"Ha . . . ha ha ha," chuckles Neronius with genuine mirth at the suggestion that he himself climb down the rope. "Your confidence in my athletic prowess, however much appreciated, is misplaced. Nor would I risk the strain on the rope. No, no, it shall have to be one of the two of you who go for help," he says to Rekkart and Patrissa.
Well you swing the axe then Carolyn! The rot is spreading and will kill him! Trevor hands the axe over and tries to get the sick man down. Sit down! Please sit down! You have two children to go home to! Remember your children!
Rekkart chuckles and nods; “I will go.” he shifts his equipment and makes sure his sword is out of the way as he throws a leg over the ledge; “That should be tight, make sure it doesn’t slip. I’ll return with the guard.” He begins climbing down.
Rekkart easily makes his way down the side of the courthouse. About halfway down you notice that the rope is struggling, from below you hear him shout out; “It’s getting foggy here, I don’t think that’s…” then it goes silent. If you look over the edge you do not see Rekkart, and the fog is covering the ground and is billowing up the side of the building and climbing the tower itself. Bumping the rope, the tension is no longer there. There is no weight on the other end.
Stumble/falling toward Zinli, it swings out with a claw but it misses. He continues to stumble forward and lands face first against the wall. Rotten pieces of his foot begin to fall off.
Trevor swings the axe at Halfraks ankle, trying to sever it.
Tobold waits. He isn't any good in a physical tussle and is prepared to cause damage to what used to be Halgrak.
"Oh my!" exclaims the usually placid Neronius as he realizes the uncanny fog may have actually . . . consumed . . . Rekkart.
He turns to Patrissa: "Perhaps we should join the others. I have a gathering suspicion the only way out of this dilemma is to confront it head-on."
"We can't just chop off his toes again!" Carrie shouts, "Especially not when he's stumblin' around like a drunkard! What if you cut wrong and make it worse?"
She makes her way over to Halgrak and attempts to help him regain balance, "I think you need to sit back down, Halgrak. You shouldn't be walkin' so soon after, uh, 'surgery'."
"Then he dies 0 which honestly looks like it's gonna happen anyway. Someone better ready a tourniquet."
Zinli drops her manacles, and, taking the axe from Trevor's hands, has a go at DIY amputation.
Patrissa’s eyes go wide as it seems that Rekkart has vanished and then turn to daggers as Neronius seems non-impacted by what happens with a Perhaps we should join the others. “You offer no aid and when you do it is only to line your pockets.” she turns to look over the edge; “a parasite…” she back to the older man “You are a parasite, surviving only on what those around you are doing!” she takes one last look over the edge and the swaying rope and heads back down the stairs towards the main room
Two swings of the hatchet seems to be of no success. The stumbling of Halgrak seems to make it difficult. When Carrie attempts to balance out the half-orc, he can regain his footing and stand up again. As his weight is placed upon his leg where the rot is continuing to spread, you hear the bones grind and ligaments snapping as his ankle rolls and his foot falls off rending the flesh and muscle from his calf. With the loud thump Halgrak is on the floor. Blood, or what you think is blood, begins to steam out of his leg into a black pool around his lower half.
Without regard of his foot, Halgrak swipes his hand towards Carrie. Missing, his hand slams into the floor fingers first. The force behind the hit causes the nails on two fingers to break off and jam into the wood. He flails on the ground attempting to move but is slipping in the forming pool of blood.
From what is exposed, you see the rot continuing to spread up his leg.
Trevor grabs the axe back and tries again, cursing under his breath
Are there any healing potions left?! Arghhh1@#$#@^!
Trevor is very, very angry.
"I don't think so!" Zinli has her turn with the axe - again.
"Carrie, sweetheart, don't you wanna have a go with this thing? It's looking more desperate by the minute."
Neronius stays for a moment in the bell tower, looking out at the rising tide of fog, and then follows Patrissa down the stairs.
"Damn it..."
Carrie winces as she watches Halgrak fall apart. The only way to get him to hold still now would be to knock him out.
(Nonlethal)
Tobold looks on in frustration. Halgrek is so covered with people there is no way he can aid in bringing him down.
Trevor and Zinli take turns with the axe and both end up missing. Carrie punches their friend and the attack lands. This causes Halgrak to crumple to the ground. Laying in the pool of the black blood that is oozing out from his leg, Halgrak attempts to reach out toward Trevor. Milky dead eyes locking onto his fade as he falls back down and lays lifelessly on he ground.
Patrissa enters this room and she lets out a scream; “What happened to Halgrak? What did you do?” she moves forward quickly but stops short when the sight of the black blood enters her view. An audible gasp escapes her lips; “Not Halgrak… Rekkart is gone too.” her pouty lips quiver as she begins to cry.
Quickly on her heels is Neronius as he enters the room.
Seeing Halgrak succumb to disease and wounds, Trevor throws his axe down and spews curses.
