"I could use some healing before we move on..." He quickly downs a potion, closing his wounds fully.
With that, he pushes foward to examine and open the secret door.
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Opening the secret door, the group first moves through an empty cell that has several sets of rusty manacles hanging from the wall. Proceeding through the cell's open door reveals several iron doors that line the walls of this partially ruined cellblock—the doors themselves hang askew on their hinges, revealing empty cells beyond. Partially burnt wooden support timbers still function to the north, while to the south they’ve collapsed and caused cell walls to crumble as well.
Rivulets of water drip down the southwestern wall to create a shallow pool in this ruined portion of the room, with overflow filling an oubliette hole in the middle of the room nearly to the rim. To the north, the way forward is blocked by another portcullis.
As the group moves in further, only Tara notices that tiny rivulets of blood are beginning to well up in the corner of the cell she's in. Could this be another Haunt?
Initiative (Surprise Round)
Bert
Vivian
Theodor
Sophie
Tara <= Up
Teilaenthis
Haunt
Stefan
Glancing up from her hold text, Tara pales as she sees what could be a manifestation of a haunt. "Pharasma! Help us in this time of need! Strike down this restless spirit who longs to be judged by your hand!" Filling the small room full of positive energy, Tara grasps at her trusty wooden holy symbol.
Tara unleashes a wave of positive energy into the room, but unfortunately it's not enough to stop the haunt from awakening.
Everyone, with the exceptions of Sophie and Tara, immediately notice that on the closest wall adjacent to you, the first letter of your name appears written in fresh blood. You realize that you soul or sanity is being “stolen” by having your name appear on the wall, and that by destroying the bloody words, you can get it back.
Initiative (Round 1)
Bert <= Up
Vivian <= Up
Theodor <= Up
Sophie <= Up
Tara <= Up
Teilaenthis <= Up
Haunt
Stefan
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Stefan looks at the wall with an expression of abject horror, his hand at his lips.
Bert turns and slashes out with his halberd and then bashes with his shield, the wall with the letter.
Sophie looks at Bert with some confusion. "Boy! Is something wrong with your head?!"
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"Mr. Bert! You need to get out of the room! This is a haunt, if you stay in this area something bad is going to happen." Tara gently nudges Stefan forward as she attempts to understand what is happening with her allies.
Teil rushes towards the wall and swings at the letter with his magic-charged earthbreaker, trying to shatter the area where his letter appeared.
Vivian stares in shock at the wall, and then tries frantically to wipe the blood with her dress, exposing more flesh than usual
Bert smashes the part of the wall next to him with a bloody letter 'B', and instantly feels his soul return to him.
With a mighty blow, Teilaenthis does the same to the 'T' of his name and the entire wall begins to groan. The occultist feels his soul return to him as well, but his powerful blow appears to have completely undermined the already damaged wall. The structure around the party begins to fall on top of everyone in small pieces, then in large chunks.
Vivian is so caught up in her desperate and futile act of cleaning that she doesn't react to the rockfall.
She nearly got trapped under the rocks, and crawl out, still in shock, shaking with fear and despair.
Sophie totters, clearly in pain. She casts a healing spell on herself.
She looks around. "Is everyone alright?" seeing Vivian shaking, she walks over to her and pulls the girl close, offering her a shoulder to lean on.
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The shattering blow sends the broken wall away from the teifling, leaving him safe from the debris.
"We seem to be nearing one of the more powerful haunts. The writing of names is a familiar tact."
Teilaenthis then picks a few lose stone shards from his flesh, leaving bleeding wounds. Apparently not as effective as he thought.
Bert has a few of the smaller pieces hit him but is able to deflect a large piece with his shield.
"Woah, nice shot there Teil, you are really bringing down the house." Bert says cracking a smile at his bad pun, then giggling.
The redhead tries to calm herself, but it takes some time, even with Sophie help and conforting shoulder.
Her face is full of dust, her lips are busted and bleeding, her hair is in a mess, and she's limping a little.
Stefan cannot tear his eyes from the appearance of the bloody letter "S" on the wall... he continues to stare as Bert and Tiel smash the wall with their hammers. He seems frozen in place as the wall collapses. He futilly raises his arms to cover his head as the wall of bricks falls on top of him, burying him under the rubble.
Tara and Theodor manage to avoid the largest chunks of rubble as the walls collapse.
As the group recovers and surveys the damage, a spectral presence emerges from the oubliette in the center of the room with a crazed laugh. Although incorporeal, it takes the image of an elderly, slight man in robes. Sneering at your presence, the old specter begins to cast a spell that evidently takes longer than normal.
He's casting an empowered Summon Monster II.
Initiative (Round 2)
Spectral Spellcaster
Bert [9 Dmg] <= Up
Vivian [13 Dmg] <= Up
Theodor [6 Dmg] <= Up
Sophie [5 Dmg] <= Up
Tara [6 Dmg] <= Up
Teilaenthis [6 Dmg] <= Up
Stefan [17 Dmg] <= Up
Beware, it's invoking some powerful creatures in! We need to stop him!
Vivian instantly recognizes this undead creature as a ghost. It's incorporeal, which means only magical weapons and spells can harm it. Furthermore, such attacks only do half damage. Ghosts tend to difficult to destroy for permanently, usually you need to resolve some trauma the creature experienced in life in order to put it to rest. In addition, many of them possess a touch attack that does a strong amount of negative energy damage.
