Smaranda glares at the furnace, then glances at her bare hands. No way she was going to try and hit that! Skeletons and spiders and clothing, alright, but objects made of metal, which was likely to be burning hot? Nuh-uh. Instead, she pulls out her starknife and throws it.
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Mihaela scrambles away from furnace before it can cause her any harm and takes up a place at the door.
Smaranda's starknife bounces harmlessly off of the metal furnace.
The face of Old Ember Maw seems to animate into a leering skull-like visage made of metal and bars. It roars, then a fiery tongue lashes out from its maw to strike at Kisasi.
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Smaranda screams as well, out of fear and impotence. How can they fight this thing? Just like that, and it has killed Kisasi in the blink of an eye... no, he isn't dead yet! Tearing her shirt off, the girl rushes to where the water seeps into the room, dipping the cloth in and running to Kisasi's side to drape the wet garment over his burned body.
"Nononono! Don't slip away!"
Thistle moved to Kisasi's side and brought out a wand. He peered at it closely to make sure it was the correct one, then tapped Kisasi's side with it. Negative energy poured into the dhampir, closing the worst of his wounds.
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At Smaranda's scream Mihaela rushes in and lays her hand on Kisasi. Dark motes seem to pulse from her hand into Kisasi's body.
Delixia rushes past you all and uncorks a haunt siphon. "Die you dastardly bastard!"
Ember Maw's fire roars again and lashes out at Delixia. The flames licking at her flesh.
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Whiskeyjack ran forward to slap a hand to the furnace, channeling as much positive energy into it as he could, hoping that this haunt was as susceptible to it as the others had been.
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Ember Maw sputters and goes cold with Thistle pressed against it.
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"Of course not, if it is truly the wish of Shimye-Magalla, I am at her service. But bringing me back makes no sense... nature demands order, despite how chaotic it often seems. Why would Shimye-Magalla want me returned to the living? I failed to even cleanse one area of the taint of the dead who would not rest. Speaking of which, is Harrowstone clean? And where did you say that I am?"
While the gnarf is snuggling the furnace for some reason, Smaranda claws at the chains wrapping around Kisasi, growing more frantic with every passing moment. She would not give up on him, she'll drag him back from the dead if she had to.
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"Such concern over one small place. That place is of no consequence in the long run so pay it no mind. Give your thoughts over to what you will do now that you have returned."
Mihaela and Delixia look on as the chains continue to bind Kisasi despite Smaranda's attempt to break him free.
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Turning to the others, Smaranda tugs one more time at the chains.
"Holy symbols. Iron lord, dragon god, coin god, the Dawnflower, dwarf god, the Gray Lady, magic god, Desna, skull god! What does it mean? What is happening? Help him!"
Thistle turned from the cold furnace to the now bound Kisasi and Smaranda standing over him.
"This...this is like that body we saw upstairs yesterday. The one wrapped in the chains with the symbols of faith on it. This must be another haunt. I wonder what we need to do to get rid of this one? Perhaps a specific chant or spell?"
If that check is enough to know what to do, great. If not, Thistle will try and convert summon monster to a CLW spell to damage the haunt for damage.
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Kisasi is getting more suspicious given the responses. Not wanting to give himself away, though, he changes his defensive stature to try to gain some better information.
"I do not question the wisdom of my god, of course not. I am just a little confused and off-balance. It is not a simple thing to be revived after being burned alive. And yet, I seem perfectly fine. Thanks be to Shimye-Magalla. So, tell me - who are you, and why are you the one standing over me upon my return? Can you tell me nothing more of my new purpose?"
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Smaranda pulls at the ghostly chains but is unable to make them budge despite all of her strength. Thistle's knowledge unfortunately is not extensive enough for him to know what to do. So he pulls forth a wand and uses it to cast Cure Light Wounds on the chains. The spectral chains shudder as he does so.
Seeing the shudder of the spectral chains Mihaela reaches out to touch the chains. She quickly withdraws her hand and looks visibly shaken.
Delixia, her charred and blistered skin cracking and popping, looks at Thistle and appears to actually have heard what he said. "You think this haunt? Something created by the evil of this place. I can strike back at that." Delixia speaks and circles her hands over Kisasi. The spectral chains shudder again.
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Not knowing what else to do, and seeing that the healing spell had some kind of effect, Thistle repeated the process.
As Kisasi comes back to life and the cursed chains fall off, Smaranda, wraps him in a tight hug before climbing to her feet and angrily kicking the furnace. Their mission is temporarily pushed to the back of her mind as she struggles to process what just happened.
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"What? Of, thank you, Smaranda. I think I will survive... That was quite unusual, though. It was so real - and yet, I felt it couldn't be. I don't know if it was just a bad dream or if some entity was trying to convince me to give in on our investigation. It must have been connected to this haunt, though. When we get back, we should see if the name Rodalla means anything."
