The party approached the huge doors, which were obviously maintained
by some unnatural force, not wanting to spend too much time underneath the
worrisomely sagging roof beams.
Streaks of mold painted the walls of the foyer beyond and a
big mossy growth covered the entire floor.
Each wall held at least one door, several more than one, offering
multiple options.
From here the children’s footprints split, some going north
through the doors and some through the single door to the east. Deciding that the footprints could wait (or failing
to notice them) the Magpie chose the first door to the west. The fading light from outside slanted through
a single small window, but otherwise the corridor, and the door at the far end
was shrouded in gloom.
The rest of the party froze, noticing that the door Magpie
opened seemed to be swaying back and forth ever so slightly. Magpie frowned at the wood, placing a hand on
the door, “It seems necromantic.”
Not seeming particularly bothered by his own observation,
Magpie entered the hallway. No one else
seemed inclined to enter, though Yuri did take up a position at the door, ready
to help in case something went wrong.
As soon as the Magpie crossed the threshold the door slammed
shut in Yuri’s face.
“You okay?” Valeria
called.
“For now.” Magpie’s
muffled voice replied, “I guess I’ll try the other door....”
“Wait!” Valeria
called. They tried to shove the door
open but failed miserably.
Desperate to find a way to their friend, the remaining folk
opened the double doors next to the jammed single door. Through this door was a large room full of
rows of stone benches, all spotted with various kinds of mold. The benches all seemed to be facing the doors
where the party entered. This place had
obviously been used as an auditorium if the rotting stage, or more likely a
gallows, against the wall were was any clue.
Magpie, meanwhile, had pressed on to the doors at the other
end of the hall and entered a small room full of shelves full of antique jars,
some of which still bore labels. He
found a single wand which detected as magic and pocketed it.
In the larger room, across the gallows from where the party
had entered stood another set of double doors.
Everyone but Yuri noticed the doors they’d passed through waggling as
well and the temperature of the room dropped suddenly.
Ever quick on the draw, Valeria unleashed her spiral of
Pharasma, cancelling out the haunt; a cold spot centered on the gallows where
hundreds of executions had taken place.
Valeria moved across to the other doors and opened them. The room beyond was mostly empty save for a
few old training implements for the guards.
The far wall was partially fallen into a pool of dark water. A large hole surrounded by black scorch marks
broke the earth.
Having collected all the items of value in his tiny room, Magpie
returned to the first door, which opened easily now. He joined the rest of the group in the
execution room.
They ventured further into the training room. Magpie immediately approached the edge of the
pond. As he neared the hole things began
moving within the rubble. Three flaming
skulls emerged from the rocks, hovering and clacking their jaws menacingly.
First off the mark, the plague doctor hurled a bomb with
unerring accuracy. Unfortunately the
flaming skulls were apparently immune to fire damage. Cawing, Magpie swatted one of the skulls with
his blade, cleaving it perfectly in twain.
Valeria cracked off a shot, exploding another skull. Excited by his friends’ success, Yuri swung
his sword, bonking the final skull but not killing it. It rushed at Yuri, who took another swing, achieving
only a glancing blow that was just enough to distract it from succeeding in its
flaming headbutt. The entire party took
turns swinging at the thing, everyone missing.
Finally Yuri managed to nick the thing for a third time,
sending it spiralling into a wall where it exploded.
Magpie picked up a rock, made it glow and dropped it down
the hole by the pond. The room fifteen
feet below appeared to be a natural cavern and underground pond.
With nothing left to see Yuri managed to convince the group
to return to the foyer and actually follow some of the children’s tracks. They chose the single door to the west next.
This door opened onto a hallway with one window and six
doors. With Valeria in the lead they followed the tracks, which looked like the
child had been running, to a door at the far end of the hall where they
disappeared.
The tiny room beyond the door contained nothing but a few
overturned washbasins and a set of tracks which led to the only other door in
the room; the privy door. Inside the
privy cowered a portly boy with red hair.
“Rorik.” Magpie
squawked.
“Get the hell out!”
Valeria screamed, waving her pistol like a madwoman, terrifying the
child.
Olivine sighed and stepped out from behind the gunslinger,
“I’ll take it from here.” She took the
boy’s trembling hand and guided him out.
The rest of them tried the next door in line. The room looked like an office, containing a
desk, chair and locked safe. Davros moved
to try and unlock the safe. Before he
got too far Magpie stepped forward and offered a set of masterwork thieves’
tools to the half-orc. After a little
finessed and jimmying the door popped open.
The safe contained some out of date legal documents, a box
of five hundred gold, and a case of nine potions; some cure moderate wounds,
remove disease, and lesser restoration.
