Death House

[alhoon]

Burdur nods in agreement. "The least we could do. I think I know the rites of the humans but I'll follow your lead just in case." He doesn't don anything special, but he addressed Kimber. "Can you cast light? I prefer my holy symbol to not be illuminating during a funeral and the windows are barred."
Rose and Thorn stay silently in their corner. It's impossible to read their expressions.

[kintire]

Kimber shakes her head.

"I can see in the dark... I've never troubled to learn Light."

She eyes the ghosts nervously, then examines the dollshouse closely focussed especially on the odd solid pillars...

[alhoon]

She eyes the ghosts nervously, then examines the dollshouse closely focussed especially on the odd solid pillars...

As the party has suspected, the large "pillars" hide a staircase that can be entered from the attic, in a different room, and goes all the way to the basement. The room that the secret door to the stairs is located is to the south of the room of the kids.

Burdur grumbles something in annoyance and lights one of the rusted wall lamps. After the flickering light steadies, he lets the magic drain from his holy symbol and stands besides Vorj. "Let's try to bring some peace to these kids" he directs him.

[VAN]

Since Vorj and Burdur are busy with their ritual Van says:

"There is indeed a secret door at the other room and a secret staircase that leads to the basement. Looking at the dollhouse again tries to find any other rooms that they might have missed while searching the house earlier as long as those hidden at the basement."

[Ken of Ghastria]

Vorj takes a block of incense and holds it over one of the candles until it starts to smolder and smoke. He places it in the censer. "Thank you, Burdur," he says to the dwarf. "I have faith that our prayers will suffice." He hands him the vial of holy water. "Please apply the water to their foreheads when I tell you. A few drops for each."

He stands up and begins walking in a slow circle around the children's corpses, gently swinging the now-smoking censer. He does his best to ignore the ghoulish absurdity of the twins themselves watching the proceedings -- and he largely succeeds.

"Piris," he prays, "and all other gods who care about the balance between Life and Death -- we beseech you to guide the spirits of these two children to eternal peace. Cherish and celebrate their innocence. Come, and take them into your protection. Bring all the evil that has been committed around them and place it into the hollow of your hand, from which it shall not escape. Judge these two children not by the darkness that seeks to claim their spirits, but by the purity they embraced in life."

He signals to Burdur to proceed.

As the dwarven cleric anoints the bodies, Vorj continues, "In your name, we seek to shield the innocent and to punish those who seek to tip the balance toward evil. So too do we ask you to shield these children and pull their spirits back toward your eternal light."

[alhoon]

The smoke of the incense mixes with the light from the rusted lamp as the paladin and the cleric pray. The smell is intense and their voices sincere and clear. Burdur, with some trepidation that he overcomes, rubs a few drops of holy water over the skulls of the dead kids. The action of touching the corpses of dead, innocent kids is unnerving for the gruff dwarf but he does his duty.

At the end of the ritual, Rose and Thorn are still there having witnessed their own funeral as Burdur throws a hopeless and sad gaze to the human. The ghosts have not moved on. Yet, they don't seem disappointed as if they expected as much.
"You are good people" Rose says calmly "We feel better. It feels close but not exactly as when Estella was giving me a hug"
Thorn adds "thank you."

[VAN]

"Apparently the funeral isn't what is keeping them from eternal rest."

Van says with a sigh.

"We need to find what it is and when we solve this mystery they will finally get rest. Maybe they are worried about their parents or the monster, if we defeat that and find evidense that their parents aren't alive maybe they can accept their fate and move on."

Then he keeps studying the dollhouse.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Vorj drops to his knees -- the combined result of spiritual exertion and the shocking realization that his god didn't hear him. "How...?" he says despondently to Burdur. "HOW is this possible? For this to be a realm so dark that the gods do not hear our call?!"

After the children speak, however, his despair lifts. "You ... are welcome, little ones," says the paladin, standing up again. "I wish we could do more."

He turns to Van. "...and perhaps we still can. Have you found any passages marked in the dollhouse?" He begins removing his priestly vestments and extinguishing the incense as he listens.

