Mayor - Martin - wanted to talk to us about the local real estate market when I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Meditated for twenty-four hours and was able to set past aside enough to focus on here, now. Here, now turned out (back at mayor's) to be the offer of a house and some land, on minor condition that we not turn up dead in morning like previous occupants.Seems about sixty years ago there was a big feud between the Garhad family (in the house) and some other minor noble family in which the other guys ended up summoning up something big (at a party of the Garhads?) that wiped out the family and tore up the keep. First group in trying to figure out what happened were okay during the day, but half of them died in their sleep, two were found all sliced up (dead), and one was a gibbering crazy. And I guess similar fates have met other people who tried to move in although we didn't get as much info on who they were. Also people have seen strange things there during the full moon - like the knocked-down part of the keep still standing maybe, or the massacre of the Garhads being reenacted, or just Weird Shit Going Down. So the idea is that we as Adventurers de-weird-shit-ify the place, thus raising local property values in the neighborhood increasing tax revenue for Martin. Or something like that. Think he's pretty eager to see the situation dealt with since he specifically mentioned that what with the haunted/cursed thing the Garhad wealth was never recovered. I'm sure he would have sent his people after it if he thought it could be easily had.
After seeing the place, figure it will take all of the Garhad wealth to fix up the place into something usable. We're talking rusted-shut portcullis, busted walls... there's still a lot of usable structure there but it's going to need completely new interiors. But I get ahead of myself. As soon as Cedar and Lucan heard about the place, they got pretty excited, talking about wards and decorative trim like they could move in tomorrow... leaving Barg and me to deal with the actual deweirdification. Kanton having buggered off at some point. Handily, mayor wanted us to work with one of his guys anyways. Hasha Ideh, Rokanan guy. Seems quiet but tough - was a little worried he was undead on account of the really pale and not eating thing, but it turns out he gets fed by spirits or something. I don't really want to know, just as long as he's living and all.
So we three go out to the Garhad place and get in - Ideh seems to be able to ask locked things to open - and start poking around. Checked out the Suspicious Rocks - even *humans* had noticed these things didn't belong there, flat chunks of basalt scattered around the courtyard, not like thrown or like poured in place - but couldn't conclude much.
Then went to check out the well at center of courtyard. Was going to dip my waterskin down on rope to get a taste, lowered it, but, seemed to be stuck, although wasn't really anything to be stuck *on*... was pulling on it and water came up. Like, tentacles of water. Was some grappling; nobody ended up in well. Ideh seems to be able to "sploosh" individual tentacles, but not affect main thing (he said it was something called "kami" - it wasn't really clear to me whether kami was a guy in there doing that to the water, or the water itself; I just wanted to avoid it, really).
It didn't seem to be able to reach us as long as we stayed back, so, not on top of priorities list. Found the cellars, notably a) large hole presumably connecting to Acuran and b) underground spring/river feeding well. Ideh tried throwing some fire at it and was remarkably polite about nearly hitting me instead.
Unanswered questions: What exactly was summoned? Is it still around, and if so, in what form? If not, what is? Are there lots of different problems, or one big one? Did same thing kill all former new owners? What and how? And, of course, how do we get rid of it/them?
Think we might want to go back to town, try to find more records about other people who tried to move in, prepare a little more specifically (did take two days but I know I was mostly doing personal training). Come back prepared to stay the night as protected as possible - for one, get necklace from Cedar if he's not going to come help himself. Two, I hate to say it but magic... even I have heard of protection spells.
After standing slack-jawed for what could have been a few hours the party finally decided to follow the Mayor back to his keep. There he offered the party some land and a keep on the outskirts of the upper city if they go through the minor trouble of clearing it. The party thanked him and said "we've had a big day, so we're just going to go sleep for 48 hours". Well, the didn't quite sleep, but they did go to mull things over. Everyone seems to be acting a little different. Some more than others. Cor holed up for 24 hours straight, while Kanton seemed even more brooding than normal, tired to walk around the woods, but came back sooner than expected to bum around the city. Barg's been going around saying weird things, talking about the health effects of following the temple of healing, and managed to almost blind himself by trying to look at the magic of his mask. Cedar and Lucan kept mentioning things like drapes and wine cellars.Eventually, the group got back to the Mayor, and he presented them more information on the keep to be cleaned. Cedar and Lucan actually recognized the keep from their dreams (whether or not they told someone is up to them). The mayor also suggested that the party take on representative of the Rokanoi people named Hasha Ide. A man of medium hight and long straight black hair with a pale complexion, he's relatively reserved. e was introduced as a scholar, but the Mayor assured the party he could hold his own in a fight. Ide later informed the party that he was a whisperer who talks to the Kami.
So Ide, Barg, and Cor eventually were ready to go out to this keep, but they couldn't drag Cedar and Lucan away from the drawing boards. Oh well, they'll see it later.
The three went to the keep, snuck in through a access hole, and found a fun well where the water comes up and tries to give you a big hug. After pulling Ide out of it's embrace, the three went further exploring. In the cellar of the keep, they found what appeared to be a hole to the Akuren, and also found the stream that feeds the well. Ide decided to see if he could hit the wter creature with fire and nearly scorched Cor (promting the previous scene). The fire seemed to have no great effect. Action will be picked up there.
Chris joined us and spent the session preparing his character. His character will probably join the party next session.