Tsmara spies the faint shimmer of distortion near the floor of the pit by the rock pile. She invokes her mystical power to limn the invisible form of a humanoid with colored light.
Data sends an arrow through the illuminated spirit, but the non-magical arrow does not seem to accomplish much.
Now that Demm can see the actual creature, he calls upon his dragon magic and sends darts of force into the phantom.
Encounter. Round 3/4. Bold may act.
Invisible (-9 hp; faerie fire)
Demm
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Djahan (30/33 hp; Unbreakable Heart 3 rounds +4 vs. fear)
Felix
Data
--3--
Aurora
The illuminated outline picks up a rock and chucks it at Tsamara. Presumably, the aim is terrible.
Djahan finds it difficult to climb the side of the pit, so he enchants his teeth.
Encounter. Round 4/5. Bold may act.
Invisible (-9 hp; faerie fire)
Demm
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Djahan (30/33 hp; Unbreakable Heart 1 rounds +4 vs. fear; magic fang)
Felix
Data
--4--
Aurora
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Not wanting to leave Djahan stuck down in the pit, Tsamara tries to ignore whatever's chucking rocks at her head as she pulls a length of silk rope out of her pack and tosses it down.
"Djahan! Use this!"
She then attempts to either brace herself or find something to tie her end of the rope to.
What even *is* this thing?
This is a phantom, which is a form of undead spirit. They typically haunt a specific location.
Demm tad-draguni saves them all by unleashing a pair of powerful bolts of force. The bolts unerringly strike the illuminated poltergeist and then the light around it vanishes. There are several tense heart beats as you wait to see if something else happens, but nothing does. This allows Djahan to climb Tsamara's rope--anchored by the combined strength of the catfolk and android--and move on to the room of murals.
...or he can examine the dead while he's down there .
Four evenly-spaced canvas walls run parallel to each other in a row stretching from north to south through the middle of this room. On both sides of each wall hang dozens of paintings, drawings, and sketches of a variety of violence-themed scenes. A solid wooden door is in the middle of the south wall and a heavier, oaken door is in the middle of the north wall. The largest painting, on the far left canvas wall, depicts the interior of a large, elegantly appointed opera house where rotting undead creatures feed on the living.
Status
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Djahan (30/33 hp)
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"Huh...that was actually another phantom," Tsamara reports after Demm puts an end to the thing. "They're usually left tied to a specific place to haunt...so I think we did a good thing in setting it free," she adds, shooting a glance at Aurora.
Once Djahan is out of the pit, she quickly coils up her rope and places it back in her pack before continuing across the bridge to rejoin the rest of the group.
Tsamara stops and stares at the opera house painting for a moment.
"I know that place! It's the House of the Immortal Son, in Oppara. Looks like these Zyphus people are proud of what they did there, even if their big plan failed in the end."
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The sorcerer stares at the tiefling incredulously for a few moment before shaking his head, muttering as he walks away. "Team. TEAM? Pfft! Them am do mostly nothing the entire time. Just stand there. Pfft! 'Team' he am saying. No one else am sending powerful arcane bolts. Only Demm tad-draguni. Pfft. He am no tell difference. No wonder he am embarrassed."
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As Djahan takes a quick gander at the corpses down in the pit, Tsamara looks around the small room for anything else of interest.
Assuming she finds nothing, she waits until Djahan makes it out of the pit and nods.
"Time to press on, then?"
She steps up next to the door and takes a listen...
"Sounds okay to me," she nods, giving the go-ahead to one of the others to try opening the door.
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"Perhaps the phantom wanted to be where it was. It may have been glad to defend this place. You or I would be terminally bored, I'm sure, but a soul sufficiently dedicated to their faith might find joy in the task. What a shame we won't get to ask." Aurora pouts a little, before turning her attention to the paintings.
"What fascinating artwork. These Zyphus cultists are truly out of their tiny minds..." I wonder what it tastes like...
"See anything interesting down there, Djahan?"
Djahan is able to explain that the two male human bodies died from massive internal trauma, such as falling into a deep pit. The female half-elf has dozens of tiny bite marks and likely died of poison.
From Tsamara's position next to the door, she hears nothing. The door does not bear a lock.
The oil paintings look valuable but bulky. Possibly something you would want to bring back with you on your way out.