The other four doors in the hallway led into a set of plain
offices. Other than old paperwork there was
very little of value in any of the rooms.
Both Valeria and Magpie grabbed random sheaves of paper before the group
pressed on.
They opened the last set of double doors leading off the
foyer, revealing a hallway with several doors – and many different sets of
child tracks. Magpie pushed open the set
of double doors immediately to their left, following a pair of tracks.
The doors opened into another hallway with two hallways
branching off of it. The first hallway was
broad, with two sets of doors leading off it.
Magpie opened the first door on his right, following one of the two sets
of footprints.
The door was just barely hanging on its hinges. The room beyond appeared to be an old chapel,
cobwebs coating every surface with gossamer threads. Four spiders stirred as the group
entered. Three of them were about two
feet across and the fourth was nearly four feet.
“Those are fuckin’ big spiders.” Valeria stated, staring at
one of the smaller ones. Then she
noticed the larger one, “And that’s a fuckin’ huge spider.”
She stepped into the room and fired her pistol at the
largest of the spiders, pissing them off.
With a hissing clack, the large spider shot a web, draping
the Magpie in the sticky substance. The
three smaller ones rushed the cocoon, taking advantage of his immobility.
Davros hurled a stinking bomb at the feet of the largest
spider, exploding it while failing to affect the others at all.
Struggling against his bonds, Magpie swung at one of the
spiders. He hit it but didn’t kill it.
Yuri failed to hit any of the spiders.
With a mighty yell Akura took a running leap, flipping over
Magpie and landing between two of the spiders before moving past them, narrowly
avoiding their attacks. He slammed his
fist into one of them, exploding it.
Valeria reloaded her pistol, looked around and took a step
back.
One of the remaining spiders slashed at Magpie while the
other missed Akura. Davros responded to
their attacks by failing to use his crossbow effectively.
Magpie sliced one of the spiders in half while Yuri moved
into the room and whiffed. Akura gave
the final creature the old one-two and it exploded as well.
After a brief search Valeria found a thin, pale boy named Wendell
cowering in a cabinet.
“Tell me child, why were you running?” Valeria asked.
“Noises n’ ghosts.... We were exploring and... upstairs
there were ghosts.” The boy
replied. “When I hid in here I didn’t
know the spiders were here, so I hid in the cabinet. We tried to leave, but we couldn’t get
out.”
They pass the child off to Olivine who led the boy out,
comforting him.
Behind Wendell in the cabinet were five vials of holy water,
a scroll of lesser restoration, and a partially used wand of cure light wounds.
Leaving the room Akura moved to the door across the hall and
pushed it open. Beyond was a room in shambles,
old wooden benches lay in bits, chunks of chain and rope peppered amidst the
wreckage. In the centre of the room were
a set of manacles that gave off a faint magical aura.
Magpie entered the room, poking at the manacles with his
blade. The metal leapt to life,
attempting to attach themselves to the bird-man and failing.
Davros pulled out a mysterious bag of popcorn and began
eating it.
The bird-man dropped his katana, which promptly whizzed over
to embed itself in the wall as he drew his cold-iron longsword and swung at the
manacles, whiffing.
Valeria fired a shot, but it glanced off the metal and flew
wide.
Akura, always thinking, hurled a vial of holy water at the
manacles. The water splashed all over
the metal, doing obvious damage. Yuri
hurled his own vial, banking it off the ceiling, soaking the Magpie and only
managing to splash the manacles.
Davros managed to finish them off with a final vial of holy
water.
The group moved on, following the next set of footprints,
stopping at a door that they passed along the way. This room was full of washbasins and moldy piles
of clothes. One of the piles of fabric
glowed faintly with magic so the Magpie, in his infinite wisdom, entered the
room and poked the pile with his longsword.
A straightjacket leapt up and flung itself at him, slamming
into him and trying to constrict him, but failing.
Valeria sauntered to the door, laughing, “That’s classic!”
Akura stepped forward, swinging his kama and striking at the
thing.
Magpie followed suit, slicing at it.
The jacket, still active, slammed into the Magpie again.
After several failed attempts to put it down, it finally
succeeded in wrapping around the Magpie, trying to squeeze the life out of him. With a long-suffering sigh Yuri stepped
forward and poured a vial of holy water on the vest. It shuddered once and dropped to the ground.
The group moved on to the next door, following the childish
footprints. Akura pushed it open.
This room was full of workbenches, tangled mounds of fabric
and various other tailoring tools. A
skeletal arm protruded from a mound of fabric in the western part of the room. Seated next to that particular heap was a
young, plain, dark-haired girl, she was chatting casually with a hovering
spectre.
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