While most of the group investigates the northern side of the house, Maldlethu makes a point of hustling down to the southern side to catch up with Bubba.
Y'know, just in case.
Ezren watches for a moment and then sighs, shakes his head, and follows after Mald and Bubba as well.
Meanwhile, Swayaah continues her investigation, heading over to the southern door and giving it a quick look...
...and then gingerly pushing it the rest of the way open. Only a single, aged worktable still stands in one corner of this room, though the clay fragments of an oven and rusted metal suggest it was once a kitchen. The ceiling has completely fallen in, leaving this room open to the sky above. Doors stand in the west and southern walls.
Deciding to save the rest of the rooms on the mansion's northern side for later, Swayaah, Jirelle, and Pawero head back out to catch up with the rest of the group who are currently in what remains of the home's dining room. A quick investigation of the two doors leading to the west from here turn up nothing more than an old privy and a small side room that also links back to the home's entrance hall.
With only one way left to go, Swayaah and Bubba give the southern door a good once-over before opening it. A large, long-cold fireplace stands in the east wall of this expansive parlor, but the furnishings are all rotted. A dank stench of mold lingers in the air. The ceiling overhead has collapsed, leaving the room open to the sky. The floor in the room's southern end has followed suit, leaving a gaping hole into darkness...
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"Dirty divin'?" Bubba responds to Pawero's spelunking. "Ya did my fair share of it. Best place to store things that need to be kept kinda cool is beneath the ground. Sandstone caves and such are great for keepin' camel cheese good longer. I'd help lug it up and outta there for big parties and stuff."
He looks around for something solid to tie the rope to, the fireplace maybe? Then tries climbing down into the hole. "Someone give up some light, just shine it down." He stows his staff on his back and gets to it.
As Swayaah carefully approaches the hole in the floor, her keen sense of observation finally pays off. She realizes that a section of floor around the hole has been slowly rotting from below, leaving what appears to be a normal, sturdy floor but is in fact only splinters. Stepping onto them is a sure way to fall through the floor, but they could probably be reinforced with a little effort.
"Hmph. I know a thing or two about carpentry - let me have a look at it," EzrenBot remarks as he steps up to have a look.
It's tricky, but the wizard actually manages to use his skills to reinforce the beams and render the section of floor safe to maneuver across. With this done, you're able to use Bubba's rope as an anchor to safely climb down. While the rest of you keep watch up above - with Swayaah ready to follow if necessary and Pawero letting his little light shine - Bubba handily descends down the rope like he does this sort of thing for a living.
It looks as though this area might have one been part of a root cellar or simple crawlspace, but it's now largely filled with debris from the crumbling house above. Splintered pieces of wood litter the ground immediately around and underneath the hole, which would have proven dangerous if any of you had fallen through the floor. And, as Bubba glances around, it looks like it already has proven dangerous to someone else. Pawero's light illuminates skeletal remains, clothed in rotting, mildewed robes. Around the skeleton's neck hangs a necklace with a symbol of a spiraling comet.
Other than the skeleton, there doesn't seem to be anything of interest down in the hole and neither Ezren nor Maldlethu can detect any magical auras in the area, either.
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"Looks like someone fell and never made it back up. Lemme get a closer look and then I'm comin' out." Bubba looks through the deceased's belongings and immediate area, taking the necklace and any bits of clothing that may help with identification before climbing up and out.
"Comet necklace? Anyone recognize it?"
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"This floor seems shaky... anyone good at carpentry? My dad was a klutz, but he kept trying." Swayaah laughs as she recognizes the weakened floor. "If you reinforce it here, here and here, it should remain stable for at least a week." Erzen is glad to oblige, and even adds some more reinforcement for good measure.
"Anything good down there, Bubba?" Swayaah holds fast to the rope. "A skeleton? Hmm. Maybe we should pull that up. Too many bodies in here already. It will be much harder to reclaim after the demolition."
