They Hate That.
Qhortho searches the kitchen to find an old wine bottle with a questionable cork alongside some moldy foodstuffs.
Aran takes the lead as they re-enter the foyer and cross into the ballroom.
Farron looks out one of the boarded-up windows to the bright full moon and then across the front year do the house. He tests the boards to ensure they are reasonably secure, which they are. Qarzdaq checks the front door and it is also securely closed. Qhortho strolls into the ballroom towards the large grand piano that would have been the focal point of the room long ago.
Troy follows behind Qhortho just watching the Assembly do their thing.
Aran opens the door at one end of the ballroom to find a relatively clean office with a desk and a paining on one wall of a large house constructed of beautiful dark wood and white stone. He figures that this is what this house looked like in its prime.
Aran investigates the desk thoroughly and finds nothing of value. He turns his focus along the walls and notices something strange about the painting: one of the corners is pulled up at the corner slightly.
Qhortho is intrigued by the piano and pokes at the right-most keys with his finger. It responds with a few high-pitch notes.
QHOR: I hate that.
Farron turns to watch Qhortho with amusement. He walks up to the piano, cracks his knuckles, and sits at the small bench before the keys. He begins to play a tune he’d learned and quickly finds the tuning is quite off. Or maybe his performance skills are a little lacking at the moment. No, it’s the tuning. It has to be.
FARR: Wow, this thing needs some work.
He notices that some of the notes are a little muffled through the middle notes. Realizing the action on the keys feels ok, he knows there must be something inside the piano preventing their vibration.
Qarzdaq focuses on the three glass half gallon jars mostly filled of inky black sludge that Troy recovered from the basement. It’s not off-putting in any specific way, but something about this stuff doesn’t sit right with him. He picks up one of the jars.
TROY: Hey, careful with that. I need that to go around at night. These are the only 3 jars I found.
QARZ: What happens when you put this on exactly?
TROY: Nothing special. It just gets my skin dark enough to not be noticed while I search outside.
Troy realizes this sounds crazy.
TROY: I mean, I tested it before putting it right on my face. It doesn’t smell bad, and I put a dab on my hand. Saw no ill effects at all. And I don’t keep it on for long. It’s just to get out of the house and search with as much concealment as possible.
QARZ: Do you think the owls stay away from you with that stuff on?
TROY: I haven’t tested it experimentally, but I don’t think it’s warding them off or anything like that.
Investigation is Afoot
In the office, Aran is pulling back the corner of the painting and finds it a deep blue color. He pulls it hard, ripping it from its frame. He lays out the blue side of the painting on the desk and realizes it is a blueprint of the house.
Aran takes it to the ballroom.
ARAN: Hey guys, look what I found.
He walks in just as Qhortho removes a silver urn from inside the grand piano and promptly drops the top onto the floor. Aran holds his tongue a moment. Qhortho shakes the urn revealing something metallic inside. His eyes go wide and he dumps the contents on the floor. A small puff of ash rises from the pile of ash and bone. He sifts through it quickly and finds the item he sought: a ring with an inset black onyx falls to the floor.
QHOR: Look what I found!
Qhortho picks up the ring and holds it up.
ARAN: Interesting, but take a look at this.
Aran holds out the blueprint.
ARAN: Looks like this is the blueprint to the house. Looks just like the layout from our fortune.
QARZ: What’s that symbol in the top there?
ARAN: No idea.
Farron asks Qhortho to see the ring so he could examine it more closely. He finds it has an engraving on the gem and determines it is the same symbol as the map.
FARR: Check this out.
He slides it on his finger to show it off. Seeing as it did nothing obvious for him, he figures it might need attunement. He tosses it to Aran since he’s attuned to the fewest items.
Aran puts on the ring and approaches the basement door. He looks around to the others who gather around. He places his hand on the door, expecting it to open or have some effect. It does neither.
The group leaves the basement door without a word, venturing farther into the house where they find two small staircases leading up to a second floor; one on the left and one on the right. A door is near the base of each staircase leading to other rooms. There are also three doors upstairs: one near the top of each staircase, mirroring the bottom floor, and one additional door on the rear wall between the two staircases.
