Session 34

Date: 3 December 2020

Prev: Session 33

Next: Session 35

The party is in the immediate aftermath of the fight, surrounded by iced-over streets and frozen guards and townspeople. As they regroup, Astrid urges them to move on - they don't want to be around to get caught up in the bureaucracy of the city when they've only just arrived. As she's saying this, Pasky pops up stealthily nearby. Damien and Dessi are confused by the kobold's appearance, but Pasky announces he has a skill that will assist here. He performs a sequence of hand gestures and draws them into the shadows, casting pass without trace using his ninja magic, and slip away past the gathering crowd. (Raen convinces Mino to carry him, overdramatizing his injuries.) Both Dessi and Nergil use their Mask of Many Faces abilities to cast disguise self, becoming a very bland-looking dwarf and an inoffensive human man, respectively. Pasky politely asks them to keep the magic to a minimum, as it's difficult to maintain the spell around their transformations.

Nergil chats with his siblings in infernal as they walk. Damien looks around at the group and tells Nergil their "dad would be proud! You're gathering an entourage", a notion Nergil chooses not to disabuse him of. He came to this conclusion based on Pasky's assistance and Raen's use of the hell dagger, and thinks gifts like that are an excellent way to secure loyalty. Nergil changes the subject: what are they doing here? Dessi avoids the question, telling him that if he wanted to know, she shouldn't have left. Corrin, also knowing infernal and able to follow the conversation from a distance, mutters to Nergil, "that's what she's like normally?" Nergil chooses to focus on catching up with Damien, agreeing with Damien's claim "the worst is the best" and observing later that "people gotta like you even if you're lying".

As they move closer to the Niccolai district where Astrid lives, she's not thrilled about the suspicious siblings knowing where her home is. The inn isn't too far from where Astrid lives, so Quill suggests going to the inn first. As they pass through the neighborhood, a man bursts out of a two-story house. He runs through the gate, leaving it open, and trips in the street, nearly colliding with Mino. He looks up, cries "Please help! A ghost!" and faints. The party moves into action: Mino puts the fainted man over his shoulder, while Quill casts a hurried cure wounds on Raen in case they end up fighting. Mino begins moving toward the house, ready to see the ghost. However, the rest of the party is hesitant to follow.

Dessi notes Nergil's hesitation in particular and decides to make a dig at him, asking "When did you become so uncool?" Nergil protests, and Dessi tells him that if he's still the same guy, he should come home. Nergil is fine with the idea of the ghost, but is just less excited about actually seeing it. Mino is convinced to wait a moment. Corrin takes a moment to use prestidigitation to create a smelling salt, to wake the man, who comes to, hyperventilating. Mino begins to question him, and when Nergil intervenes because the man isn't giving Mino a straight answer, Dessi creates a horrific face with disguise self to spook the man until he faints again.

They're still on the street in front of the house, so Astrid suggests bringing him with them to the inn. Quill offers to ritual cast detect magic, but they decide not to wait that long. Mino picks up the guy again, rifling though his pockets as he lifts him, and finds what is presumably the key to the house. As the party heads off, Dessi leaves, uninterested in their disinterest. Damien very clearly desperately wants to stay, but follows his sister reluctantly.

The innkeeper at the Ruby Thorn is a reedy, bald man who can't seem to stand still for long. He's suspicious of the fainted man. Nergil blurts out that the man saw a ghost, although Quill quickly jumps in to persuade the innkeper that it's fine, they haven't brought any trouble. The innkeeper isn't thrilled, but he allows use of the sitting room. They lay him out on a couch and take a moment to breathe as Astrid goes out to bring back fresh food. Quill's aghast that there's no food service in this inn, though the innkeeper explains that usually his daughter helps out with cooking and cleaning, but she's engaged for the evening. As they have dinner, Nergil remarks, "Hey, remember when we delivered a baby like a day ago?"

