Huzzah!!!
Larissa waves to get the others' attention and points at the north door. She mouths the words, "That one!" and beckons them.
She'll move over to the north door, but she won't do anything until the others have joined her.
Alinya completes her brief prayer at the small and cobwebbed shrine of Pharasma, and promises to bring servants back to clean the alter, once the prison is safe.
She hurries after the others and catches up with them stood by a doorway.
right on; Larissa can hear "hello?"
female voice, from behind the door.
No. You can all hear the voice. Sorry to be confusing.
Edwin, having been following along almost as silent as a wraith, (and considerably more quiet than at least SOME of the haunts in the prison!), speaks up. His voice is subdued, somber, almost sepulchral.
"Wait. Look." He says, indicating the doorway the voice seems to be coming from.
Rholf calls out to the voice behind the door. "Lady, are you injured? Can you open the door?"
Reply:
"If I could open the door, I wouldn't be locked in here!!!" she grouses, then; "sorry, I.....I'm not exactly having a good day...."
The door....it was bolted, deadbolt lock. Which rusted away into utter uselessness when your character was about seven.
Larissa nods, understanding his intentions, and leans close to the door to listen once again. Her hair haunts are alternating between caressing the surface of the door and burrowing along her neck under her cloak. She has the look of someone that's about fed up with the antics of a pet or small child but can't do anything about it.
Larissa doesn't hear anything except the voice when the woman speaks.
Edwin points to the practically non-existent lock.
"Of course madam. Completely understandable under the circumstances. No need to apologize." Edwin speaks matter-of-factly. He continues as if he actually believes he is speaking to a trapped woman, when the evidence clearly suggests that is not the case.
At least, not to a living, trapped woman,...
"Please do remain calm, while we see what we can do to remedy your situation. My name is Edwin. But since these are hardly formal circumstances, please call me Ed." He says with a smile in his voice.
"And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?" He inquires pleasantly, all the while pointing at the door and shrugging his shoulders in a series of obvious 'What do we do? Do you want to let her out?' motions.
Rholf whispers to Edwin, "It's possible that this entity could give us some useful information. Ask her who locked her in there."
Edwin nods his agreement. He puzzles through his next round of speaking with the 'woman' while he listens for her reply.
"The guards locked me in here! I'm the Warden's wife,....." she says her name, but it's garbled. "Are you from Ravengro?"
"Oh, dear! Why did they do that?"
silence.
"When did the guards lock you in, lady?"
Alinya thinks that another voice will only add to the confusion. She bites her tongue and remains silent. Crossbow at the ready, she looks up and down the corridor for signs of The Lopper or his friends.
"When did the guards lock you in, lady?"
Again, an uncomfortable silence.
Alinya thinks that another voice will only add to the confusion. She bites her tongue and remains silent. Crossbow at the ready, she looks up and down the corridor for signs of The Lopper or his friends.
Nothing untoward is immediately evident...
Larissa looks to the men as she reaches toward the door. She whispers,"Are you ready?" Louder, she says, "Lady, I will see if I get this door open."
And,.....silence....
Edwin nods, although he's sure the spirit, or whatever, probably cannot see him.
"Yes milady, we are currently staying in Ravengro. This should not take too long. Just a few moments more. Are you injured?"
...silence...
"ALright. That's it. Get this door open,..." Edwin says, motioning the larger party members forward.
He does have a haunt siphon palmed in his empty hand. Just in case.
The door opens easily enough.
It's a good sized room, 15 by 20 or so.
Bolts of moldy fabric, tables, sewing utensils; it was a workshop.
A skeleton sits, motionless, slumped in a chair. Dressed in a gown, and with long, cinnamon colored hair still attached to the skull's pate.
Skeleton of a woman.
Rholf catches Castiel's attention, motioning toward the skeletal remains with a motion of his flaming head; "Evil or just dead?" As he says this, he switches from scimitar to heavy mace.
Haven't seen him around a couple a days, so I'm sure he turns on the sacred geiger counter.
He detects no evil.
The skeleton shimmers, and the form of a beautiful young woman coalesces there, made flesh insubstantial. She rises up, a wide eyed look of desperation on her face.
