You sense the hammer has been detected by the haunt- it fears it. Unfortunately, the side effect of bringing it near the Marauder is that it reaches out to your mind and attempts to get you to draw it and swing at the nearest target: DC 13 will save to resist. Fail and you must drop your weapon, pull out the hammer as part of a move action, then attack a random target.
The skulls fly in to attack, clacking their jaws wildly.
Garin
Vachordi
1 dmg!
Edrik
The Maurader flies toward you and swings his ghostly hammer at Awnara.
The three skulls and the haunt seem to burn in Gilda's holy light. Pieces of ethereal ash float off of them, but none of them fall.
Waiting on one resolution from Garin before the rounds' end.
Round 2:
The skulls' attention is now on Gilda, as is the mosswater marauder's.
Garin seems to still then flinch suddenly, taking out the hammer he got earlier with both hands and swinging it wildly at the nearest target.
Ignoring the skull hovering about him, Edrik merely holds his shield up to keep it at bay while he moves to defend Gilda who has drawn much attention to herself.
"Gilda, watch yourself!
The Cavalier draws forth the Maurader's hammer and swings wildly, striking Edrik in the shield, doing no damage.
Skull 1 attacks Garin
Skull 2 attacks Edrik
Skull 3 also attacks Edrik
Edrik also draws the attention of the marauder
All of them miss.
"Apologies!" Garin says to Edrik, pulling back the hammer. "This hammer, and I in extension, is being affected."
However, instead of dropping the hammer, Garin swings it at the skull that attacked him.
Vachordi continues his song and sends two blunt arrows flying at the skull nearest him
rapid shot
for
for
Shel tosses the siphon at the Marauder, hoping it would draw its essence into the unit.
Ranged touch
Gilda wades in on the mosswater marauder.
for damage
Awnara shrieks and shrinks away from the Marauder as he advances upon her. She blasts him again with holy energy, hoping to strike him in his ephemeral chest.
[spoiler=Mechanics]
Fighting to hold his ground, Edrik laughs heartily, appearing to enjoy challenge of so many undead attacking him "Hah! Is that the best ya got you abominations!"
Don't forget inspire courage
Round two- same DC will check to avoid hitting another random target.
The soul siphon is a glass vial covered in a fine metal structure. You open it, and it draws in negative energy- which drains it from the undead enemy. Once it's absorbed the energy, it glows. You can throw it as a negative energy bomb at that point (obviously not targeting undead unless you'd like to heal them!).
The madness of the hammer grips Garin once again, and he swings
and connects with Gilda for damage.
Round 2 resolution:
Vachordi hits both of his targets, sending the skulls to the ground.
Garin, madness gleaming in his eyes, strikes out and injures the priest.
Edrik finishes off the final skull with a well placed blow. The marauder's ghost shrieks- reaching for the fallen skulls. As he reaches them his incopreal body dissolves into ether-ash.
Combat is over. Another one of the five has been vanquished.
"Well, we seem to be getting better at this! Is everyone okay?"
The silence that immediately followed the dissolution of the Marauder is suddenly rocked by the howling of the spirits of Hollowstone in unison. An eerie female cackling (the sound of Vesarona's voice) silences them. The Warden's wife has secured the marauder's spirit from returning.
Perception
You find a locked alcove in the wall: a DC30 lock holds it fast.
"I'm fine. What about this lock?"
Perception
Shel spots a well hidden lock. "Back up, and let me work on this lock. It might be trapped and you all should give me some room in case it goes Boom!"
Perception traps
Disable Device lock Take 20 for a total of 30.
Vachordi moves back away from the lock
Disable Device
"My apologies, Gilda."
You can take 20 on a lock.
The loot is a backup armory for the guards:
In all, there are six suits of masterwork chainmail
and six suits of masterwork studded leather armor,
four masterwork longswords, four masterwork heavy
maces, two masterwork heavy crossbows, 120 crossbow
bolts,
a case of 10 special crossbow bolts
A wand
4 potions
and a rope.
"We've hit the mother lode. I suspect this was to protect the guards if the prisoners rioted, which unfortunately, didn't work it seems. Can anyone tell if any of the gear is magical?"
