Rose examines some nondescript section of the room, still feeling fear from the earlier encounters and drained of her magical reserves, does not realize what's happening until the others begin to run. Perhaps realizing too late...
See this post, which relates to a sequence of posts starting with this one. Of course, that was almost a year ago... ; )
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Perception rolls
Initiative rolls
Walter's mind is wrapped up in some conundrum, but Septimus shivers down the back of the room, and then moves to follow Raj.
The thief kicks the double doors in expertly, and they swing back smoothly on their hinges to bang into the walls. Behind Raj, Karrik also barrels through the doors, followed by Septimus. Theron sprints out the doors on the other side of the room, dragging Walter behind him by the collar of the young man's coat.
Lem stands firm against the rising spirits and Dragomir grips his blade uncertainly, while Rose doesn't notice what's going on until it's too late.
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You take points of damage, and please make me a Fortitude save (DC 11) or take 1 point of Strength damage.
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Raj, Karrik and Septimus are free to act. The rest of you, can you please wait to post any actions until Lem posts? You're more than welcome to post internal thoughts/reactions. Thanks!
Walter, wrapped up in his conundrum, looks expertly surprised.
A sense of cold washes over Chunhua, triggering a memory from another lifetime, a memory of traveling across a mountain range. She huddled close with other travelers for warmth, unable to light a fire, darkness descending as the others one by one fell to their final rest, a rest she too was about to descend...
Rose forces aside the memory, momentarily disoriented as she attempts to focus on the now.
Lem crumples up and falls bonelessly to the floor. As soon as he does so, spectral chains spring up all around him, wrapping themselves around him and almost encasing him from head to toe.
booms a voice, seemingly coming from everywhere.
###
You may all take your Round 1 actions now.
The door slams shut as occult events swirl around them. Rajuna fires a hard look to Karrik and Septimus, "Not good. Be ready to stage a rescue. I'll see if I can draw those spooks off."
Cursing yet another of his stupid ideas, the thief bolts for the door that should lead to the podium as he listens to the booming unnatural voice. Lotta talk of Gods - wonder if that is Father Charlatan? Rajuna deliver a hard kick to the door. His plan is to mount the stage, act like a blowhard warden and 'pass judgment' on the prisoner's spirits. If it gets their attention - maybe it'll be enough.
Not having a better idea, Karrik reverses course, trying the door. If it's stuck or locked, he rams a booted heel against the door handle of the door through which they came just moments ago.
"NO, Lem! Dragomir, see if you can pull those chains off, I'll try to stop whatever is causing this." Rose moves closer to the chains and attempts to strike at them with her magic strength.
Fort Save
Damnit! - cut what? The chains are... ghosty, and I am out of holy water!
He flings his blade down and races to the halfling's side.
Wake up little Padre, he says shaking him, Come on - snap out of it!
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Walter charged across the room, sliding on his knees and overbalancing-- he let the sword slide to the wayside as he came to rest beside Lem. He took stock of the situation-- ghostly chains, a lifeless Lem, a horrible chill. He let his thinking brain do the work for a moment, seeing if there was anything he could recall, but when his mind came back blank he knew what to do. Walter rose his hands up, making the sign of Desna before bringing them down onto Lem's back. He drew the spiral of Pharasma with one hand, keeping the other firmly pressed into the halfling's body. It was difficult with Dragomir shaking him, so he did his best to shoulder over, trying to gain space in a panicked quickness.
"Whatever darkness takes this man, release him! Whatever dark hounds bite at his feet, heel! Into the light, I command you!" he said, letting a voice in his head guide his prayer-- it came out in strongly accented Varisian as a result. "Not now-- not this year, not yet," he whispered, in Taldane now, to himself as he made the gesture again. He repeated the spiral, putting his will into it.
A voice left. Walter could hear it make the transition. Lem likely had just gained a little stranger in the head-- and it would probably talk to him.
Well, that didn't work. Theron thinks to himself as he hears someone slump over in the room behind him. He runs back in with Walter and takes stock of the situation as well.
Seeing Lem chained to the ground and hearing that voice act like it was some sort of judge quickly makes the inquisitor's blood boil. How dare an evil spirit act like it had a right to judge them? Chains and an elaborate act... I bet this is Father Charlatan. I'll show him what a real judgement is like!
