Runt and Gendan peek outside the hall into the more normal part of the house. There is no sign of the creature. It was clearly blocked off in the "weird" part of the house. However, it is unknown if there is a second exit for the creature there.

Runt looks at Genden and nods a confirmation that the hallway currently appears clear. 

No sign of the creature.She says quietly to the others.

Quote from Mehmen >>

Once the hour passes without interruption, Devarus breathes a bit easier. Although he knew it to be likely that the creature too recovered, in his heart he knew it to be the better course of action. As noone throughout the hour appeared to have come up with an idea for the attack, he soon found himself sighing and rubbing his forehead. "... If everyone is ready, let's make for the manor entrance. If you got any oil on hand, set a trail of it behind us.... Information be damned at this point, that creature cannot be allowed to live."

 (Still waiting on a reaction to this, if anything. If noone actually has a means of spreading a fire rapidly, I suppose the next mission/suggestion out of Dev would be to hit up the kitchen to search for anything that might get a good wild fire going.)

(Sorry for ghosting for a couple of weeks.)

Elsara, after being revived, thanks the others and hurries to follow them. She begins to think about how to approach this monster. It is very powerful, and seemingly resilient against any spells they have used, and impervious to mental strikes. She flicks through her spellbook in an attempt to see if she has something of use in this scenario; she nearly died and doesn't want any of her friends to go down to this thing, either.

"Perhaps we should try and get to a better battleground." Elsara suggests. "It's ability to crawl on walls and darken the halls means we should try and get it to fight us in the open, like outside of the building. It sounds bad, but given the other brother's dead, we could always try burning the place down?" She looks to the oil at hand. "I guess we can see what we can do?"

Quote from Mehmen >>

Quote from Mehmen >>

Once the hour passes without interruption, Devarus breathes a bit easier. Although he knew it to be likely that the creature too recovered, in his heart he knew it to be the better course of action. As noone throughout the hour appeared to have come up with an idea for the attack, he soon found himself sighing and rubbing his forehead. "... If everyone is ready, let's make for the manor entrance. If you got any oil on hand, set a trail of it behind us.... Information be damned at this point, that creature cannot be allowed to live."

 (Still waiting on a reaction to this, if anything. If noone actually has a means of spreading a fire rapidly, I suppose the next mission/suggestion out of Dev would be to hit up the kitchen to search for anything that might get a good wild fire going.)

DM: You have ways of starting a fire. I was waiting to see how others reacted. Since it's clear you guys want to burn this place down (Good plan by the way). Elsara seems to agree so I can say what happens when you try.

Dousing the place in oil and lighting it on fire seems like a good idea. You head to the entrance (You may or may not have poured oil behind you. That's up for you to decide), you see that it doesn't open. The gate is being magically held shut by a Affectus Uti powered warding spell.

You may attempt to remove the ward by casting Dispel Magic but Affectus Uti is powerful so you would need to succeed an Arcana check on top of casting the spell.

Runt is more than happy to set this place ablaze. She already has all her stuff as her lifestyle made her travel light and keep a tight gold on her things.

Seeing the way barred magically, a look of dread at first passes over the old guardsman's face. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, appearing to steel himself, before positioning in such a way as to guard Elsara while keeping an eye on their flank. "I don't know how much control that creature has over this place. But its possible if it wasn't stalking us before, that our tampering with the door just now might've alerted it of our attention. While Elsara sees to the barrier, everyone else! Ready yourselves for company." He said as he readied the first sings of trouble with scattershot.

(Sorry that took so long. I thought I posted this days ago, but I guess it never inputed.)

I would say something about this but a lot of what I can and can't say will be determined by what Elsara does with the magic ward.

Val readies his bow at her warning.

Quote from ZulkRS >>

I would say something about this but a lot of what I can and can't say will be determined by what Elsara does with the magic ward.

 It's bold of you to assume Elsara has Dispel Magic available. If she did she would've dismissed the darkness in the previous encounter.

Given it's the gate that's warded, are there other avenues of escape, scaling the fences etc.

By gate, I mean the doors to the house. You can't reach the fence and the windows are also equally warded (I didn't say that earlier because no one mentioned windows or other avenues of escape).

Elsara may still make an Arcana check, not to dispel the ward but to figure out ways of getting rid of it.

So we’re stuck in here if I’m reading correctly. Suddenly, lighting the place on fire doesn’t seem like the best idea. 

It's still a good idea if you can find a way to disable the ward. I mean if setting the place on fire was easy, someone else would have done it by now.

Arcana: 11

Elsara feels that she has seen this type of Arcane ward before though not one powered by Affectus Uti of course. Though she can't quite pin down what exactly she's thinking of and can't remember any useful details about the ward.

So to recap, the doors and windows are magically blocked off. You're in this maze-like house with the creature. You've rested so that creature has probably done the same. You have no idea which way it went but you did block of the large massive section of the house with a bookshelf so it can't get to you at least.

It is around 2:30 AM ((DM: If this time does not match with how late it was the last time I said it, it's not because of magic but because it has been a while and I forgot what time I said last. If it matches up, that's great and if it doesn't match up, well the previous time has been retconned and it is 2:30 AM))

What do you guys do now?

If/When Elsara passes on the bad news, Devarus grimaces but took care not to let his guard lower for even a second. After giving the others at least a chance to speak their mind on the subject, only then did the old man speak. "... The way I see it now is that we have three choices... assuming those of you far more capable in manipulating magic need a more lengthier rest to prepare, we can find a room and pray the creature... *sighs*... grants us the peace needed. Or, we can search the areas we have yet to explore. Perhaps its possible whoever was responsible for its creation left at least countermeasure in place. One they failed to get to, but we might yet make use. Or finally... we spread as much oil and kindling throughout the entirety of the house save this main area, and try to smoke it out."

He frowned. "Although I need not tell you the consequences of how that might go south, no matter how prepared we are to make it as controlled a burn as possible. In fact, considering it or.. something about this place is keeping us sealed in, it may also have the power to put out any blaze... But those are the choices. WHat say the rest of you?"

"I say we press on. We must hunt this creature before it gets more time to rest. We must be cautions though, for a cornered animal is fiercer in its den..." despite talking to his friends Valwaryn keeps looking around, not trusting the creature would try to surprise them again.

Need to lure it out of its lair. When hunting strong prey, one must take away its advantages. Runts only real advise that she can give.

(Pressing forward a bit..)

"Then it appears we are at least roughly in agreement. Since this whole place is basically its lair, and it can likely wait forever to ambush us at any point, best we begin hunt." Devarus adjusts his stance so that the crossbow rested more comfortably in hand. "We shall head for the unexplored sections, and pray that we find something to help best serve as a more potent lure than simply the 'prey' that as wandered into its den. Runt, if you would, take point. We'll be heading back through the barricade and beyond for this one."

Alright which way are you going to go. So far there's a secret water-logged tunnel that's opened up in one of the rooms which you saw but didn't go to because you gave the creature a chase. It's pretty obvious that that's where the thing came from when it attacked a separated Val. Would you like to explore some other location? Maybe the library since you didn't get a good look at it thanks to being attacked by the creature or maybe one of the many doors you didn't check.