Kawrock nervously clicks his tongue twice, "Anyone see it yet? It appears to have the ability to throw things while remaining invisable."
Norna's burst of holy energy actually shows an outline of the poltergeist for a moment, in the same spot it was seen earlier. A shriek echoes through the room.
Norna's holy energy gives Kawrock the window he needed. Kawrock casts faerie fire causing the poltergeist to be outlined in dim green light. "Got him! Now take him out!"
A clear outline of the poltergeist appears, showing it levitating a few inches above the floor.
Rustom misses the poltergeist and nearly swipes Arval's head clean off. He ducks just in time to dodge the swing and curses on Rustom.
"Watch out where you swing that stick of yours will you!"
Arval now sees a green glow appearing in front of him. In panic he raises his sword and uses an overhand power attack on the now visible thing.
"BEGONE YOU FOUL THING!!!!!!!
Rustom looks at Arval, and with a grin says "It was no where close to cutting off your head there was inches to spare, and anyway it might have been a good look for you." He takes another swing at the poltergeist.
Arval roars a mighty battle cry and swings out as hard as he can at the clearly visible poltergeist!
...
And his sword passes straight through it without doing any harm to the poltergeist whatsoever. Rustom also joins the fray, but his sword passes through it harmlessly as well.
The poltergeist is incorporeal. It cannot be harmed by physical weapons, and is resistant to magic which only does half damage. Force spells such as magic missile, and weapons with the 'ghost touch' brand will hit it for full damage.
"Well Arval at lease we are pretending to keep it busy. Nice sword work by the way."
A celestial eagle appears next to the poltergeist, flanking it with Arval, and attacks the poltergeist with both its talons and beak.
"Hmm... I just happen to remember poltergeists are incorporeal... Meaning weapons do nothing against it, and magic does only half of what it should do... Except force magic or ghost brand weapons, which do all they should do..."
Eldon retrieves his last holy water from his backpack, and throws it at the poltergeist. "Begone, foul spooky thing!"
Eldon's holy water flask explodes in mid-air against the poltergeist, causing a spray of liquid and another shriek.
Lena throws out her holy water with Eldon, and it explodes as well.
A shriek rips through the room and an old bench rips itself from the wall, and flies across the room to slam into Lena in response! The bench slams into the halfling's head, sending her sprawling.
Arval
Lena (mage armour) (1/10)
Rustom
Eldon
Kawrock
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Poltergeist (incorporeal) (13 damage done)
---
Norna
The bench flies right for Lena, but it bounces off of an invisible shield surrounding her and crashes into the wall.
Arval's eyes go wide at the eagle appearing. Not being able to do any damage to the thing he goes in total defense.
"What do you think you are doing! Throwing benches at a woman! Be a man and pick someone your own height to fight!"
Arval finds his bravery and tries to distract the geist to hit him instead of the others.
The eagle disappears as sudden as it appeared, without really doing anything useful.
Meanwhile the talkative halfling that summoned the eagle decides there isn't much else he can do, so he starts telling a story: "You know what's funny about throwing bottles of water at others? Well, I'll tell you. It all has to do with... for which there is, of course, a reason... and so I said... and, indeed, there was ketchup involved..."
Kawrock pulls out a bottle of holy water and throws it at the geist.
Emboldened by Eldon's thrilling epic tale of heroism and ketchup, Kawrock's attack flies right into the presumed face of the poltergeist. It lets out a final shriek, and vanishes from sight. A loud CRASH sounds out as the debris in the room settles down.
End of Combat
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"We should search well The Get Well-ary and Happier-ary while we can, and any part that connects to it, because the poltergeist might, I believe, reform after some time. Both haunts and ghosts need to be solved, not just stopped, and most of the solving is probably with the ivefay and getting Vesorianna in control."
Norine moves to a corner of the room where she has an all-encompassing view and then casts Detect Magic, scanning until the auras, if any beyond the groups, resolve. She then helps search the room for supplies physically.
[ooc]To identify any magic items found, if any, praying for Guidance for each:[/dice]
Norna scours the room from top to bottom, chanting her spells. Once again, the residual magical aura of necromancy permeates everything which gives it all a surreal soft glow while detect magic is active. Her search is rewarded as she lifts up debris to find a variety of objects, largely related to alchemy and healing. Thankfully, the alchemical medicine is clearly labelled:
- 2 fully stocked healer's kits (10 uses)
- 6 potions of cure light wounds
- 5 vials of antitoxin
- 3 vials of antiplague
- 4 doses of bloodblock
- 4 doses of smelling salts
- 3 vials of soothe syrup
Licking his beak Kawrock asks,"do you think the soothe syrup is cherry flavored?"
"That would go very well with pancakes! You should totally take one. As for the rest, I don't even know what it does. I could use one of those cure light wounds potions though. "
Arval grabs one of the potions and leaves the others stuff alone. He looks around at the others waiting for them to grab what they need.
