ErisuAs you step into the wide alcove between the north and south wings of the empty building, you see that small parts of the masonry have begun to fall. A stone gargoyle, one of its wings broken beside it, stares up at you from the left side of the path. From the grass around it, the gargoyle has been there many years.
“That’s the one that killed old Meril,” says Meril softly.
Above, angels and demons alike gather bird droppings in the alcoves. The wind whistles through the open windows, and just for a moment you see something move in the northern balcony.
The movement was in the bay window/balcony attached to Elizabeth’s old library. It wasn’t the ghost yet, but rather birds, which congregate everywhere in the attic but there most of all.
There are three ghosts in the manor: the ghosts of the three sisters. There is also a demon, a shadow summoned years ago by Erisu. Use the shadow and the ghosts for effect. A touch of cold... a discordant melody, objects that move when no one’s looking, shadows at strange angles. The shadow is evil and murderous. It will attempt to kill anyone that walks alone, or perhaps two people on their own, though it will try to avoid anyone that could kill it (it is immune to normal weapons, but not to magic).
The ghosts are neither evil nor murderous, but they are confused and lost. Remember that Melody and Meryl are twins, but only Melody will appear in the daytime. Build up to her true appearance. First the cold and discordant melodies, later accompanied by a dripping noise, later the dripping noise is accompanied by dark spots appearing on the dusty floor, and finally Melody’s ghost.
Once Melody awakes to the presence of others, she’s likely to re-scrawl “despair” in blood on the main stairs.
Don’t forget the magic resistance of the shadow and the ghosts! When Melody is around, especially, magic is likely to fail as often as it succeeds.
It should rain good and hard at some point in the night, just for effect. They may notice the clouds coming in as they go ashore. They will definitely notice them by the time they reach the garden.
Once Erisu notices them, the piano will appear in the Drawing Room. Erisu is likely to wait until evening to make it appear, so that the shadow will be more effective. Erisu will attempt to convince them to “find the secret of the way into the vault”, but it really wants them to find the secret of the way out. When that fails, Erisu will try to draw them into the vault to feed on their despair. If anyone needs to die either in the vault or before they enter the vault, Erisu can (given time) summon demons or raise corpses.
Characters that ask Arn the right questions can hear some of the rumors and legends surrounding the castle’s fall.
He keeps an official bible by his bedside, which he reads each night before sleeping. This bible is one of three Courlander family missals, and contains prayers, masses, and songs as well as biblical remembrances. (The other two missals are at Lisport House in Fork.) The missal was given to Arn by Meril and Eldred’s father.
He may loan the missal to the characters if they are going to the house.
“Take this missal back to my cottage, if you would,” he says. “And here’s a treat for Saul.”
“Saul is a dog that lives down there,” he says. “He’s a good fellow.”
“There is something unhealthy sad in that house. It could wither the unguarded heart. I read a verse from the bible every night when I’m there to drive the desolation from my soul.”
If asked whether he has to worry about night trolls, Arn will reply along the lines of:
“Well... yes.”
“I was going to say that as long as its not in their interests to bother you, they won’t, but that’s not true.”
“I keep the doors locked at night. And I keep the missal on the bedstand and a crossbow on the wall. I mostly worry about Saul, but food’s plentiful enough down there now.”
“You know, when you live out in the middle of nowhere--sorry, sir--like I do, the wild begins to ignore you. I’ve talked with a few of them. They’re an interesting group. But they don’t appear to have any sense of right or wrong, only of pride and greed.”
Arn’s grandmother (God bless her soul) was a teenager when the murders happened. She believed that the Courlanders drew too much attention to themselves by the Colonel’s success on the battlefield.
A medium-sized dog looks up at you. He barks but does not move. He is curly-haired and light, and stands perhaps one and a half feet at the shoulder. His tail wags, and he barks again.
Saul is a water spaniel; he is partly wild and keeps his own company. The dog has survived in the wild by knowing who to trust. It trusts Arn. Whether it trusts the player characters is up to them.
Saul has no specific purpose in this adventure. Use Saul as flavor, perhaps waiting at Arn’s door when they arrive, or showing up at the end of the adventure, or when they stop to have lunch in the garden. Saul could use some grooming; there is a brush in Arn’s cottage.
Saul will not go into the haunted house. Saul will also run away if he sees corpses walking around, even if they have glamer of life.
Saul: (Dog: 1; survival: 7; move: 12; attacks: 1; damage: 1d4; defense: +3)
ErisuErisu Redbreast, an Emotional Demon of despair, is trapped in the Lisport Manor vault. Erisu often takes the form of a robin. Its sigil is a broken eggshell or an empty nest, sometimes with a spider crawling out of it. Erisu gains power from despair.
The Goblin Mage summoned Erisu and sent him to Lisport Manor, where he seduced Melody Courlander following the death of Melody’s fiancé. When Colonel Courlander arrived with two trusted lieutenants, Erisu goaded Melody into stealing her father’s dagger and striking them all. Erisu poisoned the dagger.
Erisu is still trapped in Melody’s body in the vault. Erisu has used Glamer of Life to make Melody’s body appear as it did when she was alive: a beautiful young woman. Note that despite being in a corpse, Erisu is not undead, he’s a demon.
