Father looks at the burns on his hands, a little confused, "It looks like I have injuries, can you heal these?" he seems uncertain
Delia looks at his hands in apology, "I can heal you, but it will use one of my spells. If you can do it with one of your large area healings, that would be fine, but don't use any limited resources if it is just for him alone. That I can handle." She explains to Ember.
Once the the last of the flaming skulls is silenced, the room once again goes eerily quiet. There are no sounds coming from anywhere else in the massive structure, except for the faint echoing of the water from the small stream hitting a surface, far below, in the darkness beneath the hole in the floor.
Fragments of bone, jaws and teeth and empty eye sockets, now litter the floor of the room, and the smell of scorched flesh hangs none too subtly in the air.
Riff fingers the edge of his sword, looking for nicks, and looks at the pieces of the skull he destroyed. His face bears a smile a mile wide and he looks like the cat with the canary, he is so proud. "Did you see that? One hit! Boom!"
Kendra casts a spell, and gazes around the room for a bit. "There is some fading necromantic energy coming from the skulls, but other than that, I see no auras in this room."
Zhan calmly reloads his gun before returning it to his holster. He then draws his wand and casts a spell to heal his burns.
He then crosses over to Valachi, and does the same for him, tapping the wand across the man's red and blistered hands. . "Valachi, my friend... have you ever considered using a weapon when attacking creatures that are on fire? I think you might suffer fewer of these burns that way..."
Valachi grunts, "Everything seems to be on fire in this place."
The door, like the other interior doors you have seen so far, looks like it was once a stout and strong iron bound oak affair that would have easily contained prisoners locked on either side. Now however, the door has been warped and bent by time and moisture, and the iron bands are red, powdery and flaking. These double doors now look like they could be relatively easily forced.
Val gives the door a try, but has no leverage. He looks back to Agnar and nods at the door.
Agnar walks up to the door puts down his greatsword than gives it a try.
Valachi sighs. "Maybe if we try it together, with Father this time."
While Valachi and Agnar and looking stymied at the door, Kendra approaches and takes a look. "This door looks about ready to fall over, is it really that hard to move?"
She places her hands against one side of the door and pushes. . The door groans for a quick second, and then opens.
Kendra looks shocked for a second that it moved for her, and then smiles broadly. She looks to Agnar and Valachi and smiles again, then makes an, 'after you' gesture with her arms.
After a second, she looks back at the room you were in, "shouldn't we search this room before moving on?"
After a second, she looks back at the room you were in, "shouldn't we search this room before moving on?"
The group spreads out to search the apparent training room . It is a large room, but missing much of anything in the way of accouterments, making it a bit easier to search. There are a few tables, some rotted cudgels and billy clubs, and a few standing attack dummies for the guards to practice their beatings on. Other than that, the only feature appears to be the large hole in the floor. A new examination does not reveal much; though the area around the hole appears to have crumbled, all the loose stone appears to have fallen away and what remains is relatively sturdy. The melted remnants of gears and machinery can be seen attached to the ceiling, and it stands to reason that before the fire, this hole was the top of a shaft for some sort of lift to the lower level. Zhan picks up a rock, and casting light upon it, drops it into the hole. It hits the floor some twenty feet below, revealing a stonework floor, and a pool of water from the small flowing stream. The field of vision is not wide enough to see anything more.
Deciding to explore the rest of this level before descending to what was presumably the lower dungeon, or perhaps to find some stairs and an easier passage down, the group moves to the double doors in the North East corner of the room. After the doors are opened by the apparently unrivaled strength of Kendra Lorrimor , the group is able to progress into the next room.
The door opens on what appears to be an auditorium of some sort. Rows of wooden benches fill the room on you right, while smaller an empty area to your left bears only a small podium, facing the benches. Straight ahead 30 ft lies another set of double doors, and a bit to the left of that, another single door.
Upon entering the chamber, the light of the party's Ioun torches spreads out and touches to all the corners. A more detailed look around reveals nothing that couldn't be observed from outside: rows of benches and the podium appear to be the room's only features.
Almost all present feel a sudden shift in the room; the air suddenly starts to grow cold. The breath of each living body in the room slowly becomes visible, until you breaths are misting before your face as they would on the coldest winter day.
Ember moves back out of the room.
"It feels like another haunt," she says. "Move away if you can."
Ember moves back out of the room. "It feels like another haunt," she says. "Move away if you can."
Valachi will follow Ember's suggestion, pushing the others out in front of him.
After hearing Ember Agnar shakes his head and readies himself should the haunt attack.
Surprise Round:
Riff takes no time in heeding the warnings, and moves back out of the room, and back into the training room from which you just came. Kendra is only a step behind him, but she stops in a place where she can still see into the room.
Valachi keeps pushing the others back, while headed towards the doors.
Agnar takes a step back at Valachi push.
Surprise Round Summary; Part I
Riff and Kendra move out of the room.
Agnar takes a step back, waiting to see what happens.
Zhan draws his gun in one hand and turns around, doing a detailed active search of the room and looking for anything unusual. . As he is looking around, his eyes eventually settle on the podium, "That podium, whatever is happening seems to be focused around it!"
Kirill eyes the podium warily, but gives into Valachi's pushes and exits the room.
Father takes a step back, drawing Delia back a step with him.
For those left in the room, the cold sensation grows sharper, their skin feeling like it is tightening in the exposed air. Their breath stops turning to mist, and instead freezes into a myriad of tiny ice crystals that drift to the floor. A chorus of whispers, indistinct and indecipherable, becomes detectable at the faintest reaches of what they can hear. Then each feels a wave of sudden cold that seeps through to the bone in an instant.
