Situation Report Eleven

General Summary

During the night in The Manor we hear the occasional bangs and crashes from our floor and upstairs, but fortunately nothing disturbs our sleep and we enjoy a surprisingly restful night. The morning is misty as we break our fast and sneak back into the body of the mansion again. Cherry sneaks across the main hallway to the wide staircase on the right.
As she emerges onto a landing she sees a spiral staircase leading up to the top floor of the tower and she gets a deep sense of unease as she approaches. Perhaps it would be best to avoid going upstairs for now… A small table sits near one of the windows and red drapes, recently fitted, conceal doors on the southern wall. The floor is scored and scratched with clear evidence of a struggle quite recently. Blood stains can be seen in the centre of the room and bloody footsteps lead to the south-western set of drapes.
Cherry motions to us all to ascend the stairs and we cluster around her as she investigates the South Eastern set of curtains – dropping to her belly, she peers under the drapes. She sees nothing and motions for me to enter. And pulling the drapes aside I step through, closely followed by Sharna into another damned library!
After a cursory search we head back out to the balcony and I think I hear a quiet rustling coming from the spiral stairs that caused Cherry unease. "Get away from the stairs", I whisper urgently as I creep towards their foot. As I strain to hear more I catch a distinct whiff of sulphur and grimace. "Lets's head to the other curtain".
Beyond the south western drapes there are small galleries that have been partly lined with bookshelves. These clearly once held valuable books; slender but strong looking chains drape the shelves, many have been broken it seems. However, the books they once held have been scorched and almost totally destroyed by fire. The bloodstained footprints end near a large dark stain by a set of double doors to the south.

More Bloody Books

Worried about whatever is upstairs, I urge everyone to keep moving "Ugnan, Sylke, get through the curtain. I'm right behind you." The library beyond contains another mangled and somewhat fresh corpse. While searching, Ugnan discovers a notebook by a Tobias Orgillion, which contains an Orgillion family tree, and some old arcane books. Tobias' notebook also has some intriguing descriptions: "scandalous marriage of Leopold and Desidara Damssen – came to live at manor with her insane siblings, "Larkrise" and "Sunset" – both later placed in asylum". The marriage was in 5730; Leopold and Desidara were both 17.
Sylke discovers some fascinating valuable copperplate script texts during her search: 'De Vermis Mysteris'; and 'The Shards Of Klarkash-Ton'. Sylke believes that Klarkash-Ton is a place. Sylke also believes that both tomes contain some spells. I sometimes think I'd like to be able to cast spells, but then I heft my axe and rapidly lose interest. No substitute for some heavy, sharp steel in your hand.
Through the door to the south we enter a long trophy room. Paintings of members of the Orgillion family and sundry trophies line the walls. Display cabinets are still intact and house all manner of odd looking objects. There are strange bronze tubes with colored glass fittings. Small clay pots that look to be hundreds of years old. Collections of minerals – molybdenite, quarts and deep blue henmilite among them. You can hear the sound of wood snapping from the western end of the gallery and there is sudden crash as something heavy collapses to the floor. At the western end of the room Sharna hears some banging and crashing of furniture.
We open the door to the west and spot four ghouls. Chairs and old instruments are stored here. Two ghouls seem oddly trapped against the northern wall; they walk repeatedly into the wall and strike futilely against it as if trying to force their way through. As you enter, they slowly, very slowly turn and stare at you … before stumbling toward you, mouths open. Quickly, Sharna pulls the door closed and Cherry locks it under immense pressure. Unfortunately it doesn't last long under the sickening barrage from the other side.
The ghouls are on us! Sharna reacts first with a couple of sweeping attacks, although barely breaks through the first creature's defences. My axe thuds in behind Sharna and strikes it's chest, knocking it back a bit and causing it to flail around with it's claws. Unfortunately, it's pushed into our room by the weight of the ghouls behind it, but Sharna lays it out with a well-placed elbow strike.
The ghoul through the door stuns me with a cruel knee in my lower back that leaves me reeling, and I feel my vision closing down. I manage to consume a dose of Vinuk from my pouch, which clears my head, but leaves me scrabbling on the defensive while my vision clears.
Sharna puts in some good work with her feet and fists and the second collapses, twitching. I get swatted by the one facing me, but he doesn't get through my defences. Cherry looses an amazing arrow through the melee and skewers one through a major artery in his upper arm. He backs off clutching the mortal wound and collapses on the floor – he won't trouble us again.
Sharna steps into the breach and artfully fends off an ineffective blow from a ghoul before unleashing a follow up strike which is also parried.

