Val taps the side of her rapier against her shoulder as she follows Seamus and Izo. She turns up her nose at the sign of the blood and hair clot that he points out. ”You would think I would be used to blood and violence by now, but there is just something so cruel here. Base.”
"Wait!" Izomandakus halts, leaving the next door to investigate the findings "Has someone hit Aldern? Or perhaps he fainted and fell hitting himself, but where is he now...?"
The boy looks around and spots Pachemu smelling the scarf, he goes there and picks it "A scarf..." and then picks up the book and flips it trying to read what it is about "He was here reading when something happened and he opened a wound or something. Can you follow the blood Pachemu?" he gives the pig the opportunity to smell the blood and follow its trace.
Kast continues to lean against the door, hoping that the party’s investigations of the last few rooms don’t turn up anything dead…or undead.
”I’ll guard here. Let me know if you need me.”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As Izomandakus approaches the scarf, it flies up, seemingly on its own, and wraps around his neck!
Izomandakus, please make a will DC 16 save to avoid being paralyzed with fear. All of you see the ghostly image of Aldern Foxglove appear holding the scarf and trying to choke Izomandakus to death! Iesha’s ghostly visage surrounds Izomandakus as if it were she who is being strangled - though Izomandakus is the one out of breath!
You also see a ghostly figure of a tradesman, perhaps a carpenter, lying by the fireplace, his head half caved in. He’s not dead yet, but he is gurgling in a most unhealthy manner. Well, for a living creature. For a ghost he’s just fine.
Unprepared for the wool attack, Izomandakus starts to choke as the thing coils around him. Unable to say anything, he just tries to pull the scarf out of his neck by dropping his staff and holding the dangerous piece of cloth with both hands.
"Oiiiiiiiink!" Pachemu starts to shout and make a fuzz jumping around trying to call the attention of humanoids able to help.
Kast is about to agree with Seamus, but then realizes that he also shouldn’t be touching stuff either.
”You okay, Izo? Need help?” Kast readies the Iron Quill, but doesn’t leave his post just yet.
”More dancing ghosts? Zombies in jorts? What’s next?”
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Val starts, preparing to jump into action, but Izo’s strength makes the sudden attack also a short one.
She sits down, needing to take a breather from yet another display of spousal strangulation. She places her hand on her chest, her heart already pumping fast. She tries to slow her breathing back down to normal levels. How many times would she have to see some variation on this scene? Either in this house or trapped in her head. Gods, is that what she would have been if she had not gotten away? Died a disappeared wife, a tragic story that few if any would ever know. No wonder Iesha is angry. She is suddenly crying. Thankfully not an ugly cry. She got so good at restraining that impulse—a Lady must never be ugly in public—that she has difficulty actually letting herself sob even when she wants to. ”I hope you are alright now, Izo. I shall be shortly.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, even as she tried to hold onto the easy ironic distance she builds around her.
Izomandakus fends off the scarf as best he can, and succeeds - eventually holding it up, limp as scarves ought to be. Before he’s done wrestling the image of Aldern for it however, it does and leaves large purple bruises on Izomandakus’ neck.
The scarf, once it has settled, turns out to be a Scarf of Glorious Histories (link). Iesha was well known to be an impressive dancer and this enhanced her innate skills.
You move to the next chamber, opening the western door to see what lies beyond. This cozy-looking drawing room is marred by an unnatural dampness and the thick sheets of mold that cling to the curtains closed over the southern window blocking all light but that which you bring with you. The room otherwise appears deserted.
Izomandakus pulls out the scarf with some effort "Zombie scarves are next..." the boy surrounds Pachemu's neck with the now lifeless cloth "Is it just me or you look more intimidating with that on?"
"Those images we saw... it seems Aldern, or his father, strangled Iesha..." the boy looks back at Kast "Can Sandpoint's guard work in office to resolve this crime? I am unsure ghosts will decide to go and denounce Aldern in front of the authorities..." and soothing the hematoma around his neck he adds "If this is true, we need to find Iesha's corpse. It is going to be key on accusing Aldern"
Entering the next room, Izomandakus just comments "This place is so dark, no surprise the mold is sprawling around"
Kast shrugs, uncertain. ”We’ll have to ask the Sheriff that,” he responds. ”It’s not really something I know enough about. Investigations are somewhat new to me, you know? And not sure how much scarf bavardage and dream testimony is counted. I really have no idea.”
Kast will hamberder up Izo, and then ready to head downstairs.
”You almost ready to head downstairs?”
"Thanks Kast, it feels better now" Izomandakus nods "Let's explore those stairs down the manor. Expect even more mold there without light"
Having healed up and checked the stairs, the party begins to descend into the damp, and dark, basement. From this point on, your only light sources are the ones you bring with you.
