"I agree. Every day with those ghosts loose could mean more deaths in town. We must finish this."
"Indeed. We'll all sleep easier when every last unclean spirit in this accursed hole is destroyed."
Roland looks impatiently at the others.
"The Piper, the Lopper, the Charlatan and even the Splatter Man have all shown themselves to be pathetic shadows," he sneers. "The Marauder will be no match for our combined might."
Why the bravado? They weren't pathetic at all... so many lost friends...
Friends? Who is your friend? Arthur? Michael?
Roland rubs his eyes, a conflicted look suddenly clouding his features.
Why am I having these conflicted thoughts? Is this the serum...?
Shanoa finds her morningstar relatively undamaged.
"These items all have touched by magic, Darren. The weapons seem to possess some enchanting about them." Touching his head Franc continues,"The ring also is more than it appears, but I cannot say what exactly these things are capable of in our hands."
So, seems like the consensus is to continue on. Are you heading into the secret passage or back through the main chamber?
"Darren, your sword is acting very peculiar. It seems to be pulsing with a touch of necromatic magic. Have you felt strange since we have founnd these other items?
Lost in his own thoughts momentarily, Oorin snaps back at the mention of necromancy. "Hmm. What? It could be reacting to some ritual. Have we managed to find any symbol of authority that we can give to Vesorianna? Without that, I fear that victories against the five ghosts will be in vain. I fear that time is quickly running out."
Oorin will open the secret door but will peer in before entering and, if it's obviously dangerous, he won't enter at all.
Darren starts to say something to Franc as he holds the sword, looking at it in a new light, then he suddenly stops, "I'm hearing that voice again!"
He steps away from the group, "No I don't see you," he calls out to the mysterious voice in his head, "But if it's dark there how could I? Why can't anyone else hear you?"
Oorin opens the secret door and reveals what appears to be a natural cave or tunnel leading to the west. Taking a few tentative steps inside, he notes the tunnel ends roughly sixty feet away at another doorway.
-----
The door opens on the eastern wall of a room that was obviously used for torture and interrogation. Another door is located in the northeast corner of the room.
Looking around the room, you note numerous grisly tools of torment scattered throughout the room, from humanoid cages to hanging chains along the walls to a stretching rack, a large wooden tank, and a fire pit full of branding irons. To the east stands a grim iron maiden, the lid closed and presenting a stern decoration of a tormented woman upon its face. The broken, twisted skeleton of a human dressed in a tattered guard’s uniform lies upon the stretching rack in the middle of the room; the body is surrounded by several discarded knives, branding irons, and pliers. A large, bloodstained wicker basket sits at the head of the rack.
"Strange....the pulsing energy has ceased, Darren. This voice you hear, when did it stop speaking this time?" Franc continues to ponder the events as he follows the others down the hall. Stepping into the room the battle chaplain simply shakes his head. "It is no wonder that this place is still filled with the depraved."
I don't like this one bit. Karl looks around at the loose weapons and tools of torture with great unease.
Shanoa, can you keep one of those haunt siphons handy? I don't want to think about what could happen if the spirits of this place decided to take up these blades against us.
The half-elf looks about warily, senses alert to potential danger.
As you enter the room, a chill air blows past you, seemingly coming from tunnel you just exited. As you turn to look, a slow creaking draws your attention back to the iron maiden, the lid of which is slowly opening.
Retcon (assuming there was time):
"The voice just left me, just now. Maybe she's in the sword?" he asks, incredulous and holding the shortsword up so he can look at it closer. "It felt very warm at my side when the Splatter Man appeared, and it seemed almost happy whenever it slashed him. Oh well, it should all make sense when we get to the bottom of this place. Otherwise, we'll take the sword to an expert and see what they make of it. For now, though, I think I'll be using this longsword we've found, if you say it's enchanted, Franc."
Present
Perception
Will Save
"Brace yourselves, my friends, I don't think we're going to like this!"
"The longsword exuded the same energy, Darren.", Franc says as he scans the room.
Oorin will ready Burning Hands should whatever comes out the maiden be hostile (and he's assuming it will be). He'll make sure none of his friends are in the area of effect.
The lid of the iron maiden swings open to reveal... nothing. The interior is completely empty. Even the spikes typically found on the inside of such devices are gone.
The lid of the iron maiden continues to moves and you begin to hear the muted sounds of a woman's sobs - as the device completely opens, you see a fellow worshipper of Ragathiel trapped inside, blood streaming out of horrible puncture wounds. "Please! Please, did Ragathiel send you to save me?! Please help!"
"BY HIS MIGHTY WINGS!", Franc bellows as he rushes the the maiden with the look of a wild animal in his eyes. His left arm extends before as he says,"How did you get here!?!"
The words of magic die on Oorin's lip as he sees the empty device. He breathes a sigh of relief but jumps when Franc starts shouting
What the...? Oorin starts frantically looking around for some threat and casts Detect Magic.
Franc rushes toward the iron maiden, only to have the lid slam shut, trapping him inside.
[spoiler=Oorin]As Franc is trapped inside, you see a number of torture tools around the room suddenly begin emitting a necromantic aura.
Oorin starts to move towards the maiden but stops. "Careful everyone. Some of these items just started radiating magic-and not the good kind."
With a roar of defiance, Franc forces the image of the assaulting spikes from his mind. "GRRRRRRRR!!!", he bellows as he attempts to push against the lid.