"And I'm certain Pawero here won't mind solving a few mysteries about the body." She sticks a thumb out at the elf and giggles.
"Spiraling comet? Dad... definitely taught me this one." She taps one of her horns for good luck. "This symbol stood for..."
Bubba calls up his findings before carefully taking the necklace and shimmying back up the rope. Swayaah, Pawero, and Ezren immediately recognize the spiral comet as a holy symbol of the goddess Pharasma, Lady of Graves.
There's some talk of bringing the skeleton itself out of the hole but it's a discussion that you quickly decide to table for the time being until you're certain you've explored as much of the manor as you can. Everyone heads back to the other side of the house and into the drawing room, ready to see what lies behind the last door you've yet to explore...
As you stand outside of the door, carefully inspecting it for traps or any other hazards, you suddenly hear something from the other side of the door. It sounds faint, like whispering, and you press your ear against the door...
'Please, no...no...don't make go into the doll again!'
Swayaah is quick to warn the rest of you that something seems fishy here and urges everyone to quiet down while she carefully eases the door open.
Ivy has overgrown the empty window frame, casting this room into cool shadow. A low shelf, its wood warped and cracked, stands against the south wall, and a desk has been overturned and smashed in the eastern part of the room.
But...there's no one here. Yet Swayaah was certain she heard whispering?
Pawero, Bubba, and EzrenBot have the sinking feeling that there's a haunt lingering in this room. But another exorcism might do the trick...or maybe just outshouting the whispers would work.
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"Oh. More ghosts. I can't slash those." Swayaah's tail droops. She shrugs, stands up and looks around.
"Well, hey, ghosts! We're not here to trap you inside a doll. My dad, he said Shelyn believes people should be appreciated, no matter their form. If you don't want to be a doll, don't be one. Get out of here. Go to where you should be." Swayaah waves her hands, trying to draw Shelyn's symbol in the air. How do I draw a bird? Couldn't it just be a circle, or a star, or a cross?
"Just calm down, alright?"
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Jirelle watches Swayaah try to talk down the ghosts while waving her hands around randomly. She must know what she's doing," the young half-elf thinks as she decides to try to help the investigator with her strange exorcism ritual dance.
"This mansion held only a ghost,
'Fear Not,' the Pathfinders did boast,
'We'll not make you a doll,
That's against protocol,
We're just ... uh ... looking for this ... uh ... hotel's Host!
She gives a little jig and waves her hands in a flourish as she finishes in spite of how badly she stumbled on the ending.
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Bubba recites a soothing (to him anyway) prayer to Mother Isis, hoping it will calm the spirits of the room.
"I wouldn't want to be in a doll either. Bad enough getting locked in an old tomb for who knows how long and waking up STARVED!" He holds his stomach, starting to feel a bit hungry again actually.
Now with a little more knowledge of what to do, Swayaah attempts to talk the restless spirits into quieting while Bubba offers up an old, familiar prayer to Isis. Jirelle even gets in on the effort, coming up with a little ditty to try and drown them out.
Maldlethu tries to help too with a repeat of his earlier exorcism ritual, but this time finds it difficult to get all of the words out without talking. Maybe picking up some throat lozenges for next time is in order?
Still, the group's efforts seem to be enough and the whispering slowly...grows...quiet.
Further inspection of this ruined study reveals little more than old, rotted furniture and bits of encroaching plant life. Neither Ezren nor Maldlethu detect any magical auras from within the room, either.
It seems that you've managed to explore what's left of Mavedarus Manor and even discovered that there actually was some truth to the rumors of it being haunted. With the sun now beginning to dip below the horizon, there seems to be little else to do but set up camp for the night, as Calisro Benarry bid you do.
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Ezren stretches his achy bones here and squints at the setting sun. "Let's just camp here like Pawero says. I don't feel like wandering around in the dark."
