“Okay… I’m gonna go… over there.”
Vix picks up the wand and goes to the entryway. She leans her back against the wall and slides until she is seated on the ground, breathing irregularly.
She definitely has mixed feelings about the lives she’s taken, but the most prevalent: Better them than me.
Allegra picks up the head of the cultist she beheaded. Glancing over at Vix, she asks, "Anything wrong? Get yourself healed up."
She looks at the head with a disappointed frown, then pulls two coins out of a pouch on her belt. She holds the head in one hand and places the coins over its eyes with her other while reciting a soft incantation. "Asmodeus, may the dead protect me from harm as I enforce order." When she's finished, the skull floats out of her hand as the flesh sloughs off of it. Within seconds, the clean white bone floats around her.
To the question of what’s wrong, Vix replies, “I ain’t a magician.” She holds up the wand for Allegra (or, really, anyone but herself) to take.
Ci Ci looks impressed at Allegra's floating skull. "Thanks for cutting that one down to size. It's hard to call on my powers when anyone's close enough to stab me. With two of them, I thought I was in real trouble."
She looks over to Ci Ci and moves in her direction. "You look like the Nine Hells, Vix," she says sympathitically.
Saiya grabs the wand and heads over to the Vixen. "I got you, don't worry."
She looks at Vix critically after she finishes. "Better. Still all bloody though, so let me get you cleaned up." A few casts of Prestidigitation later, and Vix no longer looks like death warmed over.
"Sorry about that, everyone. I should have anticipated an ambush. Anyone else hurt and in need of healing?"
"I've got some all-over frostbite from that last bit of magic he threw at us, but it's nothing serious," Ci Ci says. "Nothing a good night's rest and a hot meal won't take care of, anyway."
Vix feels much better as she is being healed. Once able to breathe normally, she says, “Pained me to dragon kick her like that.”
The way Vix speaks of her attack, it seems that, in her head, a ‘dragon kick’ is her special move: a technique whose power is immense beyond reality. Of course it would go through a zombie torso or mortal brain.
“But she nearly killed me in two shots. I couldn’t risk holding back.”
The remorse is heavy in her voice. Why she feels this for an assassin who was clearly targeting her, Vix does not say. She showed the same remorse when the baroness died, and that feeling has either grown stronger… or it could be that Vix’s voice is still weak, as her freshly-healed lung was punctured mere seconds ago.
After being cleaned up, Vix rises and seems to snap out of her funk.
“Don’t beat yerself up, Saiya. We all know the enemy’s prepared for war. So how should we come at them, knowing an ambush awaits?”
On the assassin you also find a key.
Ci Ci claims a healing potion and a vanishing potion. "I can use this. I'll be happy to hang onto it and use it for situations when we want to be unseen."
Allegra keeps an eye on the buildings but responds nonetheless. "We were all ambushed, overconfident. We fought well though. Ms. Vixen, that was an impressive kick. But it was risky."
"I could use a healing charge before we move on, but I think it's still wise to clear the outbuildings first. Keep our avenues of escape open and remove support elements before taking the main buildings."
Vix doesn’t say much of her ‘impressive’ kick, other than, “It was personal… I think.”
“I’ll mull that o’er at three A.M. For now…” Pointing to the small building on the left, she asks, “Run to the front door?
“Or…” Vix points to the hedges south of the building. “Do we go around and come through the bush?”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ci Ci pulls out of the wands. ”If you’re worried about arrows and bolts flying at us, this should help.” She taps herself and then each member of the party in turn.
“Straight to the door then?”
She’s ready to bolt to the next building, but expects Saiya or Allegra to take the lead.
Allegra nods her thanks to Ci Ci, grimaces at the hedgerows, and takes a step towards the outbuilding along the red path, motioning Saiya forward.
Vix asks, “We gonna rush in there loud and proud, or go in stealth mode?”
Saiya turns towards the dead cultists, chewing briefly on her lower lip. "They already know we're here, but I still prefer being stealthy...maybe we could try both? Let me scout ahead a bit, maybe 20 or 30 feet, while you all follow behind me. That way I might be able to spot an ambush before it happens, but if I get in trouble you all are close by to back me up."
Ci Ci pulls out the wand of ”Invisibility. ”I guess I could have used this one on us all, too,” she says. ”I’m not practiced in the art of sneaking, so I’m thinking of using it on myself. Are you all interested, too?”
