On then!
Vachordi sends his lights down the hall, just to make sure there is not something in the shadows.
Gilda moves on into the hallway.
SHel looks at the first set of double doors to the east. If she finds no trouble she enters them.
Perception
The doors (as far as you know) are untrapped, so you pull them back open.
Inside is a small landing with stairs descending- however it appears that they have collapsed and are blocked by rubble. The ceiling above the stairs that collapsed shows signs of smoke damage, but no structural damage.
Garin cautiously follows from behind them. He peers through the door. "It seems this way is blocked. Try another?"
"Yep, I don't think we could get through there at all. Let's try another way.". Shel goes back to the hallway and checks the second set of double doors to the right.
Perception
If it appears untrapped, she opens them.
Vachordi follows remaining quiet, but ready to fire arrows at a moments notice.
Gilda backs up the clever rogue and bard. :)
The second set of doors to the east open to a matching stairwell, only this one ascends to the second floor. The stairs are circular and wind their way up. They are dusty and long unused.
Initiative
Shel stands in the new room close to the dusty stairs.
vachordi is 10 feet behind shel, in the doorway I assume
Gilda is in the new room behind Shel, in front of Vachordi. :)
Garin is standing in the entry hall, worried about his horse.
"What's in there?", Awnara attempts to peer into the room beyond from the relative safety of the second rank.
The sound of a dozen people screaming flies past you, chilling your blood.
All of the portals that were open slam shut.
Was anyone bracing open a door, or standing in a doorway?
Vachordi was in the doorway that we just opened
Vachordi and Awnara are in the path of the slamming doors.
Reflex save (dc 10) to jump out of the way.
Reflex save (DC15) to catch and hold the door.
Failure means 1d4 damage.
Awnara stands transfixed for a moment as the screaming starts, but senses the movement behind her - she leaps without thinking, narrowly avoiding the door as it slams shut behind her. "What in the world was that?"
Vachordi catches the door before it slams on him.
Vachordi hangs on to the door, even though it felt almost like it would rip his arm out of socket. The other doors are stuck fast.
You get a chill of something otherworldly affecting the air.
What do you know about ghosts?
Garin snaps his head up when the screams start, looking in the direction of the others just when the doors slam shut for no apparent reason. A strange coldness makes him shiver.
He curses and attempts to open the door to the north hall. "Are you alright?"
Behind him, his horse looks around in agitation.
Gilda casts Guidance on Vachordi.
She then looks around worriedly.
"I think we're fine, Garin," Awnara replies shakily from the other side of the door. "The spirits here are definitely not resting peacefully. How could they, really. They died in an inferno, with violence in their hearts. Never given a proper burial. Terrible things happened in these walls, and we intrude upon their ground."
Your combined knowledge has heard of haunts, a manifestation of necromantic energies into the locations/events surrounding their deaths.
This appears to be a minor one (and likely won't be able to hold the doors closed for long). Nevertheless, positive energy and other undead fighting techniques can banish them. However, permanently removing a haunt will likely require a specific sequence of actions (or the right magic) to insure that it does not return. These, being fairly minor, aren't really harmful- but greater haunts could be dangerous.
"Well, that was awfully unpleasant. I hope we don't encounter much more like that. Is everyone ready to proceed?". When everyone is, Shel proceeds in the new room with the dusty stairs.
Do we have anything that could prop open this door?
Vachrdi asks. If not he continues.
"On then" Gilda agrees. "This seems be a minor haunt. The doors should re-open shortly."
Edrik eyes the door suspiciously, and then looks forward again. "Can't wait to see what is in store for us farther along. This place is most certainly forsaken."
Continuing ahead, Edrik holds his shield out to project the light as much as possible.
Garin takes a moment to comfort his horse before moving to join the others.
Assuming the doors regain operability, Gilda follows Shel.
After Vachordi jams something, maybe he breaks some wood off a handrail, into the door, he follows.
Awnara follows along, nervously glancing about at every creak and moan as the prison settles from their movements.
The stairs wind upward to the second story. The landing is a small room (5'x5') with a door on the west (complete with bars to see through) and barred windows on north and east. It appears as though this was a guard post to overlook the floor's cells.
The north wall has a few holes, the northeast wall completely collapsed from the fire damage. It is open to the sky, and overlooks the murky lake that the building is sinking into. Before the precipice are the broken tables that once served as the mess for the prisoners here.
West of the door you see a solid stone wall, which has smoke damage from half the height up. It looks as though there's at least one hallway of cells in that direction.
The only direction you can't see directly is the south side of the floor (which would lead to the balcony over the main entrance).
Perception . Shel looks carefully around the rooms.
[b]"Want to check out the cells," [b] she asks as she begins walking in that direction.
Gilda does a 'Detect Magic' while Shel pokes around.
"I'll follow your lead," Garin says, looking about in caution.
"Aye, the cells then."
Heading alongside Shel, Edrik uses his shield to light up the path before them. "Alright, let's all of us be careful. If this place is truly haunted, we need to be alert," pausing a moment, Edrik sighs from a place of weary experience and mumbles "for the undead never sleep."
Once the door is open, you head west:
Row upon row of ten-foot-square prison cells line the walls,
each separated from the passing hallway by a series of iron
bars fitted with a narrow iron door. Skeletons slump in many of
the cells, the bones scattered where they lie and coated with a
mixed layer of ancient ashes and fresh mold.
Three rows of cells (single wide) span almost to the north and south walls.
Two cells sit on the north wall, two more on the south wall.
You hear a faint sound of sorrowful flute, and distant flapping wings.
perc
Stand fast I hear the flute and flapping.
Vachordi sings, attempting to mimic the flute.
"Flutes and flapping? That's the Piper and his stirges, perhaps. Let's follow the sound and see if we can figure out what or who is making the sounds."
Perception
"Are you certain? I don't hear anything," the halfling maid responds, though her voice shakes as she says this. "I wish I had. At least then I'd know what to be afraid of..."
"Those are definitely pipes. And the flapping might be Strixes, err Strices, ummm nasty evil flappy thingies.