Dal continues to attack the doll, hiding behind her shield.
Continuing to harry the doll, Nelus is unable to land his own strike against it, but tries to pin it in place for Dal! (Shielding himself once it's clear he might not have much effect...)
Lennor lands another powerful blow, but the rest of the group continues to struggle to find a way to hit the flying creature.
The doll sets its sights on the biggest threat to it's existence, Lennor. Flying over her, it attacks her with its beak twice, both strikes piercing her defenses.
Party up!
Archa moves to support Lennor, slashing fiercely at the doll.
Once again, Lennor puts some distance between her and the doll, this time staggering past Dal before making a clumsy counterattack.
Gretta's ability to hit anything is degrading with every second. She might have mentioned her dislike of dolls, which MIGHT have tempted fate to make her look like a inept loon swinging her mighty hammer around wildly. Or its just dumb luck.
Dal goes after the bird-doll, swinging wildly and cursing.
Having observed the movements of the flying creature for several seconds now, Nelus finally times his strike appropriate. Anticipating where it will fly to next, he steps opposite Archa and cuts it down from the air, sending it crashing hard into the ground.
The doll has a blue gem (worth 5gp) embedded it's back that looks like it can be removed.
On the far side of the room you can clearly see the shiny spyglass that Tangletop requested you obtain for him. A quick study shows you that it is quite valuable, worth an estimated 20gp.
With the battle ended, Archa stows her urumi and moves to Lennor's side. "You are hurt. Allow me to tend your wounds."
Lennor, still somewhat dazed from the beating she endured, simply nods in acquiescence before sitting down.
"Thank you," she says, eventually. "The gem...it contains a piece of a soul. I'm not sure what we should do with it."
Nelus blanches at Lennor's pronouncement, sheathing his heavy bladed machete as he peers in closer.
Settling his spectacles firmly on his nose, he tries to suss out whatever magic might still be active on the gem. "Enough of a shard to leave someone stranded in the Boneyard?"
Gretta lays down her hammer and breathes heavily with her hands on her knees. Besides being out of breath for swinging wildly, she is embarrassed for being useless.
At the mention of the soul, she grabs the shaft of her hammer, and comes to look. "Can you cut a part of the soul off, and it still be the same?"
Nelus knows that the soul is imprisoned in the gem before it can reach the afterlife. There are no known magical ways to free the soul from the gem other than destroying it.
Lennor shakes her head. "No, from what I understand, the original soul is unaffected. It's a bit like taking a cutting from a tree to grow a new one."
Daleranna picks up the spyglass and pockets it while the others discuss about the gem, shaking her head as her consciousness slowly returns. She was about to suggest to just break the stone, but she decided not to. Better stay quiet and have others think you are stupid, than saying something and others be sure of it. She could hear her father's saying.
"Well, if the soul inside is not the real soul, there is no problem, right?"
Nelus purses his lip and furrows his brow. He starts furiously cleaning his spectacles for a few moments while he works up the courage to speak, but still uses the busywork to avoid looking at any one person in particular. "I don't think it's that simple. It's like cutting off someone's hand, or digging up their grave to take their skull. Yes someone can live without their hand, and yes someone still gets to pass on to the planes beyond if their tomb has been robbed but it's still not... nice? Unless you have a very good reason?"
"So we should give it to the temple? Ask if they can... not return it, but... Release it?" Gretta asked, wanting to do the right thing, but not sure what it is.
"The...donor...is most likely deceased already. You could destroy it, and release the fragment within. You could sell it, as soul gems are quite rare and valuable. You could even implant it into a new doll, though I would recommend against that course of action, with how irrationally violent it was." Lennor shrugs. "There is also the fact that we promised it to Tangletop."
shouts Tangletop's voice from two rooms away.
Nelus starts to nod, but then realizes not everyone's on board. You're asking them to care about someone who's already been hurt over money in their pockets, of course they think you're being stupid. "Oh! The Pharasmins in particular hate this kind of thing. I think there's a shrine in Meravon, and I'm sure they'd be willing to pay a bounty or something."
Gretta frowns "We wouldn't sell someone's hand to someone even if that person was already dead. Cause its wrong. Selling someone's soul, even part of it, is even worse." Gretta says, then roars ""
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" Okay. Sorry. Take your time."" the brownie calls out, decreasing his volume until you can't hear him mumbling to himself anymore.
"I think the fey wants this, not the gem." Dal says, showing the spyglass to the others briefly.
"About the gem, I say we crush it right now."
"You're right, of course," Lennor says, embarrassed. "Let's be about our business, then."
Heading back to the brownie, you find Tangletop eagerly awaiting your return. Barely containing his excitement, he is bouncing on feet, lifting himself up and down again while rubbing his hands together. "Did you get it?" he asks in a hurried voice, searching for the spyglass.
"The doll? Yes, it will no longer hurt Anyone." Gretta announces, happy with the outcome, despite having nothing to do with the demise.
"Err, Gretta, I think he means the spyglass."
Gretta leans down to listen to Nelus, "oh, um..." her cheeks turn a shade redder, then the straightens "Um, the spyglass, we got." she looks over at Dal "You tell us what you know and it's yours." her eyes hoping for a nod from the shieldmaiden.
"Right. A deal is a deal! First, this building used to belong to someone named Volluk Azrinae. Second, Volluk was an apprentice to someone else named Belcorra, and even though this Volluk seemed mean and dangerous, Belcorra was much worse! Third, the spooky magic lighthouse can do more than just shine an eerie light, it can also shoot a beam full of ghosts. There you go, that's three secrets for you. "
Tangletop holds his hands out, waiting for the spyglass.
"How does a beam full of ghosts work?" Gretta asks intrigued in that can't look away way. She does manage to look away though and look at Dal, who she remembers retrieving the spyglass.
