Harrowstone Prison
Teo's bolt hits but does not bring down the skull.
Mere seconds later, Ogre claims another head for his trophy mantle as he cleaves yet another skull in half!
Cole merely steps back as the 'Ogre' rushes in and (most likely) finishes off the last skull-thing.
As soon as things settle, Cole then examines the skull remains and the hole...
Bastion turns around and grins at the rest of the group.
"There be someart of the dead that really grinds me grist, yer know what I be meanin?" he states rather than asks.
The big man then looks around, hoping to see something to wipe skull fragments off his weapon with.
Sterling tilts his head to one side as he surveys the skulls remains.
"I'll add that to my list of 'How to Deal with Undead- Flying, Flaming Skulls'. Perhaps i'll add footnotes to the good doctors' works."
The cleric glides over to take a closer look at the skulls.
The cleric sniffs, then turns to look around the room.
Kenzo collects his durable arrows. He shakes his head and says, "It seems that we can add undead to the list of threats that this place poses. Many terrible things must have occurred here to cause so many haunts and now undead to roam these halls."
Kenzo collects his durable arrows. He shakes his head and says, "It seems that we can add undead to the list of threats that this place poses. Many terrible things must have occurred here to cause so many haunts and now undead to roam these halls."
"Or one, very large, terrible thing." Sterling murmurs as he looks around the room.
"I wonder which would be worse?""
Cole frowns as he waves off the comments.
"Speculation is pointless. Evidence must be here of something or the Professor would not have been interested in this place. Keep your eyes and ears open...and something probably heard that scream. Now they know we have arrived and exactly where to find us."
Teofila figures there must be a better way down than through a hole water drains into. In any case, better to finish looking around on the surface before descending.
There is a door in the north wall. But, it also appears that it would be possible to simply look around the end of the collapsed wall by the edge of the water to get a look into the room behind the door first. She walks over to take a peek, careful to not be noticed in case there's anything nasty on the other side.
Harrowstone Prison
A thorough examination of the room reveals nothing of any use in here. Ogre grimaces as there is nothing but the stone shaft to wie his blade off with it seems.
Sterling believes that these undead are of a specific type but he cannot recall exactly what.
Cole's darkvision allows him to see that the shaft is perfectly smooth, clearly built into the floor and not a hole caused by damage to the building. On the floor below are heaps of fallen stone and charred wood beams but a trip down there would be necessary to fully explore the space.
Teo peeks over the space to the north. However, from this angle, it is difficult to see anything. The room is in ruins and appears to contain nothing of interest based on what Teo sees of it.
Vaneza peers into the pit and then into the water, she sighs. "I fear that the challenges of this place does not suit my skills very well, I we may be better off with my returning to town to watch over Kendra especially as we now know that the Whispering Way must have had several agents, not just one to place all of these runes about the prison walls. If you are all planning on climbing down that pit, I can grab climbing gear or perhaps even a ladder from the general store to assist in easing the way down. So perhaps you can all explore up here and clear the first level so to speak and await my return?"
"We grabbed rope before leaving." rumbles Ogre.
"As we knew there would be a pit to go down."
Even as he says this, he glances out the door toward the fetid pond.
"Interesting that the water doesn't seem to have entered the shaft. I guess we must be on solid rock... so whatever made that hole... did it with a bit of skill and power."
"This hole was built here. Part of the structure itself. No idea what for. It's not a well...as far as I can tell."
Sterling 'Hrmphs' to himself. Apparently not entirely pleased with the result of, whatever it was he was doing.
The cleric straightens up, resettles his pack (still bristling with several covered items that appear to be weapons), and leans on his staff.
Sterling seems content to wait and let the others finish their examinations of the area.
Harrowstone Prison
Vaneza nods to Bastion, "I suspected but wanted to offer regardless.
I will be watching over Kendra with Alain, if for some reason you all do not return by tomorrow, I will ask the Gunslinger and the local Priest to accompany me back here to seek you out".
With that, she nods and withdraws from the prison.
Sterling shifts uncomfortably.
