Keeper's Homes, Forts, Estates and Places

[Earl of Purple]

Jace's Place

Cheasadh might've had some bad feelings initially, but not any more. Jace never really asked to look after her- he got foisted the job by his tenant proving singularly unreliable in the job of adoptive parent she'd taken upon herself, and at GLoG she has made friends, learnt right from wrong and gained a family. Any bad feelings have been handled and dismissed; there's no real need for them, and his house wasn't really scaled appropriately anyway.

"Uh, sure. Here." Despite offering it to Jace, Cheasadh is reluctant to let go. She doesn't know why, but she likes holding it. Might not be a direct influence of the staff, though.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

Henry doesn't get an immediate answer, during their brief stalking across the front path to the door.
The answer to the dying question comes when she violently shoves the door open and angrily shouts into the house:
"Henry was fucking assassinated! Family meeting please!"

There is quite the commotion from various points of the house, while she moves into the family's meeting parlor.
As before, Eli is lurking by the room's main table, her many legs coiled around a chair somewhere on the ground beneath her bulk. It's a mystery why she hasn't just pushed it somewhere else, given it isn't actually being used as a chair.

Her many eyes lock in on Sarah as she enters and then quickly to the floating eyes behind her.
"Sarah, you seem to have something following you there. And can I help you calm down, you're scaling on the carpet again...um, though I guess being upset isn't unreasonable..."

[Keeper]

Jace's Place

"Alrighty, let's take a look."
Jace takes a deep breath as he picks up the staff from Cheasadh. He focuses himself and gives a good look at the staff as he whispers his usual spell of magic detection. Maybe he can figure out the particular weaves that went into its construction.

The Vadnova House

"What the fuck do you mean fucking assassinated!? Sarah!" Henry loudly responds from the open air next to Sarah. The chill in the air around him is probably even more noticeable inside.
A couple of tiny little blue gouts of icy flame poof into place around him. Yup. They're twins alright.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

"Oh, that's Henry!"
Eli is taking Henry's voice quite in stride, from his icy position. Doesn't seem that bothered by hearing him, after a report of assassination.
"Taking after Granny, huh? She got smote by some paladins!"

"...is that what happened."
A pensive note from Sarah, as she maneuvers herself into a chair, curled up within her cloak and continuing to billow purple-flecked darkness over her surroundings.
"Yes, Henry, you were assassinated. I'll elaborate when everyone else is here, I don't want to repeat myself."

"I hear she was quite the baby, before she was a just a floating, ghostly tentacle head!"
Eli, meanwhile, is still rambling about Granny.

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

"I'm not that different. Am I?" Henry attempts to find a chair big enough for him. Hopefully with room to get his tail out of the way.
"Um. You mean babe, right?" Or is Eli saying that paladins smote Granny when she was an infant? That would be kind of screwed up.
After a little bit of regular conversation the flames start to go out and Henry slowly fades back into visibility. Not completely though.

[Ironsmith]

Jace's Place

"Alrighty, let's take a look."
Jace takes a deep breath as he picks up the staff from Cheasadh. He focuses himself and gives a good look at the staff as he whispers his usual spell of magic detection. Maybe he can figure out the particular weaves that went into its construction.

[Jace's Place]

First and foremost, the staff's weaves strongly imply that it's a device of extraplanar origin. No mere human could have created something like this; it's a spirit and a physical relic bound together with all the integrity of a natural-born mortal. Mobility and senses have been sacrificed in favor of strong arcane abilities. Chief among them, the staff has some animakinetic abilities; it can sense and alter the spiritual energies of anything it touches, including itself. Everything else is secondary; its previous user apparently had an affinity for animals and water, and the staff allows the user to manipulate both. It'll be difficult to tell exactly what all it allows the user to actually do, but those are the running themes.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

"Probably!"
The bright smile on Eli's face isn't that encouraging.

Sarah is still billowing quite strongly, as evidently anger is a quite easily sustained emotion for her.
She turns her head towards the entrance as the rest of the family shuffles in.