[alhoon]

Burdur seems also troubled by the developments. However, with a huff, he falls back to dwarven stoicism; grumpy but stoic and dependable. He chants again and the room bathes in the light gifted by his God... or whatever answers in Moradin's place.

"HOW is this possible? For this to be a realm so dark that the gods do not hear our call?!"

Thorn looks at the Paladin for a long moment before he answers with a kid's simplicity and the insight of a long, tormented, unnatural existence: "Because it's a prison."

Rose continues, explaining what the kids think should be obvious "Our parents say that the Gods throw people in this prison and forget them. You are not meant to ever leave this house, alive or dead. We died and didn't leave. Nobody leaves."
Then Thorn adds
"So mommy and father must also be here, for ever. So we wait."

[VAN]

"I did, we should go at the attic the secret door is there."

Turning to children Van says

"We will try to find out what happened to your parents and we hope we can leave then."

[kintire]

Kimber nods soberly.

"Whatever secret this house holds, it lies in the basement, I am sure of it. But lets remember that is also where whatever conjured the phantoms outside wished us to go. Be ready..."

[VAN]

Van nods:

"Right, if you guys are ready we can go to the attic where is the door for the basement."

[Ken of Ghastria]

Vorj finishes repacking his backpack. "I'm ready. Lead on, Van."

[alhoon]

As Van suggests leaving the room, the kids turn to look him with an expression of sorrow and fear on their dead, usually expressionless faces.
Before Vorj finishes his sentence Thorn laments "You abandon us too! Rose! We'll be left alone!"
Rose just shouts "No! You tricked us! You will leave us forever like the others!"
Without using their legs, the ghostly kids move rapidly towards the party!

[alhoon]

Before anyone realizes what's happening, Thorn has reached Kimber. The ghost of the very young kid just extended his arm to grab Kimber's hand, the way a small kid would go for the security of his guardian's hand to go for a walk.
The gesture doesn't hide malice or anger but it has determination. Before Kimber can react, Thorn's hand touches her and insubstancial fingers of a child long gone pass through the half-elf's fingers. The party can listen Kimber gasp audibly.
Thorn begins to disappear, his essence being drawn to the druid's body, their joined hands a conduit for the mystical merge. It's over within a couple of seconds; Kimber gives a short tremble and shake as the possession comes to pass.

Before the party can realize what happened, Rose has reached Vorj and floating a bit over the ground, the ghost-girl extends a cold immaterial hand into his chest. Again, the ghost is drawn within its target within a couple heartbeats.
However this time Vorj's body doesn't seem to adapt well to the possession. Once the ghost disappears into the paladin, Vorj shakes violently. His body is risen a foot of the ground during the spasms and his eyes turn to their sockets to show only white.
As the party is looking with dread the shaking man a loud growl is heard and Rose's ghost is violently expelled from the paladin's body. The ghost of the dead girl has three big parallel scars on her dead, ephemeral face now as if hit by a vicious animal. The scars run all the way down her neck.


The scarred face of the dead girl holds an expression of shock and horror. She raises a hand accusingly at the paladin and shouts.
"You are not a man!
You are a MONSTER, an expression of evil beyond words!
Your heart holds darkness blacker than midnight!
Your black soul has thorns and claws you abomination! You have no right to exist, you have no place under the sun! There is no evil bigger than the one you hide in your heart!"

She closes with a deafening shriek "You are a monster!" loud enough for the walls to shake and the living in the room to be forced to cover their ears, stunned.
When the shock passes, the mauled ghost of Rose is nowhere to be seen.


Slowly, the party realizes than when they were fighting the dead nanny, any hits were passing through her essence leaving her form weakened but unchanged. Something mystical must have happened within Vorj's body to fundamentally scar an immaterial entity. Whether Rose is right or wrong, something happened.

The multiple shocks prove to be too much for the dwarf cleric. The party is reminded of his existence as his holy symbol slips his catatonic hand with a loud "thud". Burdur looks at Vorj and the possessed druid with an abject, empty expression his mind unable to function.