Book II - Chapter IX: The Haunting of Trollskull Manor

[uberwulfx]

Crystal turned her head to the sight and sound of Jinn opening the path. The small, relieved smile that appeared for having made progress was wiped immediately when the scent hit her nose, the girl clenching her teeth as she likewise steadied the grip on her stomach and weapon.

Vincent and Cerys were in first, with Crystal right on their heels. Even before she cleared the door, Raziel was out; she only needed to see the form before launching two beams of energy from her sword.

((Eldritch Blast: 22, 9 Force; 18, 7 Force))

[Ancelas]

Vincent cast his spiritual weapon into the chamber, the conjuration tearing a chunk out of the shadow creature on one side as Cerys bounded past Jinn and Rey, through the gap in the wall, and launched herself into the fight, jaws flashing. The hag shadow seemed more resilient against the wolve's fangs than the magical weapon, but the attack was quickly followed by a pair of smoking red blasts of energy that struck the shadow and forced it back against the wall.

Raziel hissed in Crystal's grip. <There is more than one enemy here,> the voice whispered in the back of her mind.

The crying, screaming, gurgling, wailing from the cauldron intensified and poured out of the cauldron like a viscous sludge, filling the ears of Cerys, Crystal, Jinn, and Rey ((DC 13 Wisdom Save please. If you fail, you cannot take Reactions and you attack with Disadvantage until noted otherwise. You can repeat this save at the start of your next turn)). As the noise burbled out of the cauldron, it hiss and popped, churned and roiled, and a mass of the horrible stew lurched up and out at Cerys, opening a maw full of malformed human teeth to bite down on her haunch, globs of hot stew popping at her eyes.

((Cerys: Bite attack misses, make a DC 13 Dex save to avoid being Blinded.))

The hag shadow, meanwhile, cackled despite its wounds and brought its hand around to caress Cerys' muzzle, drawing lines of necrotic flesh where its fingers touched flesh. ((15 to hit, 7 necrotic damage.))

((If Cerys fails either save, the hag shadow will move as well.))

[uberwulfx]

((Reaction))

"Hn--!" Even though she noted that her attacks hit true, she felt something off. "There's something else here," she called out to her allies, "stay alert!"

[Kyt]

Rey flinched at the horrid wailing, cursing again under her breath how they'd ever gotten caught up in this. They weren't getting out of the house until this was dealt with, though, and she wasn't going to go down quietly.

Trudging forward, she focused on the cauldron while keeping an eye on the shadow. "Yo, smash-n-crash!" She called towards Jinn. "This shit needs to be dumped!"

((Dodge Action only))

[opius]

The fuck was that noise...
The fuck were those teeth...
That stew... Something was in there that gave him pause. Something about it was down right terrifying. And just as fear began creeping up to rattle the maul from his hand, Rey called the play and he was brought back into the fight.
Nostrils flared, brows cocked into something as confused as it was ugly, Jinn charged and dropped his maul. He needed both hands, after all. The water was boiling, and he knew it was going to hurt, but things had gotten real personal real quick. It wasn't about self preservation.
It was about sending a message.
Steam escaped the collar of his shirt and lifted from his exposed flesh to join the sauna of a room they were in as his muscles bulged. His skin glistened, his hair shined, and in so few short steps between the entrance and the pot Jinn transformed into an embodiment of strength-like some idol of sculpted marble.

((Channel Divinity: Peerless Athlete))

And with muscles bared, fueled by an anger he knew and a strength he didn't fully understand, Jinn ducked low to heave the pot off the ground... and then he heaved. Up and up and overhead, to then twist and slam the pot down- this time, with the lip facing the ground- and its owner. "Get. In. The. Pot."

((Athletics with advantage: 18 on die, +4 from bless. 32))

[Ancelas]

Jinn's body radiated with golden, glistening light as he charged forward and grabbed the cauldron, hands sizzling from the touch against hot metal. With a great and mighty heave, he lifted the cursed cauldron - which, being solid iron, weighed quite a bit empty, let alone full of the viscous, sloshing semi-liquid inside - and tilted it back upon the shadow behind it.

The green flames beneath the cauldron flared as Jinn roared and flipped the pot end over end, its contents spilling out across the entity beyond it. The creature hissed and shrieked, its shadowy form flickering and smoking as the 'stew' sloughed off of it to smother the fire that had been lit beneath the cauldron, bubbling and churning with a life of its own.