Farron opens the door on the left on the first floor. Inside is a large slate table in the center of the room. Large leather chairs and sit around the room and a short leather sofa is on the far end. It appears this room was dedicated to gaming and leisure.
Light Reading
Qarzdaq opens the door on the right on the first floor. He finds a very dark room with layers of dust that seem to make the air unbreathably dry. His darkvision allows him to see this is a library, or at least some sort of book repository. Suddenly, something slithers long the wall out of the corner of his eye.
Reactively, he shoots a bolt of fire from his finger. He realizes immediately that this may not be a great idea being in a room so dry with all this vellum just waiting to ignite, but those are consequences for the next guy. The bolt strikes the creature, who shrieks out in pain. It suddenly leaps directly at Qarzdaq. Its form startles Qarzdaq. He jumps back a step as it falls to his feet and sizzles out of existence, vaporizing before his very eyes.
Qarzdaq thought he’d seen everything. Clearly this house has some surprises in store. He looks around and doesn’t notice anything else in this room of importance. He holds up his Teletherscope as if it were a PKE meter, but it does not vibrate.
Aran looks over to the commotion by Qarzdaq, realizes he’s already got it under control, looks over to Farron standing before an uninteresting room, and decides to climb the stairs and enter the room on the left. Qhortho follows him.
Ghastly Hall
The extremely dry, stale air emitted from the room strikes them both in the face with an intensely foul odor.
Scanning the room, they see bookshelves lining the two long walls that lead to a door in the back. Three scarecrows are leaning and resting against the walls at the end of the hall.
Aran walks in like he owns the place, intending to find out what is behind that door at the end of the hall. Just as he is about to touch the door handle, Qhortho strikes one of the scarecrows with his Valyrian greatsword.
The three scarecrows begin to animate in jerky, twisted motions. The door they’d entered slams shut. Qhortho slashes the same scarecrow again, but it still seems to be alive… or unalive? Whatever… it’s still moving and it clearly wants to kill the both of them.
Farron hears the door slam upstairs and abandons the leisure room. He rushes up to try the door, but it doesn’t open. He uses Dimension Door to pass through the real door. He quickly provides some inspiring words to Aran.
ARAN: Thanks!
Books immediately fly off the shelves into the middle of the hallway near Aran and Qhortho. The wave of flung books quickly approaches Farron at the other end of the room.
FARR: Fuck.
An unexpected, invisible force smashes Farron hard in the chest.
Suddenly, the door near Aran and Qhortho flings open. Two mummies bust through, frayed bandage wraps dragging on the floor. Aran strikes one of them as soon as it gets near him. It attempts to strikes him back with a rotting fist but Aran dodges it by leaning to the right. The second one glares at Qhortho, who is struck by how frightening these creatures are. It then attempts to punch Aran, who dodges it by leaning back to the left.
The scarecrows lunge at Aran and Qhortho. As soon as one misses Aran, he sees the opportunity to strike it back, causing some of its stuffing to fall from its raggy clothing, but it remains aggressively animated. He repeats the attack and destroys it. He then focuses on the mummy that he’d struck earlier. After a couple more strikes, it is also felled.
Qhortho attacks the closest scarecrow and slashes it multiple times to leave it in a pile of splinters and straw.
Farron begins a chant as a way to help his allies fight off the effects of the frightening enemies. A second later, he feels as if he’s just missed two waves of force that were intended to hit him.
The mummy punches Qhortho and, although the impact was manageable, there is sense of impending doom that permeates his core. Despite him still being frightened of this monster, he shakes it off quickly. The fear subsides as well. Qhortho is angry. Very. Angry.
Farron hears a strong pound on the door, then it is suddenly ripped from its hinges and thrown backwards.
“KNOCK, KNOCK, BITCHES!”
Qarzdaq’s form is recognizable through the airborne dust after having just used Telekinesis to remove the barrier. He quickly processes what he is seeing: mummies, scarecrows, books tossed about. Yep. Unlikely for most, but typical for the Assembly.
