The Curse of Skirvin Manor
Skirvin Manor is a horrifically cursed building situated in the mountains, high above the town of Camor. A string of tragic incidents occurred on the premises over the years since the late '60s, until the curse was lifted in '07.
The First Incident
The tragedy of the Skirvin family began in 7966. While Phineas was away on business, Priscilla, five at the time, was bitten by a poisonous snake while playing in the forest. The venom took hold fast; she died in the night.The Affair
One year later, Phineas felt a connection to one of the maids, a Vistani woman named Ludra Vale. Ludra felt the same, falling in love with the older gentleman. The two spent long nights talking to each other. Ludra told Phineas her plans of attending a university for spellcraft, perhaps even Mightknight's Academy of the Arcane Arts. Phineas told Ludra of his frustrations with Marren, his regrets, and his burgeoning career in politics. The conversations turned to intimacy, and intimacy turned to lust. Later that year, Lord Skirvin was treating donors to a dinner party in his home when Ludra returned, anxious to see her former lover. Pregnant and unemployed, she was desperate. Before she could make a scene, Skirvin intercepted her outside and tried to calm her down. Ludra threatened that she would spoil his political career if he didn't do something to help her. She grabbed at Skirvin's breast coat, tearing at the man's ascot; Oaken, defending his lord, pulled Ludra away. But Ludra slipped on the snow and hit her head against the side of the manor well. Ludra's eyes rolled back into her head and she started to convulse. Panicking, Skirvin backed away. "No worries, m'lord," Oaken assured his shocked master. "I'll take care of this. Please, return to the festivities." Skirvin stumbled away while Oaken handled Ludra—he pulled open the seal to the well and dragged her inside. One hundred feet Ludra Vale fell, down into the frigid water below. Oaken sealed the well.The Water Fairy
Since her brutal murder, Ludra Vale's body lay at the bottom of the sealed well. Restless and angry, her soul was easy to wake. As the snow started to fall in the winter of '68, Esme Skirvin was often seen playing near the sealed well. She spoke to the well, almost as if she had an imaginary friend there. When the servants or her family would ask who she was talking to, she replied, "Oh, just my friend, Elle. She's a water fairy." Then, one day, while she and Petro were playing, Esme slipped and tumbled into the open well, hitting the cold water far below. Immediately, the servants acted, calling for help. Lord Phineas himself descended into the well, rescuing his daughter. Before the servants pulled him and Esme up, Phineas thought he saw something dark and angry in the water—the ghostly face of Ludra. Despite the tumble, Esme was uninjured. The girl was put into her room to rest while a local priest looked over her. Of course, Esme wasn't pulled out of the well alone. Ludra's ghost touched the young Skirvin, possessing her. Oaken sensed trouble immediately. After all, wasn't the well sealed?The Deaths at the House
Marren Skirvin was the first person Esme/Ludra killed. She slashed her mother's wrists as she bathed, then framed it as suicide. Phineas shrieked in agony as he held his dead wife in his arms. Esme watched in silence. Next, Petro fell, tumbling over the balustrade railing onto the foyer below. The poor boy broke his neck, dying instantly. "An accident", Esme told her father Oaken died next, slaughtered by Esme with a woodchopping axe. Kerrin helped hide the body. "Evil, Lord Skirvin," said the priest Skirvin had hired to watch Esme. 'It permeates the entire estate. Three accidents in as little as a week. One wonders: is there a reason an angry spirit would target your family like this?" Weeping, Phineas told the priest everything—his affair with Ludra, the murder, the cover-up, even the ghost he saw at the bottom of the well. Finally, he looked into the priest's eyes, begging, "Can you revive Marren and Petro?" "Yes," assured the priest. "But only after I remove the curse on the manor." Of course, the priest had no intention of removing the evil. The priest's true name was Eflor Vale, wife to Istha, father to Ludra. "To perform the ritual, you will need to invite all who were here the same night the servant girl died." Phineas understood and reached out to his colleagues.Slaughter at Camor
Everyone who was present the night of Ludra's murder gathered in the estate chapel. Marren and Petro's bodies lied in state at either side of the priest as he began the ceremony. Grief-stricken Phineas knelt before the priest, begging Ludra for forgiveness. "Confess to all your sins, Lord Skirvin," the priest commanded. Phineas complied. All present heard him describe his relationship with young Ludra, her pregnancy, and subsequent murder. His colleagues lowered their heads in shame. The servants, still sick, gasped. "Forgive me, Ludra." The candles fluttered. Lightning crashed. The doors to the chapel slammed shut. "No!" shouted Ludra through Esme. "I will never forgive you!" Just then, the servants all screamed in unison. They crumbled to the floor of the chapel and started to change. Their hair fell out and their skin turned gray. Their eyes burned with hatred and their teeth turned to points. They became ghouls. The night before, Ishta Vale cooked a special meal for the staff, her infamous beef stew, but this time with a secret ingredient: the remains of Oaken. The actual ritual the priest performed wasn't to exorcise Ludra's ghost but to change the cannibalistic staff into undead monstrosities. All of the attendees charged for the door, shouting for help as the ghouls approached. But the doors wouldn't budge. Ferociously, the horrible creatures tore into Phineas Skirvin's political allies as the Lord watched. "You killed our daughter, Skirvin. And you lied to the world. And now you suffer," proclaimed Eflor the Priest as his wife, Ishta joined him. Skirvin snapped out of his shock and drew his rapier. He was able to run Eflor through before Ishta stopped him with a spell. Then, the ghouls turned to Skirvin, paralysing the Lord of the Manor with their claws. They tore at his arms. They tore at his legs. As he screamed, they started eating him. "No," Ishta barked at the ghouls, holding the body of her dead husband. "He doesn't get to die. He gets to live. He gets to live so he can continue to witness the horrors he brought upon this home and himself." She set the ravenous ghouls free from the chapel. The former servants descended into Camor, committing horrible genocide on the Camorians. Meanwhile, Ishta and Esme treated Skirvin's amputated limbs ensuring he didn't bleed out. They removed his tongue and burned it on an altar to Vapul.The Last Incident
In the winter of 8007, adventurer Arrow Diamond went forth into the Glacies Mountains with hopes of investigating the mystery of Camor. His investigations however ended with him dying at the hands of the Vales and their ghoul servants. Around the same time, a young Cal'li (along with other adventurers) hunted the criminal Roundabout Jen to the quiet town of Camor, only to discover the secret in the manor. Due to the deadly Vapul Blizzard, the adventurers had to stay the night, however they did not allow the atrocities that had been committed there to go unpunished. During the investigation, two Vistani men arrived; Arvan and Stefan. The lads were members of the Unchained, and were investigating a planar rift beneath the manor. The adventurers were briefly chased away by the warlocks, and had to seek refuge from the blood hunter Rowan in Miller Lodge. With this new party member, they had a brief side trek to the Tomb of Nihalar, encountering the Uthgardt Grey Wolf Tribe and making an alliance with them before returning to the manor. After uncovering the connection to Vapul, the adventurers put a stop to the warlocks, allowing the souls of the Skirvin family to finally be at rest.
Date of Setting
8007
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