(I'm not a fan of party splits, so everyone has to follow Chokahr. There's still a north room on the 3rd floor that has not been explored)

This attic hall is bare, choked with dust and cobwebs.
There are 3 doors, south, west and north. The north door is held shut with a padlock.
I do believe Ceila found a key earlier???

You can hear unintelligible chanting coming from that room. the voices are the kids you met outside the house.

“Watch your back,” Jia said playfully to Vyktor, as Chokhar proceeded upstairs. She batted away the cobwebs in the hall and took note of the doors. Jia recognized the voices behind the farthest door, too. “Rose & Thorn. Our helpless wards found their way home and to their playroom, perhaps?”
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Wed 17 Mar 2021.

"And not nearly so helpless," said Ceila.  She handed Jun the key she's found.

"I want my sword and shield ready when the door's opened," she explained.  "But we need to see what's happening in there."

“I will abide by the will of the majority.” Jun Jia accepted the key with a questioning glance at the men. “Would you look at the other rooms first, or the one where the children are?“

"I don't care about more dust and empty rooms. Those ones seem lively enough, maybe they will have some insights for us." Chokahr's eyes squinted in the dark attic, and he slowly took out his weapon. "Tell me about those kids you met, I don't remember anything like this."

“No, you did not encounter the children. We met them in the woods, while you gnawed...meat in their dining room.” Jia’s nose wrinkled with her mention of how they’d met. “The sister, Rose, told us that their parents ordered them to remain in the attic. She claimed that they heard screams, and said, ‘It’s the baby’s fault.’ Then, they seemed to vanish like the other spirits of this house.”

When Jia  finished recounting the abbreviated tale of Rose & Thorne, she looked at Ceila and Vyktor. “They vanished before we entered the House. Now, we hear them in that room. I say again, that there is much Gu here.”

With a sigh of resignation, she added, “Our path since we met them leads here. At last, the Barbarian says something sensible. I also think we should open that door and ask them what new questions we’ve pondered since we first met them.” She looked at Vyktor for his wishes on the matter.

"Very well," Vyktor said, though his tone suggested he wasn't entirely convinced it was the right thing to do.

"Let's find out what this place has in store for us..."

Jun Jia nodded at Ceila, so she could prepare her weapons. She stared up at Chokhar with a pleasant half-smile. “Please do not charge in and attempt to bludgeon the children.” She held his gaze for a beat. “At least until we confirm that they are indeed the masterminds behind this wretched House’s menace.”

Then, Jun Jia unlocked the door, stepping aside as she opened the door...

This room contains a bricked-up window flanked by two dusty, wood-framed beds sized for children. Closer to the door is a toy chest with windmills painted on its sides and a dollhouse that’s a perfect replica of the entire house. These furnishings are draped in cobwebs. Lying in the middle of the floor are two small skeletons wearing tattered but familiar clothing.

A stuffed doll sits in a brass brazier.

The ghosts of the children sit around it chanting “hear us Orybys. We summon a familiar to unlock the door!”

But once you open the door they open their eyes with happiness! “It worked. Our prayers are answered! We are saved!”

They are not aware that they are dead.

Jun Jia nodded slowly as she entered the room. “Yes, children. You are saved...”

The scene before them wrenched at the former knight's heart like a terrified mountain cat clinging to the side of a cliff in a storm. It took all of Vyktor's will power not to just turn and walk out of the mansion and let the obscuring mists take him as it had the others.

"Children... they're just children... who could..." he mumbled to himself. As the truth of what had happened here continued to sink in, his mind filled with even more questions.

"Rose, Thorn, you're free now. But please tell us, who put you in here? Was it your nursemaid?"

"You've had a very hard time, children," Ceila said, gently. "I know that it's been difficult.  But it's all over now.  You're free, and you can finally rest and move on past your pain."

And she hoped, oh, she hoped that they would listen, and be able to simply rest.

