Amabel Villa is Haunted

The Freelancers Tavern in Ripa Daneo was abuzz with the news:  Ondar, Glesni, Osric, Nix, Kaelani, and Kaikoa had shipped out from Cliffshadow to fortify Damakaios' crew and would arrive soon after the new year.  Even more shocking was the news of what had led to this turn of events:  the heretical Daystar cult had broken their people out of the Cliffshadow Church of Storms, and stolen the holy weapon Bright Thunder.  The Freelancers had tracked it down and killed the escapees, but the cult leaders who'd broken them out were still at large.  A packet had arrived with the details, as Arnari had bothered to use lesser teleport to inform both Damakaios and Tanglar.

Dryali was beside himself at the audacity, even with the satisfaction of knowing Gillian of the Daystar cult was dead.  Ana and Cathance were sympathetic to the story, having been caught in the bard Petersen's audience stun before.  They re-told their own story to any who'd care to listen.  They also tried to explain just how tall Ondar was, but hearing that from a Maker gnome and a Mikumwes halfling just made the listeners laugh, except for Naranjos.

The news had made them restless, and Quelenna too, so the three of them went up to the 2nd floor to Damakaios' office.  His door was open and he waved them in cheerfully.
Quelenna took a seat near the pool of daylight from the window.
Ana took the chair most directly in front of Damakaios' desk; it was far too big.
Cathance took an appropriate-sized chair and stretched her legs in front of her.

Damakaios set aside the stack of papers he'd been reading, then opened a drawer and pulled out two pieces of paper, then opened another drawer and pulled out two more.  He immediately launched into reciting missions, almost as if he wasn't wanting to field questions about the incoming Freelancers, Daystar cult, or Church of Storms.

First – investigate Amabel Villa.  You killed the giant shark, that's good, but Tahu saw stuff in the building, and you never entered the house!

Damakaios looked at the other papers he'd pulled out.

House Hadid wants a couple of magic reactants.  One is troll blood and teeth.  One is phase spider venom.

Fourth – Vathia Estia Tunnels – still travelers under attack.  The Tunnel Authority wants Freelancers to investigate and make it stop.

Cathance:  how big are phase spiders?
Quelenna:  are they bigger than the two with me in the room here?
Damakaios:  they are a particularly nasty large spider as big as a pegasus
Cathance:  big enough to eat me
Damakaios:  everything is big enough to eat you
Ana:  I'm considering if I want one to ride
Damakaios:  do you really want to be touching a spider that big?
Cathance <musing>:  strange they don't want the spider silk.
Damakaios <looked at papers again>:  also they do actually
Cathance:  still not into spiders that can eat me.  Where do we think there are trolls?
Damakaios:  occasionally inside Commerce, off the tunnels.  That's kind of the same thing you'd do for spiders.
Cathance:  so how do we know it's not related to the other mission?
Damakaios:  go for these two, from the top [of the tunnels], the other problem is from the bottom.  Maybe the same; probably something different.
Quelenna:  my choices are the Villa or the tunnels.  These others are not that interesting.
Cathance:  what do these pay?
Damakaios:  Tunnel, Villa:  250gp/person.  Phase spiders/trolls are per item.
Cathance:  if 3 of 4 are in tunnels –
Ana:  I feel Villa.  We might find something interesting!
Quelenna:  I really am curious about this house.
Cathance:  we don't have rogue.
Quelenna:  you feel strongly?
Cathance:  I feel strongly about not being eaten by spiders.

So, Amabel Villa it would be.

The three Freelancers went over to Amabel Villa unhurriedly on the streets.  Cathance was riding Jigsaw, and Ana was on Pelorus, which brought them roughly to eye level with Quelenna.  However the mounts were somewhat offended that they had to partially trot to keep up with Quelenna's long strides.  As they walked, they talked about their two known points of entry from the atrium, and decided they would go into the building from where the harpies had been.

The Freelancers approached the house, and looked at the overgrown walls.  They saw that the outward-facing windows were blocked by wrist-sized vines.

