Curtains and Candles 2
| Curtains and Candles 2 | |
|---|---|
| Date | 7/13/23 |
| Storyteller | Zoro |
| Tier | Expert - Medium |
| Player Characters | Serene Leyvald, Grist Vanafeld, Hiromi, Zeal, Sade Mrysky |
| Rewards | 275 xp (half for master tiers), 303 gold, 2 silver, 5 copper, Poisoner's Staff, Five-Feather Wreath, Aether Appendage, Blast Foot, Heated Cloak, Waffle Iron, Resonating Fork (Greater) |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Zeal |
Log
We headed onto the manor grounds, acknowledging we only have until sunrise to solve this issue before the manor vanishes once more, with us inside it. We can hear what sounds like a party inside, and the inside is brightly lit as we step in. An attic whisperer walks up the stairs to greet us, a familiar and unwelcomed sight in my personal opinion. This one didn't even look like a child, it looked like an animal walking upright with a dress on. The abomination told us to go speak to her father, and directed us to his study. Therein Grist found a book, feeling compelled to read its words.
"Herein lies the final entry of lord Barnelius Bently, the final and greatest lord of Bently manor. If you are reading this, then I am dead. And you are soon to join me in that fate."
Crashing noises echoed out from other rooms of the house, the sounds of the party being mixed with the occasional scream. As the ink drains from the rest of the page of the book, we headed out and to the dining room next. Cutlery floated about, the clear sign of a poltergeist. It throws said cutlery around and causes some problems, but is of relatively little issue as we put it down. Perhaps not forever given the regenerative nature of poltergeists, but it was never the core of the issue.
We cross the house to the place where the food is prepared, with a warning from Hiromi about floating heads trying to bite us. As a flaming face in the furnace greets us no biting occurs, but more objects are thrown about. A single will o' wisp resided near the fire, but all things in the room were dealt with without too much of a problem. My being struck by an entire ham was more insulting than wounding. Sade found human remains in the furnace as we went to leave, and as Hiromi performed a ritual to appease the spirit, we felt the pressure of the room and the sounds of the party die away. The presence of the party was the sign of human remains that needed to be cleansed, it seemed.
Pushing through a poorly blocked door, we continued on in our investigation. The bathrooms had no spirits within, and our trip out and around the yard proved a waste of time. After a roundabout return to the kitchen, I found that the chandelier had 8 odd candles. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be fingers coated in wax. More human remains, which Hiromi was able to cleanse. Next we headed to the nearby indoor garden, where Hiromi and I remembered an old tale about burying something of similar color under a plant to help it grow. The roses here were bone white, and we found three different skeletons buried underneath. We were able to cleanse those as well, but not before being attacked by multiple shadows.
Mel, as Grist eventually found out the Attic Whisperer was called, offered to show us where its father was, but only if we played a "game" with it. The game was to bend down and let us touch it's face. From our previous encounter with an Attic Whisperer, some of us knew this could incur blindness, so we left the child behind once more. Not that it made a difference, it had been following us at a distance this whole time. Hiromi was able to warn us of a particularly dangerous room, and so we elected to strike out that way first.
Inside the long room we spotted a chained up body at the far end of the room. Unsurprisingly, we were attacked by more shadows. Somewhat surprisingly, the body on the wall produced a far stronger shadow Sade and I faced off against. It still died without a major fight, but this room was certainly more dangerous than the ones before it. Approaching the body at the end of said room, I found that it was properly decayed instead of preserved like the rest. It turned to speak to us, laughing at how doomed its afterlife was for what it had done in life. If not for Hiromi figuring out that it was a puppet, I would have wasted time striking down a lifeless body. We needed to find the one controlling it.
Leaving this room we went left to find a bathroom, and the door connecting to it which led to a child's bedroom. I found the child's body under the bed, horribly mangled with intent to rend. Hiromi and I cleansed this one, though I admittedly do not understand why I had to do all the motions she had me do while reciting a prayer to the Godclaw. The prayer to the Five should have sufficed, in my mind. Regardless, it was for naught as a knock came at the door. The body could not be freed due to the grip another has on the soul, and as we opened the door Mel informed us that the father was ready to see us. It let us to the father's bedroom, where we faced off against the specter.
The specter itself died rather swiftly, though I am ashamed to admit that I fell victim to its control for a moment. I struck Sade severely while he wasn't expecting it, and for that I hope he knows it was not my intention. While the specter died quickly, the child which Serene had scared away seemed to have died. The effect of the ritual finally applying, I suspect. We would have been done there, if not for the three wisps also in the room. They were almost impossible to track, leaving us searching for them for quite some time while they continued to shock us. I've little idea why it worked, but Serene turned and scared Grist. This drew the wisps to him, removing their invisibility and allowing us to kill the three bright balls of energy. Unfortunately, this had taken a significant amount of time. We performed a swift rite for the father, who had seemingly died peacefully in his sleep despite all he had done. The injustice of it aside, we quickly scoured the rooms for anything else before leaving, everyone escaping before the house vanished once more.