Party 8

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Servant's Room:

The smallest door is only relatively smaller than the large, grand mahogany doors which seem to lead to other common rooms of some sort in this large house; taking a more careful look at it, this door is instead completely average. Upon opening it, Gaarek finds what appears to be a servant's room, dusty and undecorated; two lumpy straw mattresses lay bare on the floor, while an open closet nearby showcases a couple sets of maids uniforms. In the corner, a small dumbwaiter hangs open, leading to the floor below.

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

"Let's see what we have here..." Cassia carefully examines the accoutrements in the room, hoping to find some sign of the child, but to no avail. "Servant's quarters indeed. There's no sign of the child in this room, but..." the far wall seemed slightly off. Striding over, she gives it a few knocks with her ear up against. She then gropes around the edges of the wall, as if looking for a door. "It's thinner here. This house...there may be something hidden in the walls. We must examine the room on the other side of this one carefully." Turning to the rest of the group, she gestures back to the main hall. "Shall we continue our search in another room?"

 

[RuneRW]

"This place is givin' me the Willies. I cannae place what's wrong with it and that's just makin' it even worse!" Says Baltair. He then shrugs and adds "We might as well, the sooner we get out of here the better."

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul nods a little bit, and puts his ear to the doors at the bottom, and listening for...well, it seemed nothing. "Hmm..." He then looks to the rest of the group, making his way over near the servant's quarters with them. "The harp appears to have stopped for the moment. We'd best be careful about intruding to the right. I'd recommend continuing to the left first...unless, of course, we want to explain to potentially the owners what we're doing here."

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia gives a nod to Tazkul. "Yes, that seems prudent. Well then, let's not tarry, for Baltair's sake!" She goes back into the hallway, and opens the door to the room across the hall as suggested.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Conservatory:

You stride across the still-silent hall to the further door, opening the twin mahogany doors wide to what appears to be a performance room of some sort (though absent of any performer). A harpischord looms out from the dark, facing a nearby standing harp by the edge of the wall. The brass-plated chandelier casts a dull sheen in what little light you bring in, while the fireplace lies cold, alabaster figurines of dancers neatly placed on the mantelpiece. Velvet upholstered chairs line the walls, no doubt for those who would play audience, but they do not seem inviting right now -- not with the strange silence and the chill that hangs in the air.

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul huffs a bit, making his way further into the performance hall. "Strange...it sounded like someone was playing in here before..." He looked back toward Baltair. "You are a man of music. I may have been mistaken earlier, but that was a harp playing before, yes?"

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia looks over at Baltair as well. "Yes, please do enlighten us. This place...it is giving me an unpleasant feeling." She shivers a bit, but proceeds in and begins to search the room for any signs of life, or anything that looks out of place.

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia paces over to the window, and peers out. The enveloping fog remains, obscuring any visual on what may be on the exterior. No matter - their task was inside. Strolling over to the fireplace, she takes a closer look at the figurines. "They're skeletons!" she exclaims to the others, in surprise. "There's something definitely off about this family. An obsession with death...?"

 

[VidkunFanel]

Normally Gaarek would not spare a single thought nor worry on some skeletal figurines. However, Cassia's remark makes him worry for the baby's safety even more.

"Even more reason to get the kids out of here" Gaarek says as he hurries to the remaining room on this floor.

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul nods a little bit, heading over towards the fireplace in order to light it. "All the more reason to not leave this place so dark and cold as well."

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia nods in approval as Tazkul lights the fire. "Yes, let's spread warmth as we can. But Gaarek is right, we must find the child soonest." She then turns and follows Gaarek into the next room.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Library:

You open the last set of doors on the second floor, and are greeted by the dark interior of a grand library. A wealth of knowledge sits on floor-to-ceiling bookshelves: weighty tomes of seemingly everything -- novels, treatises, encyclopedias, poetry, histories, just from a glance at the titles through what little light pours into the room. A sturdy rolling ladder is installed for the higher shelves, set neatly at the right edge of the room. An exquisite desk faces the hearth, upon the mantelpiece thereof hangs a framed portrait of a windmill perched atop a rocky crag. Two reading chairs flank the dark fireplace.

 

[RuneRW]

Baltair mutters a particularly long and nasty series of dwarven swear words at the sight of the harp, standing almost in paralysis as he attempts comprehending what could this mean. Then, he snaps back to reality and hurriedly follows after the rest of the group into the next room.

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul follows into the library after lighting the fire in the other room, giving the rows and rows of books a good once-over. Although now would probably be a wonderful opportunity to get some research done, it likely wasn't a good time. Didn't mean he would look a little bit anyway, though.

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

As Tazkul begins going through some of the books, Cassia considers the room. "This is adjacent to the servants' quarters, where one wall rang hollow. I wonder..." She goes to the back right-hand wall of the room, and runs her fingers along the shelf. She stops at a particularly suspicious volume, without any text on its bindings. "What have we here?" she says as she pulls the book back, which makes a satisfying 'click sound as the bookshelf swings open. She peers into the dark room and turns to the rest of the group. "You all may want to have a look at this..."

