Session 1: Lilly of Yellowcrest Manor Report

General Summary

Familiar Symbol in Sky

• You see a familiar symbol in the sky, blue flames seem to consume the lower half of Shalti Isle. A familiar calling to Xarl that is normally shortly followed by a message of sending, the appearance of Eyes’s flying squirrel (really a homunculus), or images forced into your mind. This time the small flying squirrel arrives in the middle of one of Solana’s evening routines and lands on Eli’s shoulder. Xarl, you see this and know that once she is done you are to follow the squirrel to a teleportation hub that Eyes has temporarily enabled.
• You arrive in the lively abode of Eierbyn Shalti, best known throughout the city simply as “Eyes,” the richest man in all Kehanet. A retired divination wizard and world-renowned acolyte of Ki and Osud, Eyes has created a rather inaccessible residence floating above the city to shield himself from the throngs of people desiring an audience with him. As such, only those who are invited can enter the highly esteemed chambers that you now take in. Programmed illusions tastefully welcome you on the wall before you. The rest of the chamber is adorned with tables full of food and beverages from across Xotera. Two Magen stand on either side of a doorway to your right, each stoically motioning for you to enter, bobbing their heads, Night at the Roxbury style as music pours from the chamber beyond. As you get closer to them you see that Eyes has dressed them in glamerweave with “get ready to party!” Written in every language imaginable.
• As you enter, Eyes is sitting at a table on an elevated platform on the other end of the room. He bears a striking resemblance to Fabio, only his hair is made of red, orange flames and blue flames dance in place of his irises in his eyes. Seeing you enter the room; he grabs the necklace he is wearing. As he moves his lips it sounds as though he is standing right next to you instead of on the other side of the cacophonous room. “Friends! So glad you all could come! Please! Enjoy yourselves. I hate doing business with people who aren’t smiling yet!”
• Party, then Eyes introduces them to a haunted looking man, Ignatius. Ignatius is a rich banker/ merchant from Tyksa, the area of Xotera most renowned for their worship of Katay. He has traveled a long way to ask Eyes to divine the reason he is being haunted by a distraught female ghost. The ghost has no tongue and is thus unable to speak the reason herself. As far as Eyes can tell this man had no interaction with this woman in his past and there is nothing tied to her in his future other than you all.
• “All I have seen is you all speaking with the ghost through Ignatius, then him being free of her shortly after. Are you willing to help this poor man?”

 

Beginning the Adventure

• Ignatius looks nervous as you all enter a Middle Eastern- style room full of bolsters and pillows surrounding low padded tables with trays of wine and dessert. He sits in a corner of the room that has especially plush pillows “Just in case.” Eyes whispers to you all.
• Ignatius closes his eyes and the air around you grows suddenly chilly. A cloud of vapor begins to shimmer along the nearby walls and cushions, growing thicker Ignatius’s right arm. The mist suddenly coalesces into the vague form of a young woman—a translucent spirit wearing a servant’s uniform and bearing the symbol of a tree outlined by a rising sun at her shoulder.
• The figure weeps aloud, tears running down her cheeks. She opens her mouth as if to speak—which reveals that her tongue is gone. Moaning in anguish, she reaches toward Ignatius, who screams. Then the mist shreds away to nothing, and the spirit fades. You realize this must be what every night is like for Ignatius as it seemed to have been triggered when he closed his eyes to rest.
• Eyes, sounding surprisingly stern says “Again. Without the scream. We spoke of this. She must touch you.” Ignatius visibly shakes as he closes his eyes and once again, the cloud of vapor begins to shimmer around him, growing thicker Ignatius’s right arm once more. The mist again coalesces into the vague form of the young woman— she still weeps aloud, tears running down her cheeks, and reaching toward Ignatius with another anguished moan. Ignatius closes his eyes and squeezes his hands into fists so tightly you wonder if he might have an aneurism. The ghost touches his arm as if to implore him to help her. As she does, her hand moves through his entire torso and her visage disappears.
• For a moment you all think she disappeared once more, but then Ignatius’s eyes shoot open. His arms and legs stiffen then almost violently relax, and his gaze falls upon all of you as he suddenly starts to weep and wail. “Please. Please. Help.” The agony in his face is shocking and definitive.

