"Wills the keys? What's that? Can't hear ya out here."
“Water! Food! Good Baron Sarvo wills it!”
Lia simply looks quizzicaly at her compatriots.
"This one isn't making any sort of sense... And I thought *I* lacked people skills."
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Hammerfist cocks his head to one side and pounds it a couple times to try and get whatever is clearly stuck in his ear to come out.
"This make any sense to anybosy?"
"Makes no sense to me either. How long has the Baron Sarvo been dead...like several years right? These unfortunate souls appear to have given up the ghost years ago. I would advise caution."
As you talk among yourselves, the face yells again. “Water! Food! Good Baron Sarvo wills it!”
Good Baron Sarvo is no more, friend. Reynaldo says to the spirit in a comforting voice. He will dig around in his pack for a waterskin. You no longer need to serve him. You should be at rest now.
The man's hands greedily grab the waterskin. Thank you! Thank you! Bless you! He then backs up into the darkness, out of sight.
Lia imagines little question marks above her head, looking to Lau as if trying to glean the information from his feline features.
"Ummm... should we leave him? Let him out? It's not like this building is structurally sound, yeah?"
"Does this ...this creature believe it is the Baron? " Ares thinks out loud with a puzzled look on his face.
He turns and calls into the darkness.
"Baron Sarvo, if it is you, come back from the darkness where we can see you . "
"I may be able to help with seeing."
Lia picks up a stone of small size, casts Light on it and tosses it into the cell so they can get a better look at whatever it is residing within.
Hopefully someone else in the corridor has illumination.
Lia causes a pebble to glow with light and tosses it into the cell. Peering through the bars, she sees the cell is empty, Reynaldo's waterskin lying in the middle of the floor, unopened. The man is no where to be seen.
"Ummmmmm, guys?"
Reynaldo looks about. I've never actually seen one, but I'd bet that was a ghost. Hmm, have we any way to get in there?
Reynaldo find the door unlocked and untrapped.
Once it occurs to the Tian to try the door, he looks sheepish for an instant, then returns to his look of confidence and swings the door open. Besides the door handle, I meant. Reynaldo steps inside.
Ares smiles at the Tian man, and grabs his bow as he follows Reynaldo into the cell.
"Okay, I'm creepin' out here... Why are we going into the empty cell where the crazy man was just in but disappeared?" Lia recasts light on her scimitar and slowly moves in with the others, eyes darting everywhere for traps or, worse yet, ghosts.
Entering the cell, the party finds the cell completely empty, except for the waterskin. As you scan the room, Lia and Reynaldo notice a secret door in the north wall.
People disappear all the time, says Reynaldo, shrugging and picking up his waterskin.
Hey! There's an outline here...along the wall. Looks like a door or something.
"I see it, too," Lia says nervously.
"While I've got a bad feeling about the other side of the door... lets go ahead and open it up."
Opening the door reveal a narrow hall that ends in a chamber that contains a strange metallic contraption of gears and chains. A large lever extends out at a forty-five-degree angle from the front of it. Hovering next to the lever is a small, roiling cloud of energy that periodically sends out sparks of electricity into the air or along the chains.
"This is getting more interesting by the minute ."
"That's one word for it."
Detect magic?
Detecting for magical auras, Lia finds none.
Ares looks and shrugs.
Lia is dumbfounded.
"No magic here. Which... is REALLY strange."
"Must be some kinda creature then, 'eh? Anybody here speak lightnin'?"
"Not I. Should we follow? I can try it and see what happens. Send word to my father in Tamran if I should perish."
The Aasimar pauses in thought again.
"Or maybe check the remainder of this level first before we do anything foolhardy? If there is any coin to send back to my poor family, at least I would not fear my death was in vain."
"No need for any of us to die today, let's leave this for later though."
"I agree." Lia's already backing for the door.
To die might be a great adventure — but one I'd much prefer to leave for another time. Reynaldo agrees with the idea of clearing the rest of the level first.
"Let us cycle back down the hall. If this was a ghost, time should not be an issue ."
The party decides to leave the lever untouched and heads back into the hall. Continuing east, you find the corridor turn north, mirroring the hall you came including another secret door that takes you back to where you started.
All the cells you passed are empty and hold nothing of interest. The only area left unexplored is the corridor heading off to west.
Area will keep detect magic active while searching the rooms as much as possible.
"Well that was a disappointing loop, shall we head west?"
Says Hammerfist as he starts heading west.
"West is good."
Deciding to leave the lever for the moment, the party heads over to the western corridor and continue exploring that way. Turning down the corridor, the party comes to a door, that is stuck. With a little persuasion from the party, the door is forced open, revealing an approximately thirty by thirty chamber.
There can be little doubt what purpose this chamber once served. The dank room stores an ancient rack, a fanciful brazen bull, an iron maiden, a cauldron, iron chairs with sharp edges and cruel protuberances, and a wooden table upon which sit various implements of torture. A bronze plaque affixed to the western wall depicts a crowing rooster above crossed spears. Underneath the spear, a short phrase is inscribed.
Before you get a chance to inspect the inscription closer, a raven, you didn't notice when you entered, perched on the rack begins to speak. “Greetings, fine citizens of our glorious empire! So good to have visitors, though I fear I have no refreshments to offer. I assume you are here for the treasure. Well, I’d be happy to assist, provided that you give me what I require! It has been so long since I was able to ply my trade. I require only that each of you shed your life’s blood in this room—simply take a seat in one of my lovely chairs.”
Ares will concentrate his detect magic on the Raven and that end of the room.
"What evil was done here? I am not so sure I like the habits of our missing Baron...if these were indeed his prisons. I am not likely to give up my lifeblood so easily. But...how much treasure did you say?"
Very much treasure! The raven squawks.
Reynaldo looks at Ares with a smirk. I thought ravens could only say "nevermore"?
Reynaldo will attempt to decipher the inscription below the spear.
"Yes, and I am not sure making a blood pact with a bird is wise either, despite the offer of treasure. "
As the party declines to take the raven's offer. The bird cahs angrily and disappears! Moments later, a diminutive, red-skinned humanoid with fiendish wings and a whipping scorpion-like tail appears next to Hammerfist and lashes out with it's tail!
The wily dwarf manages to evade the surprise strike!
"Ah, get this blasted raven demon off of me."
Hammerfist will look the to chakrams hanging off his backpack and will sigh before moving to the north, and trying to sqush the critter with his hammer.
Hammerfist moves away to put distance between himself and the creature, getting stung in the process. He brings his hammer down hard, batting the creature, but doesn't do as much damage as he would have expected the blow to do.