Phaed is interested in understanding this creature’s claim of ownership on the house. For now, she only listens closely as this little bird seems more dangerous than she appears.
Is it safe to rest in here, Ezramalkun?
Ezramalkun thinks for a moment before she answers, as though considering the word "safe".
"The manifestations may appear anywhere, but I can sense the evil spirits near here. I shall keep watch and alert you should they move."
Pavo takes a look at the rapier but can't quite figure out its properties.
All yours.[/i]
Phaed begins setting up camp for the night, chatting with Ezramalkun and her friends. [b]What do you think of this place so far?
Tuco looks to Phaedria "Wouldn't it be better to camp say... outside instead?"
I shan’t dare leave Ezramalkun alone in her house for another minute...
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Abella is smart enough to know to keep her mouth shut. Better to avoid the bird’s attention and not risk any annoying psychopomp rubbish. Psychopomps: boring wet blankets the lot of them.
She taps her own rapier when Pavo suggests taking the new one. ”It is no better than mine, and mine already has a name, Blood Play.”
As to the question of the house, she shrugs. ”It is an intriguing enough place to study. The thanergy weave needed to bind a spirit to a building is complex. The theory is trivial for me, of course, but determining whether the weave was intentionally created or haphazardly slapped together by accident until it trapped someone like a net will require more study.” She pauses before finally deciding to clarify. ”’Thanergy’ is the technical term for what you call negative energy. ‘Thalergy’ is positive energy.” What she leaves out is that this “technical” nomenclature is her own invention. Like “fetch tiefling,” she is also trying to make “thanergy” and “thalergy” happen. She has always hated the existing terms for being clunky and ugly. Consider “consumptive thanergetic reaction” instead of “negative energy fried his skin.” More scientific and less sensational.
Tuco nods, clearly uncomfortable and over his head in the current situation.
Phaed pointedly ignores the cauldron/"bathtub" while she helps set up camp. She hums absentmindedly while Abella gives her dissertation on 'Thanergy,' clearly used listening to her friend going on and on about unorthodox theorems. Mmm… that's interesting.
She unstacks a precarious pile of dishes. Tuco, is there a way we can barricade the door? Shade, is there something we can do with the corpse in the middle of our slumber party?
What else might we do to make this camp safe?
Tuco nods to Phaedria happy to have something productive to do.
Tuco will check out the doors, see which direction they open. For those that open inward a heavy pot should help at least... Others check for locking mechanisms or other easy ways to make them harder to open unannounced.
Before we barricade ourselves… I would love to clean myself up. Weren't there some restrooms the other way? A private bath sounds delightful after that dusty road.
Pavo looks through the cupboards, and finds a few dusty cookbooks, a box of handwritten recipe cards, and lots of useful, if old, utensils and cooking tools.
As Pavo begins to put away the knives and cutlery, Ezramakul says a bit sheepishly that she got bored while she was trapped here.
Pavo and Ezramalkun chat about psychopomps for ten minutes, and Pavo learns that psychopomps don’t just usher souls to the boneyard, they also protect them from supernatural predators.
When Abella begins explaining her definitions, Ezramalkun coos. She always finds it charming when creatures from the material plane try to understand such things.
Tuco begins blocking the doors with heavy pots and pans.
But before he can block the hallway door, Phaedra decides to visit the washroom and take a bath…
The tiled floor of this washroom is dusty and spotted with patches of mold. On the east wall hangs a mirror.
To the north sits a large bathing tub, while to the south sits a smaller round washtub for linens and clothes.
Next to that is a partially collapsed laundry basket with shredded bits of clothing strewn around its base.
Ezramakul says a bit sheepishly that she got bored while she was trapped here.
Phaed thinks about how she will entertain Ezramakul with dramatic monologues from famous plays later on.
For now, she is happy to accept any assistance in ensuring the bathroom is haunt-free.
Well, I do not have a way to conjure water. She frowns at the filth. Somoene should clean this up! I have heard of a spell that summons an invisible, mindless servant to do such menial chores. Oh… but for one now. She sighs and looks in the mirror to carefully adjust her velvet escoffion, willing to do pretty much anything but housechores.
Phaed notices a damp handprint on the mirror, and the moment she does so it reaches out to choke her!
Before she can call for help, the hand vanishes but Phaed’s own left hand feels oddly damp afterwards.
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"I wonder if there's a well in the woods?" Pavo says as he goes to inspect the bathtub. Completely oblivious to Phaedria's encounter at the mirror, he blathers on. "I'm pretty sure you'd come out even muckier if we used the pond water, and then there's the aberration of madness swimming around in it."
Shade works on cleaning up things in the kitchen by liberally applying prestidigitation (he clearly sees no point in getting his hands dirty. When asked for help from Phaed, he moves in and cleans up the bathroom as well. "Cleanliness is essential. Prevents the transmission of disease and the festering of wounds."
When he gets a moment with Ezramalkun, he asks questions about what the psychopump knows about Tchekuth.
After that, Shade tries to identify the rapier's abilities.
GASP!
Shade helps clean up the kitchen and bath, but despite joining the conversation with Ezramalkun, he isn't able to learn anything more about Tchekuth.
Although her hand remains damp until she wipes it off, Phaedra does not suffer any lasting effects.
But a memory seems to have faded from her mind. There was something that the Cloven Crier, the paper for all things tiefling in Kintargo, had said about her latest performance. She’d been so proud when she read it, but she can’t remember for the life of her now what it said.
