"Here is another doorway into the prison. Who has a spell slot to open it?"
Nikolay looks at Børak for a moment, uncomprehending, until his mind switches tracks and recognition dawns on his face. "Doorway? That's right - the hand-print! We should enter the complex before the stored energy dissipates." He moves into the small corridor, beckoning for the others to follow, then sips from a vial containing one of his alchemical concoctions and places his hand on the glowing hand-print, channeling the arcane potential energy into the unfinished system in the rock instead of using it for the ablative shield he brewed the elixir to form.
Valiard eyed the doorway with some trepidation, then glanced back over the assembled group appraisingly.
"Are any of you priests? I don't fancy wandering into the depths of the prison and trying to tackle any of the spirits down there without a bit of godly assistance." Valiard asked, as he watched Ramada working at the door.
As Nikolay drinks his extract and charges the entrance he is whisked away. Drake quickly follows touching it too and is whisked away as well.
Lectrum and Sly follow without complaint.
You can see there are some stone weapon racks and stone lockers to the side to store personal items. Last you see a circular door with the similar magic circles on it. After 5 rounds Borak appears on the waypoint.
Aside from offering her name, Magdali speaks little during the conversation with the newcomers. Mostly she stands waiting, with her arms crossed or hands clasped behind her back, while scientific trivia is exchanged by the others. She is not mistrustful or the newcomers, and is waiting to get on with things.
When Valiard asks about priests among them, Magdali answers.
"Strictly speaking I am not clergy but I am an associate from Gravecharge, Pharasma's cathedral in Lepidstadt. I have certain gifts which may be valuable should we find any spirits lurking below."
Magdali looks the part, with her slender body, pale skin, waist-length white hair, and black clothing, she looks rather like artistic depictions of Pharasma. Of course the silver disk bearing a spiraling comet she wears as a pendant makes the association clear as well.
When her turn comes, Magdali places her hand on the entrance as the others going before her have.
Seeing that the others all touched the stone and were whisked away, Valiard stood in the now quiet meadow, where he listened to the few song birds calling in the distance. He sighed, shrugged then loosened his daggers in their sheaths.
Valiard dug in his pouches before he pulled out his ioun stone and hung it up above his head where it floated merrily, its glow hidden by the daylight.
He crouched down next to the stone, ready for anything, then reached out and touched the hand print.
Smilng as recognition dawns on Nikolay face, Børak nods and watches as his friend charges the entrance. Turning to asnwe Vallard, he realizes his mentor is headed into the door as well. Gripping his bardiche in both hands, he calls over his shoulder to Valiard, "I'm not." as he plunges through the entrance, not having the time to tell their new companions his skills.
After most of the group has gone through, Visayn glances his immediate surroundings and presses the hand print.
As you charge after the group your hand comes in contact with the door and you are whisked away. Only to appear on a waypoint of some kind with two large blue flames to illuminate the room. You see Drake sitting over on a locker with Nikolay and the others nearby.
You can see there are some stone weapon racks and stone lockers to the side to store personal items. Last you see a circular door with the similar magic circles on it. After 5 rounds another member appears on the waypoint. Soon enough the whole group is there.
Approaching the door it lights up with a blue glow of magic and simply opens without you having to touch it.
Beyond you find a hallway which goes left and right each at least 60 feet. There are two doors on the otherside of the hallway both 20 feet away.
Drake slowly gets up putting much of his weight upon it. He slowly shuffles towards the door.
As he is transported to the depths of Harrowstone, Nikolay looks around, taking in the room he has been brought to. Once he realizes that he is standing on the terminus of the teleportation effect, he quickly moves off the waypoint - he is well aware of the gruesome and almost invariably fatal effects of superimposing two creatures or one creature and an inanimate object or the like. As the time passes, he begins to hyperventilate, becoming aware of how confined the room is. What if there was some sort of accident? What if there's no way out of here? Am I stuck here for eternity? This must be a trap of some sort - I never should have trusted the others! They were all plotting to kill me from the start - why didn't I see it?
He is broken out of his paroxysm of anxiety and paranoia as Drake appears, and he warmly greets the elderly elf and helps him to an overturned stone locker where he can sit. The young alchemist chatters on about weathering and subsidence and how the building has likely changed over the centuries, but it's clear he is paying little attention to what he is actually saying - he's just relieved to have someone else there with him. As Drake points out the lockers, Nikolay focuses on the stacked containers, examining them from several angles. "The Harrowstone guards clearly knew about this entrance - perhaps they repurposed these lockers as well? The prisoners' effects may have been stored in here." He pulls his locksmith's tools from his bag and examines the lockers, trying to determine if they are sealed with arcane or mundane means and how he can bypass their wards. His mood shifts dramatically as he becomes engrossed in his work - his focus on the mechanisms of the lockers helps distract him from his claustrophobia.
