The Haunting of Brute Squad (Inactive)

Game Master ThorGN

Erin opens up the trap door, takes a quick look into the room, and drops down to the basement below.

Ashur will follow Erin into the basement below.

A ladder leads down to a short passageway with rough, earthen walls. At the end of it is a large wooden door. Unlike the other doors in this house, this one has hinges, and a lock.

Tanrov is the last down the hatch.

He looks around anxiously before following the group down.

Erin holds up a finger to her lips as she quietly moves to the door and goes to work on the lock.
Stealth 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11 +2 Traps
Disable Device 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31 +2 Traps

Erin opens the door quietly to take a look in.

It’s black, too dark to see anything without a light. The smell of stale death wafts out of the room.

"Do you see anything in the room?"

Erin sighs, knowing full well that anything in the room could have heard Ashur as well.
"No, it is pitch black in there and smells of death. Can I get a little light?"
She says while throwing up her hands, giving up the pretense of being quiet.

"No, but I can do this." Ashur walks over to the door and looks into the room himself.

I saw a post earlier saying Tanrov provided a light. I don't know what happened with it, but I will assume that is still happening.

The light flickering into the room casts and eerie light on the stone. The manacles and fetters set in the western wall leave little doubt as to the room’s purpose. Ancient rusty-brown stains coat the walls and floor where prisoners once hung in chains. In the northeast corner, a small table is covered with torture instruments and a small stack of books. In the opposite corner of the room sits a very large open barrel with a hammer resting on it. A small box sits in the corner by the barrel.

As the light hits the room Erin reaches to her belt reflexively for her weapons. When no apparent threat presents itself, she activates a sunrod.

"Well luckily for us, there is not a creature of the night in here."
She says, pointedly at Ashur, while walking in to get a closer look at the box.

Charlotte hears the party move away after looking at the wall. She carry's a concerned look on her face as she moves down the stairs and into the basement. Hearing everyone's need for light, she pulls out a sunrod and lets the light shine.

As Erin moves into the room, Charlotte keeps in line with the party and has her hand on the hilt of her Scimitar.

Arkwright descends the ladder and pokes his head through the door into the room. "A torture chamber! Excellent... I love these. Reprehensible as they may be, the things people do to their fellow person is still absolutely fascinating..." Arkwright leafs through the books, scanning their titles.

The books are oddly eclectic: a collection of love poems, a religious treatise, and a manual on torture.

The box is a small lockbox and is, appropriately, locked.

As the bright light reveals more of the gruesome detail, you see scratches on the interior lip of the barrel, as if at one time someone was shut in the barrel, clawing to get out.

Arkwright places the manual in his bag, before looking around guiltily. "I'm just taking it for safekeeping..."

Finished, he waves his hand over the lockbox and attempts to unlock it.
[ooc]
Detect magic on lockbox
If no magic, disable device- 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

Erin stands over Ark and lets out a short laugh, obviously amused.
"Maybe you should let me take a look at that."
She says as she kneels down to reach the box.
Disable Device 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (20) + 13 = 33 +2 Traps

Arkwright winces slightly. "Yep, I am definitely leaving unlocking boxes to you in the future, Erin... my own brand of fumbling around is not quite up to scratch..."

"I think I have been doing this a lot longer than you have. Do not worry. I will leave all the magical finger waggling and philosophy to you."
Erin responds with a smirk.

Opening under Erin's deft fingers, the lockbox contains a cache of gold and gems worth a total of 600 gold.

"This place is becoming more and more worth the trip."
Erin says excitedly as she runs her hands though the coins and gems.

"Glad you have your priorities in order."

Erin's enthusiasm drains right out of her at that statement.
"You yourself said they were not going to be using it anymore."

She then looks directly at Ashur.
"Do you not look forward to the pay at the end of a job well done? We deserve it, with the things we go through for these people."

Erin then stands up and advances towards him, stopping directly in front of him and poking him in the chest with an index finger.
"You say you have seen the other side twice now. I am sorry that has happened to you, but just because I like the money does not mean I do not look out for the people I am assigned with. We are all in the same boat, and sometimes we are not even given paddles. I try to be on top of all the horrible things that lay in waiting for us so at the end of the day we do not end up like..."
She then points her finger to the barrel with all the clawing marks,
"...that."
and then looks back to Ashur.
"So... are my priorities in the right order?"

Ashur blinks a few times. "I was actually not being sarcastic. I'm gonna go over here for a bit." Ashur slowly backs away to go explore another part of the room.

Arkwright gives a tiny smile and leans over to Tanrov whisper "whp-CRACK!" into his ear as he mimes an odd gesture.

"Ashur usually defaults to sarcasm, could I have been wrong this time?"
Erin thinks to herself, a bit of doubt creeping into her facial features.

