Valachi, the furnace interior extends about 15 ft back, meaning that you will have to physically crawl/walk inside of it to fully explore. Is that what you would like to do? From the entrance you can see that the ashes appear to be at least a foot or two deep, and it is hard to see how deep they might get further back.
Valachi, the furnace interior extends about 15 ft back, meaning that you will have to physically crawl/walk inside of it to fully explore. Is that what you would like to do? From the entrance you can see that the ashes appear to be at least a foot or two deep, and it is hard to see how deep they might get further back.
Using the butt of his spear to check the surface beneath the ashes, Valachi will climb in to take a closer look.
Ember continues to work on healing Agnar.
"Careful Valachi. Let me know if you find anything strange. It may have some bearing on the haunt that was here."
Eyeing the twisted grate warily, Valachi crawls throw the narrow opening into the heart of the furnace, where only minutes ago a massive conflagration burned. Strangely, there is no residual heat, and the furnace heart feels as cold and dead as the rest of this ancient abandoned ruin. He stands up within, finding that the area within is quite spacious. The ceiling is at least 8 ft tall in most places, and a wide chimney is open in the middle, rising up to higher levels. The ash along the floor is deep, matted down in places into a thick hard mat of clay like earth.
Valachi prods cautiously with his spear, looking around slowly, the burning ioun torch circling around his head providing a steady light by which to work. He spears a section of ash every few inches, working left to right, and gradually penetrating deeper into the furnace.
While Valachi explores, the rest of the group works to reorganize themselves, and secure their position.
"This will go a little faster if someone wants to come inside and help," Val calls out to the others.
Delia blanches at the suggestion, drawing up the hem of her dress as if just remembering that the room she is in has ashes and stagnant water. The mixture of the two would most definitely stain. She turns to exit back out through the hole in the wall, before turning to Father and suggesting, "Would you be so kind as to lend him a hand, Dear Father?"
Emotionally he responds, "Yes, my flower." before he climbs into the cold furnace himself to help Valachi see what they can find inside.
To Val he asks, "What is it we intend to find?"
As Father moves up to join Valachi in the furnace, Zhan digs around in his pack for a moment, coming up with a small folding shovel. He casts a 'Light" incantation upon it to help illuminate the search area, and hands it to Father.
After Father climbs into the furnace, Zhan reloads his revolver, removing the spent brass casings from the weapon and replacing them in the loops on his belt. He then takes a few fresh shells and places them in the weapon's breech. After this, he takes out one of the Wands of Healing, and uses it upon himself to heal some of his burns.
"Does anyone else need healing?"
To Zhan, "I could, but its not bad; just a few minor burns."
*
To Father, "I don't know. Maybe some remnants of the victims, a clue, treasures."
"I'm still working on healing Agnar," Ember replies, using the wand again (and paying scant attention to her wounds).
"Thank you Ember." Agnar says after being healed.
The duo in the furnace search for another five minutes or so before finding anything of significance. The ash has mostly solidified into a solid mass over the years, making the work somewhat slow. The prodding of Valachi's spear helps to break it up a bit, after which Father is able to easily move it around with the hand shovel. At first they find a few bits of what seem to be blackened rocks or pebbles, but the light soon reveals them to be teeth and small bones. Concentrating on that area leads to the discovery of more bones; parts of a skull, some ribs, and some finger bones. If there were once more bones, they must have been destroyed in the repeated fires held within this furnace. One thing seems especially odd though, when handled, the bones feel hot to the touch, as though they had been in a fire only moments ago, even though nothing else seems to have held the heat.
Zhan calls Valachi over to the opening to the furnace, and gives him a touch of the healing wand.
Ember ponders the question of why the bones should still be hot, while everything else is cold. Could it be related to the Haunt?
Ember ponders the question. It stands to reason that if these bones are still hot, they may be the bones of the one whose spirit created this particular haunting. It may not be that the bones are still hot from the fire, but rather that the heat came from the bones all along.
Val carefully collects the hot bones and brings them out of the furnace, then setting them on the ground. "Into the water, or maybe crush them?"
"Or back to Father Grimburrow, to be laid to rest?"
"Try putting them into the water first. Perhaps the cooling will sooth the haunt's anger."
When the bones are lowered into the water, a burst of steam is released, and the bones sizzle. A tension that you did not realize had existed in the air seems to dissipate, like a long held breath finally being relaxed. The disembodied voice that sounded so desperate while the furnace raged sounds again, but this time is relieved.
"At last... the burning has stopped. Peace."
