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Arien nods, pulling Huc and the others further from the inmates and whispering conspiratorially.
“It doesn’t make sense. These hidden cells are designed for prisoners whose very presence would be dangerous, if known. Why would the barony go to such measures for mere poachers? And how long have they been here? Didn’t the baroness say her husband vanished in here almost a decade ago? They wouldn’t make it 9 days, let alone 9 years…”
As you turn away to have your discussion, he shrieks, screams out, "So...hungry!", and vanishes. All of you have a momentary vision: you feel as though you're locked in a prison cell, starving and delirious with thirst, and you're about to pass into a final coma. The vision is fleeting, but the terrible hunger pangs that came with it are not.
Healing Nonlethal Damage: You heal nonlethal damage at the rate of 1 hit point per hour per character level. When a spell or ability cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.
The wave of hunger and delirium hit Huc … hard. He rocks on his feet, but keeps them, if barely. Steadying himself with a hand on the wall, he shakes his head. Its a few heartbeats before his senses reassert themselves, and he tries to focus on things that the knows to be real. The wall. The woodgrain of his axe. The whimpering from Fynn.
After a quick check to make sure that whatever that was … was gone, Huc kneels, running his hand calmingly along Fynn’s rust-colored flank. ”It’s alright boy, we’re al—“
Then he notices Arien’s down, and looks quickly to see how Temperance and Oranna fared.
”Everyone alright? Arien’s down!”
The effect seems to have been localized around the door. Fynn whines in pain and rubs against the hunter, but relaxes under Huc's ministrations.
"Might drain me on spells but I can help em."
Huc's eyebrows raise at the healing display. "Very nice." He nods to Fynn. "If you can spare one more of those for me, I can do the same for Fynn."
Huc reaches over, muttering strange, old words as he touches his mutt. Fynn perks up...
... a bit.
Exploring further, you come around the corner and eventually find yourself at the unconcealed side of another secret door to the covert cell block. There are a couple more bodies in the cells, though the one with the phantom prisoner appears empty as far as you can see from the door.
Oranna holds her hand out and allows the magic togo to work.
Initially you don't find anything, although Arien notices that the door to the room with the phantom prisoner can be opened from the inside, and was unsecured. Opening the door reveals that this looks different from the other cells--there's no cot, but there's the remains of a wooden desk and a couple of chairs.
There are scraps of paper in the desk, most in the form of a large mouse's nest. Enough remains legible to reveal that this room was where the guards for the hidden cell block were stationed.
Arien and Huc, in the process of investigating the room you notice yet another concealed door.
"No kidding. A hidden cell block in an old witch tower," Huc mutters, pushing the scraps of paper around. "This town is looking less and less sleepy by the second."
When the concealed door catches his eye, he exchanges a look with Arien. "And more mysteries, no?" He calls for Fynn, who lopes over, and readies his axe as he presses his ear to the hidden door.
Huc and Fynn hear nothing at the door.
Huc has the group step back, then—once they've created some space and Fynn has been commanded to guard Oranna—he opens the door.
A narrow corridor stretches north, opening into a small room containing two things: a strange metallic contraption of gears and chains with a large lever extending out at a 45° angle from its front (incidentally, a chain goes off from the machine to the west at ceiling level), and a small rolling cloud of energy that periodically emits sparks of electricity into the air or along the chains. It moves around, but not more than a foot or so before it returns to its initial position.
Huc opens the door wide, giving the whole group a good look. "This is ... way outside my experience."
He looks back at the group, "You got anything on any of this?"
"Lightenening elemental, wee one at that."
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"Can anyone speak with it? I wonder if it is powering that machine. Is that a machine? Are we machines?"
Temperance begins to ponder this.
Huc gives the gnome an uncertain sideways glance. "Only if it speaks Taldane." He looks up at the strange living cloud, "And I tend to agree with Arien; unless we think we need to operate this thing for some reason, let's leave it alone. I don't see any point in mucking with magic stuff in an old witch-tower-turned-prison-thing."
He waits to see if anyone else wants to do anything in the room, but otherwise is prepared to move on in their explorations. "Let's just make sure we can get back in here should we need to ... on the off chance this lever-thing has anything to do with why this place fell down."
Leaving the small elemental, you return to the open part of the prison. The double doors to the east open onto a collapse, which Arien thinks would be dangerous to disturb. There's a hallway leading west, though, which you haven't explored.
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Oranna scans her mind but cannot think of much of anything.
Not wanting to have to clear rubble, Huc hikes a thumb back in the direction of the unexplored hallway behind them. "I say we go check that out first."
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The hallway leads to the west and north, eventually ending in a solid wooden door. Its frame is skewed slightly, apparently by the collapse above, and it takes the stronger members of the party a bit of effort to force.
The room on the other side is obvious in purpose. It houses an ancient rack, a fanciful brazen bull with a small furnace for heating, another iron maiden*, a cauldron, iron chairs with sharp edges and cruel protuberances, and a stained wooden table on which sit other implements of torture. A bronze plaque affixed to the western wall depicts a crowing rooster above crossed spears. Under the spears is inscribed the phrase "Confession Cleanses the Soul - Pain Clarifies the Mind."
Fynn whimpers at the doorway.
"Whew," Huc mutters, suddenly sagging in obvious fatigue. "You guys take a look around, I'm gonna sit a spell."
And he walks to the nearest bladed chair to sit down, apparently unconcerned about the potential danger.
Fynn's hackles rise.
"Stop! Huc! ...That chair is actually cursed!"
Temperance, at a loss for effective words, moves to simply block Huc from the chair.
Arien and Master Temperance have a chance to stop Huc from sitting down.
Temperance slides toward Huc, one boot extended, but he fails to trip Huc. "Arien! Try to drop him!"