The group makes their way out, without stopping to check any of the yet unexplored areas.
For clarity, these caves still have some unexplored areas if you care. It's very meta knowledge that these could or could not have interesting loot, but I think it's perfectly ok to come up with a in-character excuse to explore them.
The way out has two possibilities. The way the group came in, that is, the music room with the piano, or the main entrance, with the stuffed manticore.
If you use the music room:
The group makes their way outside with no further issues.
If you use the main entrance:
Roll a Perception DC 20 check. Open the next spoiler if successful.
Spoiler:
You smell smoldering fur. It's a haunt. If you beat its init of 10, you can act before it.
The manticore moves and it actually swings at Ano.
@Ano, that is a touch, flat footed attack. It hits. Roll a DC 15 Reflex to avoid catching fire.
Outside, the rain is still pouring strong. However, being outside the oppressing manor is a big relief. The group looks ahead. The servants' house is still burned down. Before, there were a few ravens sitting atop its ruins (link for reference). Now there are thousands of the sickly looking ravens. Every single one of them watches the party as they exit the house.
If the fungus is somehow connected to the box, and the box is linked to necromancy or Aldern's undeath somehow, then things that banish undead, like a consecrate spell, may have a more permanent effect on the fungus.
Balancing. Look if you're ok with knowing how I plan to do things or if you want to chip in:
Thanks for the insight. But mirror image can get old quick. Your last encounter with the necromancer in Dr. Habe's used it. As a wizard, he made your lives annoying with Stinking Cloud and there were other interesting factors (like the tieflings and Alicia's empathy towards them).
Aldern wasn't a spellcaster. Maybe some potions could help? You can't put Mirror Image in a potion. Also, his minions delayed you for a single round, which allowed him to act at least once (exactly once).
Some time ago in my RL group, I would adjust the enemy's HPs, and only HP, to fit the party's power. That worked well at the time. Because characters could still be effective with the way they were built. Martials could hit with their swords, blast casters could hit their blasts, DC casters could be effective with their spells and rogues could sneak attack.
In the book, Aldern is supposed to have 3d6 HP left after defeating the revenant if he had help from the minions. If he didn't have help, the revenant was actually supposed to win. 3d6 is ridiculous. Ethan could kill him by accident with a single channel. I chose to instead leave him at his original full HP of 90. But considering the party dealt over 90 damage in one round, I think Aldern maybe should have had over 200 HP.
Of course, the party was fully buffed, and no serious resources had been used. But I'd love to read other thoughts.
@Juri: The twitch was supposed to be foreshadowing him rising again and attacking. I agree with you the fight was a bit anticlimatic. I did buff up the fight, but considering past difficulties in the campaign, I didn't want to overdo it. But the group's overreaction was funny enough to warrant the encounter to end. You still have the fungus anyhow.
Aldern's already dead body gets slashed up and completely destroyed.
Donimah:
The box has a feint necromancy aura. The same aura extends from the rest of the wall fungus, as if it used to somehow linked to the box.
You can also use this roll to identify one of the aforementioned magical items.
For a moment, you think that Aldern's body flinched. When you look again, it's just there, laying on the ground.
Arrian:
You the fungus carefully. He's never heard of, seen or studied anything like this. Donimah's assessment seems more likely, that this is some necromantic ritual that went wrong.
Adding the fact that Alicia detected actual evil on it. The means to destroy it completely may go beyond physical damage to it.
Alicia's channel and Ethan's holy fire hit the fungus. Under the magical pressure, it very quickly reduces in size to a minimum.
It's evil. It's so evil... If it were a person, it'd be Hitler. If it were a toy, it'd be the lego you step on. If it were tea, it would be a prank laxative. If it were a sound, it'd be the buzzing of a mosquito when you're trying to sleep. If it were... anyway, you get my gist.
Alicia:
Alicia feels Iesha's spirit wash over her. It's a nice tickly feeling that makes Alicia slightly dance a little. For a moment, Alicia feels Varisian.
You get +1 unnamed bonus to performance checks for 1 hour.
Arrian's first hit slices Aldern's already punished body, from the others and the revenant. It succumbs unable to continue fighting. His face that matched Arrian's transforms back into the undead wearing a mask made of human skin that falls off. For the first time, the group is able to look at the room.
The air in this damp cavern reeks of a horrific stench: a foul combination of decay, brine and mold. The cave contains a rickety table, its damp surface cluttered with all manner of what appears to be garbage: empty bottles, bits of clothing, crumpled bits of paper and more, lying in neatly organized rows.
