Wealday, Neth 13

I’m disappointed that through an unfortunate accident, a few pages of my journal got a little wet and so my last entries are now smudged and unreadable. I must be more careful to close my journal and wrap it in something absorbent to avoid such mishaps in the future.

So to recap briefly, today I returned from a trip back to Sandpoint (or thereabouts) having taken a man we found to be suffering from ghoul disease to the cathedral for healing. When I returned, the party had decided to go to the MisGivings, which is the Foxglove family manor. Although I’ve very sure when we arrived that there were no animals of note visible, now that we want to leave there seems to be hundreds, maybe thousands of crows or ravens dangerously sitting outside the door, inviting us to try. Just try. Anyone getting too close to them — or too far from the house — seems to be an invitation for them to not-too-subtly herd the person back to the house.

But I’m ahead of myself. Much has happened since we arrived here.

We were in the entry hall, which apparently also served as the dining area, when a random check for magic objects detected that the monkey’s head with a rope/chain coming out of its mouth was in fact magic. However, unlike a shiny urn that radiates magic, or a dusty lamp, or a nice shield, nobody seemed particularly eager to go use the monkey. I think it is true that we prejudge the nature of magic by the vessel that contains it. Something shiny, clean and bright radiating magic will be picked up, touched, or handled before something dingy, grungy, or decayed looking. I shall have to remember that if ever I have cause to set a trap, or have cause to hide some magic.

In any case, this room has a stocked bookcase. Among the volumes I found were three detailing a history of the Foxglove family. This was more of a handwritten family history than a published reference book, and I spent a few moments reading the various entries. I noted a couple of things:

1) The first volume begins in 4620, or almost 90 years ago. While this is clearly not an ancient family history, it is surprising that a record of only 90 years would take three volumes. There must be significant detail here.
2) Judging from what little I’ve seen of his handwriting, and from the observations of the writer, the history appears to end with entries of Aldrin’s.
3) He speaks of Aiesha, whom he would marry, within the last year.
4) A cryptic note at the beginning, when the homestead was being located, mentioned that “the Brothers may help.”

While the books on this bookcase were interesting, upon entering the next room we discovered an entire room with books, floor to ceiling. And we also discovered many of them seem to be afflicted with mildew. Those of us who appreciate books find this to be a pity, such a fine library falling into such disrepair. There was a fine looking red and gold scarf [200] near an overturned chair. Oddly, the scarf showed no mold. A book of Varysian history lie open on the floor. In the fireplace, a stone bookend lie smashed into fragments.

Kane walked into the room and seemed to pantomime choking. This would have been odd enough, except it was accentuated by the scarf leaping from the floor and wrapping against his throat. We barely had time to rush forward before he was whipping the scarf away and panting.

Although we heard nothing, Kane had distinctly heard a woman’s scream. As the scarf pulled tightly against his throat, he had a vision of Aldrin before him, clearly angry, and his hand twisting the scarf tightly against Kane’s throat. Then it passed.

Olithar opened the drapes (also mildewy or moldy) to let in some light. We detected no magic, but Avia did momentarily sense some evil in the room, but it faded quickly. She could not tell to where it may have gone. We found it odd that there was no apparent source of moisture in the room that would explain the mildew.

We examined the bookend, and discovered that it had what appeared to be dried blood and hair, and maybe even skull fragments. Did Aldrin kill his fiancee/wife in this room? What powerful force caused that to be re-enacted? Or was this all for our consumption, to get us to believe that Aldrin had done this? After all, it seems certain we WERE expected to come here.

At this point, we just didn’t know.

So the party moved into another room off the dining room, which turned out to be something of a lounge or sitting room. It was rather smallish, but had some a large couch, and of course another fireplace. The couch, unfortunately, seemed to have some sort of white fungus on it. Rigel lifted it with her foot, but nothing seemed under it or around it. As Rigel examined the fireplace, several odd things happened at once.

