After celebrating our victory, we decided to search the house once again. The secret door which led to the entire other half of the strange manor seemed the best place to start. Tymora is sometimes a fickle power, and nothing we tried (including my magic knock spell) would open the secret door. To say we were frustrated would be an understatement. There was the spiral stairwell that led up to the second floor and where the gate had been closed before, it now stood slightly ajar.
Nim took position and advanced cautiously up the stairs and began to scout out his immediate surroundings. The upstairs was giving off a diffused green glow in all of the corridors upstairs. Nim checked one door and, after hearing a strange sloshing water sound coming from within, decided to come back to the stairs and alert us to what he had found. Some in the group were quite impatient to get upstairs and were beginning to move even before Nim had returned.
Well this caused some frustration for Nim, who had been given the task of being the scout and had the mantle of leadership also somewhat thrust upon him. I think rightfully Nim had earned the right to somewhat chastise the group for not following protocol, but this was not even allowed as Uphir walked steadfastly up the stairs to the front rank. Nim threw up his arms and declared that someone else could be the scout. A tittering laughter, as from a young girl, could be heard coming from somewhere upstairs causing looks of concern upon all of our faces. I think the eerie nature of this structure is starting to cause stress for us all. I attempted to inject some silliness into the situation, but feel this was not well received by the group. Ah well, see a frown - turn it upside down, as my uncle Brackleberry used to say.
We proceeded down the longest and widest of the corridors, listening at doors along the way as there were many. That strange green light bathed everything in the hallway in it's light, causing everything to have a sickly green tinge to it. Nothing cast any shadows, as there was no definite point of light, it was completely diffused throughout. There was quite a ruckus coming from the door at the end of the hall, which was thumping, bumping and rattling as if someone were trying desperately to get out. Besides hearing sloshing water behind one of the doors, nothing could be heard behind any of the others as Uphir led us down the wide hallway to the door at the very end, prepared to find out what oddity lay beyond.
As soon as she touched the door the ruckus stopped. Thrusting the door open, several huddled forms could be seen across the bedchamber and they moved immediately to attack. These looked very similar to the ghoul creatures we encountered under the Durst Mansion. We formed ranks, with Uphir and Akkiir stepping to block the doorway, Nim and Tetsuo ready to attack from the second rank, and Janlynn and I further up the hall to cast our spells. Very early in the fight, Akkiir took a vicious hit from the ghoul and fell to the floor paralysed. Our troop performed well against the creatures, even without our lithe friend Akkiir's deadly blade. The stench of death coming off these undead creatures made all of us gag and we felt the risk of sicking up constantly.
Soon we fought our way into the room and killed the remaining ghouls. It was then that we saw, sitting upon one of the cots, that horrid doll who had escaped from Uphir's pack earlier. Uphir rushed forward and grabbed the doll by the neck with her large, strong hands. Without warning one of the dolls hands swept up and clawed Uphir's face, causing her to drop the doll in surprise. We all jumped into action, ready to slice or blast that doll, who had run under one of the beds. Searching the whole room, no sign of the doll could be found - it had disappeared again! As we heard the tittering laughter once again, we knew that we would have to destroy that doll immediately when next we encountered it. Akkiir was revived by Janlynn and suffered no more from being paralyzed.
We left the room with the slain ghouls and began working our way down the hallway back towards the stairs. The next door we tried opened into a kitchen with many cupboards and a hearth. The immediate thing noticed was a shuffling, rummaging sound coming from one of the cupboards - perhaps our missing doll was hiding within. Not waiting to reason it out, Uphir rushed forward and opened the cupboard with her axe raised to strike. The doll was not hiding within, but all of a sudden the air in the kitchen was filled with flying items - pots, pans, knives, and basically anything that was not nailed down. They seemed to act like they were being controlled by some invisible intelligence as they seemed to steer and turn to seek specific targets.
Everyone who entered the room dashed madly back towards the door and hallway beyond. It was noticed amongst the commotion that there was a chest resting in the hearth, but no other action but retreat was possible. Once in the hallway, with the door closed, our frazzled troupe took a moment to count fingers and toes and wonder about the chest. Tetsuo stated with his usual confidence that he could snatch the chest and be back out without the slightest problem. So he did. With all of his agility and grace he wove through the seeking objects, clutched up the chest and was back out in the hall with a flourishing flip as the others closed the door.