A large oaken table, its surface covered with moldy stains and rat droppings, sits in the center of this large kitchen. Shelves line the walls, and an oversized fireplace dominates the northeast portion of the room. The shelves in the southwest wall are in a much greater state of disarray, and two one foot wide cracks in the wall near the floor lead south into the earth beyond the basement walls.
The rats have, temporarily at least, fled from your light sources, though you can hear them scurrying in the walls.
When others are ready, Kast will renew the Light on the tip of the Iron Quill. He will move down the stairs to the basement to see what’s what.
”The only question is really if the basement will be worse or much much worse than the rest of the house. Then if the attic will be worse than that,” Kast says, trying to stay perfectly brave in the face of undead manifestations.
”I didn’t think signing up for the watch would lead me to places like this. Not at all.”
"The girls at the Golemworks liked to tell stories about haunted places like this one" explains Izomandakus while moving behind Kast "Usually attic is reserved to the most scary thing. Basements are reserved to the gruesome..."
Pachemu sniffs forward and oinks "Yeah, I know pig, I also dislike those rat screeches"
Izomandakus casts detect magic and scans the place for auras.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Val glances about as they reach the basement, having her own lights dance and spread out. She looks over at the disordered shelves to see if anything interesting remains before moving on to the table.
She takes in the shawl on Pachemu. It really does make the pig have oddly more presence. Val has a kapenia of her own back in Magnimar, probably confiscated along with the rest of her clothes and rotting in a warehouse. She never cared much for it before, as it was heavy and full of history, and there is no history more dull and worthless than that a noble family tells of itself.
As she muses, she uses her mage hand cantrips to shuffle debris out of the way here and there. She thinks for a moment as Kast mentions his expectations, and then she laughs. ”Did you not wish to go to Lastwall, Kast? Fight the Tyrant? If a failed would-be lich, a violent family history, and a ghoul or two can leave a place full of angry spirits, what horrors do you think the Tyrant has left in his wake? You will probably have to deal with more than your share of Foxglove Manors.”
As the party begins moving through the room investigating, two diseased rat swarms, well, swarm into the room from every crevice and crack, though most pour in from the west and southwest.
- - -
They aren't quite as gross as the rat you found in the basin upstairs, but they are all succumbing to a similar disease. They reek of decay and decomposition.
Seamus skewers one or two on his knife as they swarm the table, but does less damage than he’d hoped (swarm traits). Still, he did some, and the swarm seems lessened for it.
The swarms move to cover the party, the northern swarm taking on Seamus while the southern swarm takes on everyone else! Seamus gets an AoO as they close (as do the rest of you if you have Combat Reflexes or the like).
Please make a Fort DC 12 to avoid distraction, then a Fort DC 12 for a really nasty disease. Seamus, you take , while everyone else takes .
Round 1
Fort - distraction
Fort - disease
Kast can't quite focus enough to offer an attack, and just moves away from the swarm.
hp: 45/45 -5
AC: 20/17/13 + 2/shield
Saves: F4/R7/W5* +4 vs. mind affecting
Aroden's Verve: 0/0 used
GlitterBomb: 0/0 used
Extend GammaRadiation: 0/0 used
Quantum Leaps used:
Pathfinder Carry: 0/0
Think Really Hard: 6/6 left
Staff of Courage 2: 4/4 left
[ dice]1d20+8[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d10+3[/dice] damage.
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d8+3[/dice] damage.
[ ooc]Morningstar, two handed:[/ooc]
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d8+3[/dice] damage.
"What is it so bothering to you about my chatty scare nights with my girl friends Seamus?" Izomandakus quickly pushes away the crawling rats with one tip of the staff, then hits another bunch with the other side "I know you have had a harder life than most and many would coil weeping to death hidden in a corner were you have demonstrated to be strong to survive and thrive, but being rude and scornful to your friends is not going to make your life any better" the boy swings then again striking the closer group of rats.
The badly hurt Pachemu follows the readhead out of the swarm while biting around to the rats.
Val bats at the rats swarming over her and backs away, trying to spread out. She throws out a parting stab with her sword as she backs away.
HP: 51/51
AC: 22/15/17
Saves: F5/R10/W7 +2 will vs charm and compulsion, +2 fort vs poison and drugs, +4 fort vs alcohol
Hypnotic Stare:
Painful Stare:
Active Implanted Tricks 1/5 used): Psychosomatic Surge (Seamus, unused)
Hero Points: 2
Spells/Conditions:
0: (Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Message, Read Magic, Ghost Sound)
1: 1/5 used (Vanishx1, Lock Gazex0, Ill Omenx0, Faerie Firex0)
2: 1/4 used (Mirror Imagex1, Placebo Effectx0, Lesser Restorationx0, Tonguesx0)
[ dice]1d20+10[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d6+4[/dice] damage.
