By the time Iesha has gathered up the medical supplies, Talia and Sour Heck are probably back. "Interesting, that were. Now to th' other door? Or perhaps 'tis wisest, and we pause a moment to heal th' wounded 'fore we pass into further peril."
"That's probably reasonable, given the hostility of even the medic here." Iesha attempts a joke.
"Interesting is one word for it," Eloise says as she brushes off her cloak. "Did we put the thing to rest, or merely chase it off, then?"
"It might also be hiding, waiting to strike when we let our guard down. Or gathering allies for a massive assault. Or it might have possessed one of us, in order to travel outside this place and go on a murder spree in the village."
Heck looks supiciously at Iesha.
"Iesha never tried to make jokes before we entered this room..."
He shrugs.
"Maybe she's just hysterical with fear, not possessed at all. So lead on, Peredur! Anyone find some bandages for my face?"
"No, Master Heck. As I remarked before, 'tis a bad influence you are."
Peredur returns to his original plan to open the other door to the infirmary.
Iesha joins Peredur at the door, hopefully prepared for anything.
The furnace itself seems to leer at you, you'd swear that it was twisting into a scowl.
This room also smells faintly of sharred flesh.
A huge stone furnace dominates this room, large enough for a child to climb inside. The fire that destroyed much of the prison has burned away the entire east wall of the room, providing a panoramix, if eeire view of the lake beyond. The same lake that has gradually expanded into this room, flooding the eastern half.
A door leading south stands near the encroaching lake.
Iesha cautiously enters the room, carefully observing the area.
Talia peeks into the room, wary of any lurking presence, specter, or flying objects...
"I do not like the look of that furnace," Eloise says, scowling right back at the metal monstrosity. She repeats the cantrip that she used in the room with the poltergeist, scanning for magical auras.
"It's been a while since anyone cleaned it, that's certain."
"Aye, have that ready. Iesha, I may need another bottle of blessed water after this." The ranger cautiously advances into the room, sword out.
"The furnace?" says Talia, glancing at it warily. She lifts a hand, readying to strike out with a healing touch any negative manifestation to come within range.
There is a great creaking of rusted metal, then a raucous clanging sound from the now-twisted looking furnace. "The Ember Maw," according to the sign hanging above it, has taken on a hideously human visage, and a great gout of flame roars from it's mouth, arcing through the air toward Talia.
Burns errupt across her body and her clothing is scorched badly in the attack.
The grate clangs shut again, but the furnace is now smoldering, the temperature in the room climbs quickly. It looks ready to attack again at any moment.
Eloise screams with fury, and charges the furnace.
"Filthy wretch!" she curses as she brings her sword down on the thing with all her strength.
There is a discharge of palpable energy that leaves Eloise with gooseflesh all over her body. The stonework of the furnace is barely scathed, but the flame inside looks to have weakened.
"Ice!" Eloise shouts. "Cold! Anything cold! Douse the flame! Do it!"
Talia quickly lays a hand where the blast of flame was most sever, healing herself of some damage, before stepping back through the door and out of range of another blast.
"Ack! What is wrong with this place?" she says in disgust and anger.
HP: 9/15
Healing Hex: Talia
"Holy water! Quickly!"
Sour Heck lobs a vial of holy water to smash over the top of the stove.
"Avaunt, spirit--don't make me get out my wineskin! Please don't make me get out my wineskin. What a sodden waste that would be."
Iesha tosses a bottle of holy water at it, whilst studying it to determine if it's a haunt.
Iesha and Heck pelt the hideous maw of the furnace with holy water, which sputters the flame deep inside of it. The expression untwists, and Ember Maw falls still again.
Objects can become haunted in areas of high spiritual activity, or even a single particularly malicious spirit. Or both, feeding off each other.
"Take that!" Eloise says, and she kicks the furnace - though not so hard that she is in danger of suffering any injury. "Good work, everyone."
"Talia!" the Chelaxian calls as she walks towards the door opening, her sword bouncing on her shoulder. "You alright?"
