Gabriella grabs her sister's arm and calls out a quick incantation. "Go!" she then barks and loads her crossbow.
With her sister's protection in place Alessandra runs across the room and charges into the phantom, aiming to pin it.
Ulrich taps Kamosh with his Touch of Fatigue spell and sends the bird over to peck at the phantom.
"You're dead wrong about that!", hisses the changeling as she flies into combat. Like before, she propels herself forward with little to no care about her own well-being and suddenly it makes sense that the woman wears such a heavy helmet and so many layers of protection over her shoulders and chest.
Alessandra fails to grab a hold of the phantom. Kamosh swoops in to deliver Ulrich's spell, fatiguing her, then Elka claws at her ectoplasmic form.
The phantom retaliates, slamming the changeling and leaving her rattled!
Seeing the phantom hurt her friend drives Ellie into action, and she runs forward, brandishing her flail.
Alessandra steps around the phantom and lashes out with a rapid double punch.
Ulrich comes over to help ward off the phantom from Elka.
Gabriella watches the interchange carefully, looking for her moment of opportunity.
Unfortunately, the moment slips by and her bolt embeds itself harmlessly into the wall. She reloads.
"No, no, no! I won't be dying today! I'd rather introduce the love of my life to my mom. No, no, no!", the changeling utters and stutters in between wild swoops and attempts at evisceration. The phantom has touched a nerve, but Elká refuses to die without making a big fuzz.
Ellie delivers a powerful blow that is blunted somewhat by the phantom's ectoplasmic body. Alessandra's strikes likewise do far less damage than they should.
Gabby's bolt goes wide. Elka slashes wildly at the phantom as Ulrich tries to fend her off with his staff.
"I'm sorry! The master is too strong!" the phantom cries fearfully. "If I don't kill you, he'll torment me for all eternity!" She flails at Elka again, but this time doesn't hit.
Ulrich keeps trying his best to protect Elka.
Ellie's arms start to tire and her shoulders especially are aching after two successive days of intensive combat; she is a fraction slower than she intended to be and her attack is poorly aimed.
She frowns, and redoubles her efforts.
Alessandra, seeing her blows are ineffective, tries to grapple the creature again.
Gabbi fires again ...
... and narrowly misses her sister's arm.
"If you'd hold her still for just a moment!" Gabbi snaps back as she reloads.
Alessandra manages to grapple the phantom, holding her in place so Elka can tear her apart with her claws. The creature melts into a puddle of sticky ectoplasm that slowly dissolves into nothingness.
The medallions hanging on the bed are holy symbols of various deities. While most deities of Golarion are included among them, Kishokish’s collection includes several holy symbols of rare or even dead gods. The 94 holy symbols around the bed are worth 1 gp each, as they are wooden holy symbols for common deities. Sixteen others are worth 25 gp each, either because they are made of silver or because they are rare, representing a forgotten or unknown deity from far-flung locations across the planes.
The desk contains a mahogany snuff box worth 90 gp as well as 78 pp and 14 gp. The papers in the desk include a scroll of fire shield, a scroll of halt undead, and a page of spell knowledge with summon monster II.
The desk also contains a set of brown, leather gloves stitched with a distinctive whorl pattern.
One desk drawer contains nothing but eighteen oddly shaped iron keys: three engraved with a standing rectangle and the numbers 1 through 3, six engraved with a semicircle and the numbers 1 through 6, and nine engraved with a right triangle and the numbers 1 through 9.
Gabriella looks through the keys.
"The key that completes the house," she repeats to herself as she picks up the various keys and mentally catalogs their attributes.
"What do we know about the house?" she asks rhetorically. "It's three stories and made of wood. It has six balconies. It's called Nine Eaves."
"Three rectangles matches the floors - each is a rectangle. There are six balconies and those match the six semicircles. There are nine eaves that match the nine triangles."
She pauses and thinks for a moment, trying to remember how the house looked from the outside.
"Oh my, this is... advanced." Ulrich murmurs more to himself as he shuffles through the scrolls. He rolls them up nicely and packs them in his bag.
"Oh, I suppose that is a clever use of throwing down the gauntlet. Elka, I think these would... I mean Elli, I think these might be of interest to you. The magic is quite simple. If you take off one of these gloves and slap a creature, they will have a harder time attacking you, while you will have an easier time attacking them."
When he walks over to the bed to view all the holy symbols.
