"These chidlers are dead, you have no more place in this world, so begone!" She scolded the apparitions, with a look of triumph on her face, pretending this was the outcome she had planned for.

Raising the doll just a little bit above her head, she adds "But before you do go, do tell me why you attempt to kill us, why you take and replace, befuddle my memories. Be good children, and you may have the good Madame back."

"There are far greater things to fear in this world than death Grawlynn....." and he'll turn back to the boy

"Do you have a name son?  What happened to you and your sister?  What has brought you back to this room?"

Rose looks at all of you, face full of the self-righteous indignation you'd expect any pre-teen to have. "We have been dead for a very long time! Mother and Father locked us in here, said it was to keep us safe from the monster in the basement. But I think they forgot about us." she says, face relaxing slightly before Thorn adds in, voice sniffling. "My tummy hurt for a long time. Rose held me when it got really bad, but it hurt so much. Until one day the pain just went away." he says, in between miserable sobs. 

Rose looks at Gralwynn, head cocked to one side. "We've done no such thing. We can't leave the room. No one can." she says, voice starting to turn sad.

Creak looks worried at that last part, “No one can- What do you mean- No one can.” Creak will attempt to exit the room.

“What is this monster and how do we get to the basement? We’ve searched this house and have yet to encounter it?”

Creak, go ahead and give me a Charisma save.

"I don't know what the monster is, but there was a door that Father kept hidden, here." she says, pointing to a hidden door in the room that has all the furniture, where the woman in the chest was found. It looks like it leads to a spiral staircase that runs downward through the entire house, but with no other exits in the house.

Creak walks through the doorframe, Cha: 18

Adric turns to the rest of the group. “Sounds like that’s the way we need to go.” 

Creak, as you walk towards the door, Thorn cries out "NO! Please don't leave me alone again. Not like the last time, daddy no! I'll be good this time!" and races towards you. You feel a twinge of magic brush against your mind but you shake it off.

Adric will move towards the spiral staircase. 

Belmaris nods "I found another corpse in a trunk in that room, they appeared to have been stabbed to death...perhaps it was the angry spirit we encountered earlier."

As Creak hears the child, he definitely gets a thousand yard stare... he’ll keep walking silently.

“That does seem like the most logical explanation.”

"Adric, as a champion of your god, is there anything we can do for the children before we go?" Rynna asks in an undertone.

“I do not have any power that would allow me to help these children. Perhaps if we dealt with whatever is in the basement, they might be able to depart. 

Gralwynn, satisfied with their answers, returns the corpse to it's resting place, and returns the doll, "The good Madame, in good faith".

Whipping around to Balmaris, she retorts "I am not afraid of death, I just believe the dead should stay dead, and out of the affairs and realm of the living. If you want to set them free, as I said before to Creak, they need a proper burial, and with no dirt, cremation is the best bet."

(OoC: forgot to ask earlier, but how much meat is on the cadavers?)

Gralwynn will then attempt to leave as Creak did, to gather more salt, the rest of the silverware, the wax, the seal, and make the idol, but this time in Balmaris' likeness.

(Cha): 7

"I hope so," Rynna murmurs and follows the others towards the stairway.

So much for being arcane support on a simple caravan run.  Rynna was feeling very out of her depth and some of the others who had also been stuck in the house were... unnerving.  Belmaris seemed to cope better with the strange inadvertent teleportation but she had to admit she was rattled.  She'd wanted to see the world a little, learn stronger magics to make her village proud and then maybe go back home.  Well, maybe not anytime soon but eventually.  Sadly there was nothing for it now- a monster needed slaying.

There is no flesh at all on either corpse, they are purely skeletons at this point, albeit skeletons clad with some tattered cloth.

Adric, I'll need a Charisma save from you as well.

Gralwynn, as you leave the little boy ghost rushes you as well, although you cannot shake off the mental intrusion and his spirit disappears. Deep inside your mind is a new sensation, a new feeling. Everything, up to and including your own shadow, terrifies you. 

(2Goblins, you gain the following flaw: “I’m scared of everything, including my own shadow, and weep with despair when things don’t go my way.”)

Finlan, already horrified by the sight of the two skeletal children, can NOT take it any more and passes out when he sees Gralwynn playing dolls with one of them.