Mark is in first, jerky head movements indicating him looking quickly between the three already in the room.
Behind him, a very, incredibly, distressingly tall man stoops his way through the door frame dressed in rumpled night clothes. A moment later, a purple mass of...goo? slides its way into the room with what looks like a wrapped-up painting lodged in the top of it.
The tall man speaks up first, in a rumbling sort of deep voice.
"We're here. Elaborate."

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

"Is that everyone?" Henry asks despite himself. He remembers being told of his two other half-siblings and their father. In theory if the Vadnovas always come in pairs does that mean he has an aunt or uncle? Maybe they passed too.
But either way even if the ooze and the painting are two people that still leaves Granny absent.
"Um. Apparently I got killed just outside the gate or something? Everything in the last few weeks is really fuzzy,
...
You're going to have to remind me about all of your names. Everything after I woke up my first morning here is a blur and pain."
Henry squirms as he keeps sinking into his seat and having to get back on top.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

not Syncope again dammit stay in your laneSarah rather testily adds onto Henry's incredibly concise report.
"He was laying in the mud outside the gate with several severe lacerations and punctures on his back. Sword or claw, I don't know. I tried to help him, but he was already gone, and I...believe my scales turned him into a ghost? That part confuses me, but seems less important than the murder.

"It was the house, child, not you. Perhaps through you, but Henry is still entirely stained with the curse."
A more stately voice speaks up, from underneath the cover on the goo's back. The tall man reaches over and lifts it up, removing the blanket and tossing it on a nearby chair.

It is a very expensive looking portrait of a severe-looking man in some form of ceremonial military suit, seated in a brass chair and staring directly at Henry. None of it is moving, not even the eyes (despite definitely looking right at Henry), yet it speaks.
"I do agree that the matter of the killing itself should be a priority. It must be determined if it was a singular, troubling event, or a harbinger of more attempts upon the family."

During all of this, the goo-blob jiggles and rises up a bit, taking a very vague and featureless humanoid form that then plops itself into a chair near Henry.
It burbles indistinctly at him.
Eli leans (pretty far) to (not at all) subtly whisper in Henry's ear: "Nicholas".

The tall man, frowning just a bit, places a massive hand on his own chest.
"I am Renald. If you have forgotten again, this is our father, Ladnicarsis Vadnova."
Said hand makes a deferential gesture towards the painting.

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

Henry gives a friendly wave to everyone as they are introduced. The last one begets a shallow bow of the head. He's never really been a formal person (blame his dad Vell) but it's just automatic with a face like that.
Also, he definitely remembers being told that his other half-siblings were Philip and Timothy. So these must be his uncles? Or they go by their middle names or something.
"Again? Well I'm sorry if I forgot before. I'm normally good with names when I'm not being murdered.
I'm not sure about getting info when uh well. You can't exactly examine the body this time. I kind of needed it. But I can try to help. I might need to borrow a shirt." Actually and pants. He hasn't really noticed that he lost his at the gate.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

Interesting about that Philip and Timothy thing. No one is commenting on that discrepancy at all.

Ladnicarsis raises a stalling hand to Henry.
Well, he doesn't. He doesn't move at all.
But the painting of him has his hand raised up anyway.

"Elissa has occult means that should aid in this process."
Off to the side, Eli rather eager pulls over a crystal ball that was situated on the room's big table.

Sarah shifts a little uncomfortably, just before-
"And Sarah can totally sketch out the body, if she got a good look at it!"
-Eli dumps a mildly unpleasant task directly on her.

"That said. Do you recall having enemies, before you returned to the family?

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

"Um...." Henry thinks long and hard.
"I had a manager who probably hates my guts. It's been a month and this place looks expensive so I'm assuming I told him to go screw himself."
Henry had definitely done that within earshot of several family members. Only he didn't say 'screw.'
"But murder with a sharp pointy object? Unlikely. Dad even paid all his debts, which is why I was in such dire straits in the first place."

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

"Unlikely to be your old employer."
No one here really thinks that's very likely, evidently. Renald seems to find it almost amusing.

