This spacious room smells of mildew and rot. A long desk and chair sit to the south, while to the northwest a narrow alcove contains a closed safe. Thick layers of dust cover everything in sight.
Treasure:
Within the safe are kept numerous (now out-of-date) legal documents, along with 500 gp (the prison’s payroll and petty cash fund) and a wooden rack on which sit emergency supplies (four potions of cure moderate wounds, three potions of lesser restoration, and two potions of remove disease).
This room was used as a washroom by the guards—the smaller chamber to the west was a privy. There’s nothing of interest here today.
Drake continues to watch the group and can be seen with a red glow in his hand when he opens it to look at it.
Still grumbling about not fighting the spiders, Lectrum asks, "Should I start piling the papers, Doc?"
Ignoring the guards washroom, Børak stays near the door of the office, his bardiche at the ready, keeping an eye on the hall. He chuckles at Lectrum's question, hoping Ramada's answer was a clear 'NO'.
Figuring the good doctor would be busy looking at the papers Lectrum indicated, he looks from Valiard to Vizayn, nodding towards the safe asking, "Do either of you know how to tickle a safe?"
As the others begin to examine the warden's office, Nikolay begins trying to catalogue the papers, quickly becoming overwhelmed by the reams and reams of disorganized, useless records.
"Should I start piling the papers, Doc?"
At Lectrum's words Nikolay looks up, his face taking on a look of dismay as he registers the massive stack of paper Lectrum is holding in his hands - hours more of work to add to that already in front of him. Without a word, he buries his head in his hands, and if Lectrum listens closely, he can hear the sound of quiet sobbing.
After a moment to regain his composure, Nikolay makes his way into the warden's office to rejoin the others. "The bad news is that every record I have looked at has been next to useless, and I have hundreds more documents to sift through before the paperwork can be said to even approach orderliness. The good news is that I have discovered a new source of kindling." He glances around the room, his lambent red eyes resting on the safe in the wall. "Now this I can deal with!" He pulls out his thieves' tools and sets to work on the door.
Within a few moments, the safe lies open at his fingertips, and he begins to rummage through its contents. He pulls out the hefty stack of legal papers, glances through them, and unceremoniously tosses them over his shoulder. "Out of date for decades - valueless, and unlikely to tell us much of import." He sets the wooden rack and its vials on the table, sparing barely a glance at the labels. "I recognize the texture and consistency. The four on the left will restore your vigor, the three in the middle will return your strength or health if they are sapped - such as by those stirges the other day - and the two on the right will cure us of any unpleasant plagues that we may encounter." He pulls out the moldering leather pouch, opening it to glance inside before cinching the drawstring closed again. "The prison's payroll. A respectable amount of cash, and I doubt the guards will be collecting their paychecks. Hey, Børak, catch!"
He appears to toss the pouch to Børak, secretly tucking it away up his sleeve before he throws it and leaving Børak with an empty hand. He grins mischievously as he sees the result of his prank. "I've still got the skills from my Sczarni days! Check your pocket, Lectrum." Sure enough, in the dragonkin's pocket lies the moldering pouch of coins, deposited there while everyone was watching his distraction. Nikolay's grin widens. "I think we've done all we can here. Should we check out those double doors in the main foyer?"
"Wha? How...I'm rich! Let's finish this quest and go drink!"
Visayn was considering whether he had enough skill to crack the safe, when Nikolay already had it opened "You, Doctor Nikolay, are clearly a man of many trades." he says with a grin and takes look of the papers
While Doc tosses the coin bag, Visayn quickly reaches into safe and snatches one cure moderate wounds potion and one restoration potion. "Yeah, lets move on. Nothin' interesting here."
Valiard watched the doctor open the safe and toss the gold around. That's a lot of gold...ah well, best I let Ramada have his fun...its more important to focus on getting out of this alive then worrying about being rich.
"Ramada, the good news is that this prison will not be operating again in our lifetime, so all this paperwork will have rotted away before then. Whomever comes after us will be able to start fresh." Valiard said with a grin as he rifled through the untidy stacks.
"I will hold onto the remaining potions unless anyone else wants to grab one. I don't plan on keeping them myself when we eventually all part ways, and will re-distribute them then, if there is no objections." Valiard said, then wrapped the potions in cloth and stored them safely in his pouches.
