Quiddling's vial passes through the same space, the contents disappearing mid air once again as the empty glass container shatters. You wait anxiously for a counter-attack by the poltergeist...
But it never comes. Eventually, Stannislav and Sarrah return. Although there is no body, you feel that either the haunt retreated or you defeated it.
Quiddling stands frozen in in anticipation for the next barrage of tools and debris, but relaxes when the attack does not come. "Did i get it?" he asks Arianna almost in disbelief. "I got it!" he shouts as he runs to the now empty spot and does a little dance. "I got it, i got!", he repeats cherrily as Sarrah and Stannis return. Once a few moments pass the halfing calms down and starts to rummage through the room .
Arianna smiles in equal parts joy from being done with that particular ghost and amusement at Quiddling's reaction...
"I do believe that you did. Congratulations." she says, as she proceeds to search the room with the excitable halfling.
Perception:
A search of this cluttered room reveals a number of valuable objects—a pair of fully stocked healer’s kits, 3 vials of antitoxin, 2 vials of antiplague, 3 doses of bloodblock, 3 doses of smelling salts, 2 vials of soothe syrup, and 4 labelled potions of cure light wounds.
A doorway to the north-east leads out of this chamber or alternatively you could backtrack south and head through one of the eastern doors- or head upstairs...
Stannis returns, tightlipped and clearly angry and frustrated and falling prey to the creature's fear not once but twice. He stands impatiently next to the north east door while the others search.
Sarrah talks to the group before they complete the search of the room, We should try to find what is holding the spirit to this room if possible. If we can remove or destroy it maybe we can be rid of it forever. Maybe some bones or a bloody item...could be many things
Do I see anything that might fit the bill? She casts Guidance on herself before looking around.
Lets look around just a little more, anyone need any healing before we do?
Wand of cure light wounds (take a charge if you need it and I will sutract them):
As the room was clearly once an infirmary, Sarrah surmises that the poltergeist may have been formed of all those who suffered within the room, their agony manifesting into the ghost. She finds nothing that suggests it might be tied to it or could prevent the haunt from re-occuring though. She knows that poltergeists typically take from 2 to 8 days to amass enough negative energy to re-form.
When everyone's ready to continue, Stannis will try the ne door.
Bolstered by vanquishing the spirit, and the great bounty it yielded Quiddling searches feverently after anything that might mit fit Sarrah's description. He eagerly presents the oracle with one object after the other, each with the same enthusiasm.
The halfing is fast on the paladin's heels as he opens the next door.
Stannislav opens the next door and as he isn't immediately attacked, steps into the room proper with the three of you following him. A huge stone furnace dominates this room to the south, large enough for a child to climb inside. An ancient fire has burned away the entire east wall the room, providing a panoramic, if eerie, view of the lake beyond. That same lake has gradually expanded into the room, flooding its eastern half. A soot-caked copper plaque over the furnace entrance reads 'Ember Maw'.
Quiddling-
Arianna-
Stannislav-
Sarrah-
You notice what Stannislav and Arianna do not- a faint red glow stirring in front of the furnace, the rising of the heat level in the room and the faint, ominous scent of burning flesh.
Sarrah-
Quiddling-
Surprise Round-
Quiddling- 11
Haunt (will manifest)- 10
Sarrah- 2
Quiddling's eyes goes to the stone furnace and widen. "It's another haunt! Run for cover!", he warns and starts to dig feverishly through his sling bag. A moment later he produces one of the glass vials found in the tome . Unfortunately the halfing is not quick enough and the room starts to get warmer as Quiddling struggles with the cap of the vial.
The heat in the room rises to distinctly uncomfortable levels, as a fiery strip of red flame, 15 feet by five, floats up into the air, hovering above the ground- flames licking hungrily along its semi-translucent surface and casting gloomy shadows around the room. The strange red strip of flame crackles like the furnace behind it must once have done; and with a harsh crackling sound, a jet of flame hurtles towards Quiddling! The halfling does his best to dodge it but the attack is too sudden, too fast. Quiddling is enveloped by the line of fire, swirling around him in swift movements as they burn his flesh and clothing, pressing in on him like a constrictor snake. The flames touching him slowly fades away into smoke but the hideous burns left by the attack cause Quiddling to fall to his knees and then collapse in pain and shock, severely wounded. The unopened Haunt Siphon drops to the floor beside him,rolling gently back and forth on the remains of the stone floor.
VS Touch AC
Fire damage
Surprise Round Initiative-
Quiddling (acted)- 11
Haunt (acted)- 10
Sarrah- 2
Stannis
Arianna
Sarrah sees Quiddling crumple and swiftly acts to save him with a cure light wounds spell. The fiery strip seems to be a persistent haunt, the flames continue to roar and the heat only seems to be rising within the room...
Healed
Initiative-
Quiddling- 11
Haunt- 10
Arianna- 5
Stannislav- 4
Sarrah- 2
Quiddling's senses comes back one by one. First the roar of the fire, then the nauseating smell of scorched flesh and burnt hair. His world turns from darkness to a blinding light and Quiddling is jerked into consciousness in an instant. Fumbling around the floor he finds the dropped vial. Quiddling brandishes the flask infront of him like a shield while crawling back, trying to get away from the fire.
