Ghosts of Mistmoor

1369 DR
Eleint 3


North West of Tilverton


Late Evening.





After a long day of searching through only parts of the Manor House the adventurers fortify themselves in one of the bedrooms to sleep and tend to their wounds.

Visions of a gigantic raven following the dreamer plagues all of them.


And just after midnight, there is a scream coming from the hallway outside the door it snaps all of them from their restless sleep.

The group debates checking on it and Zimmerman finals it then opens the door and heads out. Her toe kicks something across the floor slides towards the railing of the balcony. Turick scoops it up and says “It’s that berry shite again.”

Light from under the Library Door draws the parties attention they head, cautiously down the hallway. Padgett complains about her bedroll going cold trying to hide her fear of the dark, being the only person that cannot see in low light.

Ayrid opens the door to the library cautiously. A lone candle stands on a table with a note in it’s flickering light. Turrik reads it, finding it to be a thank you from the spirit of Reveri for helping to loosen the curse on her.



“Thank you for destroying the bookworm and laying my aunt spirit to rest.”

Turrik writes a response in his blocky dwarven script “Is there a curse on this place?”

After waiting for a response that never came the group heads back to bed.

The rest of the night passes without much more incident. However the dreams continue. In the dream a teen girl with a raven on her shoulder and a bloody dagger in her hand. The dreamers see the house from her perspective and they wake tired as though they where the ones that were wondering the hallways of the mansion.

They check their gear and Zimmermans examines and tends to everyones wounds.
Ayrid heads back to the library to see if the note had a response.

“I can help. Meet me on the tower roof an hour after midnight.”





Morning light filters through dirty window pains and tattered curtain. After shaking the sleep away and get their bearings the adventurers quickly recheck the rooms they’ve already visited before continuing their investigation. They head back to the study and take the hidden starewell down to the first floor and pickup their more systematic search.

The first door they open leads them into the ballroom they had stumbled on the night before. Just off the ballroom is the Foye’. Empty save for an old tapestry of a Paladin of Lathander and footsteps in the largely undistubed dust on the floor. In a closet they find ancient cloaks and coats that seem to still be waiting for the wearers to head back into the world.
A small Iron bound door draws their attention and the only other exit leading back into the trophy room light by the morning sun that flooded through it’s sky lights.





White Pegasus on a Blue Field “Mistmoor Coat of Arms.




From there they begin checking the rest of the rooms on the first floor. Down a long hallway that carries them to a series of doors. The first one they open leads them into and aged Kitchen. Though it seems the Kitchen it’s self hasn’t been properly cleaned in years it does show signs of recent habitation. Fresh food stuffs and a pot of jam seemingly days cold from the crusting on the aged iron.
A door off the back of the kitchen reveals downward leading stairs. Ayrid peaks out another door that leads back outside. Only the morning bird song looks back.

They follow an narrow alocoved hallway tucked into the corner of the kichen to what appears to be servents quarters. Just past the quarters the end of the hall and it opens into the Tower.

They follow the parallel halway out of it back the towards the kitchens and find barracks capable of comfortably housing about twenty men at arms a smaller room just off of the barracks shows the armory.





The first floor nearly cleared they decide to poke their heads down the stairs from the kitchen before heading back to the otherside of the Manor.

They find themsleves in a wine celler, the distant sound of running water meets Ayrids elven ears, he points this out to the rest of the group. Two sets of the stairs lead deeper into the earth. One leading into what looks like a hallway the other into and darkened open room that seems to be where the water is coming from.





They look into the room with the sounds of water. It appears to be a cold storage room. Shelves line the walls and a pool of freezing cold water runs through one corner of the room.

The passage of the stream looks like it would fit a halfling inside. Turrik jumps into the water and looks down the tunnels. He reports that the stream is swift but not pulling him along, Zimmerman lights up the dwarfs helmet so that he can swim a little ways down the passage to check for openings.
Up stream the passage narrows into a sharp turn a little over forty feet from the pool. He pushes his way around the corner to find another sharp turn. His armor grinding against the passages walls Turrik heads back to the pool and tells the group what he founds. From there he heads downstream. About fifty or so feet down the passage it begins to narrow down into a smaller and smaller passage.
He returns to the party and begins taking his armor off so that he can make his way further upstream and investigate the switchback.

