Ashe C2 Episode 53 - Nuxhall Manor
Previously On Liters of Tomorrow...
After liberating the makeshift prison that Vernabogge had created out of the old Aaronola Embassy, You sat down with the now free leaders of Copenhaus who had been held as political prisoners. You all decided that Vernabogge's death may be temporary but in the meantime his lieutenants neeeded to be cleared out so that the city could prepare their defenses in case he tried again to take the city. The future leadership needed to be sorted out and you all quickly grew bored with the talk of future politics and governmental systems.
You followed the Dwarven historian and book shop owner, Yovotan Candor, to the local tavern, the Pint of Monte Cristo. Archos decided to enlist the services of the bard known as Remy and he figured that he would be found on stage. Finn and Archos were also joined by one of the former prisoners a strange mustachioed man calling himself Horatio.
While you waited for Remy to finish his set, Finn was handed a note to meet a mysterious stranger in the back room. There he found the goblin man, Rega, who demanded information on the hunt for Cog. He informed Finn that the deal had been altered and that the stakes were no longer to just find Cog, but to take his revenge on Cog for past crimes. Archos snuck into the meeting invisibly but he was discovered when he attempted to whisper something to Cog. The goblin man threw a knife but missed, visibly agitated he ended the meeting and said that he would look into the being known as Sava Cogson in the meantime.
As Remy finished his time on stage he met with the group and you all outlined the plan to invade Nuxhall Manor and take out the Goliath Henchman known as Hightower. Spying some guards on patrol outside you ambushed them on the skybridge in between spires. Utilizing several mind altering spells you wound up with a dead guard and his compatriot completely under your control. You convinced him to lead as many occupying soldiers out of Nuxhall Manor as possible to aid in your assault. He ran off with three of the guards in tow, keeping his promise.
Horatio broke into one of the windows leading into a bar and casino room and hid under a nearby table. Remy followed successfully but Archos was discovered by the bartender who ran off to get help. Finn seeing one of the guards investigating with sword in hand leapt into action and attacked. Remy mind controlled the bartender to attack two other guards and the assault was well and truly on. Let's return now to first floor of Nuxhall Manor, Remy has wandered into the sauna room and just felt the painful psychic assault of unseen opponent...
After liberating the makeshift prison that Vernabogge had created out of the old Aaronola Embassy, You sat down with the now free leaders of Copenhaus who had been held as political prisoners. You all decided that Vernabogge's death may be temporary but in the meantime his lieutenants neeeded to be cleared out so that the city could prepare their defenses in case he tried again to take the city. The future leadership needed to be sorted out and you all quickly grew bored with the talk of future politics and governmental systems.
You followed the Dwarven historian and book shop owner, Yovotan Candor, to the local tavern, the Pint of Monte Cristo. Archos decided to enlist the services of the bard known as Remy and he figured that he would be found on stage. Finn and Archos were also joined by one of the former prisoners a strange mustachioed man calling himself Horatio.
While you waited for Remy to finish his set, Finn was handed a note to meet a mysterious stranger in the back room. There he found the goblin man, Rega, who demanded information on the hunt for Cog. He informed Finn that the deal had been altered and that the stakes were no longer to just find Cog, but to take his revenge on Cog for past crimes. Archos snuck into the meeting invisibly but he was discovered when he attempted to whisper something to Cog. The goblin man threw a knife but missed, visibly agitated he ended the meeting and said that he would look into the being known as Sava Cogson in the meantime.
As Remy finished his time on stage he met with the group and you all outlined the plan to invade Nuxhall Manor and take out the Goliath Henchman known as Hightower. Spying some guards on patrol outside you ambushed them on the skybridge in between spires. Utilizing several mind altering spells you wound up with a dead guard and his compatriot completely under your control. You convinced him to lead as many occupying soldiers out of Nuxhall Manor as possible to aid in your assault. He ran off with three of the guards in tow, keeping his promise.
Horatio broke into one of the windows leading into a bar and casino room and hid under a nearby table. Remy followed successfully but Archos was discovered by the bartender who ran off to get help. Finn seeing one of the guards investigating with sword in hand leapt into action and attacked. Remy mind controlled the bartender to attack two other guards and the assault was well and truly on. Let's return now to first floor of Nuxhall Manor, Remy has wandered into the sauna room and just felt the painful psychic assault of unseen opponent...
