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Once again comes the rush of wind and the hideous shriek. Again, Judah feels the siphon almost yanked from his grasp. But this time, replacing the wisp of churning vapor is the horrifying image of a voiceless screaming face, eternally crying in torment.
"He's gone," Lorant confirms. Eleanora feels as though a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.
"One down. Four to go," Lorant says confidently.
Judah's hands were shaking a bit as he closed the stopper on the siphon. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and gave a nervous chuckle. "Where do we get more of these?" he asked
"I'm certain the Pharasmins know the secret of making them but...but such secrets would probably be beyond Father Grimburrow's power. And if we asked him for more siphons he'd ask how we got the first ones...which...we...kind of stole from the church's secret cache," Lorant says sheepishly.
"For now, though, we should be alright. If I remember correctly, with Father Charlatan's power trapped in that second siphon, it becomes a potent weapon against the living...on the off chance we run into something living in this place."
"What kind of weapon?" Judah asked, looking at the flask in his hand like it was a snake.
”You throw it, like a flask of alchemist’s fire or a tanglefoot bag.”
"Oh, that's great. A ghost bomb." Judah said, looking a bit grossed out. He kept the flask though.
"At its simplest, yes. But think of the poetic justice should you throw it at a still-living agent of the Whispering Way." Lorant replies with a sly smile.
Judah chuckled. "Yeah, if anyone deserves to be splattered with what's left of Father Charlatan, it's them."
Cassiel gives the vial an uncomfortable look. "Let's hope he doesn't get loose somehow."
Lorant regards Judah as they return to the first floor.
"What areas of this level have we not examined yet? I hope the spirit possessing that furnace hasn't returned to it."
"This one next." Judah said, moving to the closest door they hadn't checked.
"Lead the way," Lorant replies.
Judah gives the closet a quick one-over, sneezes, and shuts the door.
Lorant peeks into the closet, wondering if his eyes might pick up something Judah's can't.
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The closet is, indeed, as empty as it seems.
The group wends its way around to the one door on the east side that went unchecked and Judah does his usual careful search of the portal. The metal door proves to be both quite solid and locked, and Judah's ministrations (assuming that he took 10) prove insufficient to open it.
Lorant frowns as they come across the locked door.
"We may need to look for a set of keys here."
Judah narrowed his eyes. His usual routine had gotten them pretty far, but this one was stubborn.
So was Judah. He pulled out a different pair of picks, and slowly worked the lock.
"Taa daa!" Judah said with an overly dramatic reveal as he swung the door open. "I am the lockslayer."
Cassiel whistles a bit before stepping into the room with his sword ready. "Nice."
"Very nice," Ella says with a smile. "Now, hopefully some of this is useful..." She follows Cassiel into the room and (assuming nothing accosts them) begins to pick the items off the shelves--starting with any that are clearly weapons or might be holy water--and examine them, both reading the tags and carefully looking over the items themselves.
"Thank you, Judah," Lorant says politely. "Honestly part of me wishes I'd picked up skills like that before going to Lastwall...the work of an inquisitor often requires going places one shouldn't be."
"If you ever want to learn, I'll show you the ropes. It isn't that hard as long as you have the right tools." Judah said, leaning in the doorframe while Eleanora scanned the goods for magic.
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Most of the items in the room are mundane, though a few have value:
- a set of carefully packaged thieves' tools
- a bronze war medallion from the Shing Crusade
- an unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I
- a set of silver hair clips
- a punching dagger
- a pouch holding a dozen stainless steel shuriken
- a silver war razor
- the wand mentioned below
Each object is tagged and labeled with a name and a number. The names bear no meaning to any of you, nor do the numbers.
Eleanora scans the room and finds only a single enchanted object, a wand crafted from oak and intricately carved with runes of life and positive energy. However, she also feels a very strong tug from the eastern wall, a section where there are no shelves.
A close inspection of the wall reveals nothing out of the ordinary, but upon a second inspection, Judah spots a tiny, nearly imperceptible seam. A secret door! Between him and Lorant, they manage to open the door.
Beyond is a small, cramped vault holding five objects, carefully labeled with the names of their owners:
- a bloodstained handaxe labeled with the name Vance Saetressle
- a collection of holy symbols labeled Sefick Corvin
- a moldy spellbook labeled Hean Feramin
- a smith's hammer labeled Ispin Onyxcudgel
- a set of bagpipes labeled only The Piper
The ax glows magically to Eleanora's sight.
(low-light vision, darkvision)
(low-light vision, darkvision)
Lorant's eyes widen at the vault's contents.
