Following Morgrym's lead, Lyraesel moves forward, an arrow fitted to her bowstring.
You descend the stairs into a chamber...
It's dark, and the stairs follow a circular path down. They end abruptly at a heavy portcullis sunken into the stone.
There's a small chamber beyond the portcullis where the hallway expands to about a 20' wide room, but the portcullis itself seems to be locked into place with no obvious way to bypass it.
Can someone look at this? I cannot make heads nor tails of this.
Morgym shows what he see's and then moves back to give others a chance to work.
Shalelu furrows her brow and says, "Some kind of relief carving? I don't know. Sun and moon... related to time of day? Why have that underground?"
She shrugs. "Humans are strange."
Kenji looks at the carving. "Maybe it's symbolic? Maybe there's some keys or something that fit in the circles?"
Spivey says, "That wicked man must have the keys! But maybe I can squeeze through the bars?"
"Ot might be worth it to try, but if you see danger, get bak to us immediately." Lyraesel says quietly.
I do not recommend it, but if you wish, I will reinforce what Lyraesel said. If you see danger, come back as fast as possible.
While we try to figure out how to get through this.
Morgrym indicates the portcullis
Spivey nods and bows her head for a moment. "Desna, patron of dreams, grant me the gift of insight," she says in a brief prayer.
The faerie slips between the bars - just barely! - and flits about the room beyond.
"There are two doors here, but I don't think I can open them. The floor is deep with dust. It's a little odd, I don't expect that it would normally be this thick. It's a little cold. No sign of anyone..."
She flits here and there, looking at the stone walls. She touches the western wall, then the eastern one.
"There's something here... some kind of hidden portal. I can't see how to open it and I'm not sure I could if I found a lever or something - I'm not big enough to get the leverage."
"It must require those strange keys. We can la=eave this for last since the dust means no one comes here." Lyraesel says in response.
"Yeah, let's move on then." Kenji replies. "Thanks for checking ahead, Spivey."
Well seeing as we cannot get through quite yet. Up we go?
You double back upstairs. As you come up toward the ground floor, you see blood start to ooze from the cracks in the mortared stone walls, and you hear a ghostly shrieking and moaning. Suddenly, entire bloody forms of soldiers ooze out of the walls, liquid and scarlet, and they float by, running from some unseen foe. As they cross your path they are suddenly jolted as if struck by an invisible force and they explode one by one into great showers of blood that spatters over you!
Kenji wipes the blood from his eyes, looking down at himself with confusion and disgust.
"What... The hell was that?!" he groans, slinging blood from his hands.
With a shudder of revulsion and a low growl in the back of her throat, Lyraesel tries to shake some of the blood out of her hair. "Haunted."
Ugh! More important question is can we get rid of it?
After a disgusting few minutes you manage to wipe away much of the blood, but it still leaves you with a sense of extreme unease.
You turn your attentions upward, but as you circle up the stairwell into the tower you notice blood oozing from the walls again... this time screaming ghostly faces start to push their way out of the stones and howl at you!
Shalelu, still shaking from the haunts, says, "Maybe we can go back up above that ballroom. No ghosts there."
Shaking off the unsettling chill of the haunt as a wolf does snow, Lyraesel turns her head as she picks up the fear in Shalelu's tone. Seeing the usually stoic and fearless ranger literally shaking touches something deep within her. Reaching out her hand, she takes Shalelu's, lacing her fingers with her companion's and gently squeezing. Silently she holds her gaze, deliberately taking slow deep breaths, trying to call her back from the primal fear she sees in her eyes. "That's a good idea Shal, maybe you can keep watch upstairs so we don't have anything nasty waiting for us on the way back up. You have the best eyes of any of us after all." she says encouragingly.
Bernard starts muttering under his breath and his eyes dart about anxiously, but he follows along behind Lyraesel
Kenji was prepared for more screaming and weirdness, and gets through this time without trouble.
Shalelu flees back to the ground floor. Spivey is unnerved but manages to keep her resolve.
Holding tight to Lyraesel's hand, Shalelu says, "For a moment I felt the suffering of all the defenders of this castle... dead in minutes as they were overrun. I don't... I think it's some kind of supernatural power, I can't control it."
Spivey says, "Well, goodness knows we shouldn't split up in a dangerous place like this. If we go up the stairs by the ballroom we at least know a little bit about what's there and we can work our way toward figuring out how everything connects."
Agreed. The ballroom seems to be the safest way up. I'll go ahead you all stay a little ways behind.
