Party 3

Tazdaar could just make out the crib behind Thia as she entered the nursery, and judging by Carne's reaction, there was something in there, either the monster or perhaps guarding it. He knew he had to get the child to safety.

The dragonborn squeezes by his companions and reaches for the swaddled child ... only for the bundle to fall apart in his hands. The realization, whether correct or not, dawns on him that they were set up. This creature was put here to ambush them.

Rage boils in his belly, and then erupts as a blast of acid from his mouth. His anger makes it difficult for him to aim, and it mostly sprays over top of the statue's head.
 
As Tazdaar reaches into the crib Thia’s hope that the baby would be rescued crumbled in her mind, seeing nothing but cloth brought up in Tazdaar’s hands. With the safety of the baby now out of her mind the fear of the situation flooded into her and she turned to run out of the small room to safety. The statue was quick to act though, and as she tried to escape the statue raked its stone claws down her back, causing Thia to fall to the ground on her chest as the ooze on the statue’s claws begin to creep it’s way into her fresh wound. Thia quickly started to lose consciousness as her blood seeped into her now ruined white dress and onto the floor.
 
Azgard remained in the heart of Hunter's room as the combat pursued. Not thinking on his feet, some action occurred before he was able to unleash his orb and send another beam of crackling energy out towards the statue. Due to his clumsy approach to the attack, he was unable to hit the statue. It was then when he realized that a teammate was down, and he decided that staying put in the Hunter's room would be his best option.
 
Seeing his elven companion drop to floor, Carne went into his rage. He dropped the candelabrum still in his hands and pulled the greataxe from behind his back.
Screaming, he hacked into the statue as hard as he could. A loud cracking noise let him know that he was successful. And sure enough, large cracks appeared all over the statue's body.
 
After seeing Thia fall to the floor, Tazdaar draw his longsword and growls with anger. The sight of his fallen comrade and the parts of the crib turning to stone where the ooze touched it distracts him, however, and his blade deflects off the stone.
 
Azgard readies up another strike. He watches as his teammate begins to come to, giving him just enough grit to fire another blast, this time with more accuracy. However the power that flowed through the orb was much weaker than he was used to, and barely makes a mark on the statues head.
 
Carne goes for a sideways swing at the statue, slashing right through the middle of its body. With an ear piercing crumbling noise, the statue collapses into itself, any resemblance of life housing inside vanishing instantly.
As the pieces fall onto the floor, Carne holds his axe to his side, breathing heavily. He wipes some sweat off of his forehead, takes a moment to look at the monster's remains and kicks them with full force. A piece flies right through the window looking out to the balcony, smashing it.
In his rage, he completely forgot about the unconscious Thia.
 
Azgard jumps as the sound of the axe smashing into the stone echos through the house. After a few seconds when the dust cleared, he hurried to grab the cask of wine and a goblet that he spotted earlier, to see if it might help Thia with her wounds. He takes out his dagger and stabs the top of the cask, holding it up so that only a few drops of wine spills onto the floor as he rushes over.

"Maybe this could help with her wounds?" Azgard asks as he carefully tilts the cask over the goblet, filling it to the brim. He checks to see if the party has any immediate objections to the idea,
 
Tazdaar, knowing little of medicine, sprints out of the room and down the stairs, skipping as many as he can without falling. He rushes up to the older one and glares, holding his sword and shield, suspicious after finding the crib empty.

"My friend is dying upstairs! Show me where to find a potion, or the monster in the basement will be the least of your worries."
 
The sound of a sudden stab reminds Carne of what had just happened. He looks at Thia on the ground, and then Azgard with the wine. He drops his axe on the floor.
"Give me that", he says, taking the wine out of Azgard's hands.
He pours some on Thia's back wounds, hoping the alcohol would stop a possible infection. After cleaning the wound, he uses some of his hempen rope to make a torniquet and stop the bleeding. Finally, he turns Thia on her back and places his hands on top of her chest. Looking at her face, he notices that Thia would be quite the sight if it weren't for her off-putting pointy ears. He had found new respect for her, seeing her magic and how she had so selflessly taken on great danger to help a child.
He begins to pump rhythmically, forcing life itself back into her body.
 
Tazdaar races back up the stairs, but relaxes at the sight of Thia coughing, even if she's coughing blood. At least she's alive.

