"This isn't right.
Abella feels a sudden, agonizing pain in the left wrist, while Phaedra and Tuco feel it in their heads.
The paintings then lash out with occult energy to inflict bleeding wounds on four of you!
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes 1d8+3 slashing damage and is frightened 1 by the conviction that these wounds were caused by a loved one.
Failure As success, but 2d8+6 slashing damage, 1d6 persistent bleed damage, and frightened 2.
Critical Failure As failure, but 4d8+12 slashing damage, 2d6 persistent bleed damage, and frightened 3. Increase the value of the character’s malevolence condition by 1.
Pavo
Portraits
Abella
Phaedra
Tuco
Shade
Phaed begins to tremble. Nooooo! Blood seeps out from under her mask as she flails ineffectively at Self Portrait before stumbling back into the kitchen.
Luckily her unique physiology is hardy, and the bleeding stops a moment later.
Tuco tosses his cloak over a painting.
Tuco has felt worse and tosses his cloak over a painting.
Tuco then buckles down and does his best to purge the negatives feelings from his body.
Shade is slashed, and bleeds.
Despite the pain, and chaos, Tuco manages to disable one of the paintings!
Pavo
Portraits
Abella
Phaedra
Tuco
Shade
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Hemorrhaging blood from countless cuts, Pavo grabs hold of the frame of the Little Hunter and tries to wrest it off of the wall and turn it to face the wall. He then limps toward the kitchen. His vision darkens and clouds as he stumbles past his companions. "Too much. It's too much," he mumbles his warning.
Abella holds her free hand over her mouth as she tries to rush away. Once she’s clear, she finally lets herself retch.
Abella is slashed, and bleeds, but flees to the kitchen.
Tuco, left alone in the hall, gets the haunt's full attention!
The haunt attempts to slash Tuco and inflict pain!
Success The creature takes 1d8+3 slashing damage and is frightened 1 by the conviction that these wounds were caused by a loved one.
Failure As success, but 2d8+6 slashing damage, 1d6 persistent bleed damage, and frightened 2.
Critical Failure As failure, but 4d8+12 slashing damage, 2d6 persistent bleed damage, and frightened 3. Increase the value of the character’s malevolence condition by 1.
Pavo
Portraits
Abella
Phaedra
Tuco
Shade
Tuco flees the hall.
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Once Tuco is through the door, Pavo slams the door shut. "Just--just give me a moment to--to catch my breath," Pavo says. He looks incredibly pale, which is most likely due to half of his blood being in the haunted hallway rather than inside his body. He sits down and begins chasing down his errant, frightened thoughts.
Once he's regained his composure, he pulls out all of his tools and begins to sterilize them with whisky. "Shade," he says, "maybe you had best tend to the others. You're faster with your art than I am with mine. I'll stitch myself back together and try to put something together to boost my sanguinity."
Once he drives the needle into his flesh, he begins to wobble. "Oh. I didn't think that through." Fortunately, he does not faint.
Ezramalkun looks down from her perch in the rafters and says, "Yes, the spirits are strong in that direction."
What an awful family. Did anyone else's head feel attacked?
With so many bleeding, Shade channels the loving embrace of the Song of Spheres.
"That was definitely unpleasant." replies Shade as he cleans the blood off of himself. "Before we re-enter, we should be prepared. Only those that have a good chance at putting the haunt to rest should go in, and the others should be ready to retrieve us when we fall."
"Are the corrupted birds stronger than that?" he asks the nosoi while trying to stitch the wound on his neck with one hand while holding a mirror with the other.
Ezramalkun cocks her head as she thinks about Pavo's question. She explains that can sense the bad birds, but not precisely. The fact that they call out to her and try to lure her to them makes her think that they are bad and dangerous.
Let's go around.. Phaed looks to the Eastern door.
Tuco nods "Definitely around. I got one of those paintings covered but it clearly wasn't enough."