The scarecrow claws at Aran, but he jabs it quickly and sharply, bringing it near de-animation. Seeing it is weak, he slashes at it again with his gundao, dispersing its straw around the area. He turns to the mummy.
ARAN: You’re next.
Aran slashes the mummy twice, leaving it only as a mound of bones and bandages.
Ghouls and Ghasts suddenly pour into the room from the door at the end of the hall.
Aran kills one of the Ghasts as soon as it gets within range, but these things keep coming. He is surrounded in a matter of seconds. Qhortho steps up and kills two of them just before they were going to bite Aran.
Farron sends two arrows into one of them, leaving the arrows sticking from its head but still aggressively animated.
Qarzdaq is suddenly smashed in the chest by an invisible force. He feels it a millisecond before it causes him harm and it reflects back. He looks around for the source, but a second later, he is struck by an even harder blow that knocks the wind out him.
One of the two remaining Ghasts moves between Qhortho and Farron, its stench almost causing them all the wretch.
They claw Aran and Qhortho, but Qarzdaq restrains one of them, readying it to be annihilated, which Aran promptly does.
Aran then kills another. And another. He strikes yet another but not hard enough to bring it down.
The house begins to shake and the floor near the hall’s entry door splinters apart.
A giant mummified octopus head breaches the floor, breaking apart the walls and parts of the ceiling, letting some moonlight in.
For a brief moment the silhouette of a Predator Owl can be seen against the bright moon. Portions of the floor crumble away between Farron and Qarzdaq as large tentacles make their way towards both of them.
Farron jumps away and gets ready to attack; Qarzdaq is tossed and falls prone to the floor outside the room.
Its tentacles reach towards Qarzdaq and Farron. The one reaching towards Qarzdaq strikes his shield and pulls back slightly. The other one quickly wraps around Farron, grappling him and causing intense pain, draining life essence directly from his soul.
Before Qhortho can focus on the octopus, he destroys both of the nearby foes, one Ghoul and one Ghast.
Farron realizes he needs to get out of there… and fast. He uses Dimension Door to teleport himself to the other side of the octopus, behind Qarzdaq. The grasping tentacle, suddenly grasping nothing but air, coils in on itself. The beast lets out a disgruntled sort of croaking sound.
Qarzdaq jumps back to his feet and stares at the undead mummified creature. He slowly takes aim with his finger. A thin bright streak streams from his finger and quickly expands with a low roar into an explosion of flame. The blast does an incredible amount of damage to the beats. Its bandages ignite as do parts of the floor.
Aran steps to bat. He slashes it quickly twice and it falls limp. Its tentacles writhe for anything to grasp as if of their own minds. They fail the flailing beast and it crashes with a deep rumble into the pit under the foundation of the house.
Troy looks on with incredulity from the first floor. He knows he should try to help but also knows there’s probably not much he can do to help. Still, he could try, but that means putting himself in danger, which makes him want to hold back so he can achieve his goal of finding the cure for Lorayn. Of course, that makes him feel guilty for being so selfish and makes him want to fight for the do-gooders of the world against their shared foes. He’s a little conflicted…
The hoots outside, now more audible with parts of the ceiling missing, do not help Troy’s disposition.
Farron downs a healing potion then pushes open the right-most door at the top of the stairs. He steps back ready to fight, but he only reveals a corridor with a door at the end.
Lovers No More
Aran turns from the hole and heads toward the room he’d been approaching before literal hell broke loose. In the room, he finds a chest and two skeletons with their arms chained together. The chain holding their wrists passes through an iron loop installed into the stone wall. The skeleton on the left has its head still atop its shoulders, the other has its head in its lap. He leans down to look at them more closely.
Qhortho barges into the room and rifles through the unlocked chest. He finds a bunch of old garments but nothing of great use. He steps back out into the hall. As he’s walking back toward the main stairs, he calls out.
QHOR: There’s nothing over here guys.
