Ashnak talks around the area and hears some information regarding the house they're looking for. Not only does he get the location, but finds out that the last owners of the house were misguided Pharasmins storing the unquiet dead until they can be buried properly.
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The half-orc give an appreciative shudder and thanks for the stories. He enjoys the food and shares what he learned with the rest of the party. "So there really were undead there, and may still be. It warms my heart that we get to make sure that demolishing the house will be safe for the city. Who knows what else we might find?"
The party makes their way to Mavedarus Manor.
This old home might have once commanded the respect and envy of its neighbors, but the remaining story is cracked and crumbling. Whatever upper stories it might have once had have long collapsed, scattering stone and debris across gardens grown wild and weedy. Two curving staircases lead to a broad veranda bereft of its railings. Two openings that might have once been doors lead into the faint remnants of a solarium, while two more doors lead further into the creaking house itself. A whiff of rot and decay seeps from the structure.
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Roara shudders as she gets a sense of deja vu when looking to the manor. She closes her eyes for a moment as she focuses her thoughts and energies before looking back to the manor with a more logical mind. "Now lets see what I've learned from last time," she murmurs to herself as she approaches the steps, her familiar Bori sitting alert on her shoulder.
Roara looks carefully at the house structure. She realizes it's best not to step in any holes in the floor.
Ashnak heads up the stairs and looks around. He doesn't see anything remarkable, but he can hear what sounds like scratching beneath the floor coming from inside the house.
The scratching sounds fade as if never there and only the breeze answers Ashnak's question.
The door is somewhat swollen from years of weather, but with a little force Ashnak forces it open.
The tiled floor, ornate columns, and sweeping staircases of this once-grant hall evoke a distinctly Taldan aesthetic, though the finery has suffered greatly over the past years. The marble floor tiles are cracked and filthy, and the statuary lining the walls has been smashed. None of the three staircases climbs beyond head level before ending abruptly, debris from their fallen upper reaches scattered across the floor.
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Looking around, she hmms thoughtfully before saying "Well, looks like up is definitely not an option..." pointing towards the stairs heading up.
Hoping that the current floor is a bit sturdier than the one above it, she carefully works her way towards the back of the room, following the left wall. As she moves she continues to scan for anything that might be useful to the search.
Roara cautiously makes her way through the once great hall. It seems that anything of value has long been looted from this room. The stairs are definitely impassible (plus the 2nd floor isn't really there anymore). Anything that couldn't be taken has been vandalized.
Ashnak pushes on the door. It takes a bit of an effort as the doors are swollen shut, but with a good shove, they swing inward.
The tiled floor, ornate columns, and sweeping staircases of this once-grant hall evoke a distinctly Taldan aesthetic, though the finery has suffered greatly over the past years. The marble floor tiles are cracked and filthy, and the statuary lining the walls has been smashed. None of the three staircases climbs beyond head level before ending abruptly, debris from their fallen upper reaches scattered across the floor.
Ashnak opens the double doors to the north. It's next to impossible to tell what this room was at one point. There is little more than debris from a broken room in this room. A single door to the left is swollen shut.
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Roara peeks into the room and sighs with disgust. She carefully walks around the debris, and heads towards the door to the left. She hmms to herself, then starts to examine the door more carefully, looking for any ways to open it as she mumbles to herself, "Everything else is practically crumbling.... why is this so... stuck..." Her curious streak once more gets the better of her, making Bori sigh as he lays across her shoulders.
Roara determines that the door is swollen shut from the wood swelling from years of weather.
Ashnak moves in and bashes the door with his shoulder, and the door swings open.
Everything this room once held now lies jumbled over the floor in a soggy mess: torn pages, scraps of fabric, and splintered remnants of furniture. Doors hang askew in the south and west walls, but the door to the east has been smashed from its hinges.
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Roara chuckles as she carefully steps into the room after Ashnak, "Well that certainly is one way to do it..." She sighs as she looks a the utter mess in this room, not seeing anything salvageable. "So much for this room..."
She looks between the two new doorways, then sets Bori down on the ground at her feet and points to the door to the west. "You check that way, I'm going this way," she says as she quickly turns towards the south door herself. She completely misses the look of indignation her familiar gives her as he lifts and shakes a damp paw before grudgingly moving towards the west doorway and looking inside.
Roara looks around the room and finds a hidden compartment in the wall behind a collapsed bookcase.
In the hidden compartment, Roara finds a potion and Prayer books for quieting the restless dead, along with a list of locations of known undead sightings.
Whereto next. There's a shut door to the south and an opening where a door used to be to the west.
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Roara calls to Ashnak, "Hey big boy, I found some homework for you," as she gestures to her findings before squirreling them away for later use.
