"There's some truth to that, Judah," Lorant says as he advances to the nearest door and tests it.
"What makes a haunting frightening is the intrusion of the supernatural into normal life. Most peasants and even nobles will never see a ghost in their entire lives, will never venture into a haunted place, so when they encounter what they don't understand, they will fear it. People like us, who travel to these places willingly, who seek the spirits out...to such a person a haunting is more like a puzzle to be solved. A puzzle that makes a lot of noise and will actively try to drive you off until you solve it. And to people like Cassiel and myself, it's a person, trapped and in intense pain, who needs our help and healing to pass into Pharasma's arms without fear."
"Hmph." Ella grunts, sounding deeply dubious. "Not all spirits are trapped because of pain. Some are trapped by sheer spite and malice, and would be better off gone." She glares at Edmund.
"True, dear," the phantom snarls, looming up into her face. "But others still were trapped in this mortal coil when some cussed little b~~#$ who didn't know what she was about stuck them here. And stuck them other places as well, oh yes, all because she feared getting stuck herself..."
Ella blanches, and glares at Edmund--her brother suddenly howls and clutches at his head, backing off. Pale, she turns to Lorant. "Come on, let's keep going."
Judah checked the door next to him for traps and locks, reported what he found, and then moved to the next door and began the next sweep while Cassiel and Lorant opened the first door.
Mathus is happy to let Judah take the lead on working on doors but seeks to help in looking for secret doors.
Lorant looks on as the two men work.
Ella, clearly still irate with her half-brother, simply folds her arms and watches as well.
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A thorough check of the hallway discovers no traps or secret doors. The first door on the left is unlocked and seems to be not trapped, so Cassiel opens it (map is updated), revealing a corridor beyond that opens into a larger area to the north.
Judah finds the second door (the first set of double doors on the right) unlocked and seemingly not trapped as well.
"Opinions on going down that hall or inspecting the other doors in this one?" Lorant says quietly.
"This one's clear." Judah said quietly. "How about we do one at a time."
He moved to follow Cassiel down the newly-revealed hall.
"Very well, I trust your judgment," Lorant replies.
Ella nods. "This place could turn out to be a maze...you seem to have some experience navigating such places, Judah, so we'll follow your lead."
She lifts her torch high as the party moves down the hall, looking around as the hallway forms a T intersection. "Which way now?"
"Uh... Yeah. Places just like this. Lots of experience." Judah said with a nervous chuckle.
"Not by choice, it sounds like," Lorant comments.
"Though that's merely the mark of a sane, rational man in this land."
He shrugs.
"I don't think any of us would be here if we had a true choice," Ella says quietly.
Lorant shrugs again.
"Cas and I probably would, but that's our duty as future Knights of Ozem. To constantly place ourselves in danger so others don't have to. There is a certain honor to it, but it certainly is not a path any should be FORCED to walk.""
Cassiel wordlessly moves to open the second door.
Lorant follows, eyes shifting to and fro to take the room in.
Mathus readies a bomb.
"Mmm..." says Lorant, craning his head over Cassiel's shoulder.
"This must be that deadfall the documents mentioned, that cut the Warden and his men off and prevented the prisoners from escaping...sealing their doom. Given what the rat told me, we'll have to clear this rubble to reach the heart of the haunting."
Ella peers down the stairs as well. "Perhaps we should finish investigating this floor first? It looks like it could take hours to clear that out, and I'd hate to be jumped by any of those Whispering Way people while trying."
"I hope you don't think I'm going to spend my whole afternoon digging that out," Edmund snarls, though Ella ignores him.
"Well I didn't think that before, but I do now. Good idea!" Judah said. "Its not like you'll get tired."
"We'll come back to that later though."
Judah looked down the new hall they'd opened up and figured it was a good a direction to head as any. He nudged Cassiel down the hall. "Age before beauty."
Judah stayed right behind Cassiel, his torch held high and his eyes flicking to potential dangers.
He motioned the others forward, but had them hold at the hallway junction where two new doors were while he and Cassiel went to the end of the hall to take a look around the far corner.
"Hold here. Ed, if you want to make yourself useful, stick your head through those two doors and let us know if you see anything we should be worried about."