This one-story wooden building is outfitted with an outhouse and an external awning to shelter firewood. A wooden bathtub and a fireplace are inside the service building. A small shelf holds bars of soap, towels, brushes, and pieces of pumice stone.
Vix replies to CiCi, “Might not be a bad idea to enter a building brazenly—like, let ’em know exactly where we are—then we all go invisible and head to the main building.”
Grinning contemplatively at the bathing supplies, she asks, “Ye think I should drop the soap as part o’ me next attack?”
Once everyone is inside the bathhouse, Ci Ci asks, "So, shall I use the wand...turn us invisible, and we'll saunter over to the main house and see what's what?"
With regard to Vixen's joke about dropping the soap. "Just to let them know what's going to happen to them next?" She gives a small, coughing chuckle.
"We'll have to remember this spot for later. I could use a hot bath."
At the offer of the invisibility, Allegra shrugs. "I think they'll be able to hear me coming no matter what, but that would at least keep them guessing about where. Go ahead."
Ci Ci taps each of the party members, including herself, with the wand of invisibility.
Vix says, “I was thinking more like to make the floor slippery, but that could backfire.”
As CiCi makes everyone invisible, Vix says, “Suggest main building, center door, Saiya checks for traps. If ye need the door kicked, Allegra smashes the left side and I smash the right on the count o’ three. Saiya, if ye can open the door without us muscling through, just don’t count three.”
"The spell won't last more than a couple minutes, so let's go. I'll be in front checking for traps. Wait for the all clear before you go in." Saiya nods at the Vixen, (not that she can see it), and heads to the center door of the main building.
Vix gives the air where Saiya’s voice came from a thumbs-up, then silently chides herself, Idiot! Ye’re the only one o’ the bunch who ain’t figured out magic, so don’t embarrass yerself making invisible hand gestures. Not that they can see ye, but what if yer thumb went up a nostril. Ye can’t pick friends’ noses…
This long hall, clad with fine wood paneling, looks like an oversized curio cabinet, with hundreds of items and art objects on display on small tables, in vitrines, and on benches. Dozens of paintings and tapestries of various sizes hang from the walls and muffle the echoes that would normally be present in this marble-floored chamber. Two doors go deeper into the manor. Notable examples of the art:
Portraits in various artistic styles of the counts, their wives, and a few relatives and domestics wearing all kinds of expressions and outfits line the walls. A portrait in a free standing picture frame on a small tea table with a single chair features Lowls as a child (“Haserton at age 5, 4681 AR,” is written on the back of the frame) posing near a kitten at the foot of a luminous window, seemingly terrified. After examining the painting Maura suspects that the painter intentionally created a frightening situation for the child and then expended great efforts to seize his wide-eyed expression.
Marble busts of scholars from the Sincomakti School of Sciences, including three effigies of academically renowned ancestors of Lowls sit on small plinths. The sculptures with the Lowls name on their bases have been smashed against the floor and damaged.
Small-town perspectives of Thrushmoor and a half-dozen large paintings of the surrounding landscape hang here. The large pictures include a historic piece, in which the first settlers of Thrushmoor are shown living in two clusters of huts on low hills, hard at work to reclaim the surrounding land from the swamps. The Star Stelae have been depicted almost as an afterthought.
Statuettes of dragons, giants, and strange beasts litter the shelves. Among these is a poorly executed, 1-foot-tall, clay figurine of an elephant-legged, multi-mawed, tentacled aberration. Saiya somehow knows the creature depicted is called a dark young.
Set on an ebony pedestal is a human skull that has been marked with elaborate carvings of geometric shapes and lines. Small, worked garnets are set in the teeth, and a thin line of silver rings the eye sockets.
Porcelain and ceramic dishes, jugs, teapots, and vases, some of which are of excellent quality, are kept in a glass showcase. A small ceramic vial contains a silvery metallic dust.
Worthless, bizarre, and sometimes grotesque souvenirs from across Ustalav and beyond: coffee cups made from uncapped monkey skulls; a stuffed three-eyed bat; multicolor dyed freshwater sponges; a mummified ogre’s ear; and more.
A battered shield hangs on a wall, bearing the device of Mendev. According to a plaque fixed under it, the shield belonged to Fassimar Lowls, a cadet who died just beyond the northern border of Ustalav during the Second Mendevian Crusade. The shield is a heavy steel shield.
Vix wonders if any of the images ring a bell.
Maybe I met some o’ the family in-person?
