The temperature drops far enough for you all to notice but by then it’s too late to do anything about it. A gasping sound, like a dozen men struggling for breath that won’t come fills the room. The pillow in Ty’s hand suddenly lunges for his face. Three other pillows similarly leap out from under the blankets, lunging for the faces of Conri, Richard, and Sir Rollynd!
All 4 pillows find their mark and begin to suffocate their victims! DC 12 Fort save to resist the effects of suffocation. For this haunt, the suffocation mechanic is simple: fail a save, temporarily lose 4 Con. For every round you don’t have a pillow on your face, regain 4 Con. If you’re being smothered, you aren’t able to speak, cast spells with verbal components, or see, but can attack the pillow with weapons (50% miss chance, -2 to hit). If you ever hit 0 Con...well, just don’t. Each pillow has AC 12 and 5 hit points.
Round 1 Yes, this is literally a pillow fight. Deal with it!
Sir Rollynd fumbles his sword out of its sheathe and slashes at the pillow on his face.
The halfling shreds his pillow, scattering feathers everywhere. Even as they rain down, another nearby pillow begins to twitch, ready to replace it in battle. It looks like there are ten pillows (now nine) in total.
Staggering when the pillow slams into him and trying to hit at it with his fists. But he cannot breath and cannot seems to push the pillow off of his face
Richard incinerates the pillow on his face while Conri struggles to breathe.
2 down, 8 to go, with Edward and Ty left this round.
Not wanting to stab Conri through his head, Edward drops his sword and moves to pull the pillow off of the wizard's face.
Edward succeeds in removing the pillow from Conri. He can breathe now, but Edward is sure he won’t be able to hold the pillow for long.
Ty's muffled voice somehow sounds from around the pillow on his face.
"What the...!"
Daggers being particularly well-suited to close-quarters fighting, Ty doesn't hesitate to draw his and stab at the pillow upward from below.
Both daggers pierce the cushion-y headrest and then are yanked apart, shredding the pillow in a spray of feathers. Ty sees the remaining pillows flying around the room.
"What the...!"
3 down; 7 to go.
The pillow in Edward’s hand rips itself out of his hands and pressed itself against his face. Three more pillows fly off the beds, trying to smother Richard, Conri, and Ty.
Round 2 No need for Fort saves until the end of the round.
Sir Rollynd’s blade expertly shreds the pillow smothering Richard.
”This is a haunt. Can you do something about it?”
4 down; 6 to go.
dice=Miss chance
Ty tries to catch the oncoming aerial bedding on the tips of his daggers.
Edward once again decides to grab the pillow that is now attacking him.
dice=Miss chance
Ty tries to catch the oncoming aerial bedding on the tips of his daggers.
[dice=Miss chance]1d100
[dice=Attack 1]1d20+5
[dice=Damage]1d4+1[dice=Attack 2]1d20+4
[dice=Damage]1d4+1
Just Richard (who currently is pillow free) left to go.
Ack! I never rolled attack rolls for the pillows! Stupid me.
Oh well, they all hit. Carry on.
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Richard tries to respond to Sir Rollynd's question but instead gets a pillow in the face.
Haunts... haunts... some kind of evil/undead traps. Need to discover reason for haunt and resolve to destroy it permanently. Arrggghhh - I should have studied more before undertaking this adventure. I am not properly prepared.
Richard draws his scimitar and attempts to slash at the pillow.
The pillow's distraction is sufficient to prevent his attack from landing.
No, Sir Rollynd destroyed your pillow. You aren’t blinded.
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Really?
Ack! I never rolled attack rolls for the pillows! Stupid me.Attack vs Conri: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Attack vs Edward: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Attack vs Richard: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Attack vs Ty: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Oh well, they all hit. Carry on.
Was this before Sir Rollynd's attack?
Yes. You all got hit but Sir Rollynd figures freeing up the priest of the anti-undead goddess would be the prudent move in dealing with a haunt.
The three pillows on people’s faces explode in a rain of feathers. As feathers rain down, the three final pillows lift into the air and fly at people.
Richard, Ty, and Sir Rollynd are all attacked.
Miss
Richard and Sir Rollynd both find themselves with pillows over their faces, while Ty succeeds in ducking at the last second. His pillow hovers nearby.
Next round. Edward and Ty can see, Richard and Conri cannot.
Sir Rollynd slashes at the pillow on Richard again.
The pillow is destroyed. Richard can now see and breathe. Only two pillows left, one of them stuck to Conri’s face.
Wide-eyed, Ty dodges the pillow targeting him at the last second before he pivots and lashes out with both blades.