Quelenna:  so with the money these people have paid, and are paying, for this house, one wonders if they could buy another house.
Cathance:  the wilds are right there!
Quelenna:  if I remember, the house was not cheap – not cheap to buy.  I'm happy to take their money, but am wondering!
Ana:  it's the location.  It's probably worth several hundred thousand gold.

They flew up, over the atrium, to land on the balcony, Quelenna using her Winged Boots.  Looking around they saw a lot of harpy sign, especially nesting.

Cathance:  want gem of brightness?
Quelenna:  I suspect it will make us a target.

Ana broke out her spellbook, and began a ritual cast of detect magic, complete with high-quality mumbling and occasional dramatic turn of pages.  It was very performative, and Quelenna was so impressed.  Cathance made a face.  Once Ana was finished, she looked down from the balcony, frowning slightly.

"There's necromatic magic from the atrium floor," she said, then went to the villa dorway without entering.  "Illusion and divination inside…" she squinted a little, "from two harpy nests to the left."

Cathance told her, "They hoard stuff," and stuck her head in the door to see better.  The ceiling was 10' tall, and the floor was covered in filth, as one would expect if harpies had taken over a room.  It was dimly lit as the daylight filtered through the thick vines covering the windows.

Mindful that ceilings could contain nasty surprises, Cathance studied the ceiling carefully, looking especially for stirges and spiders, but there was nothing, and the ceiling was well-preserved.  She looked at the others, then looked down at the filth, and used prestidigitation so she wouldn't have to stand in it.  Then she stepped inside.

The room was fairly big.  The wall to the right had a couple doors in it, and 10' in front of the farther door, a ghostly thing coalesced.

Cathance:  guys, there's some sort of ghost thing
Ana:  it hasn't attacked us yet.  <eyes narrow>  it's not an illusion
Cathance <to ghost thing>:  hello, why are you here?
Spectre:  ooOOOooooo <sucking sound> ehhhhhhsh <moved towards far wall>

Cathance, unsure of this, prepared to cast ray of frost at the spectre if it moved more than 10' closer, hoping to slow it down.

• The spectre went "Haaaaaahhhhhhhh" and flew towards Cathance.
  • Cathance's ray of frost hit it with a blast of cold, which perhaps slowed it down, but not enough.  Certainly it didn't do as much damage as the little sorcerer expected.
  • The spectre swept out a claw at Cathance, but it went over the Mikumwes halfling's head.
• Quelenna moved next to Cathance, shaking her fans open.  Her first strike missed, but the second slashed at the spectre, and so did her followup offhand strike.  None of these did as much damage as the monk expected.
• A wraith appeared!  It coalesced and with a hissing "Haaaaaaaahhhhhh!" it flew up to Ana.  It looked very intimidating, but as it got to her it bobbled, and then critfail'd, its swiping claw attacking nothing really.
• Like any reasonable wizard, Ana noticed that frost didn't really hurt the spectre as much as expected.  So she cast burning hands, shaping it to avoid her compatriots, with equally disappointing results.

Cathance did not want to learn how it felt to be hit with that claw, so she used misty step to move towards that door to the far right, putting some distance between her and the spectre.  Then she drew deep on a power within her that she did not understand, and sent a chaos bolt at the spectre.  It settled on lightning before it crit, and the spectre dissipated in a storm of electric charge.

• Quelenna slashed at the wraith in front of her, 3 times as before.  Each strike took out chunks of its pallid, translucent flesh, and the wraith made an "Aaaaaahhhhhh" of unhappiness.
• The wraith struck Ana, and necrosis spread throughout the Maker gnome's body.  She felt weakened by the blow, but managed to keep her detect magic going.
  • <Narrator voice:  Because Ana's max HP was reduced.  GM: "are you bloodied?"  Grace:  "no, but I am pissed off.">
• Ana noticed that despite decimating the spectre, the lightning had also been weaker than expected.
  • The wizard also used misty step to get the fuck away from this wraith.
  • She cast an uplevel'd chromatic orb in the wraith's face, which settled on acid before it struck.  Again it had less efficacy than she expected; some of the acid just passed right through the wraith.

