Session 6 Report - Mansion part 1
General Summary
Nosbury, Session 6
The elf who was really a dragon (Nozdormu) offered a reward for returning the egg. Roland thought it looked like a large grain of sand, while Tanith thought it was a pebble.
“This is a Grain of Time. One time a day you may use it to peer ahead a few seconds into one of the possible timelines.”
Tanith stepped forward and took the pebble. “We thank you, sir.”
The elf nodded in a manly fashion, morphed back into a dragon, and flew after his mate.
The party stood for a moment in stunned silence. Tanith opened her hand and looked at the pebble. “So who should have this?”
Roland said, “I think I can make more if I study it.”
Tanith handed over the very small rock.
The party discussed their various options. They talked about finding Betsy Goldrudder , looking for Exius' Necklace, discovering more portals, or revisiting the druids at the iron mine. All seemed to be in agreement that the druids should be left alone. Roland did not feel compelled to investigate the cold trail of the amulet. Lucian voted for the portals, although Silas reminded him that the dragons were looking into the situation. They decided to continue the discussion while making their way back to the river and starting upstream.
As night began to fall, the party made camp and set a single watch, since they no longer had the egg. Aliurinal came back into camp from his far scout position, smiling to himself about the birds he saw on the way.
With no better idea brought forward, the party continued to follow the river toward Durmouth, the last known location of the Silver Eagles after they apparently lost the amulet belonging to Exius. Six days passed without incident. Upon rising on the seventh day of walking, the company sighted Durmouth on the horizon, and by midday they were leaving the surrounding farmland and approaching the outskirts. It looked to be a town about the same size as Nosbury, with townspeople going about their business. The townsfolk glanced at the newcomers but did not seem to be particularly interested. A white, red, and yellow banner streamed by the well in the center of the marketplace.
“Would you like to buy some bread?” called one of the merchants.
“Have you seen an amulet?” asked Aliurinal as he paid the bread vendor for six loaves, telling her to keep the change. He shared it out among the rest of the party, to Tanith’s surprise.
“Thank you, sir!” she exclaimed, smiling and slipping the coins into the pocket of her yellow robe.
Lucian silently slipped away to a tavern with a painted sign of a tortoise suspended under the name “The Timid Tortoise.” He ordered a meal with ale and settled in to listen to the other patrons. While waiting for his meal, he asked the matron, Moniqua Coyle, wearing a light green dress, if she knew of the Silver Eagles. The sound of Aliurinal whistling drifted in through the open windows.
“I can’t say that I have heard of them. But anyone with a name like that was probably headed to that big haunted house up on the hill.”
Nodding his thanks, Lucian continued the conversation and found out that strange occurrences were always happening up there. The matron recommended to avoid the whole area. He also asked after the local news, but it seemed that the town was quiet most times. The sound of voices drifted in through the window.
“Hey Tanith. Bet you I could put an arrow right into the eye of the tortoise on the sign.”
“No thank you,” said Tanith, declining the wager.
Smiling to himself, Lucian finished his meal and rejoined his companions. He found Aliurinal and Tanith loitering out in the street, looking through the marketplace.
Meanwhile, Silas had gone to the guard station to put out word about looking for the locket.
“You know,” said one of the guards, “there was a group that came through – an elf, a half orc, and a gnome – who said they were checking out an old house to the north of here and asked us to retrieve their belongings that got lost up there, but that’s not any of our business. They moved on shortly after that.”
Silas thanked the guard and went back to the marketplace to find his companions.
It did not take long to decide that they would explore the house on the hill on the following day. Tanith suggested they start heading that way and camp closer to the house. Glancing at the sky, there were scattered clouds but it did not look like rain.
Aliurinal split off to go to the temple to ask for assistance to cleanse the haunted house. After asking for a priest or a cleric, he was told the place was a lost cause. “Adventurers have tried repeatedly to get rid of it. They have even burned it down. Nothing ever works!”
Aliurinal caught up with his companions and urged them to reconsider. Tanith said she wanted to check out the house. Bear asked if he inquired about any scrolls at the temple. Aliurinal looked at him blankly and then hurried back toward town. Back at the temple, he asked after an invisibility potion or scroll, but the priest just laughed and shook his head.
