“That was my fault,” Sour Heck says. “Something I said must have offended the dead warden. Probably he thought I was one of his torturers when I threatened to reunite him with his wife. Buried side by side for all time: there’s a torment the prisoner’s didn’t think of. Though maybe some more suffering would be appropriate for the man who ran this torture chamber for however many years.”
"Oh, hush up," Eloise says. "More likely, this is something left behind by the necromancers who stirred the whole place up and took the Warden out of commission."
"I expect you're right, Eloise." Talia looks thoughtful for a moment, glancing about the torture room with a wary eye. "Should we backtrack to the wife's spirit, or continue searching down here?"
"Me, I'd like to set this wretched place on fire," Eloise says, with a dark look around the room. "But I suppose we should look... carefully."
Eloise repeats her cantrip to Detect Magic.
"We'd best search th' rest of th' basement, for 'tis not sure I am that we've found th' right badge. There's more here than meets th' eye. And at th' very least, th' rest of th' five remain to be dealt with."
The badge, upon inspection and a little cleaning, is certainly that of the warden.
LYVAR HAWKRAN, WARDEN, it reads. The symbol, a six pointed star, is matched on the keys left among the bones.
"Yessss!" Eloise says, her eyes sparkling. She pumps her fist - once.
“So this was the warden.” Sour Heck sounds disappointed. “I was hoping for a clue to why old Lorry’s murderers were interested in him. Now, we’re left with the mystery of why a cabal of necromancers would want the restless spirit of a skilled and experienced torturer, possibly mad with rage and hate for the living after being tortured to death himself, who can imprison other undead.”
He jingles the ring of keys.
“Won’t these unlock the safe and the vault upstairs? I wouldn’t mind a shimmy up the rope to see what’s in those. Might be more ammunition we can turn against the final two spirits. And perhaps if we give Hawkram’s badge to his wife, she can aid us in some way.”
“But since we’ve come all this way, might as well see the horrors behind Iesha’s secret door.”
"It's wondering I am yet who did this. There's naught to point to any of th' Five, but there's a lot of rage here, th' sort that breeds haunts. That door may be very interesting, indeed."
Peredur examines the secret door carefully, looking for traps.
"Seems simple enough to me," Eloise says. "The torturer nabs the ghosts. The torturer hurts the ghosts, driving them out of their minds with pain. Necromancers harvest whatever badness that generates for their own purpose, maybe enslave whatever spirits are willing to swear eternal fealty to anyone who frees them from the torturer. Nasty as all get-out, but simple enough."
The door appears to be free of any traps or hazards. It certainly hasn't been used in a long time, and may take some convincing to open.
Kieli pecks nervously at Talia's ear.
The raven croaks his favorite refrain.
"Death! Death!" and ruffles his feathers loudly.
"But there's naught to say that th' Warden was also th' torturer."
Peredur tries to open the door.
"Oh, wait," Eloise says. "My bad. If you're talking about the Warden... Well, he kept the spirits down, right? Take him away, and the spirits get riled up. Necromantic badness happens, and your necromancers can harness it."
"It's a bit disquieting I'd find that, Eloise. For that implies that th' necromancers are paying close heed to what happens here, and might attack Vesorianna--th' current restrainin' hand--next."
The door slides open after some persuasion. A dark, naturally formed cavern is revealed. Moisture drips from the walls, forming stagnant pools on the uneven floor.
The cavern curves about ten feet in.
"What? You didn't realize they were likely to be doing that anyway?" Eloise replies. "Attacking this place, murdering Professor Lorrimor, banishing or soul-binding the Warden... All of that represents a major investment. There's stuff going on here, and only a lackwit would leave it completely unmonitored. As for Vesorianna... Well, maybe she's allowing them to release the badness in a controlled fashion, or to get the spirits good and furious so they'll erupt all the harder."
Shrugging, Eloise looks into the cavern. "Hey Kieli," she says, addressing Talia's raven directly. "What's the word, black bird? What's got you riled up?"
Unconsciously, Eloise is stroking the hilt of her new sword...