Off to the side, Eli has passed some paper and a pencil over to a space just outside Sarah's cloud zone. There's some grumbling, the cloud reduces somewhat, and the supplies are accepted.

"Quite. The primary difficulty here is the tumultuous nature of Inside itself. You could have just as easily insulted someone without realizing it, as having been stalked by a whimsical, bored killer.
However, we can at least rule out known parties on your end. Elissa should clear up the rest."

"You betcha, pops. Just gotta wait for Sarah to make her sketch and we can get this show on the road.
Hey Henry, you ever lucid dream before?"

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

Henry can also note that Eli is short for Elissa. You learn something every day. Also the patriarch doesn't mind folks being casual. Good. Also also, they don't mind that he and Sarah tracked water everywhere. Good to know.
"Uh, no? I never dreamed much. Or at least I never remember them. Why is the magic like that?
Is this one more reliable or is it likely to leave my organs somewhere else like last time?"
Now be fair Henry that didn't happen. She just said it could have.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

This family is exceptionally weird. Having the expectation of total propriety and never-messy house is...pretty doomed.
Who could say if Ladnicarsis was always so forgiving, or if it's just a compromise he's been forced into by reality.

While Sarah continues to aggressively sketch off to the side (she's actually pretty good, that's pretty obviously Henry lying on the ground), Eli elaborates.
"The magic is kinda like that and I'm pretty sure it won't de-organ you! Not sure how it could, but life always likes to have surprises.
Anyway, what this little spell will do is seeeeeeeend your miiiiiiind back to the paaaast, to the times of yesterday!"
Trying to do spooky hands with two of her giant spider legs is genuinely unsettling.
"Well, not really. It kinda just forces you to address events that have marked your spirit, but it feels like sending your mind back to the past."

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

Henry feels pretty bad for Ladnicarsis in general. His curse is probably the worst of the bunch, he has to deal with everyone else's curses secondhand, AND his parents named him Ladnicarsis. Unless it's more of a title.
"Um. Okay. Would it be possible to cut it off once I remember what we need? I don't think I really want to re-experience getting murdered."
He would honestly rather keep that forgotten. It sounds pretty unpleasant.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

Ladnicarsis is 100% his name. For better or worse.
He doesn't look terribly bothered by it, though.

Meanwhile, Eli gives a concerningly uncertain waggle of a leg.
"I mean...theoretically? It'll kind of depend on if your death was a surprise or not. If that's the case, I guess we'll just have to hope you either saw something at the end, or can look back on the rest of the day for clues?"

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

Honestly that might explain the significantly shorter names of everyone else in this generation of children.
Henry seems more than a little distressed at the idea of reliving being murdered but it sounds like he doesn't have much of a choice.
"Well...okay then. Doesn't sound like I have many options there. Are we doing this right now or...?"
Because he probably has some questions about his current situation. Questions that he probably already asked but he doesn't remember the answers to.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"A spirit that's physical?" Khannie asks, looking puzzled. "That sounds a lot like how my magical girl gem thingy worked."

A pause as she looks at the staff in a new light.

"Are... they okay? Being a stick doesn't sound like it would be any fun."

Being stuck as a non-human is pretty bad.

How much worse would being stuck as an inanimate non-human be?

"Is there any way we can talk to them?"

[Earl of Purple]

Jace's Place

"It might be the spirit of a stick. Y'know, animisty stuff." When guiding Cheasadh away from Bane, Sophie had her read about a lot of other religions to accept their validity and power to understand that Bane was, perhaps, not the best choice for her. So she's aware of lots of different belief systems to some degree or another.

Also, as a person stuck as a non-human, Cheasadh disagrees. Being a gnome is great, although when she's at GLoG and in other human-dominated spaces she does wish humans weren't so tall.

"I can talk to it, sort of. I can think and it replies, without actually replying, I think? I looked at the stairs and thought if it was like a magic broom, since they're just staves with bristles, right? And I got the impression that wouldn't work without trying." Although the ramp still made using the stairs far easier than the last time she was here, so she didn't need to try.