 

Grieving Ghost

• Lilly was one of the servants killed alongside Lady Maria and the three Yellowcrest children—all murdered by Lord Verallis as part of his willing descent into evil. For five years, the young woman’s immortal spirit has been bound within Lilly of Yellowcrest Manor. It was recently discovered in a used bookstore in Waterdeep by Ignatius on one of his business trips there. Ever grieving, the spirit has had no way to communicate with the mortal realm—until Ignatius’s presence drew her forth.
• Lilly (a ghost) is bound to Ignatius and reappears whenever he closes his eyes or the characters speak her name in the presence of the book. The anguished state of the young woman’s spirit is clear to anyone who sees her.
• Lilly understands characters who speak Common and tries to respond to them, but she can’t speak because Lord Verallis cut out her tongue before killing her. The ghost tries to communicate through moaning whispers and by pointing the characters to the parts of her diary that hint at Lord Verallis’s evil.
• Lilly’s ghost is bound to the diary and can’t move farther than 30 feet from the book. If the book is destroyed, the ghost is able to move freely and redoubles her efforts to seek justice for the dead.

 

What Lilly Knows

• Book is bound to Ignatius and cannot move more than 30 feet from him.
• Lord Verallis Yellowcrest was responsible for the murders of his wife, his children, Lilly, and three other servants, all of whom were killed as part of a dark ritual. (The trauma Lilly suffered has occluded her memories of the details of the ritual and of her own death.)
• The book that Lilly observed Verallis reading was the source of the ritual, and a work of evil.
• Lord Verallis and Lady Maria had two sons, Malik and Janus, and one daughter, Tianna.
• The souls of Lady Maria, Malik, Janus, and Tianna have not moved on since their deaths. All four are trapped in the mortal realm until their physical remains can be buried in hallowed ground.
• The remains of those victims are missing. Lilly doesn’t know what happened to them, but she is certain that Lord Verallis has something to do with it.
• The family owned several tanneries and shoemaking shops in Waterdeep, but most of its wealth was inherited on Maria’s side.
• Lord Verallis’s closest business associate was an water genasi named Faerl, who visited Lord Verallis twice a tenday.

 

Book Description

• The book’s title appears handwritten on the first page, and it is clear that all of its pages were once blank. Only a handful of pages at the end of the book remain so. The rest are filled with handwriting that starts out crude but slowly becomes more elegant, hinting that it was produced by a person learning to write, who then practiced their writing by keeping a diary.
• A Humble Life
• The pages of Lilly of Yellowcrest Manor are a mixture of exercises, drawings, and reminiscences. The earliest pages bear nothing but repetitions of the name “Lilly.” Lists of household chores, pending activities, shopping lists, and names take up a full third of the book.
• Where the diary begins, the book becomes a firsthand account (written in Common) of the life of Lilly, who describes herself as a servant in the Waterdeep manor of Lord Verallis Yellowcrest and Lady Maria Yellowcrest. The diary entries are not on consecutive pages, and most are undated. In addition to writing about her daily obligations and life in the manor, Lilly also wrote about Lady Maria, who came from a poor family and empathized with Lilly’s own lack of education. Lady Maria’s genuine affection for Lilly led her to teach the young servant to write, and to give her the leather-bound book that became the diary.

 

A Glimpse of Darkness

• The last entries of the diary, dated just over five years earlier, change in tone as Lilly worries about the strange conduct of Lord Yellowcrest, and his habit of spending too much time with ancient books in his study. The final diary entry reads:
• I stole close to Lord Verallis today, and saw that he had chalked a circle marked with strange runes across the floor of his study. A puddle spread within the circle and appeared to me as bubbling blood. Lord Verallis stood next to it motionless, one of his vile books in hand, and muttered something I could not hear. I slipped away quickly, though I fear he might have heard me this time. I have never been so scared, but I must tell Lady Maria what I have seen. I must!
• In her diary, Lilly tried to draw the image of the cover of an old tome Lord Verallis was reading. The sketch shows a monstrous creature with a bulbous head, long arms, tentacles for legs, and multifaceted eyes
• Lilly also attempted to sketch what she remembered of the rune-marked circle.