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"Another mystery, another clue." Swayaah grins. "This family was a mess, almost as bad as my mom's old court. Speaking of old mom... HEY MA! WE'RE CAMPING!" Swayaah screams toward the front door.
Salera calmly reenters holding a boquet of roses. "The black roses survived all this time, without maintenance. Extraordinary." She walks in, smiles at everyone and then sharply turns to Swayaah. "Keep your voice down, you don't want to wake the dead."
"Haha. Very funny." Swayaah's sarcasm tends to be dry and drawn out. "There are plenty of restless spirits in here. At any rate, we're spending the night here. I'm gonna look for some firewood."
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"Oh, no, ma'am, I don't think there's any dead left to wake," Jirelle advises Salera innocently, not quite catching the meaning behind the woman's scolding. "Swayaah and the boys chased them away."
Humming her limerick to herself, she looks for a sturdy set of wall beams. Satisfied that she's found two that will support her thin physique, she rigs up a hammock to sleep in. "Just like on the ship," she tells anyone looking her way. "You sleep like a baby. You should try it. Uh, but maybe some other night."
Taking satisfaction in a job well done, everyone returns to the main hall to begin setting up camp for the night. Swayaah has no trouble scrounging plenty of dry scrap from a fire and you take special care to ensure said fire won't catch and burn what's left of the house down.
About the time that Jirelle gets her hammock rigged up, all of you suddenly hear scratching and banging coming from underneath the nearby floorboards. Suddenly, a part of the floor erupts in splinters as a putrid, rotting fist punches through! Several more spots in the floor erupt as shambling, rotting corpses begin climbing out of them!
"Braaaainssss...."
This is a plague zombie. If they strike a target with their fist they can infect them with zombie rot. They will also instinctively grab hold for a few seconds, allowing them to make another attack with their teeth.
These are simple, mindless zombies. If they strike a target with their fist they instinctively grab hold for a few seconds, allowing them to make another attack with their teeth. Zombies tend to move more sluggishly than their living counterparts, however.
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Pawero
Bubba
Maldlethu
Ezren
Jirelle
Swayaah
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Red
Orange, Green, Blue, Purple
Active Conditions: None
Everyone is UP!
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"Are you kidding me? I thought we jettisoned all the bad juju from this place."
Jirelle quickly draws her rapier as she bolts toward the nearest of the enemies, spins around him (her? it?) and then plunges her blade straight through its icky Green torso.
As she withdraws her gory sword, she raises her buckler arm expecting the creature (whatever the heck it is) to retaliate.
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Maldlethu is in the middle of drinking a cup of herbal tea with a sour twist of his lips when once more the spirits of the dead stir to unlife. “Begone!” he commands, arms flailing either in annoyance or in imitation of some grand windmill. “Your puny forms cannot handle the power of magic - you will be consumed, destroyed, and then at last reborn into something greater!” Harsh light shines from the holy symbol around the elf’s neck, illuminating everyone in the ruined all and casting stark shadows on the wall.
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"A good fire Swayaah, who doesn't like the sounds of a crackling fire?" Apparently the dead spirits in the basement don't. Damn!
Bubba grabs up his oversized staff, not to be confused as firewood, takes a step towards the closest angry dead and swings for the fences! "FOUR!"
A half-hearted stroke at best. "Oh, Maldlethu brings the power of Issis's light!"
More annoyed than anything by the appearance of these rotting lumps of flesh Jirelle tumbles past Green, draws her rapier, and drives it deeply into the creature's abdomen with a sickening *SPLORCH*. While Green offers absolutely no reaction to this powerful blow, it now looks much worse for the wear...aside from all the decomposition, of course.
Also irritated by the disruption to the evening Maldlethu channels holy power from the symbol hanging around his neck. While the positive energy feels quite pleasant to all of you, the groaning, shambling corpses react much differently.