Aliurinal rejoined the party and again urged them to choose a different path. Tanith said she was going and the others agreed. They walked for another hour and came to the end of the farmland. Continuing on for another half hour or so, the companions made camp and agreed to set a double watch (Aliurinal Lucian, overlapping with Roland Bear Silas Tanith).
They were awakened the next morning by a grating bird call. Aliurinal seemed undisturbed but the others glanced around uneasily. After breaking their fast, they set off. Not long after, the house came into view at the top of a hill. Aliurinal thought it was an unusual place to build a house, but Tanith shrugged. “Looks like a good spot to me.”
The house was two stories tall, surrounded by an 8-foot wall covered by creeping vines. A wrought iron gate stood open at the front of the courtyard. A scripted letter “D” ornamented the front of the gate.
Lucian squinted at the house but could not discern an illusion. Overgrown plants filled the courtyard. The house appeared to be structurally sound, with doors and windows intact. He muttered something that sounded like, “Is it really a house?”
Tanith squinted at the house as well, but it just looked like an abandoned house. Bear also believed it looked like a regular house, with no particular defining architectural style.
Lucian cautiously approached the gate, which was blocked in the open position. Motioning to the others to wait, he slipped off without a sound into the brush in the courtyard. He could see some wildlife in the dense brush but nothing hostile. He stepped back out and motioned for the others to join him.
Agreeing to scout the perimeter, Silas recommended the party not split up. They all set out, pushing their way through the brush. Lucian kept to the inside of the wall, and Tanith kept checking out the house to see if anyone appeared at the window. She was joined by Roland. Bear and Silas ranged in between, while Aliurinal took the lead to find a path through the brush.
The front of the house faced south. The front doors were closed, at the top of a small stoop. Stained glass windows framed the doors. Moving around to the west side, there was a chimney and grimy windows. Rounding the house to the north, there was a back door covered by an awning and a single story jutting out from the house. Continuing on, the east side of the house contained a small fenced area in the southeast corner with a dried-up fountain, not as badly overgrown as the rest of the yard. A door from the garden led into the house, as well as another door on a small balcony to the north side of the garden.
The party went back to the front double doors. They did not see anything remarkable about the doors. Taking a deep breath, Tanith reached out to grasp a doorknob. She rattled the knob but it was locked. Aliurinal pushed forward and knelt to pick the lock. Shortly there was a click. He put his tools away and moved back into his position in the rear. Tanith reached out and opened the door, which opened inward.
The entryway was wide but not deep. Doors on either of the short ends were closed. Ahead was a large archway into the next room. Through the arch was a large room with a raised stone decorative enclosure in the center of the room. Its appearance seemed compatible with a house that had stood long abandoned. While Aliurinal stayed in the entryway watching the closed door on either end, the rest of the party walked forward into the large room under the arch.
To the left was a closed door and beyond that an alcove, and on the right there was a row of pillars marking off another room. The stone enclosure in the center of the room looked to have once contained water.
Bear moved off to the left alcove. He found a fancy-looking uncomfortable couch with a lamp to either side. Moving back out to the alcove and to the south, he listened at the closed door. To his surprise, he heard indistinct whispering. Frantically motioning to the others to be silent, he listened harder. He could hear the whispering but could not tell if it was coming from behind the door or elsewhere. Lucian moved up to the door but he could not distinguish the whispering either.
Exchanging a glance with Bear, Tanith drew her sword while he kicked the door down. The door flew off its hinges and hit the opposite wall, only 10 feet away. Bear found himself standing in a small room with chairs stacked up inside. He looked up at the ceiling but saw nothing unusual. He stood quietly in the center of the room and listened, but he could no longer hear the whispering. Tanith motioned to Lucian and he moved forward to listen. He could still hear the whispering but could not tell where it was coming from.
Crossing to the east side of the room and looking through the pillars, they could see that the room extended back to the hallway. The floor was covered by an area rug with cushions strewn around the floor. Lanterns were on the three walls. Two windows looked out to the garden outside. The indistinct whispering was still present.
