The knocking that had gone silent while Sarrah was communicating raps furiously all over the floor and walls, the noise rising to an angry beat...
Using the planchet, Arianna attempts to communicate with the spirit...
"Have we misunderstood what you need? What is it you want?"
More furious knocking ensues. You get the sense that Sarrah's yes/no code isn't advanced enough to allow the spirits to communicate whatever they are trying to tell you.
Rocked by the spirit's sudden outburst flinces and once again scatters the bones across the room. The halfing rushes into the middle of the room with his hands held up before him in surrender. "No, we will bury them! Calm down, calm down!", he pleads to the room. As the knocking refuses to stop Quiddling dashes across the floor picking up the pieces of bone crying "We will bury them!" over and over again.
The planchette begins to rattle with the presence of spirits and slowly moves under Arianna's touch, an unseen force dragging the marker over specific letters. It spells out a single word before the rattling ceases.
-
-
"It seems that the spirit would have us 'extinguish' the fire that burns its bones. I don't know if it would require the holy water I have with me, or simply regular water. Does anyone of you have a spell of water creation, or perhaps even an extra waterskin?"
The bones continue to feel hot to Ambroze's touch, hot enough that they start to scald his skin as he cries out.
The bones continue to feel hot to Ambroze's touch, hot enough that they start to scald his skin as he cries out.
Quiddling let's out a cry of pain and drops the bones yet again as they burn his hands. "We're trying to help you!" he pleads to the spirits around them. "Do we have any water? I've heard of priests that are able to conjure water out of thin air", the halfing says and looks at Sarrah and Stannislav with wide hopefull eyes.
The bones continue to feel hot to Ambroze's touch, hot enough that they start to scald his skin as he cries out.
Quiddling let's out a cry of pain and drops the bones yet again as they burn his hands. "We're trying to help you!" he pleads to the spirits around them. "Do we have any water? I've heard of priests that are able to conjure water out of thin air", the halfing says and looks at Sarrah and Stannislav with wide hopefull eyes.
I am afraid that I don't have any holy water...didn't we pick up some or did we use it all?
"I have holy water, but I was hoping to try normal water first on the off chance we can save that particular resource."
"You have water? Then quickly, dose this thing!", Quiddling urges then quickly adds "This persons bones, i mean" as if he was worried about offending the spirit.
Stannis has been watching with growing anxiety.
Quench? That means use water on. I used to help out the blacksmith of my village sometimes. Pump the bellows, carry stuff around.
What about the lake? He points to the side.
"The lake? Out there? Ever since setting our foot into this place we've been attacked by all kinds of horrible things. I don't want to find out what lives in that lake. No, i'm not going near that thing!" Quiddling says and shakes his head in determination at Stannislavs suggestion. "And the water is probably foul and unholy. What spirit would want to be clensed in such filth?" he continues trying to justify his aversion.
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'.
"Sounds like the lake is the most likely course."
Using the planchette, Arianna asks a simple yes or no question...
"Will the waters of the lake provide the quenching you desire?"
Arianna concentrates and uses the planchette once more, focusing on the spirits in this terrible place and beseeching them for an answer. The necessary focus to use the planchette seems to escape Arianna for a moment, and she shuts her eyes for a few seconds. She suddenly opens them, eyes ablaze with fury.
We have been held shut with nothing but our fury for too long- you think you can stop us, here, in the seat of our power? she sneers, face violently contorted and speaking in a voice that only distantly resembles Arianna's. Before anyone reacts, she swiftly hurls her dagger at Quiddling, but it glances off his leather.
Tired with holding the searing bones Quiddling had just finished putting the last one in a neat pile on the floor when the dagger comes flying through the air. He stands looking dumbfounded at the tear in his coat where the dagger hit. "But...", his all that he manages.
The strange light in Arianna's eyes fades, the remnants of the destroyed (for now) haunt too weak to possess her for more than a moment. Arianna has no recollection of anything after asking the question to the spirits...
"But...", his all that he manages.
"But what, Quiddling? I guess the spirit doesn't have anything else to say, the lake it is I suppose." Ariannna says putting the planchette away, completely oblivious to what just happened.
"What's my dagger doing over there?" the witch asks no one in particular, as she goes to pick up the blade...
Quiddling stands silent watching Arianna with saucer eyes as she moves through the room to pick up her dagger. "We're not using that thing again!" he finally manages. "Spray the bones with water, toss them in the lake, i don't care. But we're not using that thing again!"
Arianna glances at the halfling with a puzzled look on her face
"Ok, we didn't get an answer that time...I'm not sure it's worth that much of a reaction."
Eyeing both halfing and witch, Stannis pitches the bones as far as he can into the lake without further ado.
Strength
Let's go.
Stannislav hurls the strangely hot bones into the lake. Almost immediately, the rapping on the walls and whats left of the ceiling slowly fades away and the room is silent once more.
Door at the end of the main hallway or S14...don't think it really matters.
I am glad we finally got that settled. One down and probably only 50 to go... she tries to say light heartedly...
