"Probably. Everything in this place comes after us at some point in time. Let's be a bit proactive."
"My answer to that question, and any like it, from now until we get the nine hells out of here, is, 'I'll be right behind you, ranger.'"
"You lead, Peredur; we'll follow. Closely." Talia offers the Ranger a charming smile, and steps next to Iesha. "And if anything jumps us from behind, I'm sure our intrepid, morbid Dirger will regale us with story and song." She cannot quite keep the smirk from her lips as she looks towards Sour Heck.
"Maybe we should chase whatever it is down before it can rustle up some friends," Eloise suggests.
Iesha
Peredur for undead
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
A soft sound, almost like sobbing, seems to be coming from the south door.
Every moment not filled with the sounds of footsteps, rustling clothes or muted conversation is filled by an oppressive, urgent silence now. Echoes disappear almost instantly, as if the silence itself actively seeks to snuff out any noise that dare try and drive it away.
The party proceeds to the west, the long corridor to the Reaper's Hold. A lowered portcullis comes into view as the party's lights push back the darkness, blocking further progression. Flanking the gate on either side are metal doors.
One to the north, and one to the south.
Peredur frowns as he contemplates the south door, head cocked to one side. He murmurs quietly, "I hear something there. It's thinking I am, though, that nothing in this place draws breath...save us, at least. For now." He gently tries the door.
Eloise's eyes narrow as she limbers her sword arm, and again mutters her spell of detection.
"I'm getting the heebies," she mutters.
The door slowly opens, the metal hinges letting out a long, low whine.
A single large table with two chairs astride. A lone cot is pushed up against the eastern wall. Several battered cabinets line the north, with a few arrows and bits of chainmail lying scattered on the floor nearby.
This is all understated by the three fractured skulls that rest on the table, next to a heavy metal hammer. Shards of bone have seemingly been arranged in some sort of pattern, as if someone were trying to construct a fourth skull from the pieces of the first three. The leathery body of a long-dead dwarf, slumps on the ground behind the table, his wiry red hair still strangely vibrant, even in death.
"The Splatterman!" Eloise hisses, dropping into a swordfighter's crouch, her eyes flicking left and right for danger.
“Nope, the Mosswater Marauder. The Black Hammer. Bride-killing, waylaying, skull-fondling Ispen Onyxcudgel. “
Sour Heck fishes his unused haunt siphon out of his shirt pocket and prepares to use it on any malicious Mosswater Marauder manifestations.
"Whatever," Eloise growls, still looking all around. "Can't tell those freaks apart, I just know they need to be taken out."
Sour Heck considers the tension in Eloise’s frame. “Just as long as you can tell them from us.”
"It's thinking I am that there be an easy distinction 'twixt incorporeal manifestations of deathless rage and party members."
skulls
Iesha
Peredur
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
Perception
Iesha
Peredur for undead
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
A horrid wail comes barreling out of the silence, filling the room and the hallway. The shards of skull begin to rattle and shake on the table, before taking to the air. The three shattered skulls quickly reform, and dive to attack.
Eloise takes a step back, rather than charging into the room, her sword held low and at an angle.
The instant one of the skulls comes within range, the blade rises sharply.
Iesha moves forward and lashes out reflexively at the leftmost skull.
plus
(2 remain of 5)
Round 1:
HP: 19/19
AC: 14; 11 T; 13 FF
Conditions: None
Duration: x out of x rounds
Spells: 0th: 4/4; 1st: domain: 1/1; standard: 3/3
Channel Energy: 6/day; 3 remain
Holy Water charge: 5/charge; 2 remain
Muttering something that sounds like “ruggle, ruggle, ruggle,” Sour Heck wraps his hand in his kercheif and grabs at the empty air ahead of him.
The iron hammer on the worktable slides off the table. An invisible force drags it to Eloise’s feet and lifts the handle up towards her.
“That’s not an incorporeal manifestation of deathly rage,” the bard calls to her, “That’s me. Right tool for the right job...right?”
The hammer moves through the air to Eloise.
Stepping forwards, Talia's right hand begins to warm and tingle as she prepares to touch a skull with a healing hand.
"Unf! I need to - buy me - a war - hammer! Graah!" Eloise shouts as she swings her new weapon at the first skull unlucky enough to get in range. "But thanks for hooking me up, Sour Heck!"
Heck's quick thinking adequately arms Eloise, as two of the skulls dive at the assembled party. Iesha intercepts one and shatters it easily. Talia's touch misses badly, the skull dives at her, but she sidesteps it.
The third skull floats in the room, and lets out a mournful scream, assailing the party members.
Iesha
Peredur
Sour Heck
Talia
Eloise
Talia and Iesha are Shaken for rounds.
