Maria grins big. "This thing looks ohysical." Her swords gleams with her goddess's light as the bulky woman steps forward and brings it rushing down
Already reeling as the Severed heads it controlled were destroyed the Haunt formed from the Mosswater Marauder is helpless as Maria smites it out of existence.
Again, as it fades you hear Vesorianna "You shall not return!" She sounds even stronger now, as one by one the damned souls that haunt the prison are ended by your bravery.
In U6 you find a secret door that hides the guards emergency stocks, stocks that they never had the time to reach such was the sudden and unexpected nature of the uprising.
Loot:
6 suits of masterwork chainmail,
6 suits of masterwork studded leather armor,
4 masterwork longswords,
4 masterwork heavy maces,
2 masterwork heavy crossbows,
120 crossbow bolts,
A case of 10 +1 crossbow bolts,
A wand of hold person (11 charges),
4 potions of cure moderate wounds,
A rope of climbing (perhaps the most ironic item in the room, for it was kept here to ensure that the guards would have a way to exit the dungeon via the lift shaft if the stairwell deadfall was triggered).
U7 is empty of any form of trouble, but there is a door to the south.
What are you doing now?
"Well I'd say there might be a few items of interest to people. I could hold onto the wand but unless some of those necromancers dawdled here for a very long time then it wont see much use while we are down here. It will have no effect on the undead." He helps the others search the area "The door to the south, I'd like to see whats through there before we finish for the day."
Maria begins to load up on the fine equipment. She takes it to the shaft they came down and makes a pile there.
"I say we carry this back to town. We can get good gold for quality items like this and we have the right to slavage them."
After all the found equipment is piled up near the shaft, Phaedra motions towards the south door.
"Well, shall we see what's beyond that door?"
"We are doing well!" says as he comes out of his rage with the destruction of the Mosswater Marauder.
"I guess there's only one way to find out, Phaedra!"
Mishtes, holding Lopper's axe in one hand, opens the door, trying to keep alert for trouble:
Lazar takes too long thinking about what's going to happen when all the villians' spirits are put to rest. When he comes down to Earth again, he barely notices Mishtes opening the door and so he looks for a nice spot to cover him in case anything wishes bad to them from the other room.
U8. Torture Chamber
Numerous grisly tools of torment decorate the room, from cages to hanging chains along the walls to a stretching rack, a large wooden tank, and a fire pit in the middle of the room. To the east stands a grim iron maiden, the lid closed and presenting a stern decoration of a tormented woman upon its face. The broken, twisted skeleton of a human dressed in a tattered guard’s uniform lies upon the stretching rack in the middle of
the room; the body is surrounded by several discarded knives, branding irons, and pliers. A large, bloodstained wicker basket sits at the head of the rack.
What are you doing now?
"This is a grim sight", says Mishtes, stating the blindingly obvious.
Then he draws his scimitar and carefully walk into the room...
... and warily approaches the wicker basket to see what might be there.
Gadren moves in to support Mishtes, staying alert for signs of traps, secret doors and secret haunts... and valuables. "When we leave today I think we should bring the guards remains, give them a proper burial."
Maria nods. "Agreed, Gadren." Wordlessly, she begins seeking evil and moves toward the iron maiden. I'm sure there's nothing pleasant in this. She opens the torture device, weapon drawn and ready to try not to breathe through her nose.
Cedric performs a small prayer over the guards remains. Likely, it was too late for it to do any help, but it felt right. He follows the others, even among the grisly scene, when anyone looks at him, he has a smile on his face.
A torture chamber. No doubt evil can concentrate in a place like this like nowhere else. Lazar treads in carefully, and murmurs some prayers to help the potential souls trapped in ease their way.
As Mishtes reaches the basket the lid is forced open from within, a pair of Crawling hands scuttle out of the basket and attack!
As Maria approaches the iron maiden she feels an almost overwhelming urge inside herself to open the lid and step inside, she resists with her iron will.
What are you doing now?
Gadren's eyebrows go up as he sees the hands and then slashes down at the closest one with his longsword.
Maria spits on the iron maiden. "Don't go near that thing." Then she steps up to the hands and tries to rend both at once.
If, against all odds, the animated hands are still moving, Mishtes too will attack them:
Since the undead hands seem to be taking care of, Lazar concentrates on trying to avoid the iron maiden. "What's wrong with that?"
With Detect Evil you can see that the ambient horror of this room has gathered into a particularly unnerving haunt. As soon as someone
approaches within 15 feet of the iron maiden, it activates.
Maria nods to the maiden. "Made me want to get inside. Thought better of it. How do we end that thing?" Though simply walking away from it is probably a safe option, Maria hungers for the destruction of evil whether or not it is convenient.
"Aside from hauling it out to the town's blacksmith to be melted down for scraps, I'm not quite sure how to destroy it here and now."
Maria nods with a smile. That sounds like a great plan to her. "I'm sure he'd allow that. He owes me. After we finish this."
"Dealing with all greater manifestations may help render this one inert... or we bring it to the blacksmiths." Gadren smiles.
Lazar agrees, for lack of a better option. "Alright. But we'll have to be checking there or the blacksmith might end up inside that damned thing."
With that, Lazar checks the place before moving on to the next room .
Maria grins. "Don't worry about the blacksmith. I'll melt the thing down myself. I know my way around his forge." She also looks to move on to the next room.
"I wonder did we miss a secret door or an obstructed area? I was expecting more resistance down here."
"Well, let us check."
