I have a potion that can turn a person into a gaseous cloud, I believe it was taken from the Grey Maiden barracks. Who else has more? We could send some people up but we risk separating the party.
"Iolana cast fly on Sebastian anyway. He could take a look what is above these large holes in the ceiling." Tyrandro suggests.
Ayako hands Sebastion her gaseous potion
Sebastian turns gaseous and floats up to the second floor.
This oddly shaped chamber occupies most of the gatehouse’s second floor. A large set of winches in the room seem to govern the gates and portcullises in the gateway below. Troughs run along the sides of the winches, just above a set of murder holes in the floor to the east and west of the winches. Arrow slits pierce the outer walls in several places, completing the room’s defensive posts.
Four more skeletal minotaurs mill about the room. Too large to effectively go anywhere else.
"Seb open the gates if you can do it safely." Iolana says before he flies up.
Fluffy feels the frustration of Tyrandro and tries to lift the portcullis.
Mushu gives a 'You gotta be kidding me' look and sits down.
Should we follow him up?
Now Fluffy is offended. He is not going to let the smug pig get away with that.
Tyrandro takes a look that nothing is hiding behind the grate and then helps lifting it. But he only manages to ruin his back.
Ayako wimpers in a ball of pain.
As Sebastian floats above and seems indecisive what to do, Tyrandro keeps trying with Fluffy to open the grate without a winch.
"Do you have something to keep that up?" Tyrandro asks the ladies as they finally manage to move the grate.
Well I can summon something to break the grate. That ok?
Iolana looks into her bag, "I seem to have left all my stout sticks at home. I do have something that might work. Leave the grate down, and stay out of the way." She casts Disintegrate on the gate. "I've been hoping to see if this spell works well."
Ayako waits to see how much of an effect Iolana's spell has.
Tyrandro successfully lifts the gate and Iolana anticlimatically disintegrates it above him. Ash rains down upon Tyrandro's head.
Fluffy's smug look - which he gave Mushu for being able to lift the gate - is wiped from his face as the grate simply disappears into nothingness.
"Are you trying to pull my leg?" Tyrandro asks as Iolana simply destroys the door after Sebastian is floating a floor up and he lifted the grate together with Fluffy and Ayako.
Mushu is smug pig due to not being all ashy.
Ok, time for sneaky sneaks? We have no idea what is in there so we should tip toe
Iolana shrugs. "This is the first chance I've had to try that spell. If it works it really works. Hopefully the bad guys aren't very good at getting out of the way." She walks through the door.
"How about we go upstairs? We know who is there and it would be nice to be rid of them, before they get new ideas for us when we want to leave?" Tyrandro suggests.
That does sounds like a good idea, we could secure this area and call in Sial and he can place his bone fort here.
Without entering, peeking into the only way you can go on the first floor, you can see:
The scene in this large chamber is stomach-turning. Bodies lie everywhere, orc and human alike. Judging by the sprawled and mutilated nature of the corpses, they fought brutally before succumbing to their wounds, dying in heaps on the floor. Many corpses are riddled with arrows and crossbow bolts, and a few appear to have perished while locked in mortal combat and still hold weapons embedded in various parts of each other’s anatomy. Strangely, while the room reeks of death, the bloodstains on the walls and floor seem incredibly ancient.
"Were they fighting each other or was this a trap that got them all? Either way its horrific." Iolana casts detect magic on the hallway.
It looks like they were fighting, but shouldn't they be decayed to nothing? Perhaps preserved by ancient magic? Either way, we should be ready for undead like ghouls and others that feast on the dead.
"Let us find out." Tyrandro suggests and moves into the room, to check if there are some interesting items among those dead.
Ayako waits by the edge to see if anything happens.
Iolana also waits to see what happens.
When Tyrandro enters the room, the largest pile of bodies in the northwest corner shifts and dozens of eyes blink between the cracks. It speaks to you in Aklo, "Welcome home, my wayward children!"before scuttling forth on dozens of arms and legs in a horrific attempt to embrace you.
It is resistant to bludgeoning weapons and has all-around vision.
Ayako begins summoning a Large Fire Elemental to appear next to the monster
N Large outsider (elemental, extraplanar, fire)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 13 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural, –1 size)
hp 60 (8d10+16)
Fort +8, Ref +11, Will +4
DR 5/—; Immune elemental traits, fire
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft.
Melee 2 slams +12 (1d8+2 plus burn)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks burn (1d8, DC 16)
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 21, Con 14, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +8; CMB +11; CMD 27
Feats Dodge, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon FinesseB
Skills Acrobatics +14, Climb +9, Escape Artist +12, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (planes) +5, Perception +11
Languages Ignan
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Burn (Ex)
A fire elemental deals fire damage in addition to damage dealt on a successful hit in melee. Those affected by the burn ability must also succeed on a Reflex save or catch fire, taking the listed damage for an additional 1d4 rounds at the start of its turn. A burning creature can attempt a new save as a full-round action. Dropping and rolling on the ground grants a +4 bonus on this save. Creatures that hit a burning creature with natural weapons or unarmed attacks take fire damage as though hit by the burning creature and must make a Reflex save to avoid catching on fire. See Burn for more details.
"Ewww!"
Fluffy sighs and places himself between the party and the thing.
Tyrandro fires a well placed arrow that pierces straight through the shambling creature in an explosion of black ooze. Yet it continues to move forward.
Sebastian double moves up and takes cover behind the giant wolf.
Ayako begins summoning her fire elemental.