"These must have belonged to the five prisoners. The Piper of Illmarsh's pipes, the Splatter Man's spellbook, Father Charlatan's holy symbols...this Vance Saetressle must be the Lopper, and that would leave Ispin Onyxcudgel as the Mosswater Marauder."
He lifts up the holy symbols and examines them.
"Perhaps we've found the tools we need to deal with the remaining ghosts."
"Let's hope so. Seems a little creepy to touch any of it though." Judah said. "What about the rest of this stuff? Just confiscated things from other prisoners?"
"So it would seem," Ella comments. She quirks an eyebrow as she examines the silver hair clips. "Interesting...as are these." She carefully puts the shuriken back down.
As the group examines the five key prisoners' belongings, Ella frowns. "How do you reckon we can use these to 'deal with' the ghosts, as you put it, Lorant?" she asks. As she examines the objects, she picks up the wand and runs her hand over it, staring at the ax. Her eyes flash briefly as she focuses on the ax, and she raises a hand to her forehead, looking dazed.
"I would be very careful of that ax," Ella says grimly, once she's cleared her head again. "It's enchanted to kill...but there's something else, too. I'm not sure what."
"This, on the other hand, could be quite useful!" she exclaims. "A restorative wand. Judah, are you still feeling poorly from your blood loss? This could help!"
"Oh, definitely yes. I'm into that loopy fatigue state where everything is funny and if I stop moving I'll probably just fall over." Judah said with a wry grin and a shake of his head.
Ella nods and moves over to Judah. "Hold still--this should help, at least." She carefully waves the wand over Judah's body, placing one hand on his chest to steady him and focus the energy.
Judah blinked and took a deep breath as the fatigue and wooziness just vanished. A grin spread over his face. "I feel like I just slept for two days. That's a impressive little stick. Thank you."
He walked over to the collection of macabre objects and flipped open the book. "So what should we do with this stuff?"
"We should hold on to them," says Lorant.
"If anything, I think I might carry a few of those holy symbols. At long last, they'll be carried by a true believer."
Judah slammed the book shut, his eyes wide. "I f+~!ing hate this place," he muttered, stalking out of the room and into the hall.
Lorant is startled by Judah's sudden outburst.
"What is it? What did it say?
"Me! My g@$*#&n name! In blood! F$&%." Judah snarled. He paced back and forth for a few moments, then shook his head and walked back in.
"Fine. Stupid g@*#&%n ghosts want to be cute. Looks like all this stuff is probably haunted, right? Fine. They can haunt me. The rest of you are actually f$%!ing useful here. Any of you get possessed or killed, this whole thing falls apart. Me? I'm about as useful as a keyring. Might as well be good for something."
While he ranted he deliberately picked up every single one of the macabre items on the desk and started packing them away on his person.
Lorant frowns at Judah's ranting, but nods. Judah was scared, but in a place like this, being scared was the sane thing to be. Sometimes he wondered if his dhampir nature made him less easy to frighten...or if he was just jaded from the years he'd spent wandering this haunted land...
"I don't think the holy symbols will be haunted anymore, Judah. We banished Father Charlatan, remember? And you are not useless. We wouldn't have even been able to find these things if you hadn't opened the door."
"You've been very helpful, Judah," Ella says, watching him pace with some concern. "All the same--I think it's best if we can get out of here sooner rather than later. So far, we've found nothing to explain Petros's death on this side of the building--should we move on to the West Wing?"
"Aye, Eleanora. That would be for the best. We know where the Piper is, we can come back to exorcise him later."
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The group makes it way back to the first unopened door in the west wing.
Judah picked up the maul last and slowly looked up at Lorant with wild eyes. Then he looked back down at the hammer, angrily. "Not happening, jackass." he muttered before stuffing the hammer into his bag.
Without another word he walked to the west wing and got to work on the door.
Lorant wrinkles his nose in disgust. Having a sharpened sense of smell had its disadvantages, sometimes. He does look at Judah with a concerned face, though.
"Judah? Who are you talking to?
"The hammer. It wants me to kill you," he shrugged, moving down the hall to the next door.
Lorant starts a bit, but then he nods.
"With a hammer killed his wife, now he wants to claim your life," he says, quoting the skipping song again.
"Your will is strong, Judah. Lesser men would break under so much supernatural stuff happening to them."
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"Heh. Can't break what's already broken. The whole reason I came to Ravengro in the first place was because I'd been losing my mind for weeks. A cranky hammer's got nothing on this thing." he hefted the golden pyramid hanging from the chain at his waist.
It clicked and turned, the designs on its surface taking on a new comfiguration.
"Now don't you start too." he muttered to the pyramid, letting it drop again.