Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

“No… no, I’m afraid I don’t have a blanket as such,” he admits after a moment, glancing back up toward her. “But perhaps my cloak might do for the time being, eh?”  He pulls at the edge of it slightly as he says it.

One second she’s 30’ away, the next she taking your cloak, then in a blink she’s back at the chest her baby wrapped in your cloak…

”…silence is golden golden…” she quietly sings.

Darixa make an insight check as Cook suddenly jerks from his position propped up in the opening.

The messenger looks at Esme with surrender, “The kinda vile things that happen to brave young women who happen into the company of scum.”  His jaw clamps shut and he looks down at his hands, dirty scarred neglected.

     Cook's jaw drops.  Then he does.  The little girls disappearing and reappearing several times like that rightly freaks Cook out and he forgets exactly where he is.  So when he takes a step back he’s expecting floor…. Maybe even a step down.  But there is no floor…. And the steps stopped halfway up.  Cooks backpedaling foot catches nothing but air.

     And down Cook goes.

     There is a bit of a yelp of surprise.  A quick curse. And, of course, falling.

     When Cook finally comes to a stop, hopefully not too broken or bloody but surely in a rather unflattering heap, he sees Darixa and her question eventually seeps into his rather confuzzled brain.

     “Umm… no?” Cook answers, quickly looking back up at the attic from where he fell on the second floor.  “Nope.  Not all day…”

     Cook gets back to his feet and looks sheepishly at Darixa.  “Little girl.  Up there in the attack.  Spooky little girl,” he explains.

     “Stole my cloak,” he adds as a bit of an afterthought.

(Darixa Insight: 4)

Quote from Culuril >>

(Darixa Insight: 4)

 ((Insight into… what?  The “stole my cloak” comment?  I wouldn’t say Cook is lying so much flavoring the telling of events…lol)

Darixa can’t tell if Cook is mentally doing okay or reacting to everything that’s transpired up to now…

(insight 4, inject a little chaos.)

Darixa hops back a bit, startled when Cook falls back down. "Are you... joking?" she asks tentatively. "You expect us to believe a spooky little girl up there stole your cloak?" She does seem a little worried for the man. But she looks around for wherever the messenger is that Esme and Seri have been talking with. "Hey! You don't keep any little girls up in the attic, do you?" 

Seri too is taken aback as Cook descends unceremoniously and cloak-less.  As he and Darixa converse and Esme prompts the messenger, Seri's voice grows quiet and thoughtful.  She gazes around at the wreck of the manor house all around them.

"Makaster seems to have been a mad alchemist, obsessed with turning other metals into gold," (which Seri still believes to be nonsense, but she does not press the point).  "As obsessed as a ship's mad captain might be in their pursuit of a legendary treasure or sea creature."

"He persisted to the point of insanity, until his fortunes failed, his mansion fell to ruin, and he transformed into the deranged undead skeleton we battled along with his thralls in the basement.  Procan knows, a man of such obsessions might think nothing of locking his daughter who would not be quiet in an attic until she too perished from hunger, thirst or cold, for want of a cloak, becoming a ghost who yet haunts this place above as he did below."

She pauses.  "Cook.  Did this possible daughter of Makaster speak of... gold?"

Esme is both intrigued and concerned about the mention of a spooky girl upstairs, so she climbs the stairs and tries to locate the spooky girl, hoping to approach her as a friend. "Hello there, I am Esmeralda, can I help you somehow?" She offers in a soft a gentle tone.

Lucky persuasion if relevant: 20

     “Joking?” Cook replies, slightly offended.  “Well get on up and see for yourself, if you like!  Creepy little girls with creepier little dolls… I want nothing to do with it!”  Cook brushes off the dirt he collected due to his rather madcap fall.

     “I ain’t afraid of no ghost,” Cook adds a bit defensively.  “Doesn’t mean I want to meddle with them though.  Let spooky ghosts be, I always say…”

     “Speak of…?” Cook asks, turning to Seri.  “No, no… Not as such.  Sang a little snippet of something or other about silence being golden but that is where I more or less nope’d out of the attic.”

     Cook more or less shrugs when Esme decides to climb up into the space he so recently vacated.  He offers her a boost up, if she wants it, the stairs ending halfway up and all, but he is willing to leave her to whatever she is going to do up there otherwise.  Women are better at handling little girls anyway, he mentally tells himself.  Even little ghost girls…

     “Hey!” He calls up after a moment.  “See if you can get my cloak back!  It’ll probably rain on the way back home and…”. The thought just kind of trails off.

A little girl is curled up sleeping on the floor shivering with her doll, the doll is wrapped in Cooks cloak.  Just as Esme is making her way to the little one, several spectral bats drop from the rafters landing on her.  No sooner witnessed and all of it vanishes…

That’s when you see several big fat living bats?  They also see you and release from their perches.

initiatives are;  4 Esme Darixa 3 2 Brynn 5 1 6 Seri Cook

#4 swoops at Esme 12 to hit it fails to stab or grab.

Esme’s turn.

The young Rhennee witch snarls and clutches at her enchanted finger, placing a frightening witches curse on the tiny annoying critters that strikes deadly fear into their tiny hearts.
"Have some company up here if you'd care to help out." She calls out to her companions.

