The Foxglove Manor

“The Foxglove Manor”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 28
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Countryside" "In My Room"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes again ride out to the Foxglove Manor, but this time they get there.

The Foxglove Manor

Early in the morning I was woken by Velicia. She was unbearably spirited. I was still very tired and hadn't slept that good, even though I slept in a bed. I had had nightmares about ghouls appearing out of a dense fog attacking me with gleaming red eyes. But after a quick breakfast I felt better and we left the sanatorium heading towards the bridge over Cougar's Creek. The sun had risen, but it was still quite dark below the heavy clouds. Fog still came rolling in from the west, giving the light a slightly sickly yellowish tone. We rounded the Ashen Rise and turned south.

After crossing Soggy River I was on edge. I had too vivid memories of the ghouls from yesterday, worsened by my nightmares. We reached the last bridge before the manor, crossing Foxglove River, and left the horses guarded by Orik. He's proved to be trustworthy. And practical. Anyway, we didn't want any ghouls sneaking up on the horses while we were inside the manor.

We continued on foot, turning west, following a smaller road, hardly more than a path. It was slightly up hill as the road wind through the landscape along the river that run in a ravine, getting deeper as we went on. The weather kept the same or worse and even though it didn't rain we still got wet from the fog. As we got closer to the coast we noted that on a small rise was a manor standing near the edge of the sea. As we approached it got colder. Before we reached the manor we stopped to prepare ourselves. Honeypot cast some rituals including message and after some discussion, protection from necromancy on Nathaniel. Honeypot also quickened our step.

In front of the manor, there were ruins of a burnt down outhouse. It's stone foundation and a well was nearly all that was left. Velicia, Dorothea and Honeypot took a closer look at the well. I and Nathaniel stayed on the road. Dorothea dropped a stone in the well. If they saw anything it wasn't worth mentioning to us. There were ravens sitting on the ruins. After staring at them Dorotea said that they were undead ghoulish birds. Dorothea cast her magic at one, but missed. She didn't miss the second time. The other ravens took off. The sound of the sea came distorted through the fog. I felt vulnerable out there so I walked up to Nathaniel and suggested that we should continue on to the main house. He agreed and told the others to hurry up.

Ghouls in front of Foxglove manor.

The manor itself was a three story high wooden house, looking to be in a bad state of decay. We saw no light through any of the windows. It looked abandoned. We went up to the main doors and Nathaniel knocked on the door. I was surprised. I thought that we would sneak up on Aldern and just kill him. Then announcing our arrival in this way would be strange. There was no answer but as we waited and listened nervously, someone said they heard sobbing from higher up in the house. Nathaniel tried the door, but it was locked. I tried the key we found earlier and it unlocked the door. We opened it and took a peek inside. I called out when the dim light penetrating the heavy clouds fell on the monster standing in the hall. It was a lion with a scorpions tail and a human head. Then I saw it was stuffed and in a bad state, leaking sawdust. Velicia said it was called a manticore.

The air inside was stale. Further in I could see trophies of animals hanging on the wall. There were fireplaces on both sides and an arch which was carved with gargoyles and skeletons. I don't like that motif. As we thought the sobbing came from upstairs we took the stairs to the immediate right in the hall room.