I need a bath.
Standing here in the cave of a basement, looking at some of my old, lost possession scattered on the floor amid the mold and death, I realize that my companions had the good grace not to react to him calling me "my love". I'm ever so grateful for that. When the town hears of this though, they may not be so understanding...
We went through his mansion, room by room, getting a better, and unfortunate understanding of the depravity of this man and his family. And I think I know why I didn't see the dark in him - he's like two people in one body: a monstrous legacy of his family, and spoiled, scared, lonely man. I saw him shift between the two right in front of me. Somehow that makes me feel better, and worse about it. I know
how I was duped, but in the end, I was still duped.
We have new pieces to the puzzle of the murders, but there are still a few holes. We know that Aldern was behind the murders and ghoul attacks with the love notes, and discovered that he himself, had become an intelligent ghoul.
We learned that his grandfather was researching how to become a Litch, and succeeded. Something went wrong however, and we suspect that his phylactery accidentally ended up being the mansion, rather than the ornate seven sided box he was planning on. (Living inside a an evil spirit's phylactery certainly explains the behavior of the Foxglove family these past three generations.)
But Aldren did not grow up here. What did he return here for? Was he touched in the head before he came here and killed his wife, or did that happen when he entered the mansion?
When he was having a lucid moment in our final fight, he mentioned the Brotherhood of Seven. Are they behind the reemergence of the seven pointed star symbol we keep finding in the darker places of Sandpoint? He said they "forced him to". Who are they? What did they want from Aldren, and do they have anything to do with his Grandfather being a Litch? I might say that his grandfather's Litchood could separate to the Brotherhoods goals - maybe it just made Aldren a good candidate to approach for 'Their' plans - but it's extremely interesting that the intended phylactery was a seven sided box. That's a very specific shape.
Aldren is dead, and hopefully his ghouls are spent. We still have one very important thing to finish here however. The Litch is rebuilding himself in the mold. We can see it there, in the corner. This place must be destroyed - and quickly I would think.