Tanith wandered over to the north side of the room and looked through to the next room. A giant split staircase surrounded a circular room. The tiles in the center of the floor depicted a large decorative flower. The companions turned back toward the hallway. As they came in sight of Ali, he moved to the east door and listened. Hearing nothing, he opened the door. It appeared to be a cloak room. Stepping back out, he let the party know and they moved to the western door where they repeated the routine – listening, and then opening the door. The room was small with unmarked crates piled inside.
Walking out into the circular room and to the far end, the party turned left and entered a hallway extending to the south and ending in a door. There was another door to the east side of the end of the hallway, as well as a door at the top of the hallway on the west side and a fourth door at the very northern end. Lucian went to the other side of the main room and looked down a similar hallway on the eastern side under the stairs.
Bear chose the northwest side of the room and listened at the door on the west wall. He turned the knob and the door swung open. He found himself in a square room with a door on the north wall. The center of the room contained an indoor fountain. The fountainhead depicted a man spearing a minotaur through the ribs. The floor was tiled, with built-in wooden benches around the walls. Lucian listened at the north door leading out of the room and again heard indistinct whispering before Bear threw the door open. The door led into a moderately-sized room that appeared to be a kitchen. One door opened to the east, at which Lucian again could hear whispering.
The door opened into a hallway that appeared to lead back to the room with the staircase. Another door on the east wall led to a pantry. As the door opened, Bear thought he saw movement just as he entered. He froze and looked around more carefully but did not see anything.
They moved back to the south of the long hallway, continuing to hear indistinct whispering, and opened the door on the southeastern end. The irregularly shaped room seemed to be storage, with a stack of paintings piled against an old dresser. Roland flipped through the paintings with a connoisseur’s eye but did not find anything of interest. At the south door, Lucian listened while Aliurinal looked for traps. Suddenly, a mouth appeared on the door and snapped shut, narrowly missing Lucian but closing on Aliurinal who yelled in shock and pain. Tanith looked more closely and it appeared that the mouth was actually coming through the door from the other side. Ali’s left arm and upper torso were enclosed in the toothy orifice.
Bear stepped up and shot a magic missile toward the creature, which jerked back and then resumed worrying Ali. Lucian attacked with his staff, bashing the door creature once but missing on the next blow. He stepped backward, making room for another combatant. Silas hesitated and Roland stepped into the gap with a salvo of purple magic missiles. Aliurinal was still thrashing vigorously, managing to get his longsword free of its scabbard but missing the creature. Tanith summoned her echo who struck at the creature with a sword, connecting twice but missing on the third strike. Suddenly the creature started to pulse as if with lightning and Aliurinal jerked, looking dazed. The door swung open and on the other side, there was a creature that appeared to be a tube of transparent green goo with little arms and legs, its organs visible through the goo. It started to pull Aliurinal through the door, dragging him 15 feet into the room.
Bear, now having a clear shot, threw his javelin at the creature. The javelin struck but then fell to the ground, the goo healing up in its wake. Bear summoned the javelin back to his hand. The creature continued to drag Ali, backing under a table. Lucian stepped up with his staff, striking twice in rapid succession and then punching with his fist, causing the creature to make a garbled hissing noise and looking much worse for the wear. Silas moved further into the room, attempting to flank the creature. Roland followed him partway in and shot lightning bolts from his gauntlets, smoke rising from the impact. The creature shivered and collapsed into a pile of goo and organs.
Looking around, the room was large, with tables, a hearth, and more doors leading out. Aliurinal was complaining loudly about being injured. Tanith gave him two healing potions, and Bear gave him one as well. With Aliurinal feeling much better, the party checked out the door to the north. Lucian heard indistinct whispering and Bear opened the door, finding a small room with stacked up tables and a cabinet full of linens. Tanith looked up in time to see Roland chucking silver flatware into his bag of holding, and she grinned at him. They moved back to the kitchen and looked through the drawers, but they did not find any more silver.
Heading back out to the large round room, they listened at the double doors at the back of the room, and then opened them. They led to a room with posh furniture surrounding a table, and a painting on the opposite wall. The left side of the painting depicted a red-headed woman, but the right side of the painting was blank canvas, as if the figure that had been there had disappeared (Painting with Missing Figure). The painting was signed, but the name was not legible. Next to the painting was mounted a large greatsword with a blue gem set into the hilt.
