Wiping arachnid guts from his falcata, Marius surveys the crumbling fortress with a clinical detachment. "That fellow told us the Baron was behaving strangely, lots of weaving and stranger things. Do you suppose it's still him in there--or something that replaced him and doesn't quite have the hang of acting human?"
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Lisa eagerly takes the scroll from her noble companion and nods enthusiastically. "Thank you Raesilia darling, you always do seem to think of everything..." The courtesan shivers as she survey's the landscape.
"Disgusting... why did it have to be bugs? I hate bugs you know? You'd think growing up in poverty would have me getting used to them but no... they just... they have too many legs you know? And eyes... Why in the name of the all the gods would one need so many eyes? It's just deeply unpleasant is what it is." Lisa scowls as she casts the magics of the scroll.
"As for the Baron... I can say that without a doubt, the only noble I've known to weave is our very own Lady Talbot... I suspect something is off about the man but to say that at this point may be akin to notifying the local lord that water is indeed wet."
The environs of the estate seem deserted, and the party pushes through the main doors into the foyer. A scattering of dead leaves covers most of the floor, although the furniture has held up well - if a little faded and mildewed. Wooden doors stand to the left and right of the entrance, while directly ahead and across the hallway a massive oaken double door has been locked, chained, and barred from this side.
Konstiantina moves warily into the doorway and pauses, her darkvision making it so that she doesn't need to wait for her eyes to adjust to the gloom.
"It's almost immaterial as to what's happened to the man. Anyone who can live here for months on end - if live he does - has crossed the threshold of humanity. Perhaps there's a means to bring him back from the darkness, but..."
""Thank you Raesilia darling, you always do seem to think of everything..."
"Well I *do* pride myself on excellent customer satisfaction," The tailor manages a wink and a smile despite the devastation right in front of the group.
"It's almost immaterial as to what's happened to the man. Anyone who can live here for months on end - if live he does - has crossed the threshold of humanity. Perhaps there's a means to bring him back from the darkness, but..."
"Perhaps, though what would turn him-" Rose begins - then suddenly rushes forward to yank Konstiantina out of the doorway! "Wait! ...Wait," She says, breathing heavily. "Look over there; a trap of sorts. Stand back a bit. And please, someone check for magic. If it isn't, be ready to catch me if this is a trapdoor of sorts and I accidentally set it off. Otherwise I say we mark it and pray no one steps on it later by mistake."
She quickly ties a rope around her waist and hands it to the paladin, then kneels down near the suspicious tile to disable it, should there be no magic around.
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Lotti's eyes glow briefly as she surveys the foyer and hallways for lingering remnants of magical auras - or active ones. "It's an old place," she murmurs softly, her concentration elsewhere. "Almost as old as Taldor itself. Not this building though - you don't build manor houses in border forts like this until the border's nowhere nearby anymore."
It's a little tricky, but in the end Rose manages to find and disable the trigger that would cause the trap to trigger; by the hollow and echoey sounds, it's a pit trap, and a pretty deep one.
Lotti cannot sense any magic in their vicinity, beyond what they themselves are wearing. As to what could cause someone to change so drastically - some cursed creatures can infect others with their curse, usually through bites, or otherwise powerful magic was used to turn the baron into something else.
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"Thanks for that," smiles Konstiantina as Rose draws her back. The paladin waits as her friend disarms the trap, then calmly steps over it once Rose gives the go-ahead.
She drifts forward warily, listening intently as she goes, gaze trailing over the old furniture, the cobwebbed walls, the faded finery.
Without a word she pauses by the double doors and listens intently again before probing through the wood for a sense of evil.
Konstiantina doesn't hear any distinct sounds through the thick doors, nor does she sense the presence of evil, although she does get a feeling of unease and minute noises of the old fortress settling echo a little, suggesting a vast space beyond the barred doors.
After listening at the door and scanning it for traps, Marius gives Konstiantina a nod and pushes the door open.