He wiggles his way through the swithback to discover a chamber with a bridge passing a bare five feet above the water. The sides of the stream and splashing of the current make the walls of the stream impossible to scale without assistance. He examines the water closer, following the water smoothed stone. He discovers and limed over corpse with a dagger pinning into to the stone. Near the skeleton Turrik finds hand holds to haul himself out with. He dislodges the dagger from the stone corps and pulls himself out of the freezing water to discover a tomb in a carved cave. Three bodies lie desecrated. The Dwarf does his best to right the mausoleum and offers his respects to the souls.
The Dwarf looks at the stairs leading up on the otherside of the bridge but decides to head back up stream. He stops, turns back, and starts moving the child sized corpse from the stream.

As soon as Turrik touches the body and spectral raven flies out of the wall, through the dwarf, and back out to the otherside of the room.

He puts the bones of the corpse on the dry land and quickly makes his way back through the underwater passage to let the group know what he’s found.

The Party decides to backtrack and check more of the house before heading out to the grounds to try and find the tombs entrance. They check the Hallway off of the wine celler.

They open the door to find a Black Dragons treasure chamber...after a moment of fear the party notices that the dragon is stuffed and Regines spirit sits in a thrown below the Dragons rearing head. She looks up annoyed and says to the party “Go away, I’m doing things.” Zimmerman detects some traces of evil in the spirit but sees that it is actually eminating from the Raven spirit.

The stuffed dagon begins to move as the essence of the girl and raven fade from sight.





Padget tells the group to stand back and moves forward and drives her spear, it’s steel tip blazing to life with magical flames as she plunges it into the hide of the now animate Dragon. The Dragon, the spark of life no where in it’s eyes gives no sign that it was struck as the flesh beneith it’s scales gives off the scent of long rotte dand burning flesh. Turrik muscles his way into the fray next to Padgett as Ayrid lets looses a pair of wicked arrows. The shaft glances harmlessly off of the tick dragon scales. The crature, moving with the stiffness of the dead, snaps at Padgett and she stays just out of reach of the gnashing, rotting, teeth.





Padgett yells out “I get to keep the corpse.” as she plunges her spear back into the dragon. Turrik swings ghostwacker at the corpse but cannot get inside the creatures beating wings. Ayrid launches another pair of arrows at the rearing creature, this time, striking home in mouth opening in a hiss. Not acknowleding any of the strikes the jaws snap down on padget, teeth slicing flesh but not grabbing hold.

Zimmerman calls on Lothander to drive the beast away but in the darkness of the cave the power is not strong enough. Ayrid launches another volly of arrows into the soft interior of it’s mouth. One shaft sinks deep into the roof of the creatures mouth and it falls with a splash of coins into the piles of treasure.



The dwarf, clapping the celebrating elf on the shoulder. The sparkle of the treasure draws his attention. Suspicioiusly he picks up a handful of gems and coins. It all turns out to be fakes and copper. The treasure and Dragon meant to be an art piece rather than an actual horde.



“What is this tripe, it’s all cheap knock offs and glass.”

Ayrid, poking disapointedly through the “treasure” he discovers a hidden door hidden in the back of the wall. Listening carefully he examines the well concealed portal for any traps or hidden glyphs. Determining that it’s mostly harmless he opens it with an rusty creek.


It reveals a hallway leading to an iron bound wooden door. The Elf makes his way cautiously down the hall towards it and examines it with his delicate fingers. He opens it slowly to reveal a room with supplies scavanged from the rrest of the house. A young man is sleeping in one of the plethora of cells that the room houses.





Casting eyes over the hodge podge of furnishings they party can easily tell that there are at least two people living her outside of the cells. A ladder on the wall between two f the cells leads goes up into the ceiling.

Zimmerman studies the sleeping figure. He’s dressed as a woodsman, younger. Zimmerman grabs a set of keys from the wall and bangs them agains the cell bars.

The man starts awake thinking the group is his captors. Shaking away the sleep in his eyes he sees that the group is not his captors.

He claims his name is Joshua and he is employ of Lord Blain. He had been searching the house and in one of it’s privys and he doesn’t remember much between then and now aside from being visited by his captors. His captors have been treating him well but they’re obviously keeping him from reporting their presence.

Zimmerman unlocks the cell.

Joshua offers his help and the group starts going through the pilaged supplies and weapons to outfit the young man and re claim any treasures. After rummaging Turrik throws a fur cloak over his shoulders.

