Throwing caution to the wind, Ysabot rushes in to help, copying Xiuj's attempt and using her own staff as leverage.
Neither Xiuj nor Ereviss was able to get any purchase, but the sudden addition of Agrimar and Ysabot made the difference; the Iron Maiden is levered open.
Kendra:
Kendra pushed her way out of the damned thing, and collapsed against Ereviss weeping.
"I'm sorry, I thought I saw my father alive again!"
You see several holes in Kendra's body leaking blood, but they seem to evaporate as you watch, until there is nothing remaining to mar Kendra's skin.
"Kendra, are you injured?"
Kendra quickly felt around her arms chest and legs.
"Nothing. I could have sworn I was pierced through by that thing." She whispered.
You see inside the Mourning Maiden, the spikes are missing. Looking closer, you see that they have been pulled out or broken off.
"Strange. The spikes appear to have been broken off," Ysabot muses, pushing the door of the iron maiden open wide enough to show the others. Meanwhile, Persimmon mewls loudly, walking behind the maiden and back out again, as if to demonstate the passageway.
Ereviss holds Kendra tight.
"At first you looked pierced, but it seems to be an illusion of some sort. How do you feel!!??!!"
Kendra said shakily; "I'm alright, I'm alright. We... there is nothing to do but go on."
Xiuj examined Kendra;
He nodded brusquely. "She fine."
He noted Ysabot's cat, but dismissed its presence.
Taking hold of his staff, he saw the Mourning Maiden pivot a little.
Curiously, he pressed further, and the Maiden rotate away from the wall, where it had concealed a narrow slot where a human could sidle through.
"Look what I found!"
"We go through there."
Ereviss gets his bow and prepares to move out.
Stepping into the narrow crack of the secret passage...
The rough stone walls of this natural cavern drip with moisture,
leaving stagnant pools of water on the uneven floor.
Agrimar's sharp darkvision spots motion in one of the puddles of water as a pseudopod forms and starts moving towards you.
You are pretty sure this thing is a Grey Ooze.
"There's something ahead..." Agrimar warns.
When Agrimar called out a warning, the creature lurched forward.
Ereviss gets an arrow off at the creature after imbuing it with arcane power.
"It's an ooze. I think weapons hurt it."
Agrimmar swings his falchion at the oozing slime.
Between Ereviss' arcane strike, Agrimar's falchion, Xiuj's bomb, Kendra's ray of frost, and Ysabots longshot experiment with Putrefy Food and Drink, the ooze is overwhelmed and reduced to a stain.
Proceeding forward down the passageway, you finally come to a mason wall with a secret door. When you are ready, a catch pivots the door and you enter the Nevermore cellblock...
Several iron doors line the walls of this partially ruined cellblock—the doors themselves hang askew on their hinges, revealing empty cells beyond. Partially burnt wooden support timbers still function to the
north, while to the south they’ve collapsed and caused cell walls to crumble as well. Rivulets of water drip down the southwestern wall to create a shallow pool in this ruined portion of the room, with overflow filling an oubliette hole in the middle of the room nearly to the rim.
Ereviss detects for magic. He gives Agrimar a look. He seems to want Agrimar to scan the room too.
Detect magic
Kendra waived her hand, and Dancing Lights started circling around overhead.
"There is something here." She whispered, a little frightened. "I can feel it."
"This place reeks of evil." growls Agrimar.
Kendra pointed at a section of the wall across the cellblock to the east from your position in the NW cell.
"Nooooo..." She whispered in horror and staggered as if she had been struck.
Following her shaking finger, you see blood flowing out of crevices in the wall. It oozes out and flows together to form the letter 'K'.
Ereviss looks to see if the last of their haunt siphons is left.
He pops open the siphon to capture the bad energy. He readies a partially filled one if it is not enough.
"What is that?" Whispered Xiuj, not knowing what to do.
Both Kendra and Ereviss stagger as if struck. The letter 'E' forms next to the 'K' in flowing blood. In another section of the cellblock blood oozes out of the wall to form a letter 'E'.
Anyone whose name is partially written on the wall is seized with the idea that his soul or sanity is being “stolen” by having his name appear on the wall, and that by destroying the bloody words, he can
regain his lost Wisdom.
Kendra tears out of the cell and runs across the way to where her name is being spelled out.
"Noooo! My soul! I have to get it back!" She shouted frantically.
Ereviss takes one of their haunt siphons, as sees nothing to attack. If no one has a better idea, he moves into the center of the cell block and opens it.
"Come on you filthy spirit! Stop picking on little girls and elves!"
Ereviss: I judged that you had to be within 10-15 feet of where the letters are being written on the walls. There are two targets now.
Kendra feverishly attacked the section of wall that had started to spell her name.
Damage.
"Don't just stand there nancy boys! Help her!" Shouted Xiuj as he sprinted over next to Kendra and started smashing at the letters with her.
damage.
When Agrimar shouts to the ceiling, nothing happens.
When Ereviss moves to the center of the cellblock and tries to use the Spirit Syphon, there is no reaction. He guesses he needs to be closer to where the effects are taking place.
Ysabot is uncertain as to what to do, so passes.
With feverish work, Kendra and Xiuj manage to erase two sections of wall with letters of her name, only to see the letter 'N' form in sequence. Kendra looks like she's going mad.
Ereviss runs to Kendra to grab her and see if holding her would help.
Ereviss then runs to the letters on the wall, getting as close as he can to both of them and pops the siphon again.
When Ereviss popped the siphon, the blood letters spelling out Kendra's name abruptly collapse and evansesce into nothing.
The haunt siphon glows green with trapped essence.
Kendra stops bashing at the wall and collapses into your arms.
"I don't feel good..." She moaned.
You can see shes taken a lot of Wisdom damage.
Xiuj turned around and looked at the letters forming Ereviss' name on the wall.
He grabbed a bomb into his hand, popped a catalyst into it, then hurled it at the wall there. It burst in a blast of flame, dealing damage.
"Agrimar! Holy water or fire there!" He shouted, pointing at the place that was burning.
Agrimar uncorks a flask of holy water and splashes it where Xiuj indicates.
When Xiuj's bomb exploded, and Agrimar's flask splashed the fire out, the blood starting to spell Ereviss' name curdled and evaporated.
Ereviss immediately felt relief, no longer gripped with the impulse to run to the wall and wipe the letters.
You don't see any sign of the blood oozing from the walls you saw earlier.