Arrian:
Upon a closer look, you realize that the bits of clothing are yours. What appeared to be small random tears in your clothes in the past few weeks seem to match these bits. The pieces of paper have your handwriting and are orders you took from Jargie's customers. There's also other various items from your everyday life. There's an empty bottle of a perfume you tried and even a bit of hair that matches yours.
One thing that's definitely not yours is a stack of charcoal drawings on water-damaged parchment depicting you. In every one of them you are standing in a heroic pose. There are several dozen pages of this.
Another thing is a letter written in a graceful hand. It is addressed to Aldern at his Magnimar townhouse address. It reads as below:
"Aldern,
You have served us quite well. The delivery you harvested from the caverns far exceeds what I had hoped for. You may consider your debt to the Brothers paid in full. Yet I still have need of you, and when you awaken from your death, you should find your mind clear and able to understand this task more than in the state you lie in as I write this.
You shall remember the workings of the Sihedron ritual, I trust. You seemed quite lucid at the time, but if you find after your rebirth that you have forgotten, return to your townhouse in Magnimar. My agents shall contact you there soon - no need for you to bother the Brothers further. I will provide the list of proper victims for the Sihedron ritual in two days' time. Commit that list to memory and then destroy it before you begin your work. The ones I have selected must be marked before they die; otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste.
If others get in your way, though, you may do with them as you please. Eat them, savage them, or turn them into pawns - it matters not to me.
- Xanesha, Mistress of the Seven"
A painting leans against the far side of the table, facing a large leather chair that sits nearby. This chair's high back and cushion are horribly stained by smears of rotten meat and its arms are sticky with blood.
Looking at the painting:
The painting has been painted over with blood and bits of runny rotten flesh. Its original subject would require the work of an expert painter, but now it is a caricature of Arrian.
Although the original subject is obscured, the painting depicts an open window in the back that shows a portion of a city skyline.
Knowledge (local) DC 15 to identify it as in the spoiler below.
Spoiler:
Magnimar
The horrific stench of the room seems strongest to the west, where the cave's wall has been overtaken by a horrific growth of dark green mold and dripping fungi. At the center, a patch of black tumescent fungus grows, its horny ridges and tumorlike bulbs forming what could almost be taken to be a humanoid outline. What appears to have once been an exquisite puzzle box the size of a man's fist lies smashed to the ground at the fungoid shape's feet.
I'll wait for you to act if and how you want to approach the wall fungus.
Aldern has on his body magical leather armor, a magical war razor and two magical rings. The mask he wore is also magical. His clothes, despite stinky, are still a noble's outfit and can be worth money. Probably after being washed... He also has a beautiful cameo with Arrian's portrait in it. Finally, he has a key.
Feel free to roll Spellcraft with a casting of Detect Magic to identify these magical items.
A smaller table sits against the southern wall, its surface heaped with plates and platters of rotten, maggot-infested meat. The table also has a silver key ring on it. It has two keys. A larger iron one with a round opal and a smaller bronze one with an unusually long tang ending in a set of three notched blades. Its head resembles a roaring lion.
Yellow ghoul dies even if saves Orange goblin:1d20 ⇒ 4 Blue goblin:1d20 ⇒ 11 Aldern:1d20 ⇒ 16
Haste was already over when the fight started. It had 2 rounds left when you got to the door, and there were 3 rounds of buildup. So I put Donimah's turn in front of y'all's so she cast it before everyone's turn, so it's now up for everyone.
An amazing display of skill, magic and ferocity proves why the group is called Arrian's raiders, the Sandpoint heroes. Arrian cuts down a ghoul and a goblin ghast in two quick strikes. Alicia swings her magnificent weapon that doesn't give the ghouls any chance, killing two of them. She even bites the rotting, stinking flesh off one of them which also kills it.
@Alicia: Please roll a Fort save vs. poison
Juriya lights up a holy artifact that makes all of the undead's skin burn. Ano jumps in and stabs another goblin ghast killing it. I changed your target because Alicia isn't a merciful paladin, but one that strikes with great vengeance. Will many of them severely hurt, Ethan brings forth the power of Erastil to make three of them succumb as well, and even Aldern gets hurt by it.