Aran decides this is worth a closer look. He finds keepsakes and small paintings of what seems to be family members over a few generations. The house is in almost every picture. This house has a lot of history to it and probably a lot of secrets. Aran turns back to the skeletons and realizes the left one has a small silver locket around its neck. It’s shaped as one half of a broken heart with some sort of engraving.
He decides to pick up the skull from the other one and finds another silver locket; the second half. It also has a strange engraving.
Aran puts the two pieces together, but the light is too dim to make anything out. He puts them both around his neck and exits the room.
Qarzdaq steps towards the hole to look down into it, not believing the fight is over. He is suddenly, struck by an invisible force but casts shield to prevent any damage. He looks around for what could have caused that.
QARZ: Mother fuck!
Qhortho looks up to see Qarzdaq looking around like a wild man, similar to how someone might look who is attempting, and failing, to swat a mosquito flying around his head. Suddenly Qhortho understands as he is smashed in the chest by an invisible force.
Finally, A Goal
Qarzdaq grabs his Teletherscope and starts scanning slowly around to identify the source of these strikes. He does not see anything nearby, but something does catch his eye. The basement door has some sort of glowing rune only visible in the ethereal plane.
He looks over to Qhortho and Aran then over to Farron.
QARZ: Guys, I see something over on the basement door in the ethereal plane. I’m going to check it out.
He approaches the door, bracing himself the entire time for another force slam. Through the scope, he sees a collection of symbols on the door, the most prominent of which matches the blueprint and ring.
QARZ: Come check this out.
Qhortho and Aran jump over the hole and descend the stairs. Farron descends the stairs on his side.
FARR: Aran, you pick up some jewelry?
ARAN: Yeah, these two skeletons were wearing them. Looks like they were imprisoned.
They pass Troy and look over Qarzdaq’s shoulder.
Qarzdaq turns to the others.
QARZ: I think the symbol on this door is connected to that ring. There is also a small square a broken heart with what might be a lightning strike in the center. There’s also something behind it that I can’t quite make out.
Qarzdaq’s eye catches the lockets around Aran’s neck. Aran mentions where he found them again and lines them up. The engraving once they are next to each other matches the blueprint and the ring.
QARZ: That must be the reference to the heart and lightning bolt. And the circle must be the ring. Looks like we’re still looking for a square at least.
Rest and Relaxation
Qhortho leads the way into the leisure room. Suddenly, Farron is struck again by an invisible force.
Farron drops to the ground, looking around for any clue as to what is happening. He quickly drinks another healing potion.
FARR: Fuck! We have to get rid of this thing!
ARAN: I think I’m the only one that hasn’t been hit by that thing.
They briefly discuss how they might deal with it, but no one has any real answers.
Qhortho steps inside and walks towards the opposite end of the room. Qarzdaq enters next and scans the room with the Teletherscope. He briefly touches the table and… wait… his hand is stuck.
QARZ: Fucking shit. My hand is stuck.
Aran drinks a healing potion then steps into the room following Qhortho.
ARAN: Your hand is just stuck on there?
QARZ: Yeah.
Farron goes into the room and feels a woosh of force just barely miss him.
FARR: Fuck this place.
Qhortho moves back towards Qarzdaq to try and help. What he doesn’t realize in this moment is that both his Root of Knowledge and Qarzdaq’s Amulet of Lightbringer are both still active. And in being within five feet of one another, they have effectively crossed the streams.
They are immediately thrown to opposite sides of the room, crashing into the walls. They each take a large amount of force damage from the artifacts themselves and bludgeoning damage from being slammed against the walls. Qarzdaq is also affected by the skin ripping from his palm as he is thrown away from the slate table where his skin is stuck.
The table itself immediately roars to life and transforms into a giant creature that had been mimicking a table!
The creature has also been impacted by the force wave from the artifact blast.
Farron creates a crown formed of balls of light and shoots one at the stars at the mimic. It responds by spitting blood at Qhortho. Qarzdaq shoots a bolt of fire at the mimic causing it to explode into bits. Several smooth stone balls shoot up into the air a few feet as does 300 silver coins.
Aran takes another potion.