"That kind of reaction?! That dagger almost took my arm off!" Quiddling blurts out and displays the cut in his coat arm. Then he turns quiet as Stannis tosses the bones into the lake. He looks like a turtle ready to disappear into its shell at any moment as his eyes darts nervously around the room. When the sound fail to reapper he straightens himself and brushes some dirt of his coat. "Let's try not to do that again."
The halfing then moves to the next door and places his ear to it, while fiddling in his pocket for another haunt siphon, having learned the hard way what can happen otherwise.
If he hears nothing he gently pushes the door open and peers inside.
Quiddling doesn't hear anything and slowly peeks inside the room- at a quick glance it looks as though it was some kind of training room for the prison guards. A jagged, soot-caked hole can be seen near the centre of the room.
Stannis moves past Quiddling, boldy taking up position in the room.
Quiddling enters behind Stannis, holding his haunt siphon infront of him like a shield, jumping at the slightest shift in the shadows.
"What's down there?", he asks and points to the hole in the centre of the room.
Stannis leads you into the room, cautiously. 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.
As soon as you enter the room, three flaming skulls emerge from the rubble, spinning swiftly and seeming to lauch maniacally with blackened teeth. The tiny undead creatures are immolated with flames seemingly not harming them and stripped of all the flesh that once adorned the flying skulls and immediately fly to attack.
Round 1-
Ordered Initiative-
Skulls-
Quiddling-
Stannislav-
Sarrah-
Arianna-
Skulls- 21
Arianna- 20
Sarrah- 20
Quiddling- 16
Stannislav-9
Before Stannislav can get his blade up, the three skulls have flown around him and entered Quiddling, Sarrah and Arianna's personal space, attempting to slam into them and burn their skin. The skulls seem to veer off target, none of them managing to hit their targets.
Map-
Biting back an oath, Stannis turns, seemingly unsure of which skull to target. He settles on the one attacking Sarrah but seems hampered by its proximity to the oracle.
Falchion
Arianna steps back away from the flaming skull, then hurls a vial of holy water at the creature...
Attack: Ranged Touch
Damage: + 1 point of splash to targets within 5 feet
Just as his curiosity of what the new room promises starts to erase his caution the three flaming skulls leap into view. A startled shriek escapes the rouges lips as he struggles to keep the vial in his hand from dropping to the floor. Thankfully he is quick enough to dodge the undead menace's attacks and draw his rapier in a swift motion. He dances away and thrusts at the animated skull hoping to land a solid strike.
Arianna's thrown holy water is well on the mark and seems to both oduse the flames on the skull and melt the bone as it hisses violently, steam rising from the skull as it plummets, crashing to the ground.
Sarrah 5' step away from the little creature. She then envelopes them with her holy power!
The battle is over as swiftly as it began- the three flaming skulls are dispatched before Stannislav has even raised his blade. Positive energy has melted two of the skulls down to dust and Quiddling's strike shattered the final adversary.
The room is dominated by the large hole in the ground- the jagged, soot-caked hole in the floor before you was obviously once the location of the lift that connected the two floors— the machinery that powered the lift tumbled into the dungeon below during the fire. It’s a 20-foot drop to a lower level from here—the edges of the hole do appear dangerous and a little precarious at first glance though. To the south-west, a door you have not yet been through presents an alternative option.
Stannis sheathes his sword, looking appreciately at Sarrah.
Do people need to rest or should we move on? Stannis seems eager to continue, very focused on the task at hand but is obviously concerned about the others.
I have a little bit of my powers that Pharasma grants me left, maybe we should press on just a little more?
Skirting the hole for now, Stannis draws his sword again and tries the south west door.
You appear to have entered some kind of auditorium. Several rows of wooden benches, all spotted with mold and sagging with neglect, face a stage walled off from the rest of the room by a wall of iron bars.
You notice the beginning of a sudden temperature drop... It seems angry spirits are also manifesting here...
Perception
Initiative
Stannis takes a long step further in front of the group taking up a fully defensive stance.
'Ware! Spirits!
5' step up behind Stannis and emit holy power...
Perception:
Initiative:
Feeling the temperature drop, Arianna readies to blast any spirit within range with burning hands...
Quiddling forever torn between his halfling curiousity and uncomfortable feeling about the Harrowstone ruins follows Stannis into the next room. A part of the halfling studies the structure with eager curiosity as the other part makes note and sends a chill down his spine for every shadow he sees.
Quiddling grasps his haunt siphon and prepares to uncork it against any sign of hostility.
Just as the haunt is manifesting itself, Quiddling and Sarrah's combined positive energy completely overwhelms the negative energy present in the room- the Haunt Siphon Quiddling expends not filling but doing a large amount of damage to the haunt. The temperature in the room stops dropping, and then goes back to normal. A few moments later, gentle rapping on the moldy benches and a rattling sound starts- the rattling sound sounds like someone is running a stick over the metal bars of the southern section.
Stannis starts searching the room allowing the others a chance to try and communicate with the haunt if they wish.