"We're all going in together." Morgana says firmly. "There's no reason to split up and we're much stronger as a group."
As they approach the foreboding house, Vasia's first instinct is to call her bunica back within her for comfort and security, but after glancing over and seeing Melody clinging to the phantom she steels herself to handle this alone. She shifts closer to Morgana and slips her own hand into the paladin's.
Ok, well maybe not entirely alone.
When they move closer to the front door, she pulls slightly on Morgana's hand to hold her back a moment. Vasia closes her eyes and lets her senses feel the house in front of her.
"Nothing to fear, My Lovely," Jenica whispers to the halfling, giving her small hand a squeeze. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. After all, I'm the scariest b+@#% this house has ever seen." She gives Melody a wink.
Sensing Vasia doing something, Morgana takes a moment and lets her gaze shift slightly as well.
"It is a foreboding edifice, to be sure," Amethyst says. She reaches out to take Sabriyya's hand in one of hers while grasping Melody's with the other. "Do not fear, ladies. We will prevail against whatever evils lurk within."
The Foxglove family lived here as recently as 2 decades ago before a fire burned down the servants building and the parents Cyralie and Travers Foxglove were found dead. Their children were sent to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.
Aldern recently returned to live at the manor but had a very hard time hiring locals to aid in the reconstruction of the building.
Foxglove Manor was originally built by Vorel Foxglove and his family lived their for 20 years before the entire family perished suddenly from disease. It was 40 years before Travers Foxglove returned to the house.
Detect undead/evil - the whole house has an odd aura that shows with your casting but not the usual aura that appears with this spell/ability
Inserting the key to the lock, Morgana hears a click and is able to open the door with a little shove. Clearly it has not been used for some time.
Inside, the sound of the house straining and creaking gives the long high-ceilinged entrance hall an additional sense of age and decay. The place smells damp, the unpleasant tinge of mould lacing the air as surely as it stains the wooden floor, walls and furniture. Moudlering trophies hang on the wall to the northeast; a boar, a bear, a firepelt cougar and a stag, yet the pale in comparison to the monster on display in the centre of the room. Here crouches a twelve foot long creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail fitted with dozens of razor barbs, huge batlike wings and a deformed humanoid face.
Both Sabriyya and Vasia briefly hear sobs coming from somewhere upstairs.
Looking behind the Manticore in the hallway, lies a ratty throw rug which partially obscures a foul stain of dark coloured mould on the floor.
"We need to be careful." Morgana says, with a kind of awe in her voice. "The whole building is infused with evil somehow. No wonder the Foxgloves didn't want to live here."
"I think the evil came afterwards, but it's not just evil," Vasia says in a soft voice. She looks towards teh stairs. "There's a ... a presence here." Her chest rises and falls as she slowly moves towards the stairs. "Upstairs. Someone's crying."
As you traverse this flight of stairs, listening for the sounds of the upset resident, you hear a set of footsteps a few seconds behind your own. Turning round, nobody spots anyone following behind.
You enter a hallway at the top of the stairs with many doors exiting from it. Vasia hears another single sob from the first door on the right. The door is stiff, but Morgana manages to open it with a little encouragement.
This bedroom features a child-sized bed, a chair next to a toy box, and a looming stone fireplace big enough for a child to get lost in but no obvious upset child.
As Vasia enters, she is overcome with a sudden sense of desperation to save herself. Vasia suddenly becomes convinced that her parents are trying to kill each other, and that whichever of them survives will be coming to kill her next; she has a vision of her mother, wielding a torch, and her father, festering with tumours and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other.
Vasia stiffens as the feelings pass through her, but she retains her sense of self and the fear fades.
"A child's fear," she says, slightly breathless. "But not a childish fear. Something horrible happened." She takes a moment to look closer at the contents of the room.
"they let a child grow up here?" Melody wonders aloud. "they must have been be insane"
"It wasn't always like ... this," Vasia replies to Melody's musings as she looks around the room. "This is a product of long neglect and the energy of ... awful things."
"I fear we will be facing a lot of this." Morgana says grimly. "We need to be methodical and not get distracted by strange sounds or other tricks. Let's work our way down this corridor first - no matter what noises we hear."
Vasia frowns, but nods at Morgana's words. "I'm not looking forward to the master suite," she says. "Something awful happened between the child's parents and that's probably where it took place. I think the emotions will be the strongest there."
"Stay strong." Morgana replies, stepping in to wrap an arm around Vasia. "We're all here for you."
Melody tugs at Jenica's hand, "I think she needs you more right now" she whispers giving a soft 'I'll be okay' smile. "We can't ignore the sobbing though, right? Just in case it really is someone."
Jenica kneels down and presses her cool lips to the halflings. "I'm going to have a special reward for you when this is all over, my Lovely," she whispers against those same lips as she shifts to an incorporeal form and moves near Vasia, hovering just above the floor.
"I think the sobbing was coming from here, but I could be wrong," Vasia says. "In any case, we need to keep searching."
Sabriyya rolls her eyes at Jenica, sighing and complaining loudly "Really? Sobbing children. Haunted mansion. Mass murderer. Perfect setting for kissing and rewards. PLEASE!"