"We waited and waited for Orybys to visit us, unlock the door, or send a familiar to help us. We got so hungry and tired. I think we fell asleep. If you'll take us we will lead you to where we must go." Rose answers.

At that, Jun Jia exchanged a quick glance with Ceila. She couldn’t decide if that signaled an end to the trials of the House, or forebodings of further evils. “Where must we go now, Rose?”

Chokahr stood there uncertain of what to do. Those specters seemed harmless, but then again, could one really be sure? On the other hand, his cmpanions seemed to have everything under control. So he just stepped back, trying to keep his distance, maintained his grip on the weapon, and waited for the events to unfold.

"...the door is open," said Ceila, stepping out of the way of it in case it would just be a simple thing to free the spirits.

"We can send you on," she continued.  "I will pray for you to find peace."

They shake their heads. They don’t turn to their corpses or make it obvious, but they cannot go on their own. Little thorn puts up his hands like he wants to be picked up and carried.

“If you take us, we can go.”

——
Who will carry Rose?
Who will carry Thorn?
Wisdom save for those brave enough to carry a body.

Jun Jia nodded solemnly. “I can carry Thorn.“ Jia looked at Chokhar and nodded toward Rose’s body. “Can you carry Rose?”

She knelt over the boy’s body. Head bowed, she softly whispered a quick prayer for his soul and that of his sister. “Anxi.” She steeled herself to carry his body.

OOC:

02:30, Today: Jun Jia rolled 17 using 1d20+1.  Wisdom Save.

Jun Jia will carry Thorn’s body.

 

A chill crept across the nape of Vyktor's neck. It wasn't the eerie presence of the the ghostly children which caused it, nor the general chill of the mansion itself... it was the beginnings of a revelation, though still ethereal and difficult to grasp, it occurred to the exile that perhaps this odd encounter was one of the reasons he was cast into this God's-forsaken realm. He could not help but feel there was something to be learned from this, but still he shuddered to think of what that might entail!
This message was last edited by the player at 06:58, Mon 22 Mar 2021.

When Jun Jia picks up the boys corpse the ghost climbs inside her body to ride along. Though she feels cold, all is well.

But when Chokahr picks up Rose her ghost possesses him. He is still in control of his body, but he feels this flaw: “I like being in charge and get angry when other people tell me what to do.”

The wall behind the doll house magically opens to reveal a dark spiral staircase leading down. The steps are iron, the walls are not wood nor brick nor stone. You've said it yourself, the house is alive.

Rose: "Take us. It is not far now."

Yes, Jun Jia felt cold, but she had felt colder in the winters of her mountaintop monastery back in Kara-Tur. Sharing the body with another spirit got her attention more than any accompanying physical sensations. Thorn seemed like easy enough company at the moment. That helped Jun Jia cooperate with the urging she felt from the boy.

Pointing at Rose Chokhar, she said, “Yes. Follow Sissy.” Jia spoke in a childlike voice thick with the local Slavic accent. In her own voice, she said, “Hopefully, our ordeal with the house ends down those stairs.” Whether that ordeal ended well, she was reluctant to say, for fear of tempting the House.

"I hope so," said Ceila, preparing the materials she had on hand for a funeral rite.

"This is a trap." Vyktor made the observation, but had no alternative. They were being funneled, he felt, toward some horrific scene in which each of these odd companions and himself would be the actors. "But there's not much else I see we can do..."

Looking around the playroom, he tried to find a blanket or other discarded item which he could use as a doorstop to keep the secret entrance from locking behind them. Shrugging, he then proceeded to follow into the depths of this new hell.

This felt odd. Past thhe initial repulsion of interacting with the spirits of the dead, Chokahr felt strangely powerful and confident carrying the ghostly child in his arms. She weighed nothing, yet clung onto him as if she was alive. Lifting his head up high, he marched on towards the stairs.

"Let's finish this. We spent enough time in this forsaken place already."

Down.

Deeper.

To hell...

(CHAPTER END)