Tentatively the dog creeps out. It lunges and grabs one piece, scuttling back under the chair. As it sees you remain motionless, it edges out and grabs the second piece, but this time does not move away. as it munches the food it shivers a bit, clearly afraid. Sensing your calm influence, it gobbles down another piece, then moves closer to you. as you hold out a final piece in the palm of your hand, the dog sniffs it, then gobbles it down, licking your hand as its thin tail wags.

Bernard beams and picks up the dog, rubbing it behind the ears. He looks at the leash and says, "Gertruda must be worried sick about you. I'll make sure you get back to her."

He opens up a compartment in his pack for Lancelot to ride in and poke his head out. Worried for the little dog, Bernard feeds him his second and last ration. 

Finishing his investigation of the second floor, Bernard stays vigilant and ascends the staircase to the third, as Lancelot watches from his pack. 

As you exit the room, the sound of music begins to play in the chamber behind you, coming through the now-closed door.

As the characters ascend the spiral stairs, remind them that they can see down the center of the staircase all the way to the bottom floor. As you climb the red marble staircase to its full height, you look down and can see down the center of the staircase all the way to the bottom floor. It is a long drop, well over 60 feet from top to bottom.

At the top you come to a dusty balcony with a suit of black plate armor standing against one wall, draped in cobwebs.

Oil lamps are mounted on the oak-paneled walls, which are carved with woodland scenes of trees, falling leaves, and tiny critters. You easily notice tiny corpses hanging from the trees and worms bursting up from the ground, having come to expect this sort of thing by this point.

There are 3 normal doors here at the top of the stairs, and a larger double-door. With your observant nature though, you see the outlines of a hidden door as well...
Secret Door
A secret door is located in the west wall.

So there are 4 non-hidden doors here as well as a single hidden door. Where would you like to go first?

Bernard considers his options for a moment, and remembering the lucrative finds inside the other secret room, he opts to enter the secret door in the west wall. As he walks down the hall, he stops before every door and waits for a moment, feeling what his acute senses tell him. 

As you walk down the balcany you step close by the suit of armor. As you do so the armor moves. It lifts its arms and moves to attack.

Your initiative: 19
Armor initiative: 11

...

You are up. The armor is within 5 feet of you currently and is looking hostile.

Bernard pivots around as the black cob-webbed covered armor raises it's arms to pummel him. Quickly, he reaches for the scroll in his pack of spiritual weapons while whispering a prayer to Lathander to bring down fire on the armor. 

A fiery mace appears and swings at the armor. 

Action: Cast Sacred Flame on the armor. DEX Save 15 for half of 10 radiant damage

Bonus Action: Cast Spiritual Weapon and attack.

Attack: 20 Damage: 6

Dex save: 9

This empty steel shell clamors as it moves, heavy plates banging and grinding against one another like the vengeful spirit of a fallen knight. It is ponderous but persistent as it attacks.

The flames scortch the metal armor, while the spiritual weapon conjured by you leaves a decent-sized dent in the breastplate.

The armor comes towards you forcefully, attempting to shove you towards the balcony rail. It is clearly trying to force you over the edge of that rail...

Replacing first attack with a shove... Athletics: 12 (Resist with either athletics or acrobatics, your choice.
Replacing second attack with a shove... Athletics: 8 (Resist with either athletics or acrobatics, your choice.


If both shoves land, then you will find yourself at the balcony railing, with a 60 foot fall one shove away. If one, or both, fail, you will either be 5 or 10 feet from the balcony edge, depending on how many fail.

Acrobatics: 18,16

Old Bernard is quite nimble for his age and deftly dodges both shoves.

He yells, "One that is with the light need not fear the fall, for you will be saved by the angels of Lathander."

With that, he unleashes one of the more powerful spells in his repertoire. Angels wielding the mace of Lathander begin circling around Bernard, striking at the armor.

Action: Cast Spirit Guardians. Lancelot is unaffected. At the start of the armor's turn, it must make a WIS 15 save is take half of 12 radiant damge

Bonus Action: Spiritual Weapon Attack Attack: 11 Damage: 10

Wis save: 16

Proving surprisingly resistant to the angelic forms around you, the armor take sthe blow from the flaming mace on its armor, the mace hitting a section that appears quite well reinforced. (AC is 18, so a miss.)

Seemingly single-minded in its desire to shove you from the balcony, the armor continues to attempt to shove you in that direction...

Shove 1: 7
Shove 2: 5


Again, please roll acrobatics or athletics to resist the shoves. Then it is your turn again. The armor is down to 10 HP currently.

Acrobatics: 3,5

Bernard is shoved back once but just manages to dodge the second shove. 

(A tie means nothing changes...so I guess Bernard has dodged the second one?)