Answering for Kieli, Talia says, "I'm not sure what Kieli is afraid of, but it must be bad. If we're to continue past this door, I'd suggest extreme caution. He's very nervous..."
Talia rolls her shoulders, loosening muscles and preparing to defend or flee at an instant's notice.
"Maybe we should get the badge to Mrs. Warden first, and scout around some more later, then," Eloise suggests. "Just to be on the... *sigh* ...safe side."
Peredur mulls over Eloise's response to him. "No, 'twas thinking I were that they'd taken th' soul they wanted and left. Recall that they didn't kill Petros in his home; 'twas only after he were discovered here that they slew him. Though granted, we don't know what they might have done later had he not fallen into their midst."
The ranger looks through the open door. "It's fearing that, I was, from th' moment I saw but th' one door into this place. Th' torturer walked free from here, I'll wager. Where does it come out, I'm wondering?" With a squeak of long-unused hinges, he closes the door. "Badge first, yes."
The transition back to the ground floor is a freeing one. While still the dank, rotting husk of a building it has been for decades, it is a far step removed from the crowded halls of the prison wings.
When the party returns to Vesorianna's room, the spirit is following the walls, her fingers tracing the walls of her prison.
"You return! But two of the spirits remain. Are all well? Do you need to rest? I can keep you safe here if you must!"
"Hold on a moment," Eloise says. She mutters the same old cantrip over the badge of office, in an attempt to determine whether it's been enchanted with anything that might harm Vesorianna.
"If this goes well, we've got something... sort of good for you," she adds, weaving the same cantrip over the sad remains that Sour Heck brought.
Vesorianna's fingers reach for the badge, but pass through it. Agony is evident on her face--the pain of decades of longing, of loneliness and eternal grief.
"You have found it. Gods be praised... But I cannot..." she tries again to take it, but her hand passes through. "When the last two are defeated, I can take up his office. But until then, his authority is denied to me. The magics of death are... fickle and strange."
She sighs and moves to the window.
"But you have done so much, and you have my thanks for that. There is but a little more to do before this place, and I, are free."
"In that case, we need a safe place to keep the badge," Eloise says, frowning slightly. "Or a safe person. One of us, friends? Who is safest?"
"Thank you, Lady. We will do our utmost to complete our task and thereby grant you the authority you need." Talia bows politely to the spirit before turning to her comrades.
"Shall we see if the keys open the door we found up here, before deciding our next move? There might be something useful to use."
“You must have loved your husband very much,” says Sour Heck. “What kind of a man was he? Dutiful, I expect, but what more? Could you communicate after the fire trapped you both here? Was he still the same man you knew?”
"He was a serious man for certain... he took no joy or pride in his job, yet he knew that it must be done, and done well. He was severe when he had to be but... gentle." Ghostly tears come at the memories, whisps of smoke from her pale white eyes. "Sadly, I could not reach him, nor he reach me. But I knew it was him. What I felt could only have been him... I only hope that he knew I was still here with him. He kept them imprisoned in death, as he had in life. Such was his dedication. Even in death he kept the watch..."
"Eloise and I, we're not th' ones to carry th' badge, for we must needs face th' greatest dangers to life and limb. If these keys can open th' safe, best we be leaving it there, I'm thinking."
Sour Heck nods at Talia. “Both the vault and the safe in the record room. No telling what we’ll find, though I’m guessing a pair of skeletal feet waiting to kick me in the cods.”
"Can I talk to you for a bit?" Eloise says, and she takes Peredur aside so she can whisper to him. "I'm worried that this place is safe now only because the whisperers don't need to take the lady Hawkram out. Leave the badge here, and she becomes a target. Maybe Iesha can carry it; she is strongest against the undead, with her power to channel the power of life."
Sour Hecks listens stonefaced to Vesorianna’s paen to her husband. “All right, all right,” he mutters, “The funeral’s back on. My lady, could you tell us where we might find your remains when this is all over? We’d like to bury you and your husband together in the Restlands.”
"'Twas she or Talia I was thinking of, were we to have to carry th' thing."
