Ioann arrives in the room in time to see nothing but three iron rods on the ground. No apparent ennemies, yet Terrance and Ake seem to be inexplicably in pain. The man looks left and right in case he might have missed something.
"What happened?" he asks the others.
Stepping into the room eyes aglow, Ingrid studies the brands on the floor, looking at the marks on each of her friends' arms as well.
Rubbing the back of his neck. I am not sure, first the brands were attacking the ladies, and then this one came over here to attack me.
When Terrance comes out of the room along with Ake.
Torag help your loyal worker
"Oh you know, just an impromptu bonding session... thought we girls would get the same brand since all the children are doing it these days- the irons they used to brand prisoners rose up unbidden to sear our flesh." Ravel turns to Ake, "Are you all right?" then to Terrance. "Master Dwarf, I hope the cursed things have not damaged your beard." Ravel looks around, "If there is nothing of note in the desk, this is on my hands..."
The beard is fine. The annoyance at things that rise by themselves or at the behest of others is increasing.
I fault you not Lady Ravel, I fault the one that forced us to enter here.
Although Terrance's channeling eases the pain the scars remain. There is a log on the desk that records the prisoners name, date of entry, and the codes used to brand them with.
Mumble grumble, great a new scar, right on my pretty face...
Ake will peruse the notes or assist whom ever does so.
Ioann seems disturbed by Ravel's description of the event. Eyes wide, he gives another look to the room. Shaking his head, part in resignation, part in frustration he returns to the corridor to stand guard. After a few second of silence, he finally addresses the others:
"So, what did this mean... will the branding leave any eldritch sequels?"
It is easy enough to find the five notorious prisoners, as you recall from all of your hard research, they were new to the prison having arrived shortly before the fire started. Flipping to the last pages of the log you find the following entries:
Sefick Corvin: Sarenith 4, 4661: HR331
Vance Saetressle: Sarenith 4, 4661: RD769
Ispin Onyxcudgel: Sarenith 4, 4661: HT487
Name Unknown/The Piper of Illmarsh: Sarenith 4, 4661: DF425
Hean Feramin: Sarenith 4, 4661: RH998
Ingrid strides over to the table that held the brands, studying it for any particular markings. As she does she runs though the supernatural phenomena she knows of that might be capable of what just occurred.
...the irons animated themselves?...intersting...so now I have confirmation of spirits...
Uklod hid his shock. He had been skeptical but now there seemed to be definitive proof; which warranted his attention.
"Find anything of interest?"
I found nothing but a bit of pain, I am not sure of the ladies.
"The brands, they absorbed the hate and anger of the newly imprisoned on a spiritual level. As the first thing a new prisoner would be greeted with, they've become a focus for this place's dark anger." Ingrid says as she turns to study the branding irons on the ground.
Well, whatever they are, it hurt, now can we move on?
"So... will you be freeing these tormented souls now?" says Ioann in his usual low voice which seems to accentuate the creepiness of the place.
I think we should, but where to start.
As Terrance walks out of the room headed to the NW to the door that Ioann smacked open.
"I would, but a haunt like this, I'm not sure exactly how to go about it." Ingrid says, a hint of frustration in her voice.
Uklod shook his head.
"Haunts are beyond my understanding as well. Best we move on and leave it alone for now."
You make your way back to the door Ioann last opened and glance inside. From the door you see that tangled mounds of moth-eaten fabric sit on several wooden tables, each surrounded by workbenches. Various sewing tools—shears, needles, rolls of thread, boxes of chalk, and other objects lie scattered over the floor, while the arm of what appears to be a skeleton protrudes from a stained heap of fabric to the west.
I am thinking that we should take a look at that, and see about a hopefully proper burial
Indicating the skeletal arm.
Ioann approaches, the door frame, sword in hand, but does not cross the threshold. He turns he head slightly toward Ingrid and, with his hoarse voice asks:
"Safe?"
Standing in the doorway Ingrid allows her vision to shift into the realm of life and death.
Ingrid's eyes take on the glow from her other-world heritage. After gazing into the room for a moment, she gasps and drops her sword. Her eyes return to normal, but she seems stunned by whatever she just saw.
"Well that certainly isn't good. Ingrid are you all right?" Ravel steps up to help her up. "Terrance, have that hammer at the ready. Whatever Ingrid saw cannot be fortuitous."
Aye, I will be ready.
As he draws his warhammer and walks toward the door.
Lady Ingrid, are you well.
He then stands beside the door, and looks at the others.
Ioann tightens the grip on his sword and turns around when he hears Ingrids sword clatter on the ground. Taking a moment, he looks up and down the corridor and then back into the room. Now standing shoulder to shoulder with Terrance, he resolutely makes sure that nothing will come out of it to harm the paladin.
"Come and we will end you." he whispers toward the room.
There is no response, whatever it was appears to not have been triggered yet.
After a moment, Ingrid regains her senses.
Ravel mutters, "I swear, if I die in here I am lingering on just to give us an insider's perspective in battling this cursed prison..."
Terrance chuckles well, I guess I will have to work at not having you die then. Are we going to check this room?
"I...it....there is an overwhelming presence of undeath in this room, more powerful than anything I've ever seen before," Ingrid replies shaking her head as she picks up her sword.
"Be extremely wary, this is no weak enemy we face," she says, her face taking on a resolute expression as she strides into the room sights licked on the skeletal remains.