The old priest unleashes one last volley of attacks on the armor. 

Action: Cast Sacred Flame. DEX 15 for half of 11 damage

Bonus Action: Spiritual Weapon Attack: 13 Damage: 12

Armor needs WIS 15 Save for half of 16 radiant damage from Spirt Guardians 

Dex save: 12 Wis save: -3

The armor falls to the floor in a jumble of pieces, a gastly moan escaping from inside as it does so.

With no further threats you move to the outline of the secret door you spotted previously. Pressing your hand against the door causes it to swing inward with ease.

Inside you find a cobweb laced wooden stairway that leads up.

Bernard turns his head and comforts Lancelot, who has hidden away in his pack for the battle. The little dog is understandably afraid.

The Spirit Guardians will remain for 10 minutes, and Bernard is determined to make as much use of them as possible. He quickens his pace and goes to the double-door room and one of the other standard door rooms. He gives each room a cursory glance but his true purpose is to search for any potential threats on this floor. He tries not to spend more than a minute in each room. 

(Will be switiching active Perception now: 15)

The double doors to this room have dusty panes of stained glass set into them. Designs in the glass resemble windmills.

The dusty, cobweb-filled master bedroom has burgundy drapes covering the windows. Furnishings include a four-poster bed with embroidered curtains and tattered gossamer veils, a matching pair of empty wardrobes, a vanity with a wood-framed mirror and jewelry box (see “Treasure”), and a padded chair. A rotting tiger-skin rug lies on the floor in front of the fireplace, which has a dust-covered portrait of Gustav and Elisabeth Durst hanging above it. A web-filled parlor in the southwest corner contains a table and two chairs. Resting on the dusty tablecloth is an empty porcelain bowl and a matching jug.

When you enter this room, you find a male ghast dressed in fine clothes hanging from a noose tied beside the bed. This body is Mr. Durst. He is dead, and does not attack the PCs when disturbed.

A small piece of parchment is clutched in Mr. Durst’s right hand, held tight by rigor mortis. If removed, it reads:

My Beloved Children,
I wish I could do what all fathers do and tell you that monsters aren’t real. But it wouldn’t be true.
Life can create things of exquisite beauty. But it can also twist them into hideous beings. Selfish. Violent. Grotesque. Monstrous. It hurts me to say that your mother has turned into one such monster, inside and out. And I’m afraid the disease that afflicted her mind has taken hold of me as well.
It sickens me to think what we’ve put you through. There is no excuse. I only ask you, though I know I have not the right to do so, to try and forgive us. I despise what your mother has become, but I love and pity her all the same.
Rose, I wish I could see you blossom into a strong, beautiful woman. Thorn and Walter, I wish I could be there for you. But I can’t. This is the only way.
Goodbye.

A DC 13 Wisdom (Medicine) check reveals that Mr. Durst has been dead for no more than a few hours.

A door facing the foot of the bed has a full-length mirror mounted on it. The door opens to reveal an empty, dust-choked closet. A door in the parlor leads to an outside balcony.

Dumbwaiter
A dumbwaiter in the corner of the west wall has a button on the wall next to it.

Treasure
The jewelry box on the vanity is made of silver with gold filigree (worth 75 gp). It contains three gold rings (worth 25 gp each) and a thin platinum necklace with a topaz pendant (worth 750 gp). Also in the box is an unsent letter...

It reads: My Dear Mrs. Petrovna,
Your advice on dealing with the unwanted fiend in my home is quite good advice indeed. Tonight's ceremony will proceed as planned when the moon is at its highest peak - without, of course, the attendance of Mr. Durst.
I must agree with you that, with the assistance of such a remarkably innocent subject, the results of our proceedings may be far improved. “Innocent," of course, is not quite the term I would use.
If nothing else, I am relieved that I shall soon no longer have to suffer the harlot’s insufferable presence each time we must pass through her quarters to our meeting-space. We shall be well rid of her indeed.
My Thanks,
Mrs. Elisabeth Durst

Bernard bows his head and whispers a prayer for the deceased Mr. Durst. His eyes darken as he reads both of the letters. He looks back up at the hanging corpse. 

"Mr. Durst, I have no clue of what horrors you have committed, and whether or not you deserve this vile fate. But I promise you this, I will make this right- I will set this straight."

He cuts down Mr. Durst and closes his eyelids, quickly speaking last rites for the dead nobleman. 

Before he leaves, however, he does something quite unpriestly- he snatches the jewelry box and tucks it away in his pack. 

"If I am to prosecute my war on the evils of this land, then I will surely require funds," he explains to himself. 

Bernard makes haste and checks out the other standard-sized rooms in this hallway. 

Perception: 23