Tuco focuses for a moment to refocus and heal himself.
Tuco then swings twice.
Tuco then raises his shield.
Abella takes another step back, wrapping herself in thanergy to help bolster herself before entering combat again.
Shade steps back, and summons the cleansing power of the moon!
Thank you, Desna, for your protection."
Pavo and Tuco finish off the liquid shadows, who splatter like spilled paint onto the floor!
Without anyone to command them, the shadow spawns linger aimlessly.
Pavo and Shade think that the spirits are still trapped in the house though and will return as shadows eventually, but perhaps Pavo has assembled something that will help further calm them for now...
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Phaed tries to control her shadow-spawn like a puppeteer. This would be an excellent stage effect.
She begins searching the room…
An easel with a canvas covered by a throw-cloth stands near a stool in the eastern part of the room. Painter’s supplies clutter the shelves to the north, while a tall-backed chair is placed near a fireplace to the west.
A bed to the southeast has a pillow and sheets caked with dried blood where an occupant’s head might have rested. At the foot of the bed lies a set of traveler’s cases, partially filled with clothing and other supplies for a long journey.
A human skeleton clad in a rotted majordomo uniform lies sprawled amid these supplies.
Phaed takes a look around the room. The art supplies at the foot of the bed have largely decayed. The travel bags and their contents are all mundane; clothing, toiletries, etc, but they imply that Asethanna and Cathilda had packed up in a hurry. Cathilda’s skeleton still clutches a small leather pouch containing 25 gp.
Tuco, standing near the easel, hears a tormented voice whisper from under the throw-cloth.
”Help me...”
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"Wait a moment!" Pavo says. He heads back to the crafting room and retrieves the assembled statue to Pharasma. Returning, he says, "I would have liked the Lady of Graves watching over us in this haunted manor, but these souls need her more."
He sets the statue down upon the fireplace mantle. He pulls his holy symbol of Desna from inside his jacket. "Now I am ready for whatever haunt is trapped under there."
This has been exhausting.. Shall we rest and study?
Tuco shakes his head at Phaedria and points to the cloth and looks to Pavo.
From under the throw-cloth on the easel, the voice whispers again, "Dear god, help me..."
What’s that, Tuco? Is there something bothering you about that silly cloth? She pulls it aside. As you can see, nothing to be afraid —
Phaed pulls off the throw-cloth and reveals a plain, white canvas- to everyone else.
But Phaed sees her own own portrait with the top of her head cut away to reveal an empty braincase within!
"Help me!" the animated portrait cries out in a voice that only Phaed can hear.
… of…
"Phaed?"
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Abella reaches out to pull back Phaedria, not understanding what she is reacting to but certain that pulling her away would be best.
There was something Phaed was going to do when she retuned to Kintargo. Was it to visit a friend? Her favorite cafe? See a new play? She can’t remember, but why would she ever leave the manor anyway? This is her home now.
Hmmm, my dearies? Everything is grand! You know, what a lovely painting. I think I shall hang it in my room. She picks up the blank canvas. This will look lovely next to my window. I'll gaze fondly upon it every morning when the dawn breaks, until the day I die.
Shade watches Phaedrea, and is pretty sure that something is wrong with her.
"Shall we continue or rest? I am out of healing spells, but we could risk some more if you would like. I think the longer we are here," he looks at Phaed, "The more risk we are at."
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"You realize there is nothing on that frame, right, Phaedria? It is completely blank. Nothing. Nada. As blank as an unpainted flat mask. As unadorned as carpentry boards. As empty as a Chelaxian's brain once you have sucked all the Thrune out of it." She gets so caught up in how pleased she is with her string of similes that she does not even consider that Phaedria might be speaking ironically until she runs out of easily-grasped metaphorical language. "Unless of course you are being sarcastic, in which case I will laugh at the humor. At a later time when it feels more spontaneous, of course. If you see me laughing to myself later, just assume it is due to your joke."
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Abella dear you are so literal. This canvas might seem blank to you, but it contains something beautiful and ineffable. An artist like myself can sense these things. What it has shown me I cannot remember, but it doesn’t matter. I know the essence of the thing: this place is home. In the truest sense. I shall cherish it forever. She carries the canvas to the Master’s bedroom, shuts the door, and hangs it where she can see from the bed. Next she considers what to do about the old sheets. I am the master now, she declares.
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Pavo knocks on the door to the bedroom they discovered. "Ah, Phaed? We're still not quite sure what that ectoplasmic manifestation is doing or when it will come back. You might be in for a rude awakening in the middle of the night. And I'm not entirely certain that's the master bedroom, either. Kind of small."
--Later--
It is certainly not an area of his expertise, but they are encountering more puzzles than solutions, so he heads to the library to study Zedna's journal and the other books in an effort to learn more about the manor itself.
After dinner, he heads back to the servants quarters to wash and sleep. "Abella, wake me up when you're ready to go to bed and I'll keep watch for a while before Shade's orisons."
While he sleeps, he contemplates the strange otherworld entity known as Tchekuth.
Tuco will spend time in the Library looking for more information on the Void Mirror.
Abella is unexpectedly quiet as she does her research, chattering far less than usual.
Once Abella is alone on her watch shift, she waits until she is sure everyone else is asleep, then sneaks to the room with Phaedria's painting. If Phaedria is asleep in there, she will quietly take it outside the room and rip it to pieces with her golden skeletal claw. If Phaed is upset, then she can just blame it on one of the undead skulking about.
Phaed will take Zedna Murashi’s Journal into HER room upstairs and read it by candlelight all alone.
She will then dream of Ioseff. She lets him know he is no longer welcome here.