You sense a simple rune that would likely unlock the mundane lock with a touch of the owner's hand. The locks are a DC 20 and are embedded in the lockers. You open up Drake's old locker and find some elven simple shoes and a folded set of Elven clothes with greens and browns.
You estimate that there is nearly 1,000 gp worth of items here.
Stumbling into the waypoint, Børak nods to his two friends, asking "Are you two ok?" As he asks he notices the stone weapon racks. Approaching the racks he takes a moment to observere whatever he finds.
----------------------
Once he see's Drake moving towards the door, he calls out, "Drake, let someone else take point, you use your bow to support." He then turns to the others. "If we are entering the prison, we should have a plan, if nothing else we should move in a fashion we can support each other."
"Are you two OK?"
Nikolay nods. "I am feeling well, though I would caution you to get off the waypoint before the next person appears - I have seen drawings of the effects of multidimensional superimposition, and I assume you would like to keep your internal organs inside your body."
After a few minutes' work with his picks, several of the stone coffers lie open before Nikolay, and he takes the time to look through their contents. "There are some fascinating artifacts here, Drake! At least three museum curators come to mind who might actually kill for some of these silks." He rummages further in the open containers, pulling out a hefty book bound in plates of a strange, otherworldly metal. "A copy of the Yor-Shulhoa Incunabulum! One of your colleagues must have been a dedicated occultist indeed, Drake, to get a copy of this text. Unfortunately, such lore is far from my field of expertise, but I'm sure we could sell it to some scholar or other."
"If we are entering the prison, we should have a plan, if nothing else we should move in a fashion we can support each other."
Nikolay nods. "I believe I can support our group in a number of positions. I have several healing concoctions prepared, so I could likely aid you near the back. Alternatively, my eyes can see the souls of the living and dead, so I may be able to give us forewarning of the restless spirits that lie in wait."
After Magdali pops into the room, she looks around for a few moments. Her first question is for their new partners.
"Where is this ghost you spoke of?"
Valiard popped back into existence, ioun torch shedding light into the room, the soft yellow glow pushing back against the light of the blue flames. Valiard stumbled forward out of the circle, ashen faced and sweating as he leaned over, bracing himself on his knees.
"That...was unpleasant." Valiard noted, taking gulps of air for a few moments before straightening back up and glancing around.
"The ghost was actually upstairs...in the ground floor of the prison." he answered the young oracle.
"I imagine that anything we face down here would be less than friendly. Oh, and there were haunts upstairs as well. I cannot imagine that there will not be haunts down here."
Madali is confused, and a little disappointed.
"Do you mean where we just came from? I would have liked to talk with it myself."
”She will still be there until she is destroyed, or finds release. I am certain you will have an opportunity.” Valiard said, consolingly.
He offers as an explanation, "Fine just resting."
---
As he begins to head for the door he stops and waits, asking, "Who will go next then?"
Doctor Ramada shows the items he has uncovered from the lockers.
An assortment of items that have the flow of Elven craftsmanship: several bows, many arrows, clothing, jewelry, and all sorts of kits.
You estimate that there is nearly 1,000 gp worth of items here.
"That...was unpleasant." Valiard noted, taking gulps of air for a few moments before straightening back up and glancing around.
"Indeed. Why was that even necessary? Valiard, didn't you tell them we just walked in before?"
"The ghost was actually upstairs...in the ground floor of the prison." he answered the young oracle.
"I imagine that anything we face down here would be less than friendly. Oh, and there were haunts upstairs as well. I cannot imagine that there will not be haunts down here."
"What do you mean by upstairs? Where the hells are we?"
A few moments later... "Look! Healer's kits! I'm good with those."
He grabs a couple and puts them in his pack. Sly and Valiard both find that last comment unlikely, but he seems more deluded than deceitful.
"I'll go first, but I don't know if I can chop a haunt. Do we have a marching song or are we using stealth?" He whispers the last part, which seems ridiculous.
Visayn pops out of the waypoint just after Magdali had stepped out. Stumbling out of the circle, he takes a look of items found by Doctor Ramada "A bow will come handy. Are we now in underground levels? I would like to lead our exploration here. Maybe we will find something to calm these haunts."
"Anything here that would help with the undead?" Valiard said as he began to rummage.
"Hey, holy water, there are 4 vials here...and these look like silver arrows...it looks like there are 9 of them. And there are a couple potions here wrapped up. Can't read the elvish script though." Valiard said, holding out his findings.
Making a note of Nikolays many skills, Børak continues looking over the weapons racks as Magdali and Vallard discuss the Warden's wife's ghost. Finding the chacram and star wedged in the racks, he holds them up and asks, "Can anyone tell if these are magical?"
He also notices the bow Visayn found. It seemed a little small to him. But when Valiard pointed out the silver arrows he asks, "Has anyone noticed a bow with a little stronger pull?"