"Thankyou! I......I've been trapped here! They locked me in; for my own good.......they said...."
Edwin turns on his most charming smile.
"It's quite all right my dear. I am sorry that we took so long." He glances over his shoulder at the others. His look is inscrutable. he is plainly torn between sending this poor spirit on it's way, and trying to get information from it. (Which to him seems intolerably close to torture.) A flicker of emotion on his face tells you he has made up his mind.
"I wonder if you might be able to do us a favor? You don't happen to know where your husband kept his keys, do you? There are important papers in his safe that we need to recover." He asks pleasantly.
"But you are free now. Your worries are over. You may continue on your way." He says enigmatically with a small half bow to the now-open doorway.
"NO, I...." she holds here hands to the sides of her head; "I cannot leave. I cannot. Leave this room."
To Edwin;
"My husband had his keys when he went down. And never came back up." The ghost cries. It's sad in that she's so spent out that she can't cry more than a feeble approximation of crying.
"I miss him. We should be......together......now."
"Milady, why can you not leave? Can we help you in some way to rejoin your husband?"
"I don't know why. I.....oh. Yeah. I'm dead. Locked in here all these days......
I. am dead. It's easy to forget."
She shakes here head.
"Only in oblivion can I join him now. The shadowed ones. The whisperers. Destroyed him completely."
"Shadowed ones? Whisperers? Are they below in the prison?"
"No. They surrounded the prison. Wrote their runes. Cast their dark rites.
Destroyed.....my husband.
Now my existence......if you can call it that.....is all that holds the spirits of this place at bay.
I am the prison now."
"Ah my lady, then your plight is clear," Alinya's voice is thick with unaccustomed pity. "As you are the prison, and the gaoler, and the chief guardian of Ravengro... Then you can only be free once all these unquiet spirits are laid to rest."
She sighs, and looks to her companions, "Well, that is a long job. But it is our duty anyway."
Back to the poor spirit, "Milady. Is there any help you can give us, any advice, to speed our errand and so speed your release?" Alinya's tone is now gravely formal. Almost funereal.
Larissa, out of her league, just listens.
"The robed ones. The.....whisperers. They.....they murdered an old man who discovered them.
Then they pushed a gargoyle off of the roof, and they took a fragment of the gargoyle and smashed him with it.
So they were trying to cover it up I suppose? It was......odd. I don't know what's going on in Ravengro...."
"There were six main entities. Now there are five. The one called Orcish Bob, I can no longer sense. Did you kill him?.....
I......am......Vesorianna. Splatterman is spelling my name. When he spells it out fully he will be free.
I've kept the zombies at bay.....they won't be coming down to Ravengro tonight anyway. As Splatterman grows, though,.....he may be able to beat me at that trick. If he spells my name, the fleshclad AND the untouchable will be able to wreak havoc outside of these walls.
That must be what the Whisperers wanted.
And if you stop the other 5 I can keep them from manifesting.
If you can bring me my husband's badge,.......I can set this all back to right. The prison will be quiet when I hold the badge.
I..........my mind isn't quite what it was. I hope this helps you."
"It does indeed help, good lady." Rholf gently voices. "We shall recover your husband's badge for you, and we will vanquish as much of the evil here as we may." The warmth falls away from his voice, leaving that clammy monotone as he finishes with "You have my word. Your sacrifices shall not be in vain."
"That is relieving..."
"My apologies my Lady. I did not fully understand your plight, and so made multiple mistaken assumptions. It will not happen again."
"THank you for the information. It clears up a great many questions. And makes our mission that much clearer."
"DId your husband have his badge on him as well as his keys when he went below? Or did he keep it elsewhere? In your current, condition, do you perhaps know if there are any small or side entrances to the lower levels? I fear that the main entrance to below may be,... difficult to pass." He says wryly.
"All I knew were the stairs and the elevator lift. I assume he had both; I didn't see him....they locked me in here." she laughs; "for my own safety."
HUZZAH!
goin to work on a Sunday morning.........
HUZZAH!!!
and I'm definitely coming down sick.......I thought I was just tired, but tired doesn't do this to your lungs..........*cough cough* owwwwwch......I'm going to crash out for today. See you guys laterz.