She feels so comfortable, it's hard to focus. She ends up thanking Ioseff instead of scaring him in her dream.
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Pavo spends some time reading Zedna’s journals but fails to find anything new about the manor.
He settles down to sleep and bravely focuses his mind on Tchekuth.
Pavo dreams of the sea, and the seaside town of Crooked Cove. Waves crash upon the bluffs beneath the Xarwin Manor. Amid trunks and open crates, Ioseff and Asethanna direct their servants as they arrange the furniture. Down a darkened hallway, teenage twins lounge in their rooms, reading and drawing. Ioseff sits at his desk, pouring over ancient tomes. At night, the Xarwins stroll arm in arm through the gardens, past the glowing star pond. Deep in the woods, Ioseff stands before the cosmic crypt and pounds his fist on the door in frustration. Asethanna carefully sculpts whippoorwills in her studio. From the observatory atop the manor, Ioseph studies the stars through a telescope and takes notes. Asethanna, upset, throws paint against the walls of her studio. Ioseff howls at the birds in the fountain. The servants whisper amongst themselves. Waves crash upon the cliffs. Iospeh stands before the cosmic crypt as the door grinds slowly into the ground. Whippoorwills on the roof of the manor take to the sky. The twins hide in a wardrobe as something searches for them. Asethanna pulls her twin axes from the wall. Darkness. And then, from the open mouth of the crypt, Ioseff crawls, dirty, gasping, emerging out of a black pit that descends deep into the ground. Down, far beneath the manor, a malevolent pair of eyes awakens and then a third.
”Tchekuth!’
Pavo wakes in a sweat.
Tuco spends his time in the library, and does find something interesting in a dusty tome on ancient artifacts.
A Thassilonian astronomer was given a magical mirror that allowed him to speak with denizens from between the stars, a young astronomer known only as Tchekuth.
Shade spends some time in the library once more, still researching the starless scope
And after his research, sleeping in the kitchen again, he dreams about it as well!
Sleepy time in the kitchen.
Phaed climbs into bed in her master bedroom and bores herself to sleep reading from Zedna’s journals.
She doesn’t notice when Abella sneaks in and steals the blank canvas off the wall. She doesn’t notice when the glowing ball of ectoplasm returns and watches as she sleeps. Or stranger still, when tendrils of ropy energy extend from the walls and ceiling and try to grab for the glowing mass before it manages to disappear again. She doesn’t even notice when Pavo peeks into the room to check on her sometime later.
But when Phaed tries to dream of Ioseff, it is, ironically, her ancestor who doesn’t notice her.
Shade sleeps and tries to dream of the starless scope.
The grandfather clock strikes midnight, and the moon appears full. Like similar dreams, Shade feels safe and protected as his mind wanders. A swarm of blue and white butterflies descends from the night sky to cluster about the windows on the second floor of the manor, above the kitchen, overlooking the rear grounds. They seem to be waiting for Shade to join them, their iridescent wings catching the moonlight as they flutter.
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"I think there's something about this manor or the grounds that was spoiled long before Ioseff took possession," Pavo says with a yawn as he enters the kitchen. "I had a dream about the family. They seemed happy until they moved here. And if my dream is anything resembling accurate, I do not want to open that crypt anymore. Ioseff figured out how to open it, and he let something terrible out. Maybe the entity Tchekuth?"
Shade wakes up, and quietly walks out of the manor to look for the mirror where Desna's vision has led him. He then tried to note where that window is in relation to what they know of the second floor.
When he has done this, he makes his way back. "I know where we need to go next. Desna has granted me this direction."
He describes where she is leading him, more excited than anyone has ever seen him. He is even smiling!
"Are we ready to go? where is Phaed?" asks Shade. "Pavo, we are so close! I may have finally found it!"
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Abella quietly spends some time researching the journals in Zedna's room, looking for information about the Xarwin Manor.
She discovers that the manor’s original plans were either lost or destroyed, and several of the workers who built the manor vanished soon after it was completed.
When her turn comes to keep watch, Abella sneaks into Phaed's room and steals the blank canvas. She takes it out back and, with her skeletal claw, shreds the canvas to pieces. For a moment she thinks she's shredding a large hock of meat, blood and muscle splattering on the ground, and it screams like a new born pig. But in the end there is just a pile of canvas, and wood, and chips of white paint.
Whatever phantasm was residing in there seems to be gone.
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Phaed slams open the door. Someone — or something — stole from me in my home? She glares about We must destroy whoever has dared this affront to the master of the manor. She sighs. My vision, is gone forever.
It's SETTLED. I will never leave until I find it again. I am sure there are more paintings here that might give me other visions, more things to learn…
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Abella kneels down to investigate the destroyed painting, casually making sure her skeletal arm is blocked from Phaedria's view. "Who--or what--ever destroyed your painting must have claws of some sort. There must some sort of bone-based thanergy construct about."
She pats Phaedria on the shoulder and gives her an earnest look. "Do not worry, Phaedria. I will make sure that whoever did this is...rewarded... as they deserve." She is absolutely certain everyone will appreciate her initiative once they eventually find out and be rewarded with well-deserved praise. Or they won't find out, and she will be rewarded with getting away with it. Either way, she wins.
Tuco nods to Pavo "I'm impressed you can keep all these clues in your head, I can barely keep my own head together."
"Do not worry, Phaedria. I will make sure that whoever did this is...rewarded... as they deserve."
We shall indeed!
Phaed will enthusiastically endorse following the clawed footprints. Surely whatever made them is the culprit.
"But... the room... behind the window... with the scope?"