Sherman moves up to cast a spell on Razkiv, who stated they followed Loth, and sees the coverage fungus in the room and....
... feels the itches of the phage under his skin. Sherman, however, manages to fight off the urge to scratch it and gets his spell cast.
Razkiv attempts to wrestle the knife from Loth
@Loth: The others reach for you, but you easily evade their grasp. You bring the dagger against your forearm, cutting away at the skin, peeling yourself in mindless disgust...
... Luckily, the pain seems to shock your system enough that you come to your self once again. A strip of your own flesh hangs loose and, while you can still see the pustules on your skin, they no longer seem as virulent. Nor do you feel the compulsion to remove them at any cost.
"Gods, boy! Stop that!" Sherman cries in disgust. He can only helplessly watch the others' failed attempts to prevent Loth's self-mutilation.
But then, he thinks he sees a light of reason coming back to the halfling's eyes.
"Is it over? Are you all right?"
As Zenaida watches, sanity returns to Loth's expression. "You back with us, Loth?" What could he have seen that made him attack himself like that?
"AGH. GODS!" Loth yells in a fit of pain. For a while, he takes deep breaths, holding the skin he tore off back against his forearm. "Y-yes, yes, I'm back, but can someone please bandage this?"
His increasingly blasé attitude about these haunts had come back to bite him, and he's fine but QUITE rattled.
Razkiv steps into the hallway, he takes off his backpack and fishes out a sprig from a blueberry bush. He holds them in both hands and focuses on the sunlight and the earthborn nutrients that birthed them and charges them with his own faith.
"They will not cure everything, but one or two of these will perk you up" He offers the berries to anyone who needs one.
After the wonderfuls strawberries restore some of Loth's damage, what room of horrors would you like to venture into next?
Loth takes two good/straw/raspberries and moves into B14!
Zenaida follows close behind the rogue. Most likely this room will be haunted too.
Creaking open the door and moving in, Loth and Zenaida see....
... Examining the room more closely for more clues, Loth moves deftly over the wooden floor. Zenaida's weight, however, is to much for the aged wood and it collapses, sending Zenaida crashing to the floor below and landing heavily in the tub on the first floor. Zenaida takes...
...only 2 damage as the tub from the floor above misses her as it to falls through.
Loth manages to spring clear, grabbing onto the door as the floor falls out beneath him. It is over in a second, but the echoes of iron tubs crashing into each other resounds throughout the house for several more moments. Loth hangs over the open space on the swinging door as Zenaida is able to brush the dust and debries from herself.
Truly the strangest haunt yet.
The rest of the party can hear a flurry of colorful Varisian curses as Zenaida lands in the first floor tub. "I'm fine! Oh gods, it's so nasty in here." Ugh, it's going to take hours to get her armor clean tonight. She hauls herself out of the tub and heads back upstairs, dirty and bruised but largely unharmed.
As usual, Tarphrex is right on Zenaida’s heels as she approaches the door, but he hesitates at the prospect of going in when he saw the big stewpot. That probably saves the little dragon’s life as the trap is sprung and his friend is thrown bodily into a second, HIDDEN stewpot!
He stands in the doorway, quivering in fear from the near-miss, very grateful to hear Zenaida’s mad-speech that she refuses to teach him. Oh, she’s OK, then.
Sherman thanks his aching joints and slow pace of walking that he isn't lying on the floor below right.
"You seem to be alive at least, friend. Can you find your way back here?" he hollers down to the fallen warpriest.
"This one's just cruel. Sorry Zenaida!" Loth mutters, though he can't help but chuckle a little at this slapsticky antic. He then moves into the next room.
Loth swings the door closed enough for him to be able to get his feet back onto actual floor and continues down the hall to the final room on this level. Zenaida's grumbling as she stomps back up the floor, pushing dead rat bits off her armor (that she squished when she fell into the bottom tub) mixes with the creak of wood as Loth opens the door. You (and anyone behind you) sees...
Tarphrex nods decisively, "Ah, looks good! Time to go!" He turns toward where Zenaida comes up behind the rest of the party. "Nothing to see here - Tarphrex thinks we can leave spooky house now."
Zenaida rejoins the rest of the group, looking rather irritated. "Nope, the bad guy is in here somewhere, Tarphrex. Or he should be. We have to at least look in every room." She eyes the portrait. "I wonder..." Could that be a painting of her long-lost cousin?
The warpriest pauses to say a quiet prayer to Falayna, then marches in to flip the portrait around.
Tarphrex starts to object, but he sees that look in her eye and instead meekly says, ”Of course, bad guy. Must find bad guy.”
@Zenaida: It takes both hands to flip the large frame around, but you do so easily.
Zenaida sighs regretfully, closing her eyes for a moment. "As I thought. This is my cousin Iesha, and the nameplate says she is- or was- a Foxglove. Given what we've pieced together about what happened in this house... I'll have to tell the family that she's no longer with us."
Loth turns to Zenaida. "I'm sorry. This is about the worst place possible to find out someone you know has passed. ... For what it's worth, if the haunting feelings inside me are any indication, whatever's still present here grieves her as well."
A moment after Zenaida had flipped the picture, Sherman realizes he had been holding his breath. He was expecting something bad to happen, and is quite relieved that the painting was just a painting.
"Iesha Foxglove..." the priest reads from the painting. "I am sorry about your cousing, Zenaida. But what is her part in this? Why the painting was turned?"
Is this the end of the investigation? Sherman isn't sure if his companions are any wiser, but he feels he didn't learn much from this ordeal.
