Sepsinia excuses herself, offering an apology for feeling faint, then rises from her chair with some difficulty and retires to her room.
Once gone, 'Gandro' warns everyone.
"The book there that is open, is a bunch of hocum. It's called Tobyn's Guide to Spirits and Alienism. From my understanding it was quite popular a couple of generations ago. Also from my understanding its mostly nonsense, but evidently there are a few techniques listed 'dealing with spirits and possession' and dealing with the trauma of such that are useful even today. This maybe what the Dame is using to help Sepsinia deal with her problems, or an attempt for Sepsinia to 'handle' the problem herself on her own. Pointing out the book obviously has exasperated her emotions. I'm guessing the mantra she was chanting of famous paintings is a technique that comes from here..."
He pauses only a moment before continuing.
"I would like to explore the overgrown hedge maze tonight once everyone is to their bed. Would any of you like to join me? I am thinking, given the new evidence we have earned in this encounter, that those overgrown bushes are hiding more than a bunch of flower pots and statuary. It could be the location where her fiance died. I would very much like to examine that location."
Glancing at the attentive Olivia he smiles gently.
"I could use an experienced soldier in case the man's spirit lingers still."
Smiling broader, Dro'gan shrugs.
"I'm not saying anything...yet. The evidence is not clear. I'm no expert on possession or grief. I'm simply saying more evidence is possible in that location, if we investigate carefully. I'm just being cautious really. Anyone else want to join us later?"
"I'd like to keep an eye on the girl. I am a bodyguard and think I'd be well suited to protect her."
"Yes, you should keep watch over Sepsinia Greenly. Thank you. I believe she might leave her room tonight, maybe to go outside."
Amandine is still holding the book, and she raises it for everyone to see.
"This book may have little value, but some of the mental devices it explains can be effective in certain circumstances. The device we heard Sepsinia using is detailed in it. I use it myself sometimes."
"The repetition of of a series of words related to something familiar and comforting can ease and focus the mind. It can calm a person and steady their thoughts. The paintings are significant only because she knows them well, and probably admires them."
"I use it to help center myself before demanding mental tasks, like accessing my memory palace. Mental tasks like moving a vase across the room, or creating the multicolored flash when we were fighting the manticore require very precise attunements of thoughts and emotions. It is damaging for my emotions to run unchecked."
"Sepsinia seems to be trying something different though. She feels a compulsion and she wants to resist it. Whether it is the result of magic or some other external source, or a product of her own mind I can't say. But she feels drawn to go outside and wants to resist. She has felt it before and failed. Remember her saying to herself 'I won't go. I won't go. Not this time. I won't go'. We need to figure out where this compulsion comes from. I don't think the mental tricks in this book can really help against magic or possession."
"Greenly, watch Sepsinia's room, but don't let her know you're there. If she leaves, don't try to stop her. Follow her and see where she goes. I think we all suspect it will be the maze."
"The rest of us will go take a look around the maze to see if we can find anything. I'm betting we'll all run into each other there later tonight. Agreed?"
"Agreed. Sound plan Lady Amandine. I will rouse everyone as soon as I think it is safe tonight and can figure out the easiest way for us to leave and reenter later. Prepare magics against darkness and...undead possibly? I have no idea. Anything is possible. I will disguise myself as a lower member of the house-hold staff in order to facilitate our egress. The main goal here is to find out as much as we can, and avoid detection too if possible."
Alongside your preparations for the evening's investigation, the only other activity your host invites you to attend is a singing performance in the salon where she once tutored musical students. Dame Crabbe arrives bedecked in a very formal, ostentatious gown that would not look out of place upon an Opparan opera stage. She clearly hopes to leave a good impression, or perhaps the noblewoman relishes the opportunity to show off.
Although it is hard to drag your minds from thoughts of Sepsinia and what condition might bedevil her, when her mother sings, you find yourselves surprisingly impressed by its quality and refinement. Rather than the hoarse or scratchy voice of a matron, notes befitting a songbird are offered up for your enjoyment. After performing for her guests, Dame Crabbe muses whether, in another life, she could have been a true songstress in Cassomir or the capital.
.....
The rain subsides by dusk, and a damp night falls upon the Crabbe estate.
The hour draws close to midnight when Greenly espies Sepsinia emerging from her room in her dressing gown, walking as though in a trance.
- Ouch!
