Session 17: Ghosts, Wraiths and Talking Paintings - What Next?

After a two day rest, the Adventurers return to Tegel Manor.

Written by our scribe Carl with a few edits by myself. It is based on our Sunday, February 6, 2022 session. Thanks to Jimmy for taking the screen shots on roll20.

Continued from: Mead Hall Battle

Location:  Inside Altharontha’s Boarding House in Tegel Village

We were back in town after the battle with the Hag, etc.

Dividing up the loot, Arkelm kept the book, "All Horns & Tails? A Beginner's Guide on Everything Tiefling: Halifar the Bard walks you through the wide and wild world of Tieflings, their heritage, and how to even make friends with our infernal neighbors."

Arkhelm cast identify on the theive's book and the card deck. The book was was a Tome of Thievery which Reebo could use to increase his skill. The deck was a Deck of Many Things, which confirmed what we believed.

We thought it best for Syndra to hold onto the Deck of Many Things and Reebo kept the Tome.

Reebo went out to sell most of the rest and negotiate for others.

Reebo wants to buy a house for us, instead of staying in the Inn.  People are leaving the town, apparently.  Wow, we could be slumlords...and we would be the slum too.
 
We rested another day and headed back out toward the manor.

We went back to the Manor a different way this time, and saw another manor type building on a hill.  Also a filthy swamp, but we went through woods to bypass the waters. Not for sure, but we might have spotted a REALLY large frog there.

We spotted a small house and it was pretty much on our way, so we checked it out. Now we know where Baladar the Ranger lives. He told us the swamp is Derfingel Marsh, home of the Dearth Monster of Derfingel Marsh.

We asked about the castle on the other hill, and learned it is the Monastary of Garm, and the area around it is patrolled by some of the nastiest dire wolves you will ever see. The monastary trains monks, 40-50 of them at a time (total, monks and trainees).

Arriving at the manor, we decided to climb in the window we fled out through, if it was open still.

It was and it was still propped open with the pole from one of the burned banners.

The Zombies were still there, still dead. The teddy bear was gone.  Reebo did another search and found a 'different' brick on the fireplace, slightly depressed.  Reebo used his Mage Hand to try and push the brick out from behind, hoping to reset whatever it was used for.

Syndra and Nattie walked the walls, slowly, searching for whatever they could find. Syndra noticed a slightly misaligned panel on one wall, behind a suit of armor

While backing up Reebo, Aefir noticed another brick at the other end of the hearth that corresponded to the depressed one. When he pressed it, the door that Syndra had noticed popped open and the one Reebo was fiddling with popped out to be even with the others.

Inside the newly revealed area we saw a closet sort of room full of old, musty, and worthless clothing.  A door on the far side was visible, and Reebo used Mage Hand to feel around it.

Opening the door, we saw a lady in a canopy bed. A huge silver shield adorned one wall, displaying the Rump coat of arms. The woman rang a bell, perhaps to summon help?

Dust on the floor had no footprints showing. The woman beckoned us toward her, and began to comb her wild hair. Aefir and Syndra entered the bedroom, noticing doors to the north as well. Reebo went up to listen for noise beyond them.

Aefir cast Divine Sense, and came up with mostly neutral and NOT undead. Slight tinge of evil, perhaps like a spider would be. A smallish cloud of dust seemed to form as she kept on combing her hair.  Wise heads backed out of the room and brought their bodies along.



As Reebo was checking out one of the doors a blade trap activated and went right over his head as he ducked. Reebo kept on examining things. The woman kept on beckoning to Aefir, but he held his ground.

Reebo found another closet, with bloody buckets in it.  On the south wall he also listened at another door, hearing some slight movement (it sounded like probably more rats).

The woman indicated to Aefir that she could not talk, and he said that if she did not need assistance we would be on our way.

Aefir opened a door to the south side of the bedroom, and yes indeed it was rats. Reebo used his mage hand to close the door.  Aefir was determined to investigate, and the woman was a little put out that we were ignoring her.

Syndra approached the door, ready to back up Aefir. Some more cautious heads stayed behind in the Ale Hall (hag and zombie room) to maintain watch against an ambush.

The rats attacked when Aefir opened the door. Mostly ranged combat ensued, with people not getting too close to the bed at any time. The rats did not do well. There was yet another rat hole (going down) in the corner of the room.

There was a door in the south wall of the rat room.  Reebo checked it out and opened up to reveal a trail of bloody footprints leading up to the door. Reebo closed the door at that point.

Natalie saw a ghost coming from the south of the Ale Hall, and yelled out to the group as she backed into the bedroom. She closed both doors as she entered the room.

We closed the door to the bedroom/woman, and prepared for the arrival of a ghost.



Sure enough, the ghost ignored the woman in the bed and came through the door without opening it. Everyone who could fire did, and the ghost responded with and AOE of Terrifying Moan.  Lots of damage all around, but Arkelm got really frightened and fell to the ground behind the couch he was using for cover. After the moan, the ghost pulled back through the door.

Aefir opened the door to pursue the ghost and did not see it initially. The woman in the bed still beckoned to him. He came back into 'our' room and waited.

Syndra put down her Unicorn Spirit totem to cover all of us, and cast a healing spell

The ghost, though not 'dead', was hurt enough to move away and give us time to recover a little bit. With one thing and another, we all got back up to full HP and hope the ghost did not bother us again. At least for now....

We moved to the south after healing up, taking the totem with us.

Bloody footprints, just like Reebo said. They went up to a southern door and stopped. Four doors total in the newly explored room, plus one window.

Reebo listened at the footprint door, and said it sounded like someone was chopping something.  He went to listen and check the other doors.

As Aefir opened the footprint door, a trap door opened under him.  He fell, to encounter a dead body at the bottom of the pit. Missing an arm, a young man with a short sword and a locket with a picture of a young woman. We looted him but planned to try and find the woman if we could.

A stubborn door finally yielded to Arkelm's knock spell, plus announcing us to everything within 300'.

The door opened onto the hallway with the Rump family portraits. A wraith was chopping up an arm...We already knew the man was disarmed...

As we spread out to engage it, Natalie's bolt quiver strap broke and the bolts landed at her feet. Not to be outdone, Aefir made a crazy wild swing that would have left himself completely open to attack. Fortunately, the crazy wild swing killed the wraith.

The wraith dropped the dagger it had been using on the arm as it died.

The painting behind Natalie, Reipsik the Rapt, had enjoyed the show and told us so. He had no particular advice for us.

Reebo pulled out all our loot and Syndra cast detect magic on it all

  Dagger--------Magic
  all the other stuff is not magic

We followed the bloody footprints to another door. Reebo checked out other doors too.

Opening that door, we found an empty room and kept on following the prints.

We followed, and came to a door with growling on the other side. After opening the door we no longer heard the growling. A silver holy symbol for Mitra hung from one wall.

Ultimately we came to a room with a bathtub. The footprints seem to have originated there but there was no one/thing walking now.

With the aftermath of our battle with the ghost, we knew we needed a long rest.   We picked a room that was NOT adjacent to a hallway and did NOT have a rat hole, and we settled down to rest.  Arkelm cast identify on the dagger and it was a +1 dagger, with no other effects. Reebo took it.

We heard walking footsteps and a growling in the hallway outside the room, but it passed without disturbing us.



About half an hour into our rest, we heard pounding on one of the doors, and the spike Shadow had put in displaced and clattered to the floor. We heard more footsteps and a woman screaming. The door to the east (to the big room with the bed) opened.  A woman, screaming, wounded and holding a leather bag, stepped into the room.

Continued in A Bloody Woman and More Exploration.