Ezekiel moves over to Azrin and picks up the book.
"I will shred this book to pieces if you don't surrender now."
"You harm that book and I will subject you to torments more terrible than you can imagine, AFTER I've killed you."
He's not bluffing, he will come after you HARD if you mess with his book...but he's also very afraid of you harming it. Not enough to lay off, however.
Shrugging and clamping the book between his teeth, Ezekiel moves up to splatter man and chops at him.
He says something incomprehensible in Abyssal, spraying pungent saliva all over the book.
"Oh my goodness...well, it's been fun, guys. If any of y'all make it out, remember to feed my dog, will ya?"
Steef grabs his two undead bane arrows and sends them screaming at the Splatter Man.
Both hit and deal considerable damage, but not nearly as much as they should have.
Ezekiel still has a Standard.
He begins casting, and Ezekiel rips the pages out.
The Splatterman screams in pain and rage, but it's too late to change targets.
Four bolts of energy fly out of his hands again, and nail Steef directly in the forehead one after another.
Steef sways on his feet momentarily, then grabs the ghost touch arrows from his bag and sends them at the ghost.
"GO TO HELL, AND TELL OL' ASMO I SAID HI!"
Ezekiel follows up with a crushing chop at the splatter man, if it is even necessary.
The Splatterman shrieks, and backs away from Ezekiel.
He fires 2 magical missiles at Steef, and 4 more at Ezekiel.
With a grim chuckle, Ezekiel rips out the last four pages of the spell book.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the Splatterman cries as he's ripped apart by his now uncontrolled magical energies. After a brief time, he completely dissipates, leaving only a faint silver residue on the floor. The entire prison feels much less oppressive now, but still haunted.
Inside the Splatterman's Oubliette, Ezekiel spots several shiny objects.
-A +1 Keen Longsword
-A +1 Ring of Protection
-A +1 Mithral Dagger
All of these bear the sigil of the Warden of Harrowstone prison.
Ezekiel chows down on the magic loot to absorb its power. He dons the ring of protection.
He then administers a potion to Azrin.
"Azrin, heal Steef."
Azrin cures Steef's moderate wounds.
Steef is also now awake.
"Owwww...did we win?"
"I managed to get him."
Azrin picks up the mithral dagger and spams channels to heal everyone.
"Good work, Zeke. We'd probably all be dead by now if it weren't for your superior book-destroying skills."
"Let's get that badge to Vesorianna and then see what's in the Warden's safe."
Steef gingerly claps Ezekiel on the shoulder. "Thanks. You could've booked it, gotten yourself out of there. Glad you didn't."
Fingering the badge on his chest, he sighs and continues. "Suppose you're right, Az. Let's give the lady her badge back..."
He begins trudging up the stairs. Guess it had to happen...I get something nice in my life and it has to get taken away.
"I could have... Booked it?"
Giving Steef a genuinely confused stare, Ezekiel says, "Was that supposed to be funny?"
"You know...gotten away. He probably would've killed you too...but if you got away you could've come back with more help."
"You've succeeded. Thank you." she says simply. The badge begins spinning in the air between her fingers, and emits a blue glow, simultaneously eerie, and somehow calming. The light slowly fills the room, before more rapidly expanding to encompass the whole prison in a dome of soft blue light.
It fades a moment later, and both Vesorianna and the oppressive presence of the Haunts have vanished completely.
Ezekiel makes sure she's okay with them looting the safe.
-500 gp (125 apiece)
-4 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
-3 potions of Lesser Restoration
-2 Potions of Cure Disease.
Additionally, when the Warden's Badge settles back onto the ground, it still glows faintly, and detects as magic.
The badge is a Lesser Ectoplasmic Spell metamagic rod.
3 times per day it lets your spell affect an incorporeal undead 100% of the time (instead of having a 50/50 shot of the spell failing).
- +1 large earthbreaker (2000 GP)
- +1 cloak of resistance (1000 GP)
- Quick Runner's Shirt (1000 GP)
Already own:
- Ring of Protection +1 (2000 GP of my 6k WBL)
Ezekiel will ask Father Grimburrow to identify his magic rock as well.
"By the way, we killed all the haunts and evidently the prison is fixed now."
"Normally I'd charge for this, but it doesn't seem right given how you helped out. Thanks for that, by the way. And it's a Stone of Alarm. Probably used in the prison as an early warning system."
After spending 3 weeks in relative comfort in Ravengro, with the villagers mostly leaving you alone at this point, (Your actions have bought you enough goodwill to stop the harassment, but it's hard to say anyone except Kendra and maybe Grimburrow actually LIKE you), it's time to head out for Lepidstatdt.
About 2 days out on the road, with Ravengro many miles behind you, you come across a strange gray skinned dwarf stumbling around in the daylight.
Steef squints a bit, looking at the 'dwarf'.
"Oh my...is that...oh good god."
Drawing his bow, he nocks an arrow and points it in the general direction of the newcomer.
"That's close enough, greyskin. What're you doing up here on the surface? Didn't think your kind came up here much, besides for the odd baby-eating rampage...there any more of you around here?"
Placing one vise-like hand on Steef's arm, Ezekiel calmly says "I don't think you should threaten to kill someone because of their heritage."
Steef's voice, and the point of his arrow, quiver slightly.
"You don't understand, Zeke. That's a Duergar. If you knew...how many people I've buried because of those grey sons of...oh, 'Toria..."
He unnocks his arrow and sits down, burying his face in his hands. "It's been a long few centuries, lad. If you had any idea...well, I've seen how you get sometimes. He'd just be a red stain by now if you only knew..."