Is this the end of the investigation? Sherman isn't sure if his companions are any wiser, but he feels he didn't learn much from this ordeal.
There were stairs going down on the previous level. And there are more stairs going up from this level. And any additional role play and searching and reinvestigating you all would like to do while still on this floor.
Eyes wide, the kobold offers, "Tarphrex wants to go up more stairs if Tarphrex cannot leave house yet. Down in dark does not sound good to Tarphrex in haunted house. And Tarphrex likes the dark..."
"Yes, we're checking every room of this godforsaken place. Anything that can tell us about Foxglove's whereabouts. He's done more than enough." If this was the last room on this floor, he's going further up.
"Iesha Foxglove..." the priest reads from the painting. "I am sorry about your cousin, Zenaida. But what is her part in this? Why the painting was turned?"
Zenaida sighs. "Family rumor has it that Iesha fell in love with one of the Foxglove men. Given her age, he was probably Aldern Foxglove. And... one of the first haunts we encountered was a woman who looked like she had been strangled. I haven't seen Iesha in years so I'm not sure if it was her, but the haunt was definitely Varisian and about the right age."
"Yes, we're checking every room of this godforsaken place. Anything that can tell us about Foxglove's whereabouts. He's done more than enough." If this was the last room on this floor, he's going further up.
"Agreed. Onward and upward. It's time this monster answered for his crimes." Zenaida follows the halfling up the stairs, sword in hand.
Alright. After exiting the final room on this level (B15), the door to the next stairwell is right there. Moving upward on creaking floorboards brings the party to the attic of this seemingly abandoned house. The walls here are unfinished, without any of the decorations you've seen elsewhere in the house. The doors are still made of thick wood, but again are not polished and even the doorknobs are more plain. As you all make your way into the first hallway, a faint sobbing moan can be heard from elsewhere in the floor.....
_____
Tarphrex stays close to his armored companion. "Tarphrex hears crying. Is new haunt? Not in same room?"
Loth nods at Tarphrex. "That's a little strange, isn't it? It might not be a ghost at all."
He turns towards the hallway. "Hello? Is anyone there? Do you need help?"
Tarphrex slaps both clawed hands over his mouth in alarm at the halfling’s audacity, eyes even wider than normal.
Loth nods at Tarphrex. "That's a little strange, isn't it? It might not be a ghost at all."
He turns towards the hallway. "Hello? Is anyone there? Do you need help?"
There is no response.
"A person in need, or just another haunting? How can we ever be sure in this place?" Sherman tries to listen if there is anything in the sound that would reveal if the crying is real or not. But who could tell.
"Except by going and taking a look, that is..." he sighs.
A wonderful question that I look forward to hearing the answer for.
"My money's on either another haunt, or Aldern Foxglove having a breakdown." There's a door right next to Zenaida. They should search the whole level anyway, so they might as well start here. She turns and opens the door.
Tarphrex is fixated on the weeping. He actually moves away from Zenaida’s immediate vicinity for once, listening intently. Keeping to the shadows along the hallway (like a subterranean tunnel), he creeps along the hall, listening intently to identify the source of the sound.
Trusting Zenaida and the others to be able to handle whatever might be behind the door, Loth joins Tarphrex in following the sound.
Tarphrex is so intent on listening that when he suddenly realizes that Loth is right beside him, he makes an involuntary, ”Eep!” before he can stop himself.
@Zenaida: Opening the door, you are immediately confronted with...
...These piles of supplies are stacked right up to the door, with very little space to move between them. Clearly, a large project was intended.
@Loth and Tarphrex: You move quietly, avoiding the warped floor boards that would otherwise creak and groan under even your light footsteps. You can peek down a hall that curves back to your left after many doors.
Loth... will peek.
"Huh. Nothing but a bunch of building supplies." Zenaida closes the door. Loth and Tarphrex are doing the sneaky sneaky thing, so she'll wait before moving on.
Loth... will peek.
[dice=Perception]1d20+10
Doing the Scooby-Doo head-over-head look down the hall, Loth and Tarphrex see....
... the wood is dotted with bits of moss and fungus, less on this level than you've seen on previous. The wooden walls are well made, but unadorned, and the doors are similarly solid but plain.
Tarphrex looks questioningly at his halfling friend, pointing down the hallway. Farther?
Loth nods and proceeds ahead, listening intently to try and figure out where the source of the sound is.
The crying stopped before Zenaida opened the first door and has not reappeared. Beyond your own breathing, the only sounds you hear are the creaking of the floor boards and the groaning of the wood as the house settles.
The air feels somewhat drier up here compared to the humidity of the floors below.
Ah, that's right, apologies. Then I suggest we follow ol' reliable:
Loth will move to the end of the hallway, open the door to B24 and look inside.
Tarphrex is close behind his halfling friend, looking anxiously back at the corner where he last saw his best friend, thinking a mantra to himself, Zenaida is close, Tarphrex will be brave, Zenaida is close, Tarphrex will be brave.
Zenaida stays several feet behind the scouts, acutely aware of the noise her armor makes. But she keeps an eagle eye on the pair; she's ready to charge in at the first sign of danger.
Eerily quite now. Like waiting for some screaming horror to appear behind the corner. Sherman follows Loth, and tries his best to walk quietly.
Ah, that's right, apologies. Then I suggest we follow ol' reliable:
Loth will move to the end of the hallway, open the door to B24 and look inside.
Just to be clear, Loth wants to go all the through the attic to the last door and work backwards. Is that correct?
Totally fine, if that's the case. Just want to make sure we're all on the same page.