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"Each of these is supposed to have an item we can use against it. Which is it for this villain?"
Teilaenthis swings his earthbreaker, it being enhanced by his magic, to try and buy his companions some time.
Staggering from the broken rubble that fell on him, Stefan retrieves a potion from his satchel and downs it.
Tara winces as the wall explodes with debris, but thankfully she is able to move out of the way enough to lessen the blow. Upon hearing the arcane chanting, Tara pales. "He's trying to conjure in some aid! We need to interrupt his casting, otherwise this is going to get dicey."
Sloughing her way through the difficult terrain, Tara is unable to make it outside of the room. "Pharsma, please guide our blades and strengthen our resolve so that we may be able to put these poor souls to rest!" Tara calls out as she cast bless.
Sophie casts a healing spell on Vivian, murmuring "Steel yourself girl, things are about to get rough".
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In front of the danger of undead, the young redhead changes her usual carefree attitude, and becomes calm and efficient.
Showing she can nearly be as quick witted as nimble of limb, Vivian takes the leadership and shouts, coordinating the attack with a comanding voice
It's the Splatter man! That's why we just saw letters of blood on the walls! And if he's using spells agaisnt us, that means the item linked to him is the spellbook we found earlier! Who gots it? Try to destroy it! Hack it in pieces, or burn it! Pharasma will soon claim her due, if we act quickly! If someone still has an usable syphon, use it to break his spell, or throw some holy water on him! We probably can't charge on this rough terrain! You must have magical weapons to take him down, so Teil, try to engage him. I can cast a spell so another weapon can be magic, for some time at least. Bert, come closer so I can enchant your weapon, use wolves tactics on the mage with Teil, try to put Splatter Ghost in a pincer position. He won't be able to cast spells on us if you're able to hit him.
"I have his spellbook... but first, I have some spells of my own!"
The doctor moves through the rubble into the next room. He casts a spell, and two bolts of brilliant magical energy fly from his outstretched hand at the ghost.
Teilaenthis advances on the ghost and attempts to smash it, but the apparition dodges the attack.
Tara casts Bless on the group. She also recalls that ghosts tend to be resistant to channeling and tend to have most or all the capabilities they had in life.
Sophie heals the seriously injured Vivian with magic. Afterwards, Vivian takes charge and attempts to provide the group with a strategy to take down the Splatter Man.
Stefan attempts to cast Magic Missile, but he finds his mind crippled with doubt, worrying about wasting such a spell when his companions are clearly capable of destroying this foe.
Initiative (Round 2)
Splatter Man
Bert [9 Dmg] <= Up
Vivian [4 Dmg] <= Up
Theodor [6 Dmg] <= Up
Sophie [5 Dmg]
Tara [6 Dmg]
Teilaenthis [6 Dmg]
Stefan [3 Dmg]
Bert moves closer to the redhead um..so bad with names "Thank you for your help, if you could help that would help." he stammers out.
Theodor is paralysed with horror as he sees his name written in blood on the wall. Luckly for him old combat reflexes kick in as the room starts to desintegrate and he manages to duck most of the debris.
So this is one of them! Rage breaks the warrior out of his shock as he draws the magic axeand casts enlarge person on himself.
Vivian cast a spell on Bert's weapon
Be quick, the magic will soon fade away.
Vivian casts a spell to make one of Bert's weapons magical, while Theodor draws a weapon and begins casting Enlarge Person on himself.
The Splatter Man finishes his spell and two dire rats appear, one adjacent to Sophie and Teilaenthis, while the other pops next to Bert. The ghostly spellcaster then floats 5 feet back and casts another spell, creating 4 bolts of force energy that hit Teilaenthis, Sophie, Theodor, and Bert.
"I've missed causing physical pain ever so much!" The ghost gloats afterwards.
Both summoned rats attempt to bite Teilaenthis and Bert respectively, but both miss.
Initiative (Round 3)
Splatter Man
Bert [14 Dmg] <= Up
Vivian [4 Dmg] <= Up
Theodor [11 Dmg] <= Up
Sophie [10 Dmg] <= Up
Tara [6 Dmg] <= Up
Teilaenthis [11 Dmg] <= Up
Stefan [3 Dmg] <= Up
Effects
Bless: +1 morale bonus to attack rolls and saves vs. Fear
"After him Teil! I will do for this one" Sophie says and then claws at the rat with unusually sharp fingernails.
for
for
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Bert nods at the direction to hurry and when the rat appears he attacks, quickly
Teil ignores the rat, stepping forward to try and strike the ghost.
Stefan says, "I have his spellbook... but first, I have some spells of my own!"
He raises his hands to start to cast a spell, but his mind is suddenly plagues with doubt... What if I need this spell later? Should I cast this now? If I do, I won't have it when I need it! But... this is the ghost of the Splatter Man! But...
He freezes in his indecision.
Momentarily shaking off his feelings of doubt, he casts a spell. Two bolts of blue-white magical energy fire from his hand at the Splatter Man.
Vivian moves near Bert and attacks the big, bad, bald rat.
These beasts are yuckie.