The party began to move around the room examining various items. Erevel went to look at the shimmering amber coated human. It appeared to be a real person and Ciprian indicated that it radiate magic.
Gavril looked down the north hallway which led to another door. Ursina headed for the magic radiating from the ceramic vial.
A creature appeared near the ceiling in the southwest corner of the room and all the characters looked in that direction and saw a gaunt, long-limbed quadruped with a toothy maw and huge, soulless eyes, that looked in their direction.
Paullus and Gavril found themselves far enough away to not react to the gaze but the others were subject to damage from the gaze.
Armania used her special Elder Mythos Scholar ability to identify the creature as the Hound of Tindalos, an evil outsider, with Otherworldly Mind and then moved further away from it. Ciprian tried his own identify and learned that it also had Blind Fight and was immune to poison. Paullus, Erevel and Gavril delayed their actions to attack when the creature reappeared. Ursina looked into the vial and found a silvery metallic dust.
The creature appeared next to Ursina and attacked with bite and claws. Ciprian started a Bardic performance to help the party fight the creature. Paullus fired arrows at the creature which appeared to hit but did no damage. Erevel and Gavril moved toward the creature not sure if they could attack it successfully.
Now the creature disappeared again and the party was unsure what or where to look. Armania said she could do a invisibility purge when it appeared again. Now the creature appeared in the northwest corner and attacked Ciprian. Erevel moved up to attack but had used two moves to get in position. Gavril fired an arrow which did not damage the creature. Ciprian anointed Erevel's sword making it magical but he took a attack of opportunity doing this.
The battle continued with the Hound apparently teleporting between angled corners. As the fight continued all the heroes were taking damage but damaging the creature with magic weapons. Eventually the Hound disappeared and did not reappear. The party was wary for a while but they needed healing so Ciprian and Ursina set about healing the party. Gavril noted that the small framed picture of a boy, seemingly terrified, next to a cat had writing on the back "Haserton at age 5, 4681 A.R. Knowing that Lowls the III died in 4694 Gavril surmised that the boy was Haserton Lowls IV.
Ciprian noted the clay statue of an elephant-legged, multimawed, tentacled aberration was interesting ut he couldn't identify it. Armania successfully named the hideous figurine as a representation of a dark young of Shub-Niggurath.
Erevel was anxious to find the Hound and suggested they go through the north door. She checked and it was not locked, so she flung it open to reveal a room furnished with a big table, seven chairs, and a glass-paned cupboard. The room smelled of smoke from the fireplace, and a few dirty dishes, an emptied wine bottle, and used cutlery testified to a recent meal consumed at the table. Standing astride the table were two red caped humans who threw daggers at Erevel, missing badly.
The battle now started as one of the humans ran at Erevel and touched her. She felt more chaotic than normal trying to figure her available moves. Ciprian began a performance to demoralize the men in the room. Gavril downed a potion of vanish and moved into the room next the other figure. Bless and Haste were cast on the group while Erevel attacked mightily. Erevel was untouched by the enemy attack while Gavril appeared and attacked the other. The enemy by Gavril slid over to attack him and then another red-caped figure came down the stairs to flank Gavril to his dismay. He was relieved as the attack failed.
Erevel downed his opponent and Paullus moved into the room to attack, followed by Ursina and Armania. It did not take long for the heroes to dismantle the attack and all the enemy lay dead on the floor. In addition to their red capes the men each had two potions, one of vanish and one of cure moderate wounds. They also had magic chain shirts and unholy symbols of Hastur.
The cupboard held fine china and silverware with the Lowls crest and the drawers held linens, tablecloths and other finery. All the items were of very fine quality. One of the bottom drawers held a ledger.
Ciprian started to peruse the ledger finding several handwritten delivery receipts tucked into it, listing a number of alchemical products sent by someone named Miacknian Mun from Cassomir. Included were tanglefoot bags, sunrods, tindertwigs, smokesticks, etc. The last delivery had been a month ago.
Debate now turned to going up the stairs in this room or clearing this level out. Erevel voted with her feet as she started up the stairs, the others lined up to follow. At the top the stairs turned back east and led to a door. A window looked out upon another of the estate buildings, crows on its peak, calling out dreadful squawks.
Listening at the door Erevel heard a strange ticking sound, Tic Tok, Trwk, Chit, Chit, Click, Tic Tok. It seemed to be continuous. Wondering she opened the unlocked door which revealed a room featuring a large fireplace and a round table with stuffed, high-backed chairs around it. The walls were decorated with patterned wallpaper and small paintings of the surrounding landscape. Against the walls were three large mahogany sideboards with brass candleholders. Papers and books were strewn messily around the room, every space was dusty and cluttered. The sound appeared to come from the table as the party eased their way into the room. the shutters of the windows were closed, and the room is lit by candles and by a shifting, soft light emanating from the surface of the table. A fireplace stood empty and a door led to the west.
Armania moved into the room closer to the table and felt slithering wet tentacles and sucking tendrils surround her and enclosing her in a grapple. She suddenly felt her constitution wane and the wound started to bleed. A nauseous feeling fell over her as she began to see a figure appear, a fanged maw on a floating mass of talon tipped tentacles, all were turning red as freshly spilled blood.
The party was aghast at the sight and Paullus, Gavril and Erevel felt their sanity dripping away like the blood oozing from Armania's wounds. Ciprian moved into the room and cast grease on Armania's armor, hoping for luck in breaking the grapple.
Ursina cast a cure light wounds on Armania, at least temporarily stopping the bleeding. Armania attempted to break the grapple but was unsuccessful. Erevel, Gavril and Paullus all moved up to attack the beast which put them in prime position. They could see minuscule tendrils slithering out from the body flailing to and fro. The creature continued its grapple on Armania causing a recurrence of the bleeding, bit at Erevel, missed Gavril with a tentacle but succeeded in grabbing Paullus. His wounds started to bleed as he felt the loathsome embrace. All the while the creature turned a deep blood red.
DM's Notes: The party earned 400 XP for the night.
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