First, she noted there was a movement of dust around the fireplace, as though somebody other than Rigel was moving near there. Second, Avia announced the presence of evil. At the same time, in case there was something corporeal and invisible, I threw down a caltrop. Some later said they heard a whispered “Laurie”, but I didn’t. I just knew with utter conviction, that it was dangerous to be there. I grabbed Rigel and told her we needed to leave — SHE needed to leave. She was trying to go check out another room to the west. I remember thinking, I need to get my daughter out of the house before it affected her too. She was resisting, arguing, typical for a child. Why wouldn’t she just listen to her mother? There wasn’t time for a discussion or an argument! How long would it take before she wandered down to the basement and discovered it? That mustn’t happen!

And as I grabbed her again with greater resolve, the memory faded. Olithar had cast remove fear upon me, but we still don’t know if that had an effect or if the effect wore off on its own. I found myself facing a perplexed but increasingly agitated Rigel, who was reaching for one of the 1379 knives she always has somewhere on her body, and I quickly released her, looking around at the party. I think it was Kane who said, “It happened to you this time, didn’t it?” I nodded, and described my experience.

We did go inspect the room to the west, which appeared to be a bathroom or at least a cleaning room. There was a washbin that had a decidedly diseased rat in it, unable to climb out. It was eyeless and clearly in distress. Nolin killed it.

We continued to the room in the NW corner of this floor. This appeared to be a parlor of sorts, with a remarkably preserved piano. The rest of the room showed extensive decay and rot; it made the piano stand out all the more. We opened the double doors to the outside to let some fresh air in. Olithar played a simple tune on the piano and announced with some surprise that it appeared to be in perfect tune! It was at this time that we noticed Kane’s eyes had glazed over a bit and he started swaying, almost as if dancing. Then he abruptly returned to us.

He’d had another vision. In his vision, he’d been dancing with a beautiful woman. She changed as they danced, with bruises appearing on her neck first, then deepening as her eyes bulged. Finally her lips turned blue and she’d dropped to the ground, a pile of dust, as the vision ended. Had this been Aiesha?

We may have been called to this house explicitly, presumably to face some evil entitye, but the house was also trying to talk to us. There were tragedies that had occurred here, some of them, quite possibly, fairly recently. How long had this house been cursed? And what precipitated it? Were the players we were seeing evil themselves, or also victims of some evil influence? Curses don’t just drop out of the sky, and ordinary people don’t wake up one day and decide to kill a family member.

It was time, we decided, to go upstairs. We’d explored everything on the ground floor. While some wanted to go see what was in the basement that I’d wanted to keep “Laurie” away from, we figured it more prudent to make sure nothing corporeal could be following us down.

Near the top of the stairs, we found a hallway with several doors. We opened the one nearest us and entered.

There appeared to be a child sized bed, and a toybox, filled with toys suitable for a young boy. While it’s not clear who may have occupied this room, it seems fair to assume it was at least a young boy. About half the people hear a mournful sobbing. It was sorrowful, but none of us had the reaction that Avia did. Our paladin ran into the fireplace and cowered, trembling. We just stared in utter surprise. After a short time she sheepishly rose from the fireplace, took command of her countenance again, and reported that for a short time she’d thought she was Aldrin. He had run in fear from his parents. His father was trying to kill his mother, and his mother was trying to kill him. He rememberes his father had bulging eyes.

This lent a little more credence to the possibility that Aldrin was already dead, but did little more to solve the mystery of the MisGivings.

We continued north in the hall and entered the room to the right. This should have been the room above the room downstairs that had had the odd stained glass pictures. We were not disappointed. This room had

1 glass of a pale ghostly scropion
1 glass of a gaunt man holding out his arms while a dozen bats hung from them
1 glass of a moth with a skull like pattern on his wings
1 glass of a tangle of dull green plants with bell-shaped flowers
1 glass of a young maiden sitting beside a well while a dog-sized spider dropped beside her

It was Kane who recognized these were all depictions of ingredients common to necromancy spells.

