Session 3
The specter takes the illusion of the baby and seems appeased. She talks to the illusion as if it were, her baby son, Walter.
We learn that:
After a minute, the illusion spell ends, the baby disappears, and so does Margaret.
After Margaret vanishes, the party is left to revive Anakir. Pelanil uses some strong magic to bring Anakir nearly back to his full potential. Then, after his near death experience, as Anakir is reflecting on his life, he notices a crack in the mirror in Margaret's room. Now, terrified of the possibility of death, he quickly backs away.
Bardolf is able to make quick work of the secret door, which opens into a secret staircase leading to the attic.
Once at the top of the secret staircase, Shalooti notices pawprints in the dust on the floor. Confident this wasn't yet another wolf, she follows them into a guest bedroom. Under the bed is a terrified Lancelot. Shalooti uses her ability to communicate with animals to convince Lancelot that she and the party can be trusted. From that point forward, Lancelot cannot be separated from her.
Presented with a padlocked door, Pelanil remembers that Elora earlier found an iron key. Once she unlocks the door, the party uncovers a heartbreaking reality: Rose and Thorn's skeletons are lying in the middle of the bedroom floor, apparently starved to death after being unable to escape their locked room.
Pelanil, feeling sorrowful for the children, packs up their bones, intent to give them a proper burial. After filling his pack, the ghosts of the two children appear. This time, they are see-through and spectral, obviously ghosts.
Seeing that Pelanil is at a loss for words given his grief, Rose speaks up to assure him that they know they're ghosts and they're actually ok with it. The party talks to the children's ghosts who explain that their parents usually locked them away when they went to the basement to deal with the monster, but that the last time, no one came back for them, no matter how much they cried.
They ask the party for help. The last time their mom went to the basement, she took their baby brother Walter. They ask the players to help save Walter and help their parents defeat the monster once and for all.
The party agrees to help. When they ask where the basement is, Rose points to a dollhouse in the corner of the room. From this dollhouse, the party learns all the secrets to the house, including a secret doorway in the storage room. Before heading to the basement, the party levels up, takes a long rest, and scours the rest of the house for missed loot (they can see where it is from the replica dollhouse). Notably, Pelanil finds a very expensive-looking platinum necklace with a topaz pendant.
The party opens the secret door and descends deep into the basement. They're greeted at the bottom of the stairs by a dark, earthen corridor and an incessant chanting, that they can't seem to pinpoint.
The party discovers some empty tombs, one with Walter's name on the door, and the other contains little coffins with their names on them.
The party makes their way into what seems to be a living space with a wooden table and multiple straw beds. In one of the bed alcoves, they hear something snarling. Pelanil rushes in to find out what's making the noise, and it turns out to be a ghoul which the party quickly dispatches.
Continuing to search the cultist quarters, the party each finds some treasure packed away in footlockers:
The party hears more snarling coming from a well. Indignant, Bardolf decides to spit down the well. The ghoul at the bottom tries to shield itself as the party annihilates it.
As they ventured further into the dungeon, Pelanil observes that there is a strange place in the floor. After throwing something onto the spot, the party realizes that they've found a trap door that falls to a spiked pit. Each of the party members easily jumps the pit, except for Bardolf who is certain he can find another way around.
Separated, the main group sneaks past more snarling. Worried that Bardolf would walk directly into the beasts, Shalooti uses the new Sending Stones that Bardolf gifted her to let him know of his danger.
Back together again, the part makes their way into an underground bedroom. The first inside, Elora sees Gustav Durst hanging from the ceiling, and discovers his suicide note on the bed next to him. The note tells us that:
Inside the room, Elora opened a footlocker where the group found the following:
Just as Elora was pocketing the treasure, another ghoul burst from the walls. The party recognized this to be an undead Elizabeth Durst, the woman from the portraits in the entryway. Elizabeth Durst curses the party, her husband, her own children, and especially Margaret and her bastard child, Walter. Elizabeth Durst invites the party to venture lower into the dungeon before Pelanil, completely disgusted, strikes at the monster. The rest of the party flees, leaving Anakir and Pelanil to fight.
After healing Pelanil with one of the Potions of Healing, the party leave the Durst's bedroom and finds their way to what seems to be a shrine for a gaunt-looking man. Bardolf finds a secret set of stairs that leads upwards (presumably to the first level of the house).
Anakir takes the Orb of the Warmage from the statue, and replaces it with an equal weight, Indiana Jones style. Just as he removes the orb, multiple spirits appear and begin chanting, "Return the Orb. Begone from this place!"...