"Don't worry, miss," Greenly murmurs as she follows Sepsinia. "I'll protect you."
She hoped the others were already enacting their plan, though she does knock on their doors if she passes them.
|
Olivia is quite impressed with Dame Crabbe's performance, and decides to relent slightly and give her a little bit of praise.
Olivia does not go to sleep. She dresses in her leathers and gets ready for a signal. When Greenly knocks on the door, Olivia opens it almost immediately, and quietly sneaks out alongside.
- Koriana's blade
- Shining Crusade +1 silver dagger
- Mwk studded leather armour
- Healer's kit
- Holy symbol
- 2 flasks of holy water
- Soul stimulant
The disguise cobbled together by "Gandro" will fool none of the Crabbe house staff, who are quite familiar with each other on sight after many years of service together. Fortunately, his adroitness at stealth ameliorates the failings of his disguise, all but ensuring that no one will notice him to accost him.
In fact, whatever somnambulance currently grips Sepsinia ensures that she will not notice the rest of the party following her, unless you should intentionally make a racket. She exits the manor and walks into the garden, towards the mist-shrouded entrance of the hedge maze.
The hedge maze behind the Crabbe estate may have once been a local wonder, but it has clearly been neglected for quite some time. Over the tops of the unkempt walls of the living labyrinth, you can see the rose vine-wreathed spire of a gazebo rising from the center of the maze.
Dro'gan holds Lady Olivia back, pushing her sword arm away slowly, hoping to get his arm back when he's done.
"Let's follow quietly I think. See why she's out here...follow my lead?"
Amandine is touched by Dame Crabbe's performance. She had dreaded the visit, but has been warming to the Crabbe family since she's been with them at their home. She doubts they would ever be fast and close friends, but she would never avoid them in the future.
There is a sweetness to their enthusiasms and idiosyncrasies that make both the Dame and Sepsinia appealing in a tragic way. Amandine imagines if they both had felt, or been, freer of custom, duty, maybe fear of impropriety, they would have been very different people.
At a point when she can talk to Dame Crabbe aside from the others, Amandine tries to reassure Dame Crabbe she does have real talent without making it bitter.
"I think you could have caused quite a stir in the cities with your singing Dame Parthena. It was beautiful. But if you had gone away for that kind of life what would have become of Moost? In your absence it would have been administered by Count Lotheed's seneschal if I understand correctly. From all I have heard of him, the people of Moost would certainly have suffered if so."
"You sacrificed to stay here in Meratt. I'm sure you have the people's gratitude for staying to stand between them and impoverishment. As you know I've spent my life up until now in Oppara. I assure you that fame and admiration there doesn't last, and when it's over one is forgotten quickly. You will be honored here by fewer people, but you won't be forgotten because you'll be remembered for your goodness and nobility."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Back in her room Amandine quickly changes to trousers and cloth shirt over her maille. She buckles on her rapier and waits for Greenly or Dro'gan's knock. When it comes she joins them to go outside and into the maze.
After Dame Crabbe's performance earlier in the evening, Amandine's words genuinely touch the noblewoman. In fact, Crabbe quickly excuses herself lest her emotions betray her perfectly cultivated patrician mien.
...
The gloomy labyrinth is riddled with weeds and brambles that threaten to seize upon the legs and clothes of the unwary. While the estate grounds remain rather humid after the rainstorm, an unnatural chill haunts the hedge maze. Combined with the moisture in the air, this serves to raise goose pimples upon your limbs and set your teeth chattering.
The prospect of getting lost inside is very unpleasant to consider.
For the sake of argument, Dro'gan grabs a piece of chalk from a small kit, and a few (10?)fist sized rocks. He then marks each with a visible white arrow and hands them out to others.
"We will leave a marker at each juncture we turn at in order to help find our way back quicker as needed."
Greenly shoves Dro'gan at the hedge wall, hoping to bolster his attempt.
Amandine stands back and watches to see how it goes. Too many cooks and so forth.
Gripping the thick creepers of ivy that gird the hedge walls like bindings, Dro'gan hoists himself up.
Peering over the tops of the living walls, he gets a better view of the maze. Not only does he identify dead ends to steer the party away from, he spots the ghostly white form of Sepsinia, already deep in the maze and steadily making her way towards its center.
Dro'gan catches Olivia's wrist before she can proceed. She was about to proceed down a branch of the maze that appeared clear to her, but from his overwatch, Dro'gan saw was actually very overgrown, thick with nettles and sharp thorns.