The creature stops its approach and the heads of all the corpses that make up its body twist unnaturally to face Tyrandro and unleash an ear-piercing shriek.
Laori also double moves up behind Tunstall. "Well I know enough about undead to know its not. But what is it? Maybe it's just misunderstood."
"You didn't understand? It screams in pain loud and clear: KILL ME!" Tyrandro replies to Laori, with his face contorted in pain from the scream.
Tyrandro destroys the creature with his next shot. It screams once more before collapsing to the ground. The corpses that covered its body roll off and scatter. And its true ooze-like form dissolves into a puddle of foul liquid.
The is nothing of value on any of these ancient corpses. There is only one door leading out of the far end of the room.
We should find a way to make multiple Tyrandos and we'll conquer the world.
"The gods will prevent that." Tyrandro replies with a smirk.
The double doors are barred on the other side by a heavy iron crossbar but after some battering, you break the doors open.
Tattered bits of ruined tapestries line the walls of this hallway—wispy filaments of rotting cloth that hang limp and forgotten. Ancient bones from scattered skeletons lie on the floor amid bits of broken weaponry and armor. Only one skeleton seems to remain whole, slumped against the northeastern corner, clad in dust-caked full plate armor.
Laori points to the armored skeleton. "Oh look there! I can tell from that jaw-line, that's Mandraivus, the hero who slew Kazavon. What an ignoble tomb for him." She smirks mischievously. "Mind if I keep the skull?"
No sooner does Laori finish talking, when the silence of the ancient, dead castle suddenly shatters. The hall fills with a cacophony of clashing weapons and battle cries intermingled with the screams of the dead and dying. Individual words are impossible to discern, but as the sounds reach a crescendo of violence, smoky black shapes boil up out of the bones and swirl into a vortex of angry shrieking spirits. The wailing of these spirits may be enough to drive those caught inside the room to madness.
Once the vortex of madness collapses, a towering smoky form rises from the plate-mail-clad bones in the corner. This cursed and wrathful spirit is none other than Mandraivus, driven to madness by his centuries of imprisonment in Scarwall. He appears as a shadowy, muscular humanoid made of dark mist. Two yellow eyes glow deep inside the sockets of his skull-like face. Mandraivus’s stricken soul now exists as a powerful wraith. Almost all shreds of his actual personality have long since faded, and his hatred is now all that remains.
The wraith of Mandraivus speaks, "“You shall not have Serithtial! It is mine and no other’s!”
Sebastian avoids the haunt. Laori doesn't but she fights off the confusion.
Sebastian rushes back into the room fearlessly and stabs at the wraith. His rapier passes through the incorporeal form but Mandraivus still reacts as if hurt.
Mandraivus reaches out with his ghostly hand and reaches right through him to grasp at his heart. Sebastian gasps at the chilling and deadly experience.
The elemental crackles and flows back out of the room and then will rush in to aid Sebastion when the haunt is done
Ayako decides to lend support, even though no doubt Tyrando will reduce the creature to smoke.
A wraith! It is incorporeal and needs magical weapons to harm. Ayako casts Blessing of Fervor
Increase its speed by 30 feet.
Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity.
Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus.
Gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves.
Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell.
These effects are not cumulative with similar effects, such as those provided by haste or a speed weapon, nor do they actually grant an extra action, so you can’t use it to cast a second spell or otherwise take an extra action in the round. Blessing of fervor does not stack with haste.
Iolana moves into the room and casts scorching ray at the creature.
Sebastian cries out in pain as he is attack, but he presses in.
"Oh, no ghosts." Tyrandro states and steps back. "Your turn." he says to the ladies.
Fluffy decides that it is now the turn of Tyrandro and the others to stand in front of that scary cloud guy and hides at the back of the group.
The fire elemental swings and misses the ghostly hero.
"That wolf is just too big." Laori bemoans, unable to do much from the back.
Tyrandro fires through arrows through the wraith. They clearly injure it but it's incorporeal form is difficult to fully harm.
Iolana hits the wraith with one of her rays, but the creature isn't fully in this plane and avoids the damage.
I don't see what weapon Seb has his undead bane on.
Sebastian stabs away at Mandraivus, it howls as its form begins to tatter around the edges, but this powerful creature continues to fight.
The wraith of Mandraivus continues to drain away Sebastian's essence. It reaches back into Sebastian and Sebastian begins to look very pale.
As the arrows seems to work Tyrandro keeps shooting. "Hey, keep your diry hands off Seastian!"
The Fire Elemental keeps bashing
Ayako casts Searing Light
If the wraith is particularly vulnerable to bright light instead takes
Seb goes full defense.
Iolana tries the Scorching Cold Rays again. She looks pissed as most of her rays miss again.
The fire elemental still has trouble hitting but doesn't land one fiery punch.
Ayako aims a deadly beam of light at Mandraivus but her hand wavers and her aim is off.
Laori continues to shift restlessly in the back and chooses to cast a spell, bear's endurance, on herself. "I still can't reach but if this wraith is any indication, I'll need this."
Tyrandro hits Mandraivus wit five more arrows and it disperses wit a final wail. "Serithial is mine! You'll never lift the curse!"
"This castle just gets creepier and creepier." says Laori. She then nonchalantly walks over to the corpse and swipes the skull. "Yoink! Hey, look! This armor is still in great shape. It must be magical."
Laori and casts a lesser restoration spell on Sebastian and removes 2 Con damage. "I only had one of these memorized, but it looked like he needed it."