As if summoned by the sound, The Marauder himself manifests, leaping out of his corpse. the spirit does not seem whole, rather a flat reflection of what the dwarf must have looked in life, pale and transparent. Expressionless, it dives at Iesha, and swings it's ghostly hammer at her. The cleric, however, easily ducks the swing, and the spirit vanishes as it passes by her.
Eloise, armed with her new weapon, steps into the gap left by Talia's dodge, and easily connects with the skull breaking it into innumerable pieces. A mournful cry, this one certainly a male voice sounds when the skull is destroyed.
As the skulls close, the ranger takes a short step to position himself before attacking the two remaining. One evades his mace, but the other finds itself on the wrong end of a longsword.
Peredur manages to pierce the third of the skulls, and bats it out of the air.
Another mournful cry, thick with pain, sounds out.
"What, was that it?" Eloise asks, turning round and round suspiciously, waiting for the evil spirit to show itself. Under her breath, the Magus is muttering arcane words, her free hand sketching the accompanying gestures.
The spirit appears again, but briefly, fussing over the shards of the skulls, then vanishes.
It appears again, a moment later, in the corner, sobbing hysterically, then vanishes again.
A third time it manifests, standing over a ghostly image of three corpses, all wearing guard uniforms. The Marauder holds a jagged shard of metal, and he lays into the first corpse's head with a sickening noise. The image then vanishes.
The sobbing sound persists, though, after it vanishes.
"... Ugh," Eloise moans, backing off from the cell. "Haunt siphon?" she asks, or perhaps suggests.
"Where is it? Will the siphon affect it when it's not visible? Or my channeling? All I can do is try."
(channeling to harm undead)
Round 2:
HP: 19/19
AC: 14; 11 T; 13 FF
Conditions: None
Duration: x out of x rounds
Spells: 0th: 4/4; 1st: domain: 1/1; standard: 3/3
Channel Energy: 6/day; 2 remain
Holy Water charge: 5/charge; 2 remain
"Good question," Eloise mutters. Her brow wrinkles briefly as she tries to recall what she knows on the subject.
"Sour Heck, what was this pathetic jigsaw artist's problem, again?"
"He were trying to remake his late wife's skull from pieces of others after he killed her with his hammer."
Talia trembles visibly, clearly shaken by the screeching skull as she glances nervously around. "Huh...how do we st...stop this thing?" she says, holding her hand out, ready to try and touch a haunting ghost...
"It's a foolish idea I'm having, but Talia--touch th' hammer. 'Twas a thing he used here for his deviltries, and it might be tied to his ghost."
“Just need a target...” Sour Heck waves his haunt siphon around. “Ispen tried to rebuild his wife’s skull. He must think of that half-assembled pile on the table as his bride. Maybe if we scatter them, he’ll leave. Or appear again so I can zap him."
"Just lob a rock at his own skull," Eloise says, glaring at the dead man's corpse.
"Well," says Talia, looking at Peredur. "It's worth a shot. If I simply look foolish, I'll say it was your idea." She grins at Peredur, then reaches out to touch the hammer, willing healing energy through her hand.
As Iesha's holy energy washes over the area, there is an audible searing sound. The image of the Marauder appears again, this time even more transparent, barely there, in fact, and it lunges again at Heck.
A vicious impact from a teeth-ringing blow, at the hands of the spirit, and Heck's world goes black.
.
.
.
Awakening again, after untold time, Heck finds himself in a narrow wooden box... A coffin, it would seem. Fortunately, a lovely young priestess of Pharasma, her hair red as a autumn leaves, fusses over the aching and confused bard.
"Welcome back," she says, with a sweet smile, "To the land of the living!"
Heck goes limp and collapses under the Marauder's attack. The unopened siphon clatters to the ground. Fortunately, he is still breathing, but unfortunately, ethereal silver chains,, adorned with the holy symbols of various gods, spring from the ground and cinch around his body.
Nothing happens as Talia touches the hammer, it is simply a cold, dusty hammer.
The chains bear a striking resemblance to those found on the top level of the prison, after the party dispatched the Piper's Haunt. It would seem that poor Heck has come under the sway of a different one of the Five Prisoners...
The quick-witted bard is never without a quip appropriate to any situation!
“Whnuh?”
"You must rest, precious," the priestess coos. She touches the side of the bard's face tenderly. "You have been through so much! But it is over now. Just relax. Get up, there is food and drink for you."
She extends a hand to the bard.
As far as the party can tell, Heck has been attacked by another one of the spirits of the prison, the nature of it's attack, or even what is actually happening to Heck is unclear. The chains themselves are ethereal.
This is clearly not the Marauder's doing, but was merely triggered by his attack.
Round 2
HP: 26/26
Status: x, round x of y
AC 15 (touch 11 flat-footed 14)
Spells used: lvl 1 0/4
Arcane pool points used: 0/5
Iesha's healing energy courses over Heck, and the chains grow weaker.