The lady gestures to the bundle of rags in the corner, from which emerges a charred hand.
"That would be wonderful... You are truly exemplary folk."
“Also, do you have any living relatives that might want to attend the services?” He pauses. “And who would want to engage the reasonably priced services of a dirge bard to perform at the gravesite?”
The ghost cracks an honest smile at the Bard. A drop of joy in an ocean of loss and longing, but it is there, for but a second. Hope, it would seem, has brought a friend to visit the ghostly widow.
"Sadly no, but if you were to perform when I am interred I would be most honored, my friend." She says.
“Well...all right,” says Sour Heck. “But some day...some day pretty soon, I’m sure...I’m going to show up on the Other Side. Might be hard to recognize me with my head smashed in, my face burned off or my top half bit away, but I’ll show up. And when I do, you’re going to owe me, say, three ales.”
?Well? Have we decided on what we'll do with the badge while we finish off these evil spooks? We can discuss it on the way to the vault..." Talia takes a couple of steps towards the door before turning to Sour Heck.
"Oh, and Sour? I'm sure I could buy you some ales for a performance at the funeral of the Warden and his Lady." She smiles at him before turning once again.
"And I'll buy you lot a round of brandy to chase the beer down when we go to a bar afterwards," Eloise offers, grinning. "When you go boozing, do it right."
“Assuming we aren’t all buying a meal for Kieli and the worms,” Sour Heck says in his usual gloomy voice. But he squeezes Talia and Eloise’s shoulders, before handing the warden’s keys to Peredur.
Iesha nods. "We will do whatever we can. And, once this is over, I at least, will try to find and free your husband's stolen soul. And punish the monsters who took it."
"That is... most kind of you." She seems overwhelmed at all of this kindness in such a short span.
Away then, the party returns to the Warden's office, as it is nearby. Peredur easily opens the safe, once the correct key is picked. Inside, on a pile of documents is a coin purse, heavy with 500 gold pieces, and a wooden rack, holding nine small potion vials.
Easily identified as six potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, three of Lesser Restoration, and two potions of Remove Disease.
Is there, in the stack of documents, anything that looks like a map of the prison?
The documents, upon inspection are mostly expense and payroll paperwork, nothing of any particular interest or importance.
"These might come in useful," says Talia, looking at the potion vials. "Though the paperwork looks unimportant. Shall we gather the potions and coins up and move on? I admit I cannot recall where the other locked room was. Does anyone remember?"
"'Twas th' vault, though 'tis guarded by a most dangerous haunt. Can you cast th' heat metal spell?"
The party moves next to the vault, seperated by the chilling haunt by a few feet, it's effect is still felt, with visible breath coming from all.
The door itself unlocks with a heavy click, and Peredur pushse it open.
A bizarre collection of antique goods rest upon the wooden shelves that line the room. Several of them are marked with tiny tabs, marked with a careful script.
In the east wall is a small secret passage
Taking a quick inventory, the party finds the following:
A set of masterfully done thieves' tools. Each has a maker's mark of a tiny skull.
A bronze war medallion, resplendent with the symbol of the Shining Crusade.
A portrait of some Taldan noble, unframed.
A set of decoratice hair clips, wrought from fine silver.
A punching dagger of master quality.
A pouch containing a dozen shuriken, each with a Tienese maker's mark. They are of exquisite quality
A silver war razor of masterwork quality, with no visible maker's mark.
And a wand, which is easily identified as one containing a Lesser Restoration spell, with 12 charges.
Peredur glances over the assembled items quickly, gaze lingering on the thieves' tools, before his eye is caught by something else to the east. He makes his way over to the wall, eying it carefully, before announcing, "'Tis another concealed door."
"Another one?" Talia says, watching Peredur. "Is this a prison, or a haunted house?" She pauses, realizing what she just said, before saying sheepishly, "Sorry, bad choice of words."
"Ooh," Eloise coos, holding up the bronze medallion. "I like this... Hm? Another secret doo? Cripes, it's a wonder the building can stand upright."