The light of the torch was advancing before them, so anything who saw it would know they werte coming, but it couldn't be helped. The light was more important than being unnoticed. Still, there was no reason not to be cautious.
At the end of the hall, he put a hand in front of Cassiel's shoulder, stepped in front of him and stuck his head around the corner for a moment.
"Age before beauty."
Almost without thinking, Cassiel fires back "Pearls before swine."
He winces slightly after the fact.
Judah looked horrified and glanced back at Edmund. "I can't believe he'd call you that!"
"Oho, I've been called worse and called people worse. Hells, I've paid people to call me worse. In the right circumstances, it can be quite...invigorating." Edmund smirks.
Ella doesn't say anything, but she does glare darkly at her brother, and, grumbling, he goes to phase through the two doors in the first hallway, starting with the one to the west. Ella stands in the junction of the hallway, watching Judah peer around the corner forty feet ahead.
This place is becoming a maze...at least if we stay this close together, we can keep the whole place lit.
Lorant attempts to ignore Edmund's gross insinuations as he follows Judah to the next room.
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Sticking his head through the right door, Edmund reports, "It looks to be a chapel of some sort, but no one has been there for some time." Moving to the leftmost door, Edmund does the same. "I dunno what this one is for, but somebody left it in a mess!"
Peeking around the corner, Cassiel and Judah see that the corridor continues, with a door to the left.
Lorant follows and opens the doors to the chapel and looks about to see who it might have been devoted to.
Judah didn't want to break line of sight to the others, so they headed back and went up the other hallway.
Seeing Lorant opening doors, Judah went still, his panic reflex kicking in. "Lorant, can you have Mathus or I do that, please? There's all kinds of bad stuff that can happen when opening doors in a ruin. Lets not take risks we don't have to."
Then he continued past up the hall to check the corners.
"It's a chapel, Judah, not a cell-block. I don't think there'll be any ghosts in here besides Edmund."
He walks into the room and looks around for a moment.
"Isn't one of the psycho killers we researched called Father something or other?" Judah asked Cassiel as they continued down the hall?
Ella smiles slightly. "He may be a bit on the nervous side, but I think Judah is right, Lorant...there's little reason to assume anything will be safe here just because it once was sacred."
"Father Charlatan, Judah. I'd bet gold if we learned more about him we'd find he was no priest of any god. I appreciate your concern, but I don't believe this chapel will be any more "safe" than the rest of the prison. But...we can't leave any part of this level unsearched. More eyes will make the work go more quickly."
Lorant attempts to brush a few of the cobwebs away. He wanted to know which god's space he was in, and if he could make it sacred again in some small way.
"Here, let me, Lorant," Ella says, stepping forward and using her torch to clear some of the cobwebs a bit more quickly.
Cassiel starts swatting away cobwebs with his sword.
Mateus shrieks!
"Calm yourself, Mathus!" Lorant says, hefting his morningstar.
"These are no spirits, merely mundane pests of unusual size!"
Ella yelps and brings her crossbow up, firing off a bolt at the nearest of the giant spiders. The bolt goes wide, though, and clatters off the ceiling. She reloads frantically. "Edmund! Help us!"
"Ugh. What now?" Edmund groans petulantly. Drifting over to the wall next to Mathus, he pushes himself against it and suddenly lurches through, leaving a spot of slime on the wall behind him. Falling through the wall into the cobwebbed chamber, he looks up in apparently genuine surprise. "You need help with spiders? Really? I expected better..." Striding forward, he swings a fist at the nearest spider.
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Eleanora's shot goes high, ricocheting off the ceiling of the chapel, but Edmund's attack is on target. The spider does not fall, but instead turns and bites at the ectoplasmic figure. The other two follow suit, biting at Edmund. None are able to hit the ghostly figure.
"Ohdammit." Judah said, turning on his heel and running back down the hallway to see what was going on.
With everyone packed into the doorway, there wasn't much he could do. He moved past Mathus and shined his lantern into the room. He blanched at the spiders.
Those things are huge! Glad they're after the ghost.
Lorant frowns.
"I've never encountered spiders this big before. I'm not quite sure what they're capable of!"