"The children ... I don't think they were even children. They were illusions. They disappeared."

He looks around the room at the stuffed wolves and then back to Thia and shudders at how close she came to becoming just another trophy for this horrible place.

"We need to find her a potion."
 
Thia stands on the balcony of some castle she doesn’t recognize. A beautiful woman with auburn hair in a noble dress rushes through Thia, literally. Thia turns around and sees her jump of the balcony, no hesitation in her steps whatsoever. A man in black plate armor rushes after her, a second too late. He kneels at the edge, hand out stretched. He throws off his helmet and screams. His hair is dark and long. Tears like blood flow from his dark eyes. Soldiers suddenly appear from behind Thia. They draw their swords. The mourning man stands up and throws his weapon away, he spreads his arms, as if welcoming his punishment.
 
Azgard looks at Carne, gaining a new respect for the barbarian.

“I’m glad you found us, Carne,” he says with a nod, as he laid his hand on Carne’s shoulder.

He stood up just as Tazdaar ran into the room. “Right… a potion…” Azgard thinks to himself. Not seeing any in the Hunter’s room in plain sight, he immediately runs out of the room and opens the first door in sight, a pair of double doors on the far wall of the third floor’s lobby.
 
As Azgard puts his hand onto Carne's shoulder, he gives him a short nod. Carne wasn't so glad that he stumbled upon these guys. One minute he was out hunting, and the next he found himself here. Alas, being with them was certainly better than being stuck all by himself.

As Azgard storms out of the room, Carne drags Thia to the side of the room, leaning her against a wall. When he is sure that she is in a stable position and wouldn't fall over, he leaves the crib room through the back of the cabinet and finds himself back in the hunter's room. The stuffed steppe wolves suddenly seemed all the more threatening. Illusions.. what kind of sorcery were they dealing with?

He walks up to the other cabinet in the room, which is still locked. Carne wasn't learned in any sort of intricate and complex lockpicking. That was something for small, cowardly men. No, he knew about just one way of getting behind locks, one that he deemed rather effective.
He swings his axe at the cabinet, but it gets stuck in the wood. With a strong pull he gets it back out again, and swings one more time...
 
Thia awakens slowly to the sounds of her party idly conversing with one another in the small sitting room. She doesn’t make any noise at first, instead choosing to check herself before her party awkwardly crowded around her. The firet thing that she noticed was that her dress was ruined, in multiple ways. The large gash on the back, the large amount of blood on it, and for some unknown reason the strong scent of wine emminating from it made her sure that it was completely unsalvageable. She next checked the cloth tourniquet around her, running it’s way down the middle of her back. There was still an intense pain there, and she was sure it would turn into a scar, and quite a big one too. One Thia realized she was fine physically she thought for a moment about the dream she had while she was unconscious. She didn’t know any of the people depicted in her dream, but something about it told her that it wasn’t just a fabrication of her brain. She then looked to her party members, who were milling about the small room doing different things to occupy their time. Thia sighed quietly to herself, feeling that she let her friends down. They had to halt all progress they were making in this house because she stupidly ran into a room without thinking about what danger could be inside it. Part of her felt glad they didn’t leave her here, but another part of her felt that maybe they should have. With most of her thinking done she finally decided to get up off the floor and address her party. “H-hey guys.....” She said in a quiet and raspy voice to everyone in the room, as she held her arms to her body awkwardly and avoided eye contact with any of them.
 
After swiftly examining the room, Azgard looks behind him at Tazdaar who was opening the other door. Careful not to reanimate any more crazy objects, he motions to Tazdaar for them to go back with the rest of the party. Azgard walks into the room when he notices Thia, she's probably still unconscious, albeit in stable condition. He also notices a pile of wood next to Carne, probably searching for potions. Sitting down on one of the chairs in the room, Azgard reached over to grab the first interesting thing that he could see. It's a pipe, covered in dust and probably hadn't been used in ages. Tazdaar did mention the children were apart of some elaborate illusion. Come to think of it this whole house, no, this whole town seems to have completely desolate and abandoned with no living creature in sight.

"I'm not sure I truly believed anyone lived here. I was blinded by the thought that an infant could possibly be in danger." Azgard says to Carne, as he starts to make small talk. That's when he hears Thia start speaking up.

