HAUNTED MAGE HANDS
You’ve been staying in the Wizard’s castle for over a week now and the vague sense of foreboding has yet to dissipate. The stale air and heavy, shroud-like curtains entombing the floor-to-ceiling windows hasn’t helped you shake off any of your initial misgivings. Neither have the strange noises or the constant feeling that you’re being watched.
From the back of the small laboratory where the Wizard had set up your station comes a soft but instantly recognizable tinkling sound. The sound of glass gently hitting glass. You reflexively jump up, knocking your stool over in the process, and scan the shelves where rows and rows of flasks, bottles, and pipettes are lined up but see nothing out of the ordinary.
You turn back around and through sheer force of will, return your concentration to the mortar and pestle on the pocked surface of the workbench. The thumping of your heart frantically beating in your chest has barely subsided before you hear the same sound again. This time you stalk over to the shelves, searching for a possible source of the noise while once again trying to convince yourself that you are not going mad.
Sighing at finding nothing, you turn back around but immediately stop in your tracks as your blood runs cold. The missing ingredients that disappeared days ago are laying in a haphazard pile on your workbench. You spin back around as fast as possible and catch a blur of something translucent fly past.
The second you realize it’s a ghost, something clicks into place in your mind and the glowing blue ghastly apparition of severed hands floats into your view.
☾ So, how will you proceed?
Fight the Haunted Mage Hands.
Inspect the Hands. [Requires Intelligence check].
Offer your hands outward in a welcoming gesture.
Inspect the mortar and pestle on the workbench.
Turn your attention to the freshly returned ingredients on the workbench.
Leave. You may be chased by these Hands.
Result: -