Death House, Part 2
10th Moon, 735
Barovia
The house reeked of death.
Everyone could smell it. It was like the scent of decayed flowers, moist grass, and moss-covered headstones found in a cemetery, all rolled into one distinct odor.
The smell became more noticeable when the group reached the third floor of the house. Skyler, obsessed with finding Ziri, was able to follow the druid’s tracks which led to a locked room on the third floor. It took the dragonborn breaking the door open, but they found Ziri inside.
This room contained a bricked-up window flanked by two dusty, wood-framed beds sized for children. Closer to the door was a toy chest with windmills painted on its sides and a dollhouse that was a perfect replica of the dreary edifice the group was in.
Laying in the middle of the floor were two small skeletons wearing tattered but familiar clothing. The smaller of the two cradled a stuffed doll similar to the one the boy they met held outside.
Ziri was kneeling before the skeletons. She seemed to be whispering to the bones.
When Skyler touched Ziri on the shoulder, she jumped, startled by the cleric’s appearance.
The group gathered inside the room and asked Ziri why she left the burgomeister’s manor in the middle of the night.
Ziri barely recalled hearing children’s voices calling to her. She followed the voices but couldn’t recall much more than that.
The group deduced that the children were locked inside the room for some reason. They saw scratch marks on the door from inside the room. Unable to get out, the children starved and died what must have been a slow horrific death.
Thankful for having found their fellow adventurer, the group decided to leave. Ziri snapped at the group and said they couldn’t. The others were surprised at how Ziri was acting. When asked, Ziri said she didn’t know how she knew it, but said the skeletons of the children needed to be put to rest.
When the group suggested the bones be laid to rest in the village cemetery, Ziri agreed but said something that sent shivers down everyone’s spine. Ziri said the house will not let them leave. She said an evil presence in the house will not allow them to leave. And somehow that presence resided in the dungeon beneath the house.
Ziri said the dollhouse would reveal the location of a secret entrance which would take them to the dungeon below. The group examined the dollhouse and found a spiral stairwell located inside a wall. The entrance was in a nearby room, on the same floor.
Ziri gathered the bones and carried them in a makeshift sack made from a bedsheet. She then followed the group out into the hallway.
On the way to the room with the secret entrance, the group told Ziri about their experiences after entering the creepy house. They spoke of the walls ‘healing’ itself after being cut by their weapons or scorched by a fire bolt spell. They also mentioned an encounter with an animated suit of armor which nearly pushed Edmont over a rail. Had he fell, he would have fallen to the first floor some thirty feel below. They also spoke of meeting a spectral woman in front of room they later entered and heard the sound of a crying baby. The room turned out to be a nursery. The spectral woman could not be found after they briefly fought her. Lastly, they mentioned about Dundolyn’s seeming obsession with a doll they found in a nearby room. Despite their efforts, Dundolyn would not give up the doll, making up excuses about its value.
The room with the secret door served as a storage room. The dusty chamber was packed with old sorts of items draped in dusty white sheets. Near an iron stove, underneath one of the sheets, the group found an unlocked wooden trunk containing what appeared to be a body wrapped in a tattered bedsheet stained with dry blood.
Having easily found the secret door, the group decided to examine the body further before descending down into the dungeon below.
Dramatis Personae
Ahroheim (Male High Elf Sorcerer)
Dundolyn (Male Halfling Rogue)
Edmont Patch (Male Human Rogue)
Luca Featherbone (Male Tabaxi Wizard)
Skyler Kiltrin (Male Dragonborn Cleric of Bahamut)
Ziri Basha (Female Half-elf Druid)
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