As the lid slams shut on the iron maiden, the haunt siphon in Shanoa's hand activates. The smoke inside the vial shoots around the room toward various torture implements. The smoke swirls around them and then back into the siphon, coal black in color. Where the implements were, only small piles of rusted metal remain.
"Whoa -- what the?"
Ignoring Oorin's warning, and probably not even noticing the instruments being destroyed, Darren rushes to the iron maiden and begins prying at it with anxious fingertips.
Strength Check
Roland is only half a step behind Darren.
Karl looks on in shock as Franc disappears into the metal shell of the iron maiden, then rushes forward to assist Darren in his attempt to free the warrior-priest.
Darren, Roland, and Karl leap toward the iron maiden and begin pulling at the lid, attempting to force it open.
But despite your efforts, the lid remains closed!
Gasping for breath and sweating with the effort, Darren releases his grip and draws the new longsword desperately. "It's no good, we can't budge it. But we've got to get him out!"
Darren, sword in hand, searches around desperately for some sort of release latch, or something that might be the key to releasing their friend.
Perception
Assuming he finds nothing, Darren swings his sword at the iron maiden in frustration, trying to cut his way through -- or at least do something.
Attack Magic Longsword
Damage
A determined growl of defiance echoes from prison as the sound metal scrapping fills the room.
Seeing Darren's frenzied search, and frustrated attack against the unholy prison, Karl grabs the keys and the disk from the skeleton's pelvis and jaw, respectively and in that order.
He rushes back to the iron maiden, searching carefully for a keyhole to unlock the unholy device.
Oorin searches toe room as well. As the means to open the maiden may not be traditonal ones (given where they all are), he looks for anything that seems out of place for the room.
Darren's longsword bounces off the iron maiden with a clang, though it leaves a long scratch in the metal lid. Everyone can tell that it will take quite a bit of damage to break Franc out of the iron maiden - it is made of thick metal that will be difficult to damage by mundane means.
Karl rushes to the skeleton and removes the keys and the disc - noticing that it appears to actually be some kind of badge - then returns to the iron maiden. Finding the locking clasp, he tries the keys in vain - none seem to fit the lock!
Shanoa blast the iron maiden with a spell to disrupt undead, but it does not seem to have any effect.
With his detect magic still active, Oorin glances quickly around the room - seeing that the piles of rusted metal left by Shanoa's use of the haunt siphon seem to be located at strange places throughout the room - as if they were part of a pattern.
Karl pockets the keys and badge, pulls off his cestus and goes to work picking the lock of the iron maiden with his thieves tools.
"What could that pattern mean?" Darren half-yells in frustration, pointing at the pentagram with the tip of his sword. He dashes over to the undamaged tools and kicks one, breaking apart the symbol.
The continued sound of full plate clanging around inside the metallic prison issues forth letting the members of his party know he still lives.
Karl quickly realizes that the best idea is to avoid the lock and concentrate on the hinges of the lid. After several seconds, he has one of the pins out - two more to go.
Darren runs across the room and kicks a pair of wicked looking tongs. Though they appear to be solid metal, the tongs virtually disintegrate into a cloud of rusty metal fragments as soon as he touches them.
There are three more undamaged tools in the pentagram shape.
Meanwhile, Franc continues to fight against whatever force is trapping him inside the iron maiden!
Realizing he'll be of little help with the maiden, Oorin moves over to the pentagram and examines the tools there; removing them if he thinks it's part of what is holding Franc.
Even with his focus being clouded by the potent serum, Roland still instantly notes the pentagram. As the others clang away at the Iron Maiden the rational part of Roland draws him to whichever point Oorin isn't checking.
"This seems relevant."
Destroy it!
And with that, he kicks at the tools, scattering them to disrupt the arcane symbol.
With the tools destroyed or scattered, an audible click catches everyone's attention... and the lid of the iron maiden cracks open.
What was once a pristine torture device quickly rusts before your eyes. The damage is so quick and extensive, several holes appear in the iron maiden.
Franc emerges, apparently unscathed.
Making the sign of Ragathiel's faithful before him, the crusader takes a knee offering a prayer in celestial to the empyreal lord. Standing he looks to those around him and says,"I thank you for your devoted attempts to free me from my doom. Thanks be to my liege for giving us the guidance we needed."
The only other item of note in the room is the skeleton lying on the rack in the center of the room. From its severed hands and feet, and the numerous broken bones, it is obvious that this unfortunate person was tortured to death.
Karl removed the keys and disc from the remains, but a further investigation may reveal more details.
Examining the body reveals the grisly truth of this poor man's demise; broken bones, severed hands and feet, dislocated hips and shoulders, a shattered jaw, and numerous long thin needles driven into his ears, eye sockets, elbows, hips, and knees. From the damage, most occurred while he was still alive.
The disc that was in the jaw actually caused the damage to that part of the victim's face.
This victim must have been extremely hated by whoever killed him in this manner.
Aye, or someone equally as despised by the prisoners here. Karl examines the disc after putting away his thieves tools and putting his cestus back on his hand. Anyone know what this is? Maybe it's the symbol of authority we've been looking for.
Franc still trying shake the image of being skewered to death in the maiden finds himself unable to focus at the moment.
Roland is already striding to the door confidently.
"We must find the Mosswater Marauder and put an end to this."
"I'm sure the Warden was hated by many he kept imprisoned..." Darren says, sheathing his sword. "It's a sad, dark thing to see evidence of an honest soul's horrible, miserable demise. Let's keep going, and keep that badge about you, Karl. I indeed think it might be the symbol of authority that ghost Vesorianna has been looking for."