Qhortho looks around the room. This time, since he knows he’s rushed his last few searches, he is more patient. Looking very carefully, he only finds a bottle of wine. But it’s only one-quarter full. And no cork. At least this time he can feel confident there is nothing of any importance.
Invisible Force vs. Unlikely Assembly
They decide it’s time to visit the attic before going down the other hallway. Farron lets everyone know that he is not stepping foot outside the room unless someone is in front of him and behind him. He cannot take many more hits from that invisible force. Aran takes the lead and steps out of the room and starts up the stairs. Farron moves to be alongside Qarzdaq, still inside the room. Qhortho takes a step just outside the room.
Aran suddenly feels a force slam to the back of his armor, knocking him forward into the stairs.
ARAN: What the hell was that?
QHOR: That’s what we’ve all been getting hit by!
QARZ: So we know it is not just magic wielders or the active artifacts… which means that we may have just unleashed something from that other hall… and it may have been around us this entire time!
Aran sweeps his glaive all the way around him, smacking into something invisible. He feels the blade move through something like a gel, then give way. An audible wispy gasp and a breeze makes him believe he’d destroyed it.
Aran runs up the stairs to the door Farron opened, but he decides to pause once inside the threshold for the others.
Qarzdaq readies a jar of sludge in his hand and loosens the lid so it can be popped off at a moment’s notice. He slowly moves around the room and braces himself.
He is suddenly struck by an invisible force! He reactively sweeps his arm holding the jar so that the sludge will spray out, coating anything that may be invisible nearby.
Rather than a spray however, the sludge remains intact in a thick inky snake-like form as it is flung from the jar. It elongates mid-air and wraps around an invisible being. As the last of the sludge form becomes visible, Qarzdaq recognizes it as a slithering creature like he found in the library!
QARZ: Oh shit!
Troy looks on from outside the room, horrified that one of the jars of black sludge had this thing inside. Qhortho rushes back into the room and slashes the floating snake-like creature, making sure to maintain some distance to Qarzdaq. With two strikes, he manages to destroy the snake and the invisible being!
QHOR: Shit yeah!
ARAN: What the hell are you guys doing down there? Let’s check out this other room!
QHOR: Hold on! I’m killin’ shit!
Qhortho and the others go up the stairs to catch up with Aran.
TROY: What the hell was that thing?! The black sludge??? I put that all over my face!
QARZ: Yeah. I wouldn’t use any more of that if I were you.
The Four Seasons
Farron opens the door to the attic and peers inside, his crown of stars illuminating the way up a narrow flight of stairs. He notices some spider webs and slowly closes the door.
FARR: Nope.
Seeing as everyone is not far behind, Aran heads down the hallway and opens the door at the end. Inside is another hall but this one has four windows on one side of the room. The hall seems to serve no purpose; it ends with no door on the other side. Each of the windows provide a view outside, though each shows a different season. The trees sway with varying degrees depending on the weather fitting that season.
Aran gets really close to the one showing summer. He shifts side to side and can see his perspective changes. This is certainly not just a clever painting. He moves to the spring window and perceives the same thing. He attempts to open the window and though it sticks, it opens slightly. A light breeze fills the room with a very comfortable yet cool air carrying the scent of new plant growth.
The door suddenly slams shut, closing Aran in here by himself.
A wispy smoke comes through the window and forms a ghostlike creature.
Aran takes a few punches from the creature.
QHOR: I’m coming!
Qarzdaq focuses his telekinesis on the shut door Aran went through. He rips it from his hinges and sends it flying down the hallway directly at them.
QHOR: Yikes!
Qhortho dodges the door as it approaches him.
FARR: Whoa!
Farron jumps clear of its path.
QARZ: Wuh oh!
The door bashes Qarzdaq in the head, lacerating his forehead.
Inside the room, Aran slashes the creature thrice, but the spirit remains unfazed. Aran downs a potion labeled as Hide from Undead and steps back several feet.
The spirit looks around the room, not seeing Aran not more than 15 feet away.
SPIRIT: You come into my house.
It punches at the air with a swift powerful strike. It steps forward.
SPIRIT: You expect to leave as you came.