Erisu knows how to get into the vault, but not how to get out of it. It will occasionally goad people into coming into the vault, so as to drive them to despair and increase its power.
It desperately wants to leave, however, and is continually trying to determine how to leave the vault. Erisu will make various suggestions, using surface telepathy, to people in the drawing room who might have some way of helping it out.
* “You might try playing it backwards.”
* “Maybe there’s a secret door on the wall?”
* “Maybe there’s a secret entrance in the corner behind the piano?”
* “Are there any strange circles inscribed anywhere?”
None of these are the answer. Note that while the players will be trying to enter, Erisu is trying to leave. That’s why its suggestions will not be the one it knows brings them into the vault. It will save that for later, when it just wants to mine the characters for their despair. For all of its suggestions, it will try to make them seem “natural”, as if they were the recipient’s ideas.
“There’s a melody that starts... doesn’t that sound familiar?”
It will also act as if it has only been in the vault for a few days or weeks.
“Oh, thank god, you have found me.”
“I ran here to hide when my sister tried to kill me. She was crazy! She tried to kill everyone! I think she did kill them!”
“But I don’t know the way out. I thought I did, but the melody for the way in does not work. I have been here for weeks.”
“I do not know why I live when he died. I don’t know why I live when I neither eat nor drink and my tongue thirsts like fire.”
Erisu Redbreast (Emotional Demon: 8; Evil; Survival 43; Move: 12; Attacks: 1 dagger+1; Defense: +2; Damage: 1d6+1; Special Defense: immune to normal weapons; Magic Resistance: 8)
Demonic powers: Glamer of life, summon unnamed demons, surface telepathy, raise skeleton/corpse, familiar, familiar’s eyes, Long Hall of Despair, poison
Demonic power points: 20+ (can store up to 24 points and have up to 32 points in play at any one time)
Intelligence 13, Charisma 16, Wisdom 11
Erisu has 20 points at the start of the adventure, but may have used some or gained some depending on the characters’ actions.
Erisu carries the dagger that Melody used to kill her family. It is a +1 dagger. He’ll likely poison it if he expects company. Remember that using poison will require a called shot. Also, because Melody is dead and mostly a desiccated corpse, it is easier for Erisu to hide the weapon. Attempts to perceive a hidden weapon on Melody are at a penalty of two.
If Erisu fears defeat, it can pretend to die at an opportune blow and let the Glamer of Life fade.
“Why have you done this to me?” she cries, and she crumples to the floor. Her eyes stare dully toward you from the ground as her body decomposes before your eyes.
Erisu almost never reveals itself as a demon. It waits for the victim to solve the puzzle or for despair to set in when the victim realizes they’re going to die. Either end is a win for the demon, since it either gets to escape the vault or feed on despair.
Erisu can enchant a blade with demonic poison for two demonic power points. This is how Melody killed everyone in the house except the one servant who survived. The poison is strength 5 (level minus three), and causes 2d6 points damage per round. It lasts for 80 minutes (level times ten).
The walls loom inwards and the hallway buckles beneath you. You are in a dense city, its ancient walls lurching inwards. Dull eyes stare out of tiny, misshapen windows.
Sending a victim into the Long Hall costs Erisu four demonic power points and requires that Erisu touch the victim. The victim is allowed a Willpower roll to avoid the effect, but at a penalty of Erisu’s level. Once affected, the victim crumples to a fetal position and becomes insensible, trapped in a mental nightmare of twisting, looming barriers filled with everything that has ever caused them despair or might cause them despair.
The halls will appear differently to different people. To a person raised in the country, it might appear as in the flavor text above. To a person raised in the city, the halls might appear as looming trees, with dark, sinister branches grasping inwards.
Things inside the Long Hall can range from replaying despairing scenes from the character’s life over and over with more and more despairing outcomes; to such strange scenes as their dead grandmother bringing them tea and cookies and berating them for everything bad they’d done since she died--while holding a bloody butcher knife between her teeth.
If they try to get out of the Hall this is a Charisma contest between the victim and Erisu. Each attempt takes one round in the real world. Erisu can only send one victim at a time into the Long Hall.
Erisu gains one point per day of despair per despairing person. It currently has twenty points.
As an eighth level emotional demon, Erisu can have up to 32 points in play at any one time. It currently has the Gargoyle (5 points), the four Crowns of Eyes (2 each, for 8 points), the shadow (1 point), and the Glamer of Life (1 point), for a total of 15 points in play. If Erisu does other things, such as raising Eldred as a walking corpse or sending a victim to the Long Hall of Despair, you’ll need to make sure that Erisu’s total points in play do not exceed 32, and that the total spent after the adventure starts don’t exceed its current demonic power total.
|
Power |
Cost |
Running total |
|
Gargoyle |
5 points |
5 points |
|
Crowns of Eyes |
8 points |
13 points |
|
Glamer of Life |
1 point |
14 points |
|
Shadow |
1 point |
15 points |
|
Long Hall of Despair |
4 points |
19 points |
|
Corpse Eldred |
2 points |
21 points |
|
Eldred’s Glamer of Life |
2 points (includes independence) |
23 points |
|
Poisoned dagger |
2 points |
25 points |
|
Up to four other corpses |
2+ points each |
If Erisu’s power in play exceeds its limit, Erisu will need to drop some of the powers, such as letting the victim out of the Long Hall, or letting Melody’s Glamer of Life drop, or Eldred’s glamer and raising.
