Lets get them back to town and get them some Anti-plague. They may need two or more doses - one each day until we see some improvement - we can do a quick search the house now and comeback for a detailed search later
Yep, please update your characters right now. I'm not a fan of delaying new abilities.
Nicholae casts cure disease on both of the village survivors.
I'll take other spells on the morrow
Lets search the house.
I need Perception checks please, unless you're just gonna take 20.
With the survivors cured I think we can take some time.
Other than Hambley's desecrated body, nothing else in the house is noteworthy except ... a loose floorboard in the bedchamber. Underneath is a stout wooden coffer with a keyhole. The lid appears locked.
We'll try the key we found otherwise Lleidr can try picking the lock.
This is obviously an attempt by Foxglove to eliminate me before we can take him out. If the key doesn't work, I'll check for traps first...
"Unless the key is on old Hambley here." Ned will search the body.
Nice catch, Ned. Yes, Hambley's body also has a key, one appropriate to the coffer's lock.
The key from the ghast is a couple sizes too large for a small chest. I went ahead and pre-emptively made a traps check for Lleidr. The chest appears to be harmless.
"Well, are you going to open it?"
"And wasn't there a note addressed to me somewhere? Creepy, but I think we should read it."
Yeah, there was a link in the prior page w/ the letter. can someone point it out to Selia?
Missed that myself. Here's alink to the creepy letter
Confident that there are no traps, Lleidr will use Hambley's key to open the small chest.
The letter reads, 'Take the fever into you my love - it will be but the first of my gifts to you." And is signed "Your Lordship".
O.K. mayby not creepy. There's presents! Maybe even cake!
It's worth noting that the note to Mortwell, Hask and tabe was also signed, "Your Lordship'
the chest contains Hambley's life savings, 3400 sp, divided neatly into bags of 100 coins a piece.
We'll need to turn this into the town to get it to his heirs - lets get these people back to town before we think of investigating the manor.
"Agree. This is not for us, and these people need some care."
So Lleidr should stop pocketing bags of silver? :)
Just curious, to whom will you return Hambley's savings?
Nich, your divine magics cure the ghoul fever from the farmer couple, but you're feeling none too well the next morning yourself, and your symptoms are exactly like the victims you rescued.
Nich looks for two anti-plague - he is convinced he may need all his magic for the mansion.
He takes it.
He takes the money to the Ameiko and asks her to make inquiries as to Humleys heirs. He doesn't trust the mayor or the local government.
Hey! What about the cake?
Relaxing after a long day running the Rusty Dragon, Ameiko looks at the chest of money dubiously. "I never knew the Hambleys personally, but I can store the money in my father's house for safekeeping. I'll make some inquiries, Nicholae, and if nothing else, maybe Father Zantus can use it for charity?"
BTW, Nich is feeling much better after the anti-plague antidote. Horran and Lettie Guffmin are especially grateful for your help. "I knew in my bones that yesterday's sunrise was going to be my last. It was terribly cruel to be strapped up on that pole feeling your life slip away from you. And all the while, those horrible ghouls were running about gnawing on the bodies of relatives and friends. And the horses! You shoulda' heard them cry. It would break you."
Horran comforts his distraught wife and pulls her into an embrace. "That's all over, Lettie. These good folk have seen to it. We've naught to fear now." He looks at you, his face asking the question unsaid, whether the farmers really are safe now from this nightmare.
You have nothing more to fear from the creatures who enslaved you or from the disease they gave you. We will also head to the manor to see if we can't get to the bottom of this, he reassures them.
You guys doing anything special in town before heading out again? I'm assuming you're going to Foxglove Manor, but please let me know if you're going somewhere else.
Yep
Yes
Can I get a round of KNO Local checks from all of you?
The morning begins in fall sunlight and with cool, crisp air, but soon after you take to the road, clouds from the sea roll over the land, casting a grey pall to the surrounding countryside. A chill rain falls, the road turns into gooey mud, and your progress becomes very slow.
It's nearly mid-day, as near as you can rekon, before leaving the Lost Coast Road and taking the barely used farm road heading west towards your destination. As you get nearer, it almost seems as if nature herself has become sick and twisted. Nettles and thorns grow more prominent, trees are leaf less and bent, and the wind seems unnaturally cold and shrill as it whistles through the cliffside crags.
The path slowly rises, bending around a steep corner in the cliffs, and then Foxglove Manor looms at the edge of the world. The strangely cold sea wind rises to a keening shriek as the old house comes into view. It almost appears to loathe its perch high above the ocean, as if the entire house were poised for a suicide leap. The roof sags in many places, and mold and mildew cake the crumbling walls. Vines of diseased-looking gray wisteria strangle the structure in several places, hanging down over the precipitous cliff edge almost like tangled braids of hair.
The house is crooked, its gables angling sharply and breached in at least three places, hastily repaired by planks of sodden wood. Chimneys rise from various points among the rooftops, leaning like old men in a storm, and grinning gargoyle faces leer from under the eaves.
One thing you all know is that the Foxglove Manor was often known among Sandpoint folks as 'the Misgivings'. I'll PM each of you separately with your results.
Immediately outside the manor are the foundation stones of an outbuilding. It’s impossible to tell how many floors the outbuilding that stood here once had, for all that remains are the sooty, scorched stones of its foundation. To the east, a four-foot-wide stone well sits, partially collapsed, in the corner of the ruins.
Your presence startles a few sickly ravens perched atop the stones. As you approach, they fly away with clumsy effort.
Not sure if it's obvious from the map, but if you're intent on entering that place, there are 2 double-doors leading into it, one set facing west, the other north-west. Both are shut.
Nicholae will try both doors with the key found and see which door opens with the key recovered from the ghast.
The key fits and can open both doors, which are locked. There are also a few other obvious ways of entry. Numerous windows, with their unbroken, grime-encrusted panes of glass in their frames, could provide entrance into the manor as well. You cannot see into them however, because they're curtained from the inside.
There are also windows on the upper story and attic, but you'd have to climb up there to do it, and many handholds look weathered and rotten.
Enter from the west in case we need the afternoon sun, says the warrior priest as he throws open the doors.
Selia casts Light on a crossbow bolt, and arms it, ready to shoot.
If it matters,
Lleidr will ready the Fang of Erylium and move up to within a half move to back up Nich.
The sound of the house straining and creaking gives this long, high-ceilinged room an additional sense of age and decay. The place smells damp, the unpleasant tinge of mold lacing the air as surely as it stains the wooden floor, walls, and furniture in pallid patches. Moldering trophies hang on the wall to the northeast: a boar, a bear, a firepelt cougar, and a stag, yet they pale in comparison to the monster on display in the center of the room. Here crouches a twelve-foot-long creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion’s tail fitted with dozens of razor barbs, huge batlike wings, and a deformed humanoid face.
I need a round of Perception checks, please and thank you!
Nich, I don't think you gave us a KNO Local check earlier. If you'd like to give it a try, feel free.