Dal retrieves the spyglass from a pouch and tosses it to the brownie. "Here... but remember that we are giving you the item and not only three parts of it, so if you discover more secrets about this place, we'd like to know it. The full secret."
Tangletop shrugs, "Sounds really dangerous, right? I surely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that!"
The brownie catches the spyglass and squees with excitement. After running a small circle in place, he says "Thank you! Yes. Of course!"
He puts the spyglass up to his eye and starts looking through it, spinning in a circle as he surveys the room. When he comes across the door to the south, he takes it down and says "Oh. That door is a closet, but that one is a spooOOOoky staircase down to a cellar. Too spooky for Spookywisp, I didn't go down there. But brave adventurers such as yourselves are likely to be fine."
He returns to squeeing at his newfound treasure.
"Well," Lennor says, amused, "that was relatively simple."
Nelus marks off some space on his tablet.
New foci of investigation:
Volluk Azrinae
Belcorra
"What an...interesting being," Archa says, her face bemused. "Shall we resume our exploration? Where shall we head next?"
"Hum, lets check two areas we've left behind us." Dal says as she leads the group outside and when they are out of Tangletop's hearing distance she adds, while also looking for any sign of the drake they've spot earlier.
"We don't know what we are looking for yet, so the source of Wrin's fear could very well be there, and I'd rather not leave potential threats behind." With that, Dal peeks inside the room marked as "bogey" from the windows.
As you move back south you see no further sign of the drake either in the skies or near the area it emerged from the water. Peering inside of the windows, you find the room exactly as it was when you searched earlier today -- a complete mess. The collapsed ceiling destroyed much of the furniture and the room, leaving rubble all over the place. There are lots of items mixed in the rubble that could reveal more with a closer look.
Dal waits for the others before opening the door to investigate the place. Despite not having seen any creature so far, the fact that the gremlins marked this place with the word "Bogey" makes Dal more than cautious.
The collapsed ceiling at the middle of this room has left a ragged hole in the wooden roof. Rotten tapestries, their designs completely obscured by mold, hang in tatters on the walls between arrow slits and ruined side tables. The remains of a fancy dining table lie mostly pulverized by the fallen ceiling.
Dal moves in and waits a moment. When nothing jumps out in front of her, the rest of the party moves in and you see no immediate danger. Once in the room, you move to search the rubble and that's when trouble arises. A half‐dozen ghostly kobolds rise from the rubble in a howling vortex, emitting eerie howls!
This is an emotion, enchantment, fear, and mental effect.
Critical Success: The creature is unaffected.
Success: The creature is frightened 1.
Failure: The creature is confused for 1 round and is frightened 2.
Critical Failure The creature is confused for 2 rounds and is frightened 3.
Gretta is looking around the room, about to say something about the decorator, or meaning to at least, once she figured out the best way to deliver the line. Adventures in books always used wit to deal with the horrible state of things...
Oddly enough she was so distracted with her thinking the kobold's howling only disturbed her a little.
As the long-feared ghosts suddenly make their appearance, Nelus quite falls off his head - every time a spectral kobold draws near, he looses another arrow, driving them away from his friends, and especially from him!
Or what if they're possessed?!
The kobolds zero in on Nelus, feeding off his fear. They begin to swirl around the investigator, pulsing with an eerie blue light and forming a wall around him as they continue to circle. They instill feelings of betrayal and confusion in the Varisian as his head begins to explode in pain.
Dal is surprised by the appearances of the ghosts, reflexively protecting herself with her shield as if it would do anything at all. "Go away!"
Archa is unfazed by the screaming spirits. She boldly presents her holy symbol. "In Nalinivati's name, begone!" she declares.
Archa's confidence and expertise in this matter is on full display as the spirits are quickly dealt with, leaving poor Nelus alone and disappearing from sight.
With the spirits calmed, you are able to search the rubble properly without any further interruption. The debris is scattered everywhere and it takes nearly thirty minutes to give the room a proper search, but when you complete you find many tiny bones scattered in the rubble. In total, you find six kobold skeletons, 3 gp, 20 sp, a box with components for a caltrop snare, a wolf fang, and a vial of black adder venom with the word "YUM" clumsily written on it.
Archa examines the kobold bones. "Their spirits are tied to their physical remains. Destroying the bones will release them from their torment."
Lennor is staggered for several seconds under the mental assault, and she sits down for several minutes to collect herself. Still, nods in agreement with Archa's assessment. "That seems to be the wisest course of action."
Nelus sits quietly for a moment as he tries to hold his head together through a murderous migraine. It is thankfully though, short-lived.
"Do we think they were digging out or in?"
Gretta is holding the poison, looking at it with a frown. Taking out some charcoal she rubs it on the vial, hoping to obliterate the word on it in case they all get killed and someone stupider, Much stupider, finds it on them. "Um... what?" she asks Nelus, having missed something about digging.
Following Archa's advice, the group destroys the kobold bones to free them from the haunt. Finishing up here, you move back to the main room and continue north towards the door marked 'Stay Out'. When Daleranna tries it the door refuses to opened even thought it's not locked. It appears it's swollen shut and needs a little bit of help.
Dal tries to open it with her hand but doesn't get the leverage she needs. Gretta throws her boot into it with tremendous force and kicks the door so hard it flies off the hinges, into the room and breaks into several pieces.
Inside the room you find smooth walls of a circular room that are painted a light gray with no indication of seams between blocks of stone. A set of iron stairs winds upward along the curved walls before terminating at a trap door in the ceiling nearly a hundred feet above. A red bloodstain glistens on the floor at the room’s center, as though a human-sized creature bled to death on the floor very recently, despite there being no body in sight.