This week
Short introduction
Adding to the Hoard by Alyr Dendrogar
Making Strange and Wonderful Friends
Hi everyone! Alyr Dendrogar again.
Sorry for sending in such a sad story last time, I promise this one is a lot nicer! (but still a little sad sometimes) In this story, I make a whoooole lot of new friends; With fellow adventurers, a sometimes dragon, a teddy bear, ghost children, a giant spider, and even a house!
After last quest, I wasn’t sure being an adventurer was for me, but I really needed money to pay for my new house and garden. Quests pay really well, so I gathered all my courage and signed up for this one.
This time, I made sure to be in the guild hall early so I wouldn’t be late again. Since I was there first, I got to meet all my party members as they came in. There was Cor’Torin, a very elegant Eladrin that I made friends with earlier. Brandio, who was a bit quiet and mysterious. Surron, a very nice man who is a druid like me! Last to arrive was mister Custous, who was dressed kinda scary, but his face looked kind.
What I didn’t know, is that this quest was going to be in a whole different world! This meant we had to go through the gate, which made me very nervous. When we got to it, Cor’Torin just walked through without hesitation! He’s so brave. I was really scared to go in and my legs wouldn’t move. Thankfully, Surron was very nice and he offered to hold my hand to go through together.
Traveling to another world felt a bit strange, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. On the other side, the world didn’t seem too scary. Cor’Torin and Custous knew the way already, so the rest of us followed them to a town with a big building that said “Malrot’s Financial Services”. We met a man who said he was Malrot, which confused me because he was a human and Cor’Torin had told me Malrot was a dragon (a nice one).
Malrot explains that he can change his face, just like mister Cahir. To prove it, he turned himself into a huuuuge dragon! The townspeople didn’t even seem very surprised to see it. Then, Malrot told us a very sad story about a house where a lot of children lived. A long time ago, all the children became sick and died. Now the house is all empty and forgotten. According to Malrot, the old house also has a big vault in it somewhere, and he wanted us to find it. I felt really bad for all those poor forgotten children, so I went to a flower stall with Surron and bought some nice blue forget-me-nots.
After a nice walk, we found the house. It was really big and very old, kind of like mine. Although the house was supposed to be empty, I saw somebody moving behind the top floor window! Mister Custous saw it too and he told me the person inside was an undead monster! I was really scared to go in now. Fortunately, the others decided to investigate a nearby shed first, except that was really scary too! Inside were a bunch of poor animals all cut up with blood everywhere.
Surron didn’t seem too worried, and he sat down in the shed for a while. I think he was meditating. When he got back up, he told us the shed wasn’t actually real, and he proved it by putting his hand straight through the wall, just like at the goblin cave last time! Custous felt around through the floor a bit, but all he got was wet hands.
We decided to move on to the house, and Surron sent his raven to go take a look. Then, he did that thing with his eyes just like Quen does, where he uses magic to see far ahead. He said there’s some bad magic inside, but it’s okay to go in. I wanted to go, but the house just seemed so scary with the undead and bad magic inside. Surron noticed how scared I was and gave me an amulet shaped like a lion that he said would make me brave. That was so nice! I could feel the amulet working, so I went in with the others.
Inside, the house was all dark and quiet, with big stairs leading up. We found an old nurse’s uniform and mister Custous took it with him. I’m not sure why, but he seemed to think it was important. In a little room to the side, there was a skeleton on the floor next to a safe. I thought maybe this was the vault Malrot was looking for, but the others said we needed a bigger one. I was a bit scared of the skeleton because of mister Custous’ warning about undead, but seeing it lying there all forgotten just made me sad. Then, we turned around and there was the ghost of a lady wearing the same clothes we found earlier! I had never seen a ghost before, they look like normal people but just less… there. It’s hard to describe and very unnerving.
Fortunately, it seemed like this ghost was not dangerous. She made a very strange request, asking that one of us put on her old clothes. I was nervous because I thought the others were going to ask me to do it, but then mister Custous put it on himself! He looked very silly with the uniform all stretched over his armor, and it made me feel a lot less scared about the ghost.