Tuco will get up early and take last watch.
"I'll take whichever watch you need. I do need time for my prayers, but other than that."
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Phaed stares into the bathroom mirror, slowly leaning closer to the glass as if mesmerized. She suddenly tears at her throat as if trying to wrench away invisible hands. Gug-hhh She gasps for air.
She spins to her companions, angry, Pavo, Shade… why re you just STANDING THERE? Did you SEE the hand choking me?
She pauses, cocks her masked face. No… wait. Wait… Pavo. Listen to me carefully. This is FAR more im-portant than spectral hands. It's about
You saw me my last play in Kintargo. Was it not wonderful? What did the Cloven Crier say about my performance on opening night? She steps closer, her voice trembles. Were the reviews good?
You settle in for the night. Pavo takes the first watch, followed by Abella. The hours pass uneventfully, if slowly. Every so often the grandfather clock chimes its strange, submerged chime.
It is not until Tuco’s watch that that anyone hears it: the eerie trill of birdsong filling the night air.
Tuco looks out of the windows and confirms that the birds have returned, a few in number, and these are not whippoorwills. These are nosoi psychopomps, like Ezramalkun.
”It is starting,” she says to Tuco. ”The algea.”
Meanwhile, the rest of you sleep, and dream.
You are walking together across the manor grounds. The night is clear, and the stars are bright. You do not sense anything watching from the darkness between the stars. If anything, you feel bathed in the light of Mother Moon.
A birdsong guides you to the iron fence, where a few nosoi psychopomps perch, waiting.
Something dangerous lies beneath the manor—something that should have moved on eons ago but has remained like a sickness in the world.
You can sense their desire to usher this presence on, but—
Then the ground shakes, the sky tilts, the moon is gone, and something terrible glares down at you from between the stars.
And you wake and it is morning.
Having the final watch Tuco does his best to put together some breakfast for his allies to be ready when they wake.
Wha... what happened? Was that a dream?"
Phaed insists the dream shows her the best reviews from her plays… she ignores the stars and tries to focus on what was lost, but she cannot.
"Yes, something replaced Mother Moon in the sky. Quite disturbing, to say the least. And I do not believe that was Groetus, either." replies the priest. "Something is not right here, but we did know that. It does disturb me, though, that it can penetrate our very dreams, which is usually the realm of the Song of Spheres."
On a 15 or higher, you understand that while the nosoi wish to usher the presence within the manor to the Boneyard, they lack the ability, bravery, or intellect to do so by themselves.
You may recall knowledge about an algae with a
You also realize that your connection to the malevolence allows you to research the topics you've discovered by performing the Dream Research activity!
The skill you use and the DC for the check depend on the topic, as detailed in that topic’s Dreams venue. If you’re not dreaming within the manor grounds, the spiritual link to the malevolence is lessened and you take a –2 status penalty to the check.
On a critical failure, you peer too far into the malevolence, which notices your attempt. You manage to break the mental link just before you lose some memories to its ravenous appetite. Increase your malevolence condition value by 1.
It is now morning. A glance out the window confirms there are a few psychopomps sitting on the fence. There is till much to explore and Tuco has put together a breakfast!
Shade sits down and enjoys the breakfast Tuco has put together. "Guess we need to keep going and try and uncover what is going on here."
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"I suppose we have our work cut out for us," he says to Shade. He prattles on nonchalantly. "The algea--the flock of nosoi that sung in the morning--is here to protect souls at risk of being claimed by malevolent entities. Do you suppose they're here for us or older souls? Probably not us, though that would be nice. There are enough of them to wrest the soul haunting this manor away, though."
Feeling more comfortable, you try the other doors in the kitchen, and discover a moldy and dusty pantry, as well as two sets of stairs, one going up, and another going down into what smells like a root cellar.
Ezramalkun has warned you about bad birds up above and monstrous dogs below.
She also warns you that she senses bad spirit energy beyond the door to the east.
There is still the entrance hall on this floor, and the other wing of the manor.
While sleeping, Abella’s mind turns to the elusive void mirror and how it might be of interest to her studies.
Abella folds her arms as they listen to Ezramalken and consider their options. ”’Bad spirit energy’ is my forté. At least when it is not just the weak-hearted projecting their feeble fears onto their environment. You have no idea how many times I have wasted an evening on such ‘leads.’”
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Phaed opens the door to the family hall.
A line of grimy windows along the north wall faces four large portraits to the south.
Each of these paintings presents a life-sized depiction of a different person: a teenaged boy carrying a crossbow in the woods; a teenaged girl building a dollhouse that looks like Xarwin Manor; a red-haired woman standing in a graveyard, a pair of matching crimson-handled hatchets hanging from her belt straps, ravens swarming around her; and a stern-looking man holding a silver telescope in his hands as he looks up into the night sky.
Each of the paintings bear the signature Asethanna Xarwin.
A plaque on the teenaged boy’s portrait reads “The Little Hunter.”
A plaque on the teenaged girl’s portrait reads “The Little Architect.”
A plaque on the painting of the red-haired woman reads “Self Portrait.”
A plaque on the stern man’s portrait reads “Lord of the Manor.”
No one notices that the paintings suddenly start to bleed—Ioseff Xarwin from the left wrist and the other three Xarwins in a line cutting across their brows.
DC 27 Will save from everyone!
Pavo
Portraits
Abella
Phaedra
Tuco
Shade