Til chuckles at Ragnar's question. "Different people see different things. Often when looking at the same thing."
As Adonara toes the nest, he stops and stares for a moment. "Has anything crawled out of it? Any bugs?" Assuming she says no . . ..
Til reaches down and scatters the pieces that make up the nest, looking for whatever he might find.
Fulk trails behind the others, arms held low in front of him.
Tilorean and Fulk you see that that much of the clothing in the nest is in relatively good shape. Among the clothing is a cloak of the manta ray.
We may see different things when looking at the same thing, but we should still be careful and not let complacency in.
Ragnar relaxes his bow, and puts the arrow away.
So now begs the question, do we check them out, or block them for now and go deal with the known problem of the ghosts?
Seeing an interesting looking cloak, Fulk casts Detect Magic. When he sees it register as magical, he goes and picks it up.
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We may see different things when looking at the same thing, but we should still be careful and not let complacency in.
Ragnar relaxes his bow, and puts the arrow away.
So now begs the question, do we check them out, or block them for now and go deal with the known problem of the ghosts?
Seeing the others more engaged with the search, Adonara steps aside, cocking her head to one side and peering in the direction of the southern door Ragnar found as she considers his words. She certainly doesn’t have a dwarf’s sense for these things, or directions underground generally, but…
“The hallway doesn’t turn that deep, does it, and the first large hall was lined with cells on both sides, so…” Her glance flickers back to Ragnar in question, “You would know better than I would, but the south door must connect to there somehow, I would think? Who knows about the west door, though. Maybe take a quick look just in case there’s something important hidden behind? Vault or armoury or the like?”
With that optimistic hope floated, and with his directions, Adonara gives the concealed door to the south a try, at least.
Well, I am not sure about the hall, but I will take a look and see if I can figure something out.
Bran steps up beside Adonara, hands shifting into claws.
Til watches the others look at the area Ragnar pointed at, deliberating about several things it seems to him. "I would hate to be incautious, or pushy, so if you'll let me know when you're ready, I can give the area around this door you were talking about a look, see if I can figure out how to open it, if it is safe to open, of course." He moves forward, without really touching anything, stopping and turning towards Ragnar. "About here, you said?" while indicating a section of wall.
Ragnar, you think that the room behind is quite small, probably only the size of a small closet.
Til starts by examining the floor, looking to see fi there's evidence of something having been moved back and forth here over time. Then he examines the wall, keeping his hand less than an inch from the surface, but moving it over the area, checking for any signs of air movement while he looks for gaps or elevation changes in the surface.
The door to the south leads into a small room used as some kind of basic sleeping area, which then has a door which leads into the main guild room you were in earlier.
Tilorean you can see that the western secret door leads into a passage, there are some tracks here that show occasional traffic from the large guard room down a passage to the storeroom. You think that this was an additional secret route that the cultists would use to avoid detection. There is nothing else of interest in there.
Well, now we know that there might be rats in the woodwork. Lets be vigilant that they don't come out to play when we are occupied.
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“Indeed,” Adonara agrees with Ragnar’s assessment as she quietly leads the way down the hall to where the ghost is supposed to lurk.
As she goes, she quietly goes over some strategic considerations. “I think we’ll want to be subtle here – well, always, but that’s beside the immediate point. Don’t all the stories say that ghosts are bound to this plane by unfinished business? I wouldn’t look forward to fighting the damned thing more than once, so let’s keep an eye out for clues as to what’s keeping it here? Our informant suggested the ghost doesn’t always immediately manifest itself, or always immediately violently, though that’s how it seems to end.”
“And there’s something else to the north that they were happy to just lock up and not fuss about identifying, so I imagine we’ll see our fair share of sending things off in pieces or splattered ectoplasm for the Lady of Graves to sort out beyond this one ghost. Maybe shadows or something, this close to Nidal? It might explain why the cultists didn’t get a good look at them.”
Bran takes a deep, slow breath, ”So, we need to... not kill... defeat this ghost. Then lay it truly to rest.”
He shakes his head, ”Well, now seems like the time.”
The bestial tiefling draws a wand and activates it.
"Ghost? Are we really sure about this? I mean, yeah, hopefully it will talk to us. I think."
I hope it will be peaceful, but I guess we will see.
Fulk does his best to look around for anything unusual, though i's hard to know what counts as 'usual' down here.
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Adonara hangs her whip back on her hip and checks that she has easy access to the ghost-hunting weapon she just bought. Here’s hoping the alchemists know what they’re talking about.
“The goddess…es will see us though,” she says devoutly, politely remembering to pluralize out of respect for the other cleric present. “We’re as well-armed as we can be, and we can retreat as necessary.”
“Apparently the ghost is fond of cards but impatient, and didn’t cause too much trouble if the Night Queen cult stayed out of its way. Still not something I’d want behind us as we go deeper, though.”