The ghost lady then asked us to give her a burial so she could move on. It turned out that the skeleton on the floor was actually hers. Mister Custous is a priest and he knows how to do burials and such, so we followed his instructions and moved the bones to the house’s garden for burying. I helped out a little. Brandio dug a hole with a shovel he found, and we put the skeleton inside. I decided to put in one of my forget-me-nots as well so she could have something nice with her in the ground. The ghost lady seemed very happy about it and finally disappeared. It felt so nice to help finally give her some peace after so long.
We continued exploring the house and found another room that looked like a child might sleep there. On the bed was a very cute little teddy bear that was moving and asking for cuddles! The others didn’t trust him at first, but I just wanted to hug the poor little thing so badly. When Surron finally let me go, I picked him up and gave him the biggest hug I could. He was so soft and warm. The bear told me his name was Brownie, and he said he was looking for his friend Tanya. Cor’Torin checked some documents he found, and told us that Tanya died a long time ago. I was so sad for Brownie it felt like my heart was going to tear in half. I said I would be his friend instead, so he wouldn’t be alone anymore.
I took Brownie with me and we headed upstairs. Surron said that there was a party going on in one room, and evil magic to be dealt with in another. A party sounded nice, but we agreed that work comes first. However, Cor’Torin was too excited I think, so he went to the party room anyway! I hurried to follow Cor’Torin and found him in a big room dancing with a floating dress. He looked very graceful, so I clapped for him when he finished. The dress flew over to a hanger all by itself and I thought it was very pretty. Nobody needed the dress anymore and it would be a shame to just leave it there all forgotten, so I decided to take it with me. I felt pretty guilty about taking something so nice for myself, but a kind voice whispered to me that it was okay.
The next room we went to seemed empty, just some old children’s beds all neat and tidy. Then, I looked at the mirror in the far end of the room and saw a lady holding a baby, even though the chair she was sitting in looked empty outside the mirror! I thought I was going crazy again, but the others saw it too so that made me less worried.
Suddenly, another lady came walking into the room and started making the beds, even though they were already tidy. It was not a ghost this time because I couldn’t see through her, but she still didn’t look very healthy. Custous said she was an undead and we had to destroy her body to put her to rest. The lady didn’t seem to want to hurt us though, so I would have felt really bad about attacking her. We decided to leave her for now and come back later in the hopes of finding another way to give her peace.
Across the hall was a room that had a puppet sitting on a chair. Brownie knew the puppet and told me he was mean and scary, so I decided not to hug him for now. Cor’Torin used some magic to open a chest in the room, taking out some pretty porcelain dolls and smashing them to pieces. It was really sad to see all those nice dolls broken, but the others said the dolls were dangerous, so I guess it was good he broke them.
Suddenly, I noticed that the puppet wasn’t on his chair anymore, instead trying to sneak up on mister Custous and attack him! Mister Custous held the puppet off with his shield while Cor’Torin and Brandio shot magic fire at it. I tried to help by throwing some rocks, but it didn’t do much. When the puppet finally stopped moving, we decided to go up to the top floor. Surron and mister Custous said something felt strange, and when we left the puppet room, we were suddenly at the other side of the house!
We were just discussing how we ended up somewhere different, when I looked up and saw a really big spider coming down from the ceiling right above me! As quick as I could, I grabbed my totem and asked nature to make the spider not attack. It worked! But then, a horrible, scary looking undead creature came out of a room above and attacked the spider. I was so mad at it for attacking my new friend, so I wished really hard to get him away from the spider, and roses grew out of my hand to pull him down off the stairs! I was so excited about my magic working really well that I almost didn’t realize the creature was now really close to me. Thankfully, Brandio managed to re-kill it with his fire magic before I got bitten.
The spider walked up to me with its long hairy legs. It was really scary, but I tried to think back hard about when Ranra was a spider but still my friend and that helped. The spider was actually really nice and she even gave me some of her venom to take back home to the doctor!