She then turns to her familiar who is now sulking by the opening to the west. "You still haven't checked that area out yet? If I can get dirty, so can you..." The feline chatters back something to Roara in a language that is most definitely not meow, to which she replies in an exasperated tone. "Fine! I'll check it out with you, but you are still walking."
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Ashnak smiles and gestures towards the prayer book as the gnome approaches where he and her familiar are peeking through the western doorway. "Would you mind if I take a look at that? I would like to compare it against the prayers to The Dawnflower for putting the dead to rest as well." He tries not to let himself get distracted by the thoughts of other sites that need to be checked and focus on this one first. The thoughts about corporeal undead he can sink his scimitar into are somehow comforting after dealing with the wispy shadows hours earlier.
As Ashnak skims through the prayer books, Roara and her familiar enter the office.
Ivy has overgrown the empty window frame, casting this room into cool shadow. A low shelf, its wood warped and cracked, stands against the south wall, and a desk has been overturned and smashed in the eastern part of the room.
As you enter you hear whispers in the distance. You quickly realize this is a haunt and may attempt a Religion check to suppress the spirits.
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Roara steps into the room cautiously, her eyes narrowing at the destruction that appears far more deliberate than what nature has done. "What happened here..." she says, the last word coming out on a bit of a squeak from her as she suddenly goes stiff, her body on full alert. "That book will need to wait...we are not alone" she murmurs to Ashnak before she focuses her thoughts and energy on those whispers.
You start to hear the sighing of spirits desires to be put to rest and as the spirits start to get louder you focus your energy an recite an incantation that suppresses these spirits.
You refocus your energy to searching the room finding nothing of use among the debris.
You've got a door to the south wall or you can go back out the way you came in to the main room.
Ashnak finishes skimming the prayer guide and joins Roara. He opens the door to the south. "I didn't see anything about the history of this place in the prayer book, have you had any luck? Places are not this creepy without a reason."
Among the prayer books are also a stack of notes about the owners' work.
It'll take a couple hours to go through everything, but taking ten minutes to scan through the information you get the idea that the house was once owned by a Pharasmin couple that was storing the unquiet dead until they can be buried properly. The information is probably enough for you to take back to Gorm Greathammer.
Roara opens the south door.
Only a single, aged worktable still stands in one corner of this room, though the clay fragments of an oven and rusted metal suggest it was once a kitchen. The ceiling has completely fallen in, leaving this room open to the sky above. Doors stand in the North, South, and West walls.
The house is run down and falling apart. There's nothing remarkable in any of the other rooms, though as you cross the main room again the scratching sound becomes louder.
As if coming from under the floorboards, incorporeal rotting hands burst forth and claw at your legs, then disappear as fast as they came leaving a scent of incense as they vanish.
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Ashnak jumps at the sudden clawing and tries to interpose his shield out of reflex.
He thinks for a moment as they have cleared the main floor but have found not further doors or stairs down. He steps outside to clear his head and reflect on what he knows about hauntings like this and how to alleviate them and flips through the books/notes he has for advice.
+ any bonus for the documents.
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Roara follows after Ashnak, her familiar trailing right behind. She yelps as she feels the hands reach up from the floor at the same time Bori leaps up to his Mistress' shoulder with a hiss.
+ any bonuses for having suppressed the earlier spirits.
"Gah!!! We need to find the source, or they will keep coming! she exclaims to Ashnak with a grunt of pain.
After being attacked by another haunt and exiting the clearly haunted mansion, Ashnak looks through the book and between what he's reading and his knowledge of the haunt, he realizes that the way to set the spirits free is to bring the goings on by the previous owners to light. This would free the spirits and allow them to move on.
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Ashnak nods in understanding and sheath his shield and scimitar and addresses the house from the porch with his hly symbol aloft. "Be at peace restless spirits, the Dawnflower has shone on your plight. All shall know of those who have bound you here!"
After a brief respectfull pause he walks down to the yard and stretches with a yawn. "I think I have had enough excitement for one day! What do you say we find an inn and rest our heads? A full meal, some time to record our findings, and a bed sounds like heaven. We can check out the statue and the ship tomorrow."
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Roara quickly heads back out to the front porch and yard, hanging her head at her need for a hasty retreat. The disappointment she feels is palpable as she gazes back at the dilapidated building. "Well.. at least... we got those journals..." she says to Ashnak, that thought giving her a glimmer of hope that this venture wasn't a total loss.
She thinks Ashnak's plan for rest and recovery sounds positively divine. "As much as I hate unfinished business... I think a regroup is most definitely in order. Lead the way big boy!"