Session 50: A Cry in the Manor

The party followed the sound of a crying baby and found a looted vault and a pit trap.

This write up is based on our Sunday, February 2, 2025 session and was written by our scribe Carl with a few additions from myself. Thanks to our mapper Jimmy for the screen shots.  Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Back to the Manor

Location: The Hermitage outside of Tegel Manor

10:00
It was a nice warm morning, just right to go kill something. We decided to go revisit Lady Rubienna Rumpula, since our last talk was so rudely interrupted.

We went in the window to the room next to hers, and we found a door as yet unopened. Reebo worked the lock and sufficient effort opened the door. Inside was a bedroom, familiar since this was where we met the lady vampire last time.

Aefir found a secret door in the west wall.

Always good for new doors, so we went west thru the secret door that Aefir had located.  A mouldering tapestry, a window to outside. Boldly going where we had not gone before...oh, well, we had actually been here. Killed a green slime last time.

The laboratory that we had to flee from is someplace not too far to the west of these rooms, but searching for secret doors did not help us find a way to sneak in from the back to try to deal with it.

No windows in the laboratory room, so we decided to work back to the main part of the manor. Aefir's map still has some areas that we have not found.

We heard some mumbling that grew in volume as we moved and developed into a chanting. As we moved westward the chanting faded away.

Down a long hallway to the west, we could hear angry voices and a rolling sound from the room.  Four severed heads, rolling around and trash talking each other. They were focused and did not initially notice us.

Reebo checked out a desk in the room, and when the heads noticed us they began to beg for mercy. Shadow asked how we could assist them, but they had different views on needing help or not. The heads kept on arguing.

Offering a one way trip to a rathole, Shadow persuaded them to talk a bit. A lich decapitated them, and they tried to leave. With Arkhelm the prime mover, we destroyed them, hopefully ending misery rather than spoiling their fun.

Nothing in the desk, or under the rug. Nothing of value or interest in that room once the heads were gone.

Aefir led us back to the east of the corridor, and north. Been here, looked at those rooms, but we could hear a baby crying in the distance.  No one remembered a crying baby, so we went eastward in hope of finding it.  Not the first time we heard a sound that was just there, and nothing physical.

A doorway to the north in the corridor opened to reveal a maid crying as she sat on a bed. Aefir asked who she was, and she attacked. The bed in the room animated and attacked too.



As with the vast majority of our encounters, this one went our way. We wanted to find fresh territory, and we finally did.  Still more on this, the ground floor, of the Manor. After that encounter, we could no longer hear the child crying.

Searching the remains of the bed, we found nothing, but a search of the rest of the room found a spellbook, open to Blur. Arkhelm took the book for a more thorough examination. Nada except the book and a broom. Nattie took the broom, for better cleaning our hovel. As she picked it up she detected an option to attune to the broom... Tucked into the pack straps, she did NOT attempt to attune, but did not resist it either.

There was a narrow passage to the east, a west door and a north door. There was a corpse with a necklace behind a very sophisticated lock. Steadfast found a key in the room's desk. A matronly voice could occasionally be behind the door to the west.

Touching the corpse brought out a moan, apparently from above. Ready for battle, with the moaning getting louder, Aefir decapitated the corpse. The moaning stopped and the necklace fell to the floor.

The door to the west led to an apparently empty bedroom. The furniture had been torn to pieces, with a floating table that was trash talking and cursing in the voice of the matron we had been hearing. Ten amber gems and a siderite were embedded in the top of the table.

Aefir approached it. Shadow could tell that he was being affected by the central gem and the voice, and notified the party that it was trying to affect people. Steadfast was strongly affected by the siderite, and tried to pry it out, ignoring the 10 amber gems that surrounded it. Aefir suggested taking the table back to our hovel, but Reebo and Steadfast ignored him.

When Reebo removed the last of the circling gems, the table fell on him.

There was a closet with more wreckage, but nothing useful.

Examining the previous room more thoroughly, Aefir found a secret door with a keyhole. The key we found earlier worked on it, and the door opened to a very narrow east/west passage.

The door snapped shut before everyone got in, but opened readily from the passageway. It came to a dead end, but a secret door allowed us to proceed.

 

We were pretty far east in the manor, in unexplored territory, and Aefir went boldly forth. We found a vault with a LOT of copper, and some silver and gold coins. Looked like people before us had cleared the room out and found that the copper wasn't worth taking.

We loaded the mass of copper into a chest, so we could get it out. A little inconvenient, but copper is copper.

South from the Room of the Stash, to a closet with a decomposed body. A door westward opened to another bedroom....HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVED HERE ?????? If we aren't finding a rathole, we are finding a bedroom.

The room contained a shrinelet to Tsathogga, the Frog God, reminding us of the ruined temple outside.  Searching the bedroom we found lots of cobwebs and an indication that like the vault before, this place had been pretty much cleaned out.

As Reebo was searching the bedroom, he began to feel drowsy (was crawling onto the bed at the time), and the canopy started to lower onto him. He rolled free before the bed closed down on him. Steadfast attacked the bed with his flaming sword, and the room got pretty smoky until the blanket fire was put out.

We found an ordinary mirror, a table with some gems and gold.A door out to the west put us in a hallway. When Aefir stepped into the hallway, he fell into a pit. Woweee, first time for everything. Roping up and being careful got us around and on our way, up the corridor to the north.

Just past the pit, turning west, we heard the baby crying again and ran into an old friend (sorta, we have his picture in our cabin)  Radded Rufus, a zombie who came out to play. Moving faster than we would expect a zombie to move, Arkhelm was faster though. One more body to search. Nothing found.

More weirdly shaped rooms, and the crying child could no longer be heard.

One of the off-corridor rooms felt quite cold through the door, and while it appeared to be empty there was a definite chill coming from it. Aefir the Bold checked it out.

Two disembodied hands came out of the wall at Aefir.  They were really tough to hit, and had some sort of draining effect when they hit one of us. Even Magic Missile had no effect, so we took the better part of valor and closed the door on them, retreating.

The hands did NOT pursue us, staying on their side of the door after we closed and locked it.

Back to the pit trap, Reebo descended and checked for secret doors. None, but the door to the south (past the pit) yielded to Reebo, and on we were set to go.
  

Continued in Session 51: The Throne Room and Owlbear