Through the eastern door are what remains of the servants' quarters, now partially open to the elements through the half-collapsed wall. The trunk of a massive oak is leaning through the opening, its dead leaves covering the floor in a thick carpet. A door to the north has been walled in, while two other doors lead towards the kitchen. A very ripe smell of rotting meat is coming from that direction, and upon investigation the source is revealed to be several large haunches of horsemeat hanging from the rafters, flies crawling over them.
The saddlebags that the unfortunate horse was likely wearing are thrown carelessly in one corner.
"Charming," Marius drawls when he discovers the rotting meat, nose wrinkling in disgust. "Larder, or bait, do you think?" He examines the ground around the haunches for signs of who--or what--might've put them there.
"Bait? For what? The flies, to feed all the spiders?"
"Look at it from the bright side! At least it will make a nice story to share aroumd a campfire; Yet another one that will make the average listener positively jump from their seats and exclaim their own variation of: 'how are you still alive!?'" Rose quips. "Not that I'm complaining, though. And as the old Desnan saying goes: 'if not us, then who?'" Someone has to make the world a better place. It might as well be us."
She kneels down to inspect the glinting object she saw, trying to hook and reel it in with her Rapier.
"Well I *do* pride myself on excellent customer satisfaction,"
"Another thing we have in common, I suppose." Lisa returns her friend's wink as they proceed.
---------
" Someone has to make the world a better place. It might as well be us."
"Each of us in our own way." Lisa nods along surprisingly agreeing with the sentiment.
---------
Lisa turns a distinct shade of green at the reveal of the rotten horse meat and stands noticeably further back than the rest of the group covering her delicate nose with her hand. "Ugh! Disgusting! Let us hope to leave this wretched place at once when our business here has concluded!" She shakes her head in glares in disgust.
"Larder? Bait? Does it really matter? It's disgusting all the same and I can't imagine something would actually be drawn to this rotten filth aside from the flies! Surely this was food of last resort that has been left behind when the residents sought to flee... No can we please move along?" The courtesan whines.
The meat is hanging on hooks and has been cut with blades, so this is most likely larder - although who would eat this ripening provender is another question. The dirty floor has multiple partial boot prints, although it is difficult to say how many, or how old.
Rose picks up a ring from the pile of bones, which flares in Lotti's second sight as magical.
"Saddlebags means this wasn't meant to be a meal," Konstiantina murmurs, eyeing the swarming flesh with distaste. "Which means a rider might be somewhere here about. Unless Iomedae grants they escaped."
The paladin moves around the hanging horse meat, turning her attention to the other exits. "Worse, this means whatever lurks here is cogent enough to cut and hang meat for later, yet monstrous enough to be willing to eat such rotted flesh. A further indictment of our unwitting host."
She moves to examine the walled in door.
The walled in door would take several hours of work with sledgehammers and crowbars to unblock.
“Marius, can you tell if those boot prints you mentioned are from the same foot or many different ones?” Lotti conjures a handful of sparkling bubbles, then hands the now-cleaned ring back to Rose. “This tree is also most peculiar - It must have fallen after the village was abandoned, don’t you think? Old ones like this don’t topple on a whim.”
"I cannot, unfortunately. Partial prints, difficult to tell apart. I would hesitate to guess at their age, or how many boots there were. Knife at my throat, I'd wager one pair." As he answers Marius prods at the saddlebags, then opens them.
The saddlebags are heavy, and when opened it becomes obvious why: rolls of coins neatly wrapped in canvas painted with numbers and letters, seemingly the payroll for a lumber camp in the Verduran forest. In total, 2,300 sp, 320 gp, plus seven bottles of ink, and a new leather logbook.
"Not a bad haul, indeed. I just hope whoever this belonged to managed to get away and suffer a better fate than the horse," Rose says. "Regardless, I guess that's it for this room. Let's keep looking for the baron and whichever monster got a hold of him."
"I suppose the west door it is," Marius agrees, though he doesn't head that way until he's finished thumbing through the logbook to see what--if anything--has been written in it.
