This room has a five-foot-wide wooden bench placed against the wall opposite the entrance.
Directly north, the tattered remnants of a silk curtain hang from the ceiling. Ample holes and rips in the curtain provide glimpses into the room beyond, which appears to be a washroom.
An oversized cast-iron tub sits against the far wall, while to the west a large fireplace looms next to a pair of barrels.
There is no magic present.
Tuco looks around the room cautiously as he slowly approaches the curtains.
The room is very still, not even a breeze to stir the curtain.
Tuco carefully pokes the curtain.
Tuco pokes the curtain and it swings lightly, giving him a brief look at the washroom beyond. He notes that the fireplace seems particularly full of ashes.
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Shade appears to be fondling the lens. He definitely is not mumbling "precious".
Holding his holy symbol, Pavo moves beyond the curtain and takes a look around the washroom.
Searching the fireplace, Pavo notices a skeletal left hand partially buried in the dust and ash. The bones at the wrist look cleanly chopped through, and a gold ring glitters on the hand’s ring finger.
"How is it going, Pavo? Need anything?" asks Shade, as he stays slightly back.
”Oh I’m not missing one. I just revised it a little. The meat and blood look was not doing it for me.” She grins at the opportunity. ”Clearly, this belongs to our culprit!” She conjures a mage hand to grasp the arm and test it before pulling it out.
Abella pulls out the skeletal hand with the use of her spell!
The simple gold ring bears an inscription in Elven, although “Ioseff ♥ Fulvia” is easily discerned.
Awww. How sweet.
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She holds the ring up in the air with her spell and twirls it about, examining it from each direction.
”Ah yes, a tale as old as time: a man and a woman fall in love, die, and then spend an eternity stuck in house together with no hope of joy or freedom. If promise you all that if I ever get married to a man, within six months you’ll find me lounging on a Mediogalti beach with a sunhat, smoked glasses, and a demure frock spending every bit I got from the inheritance after he quietly died in his sleep. That’s how a marriage should be.”
Shade looks at Abella with a raised eyebrow. "Ok... that's one way to look at it, I guess."
He looks around the room a little more. "Ok, what else?"
Perhaps it is a keepsake, and Fulvia was his finishing-school sweetheart. Phaed trails off for a bit as she remembers her own experiences at Chelaxian finishing g school.
The center room has been waiting
Phaed makes her way there.
The party walks over to the ornately carved double door of the center room.
When Pavo attempts to listen at the door, a sudden wave of anger and hatred washes over him, as if something powerful seethes just beyond the door.
A pool of blood splatters onto the floor at his feet, and then creates a dripping trail to the west as a ghostly echo of Asethanna carries her husband’s freshly severed hand into the washroom.
Or they were more than finishing-school sweethearts…
She waits for Pavo to un li=ock the door. Surely there is somethingn exciting and interesting to find inside, I HER HOUSE.
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"I'm starting to suspect that Ioseff didn't cut his own hand off," Pavo says, rubbing his temples. He sheathes his blades and removes the thief's tools from his bandolier.
"Anything to ward us against another haunt would be appreciated," he says as he squints at the keyhole and fiddles with the tools.
He clears his throat. "Nobody saw that, right?"
"We're set," he says, standing and slipping away his tools before drawing his blades.
After a few tries, Pavo unlocks the door and opens it.
Shelves of books line the east and west walls of what looks to have been Ioseff's office, while twin tapestries depicting the reds and blacks of Cheliax hang to the north.
In front of a wide wooden desk are two chairs, one overturned, with a third chair behind the desk.
Embedded in the wood, and surrounded by a stain of dried blood, a red-handled hatchet sticks up from the desk’s surface.
Shade looks carefully at the hatchet. ”is this magic?” he wonders aloud bedpfore he detects magic.
Once he’s dealt with that, he looks over the titles of the books.
Shade does detect magic in the room.
When Pavo approaches the desk, a furious shriek of rage resonates throughout the area!
Success: The creature becomes frightened 1.
Failure: The creature becomes frightened 2.
Critical Failure: The creature feels as if the wrathful haunt is particularly enraged at them. The creature becomes frightened 2; their frightened condition doesn’t decrease automatically as long as the haunt remains active, and the hatchet gains a +2 circumstance bonus to all wrathful hatchet Strikes it attempts against the creature.
The hatchet flies into the air and makes a strike at Pavo!
Plus 1d6 Bleed!
Haunt
Phaed
Abella
Pavo
Shade
Tuco
Not in my house, yo won't!
Phaed casts Guidance on Shade, then Soothes Pavo so the cleric can focus on exorcising the haunt. [b]You can do it, my darlings![/i]
Scared somewhat by the flying hatchet, Shade takes a deep breath. He does his best to focus the loving caress of Desna as he does so
He then bandages Pavo’s horrific wounds.
Tuco quivers in fear and books it, finally having lost his composure.
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"Ah!" Pavo cries out as the hatchet buries itself in his collar. He immediately feels woozy and then bolstered by Phaed's soothing magic. He's looking nearly as good as new once Shade finishes with his hasty but skillful application of medicinal aid.
He attempts to calm the angry spirt.
But he stumbles over the words to a prayer, his mind still wracked with fear. He does manage to speak a word of power and summons a shield around himself.
Abella also completely loses her composure and books it, right after Tuco.
The hatchet flies out of the room and strikes at Phaed!
Plus 1d6 bleed!
Haunt
Phaed
Abella
Pavo
Shade
Tuco
Phaed raises her shield before being struck and blocks some of it.
The bard's voice cracks as she tries to inspire courage. Destroy it!
You add a flourish to your composition to extend its benefits. If your next action is to cast a cantrip composition with a duration of 1 round, attempt a Performance check. The DC is usually a standard-difficulty DC of a level equal to the highest-level target of your composition, but the GM can assign a different DC based on the circumstances. The effect depends on the result of your check.
Critical Success The composition lasts 4 rounds.
Success The composition lasts 3 rounds.
Failure The composition lasts 1 round, but you don't spend the Focus Point for casting this spell.
She then pleads with the thing to stop! Please… hatchet… don't hurt my friends in MY house…
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"Pavo, I just fixed that! Now you are bleeding all over the place."
Shade attempts to stop the bleeding the hatchet has caused by administering first aid.
Not sure of his success, he then tries to coax the hatchet to stop.
"Spirit, we mean you know harm, and only wish to put you to rest. Leave this house in peace."
With Phaed and Shade’s pleading, thoughtful words, the hatchet calms down and drops to Phaed’s feet with a thud.
Tuco sticks his head back around the corner "Is it safe now?"
Phaed picks up the axe. She wonders how Asethanna felt dismembering he husband.
She detects magic.
The majority of the books and notes found in the office concern outdated Chelaxian government procedures.
One of the desk’s drawers appears slightly open and stained with old blood.
"Here, let's take some time and clean up. Oh, and I'll make sure poor Pavo is patched up. Again."
At the same time, he heals Phaed!
When Pavo opens the desk drawer he suddenly feels an overwhelming sense of betrayal from Shade. Why would his friend betray him like that?! A heartbeat later the feeling is gone.
The drawer holds several of Xarwin’s journals, along with a rack built to store six potion vials. Only three potions remain in the rack; the other three empty potion vials are caked with dried blood and lie on the floor under the desk.
Pavo shrugs off the feeling. How strange.
The grandfather clock chimes three.
let’s push on.
”Agreed.find whatever is left on this floor, then I can start researching the scope again. ”
Pavo listens at the door and hears a strange rasping and buzzing sound coming from the other side. He'd previously heard this sound when listening at one of the fireplaces on the floor below.