Djahan notices the tip of a tiny copper tube concealed along a seam on the ceiling above the space in front of the door. The tube appears to be aimed toward the south wall.
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“These phantoms usually plague me and now that we’d need one here to look through the walls … there is none floating around!“ Djahan says a little annoyed.
“I unfortunately cannot help to disable any trap but I could volunteer to trigger it and face the consequences alone! Every experience is a step on the path to enlightenment!“ the Paladin preaches.
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Data nods to Aurora. "If it is mechanical in nature, I can try to disarm it and would welcome your aid...but if it be magical, I am afraid I can do nothing...can someone cast detect magic on it, just to make sure, before I make my attempt?"
In the meantime, he'll look at the trap to see if he can discern its nature...
Data figures that the trap is mechanical. However, it turns out to be particularly devious in its design so that he triggers the trap as he moves to deal with the trap.
As soon as the android steps toward the door, oil sprays out of the nozzle on the ceiling followed almost immediately by a great gout of fire, which fills the center aisle and sets the paintings on fire. Thick, choking smoke and oppressive heat quickly begins to fill the room.
Event (measured in rounds)
Aurora
Data (24 Fire damage, Reflex DC 25 for half)
Demm
Djahan (30/33 hp) (24 Fire damage, Reflex DC 25 for half)
Felix
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Other Things Happen
Environment
Djahan brings the burned Data back to consciousness with the magic of his wand while Tsamara drags the android out of the immediate flames.
Sebastus screams, "Ah! Fire!" Turns and runs into the wall, nearly knocking himself over, and then runs out the door. His fear of fire overcoming his fear of Zyphus knocking him off of the bridge (despite whatever you said about phantoms and defeating them).
Event (measured in rounds)
Aurora
Data (5/21 hp; prone)
Demm
Djahan (12/33 hp)
Felix
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Other Things Happen
Environment
Felix retreats from the burning room. Data stands up and makes his way toward safety. The fires spread. Djahan cooks a little. The smoke cloud gets thicker, and the room gets hotter.
Event (measured in rounds)
Aurora
Data (5/21 hp; prone)
Demm
Djahan (10/33 hp)
Felix
Tsamara (23/24 hp)
Other Things Happen
You all make it out of the burning room and wait. While you watch the fire burn, you begin to find it harder to breathe. The air feels thinner now. Once the fire burns out, the room is filled with thick, choking smoke that makes it difficult to see beyond your own arms. One of the paintings survived the fire where Aurora had released her magical water spray.
The heat inside the room is nearly unbearable, and you fear spending too much time within would be unhealthy.
Fortunately, the fire trap has not reset, and the door forward was indeed unlocked.
A half-moon-shaped cliff splits this room in half. The lower side, along the south wall, is twenty feet below the higher side along the north wall. The cliff is rather smooth, seemingly absent of handholds or any easy way to climb it. A solid, oaken door leads out of the room to the south, and two simple wooden doors lead out to the north and east. The room smells vaguely like cooked meat.
There are a dozen or so spikes embedded in the heavy oak door and the south wall as well as a dozen spikes imbedded in the corpse of a human female lying against the base of the cliff. The corpse has nothing of value.
Djahan finds the cliff frustratingly difficult to even begin to climb. No arrows shoot out of the wall at him, either.
There is indeed an invisible ladder of a sorts that he had not discovered. Djahan finds several tiny alcoves carved into the cliff at angles cleverly chosen to make them hard to see. Once he has found these--and pointed them out to his companions--the climb upwards is (mostly) trivial. He also discovers that when he puts force upon the first hand grip, the base of the handhold sinks slightly and there is a click. However, no arrows release. They have all been spent.
At the top of the cliff, you find the source of the room's smell. Two deformed and burned bodies lie in a puddle of congealed oil in front of the door to the east.
Suddenly, out of thin air something starts to materialize.
A phantom in incorporeal form appears which looks like the ghostly apparition of a young boy!
”Oh come on!!! I was just playing!!! Why am I here?! And you … “ the apparition says with a grin, ”… you are me!!!!“ the phantom shouts pointing at Djahan!
”You are shaking your head? YOU are shaking your head?!?! Ha ha ha … “ the kid-phantom shouts laughing.
”I died because of you!! You killed me!! Ha ha ha … “ the spirit says and laughs and it seems as if it carried its childlike nature into the afterlife.