Upstairs, we found a little room with some freshly made tea. I thought it was a little strange that an undead monster would make tea, but Cor’Torin walked up and drank a sip without hesitating. I don’t think it was very good though, because he spit it all out again immediately. He started putting the tea in his waterskin, which confused me because why would he want the tea if it was so bad? I asked him and Cor’Torin explained he was just taking the tea away so nobody would drink it by accident, which seemed to make sense at the time.
There was also a chalkboard in the room that seemed to have text appearing and disappearing magically. The others figured out that they could use it to talk to the house itself! Isn’t that amazing? A talking house?
The house told us to go back downstairs, so we did. We went back into Brownie’s room, but somehow it had turned into a kitchen! There were some stairs in the back that led down to a cellar. There we found the big vault Malrot wanted, as well as a room with a big oven in it, which wasn’t for baking a lot of food at the same time like I thought at first.
In the oven room, we found two more ghost people with their skeletons on the ground and a lot of little ghost children. The children seemed to recognize Brownie, so I just sat down and let them play with him. I thought it would be scary to have all those ghosts around me, but they just seemed so glad to not be forgotten anymore that it made me happy.
The others found the children’s bones in the big oven, and we decided to bury them all so that mister Custous could put them to rest. It was a lot of hard work to make so many graves, but it felt really good to do. The children all thanked us and went away. It was nice that they were finally at peace, but now Brownie was all alone again. I asked him if he wanted to come back home with us and he said yes! I was so happy and couldn’t wait to show everyone back home my new friend.
Mister Malrot was happy with our work and very generously let us keep all the gold we found in the vault. He really is a nice dragon!
So there you have it! The story of my second try at being an adventurer. I think it went much better this time. If you see me around, feel free to come say hi to Brownie, he loves meeting new people!
Adding to the Hoard by Custous Vita
Lately I find my powers growing ever strongly, with that I have come to my understanding that I should seek out more actively my role as a follower of Kelemvor. While doing some research I came across an old elf that has had many first-hand experiences with undead, but before he is willing to teach me, he asks for my help. Apparently, he received a belayed and strange message of the passing of his grandmother. Informing him of her passing, a chore unfinished, and a way to retrieve her valuables from a safe. She lived in the world of Lancastor, the same world where I had a previous meeting with a wyrmling called Malrot and his start-up enterprise. Seemingly a new mission has been put out from Malrot, so I quickly come to the conclusion this may very well be combined.
I seem to come in late as already several others have gathered in the guild hall, including Cor’Torin, whom I’ve met in the previous mission in Lancastor. Together with 3 others, Alyr, Surron, and Brandio. We hear out the mission. Malrot explicitly asks for the help of the adventurers' guild, saying there is a house that may include quite some riches, but is haunted by wails and cries from the inside. I'm not sure what it is, but I feel personally compelled to investigate this matter too. Entering Lancastor, me and Cor’Torin easily find our way to the village as we remember the route. The town has slightly improved, with minor changes except for one. A new building has been erected, “Malrot’s financial services”. With Malrot himself attending to some matters with a client about some sheep. It’s rude to eavesdrop, so I keep my distance. The client leaves and Malrot turns his attention to us, recognizing Cor’Torin and me. After the pleasantries of catching up, he becomes more serious, and explains there has been this old and abandoned house at the outskirts of the town. The mansion, “Silver Oak”, belonged to a wealthy family, with a decent amount of estates under their name. Out of goodwill they turned this one into an orphanage. But terrible things started to happen later, with most children and other civilians falling ill. This pest could be eventually contained, but not before it had taken all the children’s and servant’s lives. I feel an emptiness grow inside of me. An untimely death for these young souls, taking any opportunities they could have had in life. This all went down roughly a century ago, and though strange things have happened in and around the house before, they are becoming more frequent. Malrot’s interests also lay in the presumable riches that have been stored in some vault within the house. No one has yet found any clue to where this vault may be.