Erisu summoned a shadow years ago to keep his secret safe. The shadow strangled Meril I; Erisu animated Meril I’s corpse and had it push the stone gargoyle off of the roof, and then arrange itself underneath the fallen stone as if it had been struck by it. This demon waits in the attic for orders from Erisu. Erisu can see what is happening through the shadow.
Shadow: (Demon: 1; Moral Code: Evil; Survival: 7; Movement: 12; Attacks: cold grab or suffocation; Damage: d6; Defense: +9; Special Defenses: immune to normal weapons, -10 to perceive in shadows; Magic Resistance: 1)
Suffocation requires a called shot. If successful, the victim is allowed an Evasion roll, or the shadow has them by the neck and automatically hits every round thereafter.
Erisu may also summon other demons or animate available corpses, if necessary. If the shadow is destroyed, Erisu will need to summon another demon or animate a corpse before it can perceive what is happening beyond the vault. It will still be able to use surface telepathy to communicate with anyone outside the vault, but will not be able to see or hear what is happening.
The three daughters are trapped in the house by the monstrous nature of their murder (or crime) and the lingering demonic power of Erisu. If Erisu is banished or killed, the ghosts will be freed.
If anyone attacks Melissa or Meryl, they are likely to cower in fear, crying “Melody! Why?” before fading back through the walls.
Remember that Meryl and Melody are twins, and sixteen years old. Meryl will be submissive and meek; Melody will be frightening and crazy. Meryl appears healthy. Melody appears thin and gaunt.
The first ghost they see is likely to be Melody’s, though they might feel the presence of someone next to them as they look out the window at the garden, or surprise Meryl in the twin’s bedroom or her mother’s bedroom. They might see faces--Melody’s, Meryl’s or Melissa’s--peering out of the upstairs windows if they spend any amount of happy time in the gardens. Joy is not something the ghosts have seen much of this past century.
When Melody’s ghost is around, they’ll hear a faint cacophonous music from far away.
You hear a strange noise far to the south. It sounds like a piano, like someone clumsily moving a piano. Notes with no melody over and over, very faintly.
Second, they’ll hear a dripping noise before they hear the music.
You suddenly realize that you’ve been hearing a dripping noise from up the stairs. It gets louder, as if it were approaching, a loud liquid plop on the stone floor. It stops for a moment. In the silence you hear that faint cacophonous melody as of someone banging away randomly at a piano. And then the noise fades, and you hear the plop-plop-plop disappear into the distance.
Finally, the music and dripping noise will be followed by Melody’s appearance. Remember that the melody only occurs if the piano is still in the vault and Erisu is playing it.
You hear that faint, cacophonous melody again, at the barest edge of your hearing, and then an out of sync beat, like dripping water. A dark spot appears on the floor, oily, black, with a hint of scarlet; again, a few feet away; and a few feet away. The line of dripping liquid follows the music past you and into the hallway beyond where it and the melody fades into the distance.
Meryl and Melissa will appear walking down hallways at night, or peering around corners day or night. Meryl and Melissa can also affect small objects, moving them slightly. As a phantasm, Melody has even more power to affect the material world.
They might also see a face peering down at them momentarily from a window while they’re outside in the garden.
The ghosts have the run of the house, but cannot enter the vault except by going along with a living person playing the piano. They will not do so, however, unless convinced to do so.
Melody can appear day or night. Meryl and Melissa can only appear at night.
Meryl Courlander: Apparition: 1; survival: 5 ; nocturnal; movement: 20; attacks: none; defense: +2; special defense: immune to non-magical weapons, space-shifting; special attacks: cold fear; magic resistance: 5
Melissa Courlander: Apparition: 1; survival: 7 ; nocturnal; movement: 20; attacks: none; defense: +2; special defense: immune to non-magical weapons, space-shifting; special attacks: cold fear; magic resistance: 5
Melody Courlander: Phantasm: 3; survival: 16; movement: 20; attacks: none; defense: +2; special defense: immune to non-magical weapons, space-shifting; special attacks: cold fear, poltergeist power, magic resistance: 10
Melody’s ghost is the most troubled and the most active of the three. Erisu seduced Melody into killing everybody. It used its telepathic abilities to undermine every belief and love she held. Her murders allowed Erisu to take control of her body. But when it took control, Melody understood what happened. She went wild, and took Erisu into the vault, and refused to leave.
Melody’s ghost carries a dripping dagger, dropping blood on the floor. When she is invisible, the blood simply appears on the floor, blotting the dust and moving with her.
If they follow Melody’s ghost, it will turn, crying, and flail at them in self-loathing.
A thin, gaunt, teenage girl walks around the corner in a torn and tattered nightgown, crying, holding a bloody knife out in front of her as if it were the most disgusting worm in the world. Tears mingle with blood, falls from the knife, and splatters on the floor.
She looks at you, and her nightgown billows up like a robin’s wings, launching her towards you.
Melody is thin and pale from starvation. That’s how she died in the vault. She will try to attack once on her way past any offending characters.