But he loses the pillow in the mass of flying feathers.
Edward reaches out again in an attempt to remove the pillow from Conri's face.
Unfortunately, this time he wasn’t quite strong enough to defeat the malignant pillows.
Conri left (who is blind and unable to speak).
Conri draws his dagger but is inexperienced with weapon combat and can’t find his target in front of his face.
Conri struggles to breath as the pillow begins to smother him. Between the rest of you, however, you manage to remove the pillow before any lasting harm is done. With all the pillows destroyed, the malevolence in the room fades and temperature returns to normal.
"That was ridiculous," Ty mumbles. After a few deep breaths to collect himself, he moves to inspect the corpses on the beds. Who were they? Why have they remained so relatively preserved all this time? What's in their pockets?
The men on the cots are dressed for bed and appear to have all died in their sleep. I don’t think anybody made the Heal check to determine exact cause of death, but with the evidence around you, it looks like they were all smothered with their own pillows, and the trauma of that violent massacre created the haunt you just dispelled. Perhaps something about the haunt itself preserved their bodies. Needless to say, there’s nothing in their pockets.
I had posted about the treasure, but it appears to have been eaten.
There is no Seventh Church spoil in this room: for whatever reason, the soldiers here must not have taken any, or it was taken from them already. There are lock boxes, however, and they aren’t empty. In addition to four pouches of 100 sp, there is a MW silvered longsword with the Eye or Aroden on the cross guard, a silver holy symbol of Aroden, and a phylactery that radiates magic and has a scrap of parchment inside with writing on it.
Ty has no idea what a phylactery is and is not overly impressed with the small box. He gives Richard a wide-eye, half smile of encouragement, and then moves on.
Richard examines the phylactery. "A phylactery of faithfulness. I've never seen one before - only read about them - this is interesting."
"Should prove useful, my good man. Let us be off." Edward then follows the rogue into the western room.
You climb to the third floor. Like the floor below, this stairwell has four doors, one on each wall. The door to the west bears an inverted pentagram, the south an Eye of Aroden, while the north and east doors are blank, though possessing strong locks. The Eye symbol has been desecrated with dried blood, and the stone walls in the southern half of this room bear ancient scorch marks.
When he sees the locks, Ty's eyes light up and he rummages around in his pack for his lockpicks.
"Ooh, I just recently learned how to do this!"
Ty finds nothing on the north door, but on the east, he spots a nasty trap in the lock, intended to shoot a fan of flames throughout the stairwell if tampered with. He disarms the trap.
Knowing it was there on the eastern door, he takes his time and rechecks the north door. He sees the remains of a similar trap that had been already sprung, perhaps explaining the scorch marks on the south wall.
Confident there are no more traps, Ty is able to snick the lock on the east door, though they literally take all his skill (DC 30).
Opening the door, you reveal a scene of total and senseless destruction. Unlike the rooms in the floor below, this door opens into a double room. Large tables, now in a myriad of pieces, cover the central area, while smashed workbenches, complete with broken tools, vises, and other implements of construction, line the walls. A cobra, carved from darkwood, lies on the floor in front of the door, but unlike the one downstairs, is lifeless and still. A tall figure, human-like in appearance, though over 8-feet tall and with putrid green and yellow flesh seemingly stitched together in pieces, paces slowly back and forth in the southeastern end of the double room, the area around it clear of debris. The creature moans quietly to itself. Vicious gaping wounds cover much of its torso, though no blood or gore leak out. It looks up at the open door, lifeless vacant eyes locking on you; its features twist into an emotionless snarl and it lunges towards you.
”If we fight it in the stairwell, it will be severely hampered,” Sir bc Rollynd suggests, but delays, following your lead.
Ty, and then the creature.
"Makes sense to me!"
Daggers in hand, Ty does his best to hide in the corner of the stairwell he's already in.
Ty and Sir Rollynd delay.
The creature advances, its features a mix of insanity and stupor. When it reaches the doorway, it swings at the halfling.
The blow leaves a ringing in the paladin’s ears as he tries to return the favour, failing to penetrate its thick hide.
The crazed construct does not see Ty until the lad buried a dagger in its side. The blow fails to impact as much as it should, however (some DR in play here). The second dagger fails to get through the thick hide.
Everybody else is up, though until folks back up and lure it in, there isn’t much room to get around.
Conri shrugs. He fires a magic missile bolt at it and watches it fizzle on contact.
"I'm going to move out and draw the creature to me." And Edward does exactly that as he moves through the north door and around. When he reaches his destination he calls out, "Here! Over here, creature!"
It is still locked.