The logbook is new, its pages blank and unmarred. Good quality velum, too, made to withstand humidity, dirt, stains. The leather cover is embossed with leaves and vines.
The groups backtracks through the entrance hall towards the western door.
With a satisfied hm Marius stows away the logbook in his pack and follows the others back towards the western doorway.
"Fortune favors the bold, no?" he scans the door for traps, and opens it.
Four people are arrayed behind the door, three men and one woman. The men's hair and beards are long and unkempt, and all their clothes have seen better (and cleaner) days. As Marius opens the door, they adopt menacing stances, and one of them steps forward.
"Get away from here, this is the property of Baron Telus!" He scans everyone quickly from head to toe. "You don't look like looters, what are you, tourists? Begone, this is no place for you."
"I would ask the same of you, good sir. Who are you , and how did you end up here? You look like you've seen much better days, and it can't be easy living amongst all the spiders," Rose counters evenly, sizing these folk and their weapons and armor up in the moment of stalling. "But to answer your question, we're from a nearby settlement, come to check whether something could be done to restore the town to its normal state, so that the refugees and previous townsfolk could return to it. Could you share anything on what happened to the Baron and the town, something that might help us save him as well?"
Lotti mutters something under her breath and makes a gesture that could very easily be mistaken for a common warding against evil spirits and ill fortune. Once her divination is reactivated, she turns her attention to the strangers once more. Wouldn’t be unheard of for folks to stick around when things get worse in a hurry, but still odd enough to make sure nothing tricky is afoot.
Lisa scowls at the men and woman who have stepped forward to challenge them. "Insolent! How dare you?! Do you even know who this is?! Lord Erallan and his ancillary stand before you and you treat you noble guests with such rudeness and blatant aggression?! What would your master say? I'm certain he'd have your heads!" Ms. Lombardi huffs indignantly.
"So much for being a gracious host, this Baron Telus."
Hand resting casually on the pommel of his falcata, Marius merely arches one eyebrow at the four strangers and awaits an answer.
One of the men frowns at the gesture that Lotti is making, and leans in to whisper something to the one who had confronted the group. That one tightens his grip on the sturdy stick he's holding.
"We are the baron's guards. And I tell you again, lord or no lord, you should not be here, for your own good."
The woman mutters behind him. "Aye, and those what left they're traitors, abandoning their lord like that. We don't want them back."
Another of the men chimes up. "Baron needs no savin'. We takin' care o' him. Loyal, we are."
While they seem a little intimidated by Lisa's imperious demeanour, they don't look like they are backing down.
"For our own good? What could that possibly mean?" Marius' eyes narrow as he assesses the assembled 'guards' before him, their leader in particular. "What is your name, Sergeant?"
Konstiantina takes the measure of the four, gauging their holiness in Iomedae's eyes.
Konstiantina does not feel the presence of evil in the room.
The man raises his chin in an old reflex as Marius addresses him by rank. "Kalikki, sir." He seems to catch himself, and frowns. "Baron Telus... is in a special situation, is all. Wouldn't want anyone getting hurt."
Marius can sense that he's dancing around the real situation, but doesn't seem to be bound by anything than a sense of loyalty to his master.
"Look, sir, if you're looking for the people what used to live here, they're in New Towne now. Baronet Vort is leading them, what used to be the Baron's assistant."
He crosses his arm and squares his shoulders.
Konstiantina purses her lips. Sometimes it's just simpler for their foes to be rank evil. Still...
"We have heard alarming reports as to what's happened here, Sergeant Kalikki. Finding the town wrapped in spider webbing and the people turned out only heightens our concern. Can you explain what took place? What has happened to the Baron? I swear on Iomedae that we come seeking only to help. If there is any healing we can provide, or guidance for his betterment, we would gladly give it."
Kalikki works his jaw for a moment, then he turns his head to address one of the others over his shoulder.
"Get Master Mosle."