"Incredible. This reminds me of my time in university. One of the fraternity had a collection hanging from his bed. Although they were not holy symbols, but lacy underwear."
Alessandra shakes her hands clean and then settles in to watch as Gabriella starts puzzling over the keys.
Going over the layout in her mind, Gabby realizes that the manor only actually has eight eaves, despite its name.
Ellie's not stupid by any means, but Gabbi's reasoning skills make her feel foolish by comparison. She gives the dhampir a look of admiration. "That's... really clever. I could have been stuck here for years and never worked that one out."
She's slightly flustered as Ulrich attracts her attention to the gloves. "Uh, that's nice, but I have to have both hands to use this. Maybe Alessandra would benefit?"
"I'm happy to carry them." Alessandra offers, "It sounds like they overlap my magic quite a bit and I'm not sure its a good idea that I actually wear them, but I'm happy to carry them if no-one else wants to."
She steps over to Ellie, "Shall we talk, or do you want to wait until we're back on the road?" she asks quietly.
The changeling blinks at Ulrich when he utters her name but doesn't bite. However, when the doctor starts to reminisce on his time at the university and the collection of lacy panties, she can't help herself and audibly groans. Orcs and wizards have more in common than she thought.
"So, now we know what key is missing, but we don't know where that key is. D'you think that us knowing what key is missing would please the origami puzzleteer? I really do not fancy the idea of having to climb the walls of this rotten place, in the hope to find the last key bungling underneath one of its nine eaves."
"Unless we just take the ninth key with a triangle on it?" Alessandra asks her sister.
Ellie's not stupid by any means, but Gabbi's reasoning skills make her feel foolish by comparison. She gives the dhampir a look of admiration. "That's... really clever. I could have been stuck here for years and never worked that one out."
"I told you, she's the pretty one," Gabbi says, leaving the rest of her refrain unsaid. She then turns away towards her sister.
"Unless we just take the ninth key with a triangle on it?" Alessandra asks her sister.
Gabriella nods at Allie and holds up the mentioned key. "This key completes the house," she says with confidence.
Ulrich was still reminiscing about his past in university, but while gazing at the the bed with holy symbols just offhandedly remarks "You shouldn't put yourself down like that, Gabriella. A keen intellect is just as attractive as pursuits of the flesh, which you are not lacking in either."
Gabriella's mood seems to shift at Ulrich's words.
"Aren't you the flatterer?" she purrs. "Are you, perhaps, trying to get closer to that very flesh?" She bites her lip and looks the older man up and down.
"Perhaps we should get our stamp here before we consider other pursuits though."
She holds the key out to the others. "Back to the painting, then, to see if I'm correct."
A confused changeling nods in agreement, refusing to give voice to her (obvious) confusement. "Yeah, let's."
The painting applauds when you present the key. "Yes, well done! That will let you unlock the ballroom to confront the sahkil that has imprisoned the master. Be prepared for a difficult fight, and remember, you only need to take the staff away from it. The gloves will help!"
"I guess I'm going all 'Taldan Dandy' on him then." Alessandra says with a smile. "I have no intention of fighting fair though!"
"I told you, she's the pretty one," Gabbi says, leaving the rest of her refrain unsaid. She then turns away towards her sister.
"I know, I just... appreciate cleverness when I see it. That's all."
She steps over to Ellie, "Shall we talk, or do you want to wait until we're back on the road?" she asks quietly.
Ellie blushes. "Uh, I, uh... I'd like us to get out of this place, I think. Somewhere the grasshoppers don't explode and the paintings aren't sending us on errands."
At the talk of confronting the sahkil, she nods. "I'll give you a hand with him. But hang on a moment." She turns back to the painting. "You said it's a sakhil, but..." She flips through one of the many books she carries with her. "There's more than one sort. Can you tell me more about it?"
"It has a grasshopper for a head. That's all I know," the painting says.
"O-kaaaay, that sounds familiar... yes." Ellie triumphantly finds the right place in her book. "Uh. Oh. That sounds like a wihsaak. According to Professor, uh, Grubb, it says here that, uh, 'Wihsaaks prey on the fear of creeping, crawling, and buzzing insects. Instead of whispering from the shadows, wihsaaks blatantly present their unnerving insectile forms to frighten and demoralize humanoid mortals. Their droning wings cause temporary confusion and they can vomit forth swarms of insects.'" She puts away her copy of the Manual of the Planes, somewhat less confidently than when she took it out.