Blinking his eyes as Ramada seems to toss a pouch and him, Børak tries to remember if the good doctor had said if he practiced wizardry or not. Hearing Ramada's comment out the Sczarni, Børak assumes the 'coin' toss was just sleight of hand. Chuckling at Lectrum's declaration to 'finish the quest and get a drink, Børak smiles and nods. Shifting his bardiche to his shoulder he agrees with Vizayn, "Nothing interesting, but let's give Valiard a moment to gather the vials."
He nods his head towards the hallway, "Like the good doctor said let's head back and check out the other set of double doors going off of the foyer."
Moving to the double doors, he pauses inspecting them quickly. As he opens the doors, he notices the Several rows of wooden benches, all spotted with mold and sagging with neglect, face a stage walled off from the rest of 'the room by a wall of iron bars. Turning he asks Ramada, "Should the mold be dangerous?"
As Nikolay enters the auditorium, his blood-red eyes take in the rows upon rows of mold-spotted benches before resting on the barricaded stage, and a smirk flickers across his face for an instant. "Now there's an innovation! Those bars would have come in handy in any number of Sincomakti lecture halls - I'll be the first to admit that my colleagues and I rarely take safety into consideration in our work."
"Should the mold be dangerous?"
Ramada clears his throat and adjusts his spectacles at Børak's words, startled out of his reverie. He moves to the nearest bench and examines the mold growing on it with a scientist's curiosity.
After a moment, he straightens up and glances around the entire auditorium. "There may be supernatural forces at work here, as well - I should check for unquiet spirits."
Assuming Dragonkin can roll their eyes physically, Lectrum does at the thought of tedious inspection and spellcasting. He looks at Borak and makes the universal sign of tipping back a mug, then throwing it across the room.
"So if that's a bardiche, does that make you a bard?" He laughs in a delighted yet strange, guttural manner. It's a little unnerving, possibly, but he thinks he just made the funniest joke in history.
As Ramada explored the chapel, Børak rests the butt of his bardiche on the ground, leaning on the business end of the pole. He smiles at Lectrum's antics and shakes his head sagely, "No it's more like the plant 'wolfsbane' it makes bards itch."
Drake took the intended thought to fruition, he pulled out his watwrskin and began to drink. On the third gulp he heard Borak's joke and choked on the water for a few moments. Snickering to himself as he recovers.
After entering the room you soon feel the room getting colder, then a moment later it appears to be freezing.
As Ramada is using deathwatch he sees an undead spirit just as the spell takes effect on himself.
Not wanting to dare the mold until he knows what it is, Børak calls to his friend, "Ramada, you figured out what the mold is?"
Mold doesn't interest Visayn that much. Of course such an old building would have mold. Better stay away from it, if possible. Anyway he follows Borak to the door of auditorium, watching silently what happens to Ramada.
Valiard moved up behind Borak after finishing collecting and arranging the healing items in his pack. "What is in there? Some sort of auditorium?" he said, glancing through the door.
"I bet its haunted. It seems like every place that had strong emotions has been haunted so far. The office and the hallways are the only safe place in this crazy place."
As Ramada is using deathwatch he sees an undead spirit just as the spell takes effect on himself.
Grunting at Valiard's observation, Børak wondered about it being haunted as well.
Sorry for not getting a response to your knowledge check sooner.
Borak: Spirit Sense: a spiritslayer manifests an uncanny sixth sense regarding the presence of invisible creatures. He gains Blind-Fight as a bonus feat and ignores the usual +20 bonus to the DC of any Perception check to pinpoint the location of an invisible creature. If the spiritslayer manages to pinpoint an invisible creature’s location using a Perception check, he can study that creature with his studied target ability as a swift action.
Ramada: deathwatch: 30 foot cone: dead, fragile (alive and wounded, with 3 or fewer hit points left), fighting off death (alive with 4 or more hit points), healthy, undead, or neither alive nor dead (such as a construct). Deathwatch sees through any spell or ability that allows creatures to feign death.
Anyone else?[/ooc]
As Ramada enters the room on his own he sees the undead spirit as he is affected by the haunt.