Sabin remarked that these could be used to create an apotheosis; that is, turning one’s self into a lich. And with that statement, some of the pieces fell into place. I suspect what we see here is the end result of an evil spell gone awry. One of Aldrin’s ancestors, perhaps, had dabbled in the dark arts and created something instead that consumed this home or this land.

We went across the hall into what turned out to be a gallery. Here hung several portraits. They were dusty and covered with cobwebs and some mold. Olithar began to uncover them. Upon one wall we found

• a tall middleaged man – VOREL FOXGLOVE. Dark hair, blue eyes, blue noble clothes
• a stern faced woman with flex of gray – KASANDRA FOXGLOVE. brunette, blue dress
• a little girl – LAURIE FOXGLOVE.

All these were about the same size, and appear to have been done at about the same period in time. On the south wall, we found

• TREVOR FOXGLOVE – tall, thin, narrow face, thin mustache
• CYRLIE FOXGLOVE – long red hair, young woman
• ALDRIN FOXGLOVE – a boy child
• SENDELI FOXGLOVE – a girl child
• ZEVA FOXGLOVE – a girl child

As Olithar uncovered Zeva’s portrait, which did seem especially obscured, a dramatic change occurred. The room immediately chilled, to the point where we could see our breaths. And all but two of the portraits turned into ghastly versions of themselves.

Kasanda and Laurie slumped into misshapen tumor-ridden corpses. Trevor displayed a long cut upon his throat, with blood running down his chest. Cyrlie blackened and charred, and appeared to develop many broken bones. Aldrin’s hair fell out, and his face contorted into a ghoul like appearance.

And worst of all, Vorel’s picture rapidly developed a spreading mold, filling the room cloudily with a muffled explosion.

Cyrlie and Sendeli were unaffected, and that suggested to us that to this day, they were still unaffected. We wondered if they were fated to die, or if by avoiding this place they had managed to dodge their fate.

Moments later the portraits were back to normal, although the air was still thick with a moldy dust. This was not an illusion like some of the other visions seemed to be; it was magic, and it had really happened. Every one of us saw it. And worse, Nolin and Rigel thought they saw a mild rash on their skin, although we saw nothing. We hoped it was an active imagination.

We exited the gallery and entered the west most room. This too seemed to be a bedroom, but contained naught but a desk. Olithar was inspecting the desk, which had a dark stain on it, when he picked up a fragment of wood and stared at it. For a moment he hesitated and before we could do anything, he put it back down.

He’d just had a vision where he’d picked up a dagger, not a piece of wood. In his mind, he had just killed the person he loved most, and wanted nothing more than to end his own life. Whether thru luck or fortitude we’ll never know, but Olithar was able to resist the urge and put the “dagger” down. Had he taken action against himself he probably would have hurt himself badly before we intervened. While the wood was not a dagger, it did have a dull point to it.

We theorized this was Trevor’s room, judging from the wound that appeared on his painting, and that he had killed his wife and burned her body before tossing it over the cliff. Then he’d killed himself.

We resolved to watch each other more closely as we explored. There was no telling when one of us might become a danger to ourselves or the rest of us.

We entered a room to the northeast, only to find the whole room caked with a spongy green layer of green-black mold. Many of us heard a child’s voice ask, “What’s that on your face mommy?” And with that sound, Sabin began clawing at his own face. He was able to hurt himself some before we restrained him and he came around. We theorized that Kasanda and Laurie had met their end this way.

We entered the room to the north. Like downstairs, it was a washroom.

Lastly, the room to the NW found a smashed bed and the walls and paintings all slashed. One painting was intact, but turned around. We heard a shrill angry woman’s voice say “What DO you get into in the damp below?” Rigel looked dizzy and staggered for a moment before charging at Avia, of all people. Her dagger caught a surprised Avia, who then easily subdued her until the moment passed. Rigel guiltily put away her dagger as Olithar turned the picture around. We recognized it as Aiesha. While there is some mold in this room, the dust here appears to have accumulated over months, perhaps, not years.

