Orri had been practicing a new skill for the last few months but this is the first any of the others have had a chance to see it. He starts as if casting a spell of curing but then exaggerates its movements as a pulse of positive energy spreads out from him.
Sophiel looks at the living shadows, and looks sad, ”damn... damn.” With much of the conviction having left her voice, Sophiel wanly tried to inspire the others to anger, ”just... fight...” she grits her teeth but part of her has given up. She steps back and blasts three of the living shadows with her burst of light, but targets herself and Sootscale in the area.
The three within Sophiel’s spell shriek and vanish in a flash of radiant energy! The remaining ones continue to assail their targets. The one against Orri and Annalla both fail to connect, but the one between Isabella and Chrysa turns on Chrysa and thrusts it’s hand into her chest, and she can feel her strength begin to slip away!
Now into position, Isabella tears into the one between Chrysa and her, hoping to destroy it before it can attack again.
Chrysa screams. Weakly. Her knees shake, nearly buckle, but she manages barely to stand.
Snarling at the shadow, "You are nothing" she hisses her rage at it, then throws all she has left at the thing.
Only to find it dead before she moves. Noding to the swordswoman, she moves slowly around one of the remaining, and slices into its formless back.
Sophie takes an accurate bow shot at the one flying in the air, her magic bow and infused arrow attack proving very dangerous to the undead. She no longer says anything inspiring - having exhausted all of her anger for the day.
Worried about this shadow next to him eventually getting a hit, Orri tumbles away to get some distance and then focuses on the one near dead that seems to be draining the life from Annalla.
Annalla stumbles back and drops to her knees, her strength drained. The effort to remain awake and aware almost beyond her capabilities. She falls back to what she's been told. A simple gesture and a few arcane words.
"Pew, pew, pew."
Ipmeek watches as the others destroy most of the shadows. He steps back and hurls a bomb at the lone shadow remaining!
;
The last of the shadows fade from the desperate fight of the lord, ladies, and chieftain! Those whose strength has been sapped collapse to the floor, weak and trembling from the dangerous ordeal!
Chrysa slumps to the floor. She slides her backpack off, lays her swords down, and simply crumbles for a moment. Arms and legs too weak...
"That was a brand new horror for us. Life of adventuring is new experiences every day, right?" she weakly mutters with a tired snarky smile.
Sophiel sniffs, flies over to Chrysa, and checks her. She then checks Annalla.
She sighs, ”voting time - do we give up, or continue? Annalla's exposure to the negative energy nearly killed her. If we give up, we likely cannot return for some time.”
She looks over Annalla more carefully, ”dear, you really must be more mindful when using your spells.” She looks through her bag, ”we didn’t prepare for this, it appears.” She withdraws one potion of lesser restoration, and offers it to Annalla. ”This is all we have.”
She also adds in Aklo, when she spots the wisps.
”Wisps - what do you plan to do when we lift this curse? We will empty this castle out - you will be homeless, and if you stand against us, we will kill you. Do you have a plan?”
Annalla accepts the potion with a trembling hand. "So cold," she says and it's not clear how much of what Sophiel said, she actually heard.
Consuming the potion seems to lessen the effect just slightly. "The wisps are still watching," she says, noticing the creatures hovering nearby. Reaching up to take her wife's hand, she uses Isabella's strength to pull herself to her feet.
Ipmeek is pretty sure that even a single touch from those shadows could have killed him. "Tower is evil, haunted place. Ipmeek say we go home to safe kingdoms! Ipmeek can work on better bomb to kill shadows."
"What?" Chrysa exclaims with weary mirth as she pulls herself to her feet. Slowly. "We are the lords and ladies of the stolen lands, puffed up balls of lights and memories of times gone REALLY bad cannot scare us away." she gives Impeek smile "Though if another thing sticks its hand IN ME, I'll agree in a heartbeat, if I still have one."
Orri frowns seeing some of the others so depleted when he managed to get away unscathed this time. "I am unharmed, at the very least we should maybe check the rest of this level and see if there aren't any resources that could help. Is there anything we could have done differently to have avoided those things surprising us like that?"
