Situation Report Twelve

General Summary

Unlife

"What are you doing in this Manor still Cran?" I think as I manage to pull back to the doorway to the room entrance with Sharna and swing at the Apparition as it dashes up to us, screeching undecipherable words as he comes. The apparition is tall and 'stretched', clad in a tattered suit. He has elongated bony hands … and no tongue. He manages to strike me in the chest with a fearsomely-fast slash, leaving me flailing. My colleagues scramble to make preparations and Sharna is quickest to react.
Thank Cas she gets in an incredible sweeping attack – but what's this? Sharna's hands grapple straight through it with barely a movement in the air!
The Apparition grazes my face before Sylke misses him with a Shock Bolt and Cherry misses him with an arrow. Damn this thing is fast. I manage to fend it off the thing with the help of an aura around me from Ugnan – that man is a constant marvel!
Sharna sprints to intercept a zombie shambling into the room beyond, nimbly dodging the apparition as she ducks past him.
Cherry, attempting to hit the Apparition with an arrow, slips in some gore in the floor and hits her head on a marble table as she slips down! No, she looks concussed. Distracted, I miss with an ineffectual slash. Focus Cran!
Sylke steps forward and strikes it the second time with a Shock Bolt. Yes, that's better.
Sharna is making short work of a zombie n the room beyond, immobilising it with an effortless sweep. Unfortunately this makes space in the doorway for a second zombie to come through. Seamlessly, Sharna diverts a trip attack to the second zombie, slamming it against the wall as it stumbles with a twisted ankle.
In a wild furious rage I manage to strike the Apparition, although not the blow I was hoping for. Just. Fucking. Die!
Ugnan helps Cherry out with a fistful of herbs, and she gets up with a lump the size of a hen's egg on the back of her head.
Sharna is defending skillfully, but, with the arrival of a third zombie, quickly becoming overrun. With a desperate wild slash I get lucky and connect fully with the Apparition – it splinters and dissipates. With no thought I lunge into the room looking for the next victim of my Axe.
I feel a small wound, but everything is a black blur except for clear vision of the next victim of my blade.
Sharna trips another as Sylke enters the room to assist.
I swing a mighty blow and break the bastard's spine as it lunges to attack me. "Weak fool! Bring on more of you!"
Cherry misses with another arrow as Ugnan moves up to help. Sylke, out of spells, whips out her sling and narrowly misses with a bullet. It pings off a wall molding and ricochets into the ceiling.
Sharna's attacks are going well, and she drops the most badly wounded zombie with a sweep onto his back. They're both stunned. Ugnan steps in front of me and chops with his handaxe to no avail. "What is that old bastard doing in my way of my next victim", I dimly ponder, as I barge past him but fail to land a telling blow.
Third time the charm. Cherry looses a third arrow and skewers the penultimate zombie with a shot into his chest. Nicely done. Sharna kills the final zombie, and they're down.
With great effort I manage to get control of myself and suddenly the pain of a dozen small wounds hits me. I slump to the floor and drop my axe.
Ugnan lights a fire in a small hearth and brews a few doses of Rewk for me. He bandages my bleeding wound too, and leaves me feeling much better. "Thank you Ugnan". But I don't share my thoughts, "yet again…"
Moving on after some healing, we enter a former games room.
In the next room, Ugnan, Sylke and Cherry search around the room and Ugnan spots a silk thread attached to the ceiling. Ugnan notices that the thread has an application of weeks-old poison now long dried that had dripped down a thread. The thread hangs over a spot where a comfortable chair would have been. Sharna points out a tiny crack in the ceiling next to the location of the silk thread. I boost Cherry up to take a closer look. After cutting the thread she widens the hole it emerged through band peers into the attic space above. Nothing. One of her eyes widened as she took a peak into an attic space – weird.
A door to the North proves mightily resilient to both Cherry's lock-picking (twice) and my axe (thrice). A run up and my 234 lbs makes short work of it though. We're into the room beyond, but it has been cleared and is empty.
Back at the other end of the room full of smashed display cases, Cherry opens another door into a dusty empty room. Ugnan searches it, however, and finds scratches on the floor indicative of a secret door scraping open. His hunch is right, and Cherry rapidly has it open. Beyond is a hidden bed chamber. A haphazard collection of cat skeletons confronts us as we move in to search, but they yield no particular insights.