Cathance watched that closely, and cast a chromatic orb of her own.  Only her innate luck as a halfling prevented a critfail; but as it was, the orb settled on thunder before it struck, and again did less damage than expected.

• "Guys, it resists the thunder too," Cathance said, her voice plaintive with despair.
  • It occurred to the halfling that her back was to that door, and she looked over her shoulder to see if anything was there.  The room beyond seemed empty in the dim light.
• Quelenna wielded her fans again, missing with the first slash.  The second slash struck and the offhand crit for very little damage.
• The wraith, tired of the fans, spun around to claw at Quelenna's face.  She easily dodged away from its flailing claw.
• Ana cried, "Eat missile, bitch!" and cast magic missile on the wraith.  The three missiles struck it fully and blew the thing apart.

Nothing else in the big room coalesced, so guided by Ana's detect magic, they poked into the four harpy nests scattered about.  They found (and Cathance cleaned off with prestidigitation), a

• pen with an emerald nib, with illusion magic
• silver monocle with divination symbols etched around it, with divination magic
• chunky silver bracelet with 3 large jet stones
• pair of gold earrings with perfectly bright citrines in them

Cathance peered into the room from which the spectre coalesced, taking close care not to go through the door.  "There's a nest, just one," she told the others, "no other doors.  The room looks empty," she finished dubiously.

Ana came closer, and the detect magic sensed some evocation.  "There's 3 magic items in there," she said, "and a strong feeling of necromancy."  She peered at the nest, and saw a pommel sticking up.  "There be scary," she said, because she still felt weakened by the wraith's strike.

The three women discussed what to do.  Unclear what, if anything, would manifest, the Freelancers neither wished to leave the magic items behind, nor be overwhelmed by spectral enemies.  Finally they settled on a plan:  Ana would use mage hand to grab the pommel and run, and everyone would watch what manifested.  They'd flee, and leave as is if it was overwhelming; otherwise just circle back and defeat it.

Cathance got on Jigsaw, and Quelenna stood on the balcony; Pelorus was right in the door.  Ana conjured up the mage hand and grabbed at the pommel; it brought the item towards her, but to her disappointment it was not a pommel, it was a glass jar with a big stopper about the size of Quelenna's fist.

Three wraiths coalesced in the middle of the room.  With a hissing "Haaaaaaaahhhhhh!" they all flew towards Ana, who used misty step to get to Pelorus, then mounted and fled.  By the time they landed on the street, Ana realized the glass jar had evocation magic.

Damakaios was still in his office when they got back, and wasn't quite surprised at hearing tale of wraiths and spectres in the villa.  Upon learning a room had been cleared and another scouted, he doled out 225gp each and took notes, drawing out locations and doors.  The Freelancers told him it was still unclear what the relationship had been between the wraiths and the harpies, if the wraiths were hassling the living, how had they not hassled the harpies?

After reporting to Damakaios, they found Alvyn Ricker Nackle, one of the artificers in Ripa Daneo Freelancers.  He was a Maker gnome with a mechanical bear, and was happy to appraise these found items for fellow Freelancers.

• The pen was an Emerald Pen; its wielder could cast illusory script at will.  Quelenna claimed it, intrigued.
• The monocle was a monocle of inspection; its wearer could cast identify with it 3x/day.  Ana took this, as an incredibly useful fashion accessory.
• The jar held 2 doses of Restorative Ointment, which could heal wounds; Cathance took it to study it.
• The earrings were worth 125gp.
• The bracelet was worth 150gp.

For the rest of the day and into the evening, Ana and Cathance took over the small, 2-person room between Auala and Eirdrimme.  They did not ask, but just moved their stuff into the unused room, figuring they were 2 small persons and thus the room was intended for them.

Ana awoke the next morning feeling more herself, as her rest cleared the weakness imposed upon her by the wraith.

• Quelenna → lvl 6!