"Thia!" He announced, welcoming his brave companion back into reality, "I didn't peg you as a warrior like that! Are you feeling better?"

Azgard sat the pipe down as he approached her, sitting on the ground beside her.

"It seems as though we might need to rest up a bit here before checking out the rest of the house. Maybe we can play a game of cards?" Azgard asks as he addresses the room. He knew that his new friends and he may have bit off more then they can chew, but he was ready to make the best of it. Kossuth be damned if he didn't finish what he was brought here to do.
 
Tazdaar wasn't much for card games, but it was nice to see Thia win after nearly dying a second ago. He was grateful Carne was able to bring her back after he essentially left her to die while he chased after illusions. She looked back to normal, though her dress was more than a little worse for wear.

"Perhaps we can find some clothes to replace those tattered rags of yours," Tazdaar says with a grin. He stands and moves toward the door, then nods toward the stairs.

"Shall we go see about this monster in the basement, if there really is one?" He taps his shortsword against his shield. "Perhaps I should take the lead this time?"
 
Carne nods at Azgard. A game of cards might serve well to calm the party down after this last encounter, that very nearly ended in the death of one of their companions. He himself wasn't feeling too well and could use a breather. He picks up and sheathes his Greataxe again, then walks over to Tazdaar.

"Yes, we could play a game of Cardbarian. It's very simple, I can explain the rules." He pulls out his new set of cards and begins shuffling. As he does this, he looks around the room toward both Thia and Tazdaar. "Will you two join us?"
Thia looks like she's thinking about it for a moment, then gets up and sits down with Carne and Azgard. "I.. I'll play...", she says. Even Tazdaar joins.

After Carne explained the rules, he deals everyone a couple of cards and they begin playing.
Carne immediately notices that his mind is not really in it. It's been quite a while since he had last played Cardbarian, but with some luck he may just be able to win anyway.
Unfortunately for him, luck was just not on Carne's side.
"Bah!" he exclaims, throwing down his cards as he realizes there was no possible chance of winning anymore. Carne was usually not a sore loser, but this house is slowly getting the best of him. He would never admit this to anyone - including himself - but he could feel a very strange sensation in the pits of his stomach - Something cold and unpleasant, not something he usually paid much attention to.
Fear is creeping it's ugly claws into Carne's heart.

"We should leave this place", he says to his companions who were still playing.
 
Once Thia had realized she won the game a slight smile appeared on her face for a moment. Once everyone got up and ready to leave she realized play time was over, and she quickly got up and went over to the cabinet. She scanned her eyes over all that was inside before stuffing them all in her bag. She then turned to her party and slowly walked over to them. “Let’s g-go then....” She says to her party as she moves to take the very back of the group, hoping her friends understood.
 
Azgard congratulated Thia with a hi five after her game strategy completely countered his own. He couldn’t help but to be happy she could earn the win and boost her confidence.

He also agreed with her idea to head out. “Right, whoever created the illusion of the children wanted us to check that crib and go into the basement. As much as I hate playing their game I believe it might be our only option. At least we’re aware of it now.”

Despite his lackluster combat performance thus far, he decided to lead the group down the spiral staircase to the first floor. Eyeing the unopened doors, he addressed the team, “maybe we should swing all of these open to see what other beasts might come to life?” He readied his orb.
 
As the party opened all the doors on the first floor, Azgard made sure he kept his attention honed for any potential dangers. Upon doing so, he noticed the house was much more eerie than he originally thought, which was a feat among itself. What were immediately thought of as “berries” surrounding a mirror turned out to be intricately carved eyeballs. Serpents and skulls covered the trim of the walls in the main hall. Depictions of wolves stood out among a carved design of foliage in the dining room. Azgard began to get the feeling that they were being hunted.

After searching the entirety of the downstairs, Azgard became visibly confused by the lack of basement access. Although he knew that the illusionary children (and possibly, an enemy) were the only reason why the party thought a basement even existed, he saw no reason that it would be an entirely fabricated statement.

After passing the cloak closet a second time, Azgard decided he may as well take the remaining cloaks. He folded them across his arm, and then walked into the main hall of the first floor.

“It’s a bit chilly in here. Anyone want an extra cloak?” Azgard asked the room as he began removing his own. Common clothes were found underneath his red-trimmed, dark cloak, but a multitude of dull red markings laced themselves around his exposed collarbone. He then slipped on his newly found cloak, and then his personal one on back over it.

