Leeoli jumps forward and thrusts his rapier at the skeletal form, twists, and prepares to parry and riposte.
No need to detect undead Zazaria smiles a wry smile to herself, and then her eyes gleam with a sudden combative light. Wear this, you nightbound horror!
Cool radiance bathes the room in Pharasma's holy power and lashes violently at the creature as it swipes at Anyi.
Vrilli, with his attention momentarily divided between the two skeletal beings hesitates and loses his opportunity to attack...
Anyi, now wise after her trials of the day before, had been carrying a flask of holy water at the ready. At the first visible sign of the skeletal form, she thrusts the vial at it, splashing out its contents.
Rufus takes his cue from Leeoli and hurls his holy water at the furnace.
In the infirmary, the hideous form lets out a horrible shreik that chills those within the room to the bone. It's form takes further shape and solidifies into the true nightmare that it is, then begins to fade.
In the furnace room, the "mouth" of the furnace yawns open, and the fire building within is projected out at Leeoli in the form of a strong, solid bolt.
Leeoli tries to remember anything about this type of menace.
Leeoli reacts the fastest, recognizing the threat for what it is. He hurls a vial of holy water at the furnace. The vial shatters upon impact and the water sizzles as it spreads over the furnace - though it's hard to tell whether that's from the heat of the furnace or something else.
Anyi swiftly does the same, though from the previous room and against another foe. Her vial, unstoppered, forcefully hurls its contents over the creature, causing it to writhe in agony.
The creature itself responds by taking true form and shrieking horribly, its keen threatening to steal the life and soul from any living inhabitants of its lair.
The furnace in the next room emits a gout of flame, but Leeoli deftly dodges away even as Rufus hurls another damaging vial of water at it.
Vrilli, having a bad angle, sees flame and Leeoli and Rufus, but doesn't get a good enough line on the furnace to attack.
Zazaria, calling upon the power of her mistress, shouts out her conviction and faith. Immediately, the furnace ceases its movement and begins to cool. The ghostly creature in the infirmary screeches in pain, clawing at its barely substantial face with bony claws.
Leeoli is fairly convinced that the furnace is another haunt - an inanimate object brought to life by spirits to assail the living. As far as he knows, the thing appears disabled, but not fully exorcised.
Leeoli rushes back into the next room, slipping deftly past a surprised Vrilli and Rufus. He finds, though, that Anyi is in combat with...nothing. Whatever she was fighting has disappeared.
There is an evil presence here... besides you Anyi! Watch out!
Leeoli drops his rapier, letting it hang by its cord, and pulls out the last remaining haunt siphon and activates it in the direction of Anyi.
In a bit of a confused haze, Vrilli draws a vial of holy water and jogs through to join the rest of the group...
The siphon takes immediate effect, forcing the skeletal figure here to coalesce, its form solid once again. It writhes in agony, then disappears amidst wisps of white smoke.
You get the feeling that there may be some useful items about this infirmary, should you take time to look.
Leeoli looks around intently, feeling that useful supplies may have been kept in the now abandoned infirmary.
Vrilli aids in the search.
... not very helpfully as it happens
Though the room is cluttered, you're able to kick over tables and force open cabinets to find quite a haul.
2 fully stocked healer's kits
3 vials of antitoxin
2 vials of antiplague
3 doses of bloodblock
3 doses of smelling salts
2 vials of soothe syrup
4 vials that look like CLW potions, based upon what you've used before
A useful trove indeed, eh Rufus?
Let divy them up now.
Zazaria looks thoughtfully at the piled loot. Very handy, she murmurs. We'll need most of it ere we are done, I suspect. I have some skill as a healer, and this all looks useful.
I think I saw a door on the southern wall in the room I just came from. Beware the posessed furnace as we pass through though...The spirit is not completely extinguished I think.
The northeast wall of this room has partially fallen, revealing the dark, murky waters of the pond outside. Moldering training dummies and other similar equipment hint that this room may have once been a training area for the guards. In the northeast part of the room, the foor around a dark, jagged hole is surrounded by black scorch marks.