Plot points/Scenes
Nuxhall Manor First Floor -
Inside the manor lay all manner of dangers. Three of Vernabogge's dangerous lieutenants are left, Insolent Howl, Hightower, and a Mindflayer called Virulent Whispers. He employs intellect devourers and strange orbs that patrol the halls. These orbs can see normally and invisible creatures. They also can attack with extending blades that impale on the skull. A drill then extends into the skull and extracts brain and blood with suction.
First Floor : Several guards patrol the first floor as well as Hightower, the Goliath captain.
Foyer - A massive entryway with polished wood floors. It looks like a rustic hotel lobby complete with two sitting areas set with comfortable red and purple chairs and fine circular wooden tables. It is patrolled by two regular fighter guards. (Rutelic Jones and Yusuf Trey.)
Dining Room and Kitchen - Moving clockwise the wide stone hallways lead to another sitting area and into the everyday use dining room. North of that is the kitchen, a tall ceiling and white and grey marble give it a bright inviting modern look. The dining room sits eight and was often used by the Baron and his wife to go over the days events with their assistants.
the stone hallways lead north to cozy living room with a wide navy blue plush rug. A wide fireplace and a small kitchenette that abuts the main kitchen. Food and cocktails easily pass through an opening and are placed on a stone counter.
Storage Closet - North of that in the left corner is the storage closet. Dozens of casks of wine and ale lay stacked here. Wood for the many fireplaces is stacked against the wall and many crates of supplies.
The Study - Cherrywood floors and oak wood paneling on the walls. The southern room is your classic study with tall bookshelves and sturdy high backed leather chairs. The northern section has a large fireplace and a comfortable bed, in case the baron fell asleep reading. Center Foyer and sauna room - In the center of the map is the large foyer with the large stone staircases on either side. The floor is a white marble with a long stone planter running up the middle. The planter is 25 feet long and holds exotic ferns, palm trees, and other hard to obtain plants from the continent of Ventenheim.
The Sauna is a classic wood paneled room with three large tubs recessed into the floor. A center brazier holds heated coals that are magically scented with Lavender and Juniper. A stone dial in the brazier allows the user to set the heat and humidity levels.
Gaming rooms - the rooms on the upper right are a series of gaming rooms. They hold poker tables, billiards, darts, and some smaller roulette wheels and craps tables. They are all well lit with bright magical lights and brightly colored rugs that are decorated with poker chips and playing card symbols. They go from green, to blue to red depending on what room you are in.
In Ground Pool - the aqua room is the pool. It has an inviting blue green color emitted from underwater lights. The water is kept at a pleasant 78 degrees. The area around the pool is a warm granite replete with rattan deck chairs and small tables for holding drinks.
Temple to Corsun - Though not particularly religious the Nuxhalls always try to hold favor with the sun god Corsun.
Living Room - This comfortable couch filled room is perfect for reading a book or speaking with guests.
Nuxhall bar and grill - the main area of entertaining is the fully stocked bar and dance floor. The large circular room is the crown jewel of the house. The Nuxhall's often hold lavish parties here.
Parlor - This large sitting room has a wide square table in the center surrounded by blue gray couches. A massive marble fireplace is on the nothern wall.
Themes
Nuxhall Manor Second Floor
Second Floor - Moving Clockwise
Upper porch open air - This large beautiful porch overlooks the ocean many hundreds of feet below. Fourteen large columns give it a greek revivalist style and it's intricate teak herringbone cut flooring keeps it inviting.
Guest bedroom 01 and breakfast nook - The first bedroom on the left is decorated in several shades of blue. It has an attached breakfast nook with a setting for four.
[Insolent Howl has moved in here. She keeps many trophies of her victims on display. Some options are a woman's hand with a massive diamond ring floating in a jar. A man's shirt stained with blood. A silk kerchief wrapped around a man's penis. A queen's guard helmet from the Kingdom of Crossing sun and stars fit for a tabaxi.]
Upper study - The bedroom abuts an office with a massive rug that has the symbol of House Nuxhall. The western window overlooks the garden pond below.
Servants bedroom - a plainly furnished room with two single beds is found on the western wall. The door is molded to look like the walls themselves so that the servants appear from almost nowhere.
Guest bedroom 02 - This bedroom is decorated in several shades of Yellow.