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Library:

The bookshelf swings open at the touch, hidden hinges squeling in the gloom to reveal a dark, glum room meant to hide away from prying eyes. Dusty shelves line the room, similar in build to the outside but much more cramped and damp, packed with tomes decorated in eldritch runes and ominous symbols. There's a heavy chest at the end of the short hall, looming out of the darkness as if it harbored some coveted secret -- a secret worth dying for, apparently, as the skeleton slumped next to it may suggest to some.

Tazkul meanwhile busies himself with rifling through the various books within the library, perhaps one of the larger private collections he has seen. Within the first shelves he sees, meticulously organized by topic and then by author, he finds the kind of books he would expect a rich person to have to impress guests -- historical retellings, legal treatises, books on the sciences, poetry, encyclopedias, the list goes on. Titles include: "Destruction of the Dusk Elves"; "Alchemical Theory: A Primer; "Blades of Brass"; "Ways of the Wildfolk"; "A History of Political Tension in the Core"; among others.

The contents of the hidden room, however, are far more interesting. Whoever had held this collection knew that their more diabolical interests were a secret best kept to themselves, as their collection held what seemed to be an array of heretical, in-depth texts on how to summon devils and enact other demonic rituals. The name "Osybus" is mentioned several times, scattered across texts of varying quality and age. Despite the dim light one book in particular seems to stand out to the mage: an emerald green dyed leather tome hidden away in the far corner, titled "Rituals of the Life-Caller".

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul takes a brief look over the books on the main bookshelf, investigating the more occult offerings within the hidden room; the group was likely used to a more throaty, contemplative sound coming from the Dragonborn when he found something of interest, but not of so much concern as he reached for the emerald tome in particular. "Gentlemen, I suspect we may need to find this child sooner than we're aware..."

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Library:

The tome Tazkul picks up is not printed -- rather, it is a thick notebook, filled to the brim with various notes in a variety of flourishing (or chicken scratch) handwriting styles. Many of them are stained, from a combination of wear and tear and messy ink splots, perhaps from particularly rushed writing. Every so often the text is broken up by arcane runes or glyphs or drawings of miscellaneous things like plants or animals, people and body parts, the moon and stars, etc.

Flipping to the newer sections to the right (the book was about three-quarters full of notes), he eventually comes across a section seeming to depict rings and necklaces of intricate craft and design. Like several other excerpts in this book, the script is unrecognizable to him and anyone else in the party.

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia's eyes flare and tail snaps a bit at Tazkul. "Not *all* gentlemen, you know." Her eyes then turn to the chest the skeleton is clutching. Killed by a dart trap it seems, but there was something clutched in its hands. "That might be relevant..." She grabs the letter, and reads it over.

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Letter:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

My most pathetic servant,

I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writhing in my earth.

You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.

Your dread lord and master,
Strahd van Zarovich

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul seems to contemplate what he's seeing, and takes the tome in question for further study; perhaps something in regards to these rings and necklaces would be decipherable by someone they come across, and perhaps it may aid in their journey...or his own particular research. He would have apologized for not including a clause if he wasn't so wrapped up in trying to decipher what was there for a good moment before turning to Cassia. "My apologies, Cassia. What does that note say, exactly? Anything of relation to an 'Osybus'?"

 

[Scholar of Barbarism]

Cassia clears her throat and reads the letter as written. Her voice waivers a bit at the mention of the stillborn son, but she continues on to the end. Looking up, she addresses the others wearily. "We are in the house which once belonged to a depraved and evil madman. But what frightens me more is that his lord, this Strahd van Zarovich, seems to approve of his depravity! But I pray this letter does not refer to our present search..." she trails off, and crumples the letter in her fist with a mixture of anger and nervousness. As if to distract herself, she turns to the chest and pops it open, finding some scrolls, notes, and legal documents inside. She grabs them, and passes them to Tazkul along with the crumpled letter. "Perhaps of interest to you. But for now, I believe we should continue our search on the next floor. If it is not too late!"

 

[Boonslayer]

Tazkul will stow away the letter and the documents passed his way by Cassia, making his way towards the staircase...behind the more hardy members of the party, of course. "Indeed. Based on the contents of the letter, time seems it may be of the essence."

 

[Kanaxe_Ru]

Balcony:

Finished with the current floor, apparent spoils in hand, you take one last stride across the empty main hall and continue to the staircase, onto to the third floor of this strange house. As you ascend you start to head the soft, yet unmistakable wailing of a young baby, followed by the sound of echoing footsteps on the wood above and a door creaking open (or is it closing?). You quicken your pace.

After another curve the red marble staircase delivers you to its full height, seemingly the pinnacle (though there is still ceiling above you). The air up here is choked with dust, barely visible except by your own firelight. Oil lamps along the walls are unlit, and between them autumn woodland scenes are carved into the wood itself. The infant's cries, seeming to source to your left are muffled by closed doors and poor insulation.

As you reach the very top of the staircase, you're greeted by the cold visage of a suit of armor, tangled in ancient cobwebs, facing the balcony railing from its vigilant position along the wall. Facing you.