With this mission on mind we all head up to the mansion. The mansion is surrounded by walls, and has an open rusty gate in front of it. It has 2 stories and an attic from what I can tell. The surrounding area around the house has overgrown, but not to the extent that it should have in 100 years. Before I can contemplate, I see a shadow move in front of a window on the 1st floor. Undead, I’m sure of it. The shadowy figure vanishes and I tell what I know, and tell the others to be cautious. We decide to investigate a single lone shed first, before going into the mansion. Within the shed we find some old cages with animal corpses within them. Surron explains these corpses don’t look 100 years old, they seem to be fresh. He follows up with a detect magic ritual that eventually informs us the whole shed is just an illusion, except for the door. This must be covering up something. As I fall to my knees and start tapping the floor, to see if there’s anything hidden or out of place, I only end up with a damp hand of the mildew. Surron examines the rest of the house and senses a combination of necrotic and enchantment magic emanating from within the house. At this point we have no idea what awaits us, as we carefully enter through the front door.
There’s a big hallway, with two staircases from each side connecting at the center on the next floor. On both sides of the hall there’s a single door, and beneath the left staircase another. An old nurse’s uniform lays on the floor, that I pick up and store away in my backpack. I’m greeted by the strange
and confused faces of my fellow adventurers, but I choose to ignore it. The room on the right is an old office. In the office chair are the skeletal remains of an adult, and a small safe in the cupboard. While we search the room the temperature drops, and we are greeted by a wailing voice and an eerie and vague figure of a woman. “Wear my clothes and I will tell more”. Without hesitation I recover the nurse outfit and start putting it on. She informs me that she can’t open her safe, but will be if she is able to pass on to the afterlife. She was never put to rest and seeks a burial of her own. I immediately straighten up and tell her that I have experience with executing such ceremonies, so we gather her skeleton and head outside followed by the body-bound ghost. I ask Brandio to start digging with an old rusty spade he found earlier and Alyr and Surron to clear out the surroundings, prepare and adorn the new grave, while I employ to my clerical chores. With the final blessing of Kelemvor we cover her body with soil, and end in silence. She wails in excitement and with a final thank you she vanishes. We slightly panic as we didn’t get any information on the safe, so we head back in, and notice the safe is wide open. Within we find some gold, a list of names and blueprints. Surron thinks it’s the layout of the basement, with a large machine that looks like an oven. We cross the hall and enter the left room. It is a small bedroom with a single bed. Strange, it doesn’t seem to be the place for a bedroom, especially that of a child, as there is a teddy bear on the bed. The bear moves and a soft voice calls out “cuddles?”. I can’t really get the grasp on this thing, but I’m sure it’s not undead. Alyr seems to strike a conversation with the teddy bear, whose name is Brownie. It belonged to a girl named Tanya. Cor’Torin, notices Tanya is the first name on the list we found in the safe. Tanya, according to Brownie, was one of the first that had fallen ill. With her childish like naivety Alyr takes Brownie and places him in the top of her backpack so brownies head just sticks out. Brandio seems nervous and I don’t blame him. We continue to the last door, the one under the staircase, pretty sure it’s the entrance to the basement. We couldn’t be more wrong. A small hallway, which is full of silky sticky webs, ends in stairs that lead up. We look to each other confused, and I propose that Surron sends his raven upstairs, to scout ahead. There’s a hallway from the staircases that go either left and right. On the left end there is a steel circular staircase leading to the turret room. On the right there are 2 doors opposite each other. One of the rooms has a doll sitting in a rocking chair, which has a combination of enchantment and necrotic aura to it. Surron knows, as he scouted the surroundings of the house earlier with his raven. Cor’Torin decides the waiting takes too long, and starts clearing out the webs and bolts through. Just moments after Surron’s raven returns and we follow Cor’Torin, we see him dancing in a ballroom-like room with a blue floating dress, that sways with the music just like Cor’Torin. The music stops and the dress folds itself on a hanger, leaving Cor’Torin a bit bewildered. With a quick search through the room, we conclude there’s nothing to be found and we open the door opposite to where we came in. From my orientation, this seemed really off, as we step into the hallway on the 1st floor, right before where the big staircases meet. The door to the hallway should’ve been on our right side instead of opposite within the previous room.