Having explored every room on this floor, it was time to go up again.

The stairs exited in a workroom, which appeared to have a leaky room because there were several pots and urns spread about to catch dripping water. There were woodworking and carpentry tools here, none in particularly good shape.

Entering the hallway, we found several storerooms and closets. Then we heard an unmistakable scream of horror and pain from the end of the hall.

The door on the right was locked, and seemed to be from where the scream had come. Rigel worked the lock while we heard a sobbing noise from inside. Finally, with Kane’s aid, Rigel was able to unlock the door. Avia charged inside.

This seemed to be a bedroom. It was cold and damp, and there was a mold encrusted chimney. A mirror angled toward the window, and sitting in front of the mirror was a woman gently rocking. She looked a bit like Aiesha might have looked if she were rotting. There was a bedsheet wrapped around her. The face may have been contorted in fury or fear.

Somebody, I think Avia, shattered the mirror, and she almost seemed to recover her senses. She screamed, “Aldrin, I can smell your fear! You’d be in my arms soon!” Then she let out a shriek which had Rigel running off and cowering in fear. We thought briefly about letting her lead us to Aldrin but too late — we were blocking the door and hallway and she’d already grabbed Nolin and given him a good squeeze. It actually hurt him quite badly; she was not all she seemed. I lit her up with a couple of magic missiles but she was focused on Nolin. She squeezed harder as Avia beat on her mightily. Between four of us beating on her, we eventually killed her, and none too soon for Nolin. And when Aiesha died, there was no corpse. Most of her sort of melted into the floor. Avia blessed the mess.

We examined the other rooms up there and the thing of note was that I did find two scrollcases in one of the rooms. In that same room, Olithar had another “experience”, wherein he strongly remembered feeling excited about his expectations for his life, but having to set all that on the shelf because he had to marry that harpy. Feelings of resentment, bitter disappointment, and regret filled him, but he again managed to gain control over them. Even so, the feeling of what could have been was strong to him.

The scrolls I picked up were [201] lightning bolt, and [202] keen edge.

The last room had two notable stained glass windows like its companions below. One was a dark-haired woman with pale skin and green eyes. She was wearing red and black clothing and wielding a jagged iron staff. The other had a hole in it that was covered by canvas, but it appeared slightly burned as though something had been set alight and gone through.

There was a trap door above us, and Nolin was able to repair the ropes and pulleys used to open it. Gaining access was anticlimatic. We climbed down and discussed our plans.

Before going down to the basemen, we thought we might rest up and regain our spells. Nobody thought it would be smart or clever to stay in the house, so we resolved to go up the road a mile or three. And that’s when we found a large number of birds had an uncharacteristic interest in us. And that’s where we came in, above.

And so it is during my watch that I am writing this entry. Despite the birds, we decided it was safer to sleep outside than in. And much to our relief and surprise, nothing unusual happened.

Oathday, 14 Neth

Bad news. The marks on Nolin and Rigel are now visible to us too, and they are beginning to show signs of tumors and pustules. They need attention ASAP. We need to resolve this so that we can get them back to town.

So we reentered the house, and headed for the downstairs. We find there a kitchen, but it too is in disrepair and exhibits molds and rat droppings. There are large cracks in the basement — about a foot wide — which would adequately explain the rats. And in fact, we were able to hear the movement of a bunch of what we can only assume were rats, coming to greet us. A flask of oil and a flame served to barricade the entrance, but that would only last for so long.

We quickly began exploring, and discovered one room with some beds and the pantry, which seemed filled with as many rats as we had found birds outside. We quickly closed that door.

We found a wine cellar, with naught but broken bottles. To the south, we finally found a hallway which led to a locked iron door. After much effort, Rigel and Kane were able to open it. This room would be beneath the rooms with stained glass windows in them, above us, and this one did not disappoint.

