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The body in the room is only a skeleton with a shirt, nothing else can be found. Felicitas does not detect any magic in this room. After searching the room for a while you find another secret door at the back wall of the room.
Hans follows behind Ting Tang, ready to protect him, as required.
Looking down the corridor Felicitas shrugs. "I have to check it to find a clue what it was meant for."
Hans winks, and grins.
"Well, there is one easy way to find out what it is for..."
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Alex holds up his hand while examining the device. "Hans, wait a minute before you start throwing switches. This thing could be a simple lift, an archaic torture device, or some elaborate self-destruction mechanism."
Alex pauses, and adds, "Well, if it is that then there is not much left for it to destroy."
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Ting does not find any traps and pulls the lever. You hear a mechanism moving and the chain starts to slide through the wall. In the distance you hear a stone grinding. After a minute it stops. The lever stays in the lower position.
-Posted with Wayfinder
With a shrug Feli moves closer."Sounds as if a door has opened."
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ting looks at Felicitas and smiles
er maybe a doors closen wroight, only one ways ta find out wroight Lady?
ting heads out of the secret prison area going the opposite direction and follows the corridor toward the north-west corner door. Where he: looks for foot prints, listens for sound, checks for traps and sees if it is unlocked.
Hans nods, and grins.
"Sure thing, Ting Tang - I will take a crack at it!"
With a roar, Hans charges the door, shoulder first.
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Alex braces himself a little as the lever is thrown, and relaxes as it only seems to be a door.
"Perhaps this was a control point then between sections of the prison... allowing them to lock off sections in the event of riot in the more black sections."
Alex shudders at the thought of being held in a place like this, and searches down the freshly opened pathway by Hans.
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There can be little doubt what purpose this chamber once served. The dank room stores an ancient rack, a fanciful brazen bull, an iron maiden, a cauldron, iron chairs with sharp edges and cruel protuberances, and a wooden table upon which sit various implements of torture.
A bronze plaque affixed to the western wall depicts a crowing rooster above crossed spears. Underneath the spear, a short phrase is inscribed. The phrase emblazoned on the plaque is written in Common, and reads, "Confession Cleanses the Soul - Pain Clarifies the Mind."
"You look weary. Rest in one of the chairs provided here." Hans hears a voice.
Ting can see a raven sitting on the rack.
"Greetings, fine citizens of our glorious empire! So good to have visitors, though I fear I have no refreshments to offer. I assume you are here for the treasure. Well, I'd be happy to assist, provided that you give me what I require! It has been so long since I was able to mly my trade. I require only that each of you shed your life's blood in this room - simply take a seat in one of my lovely chairs." the raven talks to you in a shrill voice.
For a moment, Hans has an overwhelming urge to sit in one of the chairs, but the moment swiftly passes.
His reply to the raven is short and to the point.
"No."
He then charges the raven, swinging like a madman!
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First long dead ghosts, now talking birds... what foul place was this, and why would the town let it stand after it was liberated?
Alex takes a good, hard look at the bird and the room, trying to discern if there is an illusion at work or what else might explain the bird both being alive underground after all this time and its seeming sentinence.
Seeing Hans and Ting attack the bird, he draws his bow and knocks an arrow, in case it flies off.
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Ting and Hans attack the bird. While it changes to it's real shape you can see some of the wounds close again. In front of you sits an imp begging for his life. "Stop it! Look, there is a secret door behind this rack! You find the key at the table! I can also tell you something important about this tower!"
Hans glares at the Imp.
"I might have known. Very well then; speak!"
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"Are you here to claim the treasure? I know the secret words to open the door!" the imp says. "Look at the bones in the iron maiden, this was once my master. He was employed to extract confessions for the Canteclure clan. He was killed long time ago and since then I'm bound to this place. My name is Harzogopas." he continues. And then he tells you everything he knows about Belhaim and the tower which the imp calls the Castle Tula.
The Dragon Plague years were quite eventful for northern Taldor. During the years between 3660 and 3672 AR, the region endured an explosion of violent and bloody depredations by no fewer than three dozen different dragons. Among those affected by the attacks was a young woman named Tula Belhaim, who lost her family when a black dragon named Aeteperax destroyed her hometown of Nazilli on the southern edge of the Verduran Forest. She would go on to become a great hero, and the mercenary company she founded the Slayers of Nazilli - defeated more dragons than any other group in those days. Her final triumph was slaying Aeteperax in the heart of a swampland deep in the part of the Verduran Forest known today as Dragonfen.