The stew roiled and began to rise, slimy tendrils reaching out to lash at the air, full of teeth and bone and eyes that rolled and stared at the world around it in blank incomprehension.

[opius]

((reaction))

"... FUCK!"

[CautionCat]

Vincent got closer so his light could illuminate the creatures beyond the door, where his allies had gone. With some words under his breath, he would cast Guiding Bolt at the hag. With his bonus action, he commanded his spiritual blade to also attack her.

(Guiding Bolt: 17 to hit, 20 radiant, next attack on this creature is at advantage on a hit. Spiritual blade: 20 to hit, 11 force damage.)

[Ancelas]

Vincent's blast of radiant energy struck the hag shadow square in the chest. With a shriek, white cracks spread throughout the entity as it scratched at the air, and after a moment, it seemed to explode into splinters of darkness that flew out across the cellar room for several feet before coming to a quivering stop. The shards were then pulled back inward, down into the writhing entity that had occupied the shadow's cookpot.

It bubbled and stretched, whispered and cried and screamed, further agitated by the splinters of darkness lodged within it. As it began to rear up, Vincent's spiritual blade plunged into it, the viscous flesh burning and popping.

The hag shadow appeared anchored within the monstrous stew it had cooked in life. Without the anchor that was the entity writhing on the floor, there would be nothing left to bind it to the house.

[redcoat]

Cerys, growling and barking with rage, did not pause to consider whether she 'should' bite a slime creature made of ooze, eyes, and teeth. She'd just bite it.

((Bite attack, 24 to hit, 12 piercing damage and it needs to make a DC 13 saving throw to avoid being knocked prone- but I doubt that's relevant))

[uberwulfx]

Crystal maneuvered to the wall to give her clear line-of-sight, after which she called out, "Watch out, Cerys!" Raziel's tip sparked to life once more, an arc of red electricity leaping between it and the creature and holding like a tether.

((Witch Bolt: 10 to hit, 13 Lightning))

[Ancelas]

Cerys bit down and began tearing lumps of the foul-tasting creature free of its body, hurling chunks away from it as it lashed at the air, screaming and crying and laughing and cursing all the while. As Cerys tore her jaws free of the mass, Crystal swung her smoking blade around, red lightning crackling along its length before leaping from the tip to strike the creature in its core.

The myriad voices all seemed to come together as the entity seemed to with draw in on itself, a greasy, slime-covered hand reaching up from the center of its mass, followed by another, and then a shrieking, ghastly head... but then, in the midst of reaching for the Lucky Hand, the entity seemed to loose all coherency and abruptly slopped to the ground as all the glowing green witchlights scattered about the room abruptly went dark.

All was silent.

Then a sharp CRACK rang out, as the overturned cauldron split in two. The floor at their feet was a wet, sticky smear. The stifling heat in the cellar seemed to relent, and a sudden weight lifted off their shoulders, as though something that had been pressing down on them during their entire investigation through the house had finally relented.

They were alone.

[Kyt]

Rey had been prepared to help Jinn shove the cauldron over, only for him to just lift the whole godsdamned thing and flip it on the hag.

The others swarmed it, and she got ready to add her steel to it, swinging back-

Only to see the bubbling, writhing mess just....collapse. Everything was wet, and dark.

".......What just happened?" ]

[opius]

Jinn was silent for a few moments, staring at the busted cauldron, staring at the... goo. The toothy, hairy... goo. In the dim of Vincent's spiritual weapon, the others could see he was fixated... Chest rising and falling as his blistered fingers and knuckles twitched. He... wasn't panting.
He appeared to be seething. The steam still rose from under his collar and off of his forearms while that sort of... glisten and glow diminished only slightly off of his exposed skin.

"...The fuck was that..." In a gravely whisper he posed the question, but not to anyone in the room. He knew his people didn't have answers for whatever that thing was.

It took a few more seconds for him to come to before he looked about the room, the wild look in his eyes mellowing out some. "...Everyone okay? We... We good?" He glanced over his shoulder to the ladder.

[CautionCat]

The light from Vincent's mace still glimmered from the end, as he raised it and moved into the room. The spiritual blade would fade, and vanish from their sight as he inspected the area. He was quiet, brows knitted and twitching.

"I don't know what the hell that was, but it seems to be gone. Maybe the spirits can finally rest, now whatever haunting the place has been taken care of."

He looked to the ladder, as Jinn glanced over, and nodded. "I'm good, does anyone need healing?"