There was one window of a thin man drinking a green potion. And another of a thin man diseased and decayed as if dead for several weeks. Sabin offered that this had the look of an arcane workshop. There were three iron bird cages, each holding a corpse of a rat.

We have not yet found Aldrin or for that matter anything large an evil down here, but we’ve also not yet explored all the rooms. I hope this journal survives me if I do not.

== Wealday, Neth 13, 4707; The Misgivings, Evening ==

After our break for lunch we continued to explore the house, and exploring the main hall in more detail revealed that the grotesque monkey head with the rope dangling from its mouth was magical. We also found that the bookcase beneath the circular stairs held tomes of the Foxglove family history as well as a few religious texts.

The last entry was made by Aldrin himself, sometime within the past year. He describes arriving at the house in order to prepare it for his fiance’, Iesha, who would be arriving soon.

The very first entry in the oldest book was dated 4620 and discusses the family’s search for a new home; and mentions that perhaps the “Brothers” would help.

To the south of the dining area was a large library with an extensive collection of books. Unfortunately most were suffering from damp, and had mildew growing on their spines and covers. Of more interest to us were the two chairs in the center of the room. One of the chairs lay on its side with a bright red silk scarf draped across it. The other faced the toppled chair, and between the two was a book on Varisian history. In the fireplace a stone bookend had been smashed.

As Kane entered the room he paused for a moment and turned very pale. He then described the vision, or memory that had enveloped him. He heard a woman’s scream and the scarf leaped through the air and around his throat. Suddenly Aldrin was before him, his face contorted in rage and his hands twisting the scarf tightly around Kane’s neck. And then the vision passed.

At the same time Avia had detected a cold, evil presence around Kane, but it too passed with the vision.

Kane left the room, clutching the scarf in his trembling hands.

[200] silk scarf (~100gp)

Rigel had discovered that the bookend in the fireplace, which was of the shape of a praying angel (sans one wing, which had broken off), had bits of bone, hair and blood smeared on one end.

Other than the impressive accumulation of books (albeit moldy), we found nothing more of interest.

A sitting room lay to the north of the dining area. A large sofa facing a stone fireplace with capering imps and birds carved into the mantel. The sofa was coated with a thick layer of white fungus, which we carefully avoided.

We pulled back the drapes, as we had done in the other rooms, to let in some light, and there before the fireplace, Rigel saw that the dust was churning about, as if invisible person were walking back and forth.

Avia said an evil presence was in the room as Trask bent down and set out caltrops in the path of our invisible host. The dust stopped moving, and at just that moment I heard a voice whisper, “Laurie.”

We decided to check out the door in the west wall when Trask became quite agitated and insisted that Rigel not open the door. He then demanded that she leave the house because it was not safe for her. “It is dangerous, and no daughter of mine…!” I cast Remove Fear upon Trask and he fell silent. After a moment he said he was concerned because he didn’t want “her” to go into the basement.

Another vision, or perhaps possession? Or maybe a warning.

The west door opened onto a hallway, and the first door on the right was a washroom, with a rusting metal tub set against the far wall. Something was scrabbling about in the tub: it was a hideous rat, half eaten away by some wasting disease, and its empty eye sockets rimmed with white fungus. Nolin put it out of its misery.

The next door off the hall was a conservatory, and a grand piano sat off to the side while a giant glass chandelier sat in ruins in the middle of the floor. The walls were paneled with rich dark wood, and frescoes of dancing figures decorated the lintels, but everything was coated with mold, and the floor boards of the dance floor were twisted and warped.

I pulled back the curtains and opened the double doors, which led back out to the drive along which we arrived. I then walked over to the piano and played a simple tune I was taught as a child back in Magnimar. While I am no musician, and my training on the piano was limited to one or two hours at the keyboard of the temple’s old upright, it was obvious that this ancient thing was in perfect tune!