[Ironsmith]

[Jace's Place]

The stick, of course, says nothing. Maybe it's indignant at being called a stick over and over again, when it's clearly a staff.

It does, however, reply in its own way. The little heart-shaped bead of amber at the base of its crook glows softly as Cheasadh explains her (sort of) ability to converse with the spirit inside, in what seems to be an attempt at calling attention to the one adornment on the otherwise plain-looking relic. Jace might be familiar with the various mystical abilities amber is supposed to have... bring luck, purge negative energy, clear the mind, balance emotions, ward against evil, and so on. The staff's doing all it can to declare its intentions to them.

Cheasadh, however,
Can pick up a little more
About the staff's intent

It will be her friend
And hopes it won't need to be
What it was before

And there it is again. That quiet melancholy that washed over her before, at the lake, makes itself known again, but not quite as potently as it did the first time. Maybe Cheasadh is cheering it up already?

Hard to say.

It has one more effect, as well; when the bead glows, Commissar will receive a quiet suggestion that maybe he should be a bit warmer than usual with the girls. Cheasadh especially, but the staff will be satisfied if he chooses to entertain one of her friends instead.

[Morty]

[Jace's Place]

"It feels like the staff wants to be helpful to you." Brinika scrunches her nose in thought as she speculates. "Maybe a magic staff wants to be used. It got bored floating in the water or whatever it was doing."

[Keeper]

Jace's Place

Commissar makes a point to walk over and lay down amid the trio of girls.
"Well I suppose if I were to warn against meeting strangers with magical properties in the woods and trusting them with your soul I'd be a huge hypocrite, wouldn't I?" Jace winks, and Zebes snorts.
"It's up to you whether or not you want to trust them. I don't sense any ill-intent myself."

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Or trusting them with peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

"So the staff is safe?" Khannie asks.

That might be the wrong question.

It probably isn't safe.

Very few tools are purely safe.

But, at least, it does seem to have good intentions.

[Earl of Purple]

Jace's Place

"I think it's sad and lonely. And it wants me to be its friend, for some reason." Cheasadh's not sure why; there's so many better choices, in her mind. Khannie and Brinika both immediately spring to her mind, since she's pretty sure neither of them have killed anyone.

Her hand is quite quick to find Commissar and give him a gentle stroke.

[Ironsmith]

[Jace's Place]

Commonality.
Cheasadh understands regret
Better than many.

Cheasadh's hands must be getting a little sweaty by now. More than a little, apparently; little beads of water run down the staff's shaft, visibly so, even from a distance.

That melancholy feeling turning more intense briefly must be unrelated.

[DeBunny]

[The Vadnova House]

"Weeeeell..."
Eli glances over at Sarah, who holds out an upside-down piece of paper.
Perhaps to spare Henry from seeing the violence on the other side. That's nice of her.

"If you're ready, sure! It's totally safe, usually, but if you have more questions that's fine. We probably won't all be terribly murdered while we wait."
The cheerful smile on her face does not belong with that sentence.

But, she is willing to hear Henry out if he has more things to discuss.

[Keeper]

The Vadnova House

Henry looks really embarrassed but he has to get things out of the way.
"Uh. Well I know I've probably already asked these things but um. Could you give me the rundown of what actually happened to me and the house? Because I'm sure you told me but it was stabbed out of my brain. Also you told me that your brothers' names were Tim and Philip last conversation that I can remember."
He blinks.
"Also I will want a mirror later. But maybe not now. I'll probably just panic again. I look like a doof, don't I?"

[Morty]

[Jace's Place]

Brinika crouches down to give Commissar pets and head-rubs.

"There must be something about you that draws it to you. Or it just likes you. I wish there was an easier way to communicate with it."

[Keeper]

Jace's Place

Zebes intones loudly in am impression of a deep, raspy voice like the door of a tomb sliding shut.
"IT IS A MAGICAL ARTIFACT. IT IS NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE."
Then he tilts his head and gives a wink at the girls.