"Yes, thank you, Eloise. Annoyed and upset and sunburned, but all right." Talia offers a grin in response.
Peredur looks for anything of interest inside the furnace.
Sour Heck, meanwhile, checks out the rest of the room, especially the flooded section, probing in the water with his longspear.
"Think that mad oven burnt down the wall? What sense does that make?"
"More likely, the wall was destroyed in the fire that took out the prison and the prisoners. Doesn't mean this thing couldn't have played a part, though."
"Don't touch th' water. Iesha can tell you what happens."
Peredur is unable to discren more than ash and soot in the depths of the beast.
Vines and thick ivy hang down, partly obscuring the open wall to the east. The glass-like surface of the lake is still clearly visible.
A door stands to the south, unopened.
"That was - bizarre. Skeletons. Flaming skeletons. Emerging from water."
She walks over to the furnace and says "Have you found anything? Let me help."
If Iesha doesn't see anything, Peredur will move on to the next door.
Iesha finds soot and ash and a bit of a cough after scrounging around in the furnace.
Iesha sighs. "I have no idea what triggered that. Haunts can be triggered by the general influence of the area or by a specific evil spirit. But which this is... she shrugs.
"Let's continue. And mark this room as risky. I don't know if we destroyed it or not."
"Maybe someone was burned to death in that thing," Eloise bluntly suggests.
"I suppose that's possible. But then, people were burnt to death all through this place. Hm. Do you want to try once more to find something in there? Perhaps if we specifically looked for bones..."
Iesha studies the door to the furnace thoughtfully.
"I'll give it a try if you like," Eloise says, shrugging. "I'm better at stabbing things into submission than I am at tracking them down, though."
Eloise comes out of the furnace with filthy hands, but nothing of note.
"Well, that's enough of that," Eloise says in a decisive tone as she brushes her gloves as clean as she can get them. "On to the next room, if you all please!"
"That sounds like a good plan. I'm steering clear of that furnace!" Talia turns to Sour Heck with a weak smile. "Mr Heck? Could you perhaps dig out that wand? I'm afraid these blisters are driving me insane..."
Peredur pushes open the door.
Moldering training dummies and similar equipment hint that this room may have once been a training area for the guards. Before the party is a dark, jagged hole in the ground, surrounded by black scorch marks.
The ruined floor in the northeast corner has crumbled enough that the encroaching lake trickles into the open hole. The sound of the dripping water splashing into yet more water can be heard from below.
"Ok, what's about to attack us now?"
Eloise casts Detect Magic. "Either the training dummies, whatever weapons are left in here, or both," she suggests.
Again alert for any intrusive haunts, Peredur slowly advances into the room, giving the hole in the floor a wide berth to start with.
Sour Heck draws the wand from his belt and lifts it solemnly in the gloom.
“Oh Pharasma, you are so very great; we’re all really impressed down here. We’re about to be killed by a bunch of undead monstrosities, so if you’d like us to take a few of them with us before we go, please grant us the power of this wand to heal our wounds. By the Covenant in the Dark Waters we beseech you, amen.”
The wand sits unresponsive until he speaks the final phrase--an actual prayer to Pharasma. A drop of brackish water then beads at the tip. He touches it carefully to Talia’s burns, easing their inflammation.
The room remains still, silent but for the breath of the party, the ruffle of Kieli's feathers, and the steady dripping of water to the level below.
Peredur carefully edges closer to the hole in the floor, looking to see if there's any dry ground at the bottom. "It's thinking I am to go down first. Th' keys and th' badge are likely below, with th' Warden's bones. Have any of you brought rope?"
“No rope, so if we go down, we can’t get back up. Which I think means we go up.”
"Th' Piper of Ilmarsh awaits upstairs, and it were foolhardy indeed to face him lacking what we'll find in th' vault. Better to return to town and get what we need to descend. First, though, what of th' last tower room? We can enter on our way out."