Within the other 2 rooms in this hallway, we find a room that is kept in a very tidy manner, though still musky from smell, and most textiles have aged. A rocking chair starts rocking by itself, but through a mirror we see there’s a woman rocking the chair while holding an infant. While looking around, a walking corpse in a nurse outfit walks in, and I instinctively grab my mace. However, this undead seems to be unaware of our presence. I argue to continue our search, and see if we can find out how to save these souls. If not, I will put her down myself, and give her a proper burial too.
The room with the doll is the first hostile environment we meet, as we are searching some chest which contains 4 porcelain dolls that have some necrotic energy. Cor’Torin magically lifts up each doll from the chest and breaks them. As the last one is broken, I’m attacked by the doll who was in the rocking chair. With a little group effort, we easily dispatch this doll too. The moment it drops, I feel a
little tug on my insides, and Surron looks at me with the same look. “I think something happened with the house.” I look outside the window, but all I see is the surrounding overgrown area, the walls, and the town further beyond. All seems okay. We are still confused about where to find the basement, but we still have the attic to go to. A giant spider ambushes us, and just when it seems to calm down through something Alyr did, a ghoul jumps out from the attic and attacks the spider. Again, with small effort we kill the ghoul, and Alyr ends up with another friend, who scurries away after a strange gesture of friendliness. Again, we are not met with what we expect when we enter the attic. A small - too small I must say - lounge room is located here, with a tea set on the table, still hot. We just get a glimpse of some writing on the chalkboard too. It’s covered with the words “Help me”, which then vanishes. Casting detect magic, I conclude there’s nothing magical here. I take off the chalkboard to see if there’s anything behind, but find nothing strange there either. Surron looks at me and says “maybe we should…”, “ask the chalkboard” I say as we both get the same idea. “How can we help” I write down. It works, as my writing disappears and coalesces into a different sentence “bury the children”. We get the information we should head back down, and enter the room what we firstly thought to be the single children’s bedroom. So, we head down, but I notice that the railing of the main staircase is emanating illusionary magic. Getting the idea that this house may not be that hostile as I initially thought, I place my hand on the railing, followed by the sensation of sticky wetness. When I pull back and turn my hand around, it’s covered with blood. Cor’Torin easily cleans it with a snap of his fingers. We enter the children’s room. This time it isn’t the children’s room, but a kitchen with all its necessary equipment and utensils. At the back there’s a stairway going down. We find the basement, where indeed there’s a big oven, but also a vault on the other side. Near the oven are the skeletal remains of 2 adults, and when we look into the oven, we find heaps of smaller bones. Several ghostlike figures, 2 adults and some children, appear to us. One of the smaller ghosts recognizes Brownie, and we can certainly say she is the ghost of Tanya. The adult ghosts explain that all the trauma, followed by death, have locked them in and they are unable to pass on, while the house itself tries to retain to its past and happier memories. Only the help from outside could set them free. The others look at me, and again tell the ghosts I’m someone who has experience with holding burial ceremonies. We agree this is the way to go, and after some time of clearing the oven of its contents, we eventually bury all the bones that were left within the house. Also, like with the safe, the vault opens after the ceremony. A silence has taken over the house this time. It’s the fitting silence of a house that was abandoned a century ago. Even the house itself has come to a rest.
We inform Malrot, and he seems emphatic to our decisions. Though I’ve mistaken him for slightly greedy, this time he says he doesn’t need any of the riches from the house. We can keep those as a payment for the job we did. He also seems to be happy that this curse has lifted for both the villagers and the ghosts who were trapped within the Silver Oak mansion. I thank him, and tell him I’m looking forward to our next meeting. I’ve learned something really important today. I feel an urge to seek out undead, and smite them as they are the ultimate insult to the natural cycle. But this time, it seemed that these undead were just the victims of tragedy. Maybe I should be more cautious in the future when confronted with undead. There seem to be two sides to the appearance of undead. I report back to the old elf, and tell him his grandmother has been put to rest. Just as he promised I could continue my research with him, obtaining some new insights on undead.
Signed ~ Custous Vita, Servant of Kelemvor.
On the next issue:
Human Enclave
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