Session 9

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October 21, 2011 – The Haunted Mansion

This took place on the evening/early morning of 10/11 Allamuth 1441

Story

The party set out to return to the Crown Prince, Allen Carver, to Canton City, and King Eric. The travel was not too rough, and as the sun set, and the party decided to rest for the evening. To guard their sleeping companions, as is often the case for travellers, a watch was set. They decided to have Adran and Lapahne keep watch separately, and the rest of the party take the third shift. During his duty, Adran feel asleep as a strange mist blanketed the area. When the party awoke the prince and the cart were missing. Only tracks leading off into the forest were visible.

The party lead by Laphane, followed the tracks to an old house. The tracks stopped at the front door, but no cart could be found. When they opened the door, the party heard music and singing. Sending the hunter to investigate, Laphane searched the area, and found the dining room. In the room, some undead were singing and having a dry, desiccated feast. The portait at the end of the room seemed to be leading it. Laphane stealthed back to the party to explain what he saw. The party followed on, and as Ivon entered the room, the music stopped and the portrait spoke. The portrait spoke, telling the party if they wanted their friend back, they would have to deal with "her". Then the dinner guests got up and attacked. The fight was on.

When the fight was over, the portrait was impressed. The talking head gave the party a riddle to solve and that would give them an opportunity to find the prince. The first task was to find some engraved plates that would identify the portrait and the four busts in the room. The task was easy enough for the Insel and Aegean Elves, however their frail and weak bodies needed a strong, hefty dwarf to withstand some poisonous plants in order to retrieve some of them. Given some clues by the talking portrait, the party attempted to place the name plates. On their first attempt they had a wrong order, and lightning shocked the party, singeing them thoroughly. After deliberating over the clues again, the party was able to place the plates on correctly to identify each bust. The portrait told them to return a book to the downstairs library, and the path to find the prince would open. So the party headed upstairs, and heard voices coming from the room at the end of the hall.

Breaking into the room on the left the party discovered a small halfling child, who had unfortunately lost control of a menagerie of animals. A cat, a rat, a viper, a bat, and a hawk. Through various efforts, including some aerial maneuvers by Adran, the party was able to capture all the animals and present them to the child. Once this task was completed, the child disappeared, the room suddenly was empty, and all that was present was a small book on the floor. Snatching the book, the party returned to the library and placed it on an empty spot on the shelf.

A grinding sound was heard, as a portion of the floor moved to reveal a staircase down, to a room filled with four braziers. A plaque above the far door read "The more there is of it, the less you see." As the party entered, small fireball-like creatures began popping out of the ground, attacking the party. Ivon began chilling the braziers to put out the flames, and once the rest of the party saw that this was effective, followed suit. The door slid open as the last brazier was extinguished.

Moving ahead, a dark, shadowy room slowed the parties advance. As they proceeded through this dark spot, arms reached up from the blackness and began grasping at them. It successfully pulled down some of the members, but they struggled mightily and eventually worked their way through, even pulling Laphane with a rope. Once on the other side, the next area found themselves staring down the form of Saxon Harold, inside a binding circle, the subject of a dark ritual. The "witch" behind him, Laphane immediately began targeting Saxon's form to no effect. The party realized that it was an insubstantial soul, with no form. They then went to work on the witch, who proved to be quite a worthy adversary. She blasted the party, and teleported across the room seemingly at will, confounding and annoying the melee fighters. Once she was down, they investigated the circle and the bound soul of Saxon. Ivon, knowing how to disrupt the ritual, began casting, and the party took positions to assist. The energy drained from their bodies from the fighting, the traps, and the struggles in the house, the party pushed on, and eventually were surrounded by an overpowering, blinding white light.

They woke up the next morning, back at their camp, seemingly never having left. Apparently, they all had the same dream at the start, however, the ending was quite different for all of them..

Treasure

Residuum 100gp

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