 

Yellowcrest Lore

  A thorough reading of the diary reveals the broad details of the lives of Lilly and the Yellowcrest family. The details of the murders at Yellowcrest Manor can be learned from a few hours’ research into recent Waterdeep history within Eyes’s library, or by consulting anyone from Waterdeep at the party. The public details of the dark event are well known:

• Lord Yellowcrest was away from Waterdeep on business, then returned to find his wife, his sons and daughter, and the manor’s four servants brutally murdered. Shocked into a deep depression by the tragedy, Lord Yellowcrest left Waterdeep and went to Nordfarr to be alone with his grief.
• Rumors seemingly spread by members of the City Guard after investigating the murders hinted at some sort of cult activity, but details of the killings were never revealed. No suspects were ever identified or charged.
• The Yellowcrest family had a good reputation, with no hint of personal or public impropriety. No one ever accused the grieving Lord Yellowcrest of having any connection to the murders.
• No members of the Yellowcrest family remain in the city, their name is still well known because many people remember the terrible tragedy.
• The Yellowcrest manor is on Delzorin Street in the North Ward, and it is now home to the Falgarst family, fine upstanding folk. 
A distant nephew to Lord Yellowcrest, Tomas Yellowcrest is at the party.
• Tomas knows the history of the house well, including the public details of the horrific murders. He expresses honest sadness for the fate of the Yellowcrest family and their servants. If the characters make it clear that they mean no trouble for him, effective roleplaying or a successful DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check inspires Tomas to share what he knows. Offering Tomas any alcoholic beverage grants advantage on the check, and magic such as a charm person spell guarantees an automatic success. Tomas can reveal the following additional details:

1. Though full details of the event were never made public, rumor holds that Lady Maria, her three children, and four servants were all stabbed to death, then had their tongues removed.
2. After the murders, Verallis sold the manor and all his family’s possessions, then moved to a small village called Nordfarr in the countryside.
3. After the murders, the remains of Lilly and the other three servants were interred in the public cemetery, Waterdeep’s City of the Dead. The remains of Lady Maria and her children were not.

• Eyes warns them of visions of people disappearing along the Merchant’s Way the road

  Lord Verallis’s Tome The crude sketch composed by Lilly shows the monster on the leather-bound cover of the book Lord Verallis was reading.   Sarah rolled Nat 20: Creature is--

• Immune to lightning, can tap into electrical currents
• Cannot be blinded or knocked down, have blindsight
• Speak Grel language
• Use tentacles to poison and then paralyze while continuing to peck
• Tentacles are insulated, rings of tough muscle make a sheath
• Levitate, you can be heard coming
• Their skin is sensitive to vibrations
• Normally solitary
• They are alien creatures
• Creatures are edibles, inedibles, and great eaters
• Will let people kill other threats in the environment before striking themselves

Eyes spends a day or two in diligent research within his library to turn up references in other works to a book whose cover matches Lilly’s sketch—a tome called Retribution of the Ancients.

• That work is not a part of Eyes’s collection, but it is cited in an ancient book called Ritualistic Testaments to the Baraba as a dark work of ritual magic, the author warns its contents would be potentially deadly in the wrong hands.

  Nordfarr

• The village of Nordfarr is located a day’s travel North of Waterdeep. Eyes can teleport with them to Nordfarr directly. He will immediately travel to the Eolas Athenaeum to find out more about the book they discussed earlier.

Missions/Quests Completed

Beat the Waterdhavians at a drunken talent show

Character(s) interacted with

Ignatius

Lilly (Ghost)

Eyes

- Arnulf Fargast

Created Content

Quote of the Night:     Solana's Dream/ Vision: Watch a flame climb up a tree branch and split into two segments and intertwine around the branch. Reminds me of dancing. The game people play when there’s a first introduction to lust or flirtation. It gets to the end and she thinks they will combine and become something stronger, but one cuts the other off completely, part of the branch falls, and the last bit continues to burn and smolder on its own.

Notes

Start next game in Kehanet still while Eyes finishes some research for them.