For her service, the Taldan emperor awarded Tula the title of Baroness and the stewardship of the Verduran Fork region, including all of Dragonfen. Her legions of admirers soon founded a town bearing her name, its buildings built of limestone quarried nearby. In 3676 AR, as Belhaim was still finding its place in the world, a band of lroran priests presented themselves before the Baroness of Belhaim and asked her permission to build a monastery east of the town, overlooking Dragonfen. Lady Tula graciously granted their wish, and soon thereafter, the monks built a fine monastery on the far side of the swamp.
The Iroran sect grew and prospered in this setting along with Belhaim, and over the years developed strong ties to the town. Lady Tula eventually married one of her fellow Slayers, Arturic Canteclure, and built a castle atop one of the town's hills. The couple had four children, but each one died of accident or misadventure before the age of 9, leaving the new barony with no heirs. Tula and Arturic's relationship grew strained as the baroness grew morbid and obsessed with building a grand tomb for herself and her family. As she and her husband grew apart, Tula amended her will to have Arturic buried in a separate part of the tomb, rather than alongside her. Then one rainy day, an argument became heated. After bitter words stung both their hearts, Tula fled the room crying. As she ran onto the balcony, hoping the rain would wash away her sadness, her feet slipped. She toppled over the railing and was impaled on the horns ef a drag statue below.
Overcome with grief and gilt that his words caused this tragedy, Arturic mounted his horse and set out to find someone, anyone, who might help. But fate had other plans. Not a hundred feet from the castle, Arturic's horse reared at a thunderclap, throwing him off, and he broke his neck in the fall.
The bodies were found by servants soon thereafter, and Belhaim mourned a tragedy they couldn't understand or comprehend. The bodies were quickly taken to Tula's crypt and buried according to her wishes, and the site was sealed. The shame burdening Arturic's spirit only festered, and in time he became a wraith.
Rule of Belhaim fell to distant relations of Arturic's, the Canteclures. In 4500 AR, Baron Sarvo Canteclure, a vicious lord who imprisoned subjects for the slightest infraction, joined an ill-advised rebellion against the Grand Prince, and his family and the castle were destroyed in retaliation.
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"I don't know about the wraith of Alturic, I don't even know if the story is true. This happened hundreds of years ago. I'm afraid the Baron got killed when this castle was raided and destroyed. I'm bound to this place as long as my master's body is in here so I never left this place in all these years. What year do we have now? I didn't know that this castle is a ruin now. I was always wondering why nobody was taking the dead bodies out. Would you burry my master's body so I can leave this place?" Harzogopas asks.
Ting searches the room. There are no useable weapons or armor, but the bronze plaque displays the Canteclure family crest and motto. It's an unwieldy item, about 2-1/2 feet in diameter and weighing 50 pounds, but is worth 100 gp as a historical curiosity to anyone interested in Belhaim's history, such as future baron Arnholde Devy.
Hans turns and looks to the others.
"What do you think? Should we let this one out, or leave him here?"
"I am not that happy to aid something like you.... but your request is a decent one. But the path to the Abyss is pathed by good intentions."
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Alex takes the plaque and places it in his bag. "I see no harm in burying the dead, even if it does free something like this one.... though, we will bury him AFTER we come from the chamber, not before... so if there are traps that you know of that we should avoid... or guardians that we should be wary of... you might want to tell us now so that we can come back and free you."
when the team is done with the imp ting will open the doorwhile Alex is interviewing the imp, ting returns to searching the room. He will then check the secret door, that the imp pointed out, for traps.
Looking at the imp Felicitas asks..."What colour where your ravens feathers?" He is a bad lier, maybe he has to lie always.
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Alex nods, but looks at it suspiciously as the door does not need the key. "Two lies that has been... the third and you had best hope it kills us, as we will find a way to bind you permanently here... and given the top is looking more like a crater than a tower anymore, you can bet that we will be the last to come through here. So... last chance, treacherous one... any traps beyond the acid? Any keys beyond the passphrase? Any guardians you have seen... say, maybe some kobolds?"
Ok... another theory down the drain. Well no matter... ONWARD
Looking for something heavy on the table full of torture devices she throws it down the corridor hoping for an reaction. If not she looks at Ting "Let us continue.