"Leave him to recover. We can come back later when he might be more willing to talk." Arden continues down the hall.
"Okay... but this place iss a collapsing death-trap, no? We should not forget to rescue the preesoners on our way out."
Florace follows Arden. This seems prudent. When we collect him on our return we should bring him to the authorities and determine if he was wrongfully imprisoned. That and follow up on this baron fellow.
As you continue down the hallway, you see more of the same; locked cells with skeletons inside. Eventually, you find yourselves on the other side of the second secret door.
"Let's continue down this way." As Arden walks down the corridor to the left.
The door to this room appears stuck.
Sir Florace tries to force the door: . His expression becomes grim. A torture chamber.
He checks around the room.
Arden moves into the room to look more closely at the plaque.
Sir Florace likewise moves into the room. Before he can see more than a skeleton sitting on one of the chairs, Arden is started by a tiny black raven suddenly appearing right before him on top of the plaque. It speaks to the group.
"Greetings, fine citizens of our glorious empire! So good to have visitors, though I fear I have no refreshments to offer. I assume you are here for the treasure. Well, I’d be happy to assist, provided that you give me what I require! It has been so long since I was able to ply my trade. I require only that each of you shed your life’s blood in this room—simply take a seat in one of my lovely chairs."
A chair that sheds blood? Tiger is naturally suspicious.
"Meester bird-man", he says, drawing out his words and swishing his tail. "I am not such a big fan of this... human chairs of yours, because, you see, this tail here."
"Always fond of treassure, this one iss, and not afraid of a bit of blood, but could I perrhaps place a drop of mine on the chair eenstead?"
Sharpe is suspicious. "How much blood are we talking about here?"
He also searches the room.
The bird cackles. "But what is the point if not to make you uncomfortable, 'Meester cat-man'? And not much blood. Not much at all is required."
Sir Florace appears unsettled. I don't like this. This seems an evil place.
He tries Detect Evil.
As I suspected, there's an evil aura from the bird. I don't think we should have anything to do with this.
"Can you tell us more of the treassure you would trade four our blood, Meester bird? We don't havve all day here, and it seems my comrrades would prefer to move on."
And then Tiger decides it might be worth testing whether the bird is some sort of devilish creature; so he quickly mutters, in infernal, the worst curse he can think of on the spot, something like "May fleas devour your eyeballs and your feathers catch fire and slowly burn you to a painful death."
"The bird seems to be telling the truth. There are small spikes in the chairs that will cause us to lose blood."
Arden checks for traps around the chair.
"The chair looks safe enough, apart from the spikes that will cause you to bleed. Anyone willing to go first?"
To the raven, "What is your trade, which you mentioned earlier that you have not used in a long time?"
The bird doesn't seem to respond to Tiger's infernal insult, instead spreading its wings as if displaying the room. "Why, surely you don't think the tower is as small as what you've seen, do you? And our dear late baron is smart enough not to leave his treasury in plain view next to where he keeps his...guests." The bird chuckles.
"And my trade, dear sir, is this of course! Making bargains. Deals. But alas," he sighs heavily. "It's so difficult to do without people to bargain with. And it's been so long since I've had any visitors."
"You still havven't told us what you're offering."
The bird seems to be getting a bit annoyed now. "Why, information about where the baron's treasury is of course. But if you think you can find it without me, go ahead." He gives a bird-shrug and flies from his position to the rack, pretending to inspect the mechanism.
"Doesn't a witch live here, not a baron." Arden says to the others. "Tell me about the baron, I suppose you can tell us this without us needing to make a sacrifice." Arden asks the raven.
"Yip yap yip yap. Harzogopas done with the talky talky. No more stalling! Either sit in the chairs to hear what I have to say or don't and stop bothering me."
"There's something strange about this baron business. We should be careful. I suggest we leave and come back to deal with the raven and the prisoner later."
Arden leaves the room and heads to the east door of the main room on this floor.
When you go to open the Eastern set of doors, it opens into a small closet. It appears empty except for a few barrels of water.
Florace inspects the barrels and closet .
You don't find anything particularly interesting about either the barrels or the closet.
Sharpe also inspects the barrels and closet.
"If thiss were not a tower, I would say yes, we havve explored it all, let us return to town? But maybe we should not givve up quite yet."
Sharpe's curiosity gets the better of him and he sits on one of the chairs in the room with the bird.
Sharpe takes damage.
The bird cackles. "One down, only 3 more to go."
"Well then, since Sharpe did, we might as well try." Arden sits down in the chair when Sharpe gets up.
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Arden also takes damage. Anybody else who sits down can roll their own damage if they wish.
Well, if all the cool kids are doing it, Tiger doesn't want to be left out. He'll sit down too.
Very well, Florace says. If this is the party's decision I must go along with it.
He sits down on the chair, taking damage.
The bird cackles gleefully, hopping about in a little bird-dance. "There's a secret door to the North."
He then continues. "There are also some secret cells to the South." He indicates back through the door to the room.
Arden heads towards the secret door to the north. Hearing the raven, Arden turns towards the indicated table and searches it.
Florace checks the table with Arden. .
I don't really see anything that looks like a key. Shout if you find anything on your end. He gives up and goes South to look for the secret cells.
Tiger will do the same.
Sharpe also checks the table.