"NO!" Rufus rushes to aid Zazaria and, apparently, Kendra. He tugs at the lid of the maiden with all his strength.
Seeing Zazaria disappear into the Iron Maiden, Leeoli rushes over to aid in the effort with absolute focus.
Between Rufus and Leeoli, you manage to pry open the door to the maiden. Zazaria stumbles and falls out, her body pierced all over with wounds that ooze out blood. Though the wounds are small, the cumulative effect is fairly large. Her eyes are wide with shock, and she whispers constantly, her words not seeming to make much sense. Her blood loss is too much, though, and she passes out.
Rufus kneels by Zazaria, holding her head in his lap. "Dura, can you help her?"
Dura races to Zazeria's side. She cries out in horror, but only Daniel knows what she says.
She runs her hands over Zazeria's body, healing energy flowing into the wounded cleric.
Sorry, that last roll was a health check to try to stop Z's bleeding
The maiden appears to be empty. Dura's healing is timely, and Zazaria awakens with a groan. She whispers something - undoubtedly a prayer to her goddess, before sitting up.
That thing...it's vile - filled with horrors! We must destroy it.
I'd suggest holy water.
Leeoli produces a glass vial of holy water, and sprinkles it into the iron maiden.
Leeoli splashes holy water all over the maiden, but nothing appears to happen. Zazaria's eyes unfocus, as she uses the powers of her goddess to examine the thing. It's done...at least for now. I see no unquiet spirits in it
This room has no doors, though the walls of it seem particularly roughly hewn - particularly the east wall. Rufus immediately regrets looking into the basket, where he discovers what once must have been severed body parts - hands mostly likely, but also a foot, and some bones that may have been taken off with a hammer. The mass of flesh and bone has congealed into one thick mass that pushes the walls of the basket near to bursting.
A quick examination of the table near the basket proves the point - for here lies the body of a guard, possibly high up in the pecking order given the burnt and broken badge that has been forcefully wedged into his jaw. The body wears ruined old chainmail, and oddly inserted undeath it in the man's pelvis is a ring of keys. However the torturers had fixed those keys there, you couldn't guess
"So Kendra was merely an apparition, a supernatural torment. I hope that whatever horrors it visited upon Zazaria will not linger with her. "
Rufus hesitantly inspects the skeleton, using his sword to try and lift the keys. Failing that, he draws a dagger and gives them a firm tug.
"Poor man. I'll ask Zazaria to offer you a prayer. But now... what do these unlock?" He looks around the room, noting the unusual masonry on the east wall. "Look for a hidden compartment or door. "
The keys come out easily enough, though what they may work is a mystery.
Rufus searches the east wall, but can't seem to find anything of note. Still, the wall there, just doesn't seem...right.
Rufus knocks on the wall with his gauntlet.
A hollow echo follows...
"There is a room beyond this one. Sealed with stone? I wonder what lies beneath." Stowing his dagger and sword, he retrieves the long, lucerne hammer from his back.
He hefts the weapon in both hands and delivers a series of monumental swings, grunting with the effort.
Rufus smashes through the rough wall on the first blow, then uses his next hits to knock away the majority of the thin block, thus revealing an opening large enough to pass through, albeit single file. The opening reveals a small existing cavern network. The architects of Harrowstone must have left this length of cavern unfinished and hid the entrance behind a thin block facade. Perhaps this was an escape tunnel of some sort, or maybe was at one point readily used for trafficking prisoners to this obvious torture chamber from whatever is at the end of the cavern.
The cavern is wide enough only for single file, and is pitch black within. The rough stone walls turn to the right about twenty feet in, thus spoiling any further view.
"By Pharasma!" Rufus clamps his mouth shut, aware he's swearing in front of a priestess. Then... "What occurred in this room? We need something better than torchlight to explore this passage."
Now that the flesh creature has been dealt with and the iron maiden quieted, Dura helps Zaz to her feet. She then takes a towel out of her pack and some water and rubs off as much of the foul spew from Daniel's fur as she can. Satisfied with that she attends to Rufus' de-constructive efforts. She waves a hand and whispers a word, causing his hammer to glow brightly. "Feel free to lead the way, but just a moment."
She mutters a few mystic words, extending her senses to detect magical auras and takes a few turns around the room.
Leeoli grimaces when the wall comes down. ..and here I thought we were done with this place. Well I suppose that is next.
Leeoli looks about the grisly room one more time for anything of worth, appraising the various knives and implements.
Dura senses no further auras within the room
Leeoli's eyes are drawn to the badge, which Dura had been trying to remove from the skeleton's pelvis when the last battle had been started. Though mundane, it could be significant, even just for historical value.
Vrilli searches the cages, tank, and firepit.
"Thank you, Dura. As long as we're going this route, I should probably wield my sword. I'm just better with it, is all." He sheathes the glowing hammer and draws his greatsword. "Can you make this one glow instead?"
His glowing blade extended before him, Rufus carefully...oh so carefully...proceeds into the foreboding tunnel...
Zazaria, you should take a healing potion before we proceed. Whoever else got hurt should do the same. Leeoli puts his rapier into its scabbard, withdraws two vials of holy water, one for each hand. I have spent all my magics. I only have these.
Dura nods to Rufus. "No problem." She waves her hand and his sword begins to glow.
Vrilli finds nothing else of worth in the torture chamber, save for odd implements meant to cause pain.
Zazaria nods quickly, though it still seems as if her mind is elsewhere. She fishes about for said potion. Finding one, she downs the contents.
Undaunted by the darkness or the nature of the cavern itself, Rufus continues onward. The cavern turns to the right, widening slightly, then turns again to the left, before opening into a larger room. Just at the edge of the light, Rufus catches the glimpse of a huge mass of black fluid - like a puddle, but more substantial, and moving. The giant puddle somehow knows that it's been spotted - by light, the smell of blood, or some other sense. As one, undulating mass, it shifts forward towards Rufus!