It was noticed that once the chest was in the hall, green vapors could be seen escaping from the cracks in the lid. It was quickly brought into the ghoul room and thrown against a wall breaking it open and spilling forth hundreds of coins amongst the green gas. We waited until the gas dissipated before going forth and finding a healthy pile of electrum pieces, marked with the profile of Strahd Von Zarovich. This coin would go a long way towards equipping ourselves for some of our more perilous journeys ahead.
The next door investigated led to a bathroom of sorts. Our front ranks went in to investigate and sensing something mysterious in the tub, approached and saw a form within. They saw the tortured face of a woman in the bathtub, her mouth opening and closing in gasps and the wrists on both of her arms were slit and were filling the water with blood. The apparition showed no sign of recognizing her surroundings or my heroic friends, she was going through the final moments of her life.
Janlynn wanted to evaluate the condition of the woman and try to help, but Nim insisted that he would investigate first to protect her from harm. Nim touched the woman and that changed everything. He gasped in pain and stumbled back, the icey grip of death burning his flesh with cold. Her face contorted into a hell-tormented visage as her wild eyes focused upon Uphir. Screaming in unholy rage, the ghost rushed upwards towards Uphir, turning into a ghastly green-grey vapor, pouring like a relentless torrent into her mouth, nose and eyes. As Uphir staggered back, her eyes came to resemble the insane eyes of the ghost as she cast her view around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. Uphir had become possessed!
The last thing our fighters wanted to do was engage a possessed Uphir in battle. Her ferocious battle rage had been seen time and again, and there was no way they were going to be on this side of her great axe. They were sure that if they were to survive, it would take everything they had and would likely mean her death. Thinking quickly, our front rank slammed the door closed, leaving Uphir inside. Everyone put their back into holding the door closed, expecting her axe to come crashing through at any moment.
At first I was stunned and frozen in place. How could I fight against my best friend? Uphir means so much to me! I told her when I first met her that we would be life long friends, and we have become so close through all of this. I wanted to drop to my knees and just wait for what was to come. But then I thought of Janlynn and the others. I couldn't stand by and watch them potentially fall before Uphir's axe. I couldn't watch beautiful Janlynn suffer any more than she has. It wasn't Uphir in control, I knew this, but it didn't help me make the decision any easier. I called forth the power of the Feywild, it's power arcing along my palms and between my fingers like witch lightning in the dark mists of a foreboding swamp. I would do what I must.
Everyone was as tense as they have ever been, waiting for Uphir to crash down the door, but it did not happen. Those closest to the door listened and they heard coarse grunts and meaty thuds coming from beyond. There was no one in there to attack. It took a few short moments for them to understand what was happening and they opened the door to see that our friend Uphir lay in a pool of her own blood with huge gashes in her chest and neck, her bloody axe lying on the floor next to her. Blood was literally spraying out of her neck. I was overcome with emotions and could not stop the tears from pouring down my cheeks. Even writing this now.....
Janlynn rushed forward and began healing, calling the brilliant power of the Morning Lord to heal our friend from the brink of death. That ghost wanted to commit suicide, and having been interrupted, used her new host to achieve it yet again. I speculated that maybe this ghost was the ghost of lady Ulric, who possibly committed suicide after finding out about her husband and his mistress. This is, of course, mere speculation and flight of fancy on my part.
By Lathander's blessing, Uphir was expertly healed by Janlynn and after a few moments was regaining her feet and trying to remember what had happened. I hugged my friend as hard as I could. I was so happy that she was alright. The group had to make the decision to take a rest or continue on and it was decided that we would just check out the last few remaining doors upstairs on this side of the house first.
We opened up the door that Nim had heard sloshing water behind and found a room mostly devoid of furniture, but with the apparition of a washer-woman across the room. Her back was to us and she was swishing and sloshing around laundry in a large bucket with a stick. Calling out to her caused the apparition to dissipate and vanish. Searching this room revealed nothing of any real interest. Opening the door directly across the hall we found a bedroom with rotten furniture and thick webs coating everything. We could only imagine the size of the spiders who would make webs like these. Stealing ourselves, we investigated the bedroom and found no clues or anything of interest once again.
We were now back down the hallway near the stairs we ascended to get to this floor. Checking a door up another hall revealed another bedchamber similar to the one explored before, including the thick webbing. Some of us were out in the hallway while others looked around the room. Before much could be investigated, strange ghostly visions of really large spiders began appearing. We jumped into action quickly, but all of our attacks went right through them. Soon they became solid and began their attack.
We fought against these horrid arachnids with as much vigor as we could. We were all feeling tired and needed a rest, but we managed to prevail against these spiders with no casualties on our side. We definitely needed rest......
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