Hoping that he wasn't wasting precious time, Theron fishes out the weight with Iomedae's holy symbol from his backpack, and holds it in the air. While looking around to see if this causes some sort of reaction that might point him to the source of the haunt, Theron yells out "YOU are the one who awaits the judgement of the gods, charlatan! Show yourself and be bound again!".
Sorry for any confusion; your Round 0 actions were the ‘run away’ bit. We’re now in Round 1. So in Round 0:
- Raj, Karrik and Septimus ran into the foyer, and the doors closed on them.
- Theron dragged Walter out of the auditorium and back into the weapon training room.
- Dragomir and Lem stood firm against the impending attack from the haunt.
- Rose didn’t notice the haunt manifesting and couldn’t act.
Now in Round 1:
- Raj attempts to bust his way onto the podium.
- Karrik tries re-opening the door they came through.
- Lem [redacted].
- Rose uses disrupt undead on the chains.
- Dragomir tries to shake Lem awake.
- Walter charges back in and uses protection from evil on Lem.
- Theron presumes the haunt is being driven by Father Charlatan and tries to draw him out.
- Septimus…we’ll see.
Hope that makes it clearer!
###
With a surge of adrenaline, Raj boots the door off its hinges; it clatters across the raised dais beyond and comes to rest against a large desk, canted at an angle. Karrik, even aided by Septimus , is not able to break down the door leading back into the auditorium. Clearly some malevolent force is at play.
Rose draws upon her arcane power and sends a bolt of white energy at the chains binding Lem, but the beam passes straight through the chains and hits Lem in the chest. The halfling gasps, as if in pain, but remains unconscious.
The booming voice chuckles, and then launches into a diatribe.
Lem writhes as the chains tighten, the colour draining from his cheeks as creases appear on his face; he seems to be aging before your eyes.
Dragomir, desperate, tries to shake Lem awake, but his efforts appear to have no effect—and his hands pass straight through the chains. They feel cold. Dragomir’s breath clouds the frigid air as he calls for Lem to wake up.
Theron strides into the room, the weight stamped with Iomedae’s holy symbol held high before him.
"YOU are the one who awaits the judgement of the gods, charlatan! Show yourself and be bound again!"
The voice laughs in response, though with the ragged edge of madness.
Finally, Walter skids in on his knees, frantically attempting to shoulder Dragomir out of the way as he seeks to place his hands on Lem’s unconscious form. Power flows from the young man’s hands and into Lem.
thunders the disembodied voice.
The air in the room becomes even colder. You can feel its pinch on your exposed skin.
Lem, Rose, Theron, Dragomir and Walter all take points of damage from the cold, and please attempt a DC 11 Fortitude save or suffer 1 point of Strength damage. Raj can feel the cold air but is far enough away that it merely makes him uncomfortable. Septimus and Karrik are protected by the still-closed door.
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Off you go. : )
Raj bursts onto the dais and immediately feels the edge of frost. So the bars don't keep this haunt at bay - bad news. He makes for the podium and desk area searching both for any symbol of authority, a gavel, symbol of the office, or something of that sort. As he rifles through the desk he mutters to himself, running through what the spook is saying, finding an angle of attack - either to scare it or provoke it.
Raj: you find a gavel on top of the desk. Even a 7 should manage that. ; )
- The cold in the air is probably the result of a cold spot.
- The chains are a different thing altogether. Your intuition about Father Charlatan might be valid.
Round 2
"Ohmygod, Lem!" Taken aback by the results of her actions, Rose pulls back as she watches her spell strike Lem, seemingly making him go worse. She calls upon her Samsaran heritage, attempting to look upon Pharasma's pathways.
Walter felt his hands begin to shake. It wasn't fear-- it was just a heightened sense of things. He wheeled around, looking for the source of the voice. For the first time in a while, Walter knelt to pray.
Fort Save
Walter: I'm fine with keeping things the way they are. Don't go adjusting anyone's hit points, or spells, or anything like that. I am quite comfortable saying Walter found untapped inner reserves he didn't know he had, and that's where the protection from evil came from. Oracles seem weird to the other inhabitants of Golarion at the best of times anyway. : )
Rose: Lem is fragile. The entity controlling the chains appears to be undead--but you only see a diffuse miasma around Lem, nothing that you could actually strike at. There is also an undead presence in the room, but it is again so diffuse as to be impossible to target--at least by the senses you have available to you at present.
