The Misgivings, a Haunted House
After some discussion, Our Heroes decide to head to Aldern Foxglove's manor, several hours north of Magnimar, on the coast. It is a dark and forbidding place, and as The Party nears the plants turn to nettles and thorns, and a storm threatens to come from over the sea:
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| Foxglove Manor - the Misgivings
Spooky! There is a carriage house that's been burnt down many years ago, with only blackened timbers and stones for a foundation, and a murder of crows several hundred strong flies about, occasionally landing to stare silently at Our Heroes.
Three bodies lay in the ruins of the carriage house - all in black robes, with Urgathoan amulets. The bodies look a week or so old, Kendra says - starting to rot and in just that perfect state of horrible odor and... juiciness. Ick.
The house has two stories and an attic, and The Party is confronted by several Haunts along the way. It's scary and disturbing, but Our Heroes are, for the most part, able to shake off and recover from the ill-effects of the haunts fairly quickly; unlike Harrowstone prison (which wanted to actively destroy The Party) this house seems more to want its story to be told.
And what a story it is! Your Humble Narrator has, in the interest of brevity (for what is YHN if not a concise and aphoristic writer), posted both the Haunts and a brief and pertinent Foxglove family lineage.
In the attic The Party hears screaming, upon investigating they find Iesha Foxglove. However, instead of the Iesha Our Heroes have seen before:
The party sees:
Oh my.
Iesha stares into a mirror, sobbing and clawing at her face and skin, and occasionally giving out a wail of agony.
Vig throws his cloak over the mirror, and Iesha shudders, looks around, and then Wails most horrifically, screaming: “Aldern! I can smell your fear! I’ll be in your arms soon!” The Party springs to the attack - but then reconsiders, after Vig realizes that perhaps The Party are not her primary target. Moving out of her way, we follow Our Heroes as they follow Iesha downstairs, to the front entry way, where she bashes her way through the floor into the basement, and then further down a set of ancient stone stairs.
The party is very deep under the Misgivings now. There is a smell of the sea, and of mold, and a sound like deep breathing. Iesha continues on, followed by Our Heroes, until she passes a group of ghouls - who let her by, but do Not seem to care for the cut of The Party's jib.
No, we have not segued into Nautical Fiction. It is a common phrase - not talking about the sail of a boat at all. I am sorry that you find my idiomatic turns of phrase to be confusing - I was attempting to inject some levity and colloquialism into what is otherwise a horrifying and deeply sad story. What I meant was this: Combat is Joined!
At first it is only a few ghouls, but then it is a few more, and then a giant ghoulish bat and several ghasts join in and - it is pretty tense, up in here! At one point more than half of Our Heroes are paralyzed from the ghouls' malevolent touch!
But, as heroes are wont to do, Ours emerge victorious, and race to catch up with Iesha...
Who they find further on in this dark and moldy set of wet tunnels, pounding upon an iron door. Through a grate in the door, Vig sees Aldern Foxglove! But again, slightly different than expected...
Instead of looking as Our Heroes remember:
Aldern now appears more like this:
Oh my.
"Oh hey - Vig! How are you? Is Antwon with you? Hey buddy! Listen - I've just got to finish something up here and then I'll be right with you. I'm glad you came!"
The thing that Aldern has to finish is the vile Sihedron ritual - he is currently carving the Sihedron rune into a family of famers, who are gagged and bound to chairs, frightened almost past reason. The Party thinks this is a bad idea, so, working around Iesha (who continues to pound at the door), Torvan handily picks the lock. Iesha screeches and enters, clawing at Aldern....
Who dons a mask and becomes, to all outward appearances, another Iesha! There are a lot of people who want to look like Iesha in this world.
Aldern appears to be in possession of no fewer than three personalities; one seems to be the Aldern Foxglove the party met previously, one the ghoul that Aldern has become, and one - even scarier than the ghoul personality - the embodiment of The Skinsaw Man, a particularly horrifying aspect of the god Norgorber. It's a bit distressing hearing the monster that is now Aldern speak in three distinct voices, with three distinct (but always chilling) sets of threats towards Our Heroes.
Our Revenant Iesha cowers, confronted by the monster she's become, and Aldern begins slashing at her. Vig and then Torvan tumble past, but find it hard to hit the Monster that Aldern has become.
But then Antwon calls out to Aldern: "Hey buddy - let's talk this over!" Aldern pulls his mask up to look at Antwon - which is the opening that Iesha needed to launch her fury rage and despair at him, clawing deeply into his face and chest and biting his neck until he falls.
Upon his death Iesha wraps herself around his corpse, falling deep into the well from which no water can be drawn. Kendra casts detect undead and pronounces the house clear, except for a patch of evil mold, plastered to one of the walls in this room - the final remains of Vorel Foxglove, turned into a hateful fungal bloom after his ritual to become a lich was interrupted.
You might say that he became a Lichen.
No, I will not apologize for that.
The room is a bit disturbing, slightly more than the house so far; Aldern carried a locket with a tiny cameo of Antwon, and had several of Antwon's stolen possessions set up as a kind of shrine to the cavalier. It's nice to be admired but - maybe not in quite this way.
A note is also found:
Kendra focuses her Mythic powers to cast Consecrate on the fungus, and with a sigh the patch of mold liquefies and dies. The Manor, though still damaged from wind and rain and time, is no longer haunted - a feeling of weight and anguish has been lifted from this place.
Amongst the loot the party finds a valuable painting: "Throwdown in Swynetown" by the currently fashionable (and dead these past seventy-three years) Magnimarian artist Andosalu:
 Also, lying near where the fungus was but seemingly untouched by the mold, is a strange piece of green crystal, fashioned into the shape of one of the arms of the Sihedron rune. Touching it makes you feel.... envious, somehow. It's not great. Our Heroes might want to transport it in a metal box of some sort? Perhaps that will help. Additionally, searching the other bodies The Party finds that one of the ghouls has a piece of an angel's wing embedded in its skull - perhaps the carpenter, who was caught 'trysting' with Iesha? Three other ghouls were wearing tattered black robes; one of whom has a mysterious missive, signed by someone with the initials "A.V.". It's probably NOT Alessandro Volta. And this, my friends, is where we bid adieu, farewell, Our Party needs to rest and recover for their further adventures! |
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