Nikolay staggers back a step as the spirit manifests, clutching at his throat as it drains his life energy - though his infernal nature spares him from the worst of the effects. "Valiard, my friend, bring the holy water! An unquiet spirit has manifested - likely a prisoner who died here!" He fumbles in his bag for a moment before extracting an explosive concoction and throwing it at the incorporeal spirit, splattering it with fragments of a strange, glowing substance.
Valiard grimaced. Of course he asks for the one thing that I do not have!
"Does anyone have holy water?" Valiard shouted out, hoping to catch the attention of any of his companions who had not gathered at the doorway.
"I have the power that the crystal gave me. I can try that if nobody has any holy water." Valiard shouted into the room.
He offers as he holds his bow in one hand, "No we likely don't have any, I didn't get a chance to stock up. I can also channel though to little effect. I can't see the spirit so there isn't much I can do."
"So how do we help?" There is no panic in Lectrum's voice, but a fair amount of concern.
Visayn's eyes widen in shock "Guys, remember when we found a moldy Spellbook not long ago? Could it be relevant to ghost in a moldy room? Doc, I'm fairly sure you should use that book NOW." Visayn speaks hastily and seems to be very serious
Doctor Ramada's bomb seems to be effective but the spirit still remains.
"Do we rush in there to pull him out?" Valiard asked, seeing that nobody had any holy water to spare.
Nikolay pulls another concoction from his bag and throws it, splattering the spirit with more of his concoction and limning its incorporeal form with the strange froth. "Never fear, my friends! I can see the spirit clearly! At least this way some good will come out of that accursed Eternis Project!"
The doctor finishes off the spirit and the effect stops.
Was that a ghost or something else? Is it safe to search the room?
Lectrum seems uncomfortable.
He casually offers, "Go on in and test it for us Lecturn, I am sure it will be fine." Without waiting he steps into the room and walks past Ramada.
After looking around the room, taking a 10 for 20 on Perception, he asks, "Not much here, where to next?"
Lectrum looks around the formerly haunted room for a minute and then moves on to the next door in the hall.
The northeast wall of this room has partially fallen, revealing the dark, murky waters of the pond outside. Moldering training dummies and other similar equipment hint that this room may have once been a training area for the guards. In the northeast part of the room, the floor around a dark, jagged hole is surrounded by black scorch marks.
It’s a 20-foot drop to the next area.
The edges of the hole may appear dangerous.
[spoiler=K dungeoneering DC 15]It will be very difficult to climb down by hand.
---
A huge stone furnace dominates this room, large enough for a child to climb inside. An ancient fire has burned away the entire east wall the room, providing a panoramic, if eerie, view of the lake beyond. That same lake has gradually expanded into the room, flooding its eastern half.
The enormous furnace in this chamber once heated Harrowstone. A soot-caked copper plaque over the furnace entrance reads “Ember Maw.”
After the spirit was banished, Visayn heads to the training area looking around.
"That pit there looks its very difficult climb down to where it leads. I can borrow you some rope, if you want to explore there. Just be careful."
Lectrum has no knowledge but might make a perception roll in the furnace room.
"Sly, do you smell that?"
Lectrum will leave the room if attacked.
Valiard followed Lectrum into the auditorium to check on the doctor. "Well that was harrowing. You could feel the cold off that thing all the way into the hallway! I am glad it didn't affect you Ramada." Valiard said as he checked over his old friend.
"What do you say we check this over quickly and then move to follow Lectrum...he seems to have already lost interest." Valiard continued as he watched the dragonkin wander into the room and then back out.
As the spirit dissipates, Nikolay brushes scraps of ectoplasm off his coat. At Valiard's words, he grins. "You need not fear, Valiard. It's a simple matter of multidimensional metaphysical quiddity anchors..." He clears his throat before correcting himself. "...That is to say, my grip on life is stronger than most. Of course, the ability to see souls didn't hurt, either."
When the other rooms are mentioned, he looks worried for a moment. "This complex is not stable! One wrong step could bring the entire thing crashing down on us! I had best go verify the rooms the others are in to ensure they are not buried alive."