Theron ignores the cold and the mad voice of Father Charlatan for a moment and does his best to try and think of what they could be dealing with here. Something about this didn't seem right. Cold and chains? What kind of spirit could do both? Unless...
Oh, of course!
There are two things here! A spirit causing the cold, and another one causing the chains! The inquisitor's eyes change color as he focuses his ability to detect evil auras. It'll take me some time to pinpoint their sources, but the 'cold spot' can be affected by both positive energy and fire! A heated metal object could seal away the cold!
Theron drops the weight (which wasn't as useful as he had hoped), pulls out a potion, and steps over to Lem. We need to either heal Lem or get him out of the cold at least.
Karriks throws his shoulder into the door again, "Septimus, if you don't have other ieas, help me out!"
As he continues to slam on it, he yells out to Raj, "WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE, RAJUNA?! THIS DOOR WON'T BUDGE!"
###
Raj bursts onto the podium and grabs hold of a gavel on the desk, hefting it experimentally. Rose draws upon her heritage, her normally flat white eyes becoming misty as though filled with boiling clouds that slowly revolve into a spiral as she looks around the room. Anyone who is close enough to look into her eyes feels like they are staring into a whirlpool.
At the touch of Walter’s hands, Lem’s frantic convulsions subside and his face, until now locked in a grimace, relaxes to its normal serene countenance.
Dragomir, unsure what to do when there is no corporeal threat, stands protectively over Lem, while from the foyer, Karrik and Septimus attempt to break the door down once more, and with a mighty heave it splinters open.
Theron, worrying that Lem is running out of time, calls upon Iomedae’s aid to find the spirits that are vexing him and his companions.
The voice bellows out once more.
Lem, Rose, Theron, Dragomir and Walter once again all take points of damage, and please attempt another DC 11 Fortitude save or take 1 point of Strength damage.
The cold is by now becoming unbearable. Crystals of ice are forming on the shoulders of Walter’s coat, on Dragomir’s blade, on Rose’s hair, and around the potion vial Theron holds in his hand. It’s all Theron can do to steady his hands so he can unstopper the vial without dropping it.
(Lem is now on 0 hit points and disabled, but not yet dying.)
Your turn.
Raj can't pull off being a warden. But maybe playing a tough as stone, cruel guard was in the realm of possible for the semi-reformed thief.
He takes his place at the podium, looking as wrathful and dictatorial as he can. In one hand he holds the gavel like a holy talisman. In the other, he clutches the Haunt Siphon that Lem had given him. The thief belts out a long laugh at the spirit.
"You piece-a-sh!t snake-oil salesman! You gutless, rat-hearted LIAR! You're a mealy-mouthed fraud, CONVICT!" He fires off the last word with as much contempt as he can muster. "If you 'transcended', you wouldn't be trapped in this hell-hole, now would ya? Peddle your scams elsewhere, prisoner. No one here is gonna buy your bullsh!t or your cheap illusions." He hammers the gavel down on the podium, emphasizing every second or third word, "Now get BACK in your HOLE before I send your sorry ASS to The Oubliette or worse." He waits a heartbeat before continuing with officious weight,"Still here? Very well... Sefick Corvin for you and your little minion, by the power and authority of the People of Ustalav, in accordance with her Laws, and under the authority of Warden Lyvar Hawkren... for your grievous crimes you are sentenced to HELL for all time. Now GO and may no God have mercy upon you!" He bangs the gavel with authority and finality.
Raj waits to see if the ghosts will flee or turn on him - hopefully providing the rest of the group the time needed to escape.
Someone give this to Lem so I can focus on finding the source of this! Theron says as he pushes the unstoppered potion into the hands of whoever will take it.
Fort
Surveying the room, Karrik bellows out, "What are we dealing with?! And do we know how to hurt it yet?"
I'm buggered! And so is Lem!.
He shivers and shakes the halfling again.
Wake up!
He stands and starts to drag the halfling to the nearest door, leaving his blade on the floor.
Rose takes the potion from Theron and administers it to Lem as Dragomir picks up the chain-wrapped halfling.
It'll take me some time to pinpoint their sources, but the 'cold spot' can be affected by both positive energy and fire! A heated metal object could seal away the cold!
-
Walter quickly stood up, his hands open at either of his sides. He looked to Theron for guidance. The voices were dim, silent under the pounding of his heart in his ears. "Th-Theron, best guess!" he called out, his hand beginning to shimmer with a mirage-like heat haze.