He looks to Sophiel since she seems to know the most about them.
Sophie says, hesitantly, "no... actually, spreading out their strength drain was quite lucky. As for during the fight... I would have changed some things... but..." she looks hesitant.
It's obvious Sophiel is holding back. Given the general reaction to her 'bossiness' before, it appears that she's trying to stay positive, without criticizing people much.
"They hide in the walls, unfortunately. So we can't do anything until they merge. For reference, we were extremely, extremely, lucky Annalla didn't die. If she had... we would have had to fight another shadow, too." She runs her hand through her hair, and fiddles with her braid, looking nervous, "I cannot emphasize how lucky we were that your wife is not dead, Isabella. And this type of death - I ..." She looks hesitant, then flits over to Annalla, "this isn't the type that you can reverse. Easily or otherwise."
Then she thinks, "and, we were lucky I had put the magic weapon on, and had memorized the burst of radiance."
She shakes her head, and quickly adds, "I cannot tell what the creatures are with my senses, but perhaps if we sense more undead, we should all put on our holy weapon balms before we enter." She sighs, "incorporeal strength drain means that we have to ensure as many die as quickly as possible, using as many attacks as possible, before they have a chance to use their touches again. If you can ping one to death that's across the room, because it's nearly dead - that's better than the one closer to you. If you can do nothing - use a full defensive action, you may be able to dodge their attack." She looks nervously at where the shadows were... "So, I hope that has become abundantly clear."
Then she she looks around the room, "let's check out this room, Annalla has correctly noted that the wisps are watching."
She shoos in the direction of the wisps, "I'm still not afraid, you little buggers. You'll never taste this mind." She taps her head and sticks her tongue out at them.
Orri gives Sophie a nod at the explanation then goes to start searching the room as she suggested while the others take a breather.
Looking around the altar, Orri notes a very fine crossbow, sword, and sling on display. Also, he finds a hidden cache beneath the point of the key...
Orri shows the cache he found to the others. When Chrysa confirms there aren't any traps he will spend a bit of time cleaning it using his magic , trying to fix the defacing before removing the key to take back to Orrville, instead of leaving it in a place such as this.
Sophiel dusts off her hands and looks in the area where she believes another room is located, based on her survey outside.
She looks carefully for a door along the wall, after guiding herself.
Sophiel taps her temple, "a secret door, is everyone ready to move on, then?" She looks ready for Chrysa to do her thing.
"Do you already have a place in mind for it?" Chyrsa asks Orri as he cleans his new possession. She'll listen to the answer, before asking Soph to use one of the lovely new scrolls.
"Secrets room in a tower of horror. Can't be a bad thing right?" she smirks but adds hopefully "Maybe there will be answers to why this place is the way it is..."
Chrysa will check the door and open/disable all that is needed.
When Chrysa asks about the key Orri shakes his head "Not particularly but being a follower of the Master of the First Vault myself, I couldn't just leave it here for someone else to steal or degrade further."
The eastern portion of this room has fallen away, leaving just a narrow and precarious looking stone floor portion remaining to reach what remains of the northern chamber. That room appears to be what remains of a heavily degraded and ruined office. A lonely wooden desk sits as the only still intact piece of furniture remaining.
Isabella helps Annalla to her feet, frowning and concerned with her weakened state. Even after her healing, she still seems very weak.
When Sophie states that she is relieved Annalla wasn't killed by these things, she nods "I'm just glad she wasn't killed period. Thank you all for finishing them so quickly."
She is quite dissatisfied from being removed from the forward position, but now falls back alongside of Annalla and walks with her. "Anna, are you okay to continue?"
When the call goes out that they might need her help, she whispers "I'll be right back." and advances across the narrow walkway to check it out.
Sophiel takes one of the scrolls they found, and after concentrating a moment, Chrysa heals some of the negative effect of the shadow’s touch.
Sophiel nods at Isabella, and whispers to her.
”Bella - don’t do that! I can fly! You’ve got a baby! What are you...” Sophiel gives up throwing her hands exasperatedly.