"I suspect we will not find much up here. What monsters might normally use the ruins as shelter will likely be driven away by the haunts."
The cleric turns his hooded gaze towards the hole.
"Let us not waste time. The answers we, and professor, seek, lie deeper beneath the surface. Literally, in this case."
Cole frowns, but begins looking for a good place to tie off his rope for the hole.
"I am not sure the undead would care much about the haunts. The flaming skulls were not far from the haunts." Kenzo says.
Harrowstone Prison
There is a significant enough amount of rubble that more than one rope could be tied off to climb down.
Cole will lead the way with his darkvision, and will then light up the tip of his sword again to produce light (spell effect) once he's at the bottom so the others can see more easily.
"Cover me. If I need to leave quickly, be prepared to pull me up Ogre."
"I am not sure the undead would care much about the haunts. The flaming skulls were not far from the haunts." Kenzo says.
Sterling nods, accepting the point.
Harrowstone Prison
Cole pretty deftly glides down the rope to bottom.
This cavernous chamber may have once been an underground cellblock, but it has long since collapsed. The crumbled walls are thick with mold and stained with soot, and heaps of fallen stones and charred wooden beams line the area. Water drips and seeps along the walls, collecting in a dark, murky pool in the middle of the room. To the north, the twisted remains of a wood and iron lift lie in a heap in a shallow portion of the pool. Cole fairly quickly surmises that the hole was indeed a fixture of the room as that was the access way for the lift to bring prisoners and guards up and down.
For a moment, Cole gets a sense of serenity as he enters the cavern, but the feeling passes rather quickly, as if some force once here but now gone left but a trace of its calming presence behind.
As Cole looks around the room he notices an oddity, the floor is incredibly clean despite the soot on the walls, before he can contemplate what this means, the residents have a welcoming for him...
The room fills with a cacophonous roar of screams and howls, echoes of the cries! Another haunt? It can be heard from above as well. It ceases as quickly as it began.
An instant later, the surface of the dark pool of water begins rippling around the ruined lift as a pair spirits rise up, dripping and horrible, staring at Cole with unbridled rage.
Ogre Initiative -
Foes Initiative -
Ogre stands ready at the top of the rope, watching as Cole heads down into the darkness.
As the screaming starts, he begins to tug on the rope, hoping to help pull the scout out of the pit.
"Pull! UP...FAST!!"
Cole tries not to panic, and wraps some of the rope around his arm with a firm grip as he moves to the nearest debris pile for some cover, lit sword extended.
"A little HELP here guys?"
Harrowstone Prison
Cole takes a full defense posture and pulls taut on the rope to give himself some room to swing away.
As they advance, Cole realizes they aren't entirely solid, but solid enough to do him harm. Their slimy, shifting mass has the shape of a humanoid, but is made out of what appears to be some form of sticky rope or cloth.
Ecto #1 Attack vs. DC 22 -
Ecto #2 Attack vs. DC 22 -
Both of the ghastly apparitions miss!
Ogre, pulls on the rope and Cole comes flying back up the shaft!
The apparitions looks up menacingly and as quickly as they form, they appear to dissolve into the water beneath them.
Drawn from energies of the Ethereal Plane, ectoplasm is a vile substance resembling thick tangles of slimy linen or dripping goo. It shapes itself into the form of an undead creature, creating a host for a soul unfortunate enough to be confined within it. The existence of an ectoplasmic being is a cruel one, and few souls willingly choose this painful form of undeath.
They possess the traditional defenses of the undead as well as some immunity to slashing weapons due to their ectoplasmic nature.
A successful strike from them can leave the mind reeling (shaken condition)!
Finally, they can phase through solid objects.
Sergei watches the scene with concern and confusion written on his mostly-hidden face. As the ghosts manifest and fade he makes an unfamiliar hand gesture and mutters something in an unfamiliar language.
"What in the name of all that is holy were those things?" asks a shocked Bastion.
He pokes at Sergi. "Any ideas?"
"What in the name of all that is holy were those things?" asks a shocked Bastion.