Leeoli had not expected a black slime blob. Not at all. He was armed with Holy Water. Was it undead? He wasn't sure. He also wasn't sure whether his rapier would hurt a blob much.
I think we run back to the last room...
Leeoli does something stupid. He always thought he was rather smart, but something about this black roiling mass unnerved him, and so he did something foolhardy. Brave? Ack just do it.
Leeoli darts forward, strikes with a slightly awkward thrust of his rapier, but then feints, tumbling to the right of the black oozing...thing. Turning, now on the other side, he prepares to parry and riposte any attack.
Leeoli knows little about the nature of the ooze, but can tell just from its physical structure that flanking it will do nothing since it really has no front. While you're not certain if it's actually undead, you've heard of dark beasts like this that have an affinity for negative energy. If so...then positive energy would certainly hurt it.
Leeoli's strike its home, stabbing into the roiling black mass. The mass quivers, and shrinks back in pain....a blade apparently will affect it.
Remembering to add his masterwork bonus for a change, Vrilli attempts to carve off a slice of the ooze...
Rufus tenses up a moment as Leeoli somersaults past him, trying to determine what exactly he's looking at...
Rufus has a very keen sense of what dwells in the deep darkness. This particular creature is an ebon ooze...a mass of flesh and anger put together in an area of fierce emotion. It no doubt got stuck down here somehow and has dwelt here ever since...as such, it would be maddeningly hungry. This creature has a powerful attack that can grab an opponent and pull it in while acid fizzles away its skin. And...positive energy will hurt it.
Not really knowing what this thing is or how it works, Dura has Daniel stay back. She pulls out her longspear and attempts to stab the creature from the back ranks...
but she can't get a good angle on the attack.
Of course Rufus knows what this is. It's the sort of thing that's been lurking in the shadows of his dreams for... well, all of his life.
"Zazaria, Dura, I believe it's susceptible to positive energy, like the ghosts. I think that if you, if you heal it, you'll actually harm it!"
Leeoli slips past the thing in an expert move, and spins to thrust at the creature, his blade sinking into the gelatinous mass. Vrilli, seeing the success of such a maneuver, slashes down, cutting another line in the creature's form.
Dura moves up and stabs out, and her blade plunges into the beast as well. She retracts it with a vile sucking sound and the stink of rotten carrion.
Henrik attempts to look ahead, and looks instead to Zazaria, who is in front of him. It? I don't even know what "it" is! We have to move up and help!
The ooze ripples with an odd sound, causing a reverberation within the chamber. It sprouts an extension of its mass...what one could call an "arm" for lack of a better term, and it swipes out at Leeoli with the heavy mass.
The appendage slams into Leeoli and wraps around him...or, more aptly, divides and them reassembles about his midsection. The acids in its body begin to eat away Leeoli's skin as it draws him in...
Zazaria turns slightly to Henrik, her voice clipped and harsh as she replies. I know that. Go!
She allows Henrik to pass, and the man quickly moves past Daniel, Rufus, and Dura to stand next to Vrilli, ready to confront this new threat.
Zazaria moves forward, cautiously keeping her eyes on Daniel as she slips up behind Rufus. Seeing the frightening thing confronting them, she closes her eyes and calls upon her goddess immediately. The creature definitely shrinks back as the positive energy infuses its mass.
With a cry, part anger, part disgust, part horror, Rufus plunges his blade into the amorphous blob.
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This is bad. Leeoli, tenses, narrows his mind, seeking inspiration, then tries to slip free. His hand and leg emerge, his mouth comes free and he gasps some air. But he then gets sucked back into a gel.
From inside the burning gelatinous horror, Leeoli entertains sudden doubts about his life choices. Adsorbed to death by a black jelly. Likely end to a Maleye.
Leeoli, returns to a state of supreme focus, where time seemed crawled, and in this state, an image of harrow card bearing a shield appears before him. In sudden insight, and with blazing velocity, Leeoli's shield arm punches outwards, and twists open a hole through which he.. escapes! He then runs away as far as he can get.
Grimacing slightly as he notes the damage done to Leeoli, Vrilli continues his onslaught...
Henrick takes a quick step to the north, putting his back to the wall there as his form shimmers with a silver sheen. He snarls as he swipes at the ooze with hands grown into claws.
Dura is horrified by the creature engulfing Leeoli, but doesn't know if she can get to him. In frustration, she stabs at the creature with her spear.
She doesn't think Daniel can really do any good here, but asks him to watch their exit.
Rufus squeezes through between his allies to get to a spot from which he can attack the great puddle. He swats at it with a mighty strike, cutting away a black chunk, which falls aside and immediately turns to ash.
Leeoli escapes the creature's clutches with a mighty effort, then wisely makes good his escape from the thing's clutches. The ooze, ever hungry, quivers with something like aggravation or frustration at losing its meal.
The group sets upon the thing with a fury, even in the tight quarters. Henrik slashes away mightily with his claws, while Dura stabs in with her spear. Vrilli slashes down with a mighty blow, severing off another large chunk.
The creature looks for a new enemy to target, and seems to size Vrilli up as a good snack. It roils forward with a disgusting, wet sound, and lashes out with another improvised appendage. The appendage wraps about Vrilli, beginning to suck him in, even as its natural digestive juices disassemble Vrilli's skin.
Panicking, Rufus slashes again. His brain, the wicked thing, begins to wonder if the creature can be stopped at all. And how long Vrilli can possibly survive in its clutches...
Why won't this thing die!
Dura thrusts her spear at it again and again.