It attacks thin air again with a powerful lightning-fast punch. It steps forward again, now entering Aran’s range. Aran slashes it, catching it off-guard, just as Qhortho rushes into the room, great sword raised over his head. He slams it down into the spirit’s head, and it lets out a visceral roar.
Farron is just behind Qhortho. He slips into the room and mocks the spirit.
FARR: Intelligent thoughts have always followed you, but you’ve always been faster.
SPIRIT: Ahhhhhh…
The spirit vaporizes before their eyes.
QHOR: Wait, you just insulted someone to death.
Farron only offers up a cocky shrug.
ARAN: The old sticks and stones thing is bullshit.
The summer window opens a few inches on its own with a creak. The air becomes warm and humid with very little movement. A wispy smoke comes through the window and forms a creature made of a dark fog with a crudely human shape.
The mere sight of this being causes Aran, Qhortho, and Farron to suffer mentally, though they all break through the sensation to remain in control of their faculties.
Aran slashes the creature repeatedly and it dissipates before it can cause them any more harm.
Qarzdaq can only hear what is happening in the room, but he figures they have it under control. He decides to explore the attic and drinks a potion to prepare himself. He opens the door and the area looks clear. He approaches the steps and steps onto the first. He hears movement in the room to the right of the top of the staircase. He climbs the stairs and looks around, seeing nothing of any importance until he notices a dismembered hand holding the skeletal remains of a cockatrice.
Meanwhile, another window opens on its own in the dead-end hallway. A cool breeze enters through the room in gusts carrying with it fallen leaves that rustle across the floor. Another pocket of wispy smoke enters the room and comes into form by Qhortho.
While Qhortho starts to fight this new spirit, Farron quickly shuffles out of the room once when realizes Qarzdaq isn’t coming. He looks down the hall to see the attic door is open.
Inside the attic, Qarzdaq is standing, looking at the cockatrice trying to figure out what it is he’s looking at exactly. Is he dreaming? Suddenly, the hand opens and the cockatrice flies straight at Qarzdaq! Dismembered hands and feet appear from all around the attic, seeking to add Qarzdaq’s to their tribe.
Farron hears a shuffle from down the hall.
FARR: Well that’s probably not good.
Splitting the Party: What Could Go Wrong?
Farron runs towards the attic and looks up the stairs to see a skeletal cockatrice flying around Qarzdaq with him swatting it away as best he can. Something jumps from the ground at Qarzdaq and flies past him, landing near the wall at the top of the stairs. Then another, then another.
Farron realizes these are dismembered hands and feet trying to attack Qarzdaq. Though they seem to be bouncing off his sorcery shield, he is bound to become overwhelmed. He disengages and rushes down the stairs where he almost runs into Farron. Qarzdaq spins around and casts a Fireball into the room.
All the dismembered appendages are incinerated immediately and the cockatrice is holding on by a thread. Its bones are literally on fire. However, the room and the roof are now on fire.
In the dead-end hall, the spirit stares into Qhortho’s eyes, sucking life from him. He realizes that if he even looks at this thing, it is going to continue to drain his life. He realizes he could look away and swing his sword less effectively, but chooses to stare the motherfucker in the yes and drain its life instead.
He sticks the creature with the pointy end repeatedly and almost extinguishes its existence. Aran comes up behind it and slashes it in half. It dissipates into the same wispy essence and dissolves into the air.
QHOR: Cram.
The fourth window in the room opens and the air becomes very cold. They can see their breath in the air and get the sense that snowfall is imminent. Another being comes into existence farthest from the door.
ARAN: Troy, get in here!!
Troy starts running towards the room, then comes to a screeching halt realizing he was just about to go rushing into an unknown situation. With his dagger ready, he slowly creeps towards the entryway where he can see Qhortho.
Meanwhile, Qarzdaq is about to be struck by the flaming cockatrice when Farron tells it that he’s seen worms sturdier than it. It falls midair and tumbles down the stairs.
QARZ: Think we should go in there?
FARR: Into the fire? No. No, I don’t. No.