Melody retains her paranoia from life.
1. Her older sister never liked her. That’s why she named her son after her twin.
2. Her father deliberately put Alan in danger so that he could force her to marry one of his lieutenants.
Melody will, if possible, write “DESPAIR” in huge, bloody handprints on a wall, probably the main stairs.
As a third-level phantasm, Melody has the poltergeist power and the cold fear power.
There are two means, within the adventure, of contacting the ghosts: writing in the diary, and playing the piano. Depending on the abilities and magic items that the characters have, they may also have other means of contacting spirits. Monks with spiritual fields, for example, may be able to contact the ghosts.
With the right calmness of tone and clarity of words, the characters can ground the ghosts back into reality. Depending on what they write, a Charisma roll might be necessary to succeed.
If the player characters write in Melody’s diary, Melody, and eventually the other ghosts, will write back, usually in the middle of the night or several hours later. If they leave the diary lying around, there will be entries from December 26. The most detailed entries will be found in the drawing room or the twin’s bedroom. If the diary is left alone it is likely to be moved to one of those rooms by the ghosts.
Entries will be chaotic and random at first, things like:
“Is the war back on?” (Meryl)
“Where is Meril?” (Melissa)
“Where is my son?” (Melissa)
If one of the characters plays the piano, this will bring the ghosts of Meril and Melissa.
You feel the temperature drop; the hair on the back of your neck rises. You feel a cold presence sitting on either side of you at the piano.
The first few times this happens, they’ll need to withstand the cold fear that all ghosts have when they manifest. The ghosts will play the piano in response to any questions at first, lightly, old melodies.
If someone continues playing with them, they can eventually be coaxed to appear more substantial, and to speak. Meril especially will be very eager and bubbly, and will try to sit next to the piano player on the bench. She’s a confused sixteen-year-old girl who has just found a friend. Remember that both ghosts are confused, they don’t know what’s happened to them, they do know that Melody did something awful, and they know that none of the rest of their family is around. They have little sense of time and still think it’s a day or so after Melody’s attack. Melissa wants her husband and her son. Meril wants her mother and father.
Melissa Alegar was twenty years old when her sister murdered her. She was married to John Alegar and had one son: Meril Alegar (the current Meril’s great grandfather). Melissa is worried most about her son and husband. She sees her husband John Alegar in Meril III, and will mistake him for her husband. Melissa can affect the material world but is a less active ghost than Meryl. She will likely write, or join at the piano, only after Meryl does.
Meryl Courlander is Melody Courlander’s twin sister. They were sixteen years old when they died. Meryl can affect the material world, moving very small objects slightly, or picking up a pen and writing with it, or playing the piano.
You walk along an overgrown path southwest, around low hills dotted with buckthorn, boxwood, and wild bramble in flower. After a quarter of an hour you arrive at the gates of Courlander cemetery.
Headstones and monuments line the sides of hills, overlooking a small river running southeast.
This is the Lisport family cemetery. All Courlanders mentioned in the text are buried here, except for Melody (whose body was never found) and Aaron (who died with the Astronomers). Elizabeth Mardel is buried here, as is Alan, though theirs are makeshift graves. John Alegar and his descendants are also buried here, including all of Meril’s immediate ancestors.
John Alegar was responsible for the tombstones for all those who died in 1898 , as well as young Elroy who died at age five. John chose the quotations for all except Lady Melissa and Lord Courlander, who had already chosen their quotations.
Clumped together on one hill are the tombstones of those who died in 1898 as well as Elroy’s immediate parents. There is a small rounded pillar marking his parent’s tombs, but no such markers for any later tomb. Up to Elroy Courlander I, each man who served as Earl has the Lisport seal on their marker. The seal does not include the melody; this was added in the late 1800s.
1. Here lies Elroy Courlander 1811-1882
2. Here sleeps Emily Courlander 1815-1885
3. Here sleeps Lady Melissa Courlander “Walk the golden streets” 1856-1898
4. Here lies Elroy Courlander, Colonel, Lord of Lisport “Men of courage, be strong” 1849-1898
5. Here sleeps Elizabeth Mardel “Wisdom is better than weapons of war” 1845-1898
6. Here sleeps Melissa Alegar “The desert cries in sorrow” 1878-1898
7. Here sleeps Meryl Courlander “Join in a song with sweet accord” 1882-1898
8. Here lies Alan Mardel “The end of the upright is peace” 1876-1898
If this is the first time that they have seen the name “Mardel”, remember that any sorcerors might have heard of this family, and that there is a tradition of sorcery in the family.
And just a few steps away are the post-war tombstones. The tradition of including quotations ended with John Alegar’s death, and the tombstones became much simpler (and less expensive). The Lisport seal is not on the tombstones of post-war Earls; if asked, Meril will say that they stopped because there are no earls in Lisport manor. Meril won’t mention that it also helps that it’s less expensive.
1. Here lies Elroy Alegar “Precious in the eyes of the Lord” 1917-1923
2. John Alegar 1868-1925
3. Meril Alegar 1895-1927
4. Mary Elena Alegar 1890-1972
5. Eldred Alegar 1940-1982
6. Miriam Alegar 1941 - 1988
7. Meril Alegar II 1915-1990
Servants from the manor, including the Gallades, are buried in the church graveyard south of town.