Delixia groans from the extensive damage done to her body. She lets out a hoarse gasp that resembles "Nice work. Give me a minute , please." as she moves to a wall and slides down to take a breather and try to ignore the pain.
"Oh, here DAY-LIX-EE-AH let me help you with that. I must say it was very nice of you to leap straight into the fiery beams like that and give the rest of us a chance to actually think about our actions and do something useful. That kind of dedication to your art deserves a good healing I'd say. Now, where did I put that wand? Of here it is. Sorry, but this might hurt a bit."
Thistle poked Delixia with the healing wand, eliciting a grunt of pain as he activated it. He paused to see if he had grabbed the right wand after all, then continued healing the woman.
Is it just me or did he just hit me with that thing as many times as possible to make that hurt more than it needed to?
Delixia grunts in affirmation or thanks, she's not sure which. Climbing back to her feet she asks "Everyone ready to move on?" Unless someone objects, she presses on to the next door and listens as it.
Delixia's nudging helps Smaranda get grounded again. They were here for a reason; almost losing Kisasi had been very scary, but they could not linger. They just had to be more careful, that was all.
She joins Delixia to investigate the connecting room, skirting the pooling water.
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The northeast wall of this room has partially fallen, revealing the dark, murky waters of the pond outside. Moldering training dummies and other similar equipment hint that this room may have once been a training area for the guards. In the northeast part of the room, the floor around a dark, jagged hole is surrounded by black scorch marks.
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Smaranda peers into the hole, hoping that it leads below. The staircase leading down had been blocked, after all, so they needed to find another way down.
Mihaela rummages in her bag and pulls out a rope. "Do we have anything we can tie this to? We could climb down with this?" She grabs a random object, casts Light and drops it into the hole to light their way.
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The light winks out above Thistle's head and the room goes dark for those that do not have darkvision. The chunk of stone lands with a splash at the bottom and you can hear the splash echo below. Looking down into the hole from the edge you can see what appears to be a shallow pool of water. Light filters out of the hole to cast shadows of those standing at its edge onto the ceiling. The remainder of the room you are standing in remains dark though.
"There are plenty of exposed timbers and such to tie that rope off to, as long as the drop isn't too far. Oh, I see. Only twenty feet or so. Well enough. No not that one, can't you see that it is at the wrong angle? The rope will just slip right off. There was a mage is Dagule that ties a rope off to a tree branch in that same way, in an attempt to teach himself to fly by repetition, more than by spellcraft. Poor chap. They never did find his left pinkie finger. No idea where it went off to. Probably eaten by a squirrel."
Thistle pointed out the perfect beam to tie the rope to.
Mihaela fumbles around in her pack. "Drat, I know I have a lantern in here somewhere." you hear her sigh in frustration, and a quick incantation, and a ball of light appears once again above Thistle's head. "One second..." as she rummages through her bag again, pulls out a lantern, fills it with oil, and lights it. She picks up another random object, lights it and drops it into the hole. "How about that?" she smiles.
She beckons for help to tie the rope to the hopefully sturdy beam Thistle pointed out.
Eager to get below, Smaranda grasps the rope and begins the descent. Their exploration of the above ground floors has been disappointing so far in terms of their goals, and she is frustrated by their lack of progress. On the other hand, she is apprehensive about what awaits below, but in her experience it is better to jump head first into an unpleasant task than to delay and procrastinate.
Rope climbing wasn't exactly a familiar activity, but she remembers how some of the Varisian acrobats would set up practice ropes at camp and scamper all over them. Wrapping her legs around the rope, she lowers herself hand over hand until her feet hit the floor below.
Not wanting Smaranda to go down alone, Mihaela ties the lantern to her waist and proceeds down the rope after her.
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Smaranda is able to easily make the climb down and lands with a small splash at the bottom. The room fills with a cacophonous roar of screams and howls as Smaranda's feet touch the floor. This sudden blast of noise causes Mihaela to lose her grip just as she starts her descent and results in her plummeting to the bottom where she lands prone with a loud splash. This unsettling manifestation of noise causes no harm, but an instant later, the surface of the dark pool of water begins rippling around the ruined lift as two spirits rise up, dripping and horrible, to attack.
This cavernous chamber may have once been an underground cell block, but it has long since collapsed. The crumbled walls are thick with mold and stained with soot, and heaps of fallen stones and charred wooden beams line the area. Water drips and seeps along the walls, collecting in a dark, murky pool in the middle of the room. To the north, the twisted remains of a wood and iron lift lie in a heap in a shallow portion of the pool. A jagged hole in the roof yawns twenty feet above this ruin. To the west, a partially blocked opening seems to open up after several feet into a dark but stable tunnel.
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The appearance of the spectres gives Smaranda a powerful fright. By pure instinct and reflex, she reacts with a yell, jumping up to grasp the rope again with both hands while launching her feet sideways in a powerful double kick at the closest specter. She knew what these things were, but did not have a name for them.
"Ready your swords! These things won't fall to clubs and maces!" she calls out to her companions.