He eventually stops and pulls out his alchemy kit and makes himself a healing extract.
"We did... Surprisingly little, actually," Zinli steps away from the jet black blood, not wanting any to get on her shoes. "He somehow sewed his toes back together, and immediately started dying from some kind of... rot? Or he was dead the whole time. It's hard to tell."
"What happened to Rekkart?! F$&#, people are dropping like flies."
If whatever ghost is behind this is watching, it better show itself or I swear that if I die I am going to become a ghost put this axe into it's head!
Neronius' eyes widen as he enters and sees Halgrak in bloody pieces. "Ah . . . Hm . . ." He looks at Zinli. "Rekkart? He volunteered to go for help. Alas, the fog . . . ate . . . him."
"Ate?!" Zinli stares at Neronius' face. "You're not shitting me. F%##, for real?" She shakes her head. "The things you hear in this job."
She gives a resigned shrug. "Well. Where to next? The f$~$ is left to explore? Aside from the spinning lady upstairs."
Carrie gazes solemnly at Halgrak's broken body for a while, before slowly and silently making her way over to one of the couches in the room and sitting down, glowering at the opposite wall with a thousand-yard stare.
Neronius steeples his fingers as he thinks, and finally says: "Well, we have attempted a variety of physical ways to make our escape, and have so far been unsuccessful. The malevolent spirit is in full control of our surroundings, and is, apparently, not willing to let us leave. Perhaps there is a way we could conjure the spirit, and converse with it?"
"Using what? I'm really not familiar with this type of rituals."
Anger, frustration, sadness, fear… waves of emotions come over the remaining nine of you. When Malgrim was taken from the group there was an acceptance because he was a bad dude, but Halgrak and as most of you are just learning Rekkart seemed like upstanding guys.
Ebin is surprisingly quiet. No jokes through this last sequence of events.
Killian sees Carrie shift in her silence to the couches and he moves to sit beside her. Like a father would to his daughter, he puts a hand on her back and gently rubs it; “I don’t understand what is happening… it doesn’t seem right. Take a moment and rest, but not too long because we must move on.” he goes quiet and continues to gently rub her back.
Patrissa is fuming as she moves face to face with Neronius; “The only reason he volunteered was because you would not climb down. He offered to lower you down. When he vanished,” her eyes begin to well up with tears but continues on; “All you could say are do was say perhaps we should join the others.” Her tears begin to stream down her face as she begins to cry like someone who has just lost a loved one. Madge moves up and holds Patrissa's hand in an attempt to comfort her. Patrissa kneels down and hugs the halfling woman.
Trevor sighs. Let us see if there are other rooms we haven't checked. Perhaps we will find something,and we stick together and move in twos at the very least!
Zinli sighs. "I know it's tough, sweetheart, but I'm sure there wasn't much else that could be done. What's the point of going after him down the same rope, except getting one more person dead?"
"Alright. If we're gonna summon this spirit, or whatever, how about we go straight for its home? Where did Mord live?"
Tolbold watches the group interactions and then he says "Did we find a way down? I'm sure there is a dungeon or torture chamber or something here."
"Yes, yes, by all means head into a torture chamber. Meanwhile, I'll keep thinking."
"You sure? A torture chamber sounds like the type of place you'd see a ghost in!" Zinli jokes around, but her tone is markedly more morose.
She reloads her pistol, and keeps it in her dominant hand. "Let's go, then. Sweetie?" she calls out to Carrie. "You coming?"
Trevor pulls himself together and joins Zinli, making sure everyone is accounted for.
"Yeah, sorry," Carrie answers weakly, "I just... Need a moment."
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before returning to her feet.
The group collects themselves following the loss of two of their companions. One seemingly vanishing, the other laying lifeless in a pool of his own blood. Heading down the stairs to the first floor, they leave behind the continuing rotting body of Halgrak.
At the base of the stairs are the crumpled shards of crystal from the chandelier that had fallen only a few hours earlier. Your lights from spells/lantern/torches flickers off the marble in this large great room and your eyes fall on a body crumpled in the middle of this room.
Eyes adjusting, you realize that it is Rekkart’s body. “Rekkart!” As Patrissa realizes who it is, she attempts to burst past you to go and reach him.
"No, no, love, let us go first," Zinli walks around the fallen chandelier, and makes her way towards Rekkart, her pistol still in hand. She stops at a respectable distance.
"Rekkart?" she calls out to the inert body, pointing the cannon of her pistol at the ceiling - it had been a close call with Marge, and she didn't want to off the poor guy if there was still some life in him.
He was probably dead - but after what just happened with Halgrak, there was no telling. "You okay, sugar?"
She tries to discern the man's face, or at least determine whether he's simply unconscious or super duper dead.
Trevor cautiously approaches the prone form of Rekjart with his blade drawn. There was ni telling what might happen if Rejkart responded.
Tolbold cautiously approaches Rekkart from the side so he has a clean line of fire if it is needed. He'll let the more martial members of the group approach him.
