The Haunt 2

Sitting around a communal table in the in Barlumin, Hallos, Xaremon, Dallas, Chibimaru and Thalmor drink their ale and introduce themselves.

After a round of introductions guards storm in and take the members of the table muttering something about the Town Speakers wife, but they are unsure who is who so they take the whole party. Leading them at spear point to a secure carriage, where they are parted from their weapons and ushered into the carriage.

One guard sits on the back while the other drives the team of horses, a short time later they hear rain falling on the roof, which gets progressively heavier, a lightning strike hits something close to them, and the horses break free from the carriage which careens into a ditch on the side of the road. The guards scope out the area seeing some ruins from an old building, one of them heads to investigate if there is a place to shelter, as the rain progresses to hail, which is increasing in size and velocity.

The guard returns and says he has found the entry to the basement, he heads in carrying the chest with the party's possessions, while the remaining guard lets you out of the carriage and up to the house. As you enter the basement you see the first guard face down in a pool of spreading blood, as the remaining guard follows you down and sees this, he turns and runs, barring the door from the outside. Barlumin at this stage decides to take the guards head with them.

As you look around the room you say a hallway about around 5 feet wide containing a set of double doors and opening to what looks like a waiting room. A desk sits at the end and the walls are lined with chairs. 

As the party approach the desk they see a skeleton sitting behind it, a ghostly grin smiling at them. As they get closer again it starts to speak with predictions of their doom, and destruction. Barlumin shoots it with an arrow and its form crumbles into dust which disappears into the floor. 

Xaremon searches the desk to find the drawers locked but a hole kicked into its panel allows access to the drawer, he finds two sheets of parchment inside. As he grabs them, the room starts to spin for him and his vision is flooded with blood which fades to blackness. He then experiences a vision:

A young, blonde girl walks hand in hand with an older, yet beautiful woman. The girl looks troubled as she glances up at the woman.

“Why do we have to go to the hospital, Gertrude?” She asks.

“Your mother,” the elder woman answers. “She’s going to give us a present today.”

“I don’t like the hospital,” the young girl says. “But I do like presents.”

The woman pauses and crouches to look at the young girl in the eyes.

“I know,” the older woman says. “How about I give you a special present today?”

The young girl nods. Gertrude smiles, her face warping momentarily to take on deep wrinkles, sharp teeth, and evil eyes before then returning to normal. Gertrude stands, and the pair resumes their walk.

As he returns to reality shaky on his feet, he sees the papers in his hand, 

The whole party hear a disembodied girls voice say:

"Come Play with me, I bet you cant find all five!"

One of the papers of them shows a patient list and their associated maladies, with names crossed out and Dec. written next to all of them, as he scans the list he sees his own name at the bottom and cause of death listed as Madness. The rest of the party are also on the list.

The other sheet of paper is a child's drawing:

He tucks this away for now and they search the rest of the desk finding little else. 
 

They head back to the doors opening them cautiously, and see a long hallway which opens to three other hallways. They head to the middle and spot some more doors, heading to the eastern set the open them to see three wash basins and a set of blood stained curtains which close off access to another room beyond. They try putting things into the basins, and searching them and as they touch the rancid fetid water inside they are attacked by a swarm of nasty looking insects. They manage to fight their way through them and look at the curtains, Barlumin throws the guards head at them to see if anything happens, and aside from the natural course of gravity pushing the head to the ground with a loud thunk nothing does. Xaremon uses mage hand to push the curtains aside and the party head through.

Inside they see a series of beds and bassinets along the wall. All of them covered in dust and dried blood except for the one at the very end which appears to be covered with wet blood and the sound of a baby crying comes from the bassinet. They navigate a structurally unsound floor, and as they get next to the source of the sound it stops, and a ghastly child rises from the crib. They attack and the child lets out an awful wailing sound, which results in 5 more ghastly babies to rise up out of the cribs. The party fight them off, Dallas using his guns and Chibi using a wall of flames to great effect and they manage to fight of the netherchildren.

They leave here to find a large ward room, with one ghast limbless tied to the bed in the corner, they decide to take pity on the creature ending its life as they get closer to it, it tries to bite at them using the only weapon remaining to it. After it is dispatched the open the set of doors inside the ward to find a stairwell heading down, they head back to the hallway instead to open the remaining doors in there, and are immediately overcome by the smell of vomit, and decide not to enter this room closing the door behind them. 

They head downstairs to a large pool of dried blood on the floor a set of doors to the north, another to the north further along the hallway, and a set to the south with the hallway having an open corner to the south at the far end. 

They head through the first set of doors to the North seeing a room with 4 awful looking creatures standing absolutely still in there, as a rat runs past one of them it swipes a set of wicked claws and cuts the rat in three. 

Xaremon walks up to one of them and it swipes at him but misses and then goes back to remaining still. Xaremon realizes that it will only attack if someone moves fast past it, and Hallos comes in to slowly search the room, amongst the papers on the floor he finds another childs drawing, and as he picks it up has the following vision:

The young, blond girl runs down a hallway towards closed doors. Screaming can be heard from behind the door. She presses

her way through the door, to see a bloody woman lying on the delivery bed, weeping uncontrollably. Two nurses stand at the foot of the bed, one holding the stillborn child. Gertrude stands next to General Montarthas, who sits in a chair, weeping. Seeing the girl run into the room, Gertrude steps toward her.

“Carol Anne,” Gertrude says. “You needn’t be in here child. Come. Let’s go.”

Gertrude takes Carol Anne by the hand and begins to lead her out of the room. Carol Anne looks over her shoulder and sees the nurses pass the baby between each other. The baby’s face is a twisted mask of pain and agony, with bulbous black eyes and a smile filled with clusters of needle-like teeth.