However, as hurt as Aldern was from fighting the revenant, he is still very powerful. Without looking away from Arrian, he answers Alicia "No, Vorel is long gone. Call me His Lordship, hahahahaHAHAHAHA". The last of the goblin ghasts also attacks Arrian
Ethan's power washes over the undead. Juriya's bolt flies just above the ghoul's head.
Will saves:
Red ghoul:1d20 ⇒ 1 Pink ghoul:1d20 ⇒ 4 Yellow ghoul:1d20 ⇒ 18 Purple ghoul:1d20 ⇒ 2 Blue goblin:1d20 ⇒ 10 Red goblin:1d20 ⇒ 3 Orange goblin:1d20 ⇒ 4 Green goblin:1d20 ⇒ 15 Aldern:1d20 ⇒ 5
The face on Aldern changes. He breaks into a wide grin, picks up his weapon again, stands slowly, bows before Arrian and says "I wonder how your deaths shall affect your friends. What things might you have done that will go unfinished? What will those broken promises spawn? How will your murders shape the world?"
He says "Kill them." and the ghouls and undead goblins. Aldern himself stays back, but pulls out a strange mask made of sewn sections of human faces. His face changes to that of Arrian.
So this was a weird still in rounds but not really action. Consider all this as their "turn". The reason for this is partially because my PC is having problems... Again... So we're in combat. Party's up.
Donimah's haste has 2 rounds remaining once the following starts:
Arrian cast Divine Favor and has judgement still running because we're still in combat rounds. (1 round preparation)
Ethan cast Hedging Weapons on himself, Communal Align Weapon on the party (good) (2 rounds preparation)
From now on, Ethan needs to use a move action each round to move his Spiritual Weapon (2 rounds remaining)
Donimah casts Visualization of the mind, Mage Armor, Long Arm, Shield (4 rounds preparation)
Ano hasn't posted yet, they will participate once they do post, no rush needed/expected.
I'm assuming that once each person finishes preparations, they move inside.
Alicia:
Alicia finds the following scene: the ghouls the group has seen earlier are joining in on a fight. A very sickly looking Aldern Foxglove is fighting the revenant from before. The revenant is moving in a very special way. Her movements are accelerated, not unlike your own from Donimah's magic. Along with Aldern, 4 undead-looking goblins are bashing desperately at the revenant. Despite the revenants rage-induced haste, being completely surrounded by undead bashing at it makes it clear that this is a losing fight. The undead leave little room for her to attack Aldern. It is receiveing heavy punishment and it doesn't look like it will stand for much longer.
Confident, Aldern looks at the paladin and his gaze is a mixture of fear and delight.
Feel free to post what you do in the one round before Arrian comes in. The orange ghoul has already been hurt by Ethan's magic.
Alicia and Arrian:
Arrian sees the following scene: The revenant is barely standing from the banishment of many undead surrounding the revenant. A sickly looking Aldern holding a war razor strikes a blow on the revenant and it can't stand anymore. It falls to the floor, still looking at him in rage, but unable to fight anymore. All the undead look at Arrian but none move. Only Aldern says "No! You were supposed to die! You still live!"
Then, his face completely changes. Despite the sickly look, his face looks sad, almost looking like a lost boy. He drops to his knees and says "Please, help me!" Starting to sob, he says "I can't help it, he may come again, I can't control him..." He looks up and says "I'm begging you, please help me." The undead around him stand back, not really doing anything but standing at guard.
Please post in spoilers anything that the others wouldn't hear, and in the open what they would.
Ano, Donimah, Ethan and Juriya:
After Alicia goes in, the fighting sound continues. As Arrian goes in, the sound dies down, and a conversation seems to start.
After making the difficult passage, where Ano surprised no one with her cat-like reflexes, the group moves on to the door where the ghouls entered. The sound of a fight can be heard.
The group chases the ghouls. The cavern opens up into a cramped tunnel that opens into a vertiginous gulf, a cathedral-like cavern with a roof arching thirty feet overhead and dropping into a sloshing pool of foamy seawater fifty feet below. A steep stone ledge winds down to these surging depths, its slope glistening with moisture and mold. A stone door stands in the northwestern wall about halfway down the slope.
The ground is extremely hard to navigate and requires a bit of care to. The ghouls seem to be walking fast towards a door that is half open. However, to follow them, the group needs to either climb or balance to get to the other side.
Climb or Acrobatics check. Creative solutions are also valid.
@Ethan: The ghouls have walked out of line of sight. If you like you can use a move action to have your bow chase, but it can't shoot farther than the spell's range, which is 150 feet at this level.