Approaching Rekkart’s body, you can clearly see that the man is still breathing. His coloring hasn’t changed like Halgrak’s had previously. It seems that he is merely sleeping or unconscious.
To those that are still by the chandelier, Ebin’s eyes begin to dart around; “Do you hear that?” He begins shuffling around, checking the door where Madge was found, the other closet door beside that. “What is that?” He places an ear to the steel door to listen through. In that moment you see this steam bellowing off the door. Ebin lets out a scream;
This instantly draws your attention as Ebin’s ear and hand that he placed against it has instantly froze to the door. The pathetic example of a court jester tries to pull himself free… but all you hear is him screaming as it stars to rip his flesh.
Tobold moves closer and casts ray of frost on the door near Ebin's hand hoping to cool things down.
"Stop moving, you fool!" shouts Neronius. With a heavy sigh, the portly man moves closer to Ebin and examines the door without touching it.
Don't pull! Trevor hurries over. If it is stuck, we need to heat it up. Treor tries holing the jester in place. Let me try to help!
"Heat it up with what? It's a massive steel door! And burning it up is only going to cause more damage," Zinli unloads her pistol and puts it back in its holster as quickly as she can.
She gets a piece of soap out of her backpack, runs to Ebin's side, and tries to apply it to the gnome's face as best as she can to help him pull away from the door. "Anyone has some kind of lubricant?!"
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As he's working to light a torch with flint and steel, Neronius winces to see Zinli try to pull the side of the man's face away from the frozen door.
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Ebin begins to get more and more worked up; “Get me off here!! Just get me off! It’s so cold…” Even with you trying to sooth him and get him to settle down, it isn’t working. He continues to try and pull away from the door.
Tolbold’s first though is that it is hot, there is steam rolling off the door. But as he gets closer he sees is more of a frost fog that is bellowing off the door.
As Neronius gets close to the door, without touching it, he has a different experience than Ebin. Where he has just say it’s so cold, Neronius doesn’t feel the cold from as close as he is to the door.
You have heard of disturbances from the spiritual realm to the Material Plane, they are called poltergeist. You also know that each time there has been an event, there is also something to discover or to learn.
The chandelier was right outside the door where Madge was.
The dog was where the note from the judge was found.
The flying books revealed the reading from Punish the Guilty.
The coffer was where you found all the supplies.
The giant leech was where you found the Varisian silks scarves and the moneylender’s journal.
What might the dancing lady be guarding.
Trevor recalls a time when he was younger, and he went to pick up one of his father’s tools he left outside in the winter. The steel was so cold that it has frozen to his hand. His father had warmed up water and gently poured it over his hand and tool. Loosening up the grip the cold had on his hand.
Neronius is successful in lighting his torch, using it to fight off the cold and free Ebin from the prison this door has become.
Zinli meets Neronius' gaze. "I stand corrected, this actually worked. good job!"
"Alright; Rekkart is alive as well. Anyone knows first aid?"
She has a look at Ebin's burn.
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Neronius sighs and reaches into a pocket inside his vest to produce a small vial. "A healing draught," he says, handing it to Zinli. "Rekkart was following my invitation to climb down the rope, after all. Though I hope recompense is forthcoming."
He begins pacing, with a distant, thoughtful look. At last, he nods to himself and mumbles: "Yes, yes--elementary, from a certain point of view."
Carrie breathes a sigh of relief as she notices the allegedly-gone Rekkart laid out on the floor, but winces as Ebin's screams echo around the hall and steal her attention.
She makes her way over to the offending door, the broken crystals crunching beneath her. Tilting her head in thought, she gives a cursory glance over it.
"Huh," she muses, "Whaddya think would make the door that cold?"
Perhaps another ghost?
"Magic, that's for sure. What says our expert?" Zinli asks, with a glance at Neronius.
Tobold shakes his head and says "I thought it was hot. I blew that one." Looking around he remembers only one person went into the jury room. He says "We should check out the jury room while they recover and then we can head downstairs." He then walks into the room and looks for anything out of place.
"Ladies and gentlemen," says Neronius, pacing with his hands clasped behind his back and his chest puffed out, "I surmise what we are dealing with is . . . a poltergeist!"
He waits a moment for his dramatic revelation to land before continuing. "Cast your minds back to every dangerous or violent incident that has occurred during our explorations of the courthouse. Each has led to the discovery of a vital clue as to what happened during the criminal trial the jurors participated in almost a decade ago. For example, where we found the moneylender's journal was where we fought the fearsome, enormous, leech-like creature. The note from the judge was discovered after an encounter with the terrifying hound. The trauma and rage of Jarbin Mord, I suggest to you, has manifested in a lethal--though perhaps successful--attempt to have his conviction re-examined."
A beat. "Okay; I don't know shit about ghosts, but I'm trusting you on that one."
"So how do we get rid of it?"