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"Let's see where I ghost guide has wandered off to...," Lanten utters as he goes to the door and opens it up.
You open up the door, with a bit of a push, revealing a 5' by 40' corridor. You enter on the north side of the west end (The corridor extends to your right.) There is a door five feet in front of you and doors on both the north and south sides of the corridors at 20' and then again at 40'. The ghost is at the 20' doorways. As you move down the dusty corridor, he passes into the north door.
Lanten nods at everyone's acknowledgement, and then moves down to the north door at the 20' mark. As he goes, he moves a quietly and checks the corridor, then the door. If he finds it untrapped, he'll listen first before attempting to open it.
Perception:
Stealth:
Perception (listening - if needed):
Lanten nods at everyone's acknowledgement, and then moves down to the north door at the 20' mark. As he goes, he moves a quietly and checks the corridor, then the door. If he finds it untrapped, he'll listen first before attempting to open it.
Perception:1d20+6
Stealth:1d20+9
Perception (listening - if needed):1d20+6
No traps found, except . . . . You hear nothing either.
Lots of dust.
You open the door to a 20 by 40 Lab, covered in dust. On the far (East) side of the room is what appears to be a table for experimentation / surgery. There is a skeleton atop it and another (headless) on the floor. The one on the table at one time appears to have been strapped to the table, the leather thongs having long been rotted / chewed off. There is also a table of of surgical instruments nearby. There is a tube extended out of the chest area of the skeleton on the table, and a scapel on the floor next to the skeleton there.
"Looks like this wizard was doing some 'experiments', or else the Torturer's Guild moved in sometime and didn't tell the new owner." Lanten says this with a sarcastic humor - hoping to alleviate the morbid pall that hangs over this lab.
He scans around to see if there's any exits or other unique features.
Yes those are my remains You hear him whisper.
But all is not what it seems. The man on the table was an employee and a friend. He was the stable manager.
We had just purchased a pair of new horses. He was examining them when he made a stablehand mistake and walked behind one of them who kicked him in the chest. His left lung collapsed. There was no time to send for a cleric. I knew that if he was to live, I would have to reinflate that lung myself. I had one of the stablehands help me carry him down to my secret surgery room. The butler came with us to open doors for us, he being the only other person to know of this room. Their bodies are the two in the other room.
I had just gotten his lung inflated by use of this tube in his chest when I felt a cold presence behind me. I was too busy saving his life to turn around when all of a sudden a blade severed my head from the rest of my body. But that was not the worst. I also felt my soul being sucked out of my body. Leaving only my dead body and the spirit that you see before you.
I have only been able to wander this lab room for the last however many years it has been until just a few days ago when that fool of a boy started pretending to be my ghost. He found a couple of the secret rooms I had installed to keep an eye on my associates when they thought they were in private. Some of there were pretty shady and needed to be kept an eye on by me or my butler.
What this is all leading up to is I need someone to bring my soul back so that I may rest in peace. As a reward I can offer a transport pad that can transport you to two other cities in this empire and a cask of some very fine brandy. Would you be willing to undertake this for my sake?
If your story is true, then you ask us to find a monster! Stealing someone's soul is a vile act, indeed. Do you know the identity of the base villain who stole your soul? And who is this boy you speak of?
Sense Motive:
Darius offers a prayer to Iomedae for the corpses.
In any case, we will see that you and your friend receive a proper burial.
Darius will send word to the local temple to come and retrieve the bodies for proper burial.
But all is not what it seems.
Lanten has remained quiet while the ghost relates his tale, somewhat pensive at the strange and dread tale. When he finally looks up, his first words are, "I can't believe it! The kid was a con-man! He may have been a panicked mess, but he was the one scaring the owner! Why didn't I see that one...and I let him get away...he must be laughing himself all the way to town!"
Suddenly remembering that a spirit is floating next to him, he seems to reorient himself and speaks to the ghost. "Sorry, good sir...I'm sorry about your fate. I can't speak for the others, but as soon as we update the current owner and get some coin, I'm willing to look into it."
Sense Motive:
Durion makes a mental note to look into the distinction between the spirit and the soul, as demonstrated by the phenomenon before him. Suppressing his academic interest, he speaks up, "Answers to Elena's questions would prove helpful. Please give us any information you can that may help us find and transport your soul here."