Arn Gallade lives simply. His one-room cottage contains a bed, a small wood stove for both cooking and heating, and a small table with a single chair by it. Another chair sits in the corner by the bed.
Ivy and weeds drape bone-white columns that flank the path leading away from the house towards a small pool. Rising from the pool an imposing statue of a man, left hand on sword, faces away, gazing west, his right hand most likely shading his eyes. His suit is rich but functional, hard leather and trousers, with high boots striding forward.
Waterbugs flit across the pool. Crickets chirp in the grass, and every time the sun pokes out from the clouds you hear the lazy buzzing of flies. Dark clouds are gathering in the north, and a chill wind blows downriver. A handful of walnut trees dot the garden, and oak trees rise up beyond the hedge.
The garden behind the house is mostly overgrown. The hedges, trees, and vines run rampant. But Arn does keep it up as well as he can. He cleans the pool there regularly, cleans the benches, removes walnuts in the autumn before they can take root, and keeps the flowers trim and proper. One of the few times he goes into the house is to bring flower bulbs into the cellar for winter.
The wide path down the center of the garden area is flanked by Roman columns. The center of the pool has a statue of one of the early Courlanders. It was built back when this was the front of the manor.
Each of the garden areas has a statue of an angel, holding water buckets, playing harps, singing from a book, doing the things that angels do in gardens.
The semicircle around the garden is a tall hollow hedge. It can be entered at the top and at the top ends, as well as at the end of the two upper paths. If it were better kept, it would make a nice, romantic tunnel for walking, but it’s a bit overgrown today.
Thin branches from an arch into a bright green tunnel of leaves and twigs. Sunlight shines in myriad tiny shafts through the cramped and overgrown interior.
Except for the areas just in front of the windows, the garden is a grassy lawn. Beneath the windows, however, flowers grow, still tended by the Lisport family’s servant, Arn.
While here, characters might see ghostly faces in the twin’s room, if the ghosts are appearing now.
For the most part, encounters on the grounds will be the same as anywhere else in Lisport. Once Erisu is aware of them, it may call some demons (or undead, if corpses are available) to attack.
There are fewer encounters within Lisport Manor, but those that are, will be of the same sort as outside the manor, until Erisu becomes aware of their presence. The bodies of those killed in Melody’s attack have returned to the manor. The skeletons of those who died in the house after it was abandoned will also attack relentlessly.
Melody, Melissa, and Meryl will appear as ghosts (Melody as a phantasm, the others as apparitions) at various points. Remember that Melody and Meryl are twins.
Lisport Manor is in pretty good shape for a house that hasn’t seen much upkeep in over a hundred years. However, it is beginning to show its age. Wood is warping slightly, beams are just a little out of true, and pieces of masonry have fallen to the ground. The floors creak loudly, especially upstairs, and the wind will raise moans and low whistles.
The kitchen was a separate building near the scullery, and is destroyed.
The first floor has its ceilings 21 feet high. The second floor has its ceilings 12 feet high--which means that the first floor’s great hall and chapel have ceilings 33 feet high. The third floor has 9-foot high rafters, and about six feet of space between the rafters and the apex of the roof.
Many of the windows on the west side of the house are walk-in bay windows.
All of the floors are covered in dust, especially near windows. Arn maintains the gardens, but nobody cleans the house. An easy perception roll will let them track the faded steps of Eldred and Arn. Anything, including the player characters, walking through this house will leave tracks. This includes mice, insects, and walking corpses, but not ghosts or shadows.
The huge oaken doors creak loudly as you pull them open. Light shines in through the open doors into a dark foyer. Eight yards down a smaller pair of arched doors lead deeper into the manor; just beyond the short foyer, a hallway leads left and right to each wing.
(Morning: Sunlight streams in through the front window.)
The piano in the southeast corner is almost never there. Melody brought it in when she hid in the vault, and it stayed there until Erisu began luring people in to feed his hunger for despair. He did this to Eldred, for example. He tried to do it to their great grandfather, Meril Alegar I, but Meril I was too frightened to play the piano. Erisu summoned a shadow to strangle Meril I before their great grandfather could let the secret out.
When the characters first arrive, until Erisu notices them the piano will be flipped to the vault side. Erisu (as Melody) plays the piano incessantly, looking for the right melody to leave. It has long since left off recognizable melodies and plays harsh, discordant melodies. The melodies will be faintly discernable around Melody’s ghost.
If they get to the drawing room before Erisu is aware of them, the piano will be in the vault. As soon as Erisu realizes that someone is in the house, it will knock Eldred’s body off of the piano bench. Five minutes later, the piano will flip back to the drawing room.
If the piano is in the drawing room, the wall near the piano will appear much less faded than the rest of the room: it hasn’t been in the sun nearly as much.
If Erisu discovers that Meril is Eldred’s brother, it will raise Eldred’s body as a walking corpse as soon as possible. It will do so before returning the piano to the drawing room. If Erisu has already returned the piano to the drawing room, Erisu will return it to the vault as soon as no one is looking, to ensure that he has a life-like Eldred when Meril enters.
