Bupkis imagines himself eating a the horrific stew; he punches himself in anguish.
Menrozzar feels his gorge rise from the image of the stew, and then crushing guilt falls upon him, causing him to begin smacking himself For severaly seconds. Finally, he's able to get control of himself and gasps, breaking free of the effect's hold - but not before leaving himself a mass of bruises.
With a snarl Daseem rejects the feelings of remorse. Yes it was bad for a sentient creature to die like this and get cooked, no it wasn't his fault.
With a weird intensity to his face, Daseem sheathed his sword and whispered "Gorum Fend!" A strange blue light appeared around his right hand which he thrust into the centre of the manifestation!
The vision starts fainting as Daseem infuses the cauldron with holy energy.
Amira is not aware of the haunts manifestation, until it is too late, but she doesn't give in to the self destructive urge.
Seeing the effect of Daseem's action, she tries the same
The vision of the bubbling cauldron and the disgusting scene of you all eating the human stew disappears.
Bupkis comes to his senses. "It's not real! He declares,"Ugh, Bupkis saw something horrible for a moment!"
"Something horrible must have happened here. And now this haunt remioinds everyone who comes close of it. I wonder how we could put that to rest."
Bupkis doesn't know much about putting spirits to rest. "Get rid of cauldron maybe?", he suggests tentatively. "Break it, or melt in very hot fire?"
"Smash it to p-pieces!" snarled Daseem and with sudden fury he moved to smash the cauldron with Gorum's holy sword. It was as if he felt Gorum willed it.
The cauldron gets a serious dent, but the attack is not enough to actually break it.
The goblin advises his friends, "Bupkis tries — stand back!" Since this is making a lot of noise anyway, he gathers aetheric power first, before launching a sling bullet at the cauldron.
If you see the cauldron as the enemy to fight in the name of Gorum, be my guest. To me it just looks like using the holy tool to fight the great battles in the name of Gorum as a hammer to destroy a stupid cursed pot. Like: "I'll smash you to pieces with a rock! You're not worth to die by Gorum's sword!"
Just sharing my thoughts. Do as you please. Gorum won't smite you for it.
Between Bupkis and Daseem the cauldron finally gives up and is broken.
"Can someone detect if the undead spirit is now gone?" Amira asks. She knows how it would be detected, as she has seen clerics do it, but she isn't capable of that kind of magic.
Did ye git rid O' it lads?
Daseem shrugged, they'd certainly destroyed the cauldron. "L-lets go?" he suggested.
The goblin replies to Amira."Bupkis doesn't know how to do that. Sorry."
Since he can't think of anything more to do about the haunt, he returns to the door he had been about to listen at.
The self-brutalized Menrozzar stands shakily. "Bupkis, could I have some healing, please?"
Bupkis moves over to heal Menrozzar, telling the others in a low voice, "Bupkis hears chanting on the other side of the door!"
Menrozzar looked a little less shaky after Bupkis's healing, but he still didn't look up to his usual self. Pulling out his potion of cure serious wounds, he drank it to further heal himself.
The last of his wounds faded away.
His voice stronger, but still with a bit of exhaustion, he said, "Chanting could mean either prayer or a spellcaster. We should be ready. If anyone has any spells that can improve the whole group's abilities, they might wish to cast them."
Daseem nodded what Menrozzar suggested made sense, there was a catch though. "Tomorrow fer sure" he replied, "Can'nae cast any more t-today."
Bupkis moves back to the door, and waits until everyone is ready. Then he opens the door.
Rows of barren shelves, empty weapon racks, and vacant armor stands skirt the perimeter of this chamber, lit by numerous candles. A large, life-sized painting of an obese man hangs on the wall at the far end of the room, its eerily realistic glare boring into the chamber.
But you barely notice that as in the center of the room, a headless skeleton lies in the middle of a large oval sand pit, surrounded by several arcane symbols and strange, jagged runes etched into the sand. With three ogres dancing around that, conducting some dark ritual.
The ogres are not happy about the interruption and attack immediately. Not that any of you have ever seen a happy ogre.
Amira starts chanting an inspiring song.
Ivan moves straight into the fray, moving so as to set a firm flanking partner on one or more of the ogres.
Bupkis cries, "What black magic ogres do with skeleton?" He doesn't feel like letting them finish their ritual so he can find out, so he blasts the nearest one!
"A fight! Gorum be praised." cried Daseem as he hurried forwards with a rapturous expression on his lips. Sword over his shoulder, he pushed past Bupkis and moved to engage the closest Ogre. When he was in range he swung it in a vicious arc!
The ogres ring the dwarven bell, but to little effect.
Bupkis badly wounds the closest ogre, and Daseem finishes it off.
The other one swings a greatclub at Ivan, again to littel effect. The big bad mage ogre makes some gestures and curses in direction of Ivan. The curse manifests in the form of a fiery ray. But all in all it looks like the ogres lifes will come to an end soon.
Bupkis makes another noisy display of gathering power, and shoots another crossbow bolt at the nearest remaining ogre.
With one Ogre already down, Menrozzar decides the ogre mage was the greatest threat. With a roar, Menrozzar charged into the room, hammer held high, to swing at the spell caster.
With a look of glee on his face,k Daseem advances on the last ogre and swings his overside sword in a vicious lateral arc!
Bupkis shoots another ugly fat green ogre and wounds it badly. Between Menrozzar and Daseem, also the ogre mage if brought close to his demise.
The mage uses a wand, which makes a oversized bat appear behind Daseem.
The other ogre angryly swings it's oversized club at Daseem.
Bupkis continues to shoot the same ogre. "Ogres up to no good!", he declares.
The ogre can't take another bolt. She does down.
Menrozzar swings at the ogre mage again.
The ogre mage also can't take more of those attacks. The ritual is now interrupted for an unspecified time.
The skeleton in the center of the circle still wears his uniform — a noble’s outfit in surprisingly good condition - as well as his signet ring and gold chain of office.
Bupkis eyes the shiny ring and chain, wondering, "Who this was? Could things be magic?" He checks the pockets in case anything has been left; after that he checks the smelly ogres.
Ivan strikes out at the bat
Daseem whirls round and slashes at the bat!
Dire bats are not made to withstand the combined force of those two fierce warriors. There is only a bloody pulp left after that treatment.