Isabella nimbly leaps across the gap, landing safely on the far side.
Sophie curses and flies over, ”just don’t touch this stuff...” She tries to detect any spirits on the far side.
Isabella looks back, confused "Yes, I have a baby. That doesn't preclude me from doing what I do, Sophie. I'm fine. Everything is fine." she says turning back to look around the room.
"There's a journal on top of the drawer of the desk. It looks much better off than everything else in the room. Do you want me to take it?" she asks, looking back.
Sophiel retrieves the journal from the desk, well preserved. She calls back over, ”the drawer was magic - a kind of warding to keep the contents safe.”
She responds to Isabella, ”indeed. You are ‘doing what you do’.” Then sighs, and it looks like she has a severe headache.
She flies back over the gap, and brings the journal to Chrysa and Orri. ”This may be a record of what’s happened at Candlemere.”
"Interesting... the answers we seek, just as we needed the most. We should take a moment to read." the rogue sits on the floor, book in her hands, inviting whoever wants to sit on the sides of her to read as well, then does it as quickly as she can.
As Orri sits beside her and suggests jumping to the end, Chrysa nods, flips, and shifts the book so they both can read easily.
She is quite dissatisfied from being removed from the forward position, but now falls back alongside of Annalla and walks with her. "Anna, are you okay to continue?"
"I don't think I could lift a sword right now," Annalla replies. "But fortunately for me, that's your job, not mine." She grins back at her wife.
She cringes inside as she watches Isabella cross the narrow floor, but doesn't say anything.
"Oh, a journal," she says excitedly when the book is found. "Can I read it next? I've found that I love books."
"Of course" Chrysa says, "In fact, why don't you two read, while I work on getting the drawer out." she offers her seat on the floor, then goes to see about the desk.
The final entry reads:
24th of Calistril, 4680
They have taken everything from me. My wife. My son. My daughter. Their maddening “games” have unraveled and destroyed everything I cared for. I was the last of my House. And they have taken that from my families legacy too.
There is truly nothing left.
I have decided to accept my guests offer. It is my only path to vengeance. I shall make them all pay. Those little freaks. That bastard dog of a guard captain of mine. My vizier. All of them. I don’t care that my life will be over to see it done.
My life is already over.
Goodbye Eleanir. My love.
I will make this right.
As you finish reading the final passage, a streak of lightning crosses in the distance, lighting up the lake as the thunder rolls across the land.
Chrysa fiddles and sighs before coming back "I can take it out, but it will break the enchantment, crumble to nothing. So I left it. Better to leave a bit of magic around then destroy it for no reason."
Orri quirks a brow at the mention of 'guests' he wants to flip through and look for other references to find out what is going on but stops and looks to the others "Do you think it would help if we took this and figured out what happened here before continuing, or should we soldier on with the magic we have at the ready now and worry about figuring out the details afterwards?"
"I prefer knowing to almost anything else, personally."
While the others read the book, Isabella sits next to Anna and asks "Is there anything I can to do help?"
When Orri asks whether they should continue on, she looks down to Anna to make sure she's okay pressing on.
"No, I'll be ok. I just didn't realize that this book would be so heavy," she replies. "We should finish this before those other manifestations return."
Isabella studies Annalla, wondering how bad it is for her if the book is considered 'so heavy'. She nods and adds "Alright. Don't be afraid to say it's too much, I will not think bad of it. I'd rather you be honest with me if you can't press on."
She rises and offers her hand to help her wife to her feet before turning to Orri. "We can always read and figure it out later, let's finish here so we can get out of here. I do not want to stay any longer than is required."
King Sootscale skitters about nervously, gazing out at the coming thunderstorm. "Ipmeek agree with Bella! Go quickly before magics go poof!"
With four of you in favor of pushing on, the group ascends to the fourth level of the tower, again coming to another door. Above, you can see moonlight splaying out into the fifth level, as the stairs there do not empty into a landing but rather seem to end directly into the fifth floor.
Chrysa holds up a finger for the others to wait and goes to look, after casting shield and vanish on herself.