Then let us try to put this spirit to rest
Terrance grimly follows Ingrid into the room.
As you enter the room the spirit of a woman begins to rise up from the heap of skeleton and ratted fabric that are her remains. She appears as a beautiful young woman dressed in a tattered but lovely blue dress. In fact, much about the ghost is blue, including her hair, the tears that run from her pale blue eyes, and the clouds of smoke that drift from her lips when she speaks.
"Guards. They finally sent new guards."
Ravel stands jaw agape at the entrance, waiting to see what the warriors three will do.
Uklod's heart was racing...this place in infested with undead...if we fail to clear it or are able to make it out alive, I will need to report this to my superiors...they will be very interested...
He was reassured that this ghost wasn't immediately hostile. He studied her to gain some insight.
Uklod stepped past the warriors and spoke to the saddened ghost
"No, not new guards but we're here to let you know that you are free to go now. Your sentence has been served. Its time to rest."
"Not guards... why have you come?"
"To set you free ma'am."...however that needs to be done...
"I will not leave this place yet, not until all of the others are gone. The horrible ones, the ones who burned the prison with all of those guards inside. With my husband inside. With... me inside. If you want to free me, you must banish them first. I will not leave while they still roam."
Uklod's heart broke at the lady ghost's story...she was here...she saw...she died a horrible death...
"Consider it done. Can you tell us exactly what happened?"
The ghost grows quiet for a moment as the ethereal tears slip down her face, "When Lyvar did not come home for dinner, I became worried. When I came to look for him, I found there was no one there to greet me. The prison seemed empty, the guards were not at their posts. I heard screaming, so I went to see what was happening, fearing for my dear Lyvar. I found some of the guards near the lift... They said... they said that there was a riot, some of the prisoners were trying to escape. They said my Lyvar was trapped down there with the prisoners. I insisted that they remove the deadfall lock and get him out of there but they refused. I begged, but they refused."
She grows quiet for a moment and looks down at her ghostly feet, lost in thought. Just when you think that she might have forgotten you were there she starts speaking again, "I ran past the guards and threw the switch for the lift... I did not know... I could not have known."
She looks back up at you and speaks barely above a whisper, "The lift killed the people that were standing beneath it in the empty shaft. I think my Lyvar... I think I killed my husband," She makes a sobbing sound before continuing, "The guards restrained me and locked me in here. I do not know what happened after that but then there was a fire. Oh it hurt so bad, and I could not breathe and my eyes they burned."
She grows quiet once more and a faint smile plays on her lips, "But then, then I could feel him again. My Lyvar. We were both somehow still here, trapped in this hell. I tried for so long to go to him, but I cannot leave this room. I feel the others, too. I feel their evil and I feel their torment. My Lyvar was here though, he was here but now he is gone. Those other people came, and they did something to make my Lyvar leave me again."
As soon as the ghost appeared, Ioann gripped his sword and prepared for fight for his life. Yet, as it spoke, the man took a step back, both in horror and awe (he did not know that ghosts could speak), and looked toward Ingrid, unsure as to whether they should do anything about the undead.
Once it began speaking, Ioann took a step back to get next to the paladin.
"Can we trust it? Is it leading us into a trap?" he asks in a whisper while staring at the ghost.
Ravel listens to the spirit's words intently.
"I am Ravel Sigrún, how can we help you, Madame?"
The ghost turns to look at Ravel as she speaks, a soft smile spreads across her lips, "Please, you may call me Vesorianna. Vesorianna Hawkran. Are you a new guard? The others were cowards, they refused to save my Lyvar and locked me away in here. The whispering men and women in robes came and took my Lyvar away. I had thought that they were new guards, but they were murders just like the prisoners."
Vesorianna glides a little closer to Ravel, "He is gone now, you cannot bring him back. I suppose I would not wish for you to anyway. This place is terrible. Those that killed him still lurk here, though. Please, rid this place of their evil. Guard this prison once more."
"We will do all we can to rid this place of the evil that lingers here." she says softly to Ioann, aware she can be heard. "Trust is difficult to gauge, but I believe she will not intentionally bring us to harm." Turning back towards the specter, "Vesorianna, if you could please assist us as well, have you seen a man within these halls in the past few weeks or months? He was a kind older man with keen eyes and an inquisitive personality."
"Time is not the same for me here as it was before. The last of the living I saw near to Harrowstone were the whispering men and women, but I do not think it was very long ago. They were working some strange magic around the base of the building. I watched from that window,"she says pointing at a narrow, barred window in the room, "as they inscribed runes on the ground. Another man hid among the shadows watching them, but he was discovered and killed by foul magic by their leader."
Vesorianna appears to become agitated and begins to pace across the room. She reaches an eerily blue hand up to touch her forehead. "Forgive me, I hope this was not he person you are looking for. Once he was dead, the robed one used a piece of a gargoyle to smash the other man's head and arranged his body as if it were the gargoyle that killed him having fallen on him by accident."
She stops her pacing and pleads with you, "Please, you will still help me?! Whatever ritual they performed not only stole my husband from me once more, but stole the warden from this prison a second time as well. He was all that was holding the evil of this place inside, with him gone I have done all I can to hold it at bay but since that night I feel them getting stronger. I do not know if I can contain them much longer. It is the five strongest ones who are the most dangerous, they will destroy me as well I can feel them trying. Then they will be set loose."