If Erisu finds out that they have a missal full of songs, especially if it finds out that the missal was the Courlander family missal, it will almost certainly begin plotting to kill the characters. If it can’t safely do so, then it won’t, but it would be nice if no living person knew that Melody Lisport was still alive and had exited the vault. It will use summoned creatures first, as it can act scared at first and hide behind the big strong fighter.
Two thin oaken doors rise into an arch, and over the arch are engraved the words “Marching to Zion”.
The doors open to an empty room; sunlight streams in a multitude of beams through shuttered windows illuminating a marble altar in the east end of the room.
Empty of anything worthwhile. Sunlight and moonlight shine through the empty windows. But the stone altar is still there. The family still uses this chapel for important ceremonies, such as marriages.
The top of the altar is marked with the ancient symbols “alpha” and “omega”, which is common for altars.
There is a small closet, empty, underneath the stairs.
(Evening: The great old hall is brilliantly lit by the afternoon/evening sun.) It is over thirty feet to the ceiling, decorated with vines and circles. About twenty feet up, a balcony and railing runs along the north and east.
(Evening: Light streams in from several windows.) Through the windows you can see a green garden, its hedges still trimmed after all these years.
This area is more of a wide alcove off of a hallway than a room of its own. A thin pair of double doors leads to the outside. You can see a small ramshackle building with a stone chimney, partially crumbled, through the wide window next to the door. A long stone countertop runs along the north wall beneath the window. A small wooden door in the southwest corner lies ajar, but all that escapes is darkness.
The small ramshackle building is the kitchen. All wood except for the oven and chimney, it has not survived as well as the manor. Much of the roof has fallen in on the single-room building. It’s about twenty feet by thirty feet, and about forty feet from the side of the manor house.
This cramped, three-foot-wide stairway leads down into a dry, cool room covered in cobwebs ancient and new. Dust rises from the dirt floor as you step from the stairs into the room. The walls to your left are hard clay. The walls to your right and forward are wood, with thick beams going from the ceiling into the grey floor. A few dried husks of ancient roots lie scattered amidst fallen shelves. Dry wooden doors stand partially open to your right and forward.
Parts of the cellar have been cleared away, and if they look before they trample it they’ll see that someone was here recently. Eldred looked around for a secret vault here in the basement, but didn’t find anything. It’s typical of Eldred that he didn’t close the door behind him when he left.
There are three rooms down here, each separated by wooden walls. They enter the main room, which was for grains, oft-needed vegetables, and fruits. Off to the right is the wine cellar. Forward is the root cellar. The main room and the wine cellar are each about ten by twelve feet. The far room is more of a large closet at five by seven feet. Only a few dried husks of ancient roots remain, and they’re on the floor amidst the torn-down wooden shelves.
The wine cellar is empty. Meril will know that all of the wine left when they returned after the war was brought to Fork.
You climb the ancient marble stairs. The high morning sun shines brightly into your face. You are momentarily blind as you round the corner away from the sun...
If they are climbing the stairs behind the Great Hall, and the first character makes a Perception roll, they’ll notice an old scribbling on the wall.
...but something captures your attention to your left. Something is there, a pattern on the wall, scratched in dust and faint with time. As your eyes adjust to the light, it coalesces into form. Behind the dust and years, you barely make out one word: “despair”.
Otherwise, they’ll just see the upstairs.
...until a long iron railing fades into view overlooking the tiled and marbled ballroom you just walked across a few minutes ago.
Don’t worry if no one notices the writing, Melody will be emphasizing it in blood later on.
Birds disturbed by your presence, fly through the window and up the stairs, out of sight.
If Erisu hasn’t had the shadow move yet, it will be in the storage spaces here, and will act autonomously. It will tend not to attack groups, but if anyone lags behind it is likely to attack them, and then flit away as soon as assistance arrives. It will avoid sorcerors and people with magical weapons to the best of its ability to perceive them. However, don’t forget that it has magic resistance 1. There is a 1 in 20 chance that magic will simply not work around it.
On either side of the attic, slightly hidden doors open out to the outer walkway. The railing of the walkway is the gargoyles and angels visible from the front of the house. This thin walkway makes a perfect place for the shadow to ambush a lone intruder.
There are also ladders to the roof on either side of the walkway.
The narrow stairs creak loudly as you step slowly up into the high room. Paint flakes from dry wood on the stairs and wall. You hear the fluttering of birds roused by your presence, and as you reach the landing you see them escaping the rafters into a small alcove to the north. Shelves line the walls, and light shines through from the alcove.
The birds are flying out of the window, but the window isn’t immediately visible from their vantage.
Birds live in the rafters, and spiders, bees, and mice. There is dust everywhere along the beams, and nests of all kinds in the nooks and crannies where beam meets beam and beam meets wall.
In the rafters of Elizabeth Mardel’s study is the solved version of the Erisu ritual. She had it in her hands when she died, and a bird brought it up into a nest. A character who looks at the rafters can make a Perception roll to see a piece of paper in a nest. Anyone who actually climbs into the rafters and looks will find it.
The paper is old and cracked with age. There’s a magic circle, and a sigil of some kind in one of the corners. Scrawled in faded, wide ink is “M back corn”, but the “n” trails off as long as the rest of the letters combined.