“Well, it is my understanding,” he continued, “that a significant amount of area is not considered here.” Azgard paced himself around three walls that jutted themselves inward towards the house on the western wall. The idea of the closet made Azgard realize that another closet of similar size could have easily existed in the area unaccounted for. He began rubbing his hand throughout the wall, knocking his fist every few inches.

He looked at his party curiously before continuing, “Maybe something a floor above us utilizes this area?”
 
As Azgard searched the first floor, a chill ran up Tazdaar's spine and he whipped around to face the door. A whisper, quiet but unmistakable, came from the front door of the home.

"Did anyone else hear that?"

He held his shield before him, sword at the ready, and marched to the entrance. He had enough of this home's tricks and misdirection. It was time for answers. Tazdaar stepped through the open door, lingering at the edge of the cursed mist.

"Who--"

He didn't even have time to let out a shout before a hand shot out, clutched the chainmail across his chest and yanked him out into the ether. The mist swirled in his wake.

The last thing he saw was a pale man with long dark hair with bloodlike tears flowing from his eyes ...
 
As Carne was about to take a closer look at the dumbwaiter, he got interrupted by the sound of Tazdaar's voice. Carne stepped into the doorway leading to the main hall, and watched Tazdaar who was on his way toward the entrance, weapon drawn. Carne couldn't quite put it to words, but he knew that something was off.
He pulled the greataxe from his back and held it in front of his body, readying himself for what was to come. His grip tightened more and more as he got closer to the entrance.
Then, before Carne could even process what had just happened, a mysterious figure grabbed Tazdaar and pulled him out into the mists.
"HEY!!", was the first thing Carne could think of as he rushed through the remainder of the hallway... And then he just stood there for a brief moment. Something was stopping him from going further out, following after his companion. It wasn't just that he could not see a thing. Yet there was no strange force keeping him inside, no spell keeping him locked in. He was like paralyzed. Something about this mist made him extremely uncomfortable. He found it hard to breathe just standing there, looking at it.

"COME BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!", Carne yelled towards it, holding his axe up high. "SHOW YOURSELF!"
Only silence answered Carne's cries. After several more attempts at mocking the mist, he let out another angry yell and blindly smashed his axe into the portico's walls, destroying some of the portraits in the process.
 
Rasghull jumped awake from a nightmare in an empty camp. His dream was just darkness, and now he was alone, surrounded by mists in the middle of a dense forest.

He looks around. It is dark and gray as far as he can see. Tall trees and dense fog let him see only so far. He feels a panic attack coming on. Out of one nightmare and into another.

He scrambles to find his tinderbox and lights a torch. He plants it on the ground in one swift swing and begins packing his gear into his backpack. He gets dressed in his irregular uniform and straps on his dark brown leather armor before finally fastening the black half-cape signifying his footsoldier status.

Lifting the torch from the ground, he wades through the mists aimlessly for a while until his torch flickers out. Has it really been just an hour? He hesitates a moment before lighting another.

Not much longer, he hears something yelling out in the distance. He side steps and puts his back on a nearby tree. He lifts his targe shield from and over his back. He secures a tight grip on its handle before carefully closing in on the source of the sound. He sees Carne, panting from a fit of rage. Rasghull crosses through the mist and onto the portico. He raises his hands to reveal that he is not wielding any of his weapons.

He glances at Carne’s axe. Careful, stranger. I mean no harm. They call me Rasghull. He then peers into the strange house. I need to find my way back home. What is this place?
 
Carne's eyes narrowed to slits as he took a look at the newly arrived Rasghull. It seemed a rather strange coincidence that his Dragonborn companion Tazdaar had just been pulled into the mist, and now another Dragonborn was standing before him. Was this another illusion?

"Nobody out here means any harm now, do they?", Carne said with more than just a hint of sarcasm. He examined the stranger from top to bottom, noticing what looked like a uniform, but the black half cape stuck out to him. He let out a scornful snort. What a silly piece of clothing.
"This is not your way home. Nor is it ours. It would seem we're stuck here."
He gestured toward the entrance with his free arm. "Maybe we can find a way out together." Then, with a threatening voice he added "And don't you dare try anything stupid. I'll keep my eye on you."
 
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