Bernard slinks off ahead of the group to the stairs above the ballroom.
"Okay, we'll all go up. I'll be with you all the way Shal, we will beat this supernatural or no, let's go." Lyraesel says leading Shalelu after Bernard up the stairs after giving the rogue a few second's head start.
As you approach the ballroom you can hear screams and howls of rage from above. Bernard sneaks a peek and he can easily see the little red-nosed man up on the balcony, pacing back and forth while shouting and gesticulating wildly.
Bernard circles around to the stairway that leads up to the hall next to the balcony. Even there, he can hear the screams and shouts through the doorway that goes onto the balcony itself.
The angry little man seems to be ranting about how you've interrupted his plans, like any half-decent villain.
Bernard sneaks back and reports to the others.
I think if we Morgrym, Kenji and Spivey go up the stairs in the front, Shalelu and I can get up behind him and we can drop him fairly quickly and with a minimum of bloodshed. Can you fight, Shalelu?
Aye, i could fight, but the difficulty is in getting to him. But i will distract him if you need it.
I'm thinking you could wait until we get up the stairs before you even enter the ballroom. You'll be in the line of fire as little as possible. He might attack from up there hoping to keep away from all of us.
"Good plan. Okay, let's do it." Kenji agrees with Bernard's assessment of the situation. He will get in position and be ready to move when the ambush begins.
"And you're sure he was alone?" Lyrasel asks. "Don't assume you can drop him quickly, or did you forget that his wounds heal rapidly?"
As sure as I could be. He seemed lost in his mad ramblings about how we ruined his performance. I do remember that, but I also remember that he ran rather than fight us when we had him 5-on-1. I don't know if his healing was temporary or weakening or what, but he decided to run rather than face us, and all information points to us having the drop on him this time.
Lyraesel considers Bernard's words, nodding. Whispering a chant in druidic she sniffs the air a few times. "Give me a minute." she whispers creeping up the staircase Bernard had headed up ad letting her nose tell her what she could discern about what lay inside.
Shalelu says, "Aye, I can fight hand-to-hand if needed. I can sneak too, if we need to get behind him quietly."
Bernard and Shalelu creep up the back stair.
The rest of the party waits about three minutes to make sure Shalelu and Bernard are in position, and they sneak up to the doors by the balcony.
Giving Shalelu and Bernard the opportunity to surprise the red-nosed man, Lyraesel moves into the ballroom, looking up at the balcony and calling out. "You can run all you want little man. I will always be able to smell you!"
Bernard delays until after someone enters the room and starts the fight.
Morgrym pulls out his bow before they open the door. As soon as the door opens he moves in and takes a shot at the man.
Lyraesel and Morgrym move in and startle the man, who screeches angrily and actually jumps up and down with fury. Morgrym looses an arrow at him, but the angle is off and it misses.
Even flat-footed, the man is a tough nut - Bernard attacks him and the imprecise blows slide off his hide!
Kenji dashes up the stairs, hoping his fire can hurt the man where weapons arent.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Viv races up the stairs and rounds the corner post at the top to close in on the little red-nosed man.
Shalelu kicks open the upstairs door (move action) and steps in (5'), drawing her shortsword as she goes. She lashes out at the creature.
Her blade narrowly misses.
Spivey moves to the center of the room and flies up so that she can see the enemy.
The little red-nosed man screams, "YOU AGAIN! I'll make you idiots pay! JUST YOU WAIT!"
He points at Shalelu and uses some kind of innate power; as he concentrates she takes the opportunity to stab at him again.
She hits!
The little man's power is spoiled!
Kenji runs up the stairs and moves to engage the little red-nosed man.
Hearing the battle begin, Lyraesel concentrates, dropping into a lower stance as her body shifts, the muscles in her legs, her frame and spatial awareness adjusting to grant her greater speed. She races up the stairs onto the balcony, circling around to corner red faced man.
Bernard launches a single arrow.
Morgrym moves across, and up the stairs, putting his bow away, and drawing his Urgosh.
Bloody long legs. I will get there.
The little man steps backward around the circular balcony and shouts, "You want fire? I'LL GIVE YOU FIRE!" A blast of fire erupts from his hand and lances toward Kenji!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Swiftly circling behind the little man, Lyraesel utters a chant in druidic, flashing him a predator's grin as a 3-foot-long, blazing beam of red-hot fire springs forth from her hand, holding a form reminiscent of a scimitar.