Finding that, yet again, he is in agreement with Elena, Durion makes a second note to inquire if Elena will be looking for an adventuring comrad when this is all over.
I didn't get any look at it, but I sure felt the coldness. My only guess is that it was some kind of undead with a soul capturing device.
And I suppose it must have some sort of secret entrance into my demense. You might want to keep this area secret from the new owner of the house. There is another exit from here.
"Ghost Wizard and a soul-sucking, decapitating Thing - yep that's what I signed on for," Lanten throws in with a smirk.
"I'll have to mull over this 'keeping mum' thing - that's what I was hired to find for the coin. In the meantime, mind if we look around the rest of this area for clues and such - hopefully something else will turn up besides a room full of bodies."
"Do you have a name or something we could call you rather than spirit or the like?" Elena asks the ghost. "Nevertheless, do you have anything else that might help us find who stole your soul? Can you tell when they or it are in this building? If so, we might be able to set a trap or something." Elena was certainly no expert on ghosts. Before meeting this spirit, she wasn't even sure if she believed they existed or not.
Oracain is the name.
He then leads you to the other rooms down here. He takes you across the hall into the eastern most room. It is 20 x 20 ft in area. On the western wall are engraved several characters in 5 rows of 5 characters each. On the floor below is an engraved rectangle just large enough for a human and a horse. This, he says, is the teleporter I referred to. On the North wall is a door that he explains leads to the outside world.
The middle room contains various crates and casks. It too is 20 ft by 20 ft.
The Western room is also 20 ft by 20 ft and is empty.
I'm not sure I trust this spirit. It seems awfully convenient to blame the "haunting" on a young lad, then enlist our aid in retrieving his "soul." I do not detect any evil on this apparition, but still do not fully trust his motives. There is something here we are missing...Do not take anything at face value.
Darius stares intently at the apparition, saying a prayer to Iomedae and firmly gripping his holy symbol.
He then leads you to the other rooms down here.
*Other, hidden doors (since the Ghost mentioned that he thought whatever it was must have sneaked in some other than the main door or the exit he just showed us)
*Anything unusal in the rooms that might have been left behind by the "decapitating thing" or maybe some other clue like something stolen or the like idea.
Perception:
Durion, fascinated by the teleporter, studies the mechanism and the characters on the wall, using his magical sight as he does so.
ooc
** spoiler omitted **
He then leads you to the other rooms down here.*Other, hidden doors (since the Ghost mentioned that he thought whatever it was must have sneaked in some other than the main door or the exit he just showed us)
*Anything unusal in the rooms that might have been left behind by the "decapitating thing" or maybe some other clue like something stolen or the like idea.
Perception: 1d20+6
You give the three rooms a good going over and really only find what you suspect is the cask of brandy. Nothing else is spectacular in any way.
After inspecting the contraption, he speaks the obvious, "it looks ordinary enough, as far as top-notch teleportation contraptions go. Perhaps we can check the exit and see if the culprit left any clues or tracks for us." Turning back, he addresses the spirit, "Anything else you can think of before we begin this hunt? Names of people who may want to see you dead, or have reason to want your sourl, or any soul, for that matter?"
After inspecting the contraption, he speaks the obvious, "it looks ordinary enough, as far as top-notch teleportation contraptions go. Perhaps we can check the exit and see if the culprit left any clues or tracks for us." Turning back, he addresses the spirit, "Anything else you can think of before we begin this hunt? Names of people who may want to see you dead, or have reason to want your sourl, or any soul, for that matter?"
I have nothing to add I'm afraid.
Lanten: Did you only check the three new rooms?
I seem to recall (5) doors when we entered secret area - the lab, which it sounds like had two entrances - the doors at the 20' and 50' on the north side of the hallway. And then the three doors that led to the three rooms just described (which I assumed would be on the south side of the hallway). Or did I misunderstand the details and miss a room on the same side of the hallway as the lab?
After that, my intent was to look at the door the ghost says leads to outside.
Lanten: Did you only check the three new rooms?I seem to recall (5) doors when we entered secret area - the lab, which it sounds like had two entrances - the doors at the 20' and 50' on the north side of the hallway. And then the three doors that led to the three rooms just described (which I assumed would be on the south side of the hallway). Or did I misunderstand the details and miss a room on the same side of the hallway as the lab?
After that, my intent was to look at the door the ghost says leads to outside.
The only other room left was the one beyond the wine cellar