Jenica turns her misty gaze on the shaman and grins, running the tip of her tongue over her lips. "Jealous?" she questions with a smirk.
Vasia turns a glare on the phantom who rolls her eyes and looks away.
Melody turns bright red and studies her feet for the moment.
The next set of double doors reveal a large room featuring two padded chairs and a long couch facing a wide alcove lined with stained-glass windows. These windows depict a diverse array of animals and plants - from north to south are a large pale and ghostly scorpion, a gaunt nab holding out his arms as a dozen bats hang from him, a moth with a strange skull-like pattern on its wings, a tangle of dull green plants with bell-shaped flowers, and a young maiden sitting astride a well in a forest while a spindly spider the size of a dog descends along a string of webbing above her.
If you get DC 30
Since there is nothing else in the room you move on to the next door. This bedroom is caked in thick, spongy mold in shades of dark green, blue and black.
Amethyst suddenly feels an itching sensation, as though something is growing on her skin. Suddenly the skin splits and she can feel tumors and buboes erupting on her face!
"Necromancy," Vasia says to herself as she sees the windows. "Someone is involved in necromancy. Those are all ingredients in that type of magic."
When the effect hits Amethyst, Vasia closes her eyes and sends all her warm thoughts towards the woman.
Amethyst grits her teeth as she fights off the haunt. She pulls out a small mirror and checks her reflection. ”No tumors. Flawless, as always. Let’s continue.”
As the door to the next room is opened, Morgana goes to take a step in to investigate the iron tub sitting in the middle of the room, but Melody notices the rotting floorboards sagging under the weight of the tub and stops the paladin just in time, saving her from most likely collapsing through the floor.
The next room on this floor, was clearly once a fine chamber with elaborate furnishings and expensive wallpaper, but is now completely destroyed. The bed is smashed, mattress torn apart, walls gourged as if by knives, chairs hacked apart, and paintings on the walls torn to pieces - with one exception.
A portrait hanging on the Northwest wall seems to be untouched, although it hangs backwards, its unseen subject facing the wall.
Sabriyya hears the sound of a softly spoken woman's voice echoing through the bed-chamber. "What do you get up to down in the damp below?"
Sabriyya can feel the effect of a haunt about to overtake her shouts out to her friends, knowing she does not have the power to stop it.
"A haunt, disrupt it now!"
Sabriyya feels deep anger welling up inside of her and becomes light-headed, the room spinning around her, as she sways on the spot. A hatred of all the women she has ever known eats up her insides, but as soon as it comes on, the feeling dissipates again and she grabs hold of Amethyst's shoulder for support.
"That was one sick haunt." She says shakily before gesturing at the painting, "I bet that is of one of the women of the house's past. I have a feeling she was dearly hated."
"Something has gone terribly wrong here." Morgana says with a heavy sigh. "We should press on, find the source of whatever it is before it tries to turn us against each other again."
The next small cupboard like door leads to some stairs upwards towards the attic.
Before heading up towards the attic, you check the final room on this upper floor which reveals a chamber filled with a stone fireplace. Paintings hang on the walls to the north and south each covered with a thick sheet of dusty cobwebs that obscures its subjects from view.
Wiping away some of the dusty cobwebs over the paintings reveals portraits of the previous tenants of the manor. The three to the North depict Vorel and Kasanda Foxglove with their daughter Lucy, all name plates etched in copper. Vorel is a tall, middle aged man with long dark hair, a clean shaven face and dark blue noble's clothing while Kasanda is a stern-faced brunetter woman with wisps of gray in her short hair and a flowing blue dress.
The five portraits to the south show Traver and Cyralie Foxglove, their son Aldern and their two daughters Sendeli and Zeeva. Traver, like Vorel, is tall and thin, but with an even narrower face and a thin mustache. Cyralie is a young woman with long red hair and an impish smile. Each painting bears a plaque that identifies those pictured within.
Morgana looks sadly at the portraits, running a hand over them to clear the faces and the plaques. "Such happy families. I fear it was this place that ruined it for all of them."
She gives the room a cursory inspection, but since there is seemingly neither anything else of interest or any danger she soon moves on. "Upstairs? We need to find the source of that voice, if it was a real person..." The doubt is clear in her voice.
As Morgana finishes clearing off the dust from the last plaque, the room's temperature drops suddenly, and you know yet another haunting vision or intense emotion will be sprung upon you at any moment.
"Another haunt!" Morgana cries, her hands glowing with power. "Be careful!"
"How!?" Melody squeaks about not knowing in the least about HOW to be careful against spirits she can neither see or hear or know what they want, or anything. Her eyes dart about clutching her magic sword for protection.
For inspiration, she'll start "Um... bunbun was afraid of ghosts, she tried not to be but something about terrible meanies wearing sheets and jumping out from behind doors all the time to make her pee herself, kind of made it settle into her stomach even after she became a hero... um... but her friends would hold her hands, and wrap their arms around her in those times when it was the worst, and whisper 'It is alright, we are here, and we'll always be'"
Not being able to do much about the haunt, Amethyst grabs Sabriyya by the shoulder to drag her out of the room before it can manifest!