Aliurinal suggested, “Maybe we need to reunite the lovers.”
“Or maybe he wronged the red-haired lady and she does not want him back,” mused Tanith.
Roland examined the sword more closely. He found what appeared to be a maker’s mark, but he did not recognize it. The sword was dusty but otherwise in good shape.
Aliurinal pulled the painting off the wall and staggered backward, turning it around to view the back. Carved into the wooden frame was the number 945. Aliurinal managed to hang the painting back on the wall. He said to the painting, “My lady, how can we resolve your anguish?” There was no answer.
The companions set about searching the room while Roland performed his ritual to detect magic. After ten minutes had passed, he stated that the sword was magic, detecting both necromancy and evocation.
Aliurinal tried again, “My lady, can we find your lost love?” The painting did not respond, and the surrounding whispers remained unchanged. Tanith examined the lady in the painting, but she did not appear to be angry or sad, with just a pleasant expression on her face.
Aliurinal argued that they should take the sword. He offered it to Bear or Tanith, but Bear declined and Tanith said she did not trust magic. Aliurinal arranged with Silas to come back for the sword before leaving the house. He would carry the sword and split the proceeds with Silas, if Silas helped to negotiate a price. Lucian mused that the sword might transport you into the painting for eternity. Roland also was not interested in taking it.
Moving back to the room with the staircase, they proceeded to check the other doors. The door to the northeast led to a room with a couch, armchair, and table. Bisecting the room was a curtain that was tied open, with a bed and dresser beyond it. Aliurinal looked in the dresser but it was empty. He checked for a secret compartment without finding anything of note. Aliurinal checked the pillow closely for red hairs and again came up empty.
The last door from the staircase room led to a narrow room with several more doors. The center of the room was covered in a floor rug and in the corner was a small pack leaning against the wall. Aliurinal checked under the rug. He found the strap of another pack poking out from between the floorboards. Tanith moved to the first backpack and looked inside. It appeared to have been rummaged already and was less dusty than the items they had seen so far. A set of small travelers’ clothes were inside, as well as two potions of minor healing and some wrappings from old trail rations.
“I think these belonged to the gnome from the Silver Eagles,” Tanith said. She took the healing potions and tucked them into her bag.
Aliurinal examined the strap in the floor before tugging on it. He could feel something hit the floor from below. He pushed the rug out of the way and Lucian searched for secret doors without success. He turned and saw Tanith standing over him offering a prybar. Lucian stepped aside and Tanith pried up the floorboard while Aliurinal held onto the strap of the pack. The pack still would not fit through the opening. Aliurinal peered through the hole and could see a large room filled with tables, glass vials, and books.
“Maybe the house reformed around it,” mused Lucian. Tanith’s eyes widened.
Tanith continued to pry up floorboards until the pack was freed. The pack contained a change of clothes – light green, and looking like they would fit the elves – another healing potion, and a scroll case. Aliurinal took the clothing and the healing potion and tucked them into his pack. Lucian popped open the scroll case, which contained a scroll of protection against elementals.
After some discussion, it was decided to check out the remaining doors. Then they planned to light a lantern and lower it through the floor to see the underground room more clearly. Moving to the north door on the west side, the door opened into a room containing a full-sized bed with a dresser, matching the other bedroom found previously. All of the drawers were completely empty. Aliurinal checked out the bed linens again, not finding hair, but he did hear squeaking.
The last door led to another room that was the mirror image to the room they had just left. Aliurinal searched the floors in both rooms, going so far as to move the beds to look under them. He found a large quantity of droppings under the bed with the squeaking, but nothing else of note. They returned to the room with the entrapped pack.
Borrowing a lantern from the wall, Tanith drew out some oil from her pack and filled the reservoir. They lit the lamp and tied it to a rope, lowering it through the floorboards to view the room below. It appeared to be a large room containing long tables with books, jars, and bottles. Bookshelves lined the walls, and there was a large empty space to one side. The walls were made of worked stone. Far over to the west, there appeared to be a staircase leading upward into the house. Aliurinal estimated the staircase would open out into the room with the minotaur fountain.
Tanith suggested she go through the floorboards with the two elves while the other three members went to the minotaur fountain, so they could try to find the door from both sides. Lucian suggested the party not split up and they should all try the fountain room first. Retrieving the lantern, they moved off to the minotaur room. Lucian discovered that the pedestal in the fountain appeared to be able to move, and the spear going through the minotaur may be a separate piece. Aliurinal pulled on the spear, removing it from the fountain. Nothing appeared to happen, but Lucian could see gouges in the hole through the minotaur. Aliurinal examined the mechanism and could see bits of silver in the gouge marks. Roland shrugged and stuck a silver fork into the hole. The pedestal began to rise up. Roland replaced the fork into his pack and the pedestal continued to rise, revealing a stairway down into the dark below.
Aliurinal went back to the other room and tied a rope to the bed, dangling it into the hole. By the time he came back, the pedestal was closing. Roland stuck a fork in it. Roland remained up top while the others went below to look for the mechanism. Silas begged a fork from Roland who reluctantly handed one over. He followed Bear, Tanith, Ali, and Lucian down the stairs, Tanith holding a lantern in one hand and her sword in the other. Embedded in the stone wall was a notch that looked like it would fit a fork. They waited for the stairs to close and then opened it again from below. Roland joined them on the stairs.
The apparent alchemy lab spanned the entire basement of the house. In the large open space, there were symbols painted on the floor. In front of one of the desks was a corpse, lying in a burned patch that extended over the desk. On the far side of the room was a larger pack with items strewn around nearby.
Tanith, Silas, Ali, and Bear looked over to the burned corpse, where they saw movement. Aliurinal nocked an arrow and Roland looked up, confused. The corpse was staggering to its feet, facing the party and almost seeming to heal a bit as it faced them. It was partly incorporeal, female, looking like a ghost covering a skeleton.
Bear stepped up and launched magic missiles at the corpse.
“We’re here to help you!” shouted Ali, while Tanith looked at him in amazement.
“You can’t have it!” shrieked the apparition.
Aliurinal let fly with his bow, striking the corpse figure. Silas took advantage of the distraction to creep silently over to the wall and attempt to approach the figure along the wall. Lucian moved out in front of the corpse, keeping his distance. The corpse moved up to Tanith and clawed at her, missing at first but then raking her with her nails. Tanith summoned her echo behind the corpse, who attacked the corpse with a flurry of blows. Roland joined in with lightning from his gauntlets, while Bear closed in with his battle axe.
“My lady, we can reunite you with Exius! We are representatives of Exius!” shouted Ali.
Tanith lost concentration as she looked over her shoulder at Aliurinal in amazement, wondering what she had missed.
“I’m here for my son’s birthright!” the apparition snarled, sounding angry.
Silas stepped up to the animated corpse and attacked with his shortsword, while Lucian squeezed up to the corpse and began to strike her with his staff. The corpse clawed at Bear, who dodged out of the way. Tanith’s echo struck twice, and the figure clutched at something sliver on her chest.
“It always should have been ours.” The incorporeal quality faded away and the figure once again became a burned corpse and slid back into its place by the desk.
Cautiously, Lucian moved over to the corpse with Silas trailing behind him. Crouching down, Lucian could see that the corpse was wearing a Silver Amulet — a disk with a symbol of a tree with a moon behind it. Lucian reached out, but Tanith called out to stop him.
“Roland can do it with his magic….hand….thing.”
Roland moved forward and pulled the amulet from the corpse, breaking her neck so that her head rolled free.
“Exius claimed to be of your lineage. Did he steal from you, or what happened?”
There was no answer from the corpse.
Aliurinal hypothesized that the burned corpse may have been related to Exius. They could either be in competing branches of the family or unaware of the existence of the other. Or maybe Exius stole the amulet. He could have forged the note from the Silver Eagles, although they did seem to have been in this house. Tanith wondered if this was the lady from the portrait, and who was the figure missing from it.
They determined they should continue investigating the house and look at the portrait again. Tanith was curious about the little garden with the fountain, which had seemed less overgrown than the surrounding grounds. After that, Aliurinal wanted to research the family connection before returning the amulet to Exius. Tanith suggested putting the amulet in the bag of holding for the time being, and Roland agreed.
Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
Aliurinal Meridethson
()
8 / 8 HP
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Tanith
Report Date
26 Aug 2023
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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