We replaced a couple of players and/or characters on the fly, and we continued into the dungeon/mansion. Or rather, the dungeon/mansion attacked us by having the ghost return and possess Aris, who then came to stab me. We slapped him silly, but then the ghost possessed Teek, who was a tougher nut to crack. We knocked her out too, and then finally defeated the ghost before it could possess anybody again.
In the meantime, Khebab ran to give the star map to the not-nothic (as we decided to call it, having no knowledge in-game about it), and got a passphrase in return to access the hidden cellar. Cool.
After a short rest, as we were badly battered, I sneaked down a level for some reconnaisance.
We had one non-violent (eh, rather semi-violent) encounter in an alchemy lab, where some cultists were preparing potions. They were rather uncooperative, but I knocked out their boss in one blow, and the other adventurers piled into the room. We found out that they worship someone called Krokul'mar, and that they expect some sort of reward. Other than that, they are lowly cultists with no knowledge of anything. Figures. We knocked them out and tied them up.
We looted a bucketload of statues and paintings from the gallery before proceeding to an empty office, where a bunch of letters showed how Marcos first studied astronomy, then descended into the study of extra planar beings. Including some conversations with Dr. Dannell!
On the right, a couple of seemingly empty rooms contained suspicious looking oil stains on the walls and floor, which moved after I threw a dagger at it. We lined up at the doors and knocked the oil-monsters out when they attacked. Unfortunately, they rusted Thaldohr's warhammer.
On the ground floor, I sneaked around until I encountered a mimic. I shouted for help, and the crew soon descended upon the hapless monster. Then, we opened the hidden door it was guarding, and was beset by giant tadpoles. Aris conjured a sphere of fire, and the door grew fangs - like shooting fish in a barrel!
After progressing through a stinky kitchen and finding the stairs to the cellar, we were met by animated armors, and then some fleshy blob monsters. We beat them mercilessly.
Finally, another empty office guarded by an animated rug and two flying swords. Just like duck hunt.
We descended into a small wine cellar. Khebab said the words, and a barrel opened up into a larger room, where a congregation of cultists were taking notes regarding a giant monster statue. In the interest of time, we decided not to engage them.
We did discover Erra's similarly beheaded, but still "living" companions in the side room, as well as some cultist robes, which we donned. Then, the final descent towards a staircase glowing in red light.
There, Marcos and three other cultists were doing something to Erra's body - it had a small worm one its neck. I greeted Marcos but failed to engage, so we attacked.
In a stroke of genius, Tinkerbell, our new fairy rogue, cast Tasha's hideous laughter on Marcos, disabling him for the entire fight. The cultists fought us, and we noticed that our strikes miss them when the crystals shine brighter. So we broke the crystals instead, then knocked out the cultists. And we also killed the worm, just in case.
When the crystals broke and the worm died, all the nasty effects in the mansion dissipated, and Erra finally died for good. We tied up Marcos and delivered him, tome and all, to Talistrom, for a perfect score.
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