Party
- Abram – Human Wizard (Myk)
- Gallius – Tiefling Bard (Gaz)
- Izzero – Half Elf Barbarian (Dave)
- Kantor – Half Orc Cleric (Hag)
- Sylvester – Halfling Rogue (Ben)
Adventure
The party take a brief respite in the parlour whilst Kantor prays for guidance, during which Abram comes up with a plan to summon a familiar and use it to distract the skeletons whilst he retrieves the journal from the bedroom floor with Mage Hand. Unfortunately first he needs a certain component, a brass brazier. Reasoning that this was a wizard’s house and recognising that one of the creatures they’ve fought was likely a familiar the party set off in search.
After first exploring the study they’d already visited the party try some new rooms. After failing to open a door with indecipherable runes burned into the lintel they turned instead to some double doors that opened into a library where a female library spirit insists they “Shhhhh!”. The party discuss how to get into the room and investigate, ignoring a second “Shhhhh!”, at which point Gallius tries to address the spirit directly and she turns to the party and screams. Several members of the party are dropped to the floor and those that remain on their feet drag them to the bathroom they have sought refuge in many times now.
In the bathroom they find precisely what they are looking for, beneath the tub is a brass brazier! After a short rest, during which Gallius names Izzero “Deathwish”, they return to the parlour where Abram performs his ritual and summons a magical owl familiar, as yet unnamed. The owl is directed to distract the skeletons in the bedroom above by making noise and commotion, giving Abram an opportunity to use his Mage Hand spell to retrieve the journal. The plan proceeds almost without a hitch, only the newly summoned familiar is a little too keen and concusses itself on the window — fortunately an action loud enough to draw the attention of many of the skeletons in the room.
With the journal in hand the party discover it’s written seemingly in two hands. One is a tight yet neat script written in the common tongue, the other a sprawling scrawling scratching in an eclectic combination of tongues. It will require some effort to decipher. One of the entries in the common tongue that the party read whilst flicking through refers to a serpent king’s tomb. Recognising that this is the same tomb they read about in the notes of the Society for the Preservation of Tolm the party decide to head there next. They also read of a “diviners wand” and make some guesses that this may be the key to the mirror in the bedroom.
Upon turning to leave the parlour the party are confronted by another female spirit, a sad looking elf who gestures for aid and to be followed. She leads the party first to the tub with the bones and second to a graveyard in the manor’s garden. Izzero digs her a grave whilst Sylvester explores the yard, finding freshly dug graves with headstones naming the members of the party.
As Izzero lays the bones in the grave he dug and Kantor speaks words of rest the ghostly elf form disappears and the party decide to leave the manor and the creepy graveyard behind them for now.
On their way out they discover the creature who has been tending the topiaries in the manor’s garden and realise that the creature is amongst the living dead. Approaching its hut they learn through discussion that the groundkeeper is a dedicated and loyal worker, unashamed of its condition. Kantor wants to destroy it at once and after some debate attacks, Abram uses his magic to put Kantor to sleep and the party take him away from the manor.