"We'll need magic weapons if it's ghostly. I can channel if it's a haunt. At least three of us have magic weapons now. Byron are you going with magic arrows or longsword?"
Zaraleva listens at the locked door.
"I prefer to fight in melee, but I still have some magical arrows if whatever we find tries to attack us from outside our reach." Byron says as they walk back towards the room with the crying sounds.
You all approach the room with the crying sounds. Aiko initially attempts to pick the lock, but after giving it her best, comes to the realization that it's not the lock, but something behind the door. At which point, Byron decides to take a more forceful approach and knock the damn thing down.
It takes a few attempts, but eventually his muscle prevails over the old door and he forces his way in and finds a storeroom. While it may have been organized at one time, it's filled with debris and broken barrels that you assume had been blocking the door.
Additionally, there is a single occupant in this room, a skeletal creature the size of a small child with the skull of a wolf. As it notices you, it moves to attack, sobbing all the while!
The attic whisperer moves up towards Byron and reaches out with a hand towards his windpipe!
And succeeds! Byron will need to make two DC16 Will Saves as he feels the attic whisperer pulling the breath out of him. Additionally, everyone within 10 feet of this creature (pretty sure that's all of you) will take a -1 on Attacks, Damage Rolls, and Will Saves as the attic whisperer sobs and sings unnervingly.
"Werewolf baby? We didn't cover that in "Beginning Studies of the Undead." At least it's corporeal. I'll try a non-magical bolt, but I bet it's hard to hit."
Byron gasps, but retains his breath. He then takes a moment to consider the strange creature before striking at it with the magical longsword.
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Adrian quickly moves forward to try and stomp down the scary skeleton child.
Aiko switches to dancing wasp since that allows her to lash out from behind in the confined space. Her pole arm training lets her shoot the rope dart out past Adrian without worrying about hitting him.
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Lyraesel dashes forward, unable to land an accurate hit in the chaos.
Everyone misses except Adrian, who connects solidly but doesn't crit.
Byron is fatigued.
The attic whisperer bites Byron for four points of damage, (Worst crit ever!)
and also tries to touch him again, but he squirms out of the way.
One more Will save, with a -1 due to the sobbing.
Everyone can go. AW is down 7 hp. Byron is down 4.
Zaraleva moves into melee if possible and swings her scimitar.
AW is now down 15.
"Stop moving already!" Adrian continues to put in a curbstomp on the whisperer.
Aiko misses the Attic Whisperer. Adrian's first kick goes wide, but his second kick hits it right in the face!
It is now down 22 HP.
Lyraesel presses the attack, taking advantage of the group's pack tactics to quickly step in and strike.
Byron misses, but Lyraesel hits! The Attic Whisperer is down 29 HP now.
The Attic Whisperer will attack Adrian!
And I need a DC16 Will Save if it connects
Everyone is up again.
Slash!
Lyraesel continues to press her attack with unrelenting intensity, tearing the creature's legs out from under it as she does.
Byron moves sluggishly, but tries to strike out at the strange creature once more.
Adrian continues to do what works (at least partially).
And with that, you destroy the Attic Whisperer! With the room fully cleared, you are able to find the skeleton of a child, pinned to the floor beneath a pile of logs and a heavy iron brazier.
On the wall next to the child are drawings with charcoal depicting crude ninja with throwing stars, frightening bird-headed men, and lumbering magical ogres wielding axes.
Byron leans against the wall and rests as he says, "That thing was...crazy. It sapped all my energy."
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"Damn you, bird-men. Damn you to a million epic tortures. You even killed the children..." Zaraleva, who will never have children of her own, needs a moment as well.
A minute or two later, she points to one of the ninjas. "This one looks like you, Aiko," and she tries to laugh.
Whether or not there is laughter, Zaraleva will search the room
and barely find the exit.
Aiko says gravely, "Indeed... but what are a cohort of ninja doing attacking this castle, so far from Tian Xia? And where did they go after they left behind, with the bird-creatures taking this as a lair?"
Aiko rolls up the chain for dancing wasp and adds, "We should probably take the poor unfortunate's remains and give them a proper burial in the graveyard."
Lyraesel nods, sure that burying the body should help the child rest.
Taking a moment, she searches the rest of the room.
"What? I didn't think that at all, Aiko. I thought they fought against the evil bird men. This was a human castle before the monsters came. <shudder>"
"Byron, do you need to see Spivey before we go to the basement?"
"But shinobi are not endemic to Varisia. As far as I know my father and I were the only ones within a thousand miles of Sandpoint! There may be a few hiding here and there in the big cities, but a castle full of them? Out here? It is a strange mystery," Aiko explains.
Lyraesel: Nothing else in this room is of any import or use, save for perhaps the firewood.
"Maybe it's time to talk to the families after we save Ameiko?"
Zaraleva says a prayer for the child and gently removes them from the room.
"I am tired...and a little beat up. Some healing might help, but a good night's sleep would be nice. I am not sure Spivey can help with that, but after we bury the child I will stop by Spivey and see what she can do" Byron says with a big yawn as they head out to bury the remains.
"Not only do we have shinobi here for years, they're connected with Ameiko and made great lengths not to get her family involved. Given the lengths these people here have gone searching for her, I can see why. I just wish we knew more of what's going on." Adrian huffed in frustration before nodding to the cleric. "Maybe that's a good idea to bring her in for help."
Zaraleva approaches Spivey's territory, trying not to let any tears escape.
"Spivey? This child was probably a Desna worshipper based on the temple we cleaned up inside. We thought he or she should be buried here where you can watch over them."
Spivey nods solemnly as you tell her of the unfortunate child. "A wise choice. May this poor child's soul fly free with The Song of the Spheres in the next life."
After the funeral, Zaraleva looks at the party and Kelda.
"One place left on the map. Let's finish this."
Byron will go find Spivey to see about getting any aid she might provide.
"Right." With a firm nod, the monk went into the final room alongside the others.
With the funeral finished, you head down to the one area of the castle that you haven't explored, hoping to find something that will rouse Ameiko from her slumber and leave this castle that you've been wandering in for so long. You take the stairs down and eventually come across an iron portcullis that stops your advance. The bars of this portcullis are sunk deep into the floor and ceiling.
However, on the left and right of this portcullis, you can spot two 5-inch diameter depressions, the same size as the discs you found exploring this castle. The depression on the left bears an image of the sun, while the right bears an image of the moon.
"Interesting. We could place the discs in the similar spaces or the opposite space... Or I could just disintegrate the whole portcullis."
#callback
Aiko produces the matching disks.
"Now we know why these were so out of place. Someone made this deliberately difficult to access."
Aiko places the sun disk on the left side and the moon disk on the right side.
Lyraesel waits, ready to leap aside in the event of a trap of some sort.
"Wait a moment while I check for traps" Byron says as he looks over the doors.
"I hope this works." Adrian waits anxiously as Aiko adjusts the disks.
As Aiko places the disks, the bars slowly grind into the ground, allowing you to pass. Opening the portcullis reveals a room, with walls stained by old bloodstains and violent gouges. Naught but dust can be found on the floor as the vault to the southwest lies open and empty, but before despair can take you, you all notice a second door to the east, somehow missed by those who raided this room.
Once the bars grind down, Aiko pulls out dancing wasp and sets it slowly spinning again. She moves cautiously into the chamber, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, checking corners, floor tilings, even the ceiling for holes, slits, discolorations, or lack of dust.
"The door there, Byron—you on it?"
Drawing her sickle, Lyraesel moves into the space as well, focusing her attention on the door.