More Signs of Larkrise and Sunset

As I search the fireplace I notice some letters scratched in the surround: "LAR" and "SU". These have to be where Larkrise and Sunset were kept doesn't it? We must be on to something.
As we retrace our steps to the main room again Cherry spots a small hidden space. She rapidly has it open and inside is a large chest. Catastrophe! During Cherry's lock picking attempt she snaps a tool in the lock. Even worse, as she attempts to lever the padlock off she is stuck in the chest by a 2" dart. It must be poison. Unable to assist, we wait. And after 5 minutes she has no ill-effects. If it was poisoned, time must have rendered it ineffective.
Once the chest is open, it yields a pouch of silver, a silver ring wrought from individual silver oak leaves, a nice looking short-sword, and a massive iron key, with the Orgillion Crest on it. Ugnan tries on the ring and, detecting, "I'm bloody famished, when are we stopping for lunch?" Ugnan realizes that it's me having those thoughts and concludes that it is a Ring of Surface Thoughts. We resolve to help Cherry use it, but she struggles with attuning to it with the ease Ugnan displayed. I swing the sword (too damned short for me), and hand it back to Cherry. Worthless toy.
In the final area of the upper floor Cherry lifts up a tarp that hides a stash of nice looking weapons. I heft a hand axe and hand it to Ugnan. Both that axe and one of the two-handed swords are well-made. However, the second two-handed sword is very interesting: Mercury sloshes from the handle into the blade, increasing the power of a swing, but making it more unwieldy on the backswing.
The final area we search we find a spiral staircase leading down to the ground floor. We rest up to lick our wounds a bit and get some scrag down our necks before venturing up to the unexplored second floor.

Into the Cupola

A number of comfortable looking chairs, a mahogany writing desk and a number of bookcases suggest that this was perhaps a well used study. All of the bookcases contain skulls, human at first glance, there must be dozens. The two doors that you can see are ajar. In one chair slumps the form of a tall elf, possibly Loari.
The hunched form of the gaunt and impossibly tall Loari rises from a well padded armchair. Flexing taloned fingers, it grins at you. "You slavers are nothing if not persistent. Do please come closer, I am so very hungry still."
"Let's get this done you fucker." I shout as I leap to attack. Sharna beats me to the punch as she sprints up, but this obvious demon easily evades her. In a fit of fury I follow on her heals, a murderous rage in my eyes, but he dodges from my blow too, a mirthful condescension in his.
After dodging a couple of his blows Sharna almost certainly single-handedly saves our bacon. She throws him over her hip and across the floor, face down 10 feet away. She follows up with a second massive throw and he doesn't look so happy any more. I follow up with a huge swing and sever his hand, screaming my anger. "You're going to fucking die bastard. Back to the fires for you."
Sylke attempts to control the Loari-Demon, but the spell is just out of her reach and it fizzles out. Sharna launches it across the room again and it flies over a leather armchair to land in a heap beyond. Withdrawing, the Loari-demon hisses, "Enough! I am weary and you have proved worthy of my help. Your city teeters on the brink of disaster, the followers of The Iron Bell are moving silently through the city readying its destruction. I can tell you where to find the centre of their power if you merely let me be."
Desperately wishing to interrogate the Loari-Demon, Ugnan tries to prevent my rage from finishing it off. He tries Calming me and follows up by trying to maneouver my out the window with the power of his shield. Both fail, and I unleash another swing of my axe, but fortunately for Ugnan's plans it deals only a minor further wound to his leg.
Sylke tackles me into one of the chairs, and this finally dispels my rage. "What. In. Nynaku's. Name. Are. We. Doing. Speaking. With. This. Thing?!" I gasp as I slump in the armchair.
As we start to converse, it begins to heal before our eyes. But something feels wrong when Cherry, completely out of character, moves up suggesting we should kill the thing. Not only that but she's holding her sword in her wrong hand! I jump on the demon, now slumped on the floor. Sharna manages to subdue Cherry. I decide to send the bastard back to the fires by twisting ht's head around until there's a loud, 'crack'.
No! Cherry slumps into Sharna's arms unconscious. With luck I don't deserve, she comes round mere minutes later. She seems to have no lasting ill effects. What secrets will we uncover in the demon's abode? Is it really dead?

Report Date

24 Aug 2018

Primary Location

Teaque Island