He stops in the sinkhole room, glancing at the state of the floor near the pit. "The unstable pieces will have fallen in by now - the system has reached equilibrium, though I can't see why anyone would want to climb down there." To demonstrate his point, he walks to the edge and peers in. "I sincerely doubt we can access the lower level from here. It would be best to just leave this room be, for the time being."
He stops in the sinkhole room, glancing at the state of the floor near the pit. "The unstable pieces will have fallen in by now - the system has reached equilibrium, though I can't see why anyone would want to climb down there." To demonstrate his point, he walks to the edge and peers in. "I sincerely doubt we can access the lower level from here. It would be best to just leave this room be, for the time being."
"I'll take expert's word on it. We haven't yet explored second floor so shall we head there next?" Visayn quickly dashes out of pit room
Searching the Auditorium it turns up nothing of worth.
Lecturn enters the furnace room as the rest of the group checks out the pit in the training room.
You notice the face of the furnace beginning to animate and to scent the sudden rising stink of burning flesh.
Getting close to the furnace, 20 feet, you notice the face of Old Ember Maw seems to animate into a leering skull-like visage made of metal and bars. It roars, then a fiery tongue lashes out from its maw to strike at one target within 30 feet, attacking as a scorching ray (+3 ranged touch attack, 4d6 fire damage). The haunt continues to attack each round as long as targets remain within the room.
Looking down the pit he states, "I could easily jump down there. But I like the idea to check the 2nd level first."
"Ha! You missed! Have some ghost-killing axe in your face!," he roars, probably drawing the others.
oops. semi-colon!
That's a 21 to hit for
Valiard finished checking the auditorium for anything of interest and moved after the rest of the group, following Ramada and Visayn.
"That sounds good to me. Let's clear the upper floors, then proceed downward." Valiard said pointedly.
"I didn't see any stairs however..."
"That sounds good to me. Let's clear the upper floors, then proceed downward."
Nikolay nods. "That would be for the best. If we press onward, we should be able to find the prisoner ghosts and vanquish them."
"I didn't see any stairs however..."
At this, the strange doctor grins. "My friend, I am a trained engineer with a ready supply of explosives and a cavalier approach to safety regulations. I make my own stairs - well, more of holes in the ground, really. Just let me know when you want to move on - and be sure to roll upon impact, of course."
Borak is about to offer Valliard his memory of some stairs but charges after Lecturn. The floor drops out below him and he falls into a deep dark hole. After a round you can't hear him yelling anymore or listening hear anything come from the pit.
He begins to move forward after Borak but once he drops from sight he just stops aghast at what he saw.
It takes him several rounds to come to grips with what he saw and slowly walks up upon the pit lip... He looks at the others and wonders.
"Did Borak just jump into the pit...wait, where is Lectern?" Valiard asked, looking around.
"Oh, no, don't tell me..." Valiard said, eying the pit.
Valiard dropped his pack and rummaged for a moment, before pulling out the silk rope. He tied it off and tossed the free end down into the pit.
"Now we have a way back up." he said, then headed for the edge and climbed down using the rope.
Lectrum
(any autocorrect changing it to "Lecturn" will meet my wrath.)
Nikolay is about to respond to Valiard when he hears shouting from the furnace room, quickly rushing after the herbalist. As he sees the pit that Børak and Lectrum have presumably disappeared into, he stops short, a look of incredulity on his face. "Damnation! It shouldn't be possible - this portion of the complex still had most of its structural integrity!" After a moment, he grabs hold of the rope, following Valiard down into the pit. As he descends the rope, he hums nervously to himself - he is well aware of the closeness of the walls and the fragility of the silken rope keeping him from a potentially fatal fall. At one point in the climb, he accidentally wedges his lanky body in an awkward position and becomes stuck, causing him to hyperventilate madly until he manages to free himself and continue down the pit.
As Valiard takes his chances with the tied off silk rope to a beam, he moves towards the pit only for it to vanish as if it was never there. Likely a ghostly effect. Valiard does see Lectrum fighting an animating furnace with a face and burning mouth. It continues to jet out flames at Lectrum.
Round 2 Lectrum
The furnace blasts off another jet of flame.
Valiard's, Drake's and Ramada's actions put them tied up and on the floor seeing the fight go down. Drake is still behind and aghast for another round.
Lectrum's slice hit the furnace but to no obvious damage.