They also discuss their fight earlier in the afternoon. Mino wants to know if there was anything else in the cart, but Quill shakes his head - just normal trade goods. Mino is still trying to figure this out - is there a market for this kind of thing? Astrid explains that yes, stuff like that can be used as spell ingredients, and Quill chimes in that it's very dangerous right as Nergil exclaims that it's very cool. They move on to speculating about the ghost, and Quill proves to be unexpectedly knowledgeable about different kinds of undead. Everyone is surprised and excited when he alludes to past encounters fighting ghosts, but he shuts down the conversation before they press too much.

The man comes to and begins panicking, shouting, "Where am I???". Nergil convinces him to relax and explain himself. His name is Max Maher, from Halfcourt. The house belonged to his cousin, who passed away about two years ago. He was only able to get up here to arrange for its sale now, and arrived in town about a week ago. The strange events began about a day after he moved in - rooms would grow colder or hotter, he'd hear strange scratching, shadows and figures, things would relocate themselves on their own. He did bring in a priest, who explained there were no undead in the house. The party digests this for a moment, and asks about any grudges, strange objects used as phylactery, or other people living in it? Max doesn't seem to care about any of this. He just wants to go home, and promises that if they deal with it, the deed is theirs. He's put it off for two years and just wants to be done with the whole affair.

Astrid volunteers to stay behind with him while they go investigate. As they walk over, they discuss a popular puppet show that investigates ghosts, who are often actually mortals who don disguises for the sake of one plot or another. Nergil has a different take on it: "the one where those kids mess up those good works?"

The sun is starting to set as they approach the house. Quill casts see invisibility in preparation, while Corrin takes out his newly enchanted frog and Mino unsheathes his moon-touched greatsword. As they enter the front door, a voice booms out: "LEAVE THIS PLACE". Mino flatly responds with a "shut up". He looks around as they step into the foyer and spots a ghostly apparition. It screams, causing pain to Raen, Quill, and Mino. Corrin yells to it in each of his languages, but it floats off and disappears.

As they enter the kitchen, they hear scratching coming from the room above the kitchen. Nergil doesn't notice his Book of Secrets being stolen as they're distracted, but realizes that his pack is lighter as the group moves into the empty pantry. When they move into the living room, he's too flustered to be of much use looking around. While investigating, Quill discovers some scratches under the table, and Corrin recognizes them immediately as coming from a kobold, thanks from their time spent with Pasky. They head back to the staircase, stretching up to the dark second floor. Raen listens, but doesn't sense any movement, so they head upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, a voice calls "get out!" and a cold gust of wind blows past them. Corrin realizes that these effects are just an illusion. They check the master bedroom, where Max has been staying. It's covered in melted candles, as if he was afraid to let the light go out. Quill finds tinkering parts under the bed. Raen realizes that these are probably the parts to a trap. Meanwhile, Mino and Ro open the door to one of the small bedrooms, where they set off a magical glyph, casting fear on them. Mino bolts, but catches himself on the staircase, although Ro barrels past him and begins zooming around the ground floor in agitation. Mino and Corrin chase him, trying to calm him, but it takes a few minutes before they manage it.

The three upstairs - Quill, Raen, and Nergil - look for fresh candles. They can see in the dark, but it would be useful to have some light. They find none. In the first small bedroom, Quill finds a couple of introductory texts on illusion magic. Raen goes to go into the other small bedroom but Nergil overrides this decision and enters the guest bedroom. Raen tries to look around first, but Nergil sees his Book of Secrets on the bed and beelines for it. A vial of liquid ice bursts, shattered by a tripwire, as he grabs it. He and Raen are able to dodge out of the way, but some of Quill's fur is frozen by the potion. Mino and Corrin, having calmed Ro, come upstairs and join them. Nergil finds a fine-bristled hairbrush inlaid with bone in one of the drawers and claims it, delighted at the odd find.

