"Carole?! Is that you?" sputters Brant at Rasxif. "At least he didn't write 'All work and no play...'"

Ornwin mutters irritably "Too much work and precious little play in this cursed manor." But he addresses Rasxif with more concern, asking "Are you normal again, now? How did you feel when that pen possessed you?"

“Well.  Where to now?  I don’t need to pray for any new spells, but we haven’t eaten in a while and I’m exhausted. I don’t know what time it is, but my body is telling me it’s late, we’ve missed a meal or two and we need to sleep. Is it just me?” Cassandra asks the group.

"I have two healing spells left," says Otis.

======
OOC: New thread time?
This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Tue 20 Dec 2022.

Rasxif rubs his arms as he backs away from the desk, as though taken with a sudden chill. Looking to Ornwin, he answers, ”Driven. To write. As if what I was writing was a message of the greatest importance.”

He looks back at the missives he created, shaking his head uncomprehendingly as he reads the words.

With the stateroom just down the hall from the corner office, one of the guests bravely darts there and back, reporting on their return that a "foreboding thickness of grey had engulfed the sky" or words to that extent. While hunger and fatigue do not seem to bite as keenly in the manor as they might elsewhere, all of the guests note their presence.

"Maybe I've been knocked on the head too often, or this wretched manor has robbed me of my ability to remember, but  what were we supposed to accomplish for the mayor again?"

In reply to Rasxif (msg # 1025):

Ornwin reads over the message again very carefully and then shakes his head saying "The importance of this doggerel escapes me."

He agrees to Cassandra's suggestion wholeheartedly, "I am no halfling, but even the sturdiest dwarf needs rations, plenty and often."

In response to Brant, Cassandra says: “I think we were supposed to find and bring back Rump heads. But seeing as all the Rumps here so far are ghosts or animated paintings, it appears the deranged Mayor was just playing a cruel joke on us all along.”

"Perhaps we're to bring back the cards? or the paintings? Or both?" offers Otis

"Ha! Painted heads! That would do, I think."
Brant's new hobby just became painted head hunting! He looks around for the nearest painting.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:33, Wed 21 Dec 2022.

By the time the guests have returned to the Emperor of Curd through darksome fields and via dubious paths, the blessed hour of the complementary scones has all but passed by. All that remains of those tender, buttered delights, dappled with honey, is the saddest of specimens, already ravaged by greedy fingers beyond number. Scarcely a bite or two remains on the platter.

Chester chirps upon the return of his favorite guests, "Welcome back! Tegel Manor hasn't got the best of you yet!"

"Oh, there is a gent in the bar. He would have you join him there."

Then Chester smiles the satisfaction of someone who has done exactly what has been asked of him.

You can bring paintings out of the manor. Just specify for Cass which ones you have helped yourselves to. They have no resale value.

"Not quite, Chester. What's the fellow's name? And have you got that lavender that you promised to get for me?" responds Otis surprised that others have gone so quiet.

"It's on special delivery!" the front deskman answers. "Please let me know if you'd like to order anything else from the world beyond. Maybe there is a special tea that you fancy."

"He introduced himself as Shazzam."

Then remembering something else, Chester adds, "He said that he had a ...," his words trailing off as he forgets one of them, too long for him to readily remember.

Drumming his purplish fingers on the countertop, he furrows his brows in concentration.

"Oh, yeah! He said that he has a 'preposition' for you!"

"A proposition, you say? An' what would that be?"

"A preposition? As in an "'as'?"

“I am interested in hearing the guest’s proposition.” Cass will head into the bar area after everyone has finished interrogating Chester.

Otis is happy to accompany Cass.

Brightly, the concierge admits, "I don't know what you're talking about! I didn't say that."

"I said that he has a 'preposterous' for you," he reminds Otis.


"Of course, that's what I said. And if I had it, I would give it to you. This is a full-service hotel after all. The man at the bar has it. He'll give it to you!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:35, Sat 24 Dec 2022.

Brant looks blankly from Chester, to Otis, then to Cass, then gives his head a rattle.
"How about we chat with the fella at the bar?"
Brant gets up and does just that.

In reply to The Host (msg # 1034):

Ornwin says, "There used to be a tea from somewhere beyond Rhun that had a good, even legendary, reputation as a restorative. If you can find some here, that might be valuable when we are weary."

Carefully sidestepping the mound of corrupted cottage cheese on the barroom floor, the guests swiftly spot the newcomer, a most unsavory cove, seated by himself at a corner table, if only for the fact that his fingers and face still shine with the buttery goodness of the golden scones. He has been attending to each of these fingers, still sticky with honey, one by one as matters of vocabulary and grammar had been discussed at reception. He removes one such finger with a noisy slurp at your arrival.

Disarmingly, he burps, "I think I might have overdid it in there," before introducing himself as "Shazzam, Collector and Partaker of the Paranormal" and ordering drinks and food for all. Aloitious responds with unwonted alacrity and soon platters of fried sausages and onions sizzle before you with an accompaniment of mustards along with pitchers of his rum fizzle punch. Why had you never seen that menu?

"Tegel Manor," he begins, with a twinkle in his eye, "is a diseased house. The rampant homicides, femicides, filicides, feticides, infanticides ... have rendered it a fertile ground for spiritual manifestations, mostly malignant, from which to blossom."

"The thing of it is I'm no adventurer, no infiltrator, no sneaky, little filcher. I can't waltz in there myself and inhale those delectable delights," he states, mournfully, his spindly little fingers rubbing against themselves for comfort. "I would be gobbled up; I'm sure of it."

"That's where you lot come in. Tell me of your encounters with these manifestations. Inhale deeply and then exhale for my delectation."

"So as that tip-top man at the front desk said, I have a proposition for you:

Any encounters with the specters and ghosts of the manor, I will pay three hundred gold each to hear tale of them. Any item specifically associated with one of these haunts or which might be an instrument of the occult, I would pay five hundred gold apiece. Finally, any item that one might crudely call a 'murder weapon,' I would pay not less than one thousand gold for, quite likely more."

"If gold doesn't tickle your fancy, I could reward you with their equivalent value in mundane arcane items. I have collected many of those over the years. They have no savor for me."

"What say you, my likely lads and lasses?"

"Works for me if it works for you, Cass," says Otis who then goes predicatably quiet.

"Gold is always good." Ornwin responds briefly like a true dwarf.

Cass says, “That’s sounds fine to me. We could probably give you at least a handful of paranormal encounters and stories from our visits to Tegel Manor so far - just from the past few weeks. And, if you stick around for a while, we can fill you in each time we return from an adventure up to the Manor.  We have a few new items that we just brought back. Unfortunately, many of the items that you might be interested in from our previous visits to the Manor have already been brokered and sold through Chester at the front desk. We can tell you about each, in association with its corresponding adventure - and Chester may still have them in storage or may know to whom he sold them.”

“Are our past adventures in the Tegel Manor, featuring encounters with ghostly butlers, animated and magic casting paintings, haunted mirrors, animated skeletons and zombies, dancing ghosts, and self playing instruments, among many other things, of interest to you?”