Kast is briefly overwhelmed by the rats all over him, climbing up his pant-legs, gnawing and scratching at his exposed belly. He moves off for now. Izomandakus slams into the swarm with his quarterstaff, scattering rats all over the room. Pachemu has less luck. Valena too backs away, as the various small bites overcome her natural immune system - though she does skewer a few rats as she goes. Seamus chips away a bit more at his swarm, hitting with both the AoO and regular attack, though the disease begins to take hold…
The swarms continue their incessant gnawing, scratching, and biting. Both swarms are much smaller now, but both continue their assault - you have not driven off the rats yet! The red swarm continues on Seamus, while the other 5’ crawls onto Izomandakus and Pachemu.
Please make a Fort DC 12 to avoid distraction, then a Fort DC 12 for a really nasty disease. Seamus, you take , while Izomandakus and Pachemu take .
Round 2
Kast recovers enough to slash at the Seamus’ swarm.
to hit;
magic cold iron damage.
to hit;
magic cold iron damage.
C’mon Kast, be perfect!
hp: 45/45 -5
AC: 20/17/13 + 2/shield
Saves: F4/R7/W5* +4 vs. mind affecting
Aroden's Verve: 0/0 used
GlitterBomb: 0/0 used
Extend GammaRadiation: 0/0 used
Quantum Leaps used:
Pathfinder Carry: 0/0
Think Really Hard: 6/6 left
Staff of Courage 2: 4/4 left
[ dice]1d20+8[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d10+3[/dice] damage.
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d8+3[/dice] damage.
[ ooc]Morningstar, two handed:[/ooc]
[ dice]1d20+6[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d8+3[/dice] damage.
Izomandakus gets distracted by the many rats around "Insidious creatures... why do you try to eat us? We are to big for you!" and just moves away from them.
By his side, Pachemu keeps battling, trying to snap one of the rats crawling on her loin.
But the rat jumps away and the pig bites herself! "Ouchoink!"
”I bloody hate rats.” She steps forward to stab again at the mass of rodents.
HP: 46/51
AC: 22/15/17
Saves: F5/R10/W7 +2 will vs charm and compulsion, +2 fort vs poison and drugs, +4 fort vs alcohol
Hypnotic Stare:
Painful Stare:
Active Implanted Tricks 1/5 used): Psychosomatic Surge (Seamus, unused)
Hero Points: 2
Spells/Conditions: Diseased
0: (Dancing Lights, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Message, Read Magic, Ghost Sound)
1: 1/5 used (Vanishx1, Lock Gazex0, Ill Omenx0, Faerie Firex0)
2: 1/4 used (Mirror Imagex1, Placebo Effectx0, Lesser Restorationx0, Tonguesx0)
[ dice]1d20+10[/dice] to hit;
[ dice]1d6+4[/dice] damage.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kast comes to his senses and scatters the swarm Seamus had been carving up effectively destroying it. Izomandakus has some trouble with his swarm, as does poor Pachemu. Valena scratches a few more rats aside. Seamus must move to the other swarm, so only one attack, but it’s a solid blow which scatters the rest of that nest.
Most of the remaining rats scatter, though a few remain behind to eat the looters in the battle - their own kind. The battle is over, save for the cannibal rats doing their thing.
Izomandakus flaps his tunic sleeves with a few taps "Those things were really hungry. Aldern should have feed them intentionally for them to prowl that way..." then he kneels and with a smile taps Pachemu after finding she is not diseased.
"So... we were trying to find out how gruesome this basement was, isn't it?" the boy checks the cracks in the walls and the shelves, then moves on to open the southern door, then the western one if nothing dangerous is found in the first.
Kast moves over to slash at any remaining rats, fearing that they might assemble again into a ratking or some sort of thing.
"Ugh, you guys okay?" Kast asks, taking out the wand and hamberdering all who need it.
CLW
"You were saying something, 'Mus? I think this area and the attic will be the worst, probably. Let's be careful."
Kast will look over the area that the party is in, then when the party is healed and ready, will open the door he's next to.
The party checks the room before departing (and when you arrived - but you were sidetracked), and find a few things of value. In a cupboard near the fireplace you fine an exceptionally large silver salver and a dozen crystal decanters. The set as a whole is worth a whopping 1,000gp. In a small clay urn, partially hidden behind a loose brick in the chimney you find five small violet garnets worth 200gp each.
Izomandakus opens the southern door to find a small, and largely empty, wine cellar. Wine racks line the walls here, their shelves empty and dusty. Mounds of broken glass bottles clutter the floor. You do find a few unbroken bottles of a fine Chelaxian vintage from the Vigardeis vineyard. Eight bottles survive, each worth 100gp.
