Menan casts glitterdust affecting all of the creatures except the one due north of him. "Ladies, it may be time to retire from this venture. We have a ghost here."
edit, I think it gets them all. 10 foot radius.
Menan gets swarmed by the first goblins.
Menan withdraws to the front door to assure the women safely escape. "Ghost and more goblins! Retreat!"
Faerveren kicks down the boards that are nailed over the window. Or tries to. "Percy, get us an exit!"
The next batch of goblins follows the fleeing wizard.
Arawyn follows Faeveren's lead and blasts through the other window."Come on! Run Menan!
As Arawyn took care of the window, Persephone steps to the door and looks where Menan is. With mace in hand she observes what happens, ready to smash any additional goblin that follows the wizard.
On the stairs behind the goblins appears out of nowhere a large animated skeleton. It looks like from ape like creature. Roaring without voice, it starts clawing and biting into the green menaces. One goblin is teared to shreds.
A goblin comes out of the room and stabs at Persephone. Another one tries to move past her and pays with his life. The third one goes after Menan.
Suddenly Menan feels a cold chill emanating from his shoulder and running down his spine. A disembodied voice speaks up behind him like leaning to his right ear. "You entered my premises. You slaughtered my minions. Now you have to do my bidding. I'll wait in my room." The words echo through the hall. The ghost vanishes.
As an immediate action Menan releases windy escape as the thing attempts to touch him. He tumbles away from the horde of goblins attempting to avoid their makeshift daggers.
Once away from them he casts vanish and disappears from sight.
Faerveren waits for Persephone to come.
With the elf disappearing from sight, the goblins turn on the skeleton. But to no avail.
Persephone withdraws from the goblin and exits through the window.
Faerveren follows through the window. Outside she readies to kill every goblin that might follow.
The skeleton rips another goblin to pieces. The goblin start to flee.
Menan keeps his distance from the fleeing goblins and locates the women. He whispers "It is me Menan. Let's get out of here. Lead the way."
Faerveren doesn't need an extra invitation. Once all are there she is on her way.
"What does this ghost look like? What exactly is a ghost?" she inquires once they brought some distance between them and the house.
"I guess you should tell the guard, before they are in for an nasty surprise."
"Where was this ghost? I didn't see it." Persephone inquires.
"This didn't go as expected. A hand full of coppers wasn't what I had in mind with this raid."
"What can be done about this ghost? Why are they dangerous?"
"My thought exactly, Faerveren. I will head to the city guard and give them the heads up. I will tell you what I know about ghosts but we have not even addressed the bear sized skeleton. See you at the Pig."
Menan heads straight to the City Guard and asks for Officer Kasadei.
"Undead like company?" Persephone suggests. "See you there."
It is definitely time and that fight added to her stomach growling. She walks with the others to The Pig's Whistle and orders a meal and an ale.
In case there isn't one she starts with the cooking.
"Hello Mr. Variel. What brings you here?" Another opportunity to lighten my funds by five gold?
"Perhaps even more if the lives of your men are valuable to you." Menan smiles and then gets serious. "Officer Kasadei, I took the liberty to inspect the old castle. The girls and I were cleaning out some of the goblins when I was touched by a ghost. It was all I could do to not obey its command. Then, a large undead skeleton the size of a full grown bear appeared. You cannot send your men in there expecting a few goblins. They would have a pea shooter in a sword fight."
"Thanks for the heads up." Kasadei sighs.
"And your offer?"
"I have no offer at this point. Do you have the resources to defeat those monsters and who knows what else might be in there?"
"I guess I'd call the church to send an exorcist or something. I have to check on that."
"That sounds prudent. If I can be of assistance please do not hesitate. To change the subject, I have a companion who is a fighter by profession. She travels with me and will be in Abadon as long as I remain. She would like to train with your men when they train. Is that a possibility?"
"We have a training ground. If she can persuade someone to train with her, she's welcome. But don't expect too much. These are city guards. No experienced warriors."
"Perhaps they will learn something from her. They will surely be better practice than me and my quarterstaff. You will know her if you see an attractive elf wielding two blades. Her name is Arawyn. She usually employs two rapiers but her primary blade is in for repair at the moment." Menan stands and nods to the officer. "Have a pleasant evening, officer Kasadei."
Menan's outreached palm indicates he expects coin for the information.
"You mean that is not covered by the pay for the investigation of the goblin issue?" Kasadei asks with a smile.
She opens her drawer, unlocks the cash box and counts out five more gold.
Menan chuckles. "You are too generous, officer Kasadei." Menan heads to the Pig's Whistle.
At the pigs whistle the usual entertainment is ongoing. Someone playing their newest songs on the piano. Another one with a fiddle joining in. Some singing along, some dancing.
The dish of the day is tagliatelle carbonara. Isabella comes to the table where Persephone, Arawyn and Faerveren sit and brings their serving. Wine glasses are on the table like on all other tables too. "I commend a nice glass of wine to go with that. Anyone interested? Our special offer is this wonderful pinot bianco for only ten silver per serving." She holds out the bottle for all to see.
The wine is really good, but she has it in abundance on the shelf. And almost none are willing to pay the 10 silver for a glass, much less the 15 silver it would take for her to make a 'profit'.
Persephone feels guilty. She hasn't done anything that solves this problem, and now she even works for that Marinelli.
"I'll take a glass."
Menan joins them at the table. "Count me in for a meal and some wine."
"Me too." Faerveren chimes in.
"So what is it that we ran from? I've never seen a ghost."
"Ghosts are as varied as the creatures that died to produce them. They are extremely difficult to fight. As they are incorporeal, a normal weapon has no effect on them. That one gave me a command to follow and were it not for my cloak of resistance and having cast protection from evil, I would surely be its minion right now. Their attacks vary wildly as well but they can suck the life from you and use fear against you as well. Did you see the undead skeleton? It was the skeleton of a dire ape. Undead are pretty bad things to encounter as well. We did best to flee and would do best to avoid that place. Officer Kasadei is aware of our findings and will assemble a team capable of dealing with this sort of enemy. She showed her appreciation for our information as well." Menan gives each of you a gold piece. "There are two gold remaining that I still have to break apart."
"Well, you noticed that the skeleton fought against the goblins?" Persephone inquires.
"But that need for magical weapons is an issue. I don't have that. What do you think, will they search the whole ruin, or will they just get rid of the ghost, and we can search it afterwards?"
"Oh, good. I will do that."
"I found that odd as well. You would think that would have been resolved already. I plan to do some research at the temple tomorrow. I can inquire about their plans. Arawyn, you are welcome to inquire of the city guard regarding your desire to train with them. Officer Kasadei said to just find anyone willing."
"Great. Then that is out of our hand." Persephone sighs and turns to her meal.
"I believe we are ill equipped for those monsters. I would like to explore the old castle once it is cleaned out. Surely there is hidden treasure in it somewhere. I wonder if I could repair it enough to make it habitable."
"At least you'd have to put a roof on it." Faerveren comments.
"If they get the spooks out, I will look into that."
Once the meal is eaten and the talk is talked, everyone goes back to their resting places. It is a cloudy night where the growing moon only gets to shine on town now and then through the gaps. It is chill and a fine drizzle makes it really uncomfortable to be outside on the way home.
Again the night in Abadon is uneventful for most.
"I'm waiting for you. Come to my throne. Take a seat at my table. You will do my bidding."
As the bell rings again a new day starts
Menan decides that is just his imagination. When he rises and completes his morning routine he heads to the temple to do some research and see if the clerics have plans to clear out the old castle.