"May as well figure out what happened to this guy while we are down here."
She says, as she turns her attention from Ashur back to the barrel. Grabbing hold of one of the siphons attached to her belt, she peers into the barrel, steeling herself for what may be inside.

"I try to be nice and I get the third degree." Ashur mutters to himself while he examines the manacles hoping Erin doesn't hear him.

Yandu follows in - he seems a little bit squeezy and stays at the wall - not interested to look too closely whatever happened here.

His normal good mood seems gone a while ago. You notice him sometimes looking beside him - as if he expects Anyanto appear there any moment.

Erin turns away from the barrel back towards the group.

"Nothing here but a hammer and some wine. I guess there is nothing else down here. I think I spotted some stairs earlier leading to the second floor we could check out."

Tanrov nods and backs up to let the others out.

Ashur waits until everyone else is out before he leaves the basement.

The stairs to the second floor are in the garden. I will assume you all head there.

Yandu stops everyone before they can enter the garden.

"Please give me a moment to summon back Anya. It will only take around a minute."

With these words Yandu starts a ritual and about a minute later Anya appears back. Yandu rushes over to her to embrace her.

"I've been missing you. This is a spooky place and I feel so much safer with you around. But you still look hurt. Let me fix this. But you have to promise to be careful and not as reckless as earlier outside. I'm hurt myself and can't give you too much of my own life force if you get into trouble."

Rejuvenate Eidolon 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

Yandu then takes out a pearl that he places in front of him. He seems to concentrate on the pearl for a while.

Rejuvenate Eidolon 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

(Anya on 17 out of 20 HP)

This will have to do. There isn't much magic left in me - so please be careful.

The mist still hangs in the garden outside the mansion, which strikes you as a little odd because it is now mid-day. The sun is high in the sky. The stairs to the second floor wrap around the inside garden to a small landing at the top and a door.

Single file marching order. Who is going first?

After Yandu finishes up his spellcasting, Erin heads up the stairwell first, keeping an eye out for any dangers.

Perception 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29 +2 Traps

Based on what we've been doing I believe, Erin, Ashur, Arkright, Yandu, Charlolette, Tanrov.

Sounds good to me.

As you reach the landing above the garden, a spectral image of a Tian woman in a flowing nightgown appears before Ashur, but he does not seem to see her. She laughs and beckons to him, ducking around him with ease.

Will Save

1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Fort Save

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

"We could have had a life together! We could have had little devil-spawn of our own! I loved you! Why would you do this to me?" Ashur seems to almost cry as he pleads with heartfelt emotion and runs around trying to embrace the specter her even though he can't see her.

"What is wrong with you?"

Erin asks quizzically while watching Ashur run around the room.

"There is something really wrong going on here. Even the most jaded and cynical of us are being affected somehow."
She thinks to herself.

As Ashur lunges for the woman, she steps aside and he topples over the railing, falling to the garden below. She watches him fall and whispers an answer to his question. Imortality. Then fades away.

Ashur takes 2d6 ⇒ (5, 2) = 7 falling damage. Way to roll a natural 20 when you really needed it. :)

The door in front of you is similar to most of the other doors you have encountered. Closed, no lock, no traps.

I know right.

"Ow. What happened? I had a dream where I was falling..." Ashur looks up to the rest of the party on the second floor. "Oh, got it. Well that hurt."

Ashur heals himself with his wand and quickly rejoins his group.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Erin pushes past everyone back down the steps to get to Ashur. Seeing him stand up after he hit the floor she slows her approach.

"What on Golarion did you see that would cause that?"
She asks, concern written all over her face.

"I actually didn't see anything. I was blind. I just felt like pleading my heart out to someone. Next thing I know, wake up on the ground with rocks embedded in my back. That was weird and uncomfortable."

Tanrov rushes over to see the fallen tiefling.

"Horns are you okay? Wait, of course you're okay", Tanrov says feeling foolish.

"Look at me."
Erin says as she reaches up and turns Ashur's head.

She closely examines Ashur's eyes to verify he is back to his normal self.
"You gave us a good scare there, it is good to see you are alright."

Seeing he no longer looks possessed, her concerned expression melts away and she removes her hand, bringing a wry smile back to her face.
"Although I believe you confused the word uncomfortable with painful. Falling off the second story into a rock garden is painful. Us listening to you yelling about having devil babies is uncomfortable."
She then leaves Ashur standing there, and begins making her way back up the steps.

Tanrov follows closely behind the little rogue, leaving the immortal tiefling to recover on his own.

Charlotte moves to the end of the room. She hears someone fall off the deck and falls. She sees Ashur go overboard and screams as it happens. As she looks down with Erin and Tanrov, and he comes back.

"You okay? Do you need a check up?" She says. As she inspects him, she sees he has healed himself. So she sighs relief that he is not gravely injured.

Friends I think it's time we move on to another location.