Unsurprisingly, these things don't fare well against positive energy. Blue seems to resist it somewhat, but still withers under the onslaught. Orange and Purple suffer the full effects of the blast while the damage to Red is particularly devastating, the positive energy burning away large chunks of flesh! In fact, Maldlethu is certain that his magic was particularly effective against all of your shambling foes. The only one who seems completely unaffected by the magic is Green.
Swayaah is positive that you're dealing with some manner of living doll-vampire hybrid rejects, likely leftover from the dark experiments that were once conducted here. She steps and swipes a claw at Blue, easily slicing open the rotting flesh. It looks like her slashing claws were particularly effective!
Bubba decides to tangle with Purple, taking a cautious step up to the creature and expertly kneecapping the creature with his sling staff!
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Pawero
Bubba
Maldlethu
Ezren
Jirelle
Swayaah
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Red
Green
Orange
Blue
Purple
Active Conditions: None
Pawero and Ezren are UP!
"Company...Great..." Ezren mutters to himself as he utters a protective spell here and then readies his staff for trouble!
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Noting the effectiveness of Swayaah's claws, Pawero draws out his dagger and steps forward to slash at Green. He opens up a large wound across the thing's back and it finally collapses with a loud groan!
Ezren conjures a shield of force in front of himself and readies his staff as he recalls that most of these creatures are shambling undead known as zombies. Red seems just a little different, however.
All of the zombies shamble forward, rotting fingers grasping for the nearest bit of warm, living flesh!
"Braaaainssss...."
Red steps up to Ezren and swings a fist...
As he does, Ezren reflexively raises his force shield which absorbs some of the damage from the zombie's grody fist as it slams into the wizard. Unfortunately, as the fist connects, the zombie grabs hold of Ezren!
"Braaaainssss...."
Blue clumsily flails at Swayaah...
...and actually manages to ring the tiefling's bell pretty good. Unfortunately, he's not done yet as he automatically grabs hold and attempts to bite!
But she manages to twist and avoid the snapping teeth!
"Braaaainssss...."
Purple goes after Bubba...
...and punches the halfling in the shoulder before grabbing on and going in for a bite!
Luckily, Bubba is also able to evade the zombie's rotten teeth!
"Liverrrrrrrr...."
Last but not least, Orange shambles up to Jirelle and takes a swing...
...delivering a painful blow as he grabs hold of the half-elf!
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Pawero
Bubba
Maldlethu
Ezren
Jirelle
Swayaah
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Red
Orange
Blue
Purple
Active Conditions: None
Everyone is UP!
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"Are you sure these are zombies? Vampires would try to grab you before drinking your blood." Swayaah focuses on the Vampiric Living Doll and its movements.
Salera fails to resist planting her palm into her face. "You're not ready for the vampyr, my dear."
Oh, the shoulder joint is weak. Duh, slash there.
Swayaah stares at the big Red thing. "Oh, I know what that is!"
Swayaah swings at the shoulder joint again.
But instead grazes her claws against her horn, in just the wrong spot! She winces and loses her focus on the target.
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Pawero considers the configuration of enemies around him, their movements, and their engagements with his companions. He determines that cutting down the number of enemies and freeing Jirelle would provide the most use to the embattled Pathfinders. He spies his opportunity and dashes over to the zombie before cutting it across its back without a word.
"HEY! Get off me!" Ezren yells as he attempts to knock the zombie off of his arm, swinging his staff wildly!
;
Though noticeably injured Swayaah keeps her cool and quickly devises a plan of attack, striking at the zombie's shoulder joint with her claws. And what do you know, she manages to completely sever the arm from the rest of the body! Blue utters a low moan and slowly collapses, loosing his grip on Swayaah as he does. As this happens, she finally realizes what Red actually is!
Pawero considers his options and decides that helping Jirelle will be the greatest benefit. He rushes over, already sure of just where to slash at Orange with his dagger, and opens up an enormous wound on the zombie's back! Orange releases his grip on Jirelle and collapses to the ground, dead once more.