Upstairs dining room - Another eating area that can seat 10.
Children's bedroom - A series of single beds in a brightly colored room. The walls are painted with magical monsters in a cartoonish style. Center foray overlooking the first floor - In the center of the second floor is a massive room with ceiling height of 20 feet. Several skylights let in natural light and the ceiling itself is inset with magical lights that mimic the night sky when the sun goes down.
[Doing a tight patrol is a metal sphere that slowly completes a circuit around the room. DC 13 Perception check followed by a stealth check to avoid. The room also holds three intellect devourers that will sense the presence of any who enter.
Detect Sentience. The intellect devourer can sense the presence and location of any creature within 300 feet of it that has an Intelligence of 3 or higher, regardless of interposing barriers, unless the creature is protected by a mind blank spell.]
Nightowl Office - yet another office extending off of the master bedroom. It has it's own fireplace and a large mahoghany desk wit a light blue leather office chair.
[Here vernabogge has hidden his most important relics. A marble bust of a Tiefling man has an inset metal seal that bears the insignia of House Allesandre. The metal seal is about six inches long and is shaped like a rectangle with rounded edges on the right side. The bust is of an older Tiefling man with tight chin beard. His father.]
Master Bedroom - the main bedroom of the Baron and his wife. It has a bearskin rug and all the furnishings they need including washroom.
[Vernabogge has taken over these rooms. Two Succubi await his return in the bed. They will polymorph into attactive human women and attempt to charm any who enter. DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. If they fail they will attack with claws and draining kiss.]
Trophy room - The baron's trophy room has many taxidermied heads from his many hunting excursions.
Diplomatic study - A separate staircase leads up to this very official looking room. It holds a large square office table and seating for nine. The baron would often hold meetings here with his staff and visiting officials.
Ballroom - the circular room above the bar and grill is the opulent ball room. It can hold up to 60 guests for music and dancing.
[Now this area of the house has become the Illithid's - Virulent Whispers -room of torture and horror. Instead of the gaming tables and barrels of wine it now has glass jars of disembodied brains. Some of which are in the process of transforming into Intellect Devourers. In several of the corners there are people strapped to leather chairs. All in different states of torture. The worst have their scalps pinned open and the bone of their skulls polished and prepped.]
Structure
Exposition
The Key to Vernabogge's Phylactery
Need to decide What's Next: Kill Vernabogge permanently by destroying his phylactery (The Painting) The Search for Cog: Need another Exatron Saul encounter. Meet with Sava Cogson again. Add in Reva Ragnash to Copenhaus to speed this along. It's time to explain what he is really up to. He shows Finn the Raven's Slumber crystal. If possible attempt to trap Finn inside briefly with a wisdom saving throw DC 18.
Rega explains that Adventure Team Grimm trapped him inside this device for months and treated him like an animal. He has dedicated his life to revenge and with this improved Raven's Slumber he can trap all of them inside and throw it into the astral sea.
The new crystal is attuned to Rega only, if that attunement is broken the crystal is set to teleport into the astral plane, forever. That means when rega dies either violently or old age, adventure team grimm will be trapped forever in the crystal floating through Astral space. A fitting punishment.
Future use, possibly developed by Exatron Saul and Ghora's Mask:
Super Adaptoid Golem: Learns damage types. First two types of one damage hurts the golem but then it adapts and is immune to that damage type from then on. Exatron Saul and the Ghora's Mask will ambush the team as they travel back to Allesandre Manor. The golem will be unleashed and Saul and his compatriots will attack from on high. Find a tower map or something for Saul to stand on.
From Allesandre Manor:
Descending into a cave deep in the Ashen Forest you fought your way through undead creatures to find an ancient doorway. Opening it with the help of the Knight of the Deadrose you made your way into the ancient Allesandre Manor. A relic of the civilization that once existed here under the Forest, the manor was mostly intact including an old heating duct system large enough for tiny creatures to move through.
As you made your way into the hallways of the manor Truffle spooked some Giant bats which attacked immediately. They were easily dispatched by Truffle's Shillelagh and the Wild Dice which created a Gelatinous Cube. Moving further into the Manor you found a room containing the statue of a well dressed Tiefling man named Victor Allesandre. Sensing a trap Mausim froze the water in the room to move above the pressure plates in the floor. Briefly splitting up Wes, Truffle, and Bon Vee entered a dining room containing a dozen skeletons. The skeletons animated and began to attack with swords. Finn, Mausim, and Archos found a pool room teeming with undead beasts and expertly backed away. Joining back up to destroy the skeletons the team found a sealed hallway and a hallway full of Pinata Plants. Using an ice disc and the dining room table the team moved through the strange pod plants avoiding their paralyzing darts.