One of the guards grunts in assent, then opens the door to the north and disappears through it. Several moments later, he returns with an older man dressed like a hunter.
"Good day to you, I'm Frater Mosle. I understand that you want to help? I will tell you one thing from the start, I will not stand for killing him. I doubt you have the means to solve his... particular situation though, so please know that we are doing all we can to keep things contained."
"That's a deeply concerning way to open, Master Mosle. I gather the Baron is suffering under some manner of curse, likely associated with spiders? Please, tell us everything you know--if we can't help here and now, we have resources. There are priests capable of unraveling curses, perhaps their services can be acquired but we need to know as much as possible."
Lisa scowls, "Indeed, has no one in this gods-forsaken town learned proper manners? Lord Erallan is a man of means and we, his entourage, are more capable than we may appear, it would be quite dangerous to underestimate us."
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Konstiantina nods as Master Mosle opens with what is a perversely reassuring line. That they acknowledge most might desire to kill their leader means they are not unaware of the frightful nature of the situation, and shifts the small group of guards immediately into a more relatable and normal category.
Lotti silently continues to focus on her divinations as the taller folks talk. There’s something in here… But what? And where…
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Lotti can feel multiple magical auras in the room, some of them worn by the guards and others elsewhere.
Master Mosle rubs a hand over his face, then gestures at everyone to take a seat. "I grew up with Araig - baron Telus - so it's hard for me to see him like this. He could be arrogant and thoughtless, yes, and it's probably what got him in trouble, but I could see his curiosity, generosity and ingenuity as well." He sighs wearily. "Some time ago, three women knocked on the manor door in the middle of the night when it was storming, asking for shelter. Araig told them to find an inn and closed the door in their faces. They must've been witches, because next thing you know they burst through the doors and declared that the baron should have a form to match his verminous, lowly soul." Master Mosle snorts.
"We thought little of it, but over the coming weeks Araig grew increasingly disturbed. He was hiding in corners, hissed at people, even eating flies and moths. Many servants got unnerved and left. And after a year, his skin began to slough off." He gives everyone a hard look, assessing their reactions.
"He barely looks human anymore. But I know that my friend is still somewhere in there. With his last shred of sanity he begged us to kill him so he wouldn't hurt anyone, but we didn't have the heart. Instead, we've sealed him in the great hall and we bring him meat to feed on. Animal meat, mind you."
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Rose takes one look at the dirty state the room was in and did the mental math. There were ten of them sharing three seats and a wooden couch fit for two. She nods at Frater and unloads Dignity's Barb before promptly producing a folded blanket, which she lays across the couch to sit on, leaving room for one more.
"I am no expert on such things, but it feels like Lord Erallan is correct in assuming this is a curse of sorts," She throws a questioning glance at Lotti. "If so... There is a chance I have a scroll to remove such a curse - I would have to check," She states. "But scrolls are unreliable and failure is potentially dangerous. If the baron has become as bestial as you say, he might not be open to reason. We would have to distract him for someone to get close enough to administer it, probably, and if it fails it might become a 'him or us' situation, which we'd like to avoid."
She leans forward and looks at each remaining servant in turn. "Alternatively, we have resources and agents. Perhaps it is possible to track down these witches and... 'persuade' them to assist in lifting the curse. But we would probably need more to go on. Descriptions, personal effects if any are left, those kinds of things. Can you provide us with such?"
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Lisa sneers with disgust at the prospect of sitting down anywhere in this room... the dust, the debris, the webs... One could only imagine in horror what it would do to her outfit!
Resigning herself to stand, it's only when her dear friend produces a blanket and lays it on the couch that Lisa's ruby red lips soften from a scowl to a smile. "Oh Raesilia darling, you do think of everything!" The courtesan plops herself down on the space beside her friend and gives her a happy little squeeze of a hug before returning her attention to the guards before her with mild disdain.
"Oh, how fascinating, and tell us are we supposed to feel pity for a man with so much generosity as to turn three beleaguered women away in a storm? Turning him to a spider may just serve him right you know, now the outside matches the inside." Lisa growls.