We all then noticed that Kane was standing in the center of the room; his eyes vacant as he swayed from side to side. Suddenly he started and looked around at us as if trying to remember where he was.

As soon as I had begun to play on the piano he was swept into a dance with a beautiful woman. As they danced she changed as bruises formed on her pale neck, her eyes bulged and her lips turned blue. She then dropped to dust, leaving Kane back with the rest of us.

We made our way back through the small corridor and into the main hall and then across to the circular staircase, which we ascended.

The first room was obviously a child’s room, with a child sized bed, a toy box and a fireplace in the corner. The sound of a child crying wafted through the room, although I could not hear it.

The crying affected Avia, who hid in the fireplace as best she could and refused to speak to any of us. After a few moments she came out of the fireplace looking confused. She said thought she was Aldrin, frightened and running into the room to get away from his father, who had bulging eyes and a knife in one hand while chasing Aldrin’s mother about the house. His mother was also running around with a burning torch, trying to kill his father.

The room to the north had been a music room, with a few music stands scattered about and old harps, violins and flutes against the wall. The east wall was bowed, like the eastern end of the great hall below, and its windows were also of stained glass, depicting five scenes — one in each window.

• A pale ghostly scorpion
• A gaunt man holding our his arms while a dozen bats hung from them
• A moth with strange skull like patterns on its wings
• A tangle of dull green plants with bell shaped flowers
• A young maiden sitting astride a well while a spider the size of a
  dog descended from a large web

Kane noticed right away that they represented the following:

• scorpion venom
• bats wings
• death wing moth
• belladonna
• the heart of a maiden killed

Sabin commented that a lich based apthiousis was based on these ingredients.

Across the hall from the music room was a gallery of sorts. A stone fireplace crouched in the northwest corner, while cobweb covered portraits lined the north and south walls.

The north wall appeared to boast paintings from an older generation than those on the south, and on the frame beneath each painting was the name of the subject. The paintings on the north wall all appeared to have been painted at the same time in the same style (and no doubt by the same artists), just as those on the south, while different in age and style from those on the north, were done by one artist.

North wall portraits, from east to west:

1. Vorel Foxglove: a tall middle aged man, clean shaven with dark hair and blue noble clothes.

2. Kasanda Foxglove: a stern faced brunette with slightly graying hair, cut short, and wearing a blue dress.

3. Laurie Foxglove: a doe eyed little girl, much the same in the face as her mother, although less severe and stern.

South wall portraits, from east to west:

1. Trevor Foxglove: a tall and thin man with a narrow face and a long thin mustache.

2, Cyrlie Foxglove: a young woman with long red hair.

3. Aldrin Foxglove: a boy with the same foppish weak chin he sported as an adult.

4. Sendel Foxglove: a girl — obviously Aldrin’s sister.

5. Zeeva Foxglove: another sister.

Zeeva’s portrait was especially obscured with cobwebs, and when I brushed them aside the temperature in the room suddenly dropped, and our breaths came out as steamy puffs.

And with that all but two of the paintings underwent a change.

Vorel’s portrait turned to fungus, which spread about the room at a frightening rate, and, as we would soon learn, infested Nolin and Rigel with some sort of disease.

Kasanda and Laurie slumped into misshapen, tumor ridden forms.

A long cut opened in Trevor’s throat and blood washed down his chest.

Cyrlie blackened and charred and suddenly her arms, legs and back fractured in a dozen places.

Aldrin’s hair fell out as his face rotted and he transformed into a ghoul like creature.

Sendel and Zeeva remained unchanged, and we speculated that we had witnessed the end of each of the Foxglove family members as it had actually occurred. We assumed that Aldrin’s two sisters remained alive and well in Magnimar.

Moments later the room returned to as it was before, but the air was still heavy with the powdery mold that sprang from Vorel’s painting, which left us with little doubt that what we had experienced was real and not an illusion.

