Malignant Mansion Minions

At the monastery gate, our group was asked to leave their weapons with the guard, as the monks were not the fighting type and did not relish violent or threatening atmosphere in their home. Saralahan, Larry and Pot left their weapons (at least those the guard could see) at the gate. Kolban, of course, refused to part with his adored weapons, and remained outside. It was for probably for the best, as his stench was getting worse and would have probably frightened monks and animals both inside the monastery.

Inside the walls, Pot O'Gold decided to go to the temple, which was more like a library than anything else and read what he could about this Monastery and it's Order's principles and tenets.

Larry and Sarlahan were shown to the guest rooms, where they met Ad. Ad was a local human, who seemed to know quite a bit about the surrounding area and was rather curious about the strangers before him. When Pot O'Gold joined their conversation, having finished at the temple, they exchanged stories, or rather, the leprechaun blabbed everything he could while Ad mostly listened and answered some minor questions.

After the conversation was mostly over, the monks invited them to supper. During the supper, Sarlahan decided it was not right that Kolban should sleep alone outside the walls, and so went to join him, only to eventually convince the Half-Orc brute to let the guard have his weapons while he slept next to the guard's post, close to his weapons.

Two hours after everyone went to sleep, except for the guard, and the insomniac Ad, who meditated instead, an uneasy feeling came upon everyone inside the monastery walls. When they came out of their rooms, the feeling grew worse, and when they looked up, they saw a very low cloud-like substance flowing at high speed above them. After a while, a low, rather too dramatic moan was heard as well, much like an exaggerated imitation of a haunting ghost.
Ad let his raven familiar loose to check the strange cloud, only to fall unconscious straight into his arms.

Taking note of the north eastern direction the cloud came from, our heroes decided to investigate it in the morning, after some more sleep....maybe.

Six hours of uneasy sleep later, breakfast was quickly served. The abbot had a quiet word with Ad while the group still ate their simple yet delicious breakfast. It wasn't too difficult for Ad to convince the four 'brave' adventurers to investigate the recent weird events in the forest and maybe save their kidnapped friend. The latter part was probably why they resisted so long.

The group accepted some much needed provisions from the monks and quickly left toward the north east. Following Ad, who was a local and seemed to know where he was going, they took a long abandoned trail into the forest, it's only known destination being an old, large mansion surrounded by the forest, it's history not very well known.

The walk was uneasy and the group tried to stay alert as they went deeper and deeper into the ever oppressive forest. Eventually, someone spotted some cloth on the leaf-covered ground, only to discover the body of a half-elven scout. The scout was wearing a king's seal ring, meaning he was a royal agent. Ad recognized the man.

Our heroes quickly established that the scout had been dead about 2 days, yet was not injured in any way. Pot O'Gold could only guess that it was some sort of heart attack even though the scout was young (for a half-elf) and quite fit. A more magical investigation by Ad determined that the black art of Necromancy was involved.

Trying to lure the scout's killer, Ad decided to burn the body right there in the middle of the trail, while he and the other hid behind some trees, waiting. In a matter of minutes, five bat-like creatures flew in from the direction of the mansion and circled around the still burning body. When the fire finally gave out, the bats landed on the ashes and starting feasting.

Larry, losing patience, fired a bolt at the ugly creatures. While the first shot missed, the second one aggravated the little beasts and they swarmed towards him. Ad, however, managed to fry them with a spell just before they landed on Larry, injuring them badly. The 'battle of the bats' was quickyl over and gained the party five Nightwing heads with poisoned fangs.

The party moved on, reaching the mansion a day and a half after leaving the monastery. More bat-like creatures were circling the mansion from above, but otherwise the place seemed abandoned and incredibly old.

A quick survey of possible entrances into the building came to naught as they realized all the windows and doors were warded, with something, Ad explained, that would probably explode.
Then, someone pointed at the chimney, where the bat-like creatures seemed to enter and exit the mansion without hindrance. Our heroes waited for a lull in the Nightwings chimney dives and as fast as they could, threw a rope down the chimney and climbed in.

Landing on the third floor of the mansion, the five adventurers found themselves in the corner room of the mansion. Another search showed a secret door to a room replete with art of all sorts. Obviously, the 'heroes' took whatever they could easily carry, which was mostly the pictures without their frames and a little gold statue. Behind a curtain in the room, the found a nursery, the skeleton of a baby still in the crib. They quickly walked out , minding the rather large holes in the wooden floor.

Taking the more visible door out of the corner room, they found a corridor with four doors and a stairway going down at the far end. Larry quickly unlocked the first door to his right, only to see another nursery and a large creature, seemingly sewn together from body parts. The creature started towards the door. As Larry quickly closed the door behind him, the foot falls stopped. Opening the door again, the creature again walked towards the door. Reaching the door, the creature eventually just slammed the door shut.

The adventurers quickly surveyed the other three rooms on the floor, finding nothing except the urge to open that first door and annoy a creature they took to be an undead of some kind. So, to indulge their urges, Kolban ripped the door out of it's frame, forcing the massive creature to come at them.

A sort of pathetic battle ensued, the powerful attacks the group could muster against the creature had no seeming effect and neither did the bottle of holy water thrown at it by Pot O'Gold. Larry convinced his friends to run to towards the first nursery they had found and try to fool the damned monster to fall down a floor or two. The plan failed as the monster stepped over the large hole in the floor. The two fighters, Sarlahan and Kolban, decided to try a different tactic and tackled the creature. While the creature fell down, it did not fall through the floor, Kolban solved the problem by attacking the offensive wooden planks. The creature finally fell, but so did Pot O'Gold, Larry and Sarlahan. Sarlahan caught himself before hitting any floors, while Pot O'Gold was caught by his friends. Larry simply hit the floor and climbed onto Sarlahan to get back up.

Moving on, they went down the stairs after making sure the creature they had just pushed through the floor, was not there. It wasn't. However, they found a rather disturbing storage area of dead bodies, it was kept cold somehow, and the bodies were mutilated but fresh. Quickly moving on at the sight of the 'pantry', the five heroes came upon a large room with bunk beds in it. Also in the room, were ten skeletons, animated and moving towards them. The battle fast, mostly because Pot O'Gold called upon his goddess to turn some of the undead away, and because of the tendency of Kolban's and Sarlahan's attacks to go through several targets in the same swing.

It was there they decided to rest.