For now, Dro'gan will take the lead...
Greenly walks straight into a bush, helping no one.
Dro'gan proves to be a deft guide as the party seeks the center of the maze. He guides you past false leads and dead ends. Contrary to her first impressions, though, Greenly does help the party. The "bush" she walked into turned out to be a passage half-concealed by tangled vines, helping finding the shortcut Dro'gan was looking for.
Greenly pulls leafs and twigs out of her hair, stumbling forth.
Dro'gan squints, using his excellent night vision, and plods on...
Amandine knows the maze would had to have been planned architecturally, drafted out, before work on it began. She has been paying close attention to their progress through it. Taking what Dro'gan said about the layout when he climbed up to get a view, she has been keeping track of turns and counting steps between changes in direction.
She suggests a left would make the most sense given where she estimates them to be in the maze.
Greenly flexes and topples a hedge.
Dro'gan recognizes threads of magic woven through the maze. He attempts to follow them, but he reads them incorrectly and ultimately leads the party down a twisting dead end. However, Amandine's masterful comprehension of layout and horticultural architecture quickly gets the party back on track. When Greenly then unveils her mighty "shortcut," the party is on the verge of the labyrinth's center.
Bartolo pushes his way to the forefront and boasts about the hedge mazes on his family and neighbors' properties that he's navigated since boyhood. He insists upon leading the party the rest of the way, although he keeps his eyes affixed upon the ground - secretly looking for the footprints of Sepsinia, who has preceded the party.
At last, you find the mist-shrouded heart of the labyrinth. In the shadow of the vine and thorn-wreathed gazebo, you find a ghastly parody of a romantic picnic, lit by the dim stars and wan moon. Sepsinia sits beside a broad stone table made from the sheared-off base of an old marble column. Her pallid face wears a blank expression, her unfocused eyes staring into nothingness. Moldering biscuits and a cracked tea set are spread out upon the table.
The bodies of four servants - dressed in the overalls and gloves of gardeners - are spread out around the table. Jagged bite wounds upon their necks and stomachs make it clear that they are dead.
However, the most horrifying and striking sight is the apparent host of this spectacle: a spider-like monstrosity skitters upon the table, pushing a chipped cup of cold tea and a plate of maggoty biscuits towards the entranced Sepsinia. The creature's body looks like a bloody, pulsating heart, held aloft by eight bony legs.
The whole scene, but especially the thing on the table, gives Amandine a bad feeling in her stomach. She's rattled enough that the first thing that goes through her head is oh, so if she's been coming here every night no wonder she's so tired.
She draws her weapon, but otherwise hesitates while she searches her memory for anything she might have read about a thing like the one in front of them. The weirder, esoteric texts at Malaprop's Literary Esoterica were down in the basement, and she never spent much time there. But, she doesn't know what else to do in the spur of the moment.
Dro'gan immediately releases his belt and shifts it into a Falcata with the sharpest blade, draws a cold iron dagger into his free hand...then stares at the monster trying to identify it quickly.
Upon seeing the beating heart-spider, Greenly's blood pumps and her blade immediately becomes sheathed in green-white wisps, the voices of her ancestors. Unconcerned with what it is and more what it is doing, she charges straight on, screaming, "Don't you lay a limb on her!"
Vicious creatures driven by misery and suffering, lovelorns arise from the souls of those who die when love takes a tragic turn—star-crossed lovers who committed suicide, victims of abusive relationships and violent family confrontations, or even an abusive partner that refuses to let their paramour go.
In death, the stubborn spirit fixates solely on its heart, animating the dead organ and bursting free from its body, dedicated to unmaking everything it cared for in life.
Although these distressing undead monsters enjoy the sensation of using their fangs on living tissue, lovelorns thrive on feelings of misery rather than flesh, and their mere presence corrupts an area into a maze of despair and deadly traps.
Greenly's steel and spirit wisps bite into the hideous creature, threatening to sever a few of its spidery limbs from its pulsating, bloody bulk.
Up close and personal with the heart-crab-spider-thing, Greenly is unnerved and much less confident, missing wildly as she swings her blade.
It was caught off guard by Greenly's first strike, as the mighty warrior emerged unbidden from the misty maze; however, the creature now nimbly evades her latest attacks, and her sword merely shatters the old teapot and bites into the marble pedestal.