Drake takes a moment to look at the Elvish script and says, "The blue ones are cure light (2), and the red ones are lesser restoration (2)."
Nikolay looks up at Børak's words, peering at the two weapons he holds out. "I could give them a look - I have a good deal of expertise in arcane matters, and I recently read a book on weapon-forging." He takes the bladed projectiles, turning them end over end in his hands like a squirrel with an acorn. "The style is Quain, I think, but the embellishments are unusual. One of the elves who lived here must have had an interest in Tien antiquities."
After he finishes with the weapons, he rummages through one of the lockers, pulling out a pair of sealed jars labelled with strange characters, a number of needles suspended within. "This locker was likely that of your historian - these needles are key to a Shenmeni medicinal tradition recorded in the Analects of Xia Xu-Gao. It can help to defend against unquiet spirits - the exact translation of the Tien is 'nightmare soul' - when they seek to sap our strength. With perhaps an hour's work, I can protect one of you with these needles, though the process is somewhat complex, and there is a small chance I may perforate your aorta."
"Do we have a marching song, or are we using stealth?"
Nikolay thinks for a moment. "If we require a marching song, Professor Burgevin from the Ethnomusicology Department once told me about a Mendevian song called the Marching Hymn of Saint Lymirin. He heard it at a military parade in Egede." After a moment, he begins to hum the song in question, waiting for the others to weigh in on their approach to the Harrowstone complex.
"Why would you want to sing anything in place like this? It feels like asking for trouble." Visayn asks with troubled look
Magdali rummages briefly, looking for any daggers with aesthetic appeal to add to her collection. Otherwise she shovels jewelry and clothing into her bag, figuring she'll sort through it all later for things she might want for herself or things worth selling. She's quick though, this isn't the reason they're here.
Nodding as Nikolay said the star had unusual writing on it, Børak pushed it towards his friend, "You hold onto the star, Nikolay, I'll hold onto the chakram." tying the weapon to his belt, he continues on.
Not finding a bow to his liking he moves towards the exit, waiting for the others. Raising an eyebrow as the good doctor recommends a marching song, Børak was relieved that Visayn pointed out the obvious.
Nikolay finishes examining the weapons and passes them back to Børak. "Both of these weapons are of exquisite craftsmanship, my friend. This throwing star seems to have runes etched along it, so I suspect it bears some enchantment of some sort - though I suppose they could serve any of a number of purposes. I recall that the warriors of Minkai etch their lineages on their weapons-" His brow furrows. "-though it wouldn't make much sense to do it for a fragile weapon like this one."
"Why would you want to sing anything in place like this? It feels like asking for trouble."
Nikolay looks nervously up at the ceiling. "I suppose it would be, in a place like this. I just thought it might help take our minds off the fact that this entire complex is held up by ancient retaining walls eroded for who knows how many years. I suppose it's worse for me - I can tell how close to collapse some of these old load-bearing walls are." He shudders. "What if there's no way out of here? What if the exit from these lower floors caved in centuries ago? For all we know, we could be trapped in here." He glances around at the other members of the party. "Tell me, my friends, have you ever been so hungry that you had to eat rats? Believe me, I have experienced such situations. It's no way to live. Børak, recall what I told you yesterday, about the trapped miners who turned to cannibalism? If the ceiling has collapsed, rats would be the least of what we would have to eat to stay alive."
When the warrior tosses the throwing star back to Nikolay, however, he seems quite taken aback, and his clumsy catch almost results in him dropping the weapon. "Me? B-but I'm no good with weapons!" He looks down at the throwing star in his hand, his blood-red eyes widening. "I don't even know which end of this thing to hold! I can carry it if you wish, but I'm afraid I'll kill someone if I try to use this! Someone other than who I was trying to throw it at, I mean." The young alchemist thinks for a moment, then sighs. "Probably myself, like as not." He moves towards the exit, waiting for the others to finish.
"If the blue light is throughout the facility down here, someone could try stealth...huh, now that I think of it I am not sure if ghosts use normal senses to detect people. On second thought, it might be better to just head in as a group, while looking for traps." Valiard said thoughtfully.
"Ramada, calm down. Honestly. Someone of your intellect and surrounded by a group of adept individuals, I have no concerns that we wouldn't be able to find some way of escape, even if half the structure had collapsed." Valiard said, clapping him on the back.
"No eating comrades, especially not me...I am too gamey." Valiard said with a grin, before motioning towards the exit.
"We should get moving."
short bow composite +1
Valiard steps forward and the door opens magically as three of the circles retract into the wall smoothly. Now you are in a hallway, two doors on the far wall each 20 feet away. The hallway likely continues beyond your darkvision. The blue light is only from the waypoint. Most of the complex will be pitch black.
Shifting his bardiche Børak follows Valiard through the doorway, gesturing towards the doorways, "Let's check the doors first, before we continue."