Maybe it’s the hazy sunlight filtering through the windows, maybe it’s because Ezramalkun assures you that she doesn’t sense anything in that direction, or maybe it’s because you really want to sleep in a bed tonight, you make your way back through the servants’ wing, checking behind all the doors. You find several dusty bedrooms of various sizes, each featuring a single drab bed, a footlocker, a dresser with a wash basin atop it, a clay chamber pot, and a grimy window. A glance through the footlockers’ contents reveals that the servants were indeed a cook, a butler, a maid, a tutor, a carpenter, and a groundskeeper.
You exit through the door at the end of the servants’ corridor, and into the manor’s entrance hall.
Motes of dust drift through the air. To the north, a pair of wide staircases ascend to a balcony that encircles the room above. An old, musty carpet on the otherwise-bare wood floor leads up to a double door between the stairs.
Four other doors provide exits to either side, while the southwestern and southeastern walls have tall cabinets and coat racks set against them. On the upper floor, the railed ten foot wide balcony circles this room, leaving the central area open to the second floor’s ceiling twenty feet above.
Phaedra, Pavo, and Shade hear the faint ticking of what sounds like a grandfather clock somewhere above.
Tuco comments nervously "Dinning hall first?"
Let's.
Pavo listens but doesn't hear anything.
The double doors open onto a large ballroom with a wide, open floor of dust-caked woodwork. A pair of grand brick fireplaces stand to the west and east; low stone benches fitted with rotting cushions flank either side of each fireplace. Several dozen antlers from deer and elk adorn the walls around and over the fireplaces.
To the north, three long risers lead up to a stage with two large chairs placed on it. A flight of stairs leads upward to either side of the chairs, and a ratty tapestry of red and black—the colors of House Thrune— hang behind it.
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"Well, I don't see any aberrations waiting to strangle us or drain our blood," Pavo says. "Just an awfully decorated ballroom." He puts away the brass trumpet and draws the thief's rapier and his own sword before cautiously moving into the ballroom attentive for any manifestation of the manor's spirits.
Phaed approaches the chairs carefully.
"Well, we knew there was an association with House Thrune, right?" says Shade. "And no dining room. That's not the use for this hall."
Phaedra steps forward and what looks to be Ioseph Xarwin manifests in the western chair!
The wild-eyed figure rises up from his seat and raises his left arm, red smoke bleeding from the stump where his left hand should be. The smoke quickly coalesces into a misty red hand, pointing a finger at Abella!
His voice booms as he proclaims, “You have what’s mine!”
At the word “mine” his voice grows louder and louder, seemingly shaking the foundations of the manor before the ghost collapses into a blood red puddle and disappears.
Hanging within the antlers on either side of the room, two snakelike skeletons animate and slither off the walls to attack!
The green snake moves down the wall, across the floor, and tries to bite Phaed with its serpentine jaws.
Plus DC 20 Fortitude save vs:
Similarly, on the other side of the room, the pink snake moves down the wall, across the floor, and tries to bite Tuco.
Plus DC 20 Fortitude save vs:
???
Pavo
Tuco
Shade
Abella
Phaedra
Tuco gets bitten but isn't otherwise harmed.
Tuco then drops into his bow stance and fires twice
Tuco then grabs the snake.
Phaed dances like a snake! sssssssss…
Cast: Verbal (free-action)
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 slithers into a flank and strikes out with her whip like a cobra!
Abella glances about in mock confusion at the spectral Xalwin’s accusation. She finally grins and shrugs. ”Look, the blood mist hand is good theatrics—may have to steal that—but it is simply impossible for me to have something that belongs to you. You see, as a wise woman—me—once said: ‘finders keepers losers weepers.’ And then ‘you are dead and I am not, so suck it.’”
”Oh, necrophidii! One of the classic necromancer bits. See, you take a bunch of bones and bind them together but you do jot animate it with negative energy, so it is not actually undead, but a construct! To the untrained eye, none can tell the difference. Great to mix it up a little and f@+~ with the clerics, get them to waste a channel or two and then they start dancing and hypnotizing people while your other minions flank. Ingenious, really.”
She zaps both of them with an exploratory electric arc.
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"I don't like it when necromancers screw with the clerics. I really don't." grumbles Shade.
As these things seem rather tough, literally, Shade starts the combat by casting spiritual weapon
A starknife with blades like butterfly wings forms and flies at pink.
He then steps back.