Nolin and Rigel both claimed that they had red spots on their arms, but the rest of us could not see them, nor could they see one another’s. We had them draw with ink where the spots were, and saw that both formed similar patterns.

Curing of diseases is currently beyond my skill, and we resolved to quickly explore the rest of the house and perhaps return to Sandpoint on the next day to seek a cure.

West of the gallery was a large bedroom, dusty and unkempt. A desk was set under the north window with a dark stain on its surface. Oddly enough there was no mold in this room.

I looked through the desk, hoping to find some document or clue about what happened here. Suddenly I became aware of a dagger and I picked it up and held it to my throat. I had just killed her! The woman I loved most in the world, and without her, what point was there in living? No. Wait. That wasn’t me, but I found that I had picked up a large sharp splinter of wood.

The papers in the desk indicate that it was Trevor’s room, and from the mental image I had just had and his painting’s transformation we deduced that Trevor burned his wife and threw her out a window onto the rocks below, and then returned to his bedroom where he slit his own throat.

Next we went to the far northeast bedroom — perhaps a guest room — caked with a thick layer of spongy dark green and blue mold. In here we heard a ghostly child’s voice ask, “What’s on your face mommy?”

Sabin started to claw at his face, and we had to restrain him until the fit left him. Poor Kasanda and Laurie ended this way. We carefully backed out from the room.

The washroom was off the north wall, with an iron tub perched upon a floor, sagging beneath its weight.

In the northwest corner was a large bedroom. The bed had been smashed and the mattress slashed, along with the walls and paintings. One painting was still intact, but turned around such that it faced the wall.

A voice shrieked high and piercing, “What do you do down in the damp below?!”

Rigel staggered about and then charged at Avia, screaming! Avia simply held her away with one arm until the evil mood passed.

I turned the painting around to reveal a portrait of Iesha Foxglove, wife of Aldrin, whom he murdered in a fit of rage.

We estimated that the damage done to the room was recent — within the past few months. And so it seems that each generation that lived in this house was destined for some great tragedy… or evil.

A door next to the bedroom led up a flight of stairs to the attic.

The first room was a work-room, with large holes in the roof and pots and urns strategically placed to catch the rain. Woodworking and carpentry tools line the shelves and rest on the work table.

The next four rooms were simple storage rooms holding furniture, bedding and all manner of household goods and supplies.

The southeast corner held a small bedroom and had a low ceiling slanting down to the east. From this room we heard a shriek from the north, and we ran out and over to a door at the end of the hall.

Rigel and Kane fumbled with the lock and Avia burst inside. It was a cold and damp bedroom, with a mold encrusted chimney in one corner and a mirror leaning up against the slimed bricks. There, huddled on the floor and wrapped in a sheet was a woman rocking back and forth and staring at the mirror.

It was Iesha. That is, it was at one time Iesha, although what it was now we were not sure. Avia said she was evil. No real surprise there.

Avia broke the mirror, and then the Iesha thing screamed out, “Aldrin, I can smell your fear! You’ll be in my arms soon.”

Someone suggested letting her go and then following her to find Aldrin (and perhaps provide an unlikely ally in the ensuing, but inevitable conflict), but we had stood in her/its way for too long and it was grasping at us. It had got a hold of Nolin and squeezed him with almost bone crushing strength.

We killed it, and if there was any part of Iesha still present, we ended her misery. The body rapidly decomposed as it lay there, and we covered the remains of the remains with a sheet.

Across the narrow hall from Iesha’s place was a locked door, and beyond the door was an interesting room filled with books, skulls with candles, scroll cases, statues, an empty birdcage, tribal fetishes and other odd but interesting paraphernalia.

A small desk stood squat before a fine leather chair, and as I sat I was overwhelmed with the sound of book pages rapidly turning, and my thoughts turned with excitement over planned expeditions and sea voyages to far away and exotic lands. But these were just pipe dreams now: all forsaken and lost because I had to settle down and marry that harpie!

