to point like little daggers, and tears of acid scorch her face. This... is Iesha Foxglove.
She says nothing.

Cleo, get away from It.

Cleo hesitates. Iesha may no longer be alive, but she still seems very much in anguish.

sense motive: 1d20 + 10 - 5 ⇒ (3) + 10 - 5 = 8sickened, shaken, and -1 wisdom

if her senses don't scream that she is faking to gut you

Cleo does drop her hand away, but she doesn't pull back from the sobbing woman. "Iesha" she says softly "What happened?"

if they do scream, it is a trap and she is faking to gut you, she'll back away like Furnok suggested.

sense motive: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

careful Cleo says Wabbit upon realizing that his cousin is within claws length of the formerly kind and now undead Iesha.... Not wanting to provoke it/her into attacking

Wabbit reaches out with his senses (detect evil) hoping to find the poor woman has somehow retained her kind soul but knowing that is almost impossible... Mostly he just feels pity for Iesha but remains ready to defend his cousin

Wabbit senses a strong evil presence emanating from Iesha. Her soul has been twisted beyond recognition, to such a degree that Wabbit has never seen before. Wabbit is certain that if Iesha could attack Cleo, she already would have.

Cleo doesn't get an answer out of Iesha, but she does notice the horrible strangle marks on her neck.

Wabbit speaks quietly, cautiously trying not to trigger the undead Cleo... Her soul is twisted and deeply evil... I don't know what's preventing her but she'd tear you apart if it could

Cleo steps away trusting her cousin's senses. "What should we do then, just leave her? Maybe finding her husband will let her find peace."

Let sobbing undead lie

"Husband..." Iesha mutters

religion: 1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 8 - 4 = 20

"Oh... you poor soul." she'll back up from Iesha "Her..." she stops, thinking saying that word would be bad. "...he killed her" her hand went to her own throat in sympathy "And that broke her, twisted her to her very core with hate, so bad she can't pass on... The mirror is keeping her there, the sight of what she has become is crushing her. As long as we don't break it, or attack her, or... he comes. She'll stay."

Well then, as long as we just back out and leave we should be fine.

Wabbit hesitates a bit.. Recently his ideas that seemed good have turned out to be pretty flawed.... But what the heck! the odds have to swing back in his favor at some point
I know this is going to seem like another bad idea.... But could we set her free to exact her revenge on her husband? Could we do that without provoking her to attack us? I'd like to help her get justice. of course we'd follow to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else other than the husband. It might work... Maybe?

"Husband...?" Iesha no longer sobs, but looks through the mirror towards Wabbit's reflection.

Oh that imagery is creepy as hell :)

"I... I don't know... but..." Cleo is way out of her depth "...it might." backing up further she asks "How do you want to try?" she decides to trust Wabbit judgement, cause well her own hasn't been any better.

Okay so Treasure gave Cleo a single use of the calm emotions spell for showing kindness to the womanticore. Who might have been Iesha. It is a mind affecting spell and she is undead though... still doesn't hurt to try. If Wabbit frees her, Cleo will at least cast it. Thematic if nothing else. Or she can try it beforehand? Duration is concentration. Thoughts?

Normally I wouldn't let that work, but since I can make some good story out of it, I will allow it to function as if she were humanoid.

Don't do this. You risk setting her free on all of us and the world. I feel for her too, but we can't take the risk.

Brelin struggles with this decision

I don't think we can control her. Even if she goes for him, she'll probably kill anyone who gets in her way.
We'll take care of him on our own - She grins - We're the heroes

But her smile fades and she frowns as she continues - Which is why I don't feel confortable letting her stay here. She's suffering and it is affectig all this area - she hesitates a bit - And I only know of one way to send her to her deserved rest - She clenches her fist looking at the mirror, focusing not on Iesha but on the undead creature she is now

Cleo looks up at Brelin and returns her grin, "Heroes? I like that."

To her cousin, "Wabbit can you think of a way for us to direct her only to... him?"

