Arvien felt her stomach starting to complain about the lack of second breakfast but she ignored it while the party continued to explore the grounds for any signs of help in breaking the Wescoat curse. Varrid decided to talk to Gabrielle about the master's morning routine and reentered the house to find her.
Ralom and Arvien studied the fence row where the night apparition left the grounds, including the bog just beyond. While there seemed to be some drier pathways leading off in several directions no evidence of the ghostly figure or the dogs on her trail were seen. Seglun and Grunyar climbed to the roof of the manor trying to discern any differences in the ground where the apparition appeared but nothing was evident. Meanwhile Drovic and Baru examined the floor and walls of the Ballroom, the door was savagely scratched but it appeared to be a very strong door, maybe a replacement of greater strength than the original. The mud and straw strewn about the floor was old and moldy.
Varrid found Gabrielle in the main servants hall and approached her asking about the master. Gabrielle responded "I seem him leave the manor just after daybreak, he is usually gone for about an hour. He comes back looking queasy and sick. I sometimes hear him gagging later in the morning." She also says that he only comes down to lunch after this. Varrid asks about where he goes but Gabrielle has never followed him. Conspiratorially Gabrielle asks in a whisper, "Did he show you the apparition? All of it?" Varrid said that he closed the shutters just as another figure appeared. "There is another figure, but I have never in my 20 years here, mustered the courage to venture out into the bog at night to identify it," said Gabrielle. "I would seek that figure if I were you," closed Gabrielle as she headed back to her chores.
Varrid decided to explore the pantry, if she could sneak by Martine. In the kitchen Martine had her back to the stairs down as Varrid sneaked by quickly and quietly to the cellar filled with cobwebs and dust. There were four majors areas in the cellar, a pantry store with potatoes, parsnips, turnips and the like, storage of furniture and various household crates, a wine cellar with a paltry store of wines and a room littered with damaged furnishings and rusty riding equipment. In the far reaches of a dresser drawer Varrid found a fancy dagger which she pocketed. The wine cellar held little interest and no secret panels. The jumble of broken furniture held a old canvas. Peeling away the canvas Varrid revealed a painting of a 30ish year old man in old fashioned clothes and a tricorn hat. The painting looked disturbingly like the host, although the painting is dated from 90 years ago.
As Varrid attempted to return quietly through the kitchen she bumped the table and alerted Martine. Keeping her composure Varrid acted as though she had just entered the room. "How is the meal coming?" she queried. Martine grumbled in response that all was fine "Have you seen that lazy Gabby? She is always taking her sweet time cleaning, I think she just whiles away the hours doing nothing." When Varrid tried to state the Gabrielle was working in the servants wing, Martine scoffed and repeated her accusations. "And if you see that loitering fool of a gardener tell him I need the beans. No wonder the master beats that simpleton, he certainly deserves worse than that." Aghast Varrid said "The master beats him? For what reason?" Martine spat out "For being a lazy fool, he deserves that limp the master gave him. He'll remember that when he fails to keep the grounds kept." After this exchange Varrid hurries out to tell Douglas to bring in the beans. Douglas confirmed that the master does occasionally does beat him but I am very honored to serve the man.
Soon thereafter luncheon is served. Questions abounded about the curse, when the hounds were due to attack, the wedding presents, the dogs, the apparition, where the young lady and the dogs flee to and every manner of detail about the night of the "murder." Wescoat answered as best he could about his grandfather, some of the information is just lore. Yes they can open the wedding presents, I can give you directions to the bog where Ann unfortunately died, you can stay outside and watch the apparition if you please. "The hounds should attack tonight, they always come before the apparition appears," stated Wescoat. After the fine meal Varrid examined some of the books in the abandoned living room, pages are torn out and scattered but the books have to do with the occult, studies of ghosts and curses. The wedding presents were mostly silverware, china dishes and plates, decanters and glasses and a strange squat urn with 6 long handled forks. The suit of armor was purely ornamental. Baru grasped the greatsword that was identified as magic, wields it around and decided to procure it for use against the hounds.
Grunyar finally descends from the roof for the evening meal, again very tasty. Afterwards the group decided to have Seglun and Grunyar watch the spectacle from the roof of the manor. Varrid and Seglun would follow Wescoat into the moor in the morning, with Summergale as aerial reconnaissance. Baru organized the party to repel hounds that he was certain would break into the manor this evening. As Seglun and Grunyar ascended to the roof around 1 AM, the fog descended on the manor, the party heard the baying of hounds in the distance, it grew louder as the manor seemed surrounded by the sounds. Presently dozens of hounds emerged from the fog in every direction and threw themselves maniacally at the manor. The attack lasted for about an hour and a half, at which time the hounds retreated into the bogs and the fog thinned. At three, a ghostly shimmer rose from the land in back of the house. The glow shaped itself into the form of a young woman, who resembled the painting in the study. She is clad in clothing that certainly was not the fashion seen in Mordentshire by the party on their short stay there. The colors were strangely bleached. There is no sound to the entire scene, which lent it an eerie quality. The woman's hands were stained with something black, and her dress was smeared as well. Abruptly, she whirled, a horrified expression on her face. She then turned and races east toward the moors passing cleaning through the stone wall. Spilling out from the abandoned kennel came the ghostly images of many hounds, mouths moving but making no sound. A man, dressed like the painting Varrid found in the cellar stood beside the open door of the kennel, pointing toward the fleeing form of the woman. When the last of the hounds were gone, the grim faced man raced after them, his tricorn hat falling from his head. He looked exactly like Wescoat and carried a coil of rope.
Meanwhile Varrid and Drovic again entered the cellar where Drovic found no magic and neither found any secret passages. The dagger that Varrid had taken was magical though. In the morning Varrid and Seglun watched as the master crept out of the manor, headed south climbing over the stone wall. They followed with Summergale soaring overhead. Wescoat headed down a footpath for around 20 minutes, at which point he looked around, stooped down and withdrew a cup from his jacket. He dipped the cup into the fetid water of the bog and drank it. He seemed a little wobbly, as he braced himself on the ground for a few minutes. Shortly he stared back toward the manor at a slower pace, passing Varrid and Seglun as they hid in the bush of the moor. The pair then headed for the exact place that Wescoat had drunk from, scooped up some of the water and took it back to the manor. Drovic said that there was no magic on or in the water but while not poison it had some taint on it. Varrid speculated that possibly the spot Wescoat drank from was where Ann Campbell ahd died. Others disagreed as they had seen the apparition flee to the east. Varrid went to another area in the bog to collect another sample, which had the same characteristics. Baru determined that the group should probably follow the apparition on the next evening to determine where it went.
DM's Notes: The party earned 200 XP for the night and now have 6400 XP requiring 1100 more XP to reach 3rd level.
No comments:
Post a Comment