Zimmerman pulls hout a skull that they had found in the counts room and a scroll. After making some small preperations and saying prayers over the items the parchment glows. The glow rises and engulfs the skull.





The teeth of the skull chatters “Who summons me?



Zimmerman responds and demands the same of the spirit. The lord of the Manor speaks..





He tells them of the vault hidden in his room...that it is trapped...they already found the trap.Padget says, well then why don’t we take him up and have him help us unlock the vault.

Zimmerman scoops up the skull and they head to the lords room. They arrive in the room “How do we open the vault?”Zimmerman asks.
“The command word is Medussa”
At the utterance of the word the mirror begins to shimmer.
“To exit the command room is Persisus”
Zimmerman says a prayer to ward the room. The spirit of a Wyvern appears, bows to the young cleric, and then fades from vision.

The Party moves into the mirror.

the room on the otherside they find an absolute mountain of treasure. The room ringed by suits of Armor. In the shadows of the room figures begin to move. Skeletons materizlize from every shadow, the shadows continue to writh with movment. A six foot tall figure with blazing eyes aproaches them.





Zimmerman calls on Lothanders light and it’s blaze bursts forth from the rising sun on her shield and 10 of the approaching skeletons blast into dust.

I saw Godzilla!

How do you human?
I do not understand this human thing that people do.
Worst of all.
The goddamn ringing in the ears.
It’s no excuse.
But poof, the words are gone all the same.







This is the part where I clear the my throat after uttering something unintelligible at a party and then dive into a conversation that I have no idea where it’s at, quietly slip away, or sit quietly trying to look distracted while I try to catch back up with where things are at.

Such is the life of living with Tinnitus. Whoa is me I know, but I’ll get to what that has to do with watching Godzilla and intelligent infrastructure in a moment.

Alright, so, for those of you that haven’t already googled Tinnitus or possibly already know what it is.

For the Former I say; try it for a day and then get back to me. For the Later I say; ...yup.

Tinnitus is a constant ringing in the ears that can be a different tone or pitch for different people. But in the quiet it’s there...always….there.
Cool?
We’ll come back to that.



So I went and saw Godzilla : King of Monsters tonight.
Let me start with this.
If you are going for the Kaiju fights...oh man….you are in for a damned treat. Hands down the King of Monsters has returned.
If you are going for a good coherent story. That is there.
If you are going to see likable characters react to cool giant monster fights, that’s in there.

If you’re going to see heartfelt moments….well...you know there’s some of that.
Clever science jargon? Check.

Recognizable and beloved character actors. Check.

High Brow award winning actors.

Check, check, and check.

But gorram it.



There was too much of White Hero Dad. And I’m sorry, the gent they got is a great actor, but hot damned was he used as the wrong damned character.

Alright….so let me break down the central Cast of characters for you real quick, gripe about the movie, make up my own movie using the existing assets, and then give you the spoilers and deep cuts.

The Cast.

White Heroe Dad - The “Main Character” that the audience follows through these events. The Tinittus of this movie.

Doctor Mom - The Monster Expert lady who has a child

Famous Child Actor - “We have a part for a child in the cast.” “Boy or Girl?” “Doesn’t matter, whoever we find the other sibling dies off.” “I’ll see who we can get.”

The Scientist People-
Head Scientist Guy
Thoughtful Scientist Lady
Emotional Scientist Lady
Funny Scientist Guy
Weasley Scientist Guy


The Army People-
Head Army Lady
Army Guy
Other Army Guy
Army Lady


The Bad Guy

The Bad Guys Army

Alright. so there’s the Cast...mostly.


My Gripes?
The Casting was top notch. The actors where committed. And honestly the Army People where actually memroable and acted, within the confines of this script, logically enough that I walked away thinking I could have watched those people the whole movie.

The Scientists, again, great actors but the characters that where written ishly, were given so little to work with outside of providing the exposition that pertained to their “specialty?” but each where central enough to the plot that they all had “character arcs?”

The Bad Guy was suitibly typcast and used rather surgically. A surprisingly brilliant stroke in the script….so not a gripe I guess.

Huh.

Head Army Lady was well used...if you didn’t have Hero Dad…..alright...I’ll get to him in a minute. I’m working our way back up the list.

