Mission 006: The Midnight Violet
Mission Log
The Standard were engaged to retrieve a bouquet of Midnight Violet, a very rare flower prized by botanists and artists alike. They were dispatched to the former island residence of the famed artist Rolen Avrigard and his family, long missing, as he was known to cultivate them in his greenhouse. Whilst trekking towards the dilapidated manor they found a half-buried and worm-eaten stuffed unicorn on the path, which Wendelin tucked into her Frog of Holding.
Arriving to find the crumbling manor dark and ominous, Jace pushed through the front door - and on doing so heard a young boy whisper in his mind Hello Mr TimTom, how are you today? The others joined to find the manor overrun by feral cats, as well as the ghost of Lady Avrigard haunting her bedchamber and chastising them as indolent servants. In the study they found the skeletal remains of Rolen Avrigard dead in his chair, with a suicide note lamenting the horrible things he had to do to his family after a fiendish evil was invited into their home. Lark purloined Rolen’s prized portrait of his wife and daughter, and Anaya tried to hallow the remains with radiant fire.
Upstairs the party found a dumbwaiter-style elevator with unholy growls coming from below, and opted to fill the shaft with debris to block it. The investigated the daughter Eloise’s bedroom, finding a diary that detailed the last weeks of the Family Avrigard, and how her brother Herbert had summoned a demonic presence named Mr TimTom to their home, which drove her family slowly mad and corrupted the house staff. Unfortunately Eloise’s doll collection animated at the intrusion, and swarmed over Jace before they could be destroyed. In Herbert’s room they found the remnants of an infernal summoning circle, and a room soaked with dried blood.
Vexed by the layout of the crumbling manor, the party set themselves to breaking through an interior wall - and with some effort from Wendelin and Jace, managed to create a wide enough opening to spy the overgrown interior courtyard garden. Anaya’s owl familiar Bhoot was sent through to scout, finding several Midnight Violet blossoms in the greenhouse - before being mauled to death by feral cats. Lark and Wendelin followed suit, gathering several blossoms whilst being besieged by cats, and barely escaped back to their companions covered in scratches.
The party realized their mission was concluded, but Jace was haunted by invisible entreaties from Herbert Avrigard, who claimed his soul was being prevented from rest by Mr TimTom in the basement. Jace’s companions were less than enthused to risk their living souls for one dead one, but ultimately Jace convinced them to try and the party took a short rest to prepare, with Anaya re-summoning Bhoot back to the party and Wendelin conjuring a giant hyena named Ursula from her Bag of Tricks.
Thus rested the party returned downstairs, where Lark couldn’t resist plundering Lady Avrigard’s chambers, invoking the wrath of the apparition. A quick struggle saw Jace terrified and Lark nearly possessed before the party managed to exorcise the spirit. Jace then exhumed a hidden stairwell to the dugout basement, where they found a coffin holding Herbert’s twisted body and a small pedestal. Within the coffin they also found a puzzle box, which Wendelin eventually solved by entering in Herbert’s name. Doing so releases the trapped demon within, and Mr TimTom immediately thanked his liberator by charming Wendelin to his aid. The demon and his would-be bride immediately tore into the party in a fierce and violent battle that saw Jace and Anaya both downed, though Jace’s sheer tenacity awoke him from his unconsciousness. As Lark conducted hit-and-runs and Ursula attacked anything nearby, the party stressed over what seemed to be potentially insurmountable odds. Discretion was chosen as the better part of valour, with Lark invoking his and Anaya’s Bracers of Recall to send them home, and Jace triggering Wendelin’s as she protested.
Left alone in the manor, Jace used his rune magic to charm Mr TimTom into a temporary fugue, and set about quickly dousing the manor in whatever accelerants he could find before setting the house ablaze. He left the house burning, hearing a plaintive note of gratitude from Herbert’s spirit before returning himself to the Golden Standard, where the party had choice words for each other on mission completion…
SUMMARY
DM Ryan
PLAYERS Emily (Wendelin), Luke (Jace), Puja (Anaya), Rae (Lark)
RESULT Mission Complete, Side Mission Maybe Accomplished?
TOTAL XP 1700 xp each
TOTAL GP N/A