@Team: Looks like you guys are taking one round to recollect and buff up. If Ano is dropping her rage, she's fatigued also?
They're double moving at 30ft per move. You won't be able to catch them.
If you guys are chasing again, I need to know the following: How do you handle Alicia's slower movement? How does Ethan handle his Spiritual Weapon? Does Juriya pick up her crossbow?
@Juri: Fair enough. Also, keep your bomb, Alicia and Arrian did the job.
Donimah hits the ghoul with Alicia and Arrian, as if in a dance, cut down the ghouls in front of them. Ano has trouble concentrating in the cave with familiar elements to the last time they fought in a cave.
Perception DC 14:
In the distance, you hear a cry of rage, then another cry of what sounds like help.
The ghouls in the distance that were making towards the group stop on their tracks and turn back, leaving the group alone with the dead ghouls at their feet.
Let's stay in rounds. Arrian, your judgement is still up while we're in rounds.
@Juriya: One thing that doesn't matter now but may in the future. I remember that you're always walking with a crossbow in one hand and a rapier in the other. But you also throw bombs. Since you don't have the vestigial arm discovery, you have to drop one of them to throw your bombs. Unless this works some other way I haven't thought of.
Juriya shoots the ghoul right in the middle of the forehead (what's with the -4? They're not in melee yet). It does an unintentional backflip and stays on the ground. Two others approach the group fast. Two of them get sliced up by Alicia by her powerful blows, where one of them gets cleanly sliced in half during its charge.
The other two get to the group and attack Alicia. In the far side of the cave, six more appear.
The ghoul approaches a bit more and sniffs the air. Upon realization, it shrieks and charges the group. Four other ghouls appear from behind the wall as well. In the distance behind them more ghoul sounds are heard.
Perception DC 14:
In the distance, you hear the voice of a shriek which can be interpreted as grief.
@Alicia: No light effect. You replaced it for your french singing. BTW, do tiny angels come out playing the violin for the solo?
@Arrian: That'd be Survival.
Arrian detects very light tracks following the western passage. He can see a ghoul exiting a hiding spot, probably to investigate the light and sound source.
I'm assuming you somehow light up something for the non-darkvision folks.
The spiral staircase goes down 80 feet and end in a limestone cavern. The walls drip with moisture, and swaths of black and dark blue mold grow in spiraling, tangled patterns on the floor, ceiling, and walls. Rubble and broken bones clutter the floor, and a rhythmic sound—like the breathing of some immense creature—echoes through the cave from three tunnels, one to the north and two to the west. Of the two western tunnels, the southernmost one seems to be a relatively new creation.
It is very dark here. Those who cannot see in the dark need a light source. Additionally, there is no indication of where the revenant ran off to.
The door opens to a corridor that winds around to show a room with piles of broken stone, dirt, and a few ruined pickaxes lining its edges. The floor in the middle of the room has been torn up to reveal an ancient set of stone spiral stairs, obviously of much older construction than the surrounding basement, winding deep into the bedrock below. A foul stink, like that of rotten meat, wafts up on a cold breeze from the darkness.
Perception DC 15:
You notice a sudden increase in the stink of rotten flesh.
It's a haunt! If you beat its initiative of 10 you can act before it!
Arrian:
You experience a sudden vision of Aldern, sweaty, filthy, and wild-eyed, digging away at the stone floor of this room with a pickaxe. With each swing, he grunts out two words: "For you." You know that Aldern is speaking of you. As the vision ends, Aldern breaks through into the room beyond, and a horde of shrieking ghouls rises up to pull him into the darkness below before they turn their lambent eyes to you.
Make a DC 16 Will save vs fear. If you succeed, you shake off the vision and regain your senses. If you fail, the ghouls grab you and begin to tear and bite at your flesh. The others see you jerk and thrash in the air as if you were being shaken by a mob, and suddenly deep red claws and bite wounds appear on your flesh. You take 6d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 1, 6, 4, 5) = 23 damage, which can be halved by a DC 16 Fort save. You must also make a second DC 16 Fort save for an undisclosed effect. Feel free to describe to the others what happens.
That checks out. That's a pretty powerful spell for this mansion. @Ethan: You can target 2 creatures with this spell for the +4 bonus for 10 minutes. It doesn't stack with Alicia's aura of courage, but if for whatever reason Alicia isn't nearby you want to add someone to your spell on top of Ano?