A pair of doors in the southwest corner leads out of the room...perhaps back towards the entry if you have the orientation right.
Beware the animated dummies Leeoli warns earnestly, but framing it as a jest.
Leeoli looks around the room, and approaching carefully, peers at the floor inspecting it for structural integrity, and then down the hole.
Leeoli determines that the area around the hole is safe to walk on, the unstable portions having long since fallen away. The remaining rim around the hole is solid enough to support the weight of several people. It's a twenty foot drop into the hole, and at the base of it is an immense pile of rubble and wood that must have once been the lift that raised and lowered people to and from the floor below.
I'd not want to scale down this. Perhaps we can use rope with those timbers...I used mine to hold open the doors the first day we came here. I suppose I could go recover it first if no one has sufficient length.
Let us check the area to the south first: I've no wish to make such a climb until we've exhausted every other option. Zazaria gives the gaping hole a slightly nauseated look.
The group avoids the gaping black hole in the floor and heads through the southwestern door, and back into the auditorium that they had been through before. They work their way through the iron bars around the stage, and try the door leading off to the east from the stage.
This is a metal door, and is quite sound, and also locked.
Leeoli pulls a metal shard from his sack and sets to work.
Hrmmph! and Leeoli clenches his fist in frustration, his knuckles turning white. This lock is too difficult for me, even if I toil all day.
Leeoli freezes, his perception narrows, and all he sees is a keyhole, outer covering fades from view, and he begins to imagine the workings of the gears and devices at work. After a few moments, he has it, but he only gives himself half a chance at success.
He again insert the lock pick, but angling it differently than his previous attempt, hoping his deductive inspiration does not fail him.
Yes!!! Leeoli lets out a roar of triumph as the lock clicks open.
This room appears to be a storage room for oddities. A bizarre collection of antique goods rests upon wooden shelves that line the room. Several of the items contain tiny tags with labels written in a careful script.
It looks like some of items may be of worth, if one wanted to spend a few minutes in search.
Vrilli devotes himself to a careful search of the room. He begins to make a separate grouping of the items that appear useful, valuable, or interesting.
Leeoli looks around the room, reading tags if in a language he knows, identifying items of potential historical, cultural, or practical significance.
Leeoli's expertise in a broad range of knowledge is enough to enable him to identify a few items of interest - a set of fine theives' tools, a bronze ware medallion apparently from the shining crusade, an unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I, a set of fine silver hair clips, a well-made punching dagger, a pouch containing a dozen shurikens, a fine war razor that appears to be made from silver, and what looks to be a wand of some specific arcane ability.
Beyond that, Vrilli works on a hunch, and searches about the walls, muttering something to himself about vaults and "confiscated goods." His fine elven fingers find something along the east wall, and a small access panel opens. It leads into a small room that looks to be a vault used to store the more valuable or notorious belongings of some of the prisoners. It currently contains five items, each tagged as below.
Bloodstained Handaxe, tagged "Vance Saetressle, The Lopper"
Collection of holy symbols, tagged "Sefick Corvin, Father Charlatan"
Smith's Hammer, tagged "Ispin Onyxcudgel, the Mosswater Marauder"
Tarnished silver flute, tagged "Unknown, the Piper of Illmarsh"
Moldy spellbook, tagged "Professor Hean Feramin, the Splatter Man"
Leeoli looks through the items found.
It might be wise of us to leave this grisly cache hidden in its compartment Leeoli shakes his head. Cursed, or desired by their former owners..
Zazaria purses her lips. What evil have we found here?
Her eyes gleam with blue radiance as she surveys the trove.
Almost certainly cursed, but potentially usefu. There lies temptation, there lies a trap
Leeoli sighs.
Destroy them.
We must know more. Pharasma, aid me, I implore thee.
that spellcraft check should be for the symbols
Holding up the unidentified wand I am not sure magic this holds, but I prefer it over those accursed artifacts.
I may be able to determine the wand's purpose...