The boiling water around the bones subsides, and they simply lay at rest within the cool water.
After completing their search, Valachi and Father are filthy with ash, but were unable to find anything else of interest within the furnace. The rest of the room is unadorned, and the search of that area reveals little of interest.
There are two exits from this room, the door Kirill examined, and said appeared could be easily forced, and both a door and a hole in the collapsed wall to the North (towards the lower edge of the map).
Delia looks relieved to see the tension lift, and as Father crawls from the furnace she admonishes him. "Oh, by the light Father, you are a mess. Does anyone have a prestidigitation they would be willing to use to clean him up?" She requests of the others.
Kendra replies, "I'm afraid I didn't prepare it today. Which way should we proceed? It seems clear that the hauntings here are both real and powerful, even though we have not yet found a definitive link to Ravengro; we should assume that everything we encounter may potentially be so afflicted."
Valachi smiles shyly at Kendra while dusting his legs. "No matter. If this is as dirty as I get in this place, I'll consider myself Desna's favorite." He nods towards the hole in the wall. "There first?"
Valachi approaches the hole in the wall, with the necessary caution. Most of the wall along the North side of the room, has in fact collapsed into the water of the still pond. However, by sneaking along the edge of the wall, Valachi is able to move into position to peer around the edge without getting his feet wet, or stepping into the room itself.
The room Valachi looks into is large, taking up most of the Western end of the building. The scorch marks and soot continue into the room, indicating that the ancient fire that was this building's undoing most certainly raged here as well. Moldering training dummies and other similar equipment hint that this room may have once been a training area for the guards. In the center of the room, the floor around a dark, jagged hole is surrounded by black scorch marks. A small stream from the still waters of the pond trails towards the hole, and disappears into it, the soft sound of the tiny waterfall echoing about the chamber.
[ooc]"Looks like there's a set of doors to the southwest,"[/b] Val informs the others, before entering the training room. He crosses to check the door, carefully avoiding the hole.
[ooc]That's actually the North-East, as the top of the map is South.
"Hold up, Valachi. I'll come with you. No one should go anywhere alone in here."
Valachi and Zhan make their way around the wall, next to the lake, and begin to head towards the door towards the North-East corner of the room. They give the hole in the floor a wide berth. The hole appears to be some ten feet across, and has some collapsed stone around the edges, which has expanded what was presumably once a square aperture into its present round shape. The remnants of some machinery can be seen attached to the ceiling above the hole, though the wood has been burned to cinders, and the metal is twisted, melted, and shows some signs of ancient molten dripping, now frozen in time in cool hard iron.
As Valachi and Zhan make their way around the hole on the Eastern side, a hideous shriek erupts from somewhere in the room, and several of the piles of rubble shift and fly apart as something rises out of them.
Zhan sees the objects that have disturbed the rubble, but from Valachi's angle, the view is obscured by the flying dust. Zhan shouts out, "Valachi, watch out! Undead!"
While the screaching noise pierces to the bone, and fills both with the desire to flee, both are able to shake off the affect.
Initiative:
Surprise Round:
Skulls rise up out of the dust, soot and rubble on the floor. There are no bodies attached however, and the evilly grinning heads float up without assistance. Mere moments after appearing, each bursts into flames, gaining a glowing wreath of curling dark flames. The skulls fly forward with little or no warning, swarming over the two living beings in the room.
Three skulls race at him screaming. Two of these fly clear of him, missing him in the stream of new dust in the air, the third slams into him, burning him, before continuing on out of reach
Another three race at Zhan, buzzing around him, but failing to make contact.
Zhan takes aim at one of the flying creatures, and fires at it with his revolver. The skull is struck dead center by the shot, and explodes in a gout of flame.
Initiative:
Initiative Order:
Ember
Father
Riff
Flaming Skulls
Kirill
Zhan
Delia
Valachi
Agnar
Kendra
Round 1: Fight!
Round 1
Hearing the noise and Zhan's shouts, Ember moves through the door into the room. Seeing the flaming skulls, she calls again upon Pharasma's light to attack these undead.
Valachi steps towards the nearest skull and rakes with both claws.
Valachi steps towards the nearest skull and rakes with both claws.
Father, seeing Ember run around the end of the wall will attempt to open the door, hoping to allow the others to cast from within the current room without having to enter the next.
Delia moves up to look into the room, and with a quick glance decides to draw her sling, hoping that she can maybe shoot some of them from the air.