Jenica hovers half-way between Vasia and Melody, unable to affect the manifestation in any way.
Sabriyya too throws out a blast of positive energy, and between her and Morgana the haunt is dispersed before it can truly manifest, leaving only a sense of terrible sadness behind.
Moving on you pass through the double doors on the far side of the gallery and enter a large bedroom. In this room the furniture is dusty and unkempt, but remarkably undamaged compared to the rest of the house. The only patch of damp or mould is on the desk next to the window.
As you make a search of the room Melody notices an ornate dagger on the table that she seems to have missed on the first pass. Suddenly she realises that she's finally escaped from the magic possessing her and the only way she can stay free is...
"Oh, that is pretty... but I don't want to touch it, or anything at all." Melody says out loud for no reason.
"Why would you want to ...?" Vasia begins to question, but then her eyes narrow. "Another manifestation."
"What did you see?" she asks the halfling.
"felt, that dagger. I wanted to use it so I can... stay free." she gulped. "From some kind of magic holding me."
The 'dagger' is revealed to be nothing more than a long and sharp splinter of wood, although it looks as though it probably would have caused significant damage if Melody had fallen for the haunt's effect
Vasia's spell reveals a rapidly fading aura as though the splinter's significance, now that Melody has refused to wield it, has been lost. She feels certain, however, that there is so form of greater entity at work.
Leaving the bedroom behind you head upstairs, up a narrow creaking set of stairs and into what is obviously a disused attic. The first door opens into a workroom, filled with planks, rope and other repair supplies. The ceiling above sags noticeably in several places and there are some patches of the darkening sky showing. This room was clearly partially repaired but something seems to have halted the work.
Working on the same method that you used on the previous floor you work around the outside of the corridor. This reveals a pair of storerooms, stacked with old furniture, sheets and linens, boxes, crates and other bits and pieces. These rooms have clearly become the receptacles for all sorts of rubbish that's just been shoved behind an easily closed door.
The final door in the corner hangs open to reveal a small bedroom but you've barely had time to make more than a cursory inspection when a sudden and unmistakeable shriek of pain sounds from further down the corridor.
"There's someone or something behind this," Vasia says, dropping the piece of wood onto the bed after examining it. "We need to find the source. I'm worried that Aldern might have come under the sway of whatever intelligence is behind this."
~~~~~~
Vasia's head turns with a start at the cry of pain and she follows Morgana as the woman seeks out the source with Jenica hovering nearby.
Morgana strides down the hall to the door from which the noise came.
"We're here to help!" She calls, trying to door. "Don't worry, we just want to help you get out of here."
The door to the room is locked but the unmistakable sound of a sobbing woman can be heard beyond it.
After a short while, Melody manages to pick the lock and the door opens revealing a cold and damp room. An old armoire stands near the east wall under a ceiling that slopes down to only four feet high leaving little room for a small window. A full-size mirror in a dark wooden frame of coiling roses leans against these bricks, angled towards the tiny window.
In the centre of the room is hunched a weeping figure covered in a ripped sheet. This is clearly the woman weeping but even as she cries, she keeps one arm raised between herself and the mirror as if warding herself from her reflection.
"Don't worry. We're here to help." Morgana says, stepping into the room. Then as her senses focus on the woman and she stops abruptly, her longsword rising between herself and the figure.
"What are you?" She asks, feeling the taint of evil on the woman.
The woman's gaze doesn't move, but she let's out a baleful shriek and cries out, "Aldern! I can smell your fear! You'll be in my arms soon!"
Just as she shrieks, and becomes distracted, she falls quiet again, occasional sobs leaving her lips as her attentions return to the mirror, as if repulsed by what she sees, all consumed by the hatred and loathing.
"Aldern?" Morgana asks, her voice hardening. "Is he here? Did he do this to you?" She circles the woman until she is next to the mirror, but is careful to not stand between the creature and the polished metal.
"Tell me what happened." She commands, "And then we can help you."
Although help may simply be a final death.
"Yes! Him! He did this - I should find him ....I know...." Again, her gaze returns to the mirror, transfixed as she begins wailing at her image.
Melody tugs at Vasia's dress "the dust, look at it." the only footprints are Morgana's and the disturbed bit around the woman. "she's barely left that spot for weeks."
Morgana looks up at the rest of the women clustered in the doorway.
"Get out of the way." She says grimly. "If she can lead us to Aldern then maybe we can finish this quickly!"
Once her companions have cleared the way she takes a deep breath and twists the mirror around in one compulsive movement.
Vasia doesn't notice the lack of tracks in the dust until Melody points it out, but she has an idea of what the woman is beyond just undead.
"What? Aldern? No, he couldn't have ... he wouldn't have ..." she protests at the woman's accusation. She seems more intent on defending the man she knows rather than stepping out of the way.
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Melody is good at getting out of the way and scurries like a mouse. Unfortunately, this kicks up a lot of that dust and causes her to sneeze rather explosively. Luckily Vasia's skirt is in front of her and catches most of the discharge.
"Let us see where the lady takes us," Amethyst says, ready to be done with this haunted house!