This drawing looks like this:

As he returns to reality they all hear the whimpering cry of a very sad child. 

They exit the room slowly and close the doors, heading instead to the set of doors to the South. 

Opening the doors they find the hospitals chapel. Inside they see an angel begging them to help as it is clearly wounded. As they get close however it changes form into a bright red ooze (adult oblex) and attacks. They fight it off with Xaremon taking some damage but are able to overcome it. Searching the room Hallos sees a small opening at floor level and peers inside, as he does his face is ripped off by a sharp clawed hand and his lifeless body is dragged into the hole. 

They open a set of doors in the chapel which were locked until Xaremon used a metal stake to destroy the locking mechanism, and are confronted by a wave of uneasiness that washes over them as soon as the door is opened. In the hallway are several maggots, which immediately attack, Xaremon leading is bitten by them, and the party back him up as they ultimately overcome all but two of them. The remaining two have fled around the corner, and as Xaremon chases them down, he is overcome by a feeling of apathy as he walks through the hallway. Knowing something has changed in his mood he shouts a warning to the others, and the still make their way to him, and fight off the grey ooze and the remaining maggots.

As the Ooze is destroyed they find a sheet of paper left behind by its melted form, and this time Chibi collects it. The Vision that follows is:

Carol Anne is playing with the lifeless, inert Evil Doll on the floor of the hallway outside the Sanitarium. Gertrude walks up, carrying a swaddled child. Carol Anne looks at Gertrude with tears in her eyes and asks, “Is that my brother?”

“It is,” Gertrude replies. “He did not survive the birth, but I have ways of fixing such problems.”

With that, Gertrude leans down and lays the blanket on the floor, revealing a baby with empty black eyes and a needle-like sharp- toothed grin.

“I promised you a present, didn’t I,” Gertrude asks as she stands up.

Overcome with joy, Carol Anne leans forward and hugs the demon-infant. She then introduces her dolly to the deformed baby while Gertrude watches with a perverse, evil grin.

As the vision fades they are attacked by the possessed doll, which doesn't take kindly to being fireballed by Chibi, and flees the combat, disappearing into the darkness. After the encounter they hear the following again the voice of a disembodied girl "No No No Little brother save those souls for me"

As they approach the area where the doll disappeared they find another child's drawing left behind by the evil entity.

Xaremon picks it up and sees the following:

Carol Anne plays with the lifeless, limp doll in the main hall of Montarthas Manor. Hearing the sound of splashing water come from the second floor, Carol Anne picks up the doll and slowly creeps up the stairs, towards the Guest Wash Room. As she creeps toward the slightly ajar door, the only sounds are her tiny footfalls and her increasingly deep breathing. When she reaches the door, Carol Anne pauses in fear, hugging the Evil Doll close for comfort. After a beat, she pushes the door open, revealing her mother, the woman from the delivery room, lying in a bloody bathtub with slashed wrists. Her eyes, now drained of life, coldly stare back at you.

Afterwards they hear "Tee he hee little brother don't fret, they wont find them all , they wont destroy them and escape, their souls will be ours"

They see the following drawing:

As they are standing outside the remaining set of doors they open them to find a series of what appear to be mental patients and one more of the statue nurses standing still inside the room. As Barlumin enters he is attacked by one of the wretched maniacs and Chibi responds by fireballing the rest of them, They Fight the bleeder nurse down and destroy it. As it dies it drops another child's drawing, Barlumin picks it up and sees the following:

Carol Anne is strapped to a bed in the Sanitarium, her crystal blue eyes wide in pain. A bleeder nurse stands on either side of her, shoving various medical implements and arcane devices into her arms, legs, and chest. Gertrude steps up to the foot of the bed, carrying the lifeless and limp Evil Doll.

“Don’t struggle, Carol Anne,” Gertrude whispers. “This is for the best. You like to play, yes? This will let us play together forever! Don’t you want to play with us... forever?”

As she finishes the last sentence, Gertrude’s attractive face melts away, revealing her true form, that of a twisted hag.

Carol Anne’s face turns motionless as she stops struggling.

“Now you can play forever ... in your new body” the hag cackles.

The doll in Gertrude’s arms slowly begins to move as its head swivels around to look directly at you with cold crystal blue eyes. A murderous and evil grin adorns her face as she begins to sing a haunting lullaby before the vision fades into darkness

As before they hear Carol Annes voice from everywhere and no where saying "Catch me if you can"

At this point they decide to burn the drawings which is anti climatic but causes the doll to crawl across the roof hissing at them before it disappears into the darkness again. 

They hear things moving above them, and decide to head back upstairs. They get to the hallway to find it covered in blood slippery and deep, they start to head through it and are confronted by the doll and a spectral child who attack them, they are able to fight them off and see the doll disappear around the corner, wading through the blood they get to the end seeing that the door to the outside is open. 

They head up expecting to exit into the night but instead find that the building atop the hospital has reconstructed itself. They enter a room with two sofas and Barlumin checks them for change finding 3cp. 

They look out the windows to see the darkness of the night and start to explore the house, Barlumin finding the bathroom overflowing with brown goop, and closes the door. Xaremon explores the sitting room to find two doors behind heavy velvet curtains, as Barlumin returns to the room they decide to try the doors at the same time. 

As they open them an unseen force pushes them outside, and drags the rest of the party out of the doors. 

The building starts to collapse as they sit under a now clear star filled moonless night. 

As they watch the collapsing building they hear screams of children and women, and once the rubble returns to its original places covered in moss and other plant growth, they see two glowing blue eyes blink and then disappear into the darkness laughing like crazy.

This years halloween special was from this module

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/253875/The-Haunt-2