Will Save: <-- gotta love good will + high Wisdom
As Alexa senses the piper attempt to use some unholy power on her, she sneers at the ghost:
Nice try, but nature shall always overcome unnatural and abhorrant creatures such as you.
Having been relieved of his attacker, Valen continues on trying to using Pharasma's holy light to push the Piper back. His voice emanates with an unearthly tone:"The Grey Lady won't be denied her due..."
With a look of grim determination, Vaghn attempts to repeat his evisceration on the remaining pest.
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And with a sudden burst of grey-tinged light, Valen channels the Will of his Goddess, tearing the remaining apparition apart. It wails one last time, its pipes playing madly, and fades from view. The remaining stirge, still hungrily feeding on Vaghn, draws a lengthy gulp of his warm, sticky blood () before Vaghn, dagger in hand, slits the little monster's throat.
...and suddenly, there is silence.
Madeline collapses into a ball and continues to hug herself, muttering something softly.
Vaghn calmly cleans the blood from his dagger and sheathes it. Then he retrieves, unloads, and stores his crossbow. Then he picks up one of the stirge corpses and studies it for a few moments before tossing it aside.
"Well then. That certainly could have gone worse."
Alexa looks where the apparition disappeared:
With the sense of undeath I detected, that will not be the last such creature we meet here.
She then looks around at the others: Is everyone ok?
Noticing Madeline she walks over and kneels down in front of her and gives her a hug: It will be ok, we are all safe and here together. We will continue together and defeat whatever is causing the unnatural blight on the land.
Valen lowers his arms and utters,"Pharasma be praised for your strength." He turns to scan area, looking for anymore suprises.
Seeing Alexa supporting Madeline, and Vaughn examining Creel's assailant, he adds: "Is anyone in need of aid?"
Madeline continues to shiver for a moment, though at Alexa's touch she seems to come back to herself. She nods and stands, with Alexa's help.
"That was..harrowing." She absently rubs at the spot where the little..creature was attached.
"What were those demon birds?" She steps closer and prods on with a boot.
I meant other than you.
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With the threat of the Piper now neutralized, your group has some room to breathe. Moving your torches to and fro, you can make out the rest of the prison, with some of the cells still harboring the dead - prisoners trapped here when the fire washed over Harrowstone. Rows of cells, some containing shambling skeletons, run north to south and east to west. From the door way, you can proceed either east or south.
Madeline shudders and kicks one of the fallen...bird things with her boot. Then she glances at the cells which can be seen.
"Should we...settle...these wretches at least?' She asks, looking askance at some of the shambling things.
"That the Church did nothing to clear this area is...disturbing..." She mumbles.
Valen gives Madeline a cursory scan and also examines one of the stirges. .
"This thing probably sucked down a healthy dose of blood from you, that chill you are feeling may have more to do with that than the Piper. If you don't feel any better, I believe the potion of restoration should recover your strength. Otherwise, rest and a warm meal may help once we get out of here."
Glancing at the skeletons, he adds to Madeline: "Pharasma's will commits me to eliminating these poor wretches, but I'm afraid it will take the rest of my holy strength to do so. I am...worried that it will leave us weakened against the other, more deadly inmates," he pauses and glances at his mace. "I suppose this will have to do...anyone else provide council on this matter?"
Still shivering slightly, Madeline at first glares at the now immobile Smith...Then relents and directs her Manservant to assist in the...removal of the lingering undead.
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Your group finds little challenge in dispatching the remaining undead, who bound and chained in their cells, can do little but strain against their bonds in a feeble attempt to assault you.
The Prison
"Row upon row of ten-foot-square prison cells line the walls, each separated from the passing hallway by a series of iron bars fitted with a narrow iron door. Skeletons slump in many of the cells, the bones scattered where they lie and coated with a mixed layer of ancient ashes and fresh mold."
Standing where your group is, you can count 8 prison cells, each 10 foot square, along the western wall. Another 5 cells face them, leaving a hall headed east from both the northern end of the wing (closest to the door you just entered) and the southern end of the wing. Another cell is located at the end of the hall, slightly bigger than those before you.
Far to the east, just at the edge of your vision, is a series of broken tables and chairs.
To the north, just around the corner from you, is another cell. A partially collapsed wall leaves this cell open. Several broken bones litter the floor here. Upon closer inspection, you realize this cell was once a privy.