Delia shivers as the cold settles over her, her breath coming out as a visible cloud of white. "H-H-H-Heavens, how f-f-far must we back up? F-F-First the fire, and b-b-b-burning skulls, now f-f-f-freezing cold." She hurries out of the room the best she can, holding her arms and rubbing them to regain warmth in her extremities. The cold draining her strength, slows her movement.
Round 1
"Feels like the plains during deep winter." Agnar says before making his way out of the room.
Surprise Round
Ember gasps as the chilling cold affects her, numbing her body.
Teeth chattering, she still manages to raise her holy symbol and call upon Pharasma's light again.
Unsure how to fight the podium, Val retains a defensive posture in the doorway.
End of Surprise Round Summary:
Ember brings forth her holy symbol, and sends forth Pharasma'a light. Ember feels it impact a myriad of presences within the room, all indistinct and confused. It seems to lessen the strength of their presence somehow, but to the rest of the group, nothing appears to have happened.
Delia steps out of the room, trying to shelter herself from the numbing cold.
Round 1 Summary; Part I
Riff and Kendra continue to watch on, unsure of what to do, while Agnar removes himself from the frozen air of the room.
Zhan draws out the last of his holy water vials and dashes it on the podium. . The water runs over the old wood for only a moment before freezing solid in place. Zhan looks around at the room, trying to discern if anything has changed, "Nothing! Damn it."
Kirill pulls off his backpack and rifles through it, looking for something useful, but in the end just looks up at his companions and shrugs, "Anyone have Alchemist's Fire? Or even lamp oil?"
The burst of cold strikes out again, chilling Zhan and Ember to the bone:
"It isn't the podium, but spirits around the podium," Ember says through chattering teeth.
She casts a spell of healing, and reaches into the air, striking for the center of the cold.
Delia digs one of the Haunt siphons out of her bag, "We have these, but when do I use it? If it's not at just the right time it is wasted. Father, be prepared to get them out of there." She steps closer in case she is needed or can use the siphon.
Father glances back at Delia, and nods at her suggestion, "Right you are my dear." He steps up to beside Ember, ready to try and move her out if he has the opportunity.
Round 1: Conclusion
Ember reaches out into the air above the podium, and her spell discharges, much like a shock would when touching metal. Though no one else can see much of anything, through her contact with the haunt through her magic, Ember can feel the spirits react. They swirl about her, faster for a moment, even though the force of their presence is again diminished.
Delia draws the ornate glass vial capped in etched cold iron from her pack and steps forward. At her instruction Father steps forward into the frigid room, ready to move the young priestess therein.
End of Round 1.
Riff continues to stand and watch gaping, completely out of his depth and unsure what to do.
Kendra unleashes a bolt of positive energy, aiming into the air where Ember's attack discharged. However, with nothing to hit, the bolt strikes the far wall of the room without effect.
Zhan follows Ember's lead and casts a healing spell of his own, taking a step forward to discharge it above the podium. ,
Whether she wants to be moved or not, Father grabs the woman protectively and moves her out of the room so that the haunt will strike him instead. All the while he attempts to reassure her, "This is for your own good, I'm only trying to help."
Val will do his best impression of Riff, standing and watching until he sees a way he can help out.
Round 2, part 2:
Agnar and Valachi look on, uncertain of what to do. Father takes a few steps into the room, scoops Ember up in his arms, and deposits her in the entryway, where he himself had been standing a few minutes before.
A mere moment later, another blast of cold rips through the room, freezing Zhan and Father to the bone.
As the cold freezes his limbs, Father's joints slow and lock up, but he stands frim with his back to the room. He stands in his mind as a barrier between the cold and Ember.
Delia strides forward, irritated and in a huff. She no longer balks as she heads into the room right past Father, to stand just inside the room from him, too late for him to grab and stop her. "This has got to stop, we will not be dissuaded by the likes of you malignant spirits." As she feels the presence of the cold, she unstoppers the metal-capped vial, her determination clear, but barely masking her fear that it will not work.
Ember gasps in surprise as Father scoops her up and moves her.
"No! I have to lay this haunt to rest!" she exclaims, turning back towards the room. Dodging past Father, she reaches out, feeling for the coldest spot and channeling positive energies again.
Ember discharges another healing spell into the haunt, the air seems to almost 'snap' audibly as the cold vanishes. A wave of warmer air rushes back into the room creating a brief wind felt by all. The ice crystals falling from the breath of Zhan and Ember melt away into steam, and vanish into the air before the droplets even hit the floor.
As Delia walks boldly into the room, she feels the shift in the air, and the warm wind rush in at her back. The siphon raised and her hand upon the cap to unleash it, she stops in place, stopping short of opening the cylinder.
There is quiet in the room for a few moments while the destruction of the haunt settles in, but then the group gradually come forward into the room.
Zhan clumsily returns his gun to its holster before flexing his hands a few times to try and work out the cold.
It feels as though I've been outside for hours in the depths of winter!
"I am very much starting to dislike this place."
Agnar nods "Aye. I wish I knew how to stop this evil magic." He grumbles after feeling not he could not do anything to these haunts.
Ember drops to her knees and holds herself, shivering.
She fumbles briefly with the wand, and then uses it upon herself.
"S-sorry for my presumption, I m-meant no offence," she says to Delia. "T-thank you Father."
"I am w-weary, but can press on a bit f-farther. Who else besides myself n-needs healing?"