As he realizes that the room will be extremely dark he warns, "Nobody freak out, I'm changing shape." As he says it, the backs of his hands become hairier, and his face becomes more of a muzzle, similar to a wolf. As his brown eyes become a honey yellow/
Valiard moved cautiously up the hallway, alert for traps towards the door on the right, ioun torch bobbing above his head, dagger in his hand.
Valiard moved cautiously up to the door, his breath still, and listened for any activity before checking the door for locks.
"Ramada, calm down. Honestly. Someone of your intellect and surrounded by a group of adept individuals, I have no concerns that we wouldn't be able to find some way of escape, even if half the structure had collapsed. No eating comrades, especially not me...I am too gamey."
Valiard's words seem to calm the alchemist from his panic. "I suppose you're right. If the worst does in fact occur, I'm sure I could concoct some blasting compound that could allow us to escape." He grins. "Even if it fails, we'll likely be killed in the attempt. I was going to ask you to kill me first if it got to the point of cannibalism, but I suppose it's likely a moot point, as even if we are trapped, I'm liable to blow us all to smithereens before then." He glances at Valiard. "Many thanks, my friend - it's a comforting thought." Strangely enough, he seems entirely in earnest.
Nikolay moves out into the hallway following Valiard and Børak. As the taller warrior changes shape, he seems nonchalant - from the previous day's talk, he is well aware of his friend's lycanthropic nature. However, he does glance up at Valiard's ioun torch with curiosity. "An interesting device, my friend. It provides light to see by, yet does not require you to balance it with tools or weapons held in your hands." He grins. "I have never had to use such devices myself - being daemon-blooded does have its advantages." His grin falters. "Not... many advantages, mind you. And overzealous villagers trying to burn you at the stake does become quite tiresome after a while. Not to mention horses - they hate me, and I assure you, the feeling is mutual."
He follows the herbalist to as great a degree as possible, though he is far slower than his friend when moving stealthily. As he moves, his blood-red eyes seem to gleam, focusing the light from Valiard's ioun torch like small, faint beacons atop a distant lighthouse. He scans the walls of the corridor for abnormalities - anything to indicate the presence of weakened structural support or the like. Once he arrives at the intersection where Valiard works, he stands back while the herbalist fiddles with the lock, peering around the hallway and into the room beyond the door once it is open, searching for unquiet spirits with his eerie gaze.
Valiard as you get close to the door it opens just like the last one. Peeking around the corner you see a room full of goo. Pools of the good among strands of a harder biological substance. It looks like the room is living now. Flies come out of the open door and begin biting the group. A little lizard of some kind hopping on its back two legs has a mouth full of teeth heads towards the door. Tongue lashing out to eat the flies.
"Only most desperate cannibals concern me, as I'm too skinny to provide much nutrition anyways." Visayn sighs impatiently while listening Doctor and follows behind herbalist to investigate the door on left side.
Raising an eyebrow as the good doctor starts to talk about cannibalism Børak looked back at the dragonkin, hoping none of them thought he would eat them. Chuckling at Vizayn's concern, he jokes, "Not to worry Viayn, I heard Sylph's taste like eggplant."
Waiving a furry hand at the flies, he asks, "Is there any reason we don't shut the door and move on?"
He just slowly walks in the back of the group.
When he gets to the door he nods and quietly says, "I can feel it, this is the right way."
There is a sturdy looking door on the far side of the room, opposite of the door you are at, 40 feet. Borak you also notice more of the small lizards and take note of a large mouth of something comes from the wall of flesh to eat one of the lizards in one bite.
Lectrum follows Valiard down the hall, walking slowly, assuming that means stealthily. He now has more on his mind than it can handle - cannibalism, cave-ins, lycanthropes, etc. He doesn't even attempt a Perception check, he is so distracted.
At the door, he flinches and pulls back, but tries to remember his battle conditioning. "Sly, what kind of lizards are those? Doc, are you going to fire your potions at that mouth monster?"
Nikolay opens his mouth to respond to Visayn when the door opens, and whatever response he had concocted is forgotten in the swarm of insects that immediately begins to bother the group. He frantically tries to swat the flies away from his face, scowling as Lectrum speaks. "Look, it doesn't matter what kind of lizards they are! Let's just move through before these accursed insects eat us ali-" He moves as if to stand up, then freezes as the wall seemingly grows teeth and devours one of the hopping lizards. His mouth opens and shuts a few times, but he seems to be at a loss for words, and he sits back down, shuddering. "O-on second thought, perhaps hasty action is... ill-advised. Let me see what I know about these creatures." He cautiously peers into the room at the strange organic material covering the walls.
He pokes his head out from the pouch and has a look, he warily states, "I don't know. That is concerning. Though it looks like they have a full ecosystem... not good..."