Hmm, yes, well now I do hate it when that happens.

Two of the scroll cases held magical scrolls:

[201] scroll of lightening bolt
[202] scroll of keen edge

The books were all of tribal cultures, and the Ashanti tribes. A painting of a bull fight hung on the wall caught our eyes as being of high quality.

The final room was over the music room, which itself was over the dining area of the main hall, and this room shared the same bowed alcove and stain glass windows of its fellows. A desk and chair sat in the middle of the room.

• Northern window: a dark haired woman with pale skin and large green eyes, wearing red and black clothing and wielding a jagged iron staff.

• Southern window: the bottom has been broken and the hole covered by canvas, but in the top half we saw a handsome man wearing an ivory and jade crown.

The frame around the broken part of the window was burned, as if something (or someone) was set alight and pushed through.

On the desk was a battered telescope, and in the ceiling above was a trap door, secured by a series of ropes and pulleys. Nolin managed to get the contraption working and we climbed up and out onto the roof. It was late in the day and the sun was close to setting.

We climbed back down from the roof, and then down to the main hall on the ground floor. There we decided it would be prudent to walk the three miles back to the Lost Coast Road to make camp.

Once outside we noticed that in the clearing that had once housed the out buildings for the manor a vast flock of black birds or ravens had roosted. Only these birds had glowing red eyes, and they followed our every move.

Anytime we tried to walk away from the house they would drive us back.

We debated trying various tactics and spells to escape, but decided instead to conserve our magics in case we could not get away and had to camp here anyway.

We set camp between the main hall entry and the ballroom entry, beneath the bare limbs of a twisted tree. We expect trouble overnight, and despite the watch, sleep does not come easy.

== Oathday, Neth 14, 4707; The Misgivings, Morning ==

The night passed quietly and uneventful, if you can call having thousands of beady red glowing eyes staring at you uneventful.

Nolin and Rigel do not look good, and now everyone can see the angry red sores that have erupted from their skin. Kane and I used our healing skills to help as much as possible, but I fear we must escape this place and return to Sandpoint for any hope of a cure.

And apparently the only way to escape is to confront what awaits us in the basement. We’re fairly certain we will find Aldrin, or more precisely what Aldrin has become. No doubt this trap was of his creation, but he may have underestimated our abilities, or so we hope.

We scrambled down the regular stairs, leaving the mold stairway and the magical mystery monkey head as a last resort.

A kitchen. We were not expecting a kitchen, complete with table and fireplace.

The table top was covered with mold (imagine) and rat droppings (disgusting).

Disturbingly large and wide cracks, a foot wide each gape from the southwest wall. Kane has volunteered to go in if we run out of options.

As we explored the area the sound of chattering rats came from the cracks, but with some oil and a little fire we kept the diseased rodents at bay.

A door in the north end of the east wall opened onto a large room with bunks and a chair, but very little dust.

To the west a door opened onto a pantry and the rats. We quickly slammed the door shut before any could squeak through.

Next to the pantry was a door to wine cellar, filled with racks and broken bottles.

A door in the south end of the east wall opened onto a hallway, which turned north and ended in a locked iron door. Rigel and Kane worked hard to pick the lock, and when it opened we found ourselves in a chamber beneath the dining area above.

Of course the east end was bowed, and held two stained glass windows.

Sabin thought this was an arcane workshop at one time, and there is a work bench in the center of the room with three iron bird cages set upon it. In each cage is a diseased rat corpse.

It is too dark to see the images in the stained glass, and I will need to hold a brighter light source near them to see what they portray.

There are no other exists from this room than the way we came in, and now we are deciding what to do next.

Searching for secret doors is high on the list of priorities, but I fear we will need to tread the fiendish ways of a more ethereal stairway to find where Aldrin awaits us.

Postscript:

I have just completed a sketch of the basement floorplan, and noticed that we have not found a way into the area beneath the mold stairway.