Tuco's arrows miss, but he manages to grab the pink necrophidius!
Phaed dances like a snake and inspires her friends. She lashes the green necrophidius, but her whip doesn't seem to do any damage, despite hitting with a loud crack.
Pavo moves and stabs at pink twice with his rapier, doing quite a bit of damage, although perhaps not as much as a mace?
Shade sends a butterfly blade to strike at Pink, but misses.
Abella, after insulting the ghost of Ioseph Xarwin, identifies the necrophidii and then sends electricity arching at them.
Pink takes full damage from the lightning, but green dodges the arc entirely.
Green, not to be outdone by Phaed's snakelike moves, begins its own
Success The creature is unnerved by the swaying and becomes flat-footed until the end of the necrophidius's next turn.
Failure The creature is distracted by the swaying, becoming stunned 1. After it recovers, it is flat-footed until the end of the necrophidius's next turn.
Critical Failure As failure, but stunned 3.
Pink tries to break free of Tuco's hold.
And then attempts to bite first Pavo.
But misses.
And then attempts to bite Tuco.
But will also miss.
Pink Necrophidius -37
Green Necrophidius
Pavo
Tuco
Shade
Abella
Phaedra
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Abella thinks she is just admiring the bone composition of the constructs, but she is actually getting entranced by the swaying. ”Oh…right…no offense, Shade…just professional…respect…you understand.”
She lazily fires off another arc of electricity, too distracted to think of anything more substantial to contribute.
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Pavo glances at the undulating necrophidius despite himself and grimaces. He tries to take advantage of Tuco distracting the construct between them, but he keeps getting distracted by the other's dance. He thrusts with the rapier and slashes with his sword. "Blades see to work just fine," he comments.
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+
+
Despite being somewhat distracted Tuco dodges the snake.
Tuco moves next to green.
Before grabbing green.
Phaed studies the snake's dance, learning new moves.
She raises her shield to compensate for the flat-footedness.
She turns her mask to Pavo. You can overcome anything these snakes can throw at you, my dear!
With a well placed strike of his short sword, Pavo sends the pink necrophidius crumbling to the floor in pieces.
He then moves over to the green necrophidius and strikes another critical blow!
Tuco strides to green and sends an arrow right into it's bony ribs. But the second arrow goes wide.
Abella casually tosses an arc of electricity at the green necrophidius.
But it manages to partially avoid the jolt.
Phaed steals some of the dancing snake's moves, raises her shield, and gives Pavo some thoughtful guidance.
Green Necrophidius -42 hp
Pavo
Tuco
Shade
Abella
Phaedra
Shade sustains his spell, and attacks green.
"Yeah, my best spells are useless against these things."
He then draws his starknife and throws it at green (if it still stands).
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Shade sends his spiritual butterfly blade slashing into the green necrophidius, and it crumbles to the ground. Nothing else immediately manifests or attacks.
Phaed looks at all the destroyed bones. Well… we finally got to meet my long-lost ancestor… and I dare say it went well. But it is also… worrisome…
She turns her mask to Abella and waits to hear what she has to say.
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Abella rears back in authentic outrage. ”Me? Steal silverware? What do you take me for? I am a necromancer, not a thief. I picked a few objects off that corpse in the kitchen, but nothing particularly notable. Some gold, that rapier, some tools, and an unholy symbol of Norgorber. Hardly anything worth coming back for.” She throws up her hands and pouts. ”Besides, Phaedra is the legal owner of this place, so even if I did take something else—which I did not—it would be hers, not his. And yes, I may have robbed in my younger days, but it is a legally distinct action.” She may have technically stole, too, but she prefers to see that as “making a successful claim on an item of disputed ownership.”
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Phaed is also pouting. She flops down into the chair on the stage. Hmmph. She toys with the silver butter knife that she stole from her own kitchen.
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Pavo glances at the specter. "I'm reasonably certain the thief that Ezramalkun killed didn't have anything belonging to Ioseff. Did you stumble across anything while you were studying the caul?" He taps his head with the side of the rapier blade. "Maybe he means knowledge? Some wizards are covetous of their secrets."
Tuco checks over the snake "bodies?" to see if he can learn anything more.