(Use finger to cast Fear, Wis save 15 or frightened, should catch all enemies but the closest one I think)

Darixa’s turn.

     "I told you," Cook says triumphantly.  "I told you there was a spooky girl kid ghost!"

Hearing Esme's call, Darixa moves to pull herself up into the attic area. (Athletics: 7, re-roll from Heroic Inspiration: 16) Once there, she sees the bat-like creatures and calls to the others. "There's a bunch of creepy bats up here!"  She then sings out a series of notes, motioning her hand at the one closest to Esme. Casting Starry Wisp, a mote of light streaks towards the creature. 
(Spell Attack: 8, Damage: 6 radiant) 

(OOC - I'm not sure where pulling herself into the attic places her. She would try to stay back but move to somewhere to allow the others to come up as well. Also, was there a result of Esme's actions? I ended up deciding to just go with an attack, but it might have helped to know. I see rolls but no indication of which creature made or filed the saves - there were three rolls from '3' and two rolls from '1' but there were 5 different creatures affected.) 

(OOC - I'm not sure where pulling herself into the attic places her. She would try to stay back but move to somewhere to allow the others to come up as well. Also, was there a result of Esme's actions? I ended up deciding to just go with an attack, but it might have helped to know. I see rolls but no indication of which creature made or filed the saves - there were three rolls from '3' and two rolls from '1' but there were 5 different creatures affected.) 

fear you will soon know which was affected by spell, when the one that failed its save has a chance to flee.  It only took 10’ of movement to climb into the attic leaving 20’ to position I placed you 5’ from the entry (cautious yet out of the way).

Darixa’s starry wisp flies past a brilliant flash of radiance.

#3 swoops at (attacks) Esme missing, #2 attacks managing to latch on dealing 5 points of blood sucking damage.

Brynn’s turn

  “What’s a carbon footprint?” he eventually asks Brynn offhandedly. The question’s clearly been rattling around in his skull for a minute or two while he stacked bug corpses.

  “I thought maybe it was one of them technical terms of yours,” he admits. “On account… Well, yeah, but I can’t for the life of me figure what it’s got to do with bugs.”

A soft snort comes from Brynn when Cook would speak up. They could appreciate the effort that man made to try to understand an honestly, pretty poor pun of a joke that probably only amused themself. It probably fell into a 'Dad joke' category. So when Cook turned back forward to warn the group to keep an eye out on the runner, they'd finally respond, but not without wiggling and running their fingers up his back first. "The centipedes many, many, creepy little feet." They'd almost whisper.

Satisfied with themselves, Brynn would fall back to watch the groups rears, and the events unfold as they went along. They were even tempted to light their pipe at a few points, but resisted the urge due for the time being.

"Have some company up here if you'd care to help out." She calls out to her companions.

Hearing Esme's call, Darixa moves to pull herself up into the attic area. Once there, she sees the bat-like creatures and calls to the others. "There's a bunch of creepy bats up here!"

Now, they were no mere damsels in distress, but they were calling for a helping hand. And Brynn often had one to lend. They'd take action next. With a step forward Brynn would crouch and with a swing of their arms, they'd jump and grab hold. A mix of muscle and mechanics, they pull themselves up in one smooth motion with almost a practiced ease. 
(Athletics: 19) 

Once their boots hit the deck of the attic, the tell tale shift click of Brynn's prosthetic echoes through the open space as they cock it. They take aim of one of the bat things that latched onto Esme and fires before they even finish taking their next step. With a pull of their lip they let out a sharp whistle, then taunt. "Come suck on this, ya sap suckers!" They thud with loud steps through as far as they can to get the bats attention on them and away from the girls.
(Attack: 13 Damage: 5)

     "Ghost bats or bat bats?" Cook calls up in reply to Darixa. 

Esme feels Brynn’s bolt, a hot splash of blood, the bolt continues right through a weak area of roof…

Esme is covered in her own blood.

#6 flies panicked out a hole in the roof…

#1 swoops at Esme missing.  #5 latches and stabs for 6 damage.

Seri & Cook’s turns

[DM] It only took 10’ of movement to climb into the attic leaving 20’ to position

(OOC:  Since Esme climbed the stairs without an Athletics check, I'm assuming one's not necessary.)

Hearing sounds of combat above, Seri clambers up herself, Ripple swooping in to flap his wings in the face of an attacking bat-creature (#5 who just hit Esme?) before winging away.  Seri trots in and in the limited space, attempts awkwardly to skewer it with her trident.

Ripple:  flies up, takes the help action, and then safely well away back downstairs with his 60' fly speed and Flyby

Seri:
Movement:  10' to clamber up the stairs, 20' to mpve next to stabby bat-creature #5
Action:  Seri's True Strike with her Trident to hit:  13, damage:  6 (radiant)
Bonus Action:  (None)

Esme’s ascent was outside of initiative.  During an encounter with consequences, I’ll ask for rolls.

This time Seri’s tines nearly graze Esme as they fork the bloody stirge.  As its abdomen is ruptured blood spatters over Esme again.

Cook is up.