Tyrant's Grasp

Like the slimes, the stirges took little effort to slay, but they did manage to drain a significant amount of blood from Vic and a little from Holden before being slain by all four, with Rosamund’s cat doing the bug-killing in her stead.

When the last stirge explodes under Holden's sword, a voice suddenly speaks from the top of the stairs. "“Well, well. Things aren’t as hopeless as I’d feared, then! Welcome to Nine-Eaves." When you look up, though, you don't see anyone, just the portrait... which is moving.

"You know I'd be more surprised if a talking painting was the weirdest thing I'd seen recently," Holden sighs. "But you don't even make top ten this week. What's got you fearing hopelessness?"

"Well you see..." the portrait stops almost as soon as he starts. "The master of the house... that is to say... oh, blast that confounded old fool." He stops a moment to grumble to himself. "Though I bear his appearance, I am little more than the host for Kishokish's little games and parties, and as such I'm bound by rules. I... legitimately cannot tell you anything about the house or its happenings unless you solve the puzzles he's set out for me to give you."

"Well, then it sounds like we've got some puzzles to do. Can you at least tell us if we can expect anything more like acidic blobs or giant bloodsucking bugs to bug us while we do that?" Titia asks with a resigned sigh.

"I... can tell you..." The portrait struggles for a moment. "The manor has been invaded... I can tell you no more until you solve this puzzle." He waves his hand, and a piece of paper flutters to the ground in front of his frame. "You must place these symbols in the correct order, then draw the symbol that comes next."

Puzzle:

Rosamund looks at the paper for a few moments, then rearranges the symbols in the correct order, and draws the next one, a five, mirrored across the left edge. "There, that should be the solution to the puzzle," she says, showing it to the portrait.

The portrait smiles a tad patronizingly. "Excellent deduction! The manor has been invaded by sakhils, wicked creatures that prey upon torment and fear. Their leader, a grasshopper-headed monstrosity named Vithiz, has trapped Kishokish within his own staff. You must- hng! That's all I can say before you complete another puzzle. There is a chalkboard hanging in the greenhouse with several numbers on it. Circle any six digits that add up to 23, then bring it back to me. You'll find it two rooms that way." The portrait points at the west door.

The next room is a large parlor with several padded chairs and an enormous sofa with upholstery so dark that it is barely visible in the dim room. A delicate wooden table with a distinct inlaid pattern bears a full decanter. Sliding doors lead out to the west, north, and east. A quick sweep of the room finds the decanter is made of fine crystal, and a drawer in the table contains the pieces for a strategy game called Imperial Conquest carved from ivory and onyx, both worth a fair amount of gold.

Going further west, they find the greenhouse as promised. Grimy glass comprises the walls and ceiling of this large
greenhouse, barely admitting the dim moonlight. Benches filled with live potted plants line the sides of the room; bags of soil and gardening equipment are stashed underneath. Some of the bags are open, spilling dirt across the greenhouse floor. Strange tracks, as if left by a large earthworm, crisscross the dirt. A sturdy iron-framed glass door leads out of this room to the west, while a sliding double door leads out to the east.

The party spots the board hanging next to the door, but as they inspect it, there's a crash on the other side of the room. Holden looks over and sees that a pot fell over, and rather than investigate they grab the board and nope out.

Board:

As the party walks back to the room with the portrait, Rosamund frowns while looking at the numbers on the chalkboard. "There's no combination of any six digits to circle here that would add up to twenty three," she says. "We'd have to cheat by circling a blank space, or circle part of a number to make it look like a different number for this to work."

As the group makes it back to the room without a definitive result, Victor approaches the painting. "This riddle of yours, we just have to circle 6 digits. Are there any other conditions, like can we add anything to the chalkboard?"

"You cannot," the portrait says. "Adding anything other than a circle around the digits will instantly erase.

Rosamund sighs and shakes her head, drawing six circles around the number, one only around half of a three, so that the circle only goes around the part that looks like a two. "Is this the solution, then?"

"Can we get a hint?" Rosamund asks, with some frustration. "Because unless we can circle an empty space, circle part of a number, or add a number to the board, the problem is impossible."

Holden looks frustrated for a moment. Then something seems to register and he grabs the board. He circles two 1’s to make 11, then circles a 5, two 3’s, and the remaining 1. He then presents the board. ”Here’s your answer.”

The portrait breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank Pharasma. “Vithiz lurks in the ballroom, but the magic of Nine-Eaves protects it there. The sahkil carries Kishokish’s staff. You could slay it to free Kishokish, but the sahkil is powerful, and there is another way: if you can wrest Kishokish’s staff from Vithiz and touch the sahkil with the staff, Vithiz and Kishokish will swap places—imprisoning it within the staff and freeing the rightful master of Nine-Eaves. My master’s glove in his bedroom will help you with that task! But the ballroom is magically sealed and the key is—ugh, not again! I’m sorry. I can’t say more yet. All right, this last puzzle is very straightforward. Only one key will open the door to the ballroom. Among the keys hidden in the master’s desk, find the one that completes this home. You'll find his desk in his quarters on the top floor."

At the top of the stairs are two doors. The one on the right, according to the portrait, leads to the ballroom and is sealed. The door to the left opens to a drawing room with several overstuffed chairs and a few low tables and cabinets. Sliding doors lead to the east and south, while to the north a glass door opens onto a small semicircular balcony. Sitting on the floor in the middle of the room is an origami grasshopper.

As the group searches the room, Victor approaches the odd little grasshopper. After a quick check from Rosamund says it's non-magical, he picks it up and inspects it, finding some writing in one unfinished corner. Curious, he starts unfolding the rest of it, in case writing is important.

The grasshopper unfolds into a note that reads "“The new Master wants you gone from here. I have little patience.”

The group passes through an elegant library in shambles. Piles of shredded books are heaped untidily throughout the room. A small desk is scarred by deep grooves across its surface. Several large, umbrella-shaped masses of parchment and torn paper hang from the ceiling. Sliding double doors lead out of this room to the north and south, and a narrow glass door in the west wall leads to a small semicircular balcony. The glass of the door is badly cracked. A brief search shows that the shredded paper was once the contents of the library, before a very angry swarm of wasps emerges from them and chases the party out. With no way to deal with wasps, they opt to search the lower floor, starting with a door leading into a gloomy dining room contains a narrow table with a single high-backed wooden chair at each end. Other chairs and a sideboard stand against the room’s eastern wall. The headless corpse of a hairy, humanoid creature sprawls across the middle of the table. Also on the table are three oversized bugs devouring the corpse, but when the party enters they look up and leap to attack, but the squishing is barely worth talking about.