ASE: Session 13

Date: Lapin 19th
Weather: Overcast

Party:
Aria (Priest / Duelist)
Cedar (Warrior / Beastmaster)
Laguna (Elementalist / Healer)
Mars (Healer / Thought Noble)

Cohorts:
Jenny
Raymond (Axebeak)
Rex (Wolf)
Zord (Zard)

Summary:
The party returns to Willowby Hall for another go at it. With the giant dead, his corpse is an unsightly lawn ornament the party strolls past as they enter the double doors to the manor. They decide to start moving the harpischord from the music room to the guest bedroom, as the ghost of Lavinia requested. As they get upstairs, they're stopped by a ghostly apparition. It's soon revealed that it's the ghost of Helmut Halfsword, whimpering and confused. The party reassures him and moves his body to one of the servant quarters as they finish moving the harpischord. As the door closes, they can hear soft music playing throughout the hall.

The noise drew the attention of the death knight, which started its way upstairs. The party hid in one of the servant rooms until the knight left, then started to investigate the dressing room and bedroom, where they saw that same figure in the mirror going about his day. Cedar mused that the balcony would make a great place for him to stay when the place was cleared out, but the party wanted to move on and started to investigate the library. The ghostly librarian allowed them to check out a book on ritualistic alchemy (and a picture book for Mars), the former book allowing them a wealth of information, including notes written in the margin on the black candles being able to seal away the death knight and the owner's progression to unlife. It seems like he hadn't been able to keep his body together, so he took to bandaging and embalming his body to preserve it.

The party investigates the house, finding one of the black candles, heading downstairs to the dining room to see skeletal servants preparing meals for the day. Pushing past them, Mars found a ghostly apparition who would play blackjack, and he managed to win a strange key which he gave to Aria. They then moved on, finding the hunting room. Giving the stuffed owlbear a wide berth, more investigation was done, Mars finding a way up to the roof via the chimney. He checked it out, lit a fire, and while that happened the party got into a scuffle with some zombies. After the scrape, some investigation revealed a secret door behind a weapon cabinet, revealing a room covered wall to wall with mushrooms. This shroomy shelter showed a shadowy shpectre, which upon later inspection was the ghost of Lisbet. As they agreed to help her either move on or somehow return to her body, Mars then ate a mushroom and got incredibly drunk, rendering him useless when the party fought more zombies, finding Lisbet's body atop several tombs.

As they explored upstairs, they run into the death knight once more, who gives them chase! The party ran out the back of the mansion, regrouping in a safer spot. Once they felt they were safe, they started to inspect the roof a little more, discovering that they could climb up and down the chimneys. Laguna fell into boiling hot soup, but as the bird was inured to the elements he found it more an inconvenient location for a spa. Aria got deposited into the pantry, but Cedar somehow found his way into a secret room! He managed to throw down a rope to let Aria climb into it, discovering the inner sanctum. They found the magic circle drawn in chalk, and Aria managed to open the locked cabinet. Now the party has explored nearly all of the mansion, they have two of the black candles, and they know the death knight has the last. They'll have to figure out the mystery of this bandaged man and the death knight before they can have a swanky manor to call their own!

Treasure:
-A book on necromantic alchemic rituals.
-A picture book, of The Little Prince variety.
-30 sp
-An old brown cloak
-A wand of lightning bolt
-A grappling hook
-A rifle (unloaded)
-Herculium potion (Effects unidentified)
-Liquid childhood (Effects unidentified)
-Gift of the Worm potion (Effects unidentified)
-A strange diary that writes the past of the person holding it
-Two black candles

Rumors:
-Odd cultists are gathering in the nearby forest
-A hole has opened up in a large oak tree, with a lot of strange things within
-There's a strange bottle being sold with a sandy coastal beach trapped inside

Crafting:
-Quick-Draw Mechanism for Aria's Sword (Progress: 4/14)
-Hurlant Repair (Progress: 5/7)

Experience:
Aria (lv 3, 8 xp)
Cedar (lv 4, 13 xp)
Celica (lv 3, 7 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 3, 6 xp)
Firion (lv 2, 4 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 9 xp)
Mars (lv 2, 3 xp)
Mia (lv 1, 2 xp)
Nanashi (lv 1, 1 xp)

My Thoughts: My players enjoyed the haunted house a lot more without the giant present. It went from a frantic race against time to a more interesting and thematic haunted house dungeon. I think if a referee wanted to run a haunted house, Waking of Willowby Hall could work wonderfully well if they removed the giant and instead made it so the hall would slowly wake up and get restless as the players explore. As it stands, I'm getting at least three sessions and a player hideout from this module, which I would say is excellent value.