Ci Ci finds herself automatically assessing each art object in terms of sale value.
Something from my forgotten life? How do I know this stuff?
Allegra will scan the hallway for magic.
Saiya scans the room for a moment, frowning at how empty the place is. Where is Melissen? Had she fled?
Under her breath, barely more than a whisper, she says, "Right door first." Then she heads over to it, checking for traps as she goes.
Vix wonders if any of the images ring a bell.
Maybe I met some o’ the family in-person?
[dice=K.Local]d20+10
Vix remembers nothing other than detached facts with no context.
[dice=Appraise]1d20+9
Ci Ci finds herself automatically assessing each art object in terms of sale value.
Something from my forgotten life? How do I know this stuff?
Ci Ci thinks that the items could be valuable but it would take some time and research to catalog the collection. Then the matter of finding a buyer, the people in Thrushmoor are likely reluctant to buy items stolen from the Count.
Allegra will scan the hallway for magic.
Allegra finds the metallic dust is in fact dust of appearance.
Vix nods at Saiya’s words—She can’t see that, nitwit!—then follows her. Not sure where exactly to go, Vix moves to the far corner of the hall, positioned to charge if need be. Not like there’s a need to rush if the door opens, but we ain’t visible.
Still, Vix is ready for an enemy.
Allegra slips the vial into a pouch where it disappears.
Then she'll join the others near the door.
"Pardo- Oof, sorry about your toe."
Ci Ci disengages from her appraisals, and stands behind the others waiting to lead the way inside, ready to cast her power at any hostile threats.
This room is furnished with a big table, eight chairs, and a glass-paned cupboard. The room smells of smoke from the fireplace, and a few dirty dishes, an emptied wine bottle, and used cutlery testify to a recent meal consumed at the table. A flight of stairs in the northern corner of the room leads up. You find in a drawer near the bottom of the cupboard is a ledger with several handwritten delivery receipts tucked into it, listing a number of alchemical products sent by someone named Miacknian Mun from Cassomir. After Saiya scans the list she comes to the conclusion that they could be used to induce a deep unrestful sleep, potent enough to affect elves and other beings that normally don’t sleep.
"Interesting." Saiya rifles through the receipts. "Seems like Lowls was interested in making people fall asleep whether they liked it or no. Or maybe Melisenn, but these seem to have occurred over a long period of time." With nothing else in the room, she gestures to the stairs. "Upstairs first?"
Vix whispers “yes,” and follows Saiya upstairs… or follows her instruction to do so, if Saiya can’t yet be seen.
This room features a large fireplace and a round table with stuffed, high-backed chairs around it. The walls are decorated with patterned wallpaper and small paintings of the surrounding landscape. Against the walls are three large mahogany sideboards with brass candleholders. When you enter the shutters on the windows are closed, the room is lit by candles and a shifting, soft light emanating from the surface of the table. You hear a constant tittering from an unclear source within the room.
Ci Ci draws upon her powers and extends her senses, searching for any evidence of enchantments or residual magic in the room.
Allegra will investigate the sideboards.
Judging from the anxious looks on everyone's faces, Saiya is not the only one hearing the weird tittering sounds. While that's a good thing, in that she's not hallucinating, it's also not comforting.
She approaches the table warily. Anything that sheds light of its own accord must be magical. It's just a question of whether or not the magic is benign.
Vix stays close by the table, ready to assist Saiya, or anyone else checking on the weird noise.
Ci Ci detects magic in the room! Allegra gets a chill down her spine as she senses imminent danger, but she has no idea where it's coming from.
Feeling the chilling presence but without a clear target, Allegra quietly says "Contact," to notify her companions and waits for the presence to reveal itself.
A loud screeching noise fills the room as something unseen scrapes across the top of Allegra’s helmet violently. Allegra almost misses the woosh of air as something else barely misses her head entirely. The attack came from the ceiling above Allegra.
Allegra says, "They're above me!" and puts down her axe, then then she pops into view mid-grab as she tries to get a hold on whatever was above her, attacking.
"Flash, Ahhh!" Ci Ci invokes, casting her hand at the air above Allegra's head.
Saiya is distracted from her examination of the table by the sound of an invisible thing attacking Allegra. She's running out of her best spells quicker than she'd like, but hey, this is exactly the sort of situation the spell was designed for.
"Sorry if this hits you," she apologizes in advance as she focuses on the space directly above Allegra's head. Once the spell is cast, she takes a step forward and draws her sword.