Famous Child Actor was, oh man…the acting was believable but they never full on established her as a character beyond that she’s Hero dad and Doctor Mom’s kid. Yeah, brevity in back story is essential for movies that are giant monster movies. But Give me some reason to believe why Child Actor suddenly knows how to use all of this classified tech stuff and army gear? I know mom wants her to be a survivalist and all but….holy shit….I was just thinking about it and they do, slapdashidly scattered throughout the dialogue establish why Child Actor has these skills.

I’m trying to be a negative nancy here, stop filling plot holes silly movie.


Doctor Mom was….well….actually her motivations where clear and logicalish. She wants to protect her child. Pretty simple.
…..
……
This Mother Fucker.


White Hero Dad.
Alright, for starters.


He is the most unnecessary character in this entire film.
Every action he commits...yeah, that’s right commits, because there’s not a whole lot of logical explanation for this guy to be involved outside of the first thirty minutes of the movie or maybe to act as the bumbling dummy that the Army guys have to keep alive.
But his entire story arc is...I shit you not.
“I hate them, kill them all. Do what I say Army People.”
And They Do
“I love them, don’t kill them. Do what I say Army People.” And They Do
“Head Scientist Guy had and Idea. Do what I say Army People.” And They do

Again, the movie was a great monster movie, and I’ll get to the things that they did well here in a minute, but I really feel this needs addressed.
White Hero Dad literally do nothing but throw fits and make the army do other characters ideas.


RAGE….yeah the plot points, but this dude is given so much unnecessary screen time for things that if the well ensembled supporting cast had been better written could have hit most, if not all, of Hero Dad’s plot points.

And at not point in the movie could anyone argue that he’s even a good or likable dad…..AHHH TINITUS!!!!! RAGE!!!!

Breath.

Okay.

Last nitpicks without spoiling anything.
Don’t Look directly into the friggin explosions morons, if that had been real you would be blind.

What there are blasts of wind and things kicking up dust and debrie…..again...you can’t look into that stuff. Protect your damned eyes, get glasses, close them, put your hands over them, something. Not even army people where wearing them….and I Know you gotta be able to see actors...but again...don’t look into explosions...don’t look into clouds of flying debris. That is the directors fault right there. The actors where amazingly committed to this deliciously creamy blend of fondu but give them a little direction about how to react to the things that are supposed to be happening to them. if the director doesn’t catch it then the damned technical director had bettter. It’s their damned job after all….technically….technically every single one of your survivors is blind dude. They all looked into explosions or blasts of debris or both. Jeez.



Hero dad droning on...got it.

Underutilized but well ensembled supporting cast. yes.

okay...so the version of the movie I would have written.

Keep all of the major plot points in the same places. Have the army people be in charge of protecting Doctor Mom and Child Actor because plot. Head Doctor takes on role of Hero Dad, except that he is not Dad, he’s just Hero Scientist.

Hero Dad plays essentially same role but is squished in place of a science person early in the film. Doctor Mom helps Child Actor Cope, Child Actor Copes by being able survivalist.

Army people given the Dad’s “Rescue” Story arc because McGuffin. Child Actor deals with fathers death when rescued.

McGuffin!!!

Don’t touch the monster stuff, leave it as is. That was amazing.
The monsters have...personalities. They put enough character into each of these critters that I could have easily watched a movie of them and how they interacted with things and each other and understood, generally what their over all plot was. Because ho man. Lest not forget that all of them there gripes were on the human side of the story. The Monster side was simple, Monsters fight to be king monster. In this corner we have this monster, and in this corner we have this monster...and there they go. In comes the chair. Yeah! Oh look, we have a masked fighter entering the ring, oh no. Tag in buddy, Bang Boom...and...oh yeah…..

This is the part where I straighten my tie and talk about sensable things like infrastructure.


Which, I really felt like that wasn’t something that the movie really explored all that well. Sure they established that their were hidden military bunkers and things but if there was the catastrophic event involving a giant monster years previously...what would their evacuation places look like. I mean I will absolutely hand it to the amount of love that obvioustly went into the design and world asthetic of this movie. But the only thing that was said about the evacuations was that they happen and you’re shown some folks standing in line for transport. But where were they being taken. The evacuation points were all well organized and the world had had five years to develop bunkers and shelters and refugee sites for all of these people got to….I needs to see it. The infrastructure nerd in me needs to see where they go with it.