Moving on to the next door (NE), you find some quarters recently cleaned. Well, a few months ago anyway. Two bunks stand in this room, relatively free of dust and mold. A single chair lies on its side between them. A quick search of the room reveals nothing further and no exits.
Kast moves into the room, kneeling down to look under the beds before moving in more.
Kast finds nothing further under the beds, and is surprised at how clean the room is. I mean sure, it’s picked up some dust over the last few months, but it’s nothing like the rest of the place.
Seamus finds a pantry, well, now it’s a filthy reeking lair of rats. Swaths of fur cling to everything and mounds of rat droppings cover the floor. Few rats remain, but a few hiss at him when he opens the door.
Nothing of value is found in either location.
Izomandakus hangs his staff to the back and picks up a couple of wine bottles "Hei Valena, you are going to like this!" the boy enthusiastically throws one of the bottles to the many faces woman.
Cleaning the wine bottle with the hand to appraise its labeling, he moves towards the last door to the southeast "It seems the basement was not gruesome or scary in the end. Just rotted supplies and rats" jiggling the boy pushes open the last door.
Pachemu stretches her eyes, not as optimist as him and moves protective behind his legs.
Kast moves to support Izo in opening the last door in the basement.
"I think you're right, Seamus. I think maybe the attic will be much worse than the basement. So far, a few rats, sure, but what could be upstairs is probably much, much worse."
When the party is ready, he will enjoin in exploring what's behind Izo's door.
The door opens to a dingy little hallway ending in another door. Under the assumption you’re not going to leave it and head to the attic now, you check it, and open it to reveal another chamber with stained glass windows.
This room looks to have once been some sort of arcane workshop, although it now lies in ruin. A row of soggy books sits on the northern end of a workbench along the western wall. At the other end of the workbench, what looks like three iron birdcages sit, each containing a dead diseased rat.
To the east, two stained-glass windows loom. The northern window depicts a thin man with gaunt features drinking a foul-looking brew of green fluid, while the southern one shows the same man but in an advanced state of decay, as if he had been dead for several weeks. His arms raised and head thrown back in triumph, his rotting body turns to smoke and spirals into a seven-sided box.
The visage appears to be that of Vorel Foxglove, Aldern’s grandfather and the builder of this house.
- - -
Still appraising the soothing touch of the wine bottle, Izomandakus observes the stained-glass in awe "The Foxgloves really enjoyed the stained-glass. All these scenes... they bear some meaning. If this was a ritual... was it successful?"
After scanning the area with detect magic, the boy cannot restrain the urge to examine the arcane books.
"There is another door here"
As Izomandakus enters the room, he experiences a profound urge to read the books on the workbench - beyond that which he had already felt.
All of these visions take place as if in a realm of animated stained-glass windows. The images fade as quickly as they began, and you are yourself once more. You have the lingering belief though that Vorel was stopped before he completed his task, and you have trouble overcoming the anger that makes you feel… but it too fades in time.
- - -
No magics are found in this room.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Izomandakus face becomes serious and frowns as he quickly passes the pages of the books "This flower. The last piece I need to become a lich" he quickly passes more pages while leaving the wine bottle in the table "I have it... I am almost there!"
Suddenly, an instant before you address him he explodes in an incommensurate anger "No! Do not interrupt me! No! Why do you interrupt me! Ruined! Every... every..." Izomandakus takes sit in the table while the serious rictus and frowned forefront slowly fade away from his face "...in-interrupted... the lich process was interrupted"
"So-sorry..." Izomandakus starts to relax while he keeps talking absentmindedly "This was not like the usual memories... these came on the shape of stained-glass... these were not Izomandakus memories, they were Vorel's ones!"
”Oh no, take it easy, Izo,” Kast moves to comfort Izo. ”Yeah, there is some weird stuff here. Let’s just take it easy…and maybe burn the place down when we exit. This place needs a good cleansing.”
Kast stands with his friend, Izomandakus, until he recovers. He tries not to think too deeply about the room and its history.
The redhead's breath slowly recovers as he becomes calmer. He taps Kast's comforting hand "I-I had some vision. I think Vorel is the one that made all the lich thing. But, if the vision is correct and not misleading, I think he was interrupted during his lichdom ritual and things went wrong for him"
The door opens to another hallway (bad planning) and another door. That door opens to… the pit!
Piles of broken stone, dirt, and a few ruined pickaxes line the edges of this room. The floor in the middle of the room has been torn up to reveal an ancient set of stone spiral stairs, obviously of much older construction than the surrounding building, winding deep into the bedrock below. A foul stink, like that of rotten meat, wafts up on a cold breeze from the darkness.