Session Four

***Thorn watches as Mirarook and Tansy finish gathering up the bones, his earlier sullenness replaced with a curious expression.***

## The Party

* Alyssandra, the Human Paladin/Warlock.
* Dakira, the Dragonborn Bard.
* Kalil, the Half-Elf Sea Sorcerer.
* Mirarook, the Half-Orc Monk.
* Tansy, the Tiefling Light Cleric.

## The Descent

Mirarook and Tansy finished gathering the bones while the rest of the party finished questioning the children, and Kalil and Alyssandra waited impatiently for them to finish. With some persuasion, Dakira managed to get more information from Rose about Walter, Miss Cyntia, and her parents. Though she didn't know all of the particular words or details, she was able to explain that Mama and Miss Cyntia had an affair, leading to Miss Cyntia getting pregnant with Walter. This infuriated their other mother, leading to many fights between the parents that eventually resolved into icy silence and ignoring each other, and Rose would hear Mommy angrily talking to "her friends" about the two of them, and later that they "deserved it" when Walter was a stillborn. Some time after Walter's birth, Mommy told the children Miss Cyntia "went away" and she would not be coming back. When the children asked where Miss Cyntia had gone, as she had left without saying goodbye, Mommy lashed out at them in anger, leading to the children avoiding her as well as the subject.

Once both groups were finished, they left for the room with the passage down to the attic, taking Rose and Thorn's bones with them in an attempt to lay them to rest.

## Deeper and Down

### The Storage Room

Upon opening the door to this room, the party was briefly assailed by deeply troubling visions, leaving Tansy, Kalil, and Dakira shaken by what they saw. As the visions faded, they all found themselves in a dusty room filled with furniture covered by dirty sheets: tables, chairs, standing mirrors, coat racks, and more. The only things not covered by sheets were an old wooden chest and the small iron stove right beside it.

Inspecting the chest, Kalil found a skeleton  wrapped in a rotten, bloodstained sheet, wearing the tattered remains of a servant's uniform. A pair of rusty knives were wedged into the chest with the skeleton, and the inside of the lid had a small number of light scratches carved into it. Kalil quickly abandoned the chest. Tansy said a few words over the remains, wondering if this might be the missing Miss Cyntia. Unsure, the party discussed trying to provide these bones a proper burial as well, but ultimately decided to do so later, and to make getting out a priority. Tansy suggested turning the whole house into a funeral pyre, once they were out.

That decided, they agreed to move on, looking for the door to the basement. They found it easily, as it had not been hidden, though they were also sure it had not been there when they first came inside.

### Into the Basement

The stairwell down to the basement level was cramped and dark, the walls were covered in mold, and the cobwebs were so dense that it was hard for the party to see as they followed the spiralling stairs downwards. They ended up in a series of small, cramped tunnels that were carved from the earth itself, and an incomprehensible chanting echoed through the dark corridors, though the source was too distant and the echoes were bouncing too much for the party to be able to understand what they were hearing.

Tansy felt a pull towards the north-west, and followed it, leading the way.

### The Family Crypts

Tansy, and those following her, discovered earthen crypts, carved in much the same way as the corridors. The two she was led to each had a heavy stone slab serving as the door, and a name carved into the space above each of the crypts. These crypts bore the names of the children, one reading "Rosevalda Durst" and the other reading "Thornboldt Durst." The party decided to inspect Thorn's first, pushing the stone out of the way with some effort to reveal an empty, adult-sized coffin inside. As the party watched, Thorn's ghost appeared in the crypt, looking around before crawling inside of his coffin where he curled up sleepily. Tansy and Alyssandra sorted out his bones, seemingly aided by a supernatural force that guided their hands to the correct bones, and laid them inside the coffin, afterwhich his ghost disappeared.

While the party moved on to Rose's crypt, Mirarook went to search for the crypts belonging to the parents. She found them just across the hall in their own alcove, one reading "Elisabeth Durst" and the other reading "Greta Durst," and each with a stone slab in front of the doorway. As she set to work prying them open, the party had managed to open Rose's crypt, which was also empty save for the large coffin and centuries worth of grime. Rose's ghost appeared inside the doorway of her crypt, staring at her coffin. Tansy asked if she was ready to sleep, to which Rose replied that she didn't know.

Meanwhile, with the help of her crowbar, Mirarook had managed to work the slab away from Greta's crypt to see inside. She found that it was empty as well as undisturbed, there was no sign that the stone had been pushed away before, nor that anything had ever entered or exited this place. She moved on to Elisabeth's crypt, which after opening she found was littered with insects both dead and alive. Noticing movement and noise from inside the coffin, she stepped inside, moving in to inspect the coffin. She was immediately swarmed by a torrent of insects pouring out of the walls, ground, and ceiling.

Across the hall, Kalil asked Alyssandra what happens to ghosts who "stay too long" while they watched Tansy talking with the ghost girl. Both of these conversations were cut short as Mirarook shouted for help, and the party left the children's crypts for the moment to go help Mirarook, with varying degrees of urgancy.  In the ensuing battle, Alyssandra's raven was killed by the swarm, Mirarook almost followed suit, and the party had a difficult time in the confined space of the tunnels, but they proved victorious in the end.

The group moved back across the hall, with Mirarook picking stray and dead centipedes off of herself and crushing the live ones beneath her boots. She apologized for splitting up after having agreed none of them should split up, and explained that she had found the mothers' crypts, which were completely empty and unused. She also said that the chanting briefly grew louder as the insects had attacked, "like they were being encouraged."

As Mirarook offered an apology for the loss of Alyssandra's bird - which Alyssandra explained was unnecessary, as she could summon Merletta again whenever she had the time - Tansy approached Rose again, who had not moved from the position they had left her in, to gently ask if she had made her choice. Rose said nothing for a moment before replying that she knew what she was supposed to do, and that she was not meant to be here, but that she didn't want to go. Tansy, stopping herself from reaching a hand out to the girl, offered her sincere condolences. Eventually, Rose nodded and approached her coffin, staring down into it as Tansy tearfully arranged her bones inside of it. As the last bone was placed inside, the girl's ghost faded, and was gone.

The children's ghosts laid to rest, Tansy managed to stop crying and went to regroup with the others, asking what the plan was. Alyssandra, uncomfortable at all the emotions on display today, said that the plan is to move out. Kalil made a snide remark about the children and coffins, which prompted Tansy to burst into tears again, moving away from the party while Mirarook and Dakira both scolded him and Dakira smacked him. Kalil expressed confusion over crying, saying his father had forbidden them from doing so, and asked how long it would last. Mirarook replied that it would last until he went over and apologized. Kalil refused, instead asking if the party was ready to move yet. As Dakira offered Tansy some comforting words, Alyssandra spoke up in agreement, saying it would be best if they moved on.

Pulling herself together, Tansy agreed, offering once more to lead the way.

## Things Gained

* A point of Inspiration for putting the bones to rest.
* The awareness that Merletta is actually Alyssandra's familiar.
* A deeper appreciation for not splitting the party.
* A deeper dislike of this house and everything about it.

## Developments

The party found Cyntia's bones in a chest in the attic.

The party discovered the secret door to the basement.

The party gained their first level, and are now Level 2.

The party found the crypts of Rose and Thorn.

The party found Elisabeth and Greta's crypts, which were empty and showed no signs of tampering.

The party has lain Rose and Thorn to rest, allowing the children to move on.