"Not. Quite. Sure." Sterling admits deadpan. He continues ot peer down the hole, as if willing it to reveal it's secrets.
Thankful of Ogre's quick strength, Cole catches his breath and thanks the titan-sized human with a gruff nod.
"That was no Haunt. They were...made of slime. Whatever they are, we are going to have to get past them somehow. That's an elevator shaft down there. The remains of the lift are where they came from. Slimy water under it? Oil? Maybe they were originally trapped under it when it fell? So...probably undead of some sort. I could try burning them, but I doubt slime burns very well."
Cole then scratches his chin.
"If we can draw them out, Ogre can toss big rocks at them. Anybody have some decent ranged attacks? Disrupt Undead is a simple spell that could hurt them. Is it not? I am probably best to draw them out...I can light the area for the rest of you to make your shots, but who knows what they can do to me until...if we manage to stop them."
Sterling nods slowly at Cole.
"A good plan."
The cleric frowns slightly.
"If that doesn't work, I can use the power of Pharasma to injure and probably destroy them. But,... I have to be within 30 feet of them. We would still have to lure them out towards this opening. OR, I would have go down far enough to get them in range. Hm."
"Let's try YOUR plan first." Sterling says to Cole.
Teofila agrees with Cole.
"Yes, not a ghost or wraith I think. Ectoplasmic. Still undead. There's no special trick for handling such a thing that I know of. Don't expect cuts and slashes to be all the harmful though."
"You mentioned an oddly clean floor down there? Did you happen to notice if the whole floor was like that, or was it around the pool? It might be clean because the ectoplasmic creature picks up anything on the floor it comes in contact with, sweeping it clean. If it's only the area nearest the pool, it might be the thing is linked to the pool and can only venture a certain distance from it."
"Just a theory though, or wishful thinking. And if the whole floor is clean, forget about it."
Harrowstone Prison
As the party gazes into the hole nothing stirs, you all surmise that the presence of the living is what triggers the response of these damned souls seeking your warmth or perhaps just to damn the currently living to their own miserable fate.
Cole frowns again, then shrugs. ”Never said it was a good idea… Everyone get ready. I will head down again and try to stay as long as I can. then we will see if they can burn.”
Giving everyone a minute to prepare, Cole climbs down quickly. He then draws his sword again, lights it up and activates his defenses, causing the air around himself to shimmer as if on a hot desert’s summer day.
He pokes at Sergi. "Any ideas?"
Sergei gave Orge a flat look over his dark glasses. His gold eyes seemed half amused, half reproachful. "Я буду благодарен вам, если вы будете держать пальцы при себе, молодой человек."
"I'll go as well. I also have the disruption spell. If it keeps moving out of line of sight up here, I'll still be able to hit it."
Kenzo moves to see down and readies his bow, "Hopefully, my arrows can affect them.
Bastion shrugs and grabs one of the ropes.
"Mah sword was good against the skulls, maybe it will be okay against the goo too."
Harrowstone Prison
Despite Sergei's lack of communication, Ogre shrugs it off and the group focuses on facing the threat below.
Cole, Teo, and Ogre each take a rope down and the creatures rise at the far end of the pool once more!
Sterling Starshadow
Kenzo Hagetora
Cole Burns
Sergei the Haunted
Bastian 'Ogre' Zorovich
Teofila Agarici
Sterling holds as currently, the foes are not within his line of sight of range of his Disrupt Undead effect.
As soon as Teofila touches down, she pulls the battle aspergillum from her belt. When the creatures have risen from the pool, she cast [i]Disrupt Undead[/b] and targets the ray on the one she has the best line on.
Cole matches Teo and move up to blast one of the monsters.
Harrowstone Prison
Teo's ray lands and a part of the creature is blasted, but still it comes on.
Cole's blast is a bit more effective, but yet on number two still floats.
As they close, Sterling's ray comes from on high.
Sterling - Disrupt Undead - Unfortunately, the ray slams into the top of the hole.
ECTO 2 - HP - 5
Kenzo sends two arrows flying!
Harrowstone Prison