Lazar examines the walls or any part that he thinks could lead to a hidden room or alley, starting in the room they are right now.
"If we spread through the place, we'll have it covered in no time."
"It would be just our luck for that Iron Maiden to be right in the way of what we're looking for!"
Mishtes will also try to join the search of the room.
Avoiding the Iron Maiden as best he can:
Gadren tries to carefully check the area for secret doors or caches.
The body on the rack belongs to Warden Hawkran. Although his wife’s ghost is still haunted by the conviction that her act of releasing the lift caused her husband’s death, he was already dead several hours before the fire began—a truth the prisoners were careful to hide from the guards above while they thought the promise of his safe return still had a chance of buying their escape.
The warden’s last moments of life were hardly pleasant—he was tortured to death by the Splatter Man, the Lopper, the Piper of Illmarsh, and several other prisoners. Examining his body reveals the grisly truth of his demise, which includes broken bones, severed hands, dislocated hips and shoulders, a shattered jaw, and numerous long, thin needles that have been driven into his ears, eye sockets, elbows, hips, and knees.
The warden’s keys, symbols of his control over the prisoners, were used as torture implements on the man. The keys (which include ones that can unlock the safe in area S4 and the door to area S16) sit inside of the skeleton’s pelvis.
The warden’s badge also gave the prisoners an impromptu torture device—the metal disk has been wedged into his jaw, and is obviously the object that was used to shatter that part of his face.
Gadren detects the secret door in the eastern wall.
What are you doing now?
Lazar almost sheds a tear when he discovers the Warden's fate. "This is... we should destroy all this to give this poor soul the rest he deserves."
He then puts his hands to the task.
"Hey, let me have a look at that."
"There's a hidden door to the east. We can return here shortly to bring the Warden to a more appropriate resting place. There's not too much left for us to explore."
Maria nods and hefts her greatsword. "Ready when you are." She prepares to rush through the door, using the senses granted by her god.
Just for a second, Lazar thinks about staying here liberating the Warden's soul while the rest go, but then he thinks whatever soul they put to rest first, either the Warden's or the Splatterman's, won't really matter to Pharasma. After checking for traps, he checks if the door can be opened.
"I think what we did already would help ease the warden's way in any event.
"After all this time, I don't think he'll much mind a little more time for us to finish the job."
Mishtes then stands with his scimitar and Lopper's axe at the ready waiting for Maria to open the secret door:
U9. Secret Passageway
The rough stone walls of this natural cavern drip with moisture,
leaving stagnant pools of water on the uneven floor.
U11. The Nevermore
Several iron doors line the walls of this partially ruined cellblock—the doors themselves hang askew on their hinges, revealing empty cells beyond. Partially burnt wooden support timbers still function to the
north, while to the south they’ve collapsed and caused cell walls to crumble as well. Rivulets of water drip down the southwestern wall to create a shallow pool in this ruined portion of the room, with overflow filling an oubliette hole in the middle of the room nearly to the rim.
As you enter the final chamber of Harrowstone a chill sweeps over you all.
Lazar, Phaedra & Cedric see the first letter of their names spelled out in blood appear on the walls beside them.
What are you doing now?
"Hey! What's that? Can you see that?" Lazar points to the letter.
Gadren casts light on a pebble while staying alert. "We're close, he's trying to spook us."
"C'mon, Splatterman! Time to join your cell-mates where you all belong", says Mishtes, trying to draw the spirit out
The paladin looks at what Lazar is pointing at. When Mishtes calls out, Maria growls under her breath with a grin nonetheless. It's time. She leans over the pool and glances in.
Phaedra looks round at the letters appearing on the wall. I do not know if those letters will spell out our names, but I would much prefer that we do not give this ghost time to finish his words.....
Phaedra looks about for any signs of something that they can actually attack.
"Be careful near that pool, we do not know what may lie in it."
Maria peers into the inky depths of the pool and sees nothing. Gadren's Light spell reveals the same.
Lazar & Phaedra see the next letters in their names appear in blood on the wall beside them.
Mishtes now sees the first letter of his name written on the wall beside him.
What are you doing now?
Gadren casts detect magic. "The book, tear the pages and force him into the open. Cedric we might not be able to see him but a blast of that healing energy if you can spare it might get him a bit upset and do something silly!"
Maria agrees. "Yes! Tear it!" She looks around furiously, attempting to determine the source of the problem. "Gadren! Can you prepare my blade?"
Lazar feels dizzy, as if he'd drunk two full tankards of mead. With one hand holding his head, he uses the other to touch Maria's sword.
"By all means, start ripping that book up.
"The sooner that starts, the sooner we can finish off Splatterman's ghost!"
Mishtes stands ready with his scimitar and Lopper's axe drawn.
He's waiting to spring into action wherever Splatterman apears.
Maria grins at Lazar's touch and holds her glowing sword up. "Come out, coward! Face us or we tear the book!"
Cedric takes out the spellbook and passes it to Lazar, he focuses on his holy symbol and chants, a flash of golden light sweeps over you. It also destroys the letters written on the walls!
Again the feeling of unnatural hatred washes over the party, this time only Maria sees the first letter of her name appear on the walls.
Cedric repeats his channel, now knowing it both protects the party, and attacks the Haunt.
Again any writing is erased.
Cedrics Channel ends the Haunts attempts to cripple the party, the walls creak menacingly as the supernatural reinforcement that held them together is ended, but stay upright this round.
As the Haunt fades the ghost of the Splatterman emerges from the black waters of the oubliette with an enraged shriek.
Maria & Gadren are up first.