@Ano: Maybe tell Alicia what was about to happen if Ethan hadn't cast the spell on you?
@Everyone: Encounter defeated/survived. What next?
The group follows the revenant to the place they last saw it. This room looks to have once been some sort of arcane workshop, although it now lies in ruin. A row of soggy books sits on the northern end of a workbench along the western wall. At the other end of the workbench, what looks like three iron birdcages sit, each containing a dead diseased rat. To the east, two stained-glass windows loom. The northern window depicts a thin man with gaunt features drinking a foul-looking brew of green fluid, while the southern one shows the same man but in an advanced state of decay, as if he had been dead for several weeks. His arms raised and head thrown back in triumph, his rotting body turns to smoke and spirals into a seven-sided box.
The gaunt man has very similar traits to Vorel Foxglove.
Perception DC 20:
You notice subtle movement in the stained-glass windows, as if the man depicted therein were sneering at the observer. It's a haunt.
You can act before it if you beat its initiative of 10.
Ano:
You experience a series of visions chronicling the various stages that Vorel went through in his quest to become a lich, from researching the works of previous liches, to gathering the components for the lich transformation potion, to building his phylactery, finally culminating in a vision of Vorel taking his potion and doubling over in agony as his body began to rot away. All of these visions take place in as if in a realm of animated stained-glass windows, which should obviously explain the true nature of the windows in Foxglove Manor. As Vorel doubles over, you are filled with blinding shame that a loved one would do this to themselves, followed by a burning rage that you were stopped before you finished your ritual. These visions take only a few seconds to occur, then you double down in agony of anger.
If you fail a DC 14 Will save vs fear, open the next spoiler.
Spoiler:
You are filled with terror at the knowledge that Vorel has already succeeded in transforming himself into a lich, and must flee at top speed upstairs to try to find "your" child and rescue her. Anyone who gets in the character's way or tries to stop you suddenly seems to transform into Vorel, and you must attack that character at the best of your ability until you can continue on your flight up to a room in the second floor.
Even if you make the save, or someone sleeps the haunt by beating its Perception and initiative, you can read the spoiler and act without an effect, and RP accordingly.
There is a door to the south that has recently been opened that leads to a spiral staircase into the darkness below.
The revenant sets out downstairs. It takes the quickest route down. On the ground floor, it opens a door that was previously untouched by the group to reveal a staircase that goes down. The stairs land on a kitchen with a large oaken table, its surface covered with moldy stains and rat droppings sitting in its center. Shelves line the walls, and an oversized fireplace dominates the northeast portion of the room. The shelves in the southwest wall are in a much greater state of disarray, and two one-foot-wide cracks in the wall near the floor lead south into the earth beyond the basement talls.
The revenant continues through the southern corridor. As the group passes the kitchen, armor clanking and with hurried steps after the revenant, a few oily, diseased rats slither through the tight confines of the cracks on the wall. A rising wave of rodent squeeks can be heard.
Iesha continues on her path. The group could continue following her, or wait for Alicia to catch up.
Hi guys, sorry for the delay. My PC is getting some wifi problems and until I can fix it, I can't update the map. Adequate parts should arrive tomorrow, let's hope all works out.
I forgot to add in the spoiler that the scarf (that now covers the mirror) is also a source of her self-loathing. Feel free to retcon your action in this regard if you like.
Hope everything is in order Juri.
The mirror, that was previously covered with Donimah's new scarf, is now also covered by Alicia's cloak. Somehowdon't think of Rise of Skywalker the revenant wakes from her crying trance. She rises from her chair, now nothing reminding her of her past self. She screams out "Aldern! I can smell your fear! You’ll be in my arms soon!" then, ignoring the group, marches outside the room as fast as she can.
Unless, someone wants to be in her way or stop her in some fashion?
Gathering the group's knowledge of revenants, the most effective action would probably be to remove all the sources of self-hatred from the revenant's field of view.
If it can't be reminded of itself, then it will start chasing its murderer, given that it instinctively knows its direction.
Rofl at that. Yeah, edge cases in hard rules can get ridiculous. But in Mythic rules, that is actually foreseen. The Uncanny Grapple Champion ability is built for that exact hilarious Jackie Chan-ness.
GM only:
A d20:1d20 ⇒ 9
The revenant seems to wake from her cries as the mirror is covered. It takes her a moment to center herself. However, she sees the scarf, lifts her finger as if to touch it but stops herself midway. Remembering what it is, she drops back in her chair, crying louder.