Arval moves back to the hallway and tries to open the next door. He will try to use force if it is needed.
"Everyone ready?"
"On to the furnace!"
While Kawrock gestures to the furnace past the east door, Arval heads to the hallway and gives a door a shove open. It collapses to reveal a stairway leading upwards.
Arval steps in the room and takes a look around.
"I think this can wait indeed, let us head for the next room."
He sees Kawrock motioning to the furnace and walks back into the room.
"If you are referring to that fleshy bit that you have in the middle of your face no. I do have nostrils though," he says as he points to two small holes on his beak. Kawrock leads the way to the furnace keeping his eyes and nostrils alert.
Eldon claims one of the cure light wounds potions as well, and stuffs the other stuff in Arval's backpack when he isn't looking.
Saves me some carrying.
"And, do you smell something behind the door?" Eldon asks Kawrock, gawking at the tengu from a distance of barely one foot.
"I don't smell much here," Eldon concludes, "but I'll send my lights in when the door opens. Perhaps I'll see something with my incredible analytic skills."
The door to the furnace room collapses inwards in a cloud of dust. A huge stone furnace dominates this room, large enough for a child to climb inside. An ancient fire has burned away the entire east wall the room, providing a panoramic, if eerie, view of the lake beyond. That same lake has gradually expanded into the room, flooding its eastern half.
The crumbling stone would allow access to the outside, or even the lake. There is a door in the southeast of the furnace room, and the furnace itself lies in the south. A soot-caked copper plaque that says "Ember Maw" is above the furnace.
Your nose is twitching indeed. As you look into the furnace room you not only catch the scent of burning flesh, but within the furnace itself you see a flicker of flame, despite the furnace being long dead and cold.
Norna sends out a pulse of energy, and a lot of things suddenly happen at once. The whitish-blue energy pulses over the furnace, and it roars to life in response! A burning skull forms from its ashes and the screams of dying men fill your ears. Just then, a burst of flame fires from the furnace directly for Norna. The cover from the corner almost manages to save her, but nonetheless the fire hits the tiny gnome square in the chest and sends her to the ground.
This is some sort of haunt rather than an undead creature per se. The positive energy damage Norna did to it obviously harmed it.
As it is heavily fire-based the haunt probably vulnerable to cold damage.
Kawrock clicks his tongue with excitement."before you lose consciousness Norna, I want you to know I have a new found respect for your holy energy bursts!" Kawrock then pulls out a holy water and throws it into the furnace.
Or to the side of the furnace.
Despite the weakest throw in avian history, Kawrock manages to splash the holy water in the furnace. A loud roar echoes through the room as the skull is doused with the water, but it bursts back into life.
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"A haunt!" Norna coughs out smoke, "Holy or cold? Or maybe holy or cold? Cold, holy..." Dizzy, Norna moves fully behind the wall and turns the power of another stored spell into desperately-needed healing.
"Stay behind the wall! I'll try again!" she yells hoarsely. "I can do it completely covered."
"Badgers, that smell of burned flesh is getting strong!"
"Uhm... What is that?!"
Unable to do much against the thing Arval moves up and takes a total defense stance.
"Here we go again!"
From around the corner Eldon throws his recently claimed holy water cocktail at the furnace. "Water in the hole!"
Despite two terrible throws, the furnace is an enormous, easy target. THe holy water vials splash into it, partially dousing the flames from the skull. However, another searing ray seems to be charging up.
Lena unscrews the top of her haunt siphon and a loud howling noise fills the room. Everything seems to be pulled towards the siphon; slowly, the edges of the flaming skull start to get sucked inwards. Soon, fire streams from the furnace towards her siphon.
The fire continues to stream from the fireplace, and soon the skull is gone. The howling stops and Lena slams the top back on top of the haunt siphon. The room is eerily quiet. Within the siphon strange mists swirl around the now-trapped flaming skull.
"Don't look directly at the siphon! Oh it's over, is it in there?"
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Norna ponders the haunt in the bottle, wondering if the haunt can reform, or if the haunt will escape if the bottle is thrown.
"So, Eldon, do you think that the haunt can reform, or if the haunt will escape if the bottle is thrown?" Norna wonders out loud, not finding many answers in her own head. "Well, 'reform' in the sense of becoming a dangerous haunt again, not 'reform' as in changing its ways and turning to a productive and peaceful un-life."
Norna casts Detect Magic and searches the room. "I wonder if there is a way to solve this haunt, or the poltergeist; the straight jacket, manacles, and branding irons we just destroyed or removed, so that is probably that. We could ask the spirits through the planchette, but they are unreliable and it may take a long time -- with considerable risk, too."
Arval holds his position for the whole of the fight, in his defensive stance. He is simply stunned as the flames get sucked into the vial, he doesn't dare look back at what happened.
"Is... Is... Is it over?"
He slowly turns his head to look back at the group with wide terrified eyes, still holding his shield in front of him.
"What happened? I do not understand what just happened!"