Bloody Murder

Since coming to Sel-kai I have been able to keep the black-out rages at bay. But in this doorway, with a thumping pain in my lower back, my vision clearing and the taste of blood in my mouth I lose control of my horses.
I enter a frenzy of rage, barrel past Sharna and swing my axe with a relentless overhand blow. The blow flings the ghoul back from me into the room, his chest completely caved in. The final ghoul comes at me, but gets knocked back in the same fashion. I scan the room for more threats and fortunately my colleagues are behind me out of sight. "Who else wants to challenge me then? Eh? Who else?" As the last foe flops to a standstill, I breathe a sigh of relief and manage to calm myself.
As I turn back to my colleagues, once again the pain from my injury hits me and I stagger. The pain of my wound is nothing, though, compared with the pain I feel when I see the horror etched across everyone's faces. I drop my eyes in shame. Ugnan relieves my pulsating back and rib pain, leaving me feeling remarkably whole again. "Ugnan." I nod as I grasp his forearm in thanks and exchange a grateful look.

The West Wing

Cherry shakes herself and moves further west in her exploration – more signs of slaughter are evident. A corridor to the north leads to a games room.
The faded and slightly grey plaster does not hide the once elegant nature of this retiring room. A former games room, it still contains all manner of once popular parlour games. However, many of the tables have been badly damaged and smashed. A large axe still sits embedded in a large card table. Cherry finds a severed hand and winkles a silver ring off a finger, pocketing it for later. Finding nothing else of value we go back to the corridor and head south.
The next door leads to a large linen store-room. The southern door in this room simply leads to some more linen baskets, labeled 1, 2, 3, 5 with chalk.
Sharna continues down the corridor where she discovers the half-eaten remains of a human with a hatchet in his head. Back up the corridor Cherry peeks through a keyhole and sees a bedchamber. The door is locked, but Cherry pulls off a master-stroke: She slides a piece of paper under the door and gently pushes the key out into the room. It lands on the paper and Cherry gingerly pulls it back under the door – with a flourish, she turns the key in the lock and pushes the door open with a smile. What a girl! The bedroom beyond contains a four-poster bed with drapes drawn. Pulling them back uncovers the desiccated corpse of a small child – marks of manacles having left deep gouges in wrists and ankles. As Sylke retrieves some weird creams and oils from a dressing table, I gently clean the poor kid as best I can and cover the corpse with a sheet. The bastards will pay for this – and the parallels with the Sanitarium in Sel-kai are now getting too close for coincidence.
The final bedroom in the west wing contains some sketches, including one of a couple in their 30s/40s with an 'S and 'L' written on them. Sylke pockets it and some other sketches.

The East Wing

We walk back through the long trophy room, ready to investigate the east wing. A door in the northern wall smells faintly of sulphur again. Heaps of bones have been piled into the north-eastern corner but there is surprisingly little blood here. Most disturbingly, the skulls that should be attached to the skeletal remains are all missing. The dust in the room has been disturbed, and Sylke has a hunch some demonic summoning has happened here. The bones are stacked like-with-like and the most recent barely days old – well spotted Cherry. Thinking about the old bones we found in the asylum, my concussed-eyes can't make out any writing, but Cherry confirms that the marks aren't writing, but probably just knife marks.
To the final door in the east end of the trophy room. Little remains intact in this room, once magnificent display cases have been smashed and glass litters the floor. As we enter we feel an eerie sense of being watched and at the far end of the room the glass begins to move slowly on the floor. The glass abruptly stops moving but a misty figure hurtles across the hall at us!

Report Date

17 Aug 2018

Primary Location

Teaque Island