Wilhim turns to Brelin. Agreed, but we can make it easy on ourselves. No one lives here, It's just old memories and monsters made by man. Let it all burn. and then we'll find this Aldern and bring him to justice.

Cleo knows that Revenants are only interested in attacking their murderer. As long as no one gets in Iesha's way, she won't attack them.

Cleo's memory sparks "I remember something. She'll just go after her husband if we just stay out of the way. I agree with Wabbit." then she adds "If that doesn't work, we burn the place down." agreeing with Wilhim as well.

So will we be putting her on a leash or something? Our very own pet undead?

ummm NO! I don't want to risk pissing her/it off. No leash. We just let her loose and follow her like a bloodhound

Wabbit has no intention of letting Iesha loose upon the public and is willing to die to prevent that but if she can be used as a bloodhound to find Aldern.... He's all for it

unless any of you have a better idea I'll move the mirror and instruct her to "find husband"

"Okay." Cleo gives Wabbit a brief hug and tells him "Be careful!" then leads all that don't want to be attack away from the revenant.

Furnok gets ready to bash undead brains

Wilhim moves and stands in front of the party drawing his longspear. No, I won't let you do this. It's too risky, what if he's in town? What if we can't stop her and she rips through children to get to him?

Brelin shifts unconfortably I don't know guys, can we keep up with her? Does she fly, walks over water?
Does she even knows how to find him?

She mentally reviews her spells, already looking for what to use when this goes wrong

Wilhim moves and stands in front of the party drawing his longspear. No, I won't let you do this. It's too risky, what if he's in town? What if we can't stop her and she rips through children to get to him?

okayyyyyy We have 2 undead. Iesha only cares about finding Aldern and killing him. And then there is Aldern who is out there killing people. Which one is a greater risk to Sandpoint? Do you know where he is? Do YOU have a plan to find him? Please tell me if you have a better idea. I'm all ears

Gee, I don't know, ever heard of divination magic? We have a spellcaster right here, and several more in Sandpoint, somebody has to know something. And doubling the problem isn't the answer, and who cares if she only cares about her husband, what happens when she's done with him, does she just die, or is rage just unleashed? Honestly don't know. Wilhim slightly relaxes. What about a cage?

Bacon has a good nose. So maybe he can find him.

OINK!

"We tried divination. It told us he is here. Right here!" she sighed "If we trust it..." she muttered as she scratched her rotted cheek.

"The children argument is a good one. Risking our own lives is fine, but doing so with others... we just don't know enough." turning to Wabbit. "We can search the rest of the rooms up here, but I doubt he is up here. Instead we can go back to the first floor and search for a basement. This looks like the kind of place with a basement. If we can't find him, we have other options." Cleo looks over at Iesha, then back to Wabbit. "What do you think?"

I like it Cleo. I'd rather not have to use her as a bloodhound if at all possible. BUT looking pointedly at Wilhim, taking great offense at his drawn weapon If he's not here and we can't figure out where he might be, the bloodhound idea will be decided upon as a GROUP and I'll abide by the group's decision as will you

Cleo nods at Wabbit's words, then looks around to each of them, "Downstairs then. Let's not risk letting anything else infect, curse, or control us up here. If Aldern was up here, he would have come out already I believe." she'll give each a reassuring smile, or at least as reassuring as the halfling can at the moment, then start shuffling down to the ground floor again.

To Furnok, as they go down the steps, "Can Bacon really smell the undead?"

Let me make this clear, no, it won't, if you try to release that monster in the world in some asinine hope it can sniff out it's enemy, putting people at risk, I will stop you, the only reason I'm still here is because I made a commitment, that commitment doesn't include releasing monsters from anything besides this mortal coil. Wilhim says as he stares down the Paladin.

well let's hope it doesn't come to that Wabbit icily stares down the newcomer
I wish Helgarr were still here Wabbit thinks to himself missing the comrade who understood how to work as a team. Understanding why she left.