Next you stumbled into a room containing a dark temple. Thousands of insects poured into the room doing necrotic damage and Mausim and Truffle poured on spells of all types to stop them from forming into some sort of bipedal creature.
Start back in Episode 34 and finish the Allesandre Manor!
Inside the ancient buried manor the Dark One's presence becomes stronger. The undead beasts from pool room begin to head towards the players. Shades begin to form and become an ever present, ever increasing threat. The very air of the manor grows colder by the minute. Eventually the Knight of the Dead Rose completes his task and begins to close off certain hallways leading to danger and open the sealed entry at the north of the manor. He leaps from the Heating vents and communicates to Mausim.
Mausim you hear a voice in your head, it starts out echoey and faded but then increases in tonality and coalesces into the voice of a human man.
"Encealadus you must hear me! No not he, but you feel like him, move like him. Warrior you must obtain the information and the holy relics that lay beyond. They will protect you and your companions as you escape this place. The Dark One's presence is much stronger here than I had predicted." He quickly explains "Maintaining the focus to use this telepathic speech, even to recover my original mind in this form is incredibly difficult. It took me centuries to regain the ability to think and remember the man I once was. Use what you find here to kill him. Destroy Vernabogge, learn how to kill the Fallen. The Dark One must not return. Now go, The order of the Green Rose will stay here and aid your escape. Until we meet again." The strange voice disappears from your mind.
Descending into a cave deep in the Ashen Forest you fought your way through undead creatures to find an ancient doorway. Opening it with the help of the Knight of the Deadrose you made your way into the ancient Allesandre Manor. A relic of the civilization that once existed here under the Forest, the manor was mostly intact including an old heating duct system large enough for tiny creatures to move through.
As you made your way into the hallways of the manor Truffle spooked some Giant bats which attacked immediately. They were easily dispatched by Truffle's Shillelagh and the Wild Dice which created a Gelatinous Cube. Moving further into the Manor you found a room containing the statue of a well dressed Tiefling man named Victor Allesandre. Sensing a trap Mausim froze the water in the room to move above the pressure plates in the floor. Briefly splitting up Wes, Truffle, and Bon Vee entered a dining room containing a dozen skeletons. The skeletons animated and began to attack with swords. Finn, Mausim, and Archos found a pool room teeming with undead beasts and expertly backed away. Joining back up to destroy the skeletons the team found a sealed hallway and a hallway full of Pinata Plants. Using an ice disc and the dining room table the team moved through the strange pod plants avoiding their paralyzing darts.
Next you stumbled into a room containing a dark temple. Thousands of insects poured into the room doing necrotic damage and Mausim and Truffle poured on spells of all types to stop them from forming into some sort of bipedal creature.
Start back in Episode 34 and finish the Allesandre Manor!
Inside the ancient buried manor the Dark One's presence becomes stronger. The undead beasts from pool room begin to head towards the players. Shades begin to form and become an ever present, ever increasing threat. The very air of the manor grows colder by the minute. Eventually the Knight of the Dead Rose completes his task and begins to close off certain hallways leading to danger and open the sealed entry at the north of the manor. He leaps from the Heating vents and communicates to Mausim.
Mausim you hear a voice in your head, it starts out echoey and faded but then increases in tonality and coalesces into the voice of a human man.
"Encealadus you must hear me! No not he, but you feel like him, move like him. Warrior you must obtain the information and the holy relics that lay beyond. They will protect you and your companions as you escape this place. The Dark One's presence is much stronger here than I had predicted." He quickly explains "Maintaining the focus to use this telepathic speech, even to recover my original mind in this form is incredibly difficult. It took me centuries to regain the ability to think and remember the man I once was. Use what you find here to kill him. Destroy Vernabogge, learn how to kill the Fallen. The Dark One must not return. Now go, The order of the Green Rose will stay here and aid your escape. Until we meet again." The strange voice disappears from your mind.
Completion Date
12/7/23
12/7/23
Plot type
Main Story
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Related Locations
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