She waits a few moments longer in case any of the others have more spells they wish to cast in preparation, and then sets to opening the doors to the haunted room.
Bachu pulls out a wand and asks "Can any of you use this wand of Mage Armor on me?"
Opening the door to where the ghost is supposed to be you find a long mahogany gambling table sits at the centre of this chamber, surrounded by richly carved chairs fitted with silk cushions. Shelves carved into the walls hold old broken bottles, while benches with padded seats sit against the walls under these shelves. All of the furnishings are mouldering and decaying...as is the skeleton of a halfling clad in dark leather armour and clutching a handful of bone dice, slumped in a chair at the northern head of the table.
Taking in the Vista, Ragnar shakes his head.
I bet the ghost is of yonder halfling, who was probably murdered for his winnings.
Now we just have to figure out what we can do to allow his soul to get to rest.
He still keeps a solid grip on his bow while he looks around.
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Bachu pulls out a wand and asks "Can any of you use this wand of Mage Armor on me?"
“I can try,” Adonara says, “though as in many things, I only dabble.”
She tries to remember what Erisia always said, back home, about coaxing magic that is not directly the gift of the goddess out of an item.
Taking in the Vista, Ragnar shakes his head.
I bet the ghost is of yonder halfling, who was probably murdered for his winnings.
Now we just have to figure out what we can do to allow his soul to get to rest.He still keeps a solid grip on his bow while he looks around.
Advancing into the room beyond, she takes a quick look around. “Her winnings, based on what we overheard on our last expedition. But yes, the famously incorruptible Hellknights certainly seem to have been quite eager. I wonder, did they get so far, or was this treachery once things all fell apart down here? It seems strange that her body would just be left here, unless it was arranged deliberately after, or she was killed where she sat.”
She doesn’t know much about such matters – enough for cleaning up after a scene, or for fighting, but for anything else, well – that’s why there are dedicated healers and spells in the world. She checks for any obvious clues of the cause of death, traces of an arrow through the breast from the door, maybe, if the room’s occupant was surprised during a raid, or a knife between the ribs if during something else.
The courtesan tries, but as she examines the body, considers the furnishings of the room and tries to imagine what they might say about their ghost, she just can't focus. Adonara’s normally pretty good with scenes of violence, but the idea that their quarry might not have been expecting it, or had her corpse posed spitefully afterwards, gets into her head and raises unhappy memories. Via. At least we were able to end it before those monsters did anything to her, and – and – bury her properly. The thought of the scroll of resurrection magic now resting in the Ravens’ treasury prickles again in the back of her mind.
I stand corrected, her
Ragnar goes over behind the body and then roughly tries to determine cause of death.
"I agree, it seems unlikely that she happened to be at the head of the table when she was slain, especially given the number of options in the room. I think our best bet to identify if this happened in here will be looking for the discoloration of old blood stains. Even a bolt through her body could have been staged afterwards."
And so Til joins the effort to try to guess where she might have been in this room if she was killed in here.
As the group begin investigating, Bran stands in the doorway watching his new companions in action, Well, that's what you do then, is it. Interesting...
Ragnar and Tilorean you can see that the body has several marks including a final thrust into the centre of the chest from a falchion. It would match with the halfling being attacked by a member of the Order of the Torrent. It also appears that the body was deliberately placed here as a form of warning. You do not find any signs of traps or secret doors.
As you look around a faint milky shimmering dances in the air around the corpse and quickly coalesces into the ghostly form of an attractive but wild-eyes halfling woman. She smiles sweetly at you and a set of bone dice float in the air as she speaks:
"A wager? A game? I've waited ages for a game. These bones are lucky tonight? Will you wager part of yourself for my secrets, my friends?"
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Adonara shivers a bit as the unearthly light condenses into an identifiable figure. She’s not entirely sure, given the wild eyes, compared to the portrait further into the lair, but it’s the best guess she’s got, and maybe she can play it as flattery.
“Mistress Lorelu, I presume?” she smiles politely, though with just a hint of teeth. “Part of myself? What exactly do you have in mind?”
"Because - to be perfectly candid, darling - I prefer to come to a mutually agreeable understanding rather than to leave such things to luck. Though I'm not necessarily opposed on principle. Will a game help you rest?" the courtesan strikes a careful balance between brazen, suggestive, and a tactful reference to the fact that her interlocutor is, in fact, dead.
Shuddering slightly at the manifestation, Ragnar moves from behind the ghost around to the front.
He then stands clear to let those a bit more diplomatic than himself carry the conversation.
"I have to admit that I am also curious about your proposed stakes, but what reassurances do we have the dice will roll true? Few of the upper class are willing to actually risk anything of value. I was taught that good business means making them think they are getting more value than is available, after all."