Sarrah stands between the flame and Quiddling yelling at the haunt, You will not have him! trying to gets the haunts attention away from the little man.
The strange energies within the haunt siphon glow green as the powerful object completely overwhelms the haunts energies. A few tense moments pass, but then the fiery strip fades into nothingness.
Stannis lifts the little halfling back onto his feet, slapping him on the shoulder.
Well done!
Stannis can search the whole room, but its possible that clues lie in the soot covered furnace, which he is too big to investigate easily...
Stannis looks at Quiddling and gestures towards the filthy furnace.
Well one good turn deserves another, he grins.
Sarrah begins to look around for the source of the undead menace after gifting herself with a portion of the "ladies" grace.
Arianna holds out her hand to help the halfling to his feet...
"Well done Quiddling. That's two for you now, thinking of taking up spirit removal as an occupation?"
Sarrah uses the wand to help Quiddling's wounds before he goes into the fireplace fussing over him,
Rushing into the room like that what were you thinking?
Maybe we should retreat for the night and heal up after we search out this room. There does seem to be a lot of malign spirits in this Abyss cursed place!
Quiddling sits pressed against the wall with one hand covering his eyes and one hand swinging the haunt siphon in front of him like a sword. Stannis firm grip makes the halfing open his eyes and drunkedly peer around the room. His legs are still shakey and his body trembling until Sarrah heals his wounds, but a patch of soot still clinging to his nose. "I did not...", he beginns to stammer at the oracles barrage and quickly takes to Stannis suggestion to search through the furnace. One part halfing curiosity, one part getting away from Sarrah's scolding. "The furnace seemed to follow me. To single me out. I didn't mean to. Thanks for the healing touch!" he says in a clatter of broken sentences and scurries over to the furnace to rummage through the ashes.
Sarrah has no real idea how such a haunt comes to manifest or can be destroyed. Stannis begins to search the room with painstaking precision while Quiddling climbs into the cold furnace in order to investigate it. The halfling's investigation bears fruit as he crawls 10 feet into the ancient furnace- finding a single pile of burnt bones- parts of a skull, some ribs and a few finger bones. Although the furnace itself is cold, the bones are very hot to the touch. He returns with his strangely hot findings while Stannislav continues to search. Around you, you begin to hear faint knockings on walls, floor, and furniture. The noises are seemingly coming from various and random locations on the floor, remaining walls and ceiling...
The bones?
Perhaps if we put them to rest in the graveyard?
Quiddling looks at the bones cradled in his hands with a piece of cloth to keep the halfing from burning himself. "I don't know much about ghosts. Will a burial soothe the furnace? I would think that just removing the bones might remove the source of this haunting", he says and looks for further guidance from the "undead experts" Stannis and Sarrah.
The knocking on various locations in the room seems to be slowly increasing in intensity, as though responding to the conversation.
Unsure of exactly what to do Sarrah reacts to her gut...
Lets get the bones out of the room and destroy them, it might be re-forming!
The bones goes flying from Quiddling's hands as he jerks in surprise at Sarrah's sudden reaction. "Destroy? How?" Quiddling asks while scuttling across the floor to collect the bones. "What's that knocking?"
Once he collects all the bones he hurries to the door. "What now?"
"Perhaps another poltergeist about to attack? Let's get these bones outside, maybe Sarrah could perform rites to lay them to rest?"
The rapping spirits are a very basic haunt, sometimes all that is left of a more powerful haunt after it has been temporarily destroyed. It is possible to communicate with these spirits using a spirit planchette or by devising a clever system of knocks- its possible you could learn from the spirits/spirit involved in the haunt what would need to be done to bring it peace.
Sarrah takes a moment to think about the situation
It is the spirits, the other spirits in the room they are trying to talk to us. The knocking, we may be able to use it to help us!
Sarrah walks over to the wall and speaks loudly and knocks on it once and says Yes!
then knocks twice No!
She repeats it one more time before she asks her question...
Should we take bones from the room and destroy them? if no
Should we take bones from the room and bury them? if no
There must be so other way to put this spririt to rest. The spirit planchet could also work!
Quiddling, do you think I am doing this right?
At mention of the spirit planchet, Arianna pulls item in question from her bag...
"Here, allow me." she says, preparing to use the board.
"We seek to end your suffering, how may we put you to you final rest?"
Sarrah manages to establish the code with the spirits, resulting in a single knock after each of her questions.
At mention of the spirit planchet, Arianna pulls item in question from her bag...
"Here, allow me." she says, preparing to use the board.
"We seek to end your suffering, how may we put you to you final rest?"
We should save the other device for when we need it, my spirit code seems to be working!!! she says happily.
Quiddling stands in the doorway turning uneasily, unsure what to do. "Does it have a preference to where we lay the bones?", he whispers to Sarrah.
No we should just destroy them outside of this room! Stannis can you smash the bones into powder? Hopefully that will do it.