In the other small bedroom, Raen notices the carpet is scuffed slightly, and underneath is a gray-green kobold scale. He guesses that maybe these kobolds were playing around in this room. The party discusses what they'll do with the house, perhaps renting it out, and someone wryly observes that Mino would never let them charge rent, as he's some kind of anarchist. They table it for the moment, as they still have work to do.

They're not sure where to look now, but they realize there's a basement - the entrance was outside. Raen tries to pick the lock, but his earlier observation about the trap comes back to bite him (well, prick him with a poisoned needle). Corrin works with him to figure out how the trap works and disarm it, so Raen is able unlock the door.

In the basement, they find tracks crossing the room. Mino attempts to open the door on the far wall and burns his hand, but forces the door open through the pain. Around the wall, the party notices that the room is smaller than the full length of the house above and that the rug appears to go under the far wall. Quill realizes the wall is an illusion and has Mino go through. On the other side of this illusory wall, they find a tunnel dug into the stones of the basement wall.

When they enter, they find a fork. They turn right and find further progress impeded by a cave-in. They don't realize they've triggered a tripwire, and while they're looking around, a net full of small boulders drops on their heads, although pretty much the entire party are able to avoid being seriously injured. They see small picks used for digging at the site of the cave-in.

Taking the other fork, they find a ledge around a pit. Nergil casts fly on Raen and Mino, who all cross easily. Corrin rides Ro, who makes his way carefully along the ledge, but Quill falls in. Corrin waits for Quill to climb out, but the others press on. They emerge into a larger cavern, where a group of kobolds are interrupted while resting. Mino tries his classic gambit: "We're the cave inspectors!" but the kobolds draw weapons anyway.

The kobolds realize they are at a disadvantage, and attempt to negotiate for their safety. They promise to leave, as long as they can [something? line is "we'll leave, just give us our l-"]. Nergil explains that they're not angry in general, although he personally is mad about his book being stolen. A kobold steps forward and apologizes, saying he was actually going for Nergil's cloak of many fashions. He accepts the apology, but points out that he would also be annoyed at the cloak being stolen.

Nergil asks if they need help. Do they live in Swansing? They live outside the city, but use the caves and tunnels in the hills and under the city to move around. There was a cave-in, and they've been trapped in this cave for a few weeks - they can't really make their way through the city aboveground, either. Given the decent wine in bottles in the basement, it's not a terrible place to stay. When Max moved in a week ago, they attempted to frighten him away to secure their home. The kobolds' leader introduces himself as Nuktuk.

Quill suggests using his telekinesis spell to move the boulders of the cave-in. Nuktuk is very interested in this magical solution, being the source of the various illusions himself. The kobolds are a little surprised that people will help them, but are happy to accept it. As the rest of the party steps into the cave to let Quill and Mino go work, they're a little nervous of Ro, but he puts on his best behavior and they warm up. Mino is ready to put his nose to the grindstone, but finds himself mostly just directing the boulders Quill removes with his telekinesis. It takes the full 10-minute duration of the spell to finish, which Mino spends mostly complaining under his breath.

The kobolds ask to stay one more night and promise not to cause any more problems. Quill wants to close the tunnel off after they leave, and Raen agrees that there might be something worse than kobolds out there. Mino asks the kobolds if they're fine with it closing, but they don't particularly care. The party discusses what they're going to tell Max. They got rid of the problem - it was actually a ghost and they exorcised it. Nergil suggests Mino not be the one to tell the story.

Astrid is suspicious of Nergil's story, but doesn't let it show for Max's sake. Max signs over the deed to the Lighthaus Inspektorz. They decide to stay in the house that night in order to close the tunnel the next day.

They part out the rooms. Raen wants the master bedroom, but Corrin convinces him to give it to Corrin and Ro by tagteaming him with puppy-dog eyes. Nergil claims the guest bedroom by right of finding the hairbrush. Quill is grumpy, but settles into the small bedroom with the desk. Mino decides to sleep outside, under a tree in the yard.