Session 26 - The Haunt One(ish) Shot - PALLAS IS MISSING.

Sitting around a bar in a parallel timeline, was Snowball. Pallas, Baromar and some new friends Nox and Denzel. 

After many rounds of ale Pallas needs to go and perform so relief magic in the restroom, shortly after leaving Nox heads to the same place. Nox returns and after a significant (about an hour and 3 rounds of ale) amount of time had passed a drunk Snowball says, "ugh were is Pallas". Assuming some thing about tiefling anatomy they decided to go and look for him to find some raven feathers and a note saying if you want to see your friend again come to Montarthas Manor. 

The party order another round and decide if they want to head out into the night to find Pallas or just stay in the warm consuming large amounts of ale.

They ask the barkeep, a rough large mane named Romaine about the Manor who tells them its the resident haunted house in these parts and there are stories of lights being on at random times, travelers going missing around there and basically that its been abandoned for a long time. 

He points them to an old man who looks to be about to fall asleep in his mug of ale and the party approach him to find out he is Ian a former grounds keeper at the Manor, he gives them some history about how the manor was built for a Militia General in the area who died some years ago, it was said that there was a curse put on it after his death, and that he thinks more to the point the Generals family are syphoning money away from the estate rather than investing in the upkeep of the manor. 

The party decide its time to go and save Pallas, heading out into a clear cold night with a bright full moon they head down the main road until they find the trail the barkeep told them lead to the Manor. 

Approaching the manor they see an old building made of black stone, and they get the feeling something is not right here the closer they get. 

They head to the front door and through one of the very dirty windows, they see two glowing crystal blue eyes peering at them from the darkness within.

They try to open the doors to find the handle unlocked but the door not budging, Baromar tries kicking the door only to injure himself, Nox checks for magic and finds a strange aura emanating from the doors like they are magically sealed and don't want to be opened. The party to try and knock on them using Mage hand, and as they turn to move back (worrying about the magic on magic possible effects) while their backs are turned to the doors, the slowly swing open, welcoming the party into the darkness beyond. 

Even with their ability to see in the dark they struggle to see between the threshold of each door, Snowball sends in snowy owl who sees an entry way foyer with two large Gargoyle Statues inside, beyond that is a waiting room with a Gryphon statue, a sofa with a child's doll on it,  and a spiral stair case which leads up to a second level and down to a basement. 

They enter the room and as they pass between the Gargoyles they immediately become animated and attack. Denzel slashes at the Gargoyle with his scimitar hitting it twice but it doesn't have the expected effect on the creatures hard stone skin, Baromar runs in climbs the statue and tries to drive an elbow strike into its head, missing completely, trying again he successfully manages to hit it and does some damage, small cracks begin to appear in the statue where his hit landed, he strikes again aiming for the crack and hits managing to do some real damage this time. 

Meanwhile new to the party Nox decides to cast thunderclap to try and take down the statues which he does and also kills snowy owl in the process and hurts snowballs precious ears. Snowball casts shatter into the room which seems to have a good impact on the Gargoyles......and Baromar.

The party continue to fight until there are two piles of rubble in the room. They then continue to explore the mansion. The next room they enter is the waiting room snowy owl showed before his demise. they inspect the Gryphon statue and discover that its raised arm appears to be able to be moved the pull it down and hear the moving of heavy stone off in the distance. 

Leaving that for now they enter the tearoom a large room with tables, a fireplace and a beautiful chandelier for entertaining guests. In the tearoom they discover what looks like a secret door but open to one side, and a set of double doors with windows that they can see lead to a dining room. 

Baromar sticks his head in the fireplace and yells out "PALLAS" and when that doesn't work, Nox casts a firebolt into the fireplace igniting the remains of a fire from very long ago. Investigating the secret door they discover that it leads to a small hallway with another door at the other end. 

Listening at the door snowball hears rapid small footsteps running away and then silence. 

They try to open the other door but there is no way to do this, its a solid slab of stone an no magical or physical attempt is successful. They decide to try the Gryphon statue again and sure enough it opens the door, but closes the door they entered in to begin with. They try to jam open one door and successfully manage to crush a stool from the tearoom and a large chunk of rubble from the Gargoyle statues before realizing this approach will not work. And resulting in a pile of crushed stool and rubble.

The party splits up with Denzel and Nox staying behind to work the Gryphon and Baromar and Snowball exploring the other side. Snowball tries to work out if he could work the mechanism using mage hand but this is not feasible. 

Snowball and Baromar find a large empty room with several doors, the floor is covered in dust but they can see clean paths that run from door to door, as if something has been moving through here. 

The party try hard to work out a way to get everyone through the door and decide to head back to the dining room and sort this out later. 

As they pass through the room the chandelier crashes to the ground, The party stop and wait for an aggressor to appear but when no one shows they search the remains  and find a couple of candles and a lot of broken glass, they take 2 candles and 6 pieces of glass. 

As they approach the dining room doors they feel the temperature of the room get warmer, they open the door to the dining room and as soon as someone enters the room 7 ghosts appear at the table, along with a ghostly feast of food and ale. Baromar sneaks in after filling the dwarven ale mug from the bag of holding with poison wine, and places it on the table which has no effect on the ghosts. Snowball moves the mug around the table with mage hand which also has no effect. 

They decide to talk to the ghosts and as they do the ghost at the head of the table stands up and rushes them "YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE" as his spectral form passes through them all the ghosts disappear and the room is now dark cold and empty.

This large room contains several doorways including a set of double doors that lead off to what looks like another large room. 

The party at this point decide to head back and check out the stairs in the waiting room, they head down to the basement and are faced with an open door, peering inside they see a table and a lot of potions, beakers and materials. They enter the room and as soon as they are all inside the door slams shut and the room starts to fill with poison gas. 

Looking around they find a incomplete flesh golem on a work bench in the middle of the room, a bucket with hands, one with feet and one with brains. They find a scrap of wax parchment with notes and some number sequences on it. 

The parchment has some clues like "the code is in his brain and he will open the door for me"

The party work out the sequence puzzles to determine which hands, feet and brains to use and Snowball picks up a needle and thread to attach the parts to the flesh golem, once the brain is in place Nox uses shocking grasp on the wires attached to its head and it becomes animated, It stands up sniffs the air and moving fast enters a 4 digit code in a number box next to the door which clears the poison gas (which had been at waist height) from the room. 

The party head back up the stairs and as they enter the waiting room again they notice the Childs Doll that had been on the sofa was no longer there Snowball proclaiming "that thing freaks me out"