What do you all know about this Piper ghost? Was he someone important in town before becoming . . . unnatural?
"Well...whatever he was, he was evil enough to linger..." Madeline airs her thoughts, though still rubbing her arms...she suddenly starts and orders Smith back to the area where the incident took place, that he retrieve her dropped weapon. She waits impatiently for Smith to get back to the group.
Suddenly, Tharnik speaks up, "I believe Master Creel and some of the professor's earlier students determined that the Piper of Illmarsh, alongside four other rather wicked men, came to Harrowstone to meet their doom. For some reason, there was a fire that killed them before the executioner could put their heads into a basket."
Then, Tharnik speaks to Creel in Orcish,
After making sure that the others are ok, and dispatching of the undead in the cells. Alexa takes on that distant look as she seeks to determine whether there are any undead, incorporeal or other non-normal unnatural creatures about.
Use Spirit Sense - attempting to narrow the focus so that it is not a full 60' arc as that would undoubtedly get everything in the prison.
I do not sense any more undead on this level. I assume there are more on the lower levels, but cannot detect them.
Unless someone else wants to do something else, I will keep the Spirit Sense going and begin to proceed down the south corridor.
Which corridor were the bound skeletons cells off of?
Now that the skeletons have been dispatched, Valen concurs with Alexa's statement. "Let's move south - there's a larger cell at the end that might be of interest. Otherwise, we can turn east and see what all the mess of tables is about."
In the dimming light, his eyes glow slightly to pick out details in the half-light - hoping to spot anything Alexa may sense.
Which corridor were the bound skeletons cells off of?
"Yes this Piper was one of the noted prisoners. I wonder if the others were also doomed to the same fate."
Madeline checks and fusses with ehr returned x-bow as the group moves towards their next target.
Ok, Alexa leads the group slowly down the south passage using her Sense Spirit to determine whether there are any more undead or incorporeal creatures ahead of them.
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Your group proceeds southward, slowly examining the surrounding cells - sweeping them for the undead - when suddenly Alexa stops and focuses on the last cell.
Something powerful and undead is ahead in the last cell. Possibly more powerful than the Piper.
Madeline squares her shoulders and grips her x-bow tighter. With quick hand gestures she gives simple instructions to Smith.
Smith nods, hefts the maul and settles in beside...
Ready to attack.
"The Piper of Illmarsh. One of five notable villains who died when Harrowstone burned, and the only one I know anything more about than a name, more's the pity. Considering the tragedies that occurred here, the sheer malevolence of the prisoners, and the recent presence of the Way... yes, it would probably be a safe bet we will face the others. Father Charlatan. The Lopper. The Mosswater Marauder. The Splatter Man."
Vaghn gestures back to where the apparition disappeared. "That was not, in fact, even a true undead creature. Rather, it was a sort of magical impression of his twisted mind commonly referred to as a haunt. Powerful, yes, but without real sentience or mobility. Unless the spirit is laid to rest, it will manifest again in time. And if one of the others lies ahead in that cell there... Well, Herr Stellori, I hope you are very strongly in the Lady's graces. Other than Creel, I do not believe the rest of us have any way whatever of combatting such a foe."
Father Charlatan. The Lopper. The Mosswater Marauder. The Splatter Man. And if one of the others lies ahead in that cell there... Well, Herr Stellori, I hope you are very strongly in the Lady's graces."
"Such a wonderful gallery of murderers you've mentioned. May Pharasma give us all strength to deal with them then..." he pauses at Alexa's warning. He turns towards Vaghn with a slight look of confusion and mumbles: "I don't think anyone's ever given me such a 'formal' address...hmm."
He turns curiously towards the large cell's door. "Try the handle, or let Smith open it his way?"
What does Smith see inside?
Madeline arches an eyebrow.
"Well...'Houldiny the amazing escapist' he wasn't." She comments dryly.
Tharnik looks at Madeline and says, "Who?"
Madeline's brows furrow as she tries to decipher what her Manservant's cryptic words mean.
Anything in the room aside from the skeleton that might give us more insight? Otherwise - Valen looks at the holy symbols - hoping they might give some insight as to why they are there.
"Religious fanatic?"
"Or religious fraud. Just a guess, but we may be looking at the corpse of one Father Charlatan."
Vaghn casts detect magic and peers with interest, using his still extant light spell to illuminate the cell sufficiently.