"If it were up to me I'd leave and let nature take its course, which would likely end up with your dear baron spinning you all up in his web and sucking your innards out but, for purely business reasons we are at your disposal should you know of any way to lift the curse... but the Baron will owe us and we shall, at the very least, expect favorable relations between our realms in exchange for this great favor." Lisa negotiates.
"and if it fails it might become a 'him or us' situation, which we'd like to avoid."
Lisa nods along in agreement, "And, for the record, I would definitely choose us."
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They say troubles come in threes - a coven? Hags? Don’t remember any spider hags… Lotti lets part of her mind mull over the steward’s words while the rest scrutinizes the auras not emanating from the people in front of her.
She throws a questioning glance at Lotti…
“Hmm?” The older woman blinks in surprise before returning the look. “My apologies, my lady - I’m just still trying to wrap my head around how someone of such generosity could have turned away someone in need. And how all these terrible spiders came to live in the town if it was just the baron who was cursed.” We’re hearing a story, even if the teller believes it to be fact. What’s his goal?
Rose gives Lisa a brief smile before catching Lotti's implicit warning, and finally focuses on Frater again, studying him carefully. She recalled his mannerisms and potential tells during his speech just now, ones that might have exposed him as a liar. Was he trying to deceive them, and of so, at which part?
In light of this new information on the Baron's conduct, she also tries to recall his reputation and character. Was he liked or disliked by his fellows and folk? Lisa had a point that if true, his behavior did not exactly speak well of him, though everyone had bad days every now and then...
Frater Mosle sighs, nodding at Lotti. "You're right, mistress, he done messed up with that. I didn't say he was always generous, I suppose he was a decent enough man - for a noble - if out of touch. No offense."
Rose gets the impression that there is some rationalization in Master Mosle's words, but he is sincere. And Baron Telus was such minor country nobility that she would be hard pressed to recall details about his reputation, although she does recall several people at the jubilee speculating on his absence and being generally concerned.
"As for clerics and scrolls, don't think that we haven't already tried. But the curse they put on him is mighty powerful. You may be right that finding them and getting them to lift it would be best, but I'm afraid that will be very hard indeed. We've looked for them once Araig starting showing signs of disturbance, but it was as if they had vanished. And only he got to look at them, but then could not remember their faces or clothes."
Lotti detects a moderate conjuration aura as the most powerful object in the room, but cannot discern any more. [ooc]You would need at least line of sight to identify.[ooc]
He thinks for a moment. "If it helps, I can take one of you to see him. Maybe you can figure out a way to help where we could not."
"Master Mosle seems sincere, as far as I can tell," Rose comments to the others as she does a sideways glance.
"That said," She matter-of-factly continues to the perhaps head servant,"I hope you can understand the offer of taking just one of us with you to converse with the bestialised the baron is just too dangerous for us to accept. While I do agree talking to him then seems the most productive and non-violent way forward, there would have to be at least one other with me, with the others either in view of the proceedings us or an adjacent room - in easy hearing distance."
"Does the baron recognize you and your men, Master Mosle? Does he still retain the ability to converse? How much of him remains, and how much would you say had transformed into a monster?"
Lisa shrugs, "Well, we could simply hold the lives of the servants remaining here as collateral in case our representative does not return." The courtesan coyly suggests eyeing each of the servants with predatory eyes.
"It would be so easy really. I mean, have an honest look at the sorry state of them, do you actually suspect they could put up any real fight?"
"Lisa," Marius chides, giving the courtesan a pointed look.
Turning back to Mosle and the guards, scratches his jaw and considers them. "I don't think meeting alone with your Baron would be wise or prudent, Master Mosle, but I can offer you my word that we will not instigate any violence."
He pauses, his eyes flickering to the guards' hands. "Out of an overabundance of curiosity...where did you obtain the horse whose haunches are hanging in the opposite wing? And where is its rider now?"