Round 1 Summary:
Ember V races around the edge of the crumbling wall. Having heard the cry of "Undead!" from Zhan, she has her holy symbol in hand, and once set in place, raises it and channels out healing light. Each of the Skulls within range screeches in reaction.
Father races to the closed door, and with his shoulder forces open the warped and rotting wood.[/b]
Riff moves up behind his companions, moving to Father's back; his sword in hand.
One of the Flaming skulls open's its jaws and lets loose a terrifying scream.
Once again, the scream pierces to the bone, chills, and gives each person a momentary desire to run as fast as they can. However, all are able to resist and hold fast against their enemies. The skull drifts a pace from Agnar, and eye's him menacingly.
Another skull sees Ember appear around the corner in front of it, and feels the pain of the light she unleashes. Angered, it tries to slam into her with its flaming aura. ,
Another skull turns and attacks Zhan. then flies off in another diretion.
The skull next to Valachi turns and attacks him again. , but misses, and flies off.
The last skull turns and attacks Valachi as well. It strikes him, and then flies by Zhan towards the opening door.
Kirill races up, his bow drawn, and draws to a halt behind Ember and Agnar.
Zhan turns and targets the skull that slammed into him a moment ago. , but off balance from the turn, the shot goes wide.
Delia moves to the edge of the wall, and readies her sling.
Valachi turns, and lashes out at the nearest skull and attacks. One of his claws makes contact, tearing 4 furrows in the bone, but burning his hand in the process.
Agnar runs up, menacing his great sword drawn in both hands.
Kendra, the last to move, takes a position behind Riff, concentrates a moment, and fires a beam of white light at the nearest skull. However, the shot misses horribly, colliding with the wall before her.
Round 2:
Round 2
Ember cautiously edges forward to allow others to step in. She again releases the light of Pharasma on the skulls, bathing each of them in Pharasma's holy light.
Father steps up into the gap, his fingers intertwined, as he swings his heavy joined fists at the nearest skull.
Delia loads a stone into her sling and tries to find a clear target, firing at one of the skulls floating away from the scuffle. Her aim is good, but given all the others moving around, the force of her launch is cautiously light.
Valachi grimaces against the pain of the burning skull, but continues to swipe at the undead foes.
Round 2 Initi 6 26/29 HP
Moving forward Agnar takes a swing at skull.
Round 2 Summary:
Ember V takes a bold step forward, continuing to channel her holy light, the light now close enough to reach all the flying undead abominations.
The skulls all screech in reaction to the light, one screeching even louder than the others.
Father steps forward and brings his fists down right into the face of one of the skulls. His hands crush the skull to powder, sending fragments of bone and bits of teeth flying. The flames flash and vanish, but not before causing the Eidelon some small burns from the contact.
Riff steps through the door behind Father, and sword in hand, strikes at the skull near Ember. . This skull too bursts from the impact, and the flames wink out.
The Flaming skull facing Agnar drops its forhead down like a bull and charges into the northman. , . It barely manages to hit him with a glancing, but red hot, blow, after which it flies wide.
Another Flaming skull spins and attacks Valachi. Following the hit, it backs up for its next attack.
The last Flaming skull turns and attacks Zhan. It misses the man by a wide margin. It continues on its path around him.
Kirill draws his bow and looses at the skull that attacked Agnar. The arrow strikes the skull, piercing it. The skull screams with the impact. However, it does not appear slowed, and even with the steel tip extruding from its face and the feathers beginning to burn along the shaft exposed behind it, it continues to move.
Zhan turns and fires his weapon at the creature that came so close to him. [ooc} Attack vs. Touch AC: [/ooc][/ooc]. His shot again goes wide of the swiftly moving skull.
Delia spins her sling and fires a bullet at the skull pierced by Kirill's arrow. The lead pellet strikes true, and cracks the bone before deflecting of into the water.
Valachi dashes forward, following after the skull that attacked him and rakes at it with a deadly claw. His nails connect, and dash the skull apart.
Agnar steps forward after the skull in his vision, and splashes into the small stream. The water is not even deep enough to cover his toes. He comes down with a massive blow and splinters the skull into motes of dust.
Kendra has full view of the last skull from where she stands, and she again fires a blast of white light from her hand. , . The blast seems to rob the life, or unlife, from the skull, and the flames wink out. The skull continues forward on its momentum, and splashes into the water near the outer wall.
"The resless dead seem to be thick in this place," Ember comments in a low voice, almost to hereself.
Raising her voice a bit, she asks, "Who has been injured?" She pulls out the wand again.