"Well, uh, at least we know what we're up against. That counts for something, right?"
"Yeah, they're pretty gross," Gabbi says with a shiver of disgust. "I hate swarms"
"I think I've got power to spare..." Alessandra says cautiously. "Wait. Try this."
She touches each member of the party in turn and everyone's hearts beat a little faster.
Once the group indicates readiness she casts a spell, without being entirely sure how, and pulls on one glove - which immediately begins to crack, seams unravelling and sprawling like drunks.
"Ready!"
The key unlocks the sliding door into the ballroom. Wooden pillars carved to resemble thin trees support the ceiling of this enormous ballroom. Stairs lead up to a balcony at the south end of the room protected by a wrought-iron railing. A low stage under the balcony contains benches and music stands. The walls are painted with misty forest scenes, each image featuring a clearing with a grave or mausoleum.
A gaunt creature stands in this room, wings buzzing behind it. A grasshopper serves as its head. Its arms split at the elbow, and its four claws grip a staff with a hanging lantern. This must be the wihsaak!
A raspy whisper fills your minds. "How did you get in here? No matter. I'll slaughter you are and savor the sound of your screams!"
Alessandra goes charging in, hoping to end the fight before it really begins. The creatures gaze is thoroughly offputting but she carries on regardless, reaching for the staff with her (shabbily) gloved hands.
"I hate bugs!"
Elká fumbles and tumbles forward and notices how Allie lags behind. That detail, however, is entirely repressed by the creature's mind-wrecking appearance. Like a circus macabre, Pharasma's bonegarden is a never-ending source of sights both disturbing and memorable, and Elká finds herself hesitating - should she really engage this otherworldly thing in combat?!
As Alessandra and Elka wrestle for the staff, it seems to twitch and jerk in the sahkil's grasp, as if trying to escape the fiend's clutches. Alessandra succeeds in disarming the wihsaak! "No! Give that back!" the monster telepathically shrieks.
Seeing the thing right in front of her it seems much more dangerous than what Gabriella had pictured in her mind and it leaves her stumbling a bit as her sister rushes forward.
As her sister grabs the staff, Gabbi steels herself and follows to grab the staff and swing it at the ... thing.
And misses.
The staff lurches in Gabriella's grip, lunging towards the wihsaak and giving her the extra edge to land a solid hit! The sahkil shrieks as it is drawn bodily into the staff, vanishing with a pop. The staff clatters to the floor as another creature emerges from it--a snail-shelled psychopomp who looks exactly like the painting in the hallway. This, at last, must be the master of Nine-Eaves, Kishokish!
He wearily gets to his feet, looking rather exhausted. "Heh, thank you for the save, my friends. Being stuck in my own staff was both embarrassing and enervating. I owe you one."
Alessandra lets out a delighted whoop as the wihsaak disappears, grabbing her sister in a tight bear hug and spinning her around, before turning and doing the same to Elka, although without the spinning.
"Well you can start by giving us a stamp." She says to Kishokish. "We're travelling the Dead Roads, and then if you have any other advice or gifts you can give us I'm sure we'll be delighted to receive them!"
"Yes, a stamp would be nice. We're not actually dead and we don't belong in the Boneyard," Gabriella adds after straightening herself out from her sister's enthusiasm.
"And can you tell us anything about Salighara’s Scriptorium? That's the one remaining place we need to visit to get our final stamp."
"Of course. You have not just saved my spirit, but prevented an invasion of the Boneyard by sahkil forces. You may have my stamp, plus this magical pearl for your efforts. You may keep any other valuables you might have taken from my house. I can always get more!"
Kishokish stamps your bodies with his personal stamp, a 17-sided die as large as a halfling’s fist, to give you his authorization to travel on the Dead Roads. He also gives you a pearl of power (2nd level).
"Sadly, I don't know much about Salighara. She keeps to herself--not much of a fan of my parlor games!"
Ellie blinks as the fight is over before she can even join in. She gives the true master of the house an awkward nod. "You're welcome. But, uh, can I suggest in future you go a bit easier on the puzzles? If it hadn't been for Gabbi here, we'd still be stuck on the other side of that door arguing with your painting - and YOU'D still be stuck in that staff..." She trails off.
Maybe leave the criticism until AFTER you've got the stamp?