Gilda casts Detect Magic.
"Oh, very nice. Quality gear and it looks to be in good condition despite how long it must have been here." Garin reaches forward to take a sword to heft it for its weight.
Standing next to Garin as he inspects the gear, Edrik nods as he also grabs a blade "Aye, this is better than my current steel. This is a great find."
Vachordi takes a MW studded leather
Gilda: the 10 bolts, rope, potions, and wand are all magic.
You can roll for identifying them with a spellcraft check.
bolts
rope
potions
wand
"That we have, Shel!", Awnara says excitedly, her intial fear of the prison growing to confidence. "Let me see if I can find out what these items do!" She chants again, and her eyes glow with the same white radiance, but the light is a soft glow rather than a focused beam. The bolts, rope, potions and wand all glow as well in turn, and she studies the pulses issuing forth from them to determine their function.
Bolts +1
Wand of hold person
Rope of climbing
Potions of cure moderate wounds.
The winch in the northern room easily opens the portcullis.
"Looks like they didn't have any smaller folk as guards back then, did they," Shel asks as she pokes around the gear, slightly disappointed at the fact all of it seemed too big for her to use.
After everyone grabs some of the gear to use, Shel will operate the winch, raising the porticulus. She will then take her spot at the front of the group, and look carefully into the next room.
Perception
The cavalier follows behind, taking one of the chainmails with him.
Gilda takes a suit of chainmail, which she wears (will update stats later), a mace, a crossbow and 20 bolts.
She follows Shel.
Edrik also takes a suits of Chainmail, and eyes it appreciatively "Good quality armor as well; these prison guards were well armed."
@Shel: At least one set of armor of each (chain and studded leather) is small sized.
There are 11 charges in the hold person wand.
Through the gate:
The large cell block is mostly left open and abandoned.
A large room opens to the south:
Numerous grisly tools of torment decorate the room, from
cages to hanging chains along the walls to a stretching rack, a
large wooden tank, and a fire pit in the middle of the room. To
the east stands a grim iron maiden, the lid closed and presenting
a stern decoration of a tormented woman upon its face. The
broken, twisted skeleton of a human dressed in a tattered
guard’s uniform lies upon the stretching rack in the middle of
the room; the body is surrounded by several discarded knives,
branding irons, and pliers. A large, bloodstained wicker basket
sits at the head of the rack.
You peer into the room and notice a slight movement- the iron maiden is slowly creeping open.
"Gilda, I think there's another haunt in there, or something. That iron maiden's moving," she whispers as she creeps up to the door.
Hearing that Vachordi prepares a holy water to launch.
"A torture chamber?" Garin guesses, looking at the numerous tools.
Gilda move forward to confront the heavy metal skeleton (iron maiden).
Gilda approaches the iron maiden.
You brace yourself as the maiden swings open. Rather than facing some undead monstrosity, you find something far more shocking. Tied inside, dangerously close to being impaled, is your mother Silva. She beckons you to help her with fearful eyes.
You feel the urge to rush to her and save her.
DC14 Will save to resist, compelled as per the suggestion spell.
Gilda recoils in horror, then yells
"Begone foul illusion!"
She then attacks the thing inside the container.
for damage
Vachordi launches his holy water at whatever Gilda is attacking
vs touch for
The party sees Gilda gasp in terror and then recover. To the unhaunted, the iron maiden is empty- it's even missing spikes.
Instead, while Gilda faces off with the haunt, you hear and see the basket next to the wrack begin to shake- it tumbles to it's side and the lid falls open. The severed and dessicated hands of the guard on the wrack spring forth as animated claws- leaping for your throats.
There doesn't appear to be any further threat (for now) from the maiden, so you can target the hands instead.
Initiative:
Initiative
Shel pulls her dagger and moves to slice the ghoulish hand.
Attack
Damage
Possible crit
Damage
If the enemy still survives, Garin takes out his hammer and smashes the hand to bits.
"What the...?"
Somewhat dumbstruck by what is going on, Edrik reacts slowly to the dessicated hand and clumsily grabs his hammer and strikes (if it's still moving).