Fulk moves to the side, positioning himself close enough to join the conversation, and with a clear line to the ghost. He remains silent, content to let others bargain. Bandying words has never been my specialty
"From my point of view, every hand you win I will reveal more of my story/secrets, if you lose you must give me some of your life energy. I have always been a honest gambler but you have impressed me with your words so you may ask me one question without gambling."
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“That … sounds like rather a poor bargain,” Adonara says, carefully choosing her words to avoid the possibility of a pedantic claim to her having spent the free question while she thinks of a good one, and resolving to take the first round of gambling if it comes to that.
Since being gentle seems to have had limited success, she pushes a bit harder, though stops just short of a direct threat. “I’ve been here before – not that I’ve had the pleasure – and it seems to me that between Mahathallah’s minions and the Hellknights long ago, there’s nothing left that we would worry so much about. And you must know that you’re dead, and even if the dice favour you, I can’t see what draining us gets you in the long run, once we walk away and forget about you. So, my question is, do you know how we can set you to rest, free you to claim your eternal reward, spirit?”
She leans in a bit, her expression suddenly almost as serious as it ever gets. “I’ll be frank: I don’t like your Norgorberite villainy. It’s a bit too … mean-spirited. But by the Savoured Sting, out of both our gods’ admiration for juicy secrets and charming trickery, and because if ever my body were found unburied I would appreciate it, I swear by my goddess that at the very least I’ll see your bones buried properly.”
And may the gods have mercy on your soul, she thinks. Personally, she doesn't see the attraction of putting oneself in the hands of malicious powers, whether they reside in Hell, the Abyss, or wherever, but to each their own, and rotting for eternity beside one's own corpse in some hole on the material plane doesn't sound very promising either.
In any case, Adonara is certainly not above trying to sneak in another question or two, so she quickly adds, “Or is there some object you need especially, or some business you left undone, or…”
A wicked Calistrian smile tilts up the corners of her mouth. “...a score left to settle?”
As Adonara goes through her spiel, Til starts grinning. Then shaking his head. By the time she tries to fit the fourth question in, he's both hanging his head and chuckling slightly, waiting to see how this ghost will choose to respond.
The ghost of Lorelu pauses for a moment,
"I miss the sun, I want to feel the dawn kiss my bones one last time. Promise to do this for me and I will tell you what I know."
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Adonara cautiously lets out a quiet breath that she didn’t even notice she was keeping in.
“By the love I bear my goddess,” she says, making the sign of the Triple Sting over her chest before holding her hand palm out in promise, “I solemnly swear we will bring your remains into the dawn’s light, and lay them to rest in a proper grave. If not, may Calistria pour down her vengeance upon me.”
Well spoken lass, well spoken.
Ragnar sighs with relief that this one would be easy.
Now to treat her with the respect that she deserves while we take her up to be properly buried.
Bran goggles, fascinated, [i]What does she know?"[/b]
"That was too easy . . .. At least it should be."
"In return, what do you want to know?"
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“We’re listening,” Adonara says, mind briefly blanking as she’s unnerved by the ghost’s translucent gaze. She narrows down on the most salient points that she can remember, “Do you know what happened to the other guild masters? And what might be left in the north hall, or the lower levels? From what we could tell of the entrance to the latter, something truly dire must have happened.”
“I trust my amanuenses to sort out the details,” she adds, gaze flickering to Tilorean in particular, who seemed more than able to play the diplomatic game. “I’ll return forthwith with a shroud for your bones, spirit. You need not fear that you will wait much longer.”
She folds her hands in front of her and retreats solemnly, then speeds to Luculla’s chamber as soon as she’s out of line of sight from Lorelu’s room. She quickly strips the blankets for a suitable sheet before hurrying back, slowing to a ceremonious pace upon entering again and silently gathering up the dead halfling’s remains while her ghost addresses the others. It is beyond disturbing for her to witness, but Adonara persists with grim determination until she has a sad little bundle that should at least be easier to move to the graveyard than armfuls of corpse. She’s grateful, too, that Lorelu wasn’t elf-sized or larger.
Thinking about what he has seen in his short time here, Bran speaks up, "What secrets lie hidden here? Are there hidden rooms or objects or other things? And, if so, how do we access them? Or protect ourselves from them?"
Is that right? I hope that's right.
"Ah, what treasures are there for us to find? While a good question, I prefer to learn what you know about the things that now occupy the various rooms of your guild facility, here. And if I heard properly, you want to feel the light of dawn, not just the light of day. I'll ensure nobody misses that distinction."
As Adonara starts trying to figure out how to carry the bundled remains, Til takes off his pack and opens it. "It will be easier if you put her in here, and we can continue our immediate task for now."
Lets get her settled first, then deal with the next issue. I would not want to be haunted by her because we got her remains damaged and she took offence.
"But we can't 'get her settled' until dawn. She won't get hurt in this pack. She really won't."
"Anything that's been in this room this long isn't likely to mind a few extra hours. We can hold off searching the place until tomorrow."