The Mardels were a magical family of minor repute, and Elizabeth Mardel maintained that tradition. Ostensibly, Aunt Mardel’s room is small, a perfect spinster’s attic room. There is very little indication that she was a sorceress. Aunt Mardel’s magical library and laboratory are in a hidden part of the upper floor, created as a permanent lost corner.
Elizabeth Mardel was aware that there was a shadow over the family, but was unaware of the source. She has extensive notes on demonology as well as spell notes. See the appendix sections for details.
Someone doing a close examination of the walls might notice that the northwest corner is in better shape than the rest of the walls.
In the northwest corner the paint runs in a thin unbroken line from ceiling to floor, where all around it is chipped and flaked.
That’s because the northwest corner is the entrance to Elizabeth’s lost corner. The trigger to entering it is to back into it. This is the meaning of Elizabeth’s scrawled message to her sister on the solved Erisu ritual.
If they don’t have those clues, it is unlikely that they’ll figure out how to enter the room, and that’s fine. Entering this room gives them a lot of information, but it isn’t necessary. That said, leaning against a corner is not a totally uncommon thing to do. If the characters hold long conversations in Elizabeth’s bedroom, give the bored ones a chance, depending on the situation, to lean against the northwestern corner. If they do, they’ll need to make an Evasion roll or fall backwards into the room. They’ll fall fully into the room--there is no half in/half out of a lost corner.
To those watching them, especially as they’re likely to be watching them only tangentially , it will look like the falling character has fallen down three stories, except that the corner should have been in the way.
If the character makes their Evasion roll, they’ll be momentarily off-balance and realize that there’s nothing there behind them.
There is a writing table against the wall, and a bookshelf next to it. The walls of this small room are stone embedded in hard clay. A strong light permeates the room, illuminating the papers on the table next to pen and ink that appear as if they were left yesterday.
The room is eight feet square. There is an ink blot on the paper just below the writing pen.
Leaving the room is easy--there is no lock on leaving this lost corner like there is in the drawing room. They just need to walk into the southeast corner of the magical laboratory; they can leave whether they walk into it backwards or not.
The papers on the table are Elizabeth Mardel’s demonology notes. They are open to a page of word after word, Elizabeth’s attempt to decipher the anagrams on the Erisu ritual. Both the paper and the ink on the table is dry.
Her bookshelf contains her earlier notes from 1881-1891, Aaron Courlander’s letters, and several books. Suggested books:
1. Lawrence Bisson’s The Residual Auras of Human Writing
2. John Isaacs’s Metaphysical Magic
3. Michael Berkman’s The Mathematics of Temple Architecture
4. Kenworth Shirley’s Divine Ratios of Geometry
5. Herbal Lore of the Celts
6. The Biblical Remembrance of Oren Thomas
7. Strange Tales for Dark Nights
Strange Tales provides useful information about demons couched in allegory and parable. As a mojo resource, it has a rating of 5.
The narrow stairs creak loudly as you step slowly up into the high room. Paint flakes from dry wood on the stairs and wall. You hear the fluttering of birds roused by your presence, and as you reach the landing you hear them flying away through the rafters.
There are two sections of the basement: storage areas, including an underground pantry, and a small storage room. Both have little in them, as they were looted by people running from the goblins, then by the goblins, and then by vagabonds after the war.
In the vault today are Erisu (as Melody), and five corpses: Eldred Alegar II who died here last week, a soldier named Tom Romer who died here only a little after the war, a vagabond named Andrew Ingerson who died here thirty years ago, a merchant named Donald Gemmon who died here ten years ago, and a thief named Scott Preston who died here four years ago. Erisu can raise these corpses as undead at whatever level it wants (given the available demonic power points).
Eldred’s despair was a feast for Erisu, which is why the ghosts and creatures are more dangerous now than they’ve been in years.
The vault is an other-worldly, ethereal place, created as a permanent lost corner. The walls, ceiling, and floor appear as stone, but that is an illusion. They are the edges of this pocket world and thus indestructible.
Melody died in the vault. Her body is still possessed by and animated by Erisu.
The vault is ten feet wide, ten feet tall, and ten yards deep. There are three rows of columns, two columns each, in the vault. Each column is decorated with faces, vines, and flowers.
The piano swings into the wall--and disappears into it.
You feel a momentary dizziness as the piano pivots around the corner. It stops only halfway around the circle. and the air goes dry and musty.
If they have light: The wall is now ornate stone, and strange faces leer at you mouths agape.
If they’re in darkness: Total inky blackness surrounds you like a cloak. In almost total silence your own breathing echoes like a storm wind.
The vault is entered by playing the chorus to the Courlander family song while bearing the family seal, in the southeast corner of the room and facing that corner. The family crest has a single measure from a melody on it, one popular in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The chorus from that song will send the player and anyone touching the player into the vault. Normally it is played on the piano, but it can be played on any instrument in that corner, or even sung. It’s an easy enough song--an easy Agility roll will do, if they know it (remember that Melody knows it, and so does Melissa, and can help them if convinced).
The song is an obscure tune from the mid-nineteenth century, “I Saw Three Roses”. The Lisport coat of arms is the first and second lines from the third verse.