Meanwhile Ezren tries to fight back against Red, swinging his staff wildly but to no avail.
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Pawero
Bubba
Maldlethu
Ezren
Jirelle
Swayaah
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Red
Purple
Active Conditions: None
Bubba, Maldlethu, Ezren and Jirelle are UP!
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Jirelle's glad for the assist from Pawero in taking out Green, and then also dropping Orange thus freeing her from its grasp. She nods in thanks even as she notes that Ezren's been grabbed just as she was.
She races to the old wizard's rescue bobbing and weaving across the old mansion's tiled floor. She slips past Ezren and spins around past the vampire.
"Swayaah, I thought you told me that vampires sparkle. These things just kind of go {splurch} and stink. Are you sure that's what they are?"
Arriving in the best spot, she proves her point by impaling the ... whatever it is ... on the sharp point of her rapier.
Ezren flails about wildly trying to get the putrid zombie off of him...
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"Swayaah, I thought you told me that vampires sparkle. These things just kind of go {splurch} and stink. Are you sure that's what they are?"
Salera groans in disappointment.
"Yeah, yeah, the vampires during the daylight. Especially when they cover themselves in plastic- just like the living dolls!" Swayaah's eyebrows arch upward in amazement. "I knew it. And here's their flunky, a plague zombie!" She points at the Red tinted creature before wincing when it hits Ezren.
"That thing is diseased- it can infect you with its punch." She readies her claws.
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"Ow!" Hollers Bubba as the zombo socks him in the jaw then puts him in a headlock. "Hey, no biting, yer breath smells like camel feet!" Anger boils up inside, but somehow Issis directs it at the zombie.. or maybe that was Maldlethu?
Rage: Single Action: Barbarian/Concentrate/Emotion/Mental
Requirements You aren’t fatigued or raging.You tap into your inner fury and begin raging. You gain a number of temporary Hit Points equal to your level plus your Constitution modifier. This frenzy lasts for 1 minute, until there are no enemies you can perceive, or until you fall unconscious, whichever comes first. You can't voluntarily stop raging. While you are raging:
You deal 2 additional damage with melee Strikes (6 for giant instinct). This additional damage is halved if your weapon or unarmed attack is agile.
You take a –1 penalty to AC.
You can't use actions with the concentrate trait unless they also have the rage trait. You can Seek while raging.
After you stop raging, you lose any remaining temporary Hit Points from Rage, and you can't Rage again for 1 minute.
He smashes at the zombie with the butt of his staff, then smashes again if needed! "Nothing BITES Bubba and gets away with it!"
Though perhaps a bit surprised at the punch the zombies pack, everyone continues to rally. Now freed, Jirelle tumbles to Ezren's aid and executes a devastating skewer against the Red Plague Zombie! It doesn't finish it off, but it certainly looks like one more good blow ought to do the trick!
Ezren struggles to free himself from the hideously-injured zombie but can't pull himself free!
Having been punched in the face and then grabbed up into a headlock, Bubba feels a RAGE bubbling up inside him! He's forced to load up his sling staff and it's kinda awkward to use it as a bludgeon in such close quarters but he still manages to connect with it!
*THWACK*
Purple's rotting melon explodes in a shower of gore and the zombie releases its grip on Bubba as it collapses to the ground.
Red, still holding on to Ezren, tries again to chow down on the wizard...
...and viciously tears into the old man! Ezren goes limp in the zombie's grasp and slides out of Red's rotting hands to the ground.
"More....brainssss...." Red groans, turning his sights now to Jirelle...
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Pawero
Bubba
Maldlethu
Jirelle
Swayaah
Ezren
==============
Red
Active Conditions: None
Everyone is UP!
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"Tsk!"
Pawero rushes back around the columns and draws a small bag from his bandolier. He slaps it against the open wound on the wizard, releasing its invigorating contents into his blood stream and waking him (possibly to his dismay). Turning his focus to the zombie, he lashes out with his parrying dagger.