QARZ: Every place in this house had something of interest with those symbols. There might be here too.
FARR: Fuck, man.
QARZ: I’ll go in, just be ready in case something fucky happens.
Farron agrees and Qarzdaq starts up the stairs.
Qarzdaq uses some of his sorcery ability to provide himself a resistance to fire. He sees parts of the roof and floor are aflame, but based on where he placed the fireball, he does not think the entire room is on fire. He sprouts his wings and flies through the flames and heads directly to the area he expects to be safest. He sees a small pile of human bones in a large bird cage. Two small human skulls sit atop the pile of bones. On the floor just beside it is a small leather square embossed with the symbol you have found elsewhere in the house.
Qarzdaq realizes that these must have been two small children locked in this cage, left to starve, with only a family memento to comfort them.
Farron looks on from the attic doorway as part of the roof falls in with a soft thud the way a campfire log falls into the heart of the fire when the smaller logs below give way. He takes a step back.
FARR: Qarzdaq? You ok?
Suddenly, something flies directly towards him through the flames. Qarzdaq lands, unscathed, before Farron. He holds up the scrap of leather.
QARZ: Look what I found. Where are the others?
Farron points to the dead-end hall. They see Qhortho standing still, seemingly stunned. Troy is sneaking into the room with his dagger out.
FARR: Oh shit, we have to get in there. Hey, are you sure we trust that guy?
QARZ: Oh shit, I mean, yeah, I think. Though who knows what that black sludge has done.
A Short-Lived Winter
Farron on foot and Qarzdaq flying, they head towards the back room ready to kill Troy if it comes to that. He hears them coming from behind and steps aside to let them pass, his back to the wall and dagger down by his side.
ARAN: Troy! Now’s your chance!
Clearly Troy is not the threat; he is there to help. As soon as Farron recognizes this, he uses his dimension door to get inside the room. He immediately blasts the tentacle-faced creature with one of his stars.
Aran starts his slashing frenzy and brings the creature close to its demise.
A thin green ray springs from one of the creature’s tentacles towards Aran. He quickly and narrowly dodges it.
Qhortho shakes off the stun, but is still regaining his footing. Farron sees his opportunity and shoots it with another star. The small bead of light launches from his crown, piercing the creatures temple. For a moment, a small tunnel glistens in the reflection of the crown of remaining stars above Farron’s head, just before it is vaporized, destroying the threat.
The house shakes violently, shattering the glass of the windows inward to the room. With the shards of glass come the view they’d shown moments earlier, as if painted on the glass. In their place, just empty holes in the wall. The air settles and warms somewhat. They notice that the warmth of the house is not exactly comforting; it’s more like they are “not cold” rather than “being warm.”
They now see there is a room on the other side of the holes in this wall where the windows once were. Looking through, they see the skeletal remains of a man sitting in the corner. A few candles, chalk, and a single book sit beside him.
The Final Piece
They each scramble through the holes in the wall to investigate.
Looking at the skeletal remains, they realize one of its hands is missing. Qarzdaq mentions that he just had to fight off a bunch of severed hands up in the attic. Are these connected?
Farron looks more closely at the book next to the remains. It has the house symbol on the cover. He pages through the book and finds entries clearly of a sophisticated nature, testing and discovering more about the “higher mysteries.” The last few entries of the book are of a mind unraveling. It seems he may have manifested himself into a spiritual being to get revenge on whatever closed him in this chamber. Though it seems he had not achieved revenge, by killing him through these phases, the Assembly likely set him free of his shackles.
There is also an incantation that looks to be worth studying by those so inclined in the spiritual arts.
Troy steps into the room with his dagger readied to find no one in the room.
TROY: Guys?
We end this session just past midnight, Day 799, with the house on fire in the attic. With the new cantrip found in the book, Qarzdaq and Farron will be able to take a short rest to focus on the spell and learn it permanently. They’ve also collected a number of items, each with the house sigil on it: a ring, a 2-part locket, a patch of leather, and a book. Each member of the Assembly has gained an additional 3.5kXP, bringing them to 158kXP and only 7kXP from Level 15.