Chorus:
I saw three roses on the sidewalk,
Someone left them there, but why?
I saw three roses on the sidewalk,
And everyone slowed down to pass them by.
I saw a desert cry in sorrow.
I saw a river rush from stone.
I heard a mountain howl in anguish.
I heard that rushing river moan.
Chorus
I saw the ocean burn in anger.
I saw the flames reach for the sky.
And in that boiling sea of anger,
I felt the tender forest sigh.
Chorus
When will we learn love from hatred?
Why can’t we tell truth from lies?
How can our children learn to cherish,
What we destroy? What we let die?
Chorus
The seal may be found on Meril’s ring, on the missal’s first page and might also be able to be drawn by a character with artistic talent.
If they immediately start playing the tune again after entering, Erisu (as Melody) will tell them not to bother:
“I’ve been trying that for days,” you hear a soft female voice say from the darkness behind you. “I don’t think it works in here.”
If no one is at the piano and no one and nothing is in the vicinity of the piano, it will flip back around on its own after five minutes, returning to the drawing room. The piano will not flip back to the drawing room while anyone is in the vicinity of the piano.
There is a secret means of returning the piano back into the vault if someone gets stuck in the vault and the piano is in the drawing room. There is a flute which, if played, returns the piano to the vault (the flute could be used to leave if the right melody is played on it). The piano will not return if anyone is in the Drawing Room. (Erisu has found this secret, and plays the piano constantly.)
Normally, however, the piano is the exit in the same manner as it is the entrance, except that the melody is different. If the right melody is played on the keyboard while it is in the vault, then the piano will flip around and whoever is at the bench will back in the drawing room. Only someone on the bench or touching the floor will come through.
Melody didn’t know the exit melody: she had never heard it played.
The exit song is number 250 from the Courlander family missal, “We’re Marching to Zion”. There are 325 songs in the missal; it would take about twenty-eight hours to play them all; if they play them in order it will be twenty hours before they get to number 250. As for the entrance song, playing it successfully is an easy Agility roll for someone who can read music. Remember the group effort rules, if two or more characters have similar musical skill rolls.
The lyrics to “We’re Marching to Zion” are:
Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known.
Join in a song with sweet accord,
Join in a song with sweet accord.
And thus surround the throne,
And thus surround the throne.
Chorus:
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heavenly King,
But children of the heavenly King
May speak their joys abroad,
May speak their joys abroad.
Chorus
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavenly fields,
Before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets,
Or walk the golden streets.
Chorus
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground,
We’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground,
To fairer worlds on high,
To fairer worlds on high.
Chorus
The trigger is the melody to the chorus.
A pile of money and gems surrounds one box. This box has recently been emptied so as to make room for Eldred’s body.
The vault contains 17,215 shillings worth of coins and 4,125 shillings worth of jewelry, including thirteen gold Courlander rings. These rings are worth 150 shillings each and are marked with the Courlander wheel and circle. The family gave such rings to strong allies and heroes.
There is also a magic sword, and of course the magic dagger of Melody/Erisu. Elizabeth Mardel created these magical weapons while at Brigit’s Springs. Both the sword and the dagger bear the Lisport family seal. The sword is a +2 long sword. The dagger is a +1 dagger. The sword exhibits its magical bonus when wielded by someone with the moral code Good (including Ordered and Chaotic Good).
The sword is in a special box carved from maple, and locked. The box was specially designed to hold the sword and the dagger. The key is long gone.
There is also a small box, velvet-lined, with three vials in it. These are the waters Elizabeth drew from the springs at Brigit’s springs. One, marked with the Elvish symbols for “ra” (short for “rael”, or serenity), is a healing spirit of fourth level, which will manifest as restore vitality. Another, marked with the Elvish symbols for “ar” (short for “arlie”, or understanding) is a peace spirit of fourth level, which will manifest as understanding. Finally, there is a vial marked with the Elvish symbols for “ma” (short for “madra” or making), that is an earth spirit of fourth level, which will manifest as clay wheel. A prophet can control which manifestation these spirits take, as normal.
If the characters have been especially honorable and friendly, Meril may offer to loan them the use of the sword when they go on adventures.
Erisu has summoned some demon servants to protect himself from anyone who comes into the vault. There are four Crowns of Eyes and one Gargoyle. This cost it 13 demonic power points.
Erisu will keep these creatures hidden until they are needed.
Small blobby creatures jerkily rush around the old statues and piles of treasure. These rust-red craggy creatures rush and jump around you on three bird-like legs, a crown of eyes on stalks around the tops of their heads.
4 Crowns of Eyes (Demon: 2; Survival:6, 9, 12, 14; Move: 20; Attacks: 1; Defense: +6; Damage: 1d4; Special Attack: explosion, grip; Special Defense: eyes, blunt weapons, heat; Magic Resistance: 1)
The crusted stone wall seems to tear itself apart. The gargoyle’s head in the center grunts. Arms pull out of the stone, and legs, and the grey horned creature trails rocks and mortar as it trods toward you.
Gargoyle (Demon: 5; Survival 33; Move: 10/12; Attacks: 2 or weapon; Defense: +8; Damage: 1d6/1d6 or weapon; Special Defense: immune to normal weapons; Magic Resistance: 3)