Quillax Account
As Alden Foxglove changed back into his ghoulish form, I could just hear Elwin nearby, obviously having found the note pinned to Clank and following us down the well and to Alden's strange underground room. We didn't have a chance to do more than warn him of the dangerous mold, though, as Foxglove demanded our full attention, particularly as during the fight he tried to shapeshift into my form. However, considering as I was in my bear form, it was quite obvious to our group who was whom. We struck hard and fast, giving our all in the fight, and were soon victorious, with Jarrick having landed the killing blow.
(Private note: Aldan was wearing some odd patchwork mask, which we could not determine the use of. Additionally, Jarrick claimed his weapon, but it is so tainted, it required consecration before it could be safely wielded.)
We located some keys and as a precaution, decided to burn back the "Vorral mold" as far as we could once more, as it was slowly, but visibly regenerating. This revealed a little chime, which we collected. It seemed that the mold quivered angrily at us, so perhaps the chime had some sentimental value to Vorral. Or perhaps it was worried that we would find something it was protecting.
On our way out, we checked the pool of water, but found little of interest, so we proceeded out of the mansion back the way we came towards the well so we could rest well away from this evil house. Elwin warned us of the toxic smoke he had encountered on the way in, so we wrapped cloth around our faces as we climbed up and out of the cave into the small tunnel to the well.
Jarrick and Neril decided to check the well was still clear from enemies, and Neril quickly pulled back, warning us of the undead ravens moments before they swarmed down the well towards us. Sepheria cast cloud of daggers at our little tunnel entrance, but some of the ravens pushed through to attack Jarrick and Elwin. Elwin ended up destroying them and we proceeded out of the well and, after collecting Clank, well over a mile away from the house to be outside the radius of sickness. We found a flat rock near the moor and Sepheria cast her protective dome spell, and we rested.
Once dawn broke, we returned to the Manor and decided to tackle the house from the bottom up. We went back down through the well and returned to the staircase which led up (I did not mention this previously, but it was in the cavern where we fought the ghouls).
I had a strange and nearly overwhelming vision of Aldan Foxglove digging the stairs saying 'For you' with every strike. I also saw a swarm of ghouls suddenly crawling out of the ground and trying to drag me down' I was able to recognize this as a vision and resist it. I quickly informed the rest of the party in case there were actually ghouls nearby.
We hurried along and found a door which left this cavernous pit. It led us to a workshop with a bench covered with soggy books and birdcages containing diseased, undead rats. There were also two odd stained glass windows, which we worked out showed Vorral turning into a (failed) lich: the first one showed a skinny man drinking some sort of noxious looking green brew. The second showed the same man, obviously undead now, but in a state of celebration turning into a seven sided box (obviously the phylactery from Aldan's room).
Jarrick was affected by the sudden urge to read books. He later explained that he experienced a visions of Vorral in a method that seemed as if the stained glass had been animated and was telling the story. During this time he thought he was Cassandra, Vorral’s wife. He was trying to find her daughter, but luckily the door was locked and he could not run away from us. He attacked who he
thought was Vorral, though in real life it was Neril. It was at this point we realized he was possessed. Neril retreated so as to not draw Jarrick/Cassandra’s ire further. Jarrick then tried to break down the locked door. When he could not, he went to jump out the window. Sepheria was closest but could not stop him. Luckily, the possession wore off as he fell and he quickly regained his wits and was able to land on a ledge. We fetched him up from the ledge and he explained to us that he remembered some of Cassandra’s thoughts. She had forced open a door using her magic and this had interrupted Vorral’s lich-transformation, possibly causing him to become trapped in the mold/manor.
(Side note about the Foxglove family: Aldan had been married to Aisha, which causes a scandal as they were from different areas. He was the great-great nephew of Vorral. We later found out that Foxglove Manor was partly paid for by a certain Brotherhood of the 7, who we believe caused Aldan’s ghastly form. From what we understand, after 100 years – of which 13 are remaining – the lease would revert to this brotherhood. Additionally, Travor and Cyralie are Aldan’s parents. They moved into Foxglove the same year that Aldan was born.)
Sepheria decided to smash the second window and the manor retaliated with what she later explained was Phantasmal killer. As only she could see the terrifying vision, we did not realize anything was amiss until she started to convulse and mutter in terror. Neril quickly walked her through some mental disciplines in the hopes of helping her through this fright and he was successful in saving her.
Once she had control of herself, we unlocked the door and left the workroom. A narrow tunnel lead us to a chamber of decaying furniture. The ceiling appears to be wooden slats which placed us just under the ground floor of the manor in the basement. There were shelves with rotting books, a cupboard, a dead fireplace, and two large cracks that led into the basement walls.
Sepheria cast ‘protection from evil’ on herself as a protective measure and opened a door to reveal a cupboard with empty bottles while Neril found a loose brick in the fireplace, behind which was a small urn filled with dried pinecones and some gems. Before either could do more, two swarms of diseased rats crawled out the smallish cracks and attacked them both. Both reported feeling unwell after getting scratched or bit and we suspected it was a milder case of what we have since called “Vorral’s Phage”. This is the same disease that afflicted the summoned fey/toads below, but a much less virulent and therefore slower acting strain. I shifted to bear form and attacked while Neril attacked then retreated and Sepheria struck with her green flame blade. Even on fire, the rats stayed, leading us to believe that not only were they diseased but also insane and possibly somehow raged.
Jarrick struck down the rest of the first swarm while Elwin burned more using his guiding bolt. At this point, the rats decide to flee but Sepheria and Jarrick destroyed them. We took a short rest to allow Jarrick to cure Sepheria and Neril of the illness before we continued our search. Sepheria sent her homunculus through the cracks and Moncey popped out from a nearby store room. Our search revealed a hidden door in an otherwise empty wine room with some good vintage behind it. The final door led to an old and obviously long-unused bedroom.
Heading up some narrow stairs, there was a strange haunting echo as if someone was following us, but after some checks, we realized it was simply the floorboards settling oddly after having been walked upon. The stairs led to a room nearly identical to the shape of the workshop below, except it had two extra windows and also lead out into the foyer of the manor and what appeared to be the
front doors.
All of the windows depicted monsters rising out of 7-sided boxes. In case it later becomes important, the windows in order from left to right were: a tree with an evil looking face in its trunk, a bird with blue and gold plumage, a woman with a lion body which we assume was depicting a sphinx, and a squid.
The main room/foyer behind us had a mummified monkey head with a pull rope and a ratty throw rug hiding an oddly shaped spread of dark mold. Examining the mold closely, we realized it was not deadly but it was shaped like a swirling staircase littered with bones on the ‘steps’ in a fairly good representation of some of our previous exploration, particularly for mold.
Having learned from breaking the first windows, Sepheria stood well back and cast protection from evil on Neril, who broke the rightmost window, the squid. He announced that he felt as if something was trying to make him afraid but he was not bothered by it. He then broke the window beside it – the sphinx – and the manor (or perhaps Vorral) attacked him with a confusion enchantment, but Neril’s training allowed him to shrug it off. Shattering the bird window, Neril struggled against what Sepheria later identified as Phantasmal Killer, the same spell that had attacked her below. But Neril was able to free himself from the spell with some struggle, which was shown as damage upon his skin. We took a moment to heal him before he destroyed the last window (the tree), which seemed to have no effect.
After taking a moment to regroup, we moved to the room to the left of the tree window, entering some sort of lounge/drawing room. There was white fungus scattered around the room primarily around a battered couch. Dust danced on the floor but there was no breeze in the room. Fire bolts from Sepheria seemed to do little, other than to singe the damp couch and move the dust towards the fireplace. However, Sepheria suddenly ran towards Jarrick and tried to life him and carry him out. From her muttering, we realize she thought she was someone else and that Jarrick was her daughter, whom she was trying to save. Jarrick tried to restrain her but Sepheria was determined and he decided to go with her – at least to protect her from jumping out windows – and they headed for the exit. The rest of us followed from a short distance, uncertain on what to do, but as soon as they exited the manor, Sepheria regained her senses and they returned.
She explained that she thought she was Cassandra, Vorral’s wife, and that she was trying to save her daughter, Laurie.
Seeing as she was once in control of herself, we proceeded on our original task, wary now that anything may prompt another possession. Sepheria investigated the monkey head bell pull, which made my skin crawl, and she pointed out the other animals on the wall. In the shadows of the ceiling, she spotted a stuffed manticore hanging from ropes in the ceiling.
Sepheria suddenly cried out that it had come alive, but to our eyes we saw nothing had changed with the stuffed creature. She started to scream as if she was in great pain, swatting at her skin before throwing herself onto the run and rolling around, small burns appeared on her skin. I cast dispel magic as I knew not what else to do and she calmed.
While Elwin healed her, she explained that she thought the manticore had come alive and it had the face of Cyralie, wife of Travor, mother of Aldan. As per the previous possessions or spells, she had
some memories from it. Sepheria explained that Cyralie had become convinced the house was evil and had tried to burn it down, starting in the servants quarters. Travor had responded by throwing her out of one of the upper windows of the house, most likely to her death.
She was shaken but determined to push on so we moved on to another door. It opened into a library. Jarrick quickly grabbed Sepheria before she could step inside, insisting that he go in first. Unsurprisingly, Sepheria reached in with mage hand and snatched up a fallen book. It seemed to be a book on history. Looking around, we spotted a broken stone bookend, a winged cherub missing one wing, in the fireplace. Undoubtedly, the missing wing was the one was spotted in the ghoul’s head.
Jarrick edged into the room first, wary, and suddenly an audible shriek sounded from nowhere and a scarf leapt off the chair and attacked Jarrick, wrapping around his throat. I managed to unwrap it and it fell limp in my hands. While we destroyed it, Jarrick explained felt he as if he was Aldan’s wife, Aisha, for a moment and that Aldan was strangling him/her with her own scarf.
In the nearby drawing room, Sepheria’s curiosity got the better of her, and she started sifting through some books. She found a tome with hand written notes in the margins, obviously recent and written by Aldan most likely. It mentioned two things of interest. The first being that it was thought the kaijitsu galleon was beached in the swamp. The second was that he was sad about the burning of Sandpoint and that Orrick (whom the hag still has) said it was unlikely that the goblins in Sandpoint would come back down and attack.
In another room, I offered to go first and upon opening the curtains to check that the windows were not stained glass, I spotted Aisha’s reflection. She reached out beseechingly to me for a moment before she faded. Having searched that side of this floor, leaving the two sets of upwards staircases for the moment, we returned to the couch room with some trepidation. Again, I led the entrance to the room. This room appeared to be fine now and we proceeded through the side door into a narrow hall. Off the hall was a washroom, where we put a diseased and blind rat trapped in a tub out of its misery.
From there we proceeded to the next room which seemed to be a dancing room or parlour with an open floor and an unkempt piano. Jarrick remembered that Aisha loved to dance as Aldan played the piano. I avoided the pull to play the piano and entered the room. Neril, just behind me, started tapping at the keys, which summoned up Aisha’s ghost, who wanted to dance. Though I could resist, I decided to dance with her, to see if I could get any more information from her. When nothing was forthcoming, I urged her to a halt and she suddenly changed, taking on the appearance of one being choked with bulging eyes and tongue. Then she moved on to dead with rotting flesh before she disappeared.
Having gotten little more from her vision, we moved on and unlock the outside door with the steward’s key we picked up some time ago. We end up back in the main room where Sepheria uses magic to examine the monkey head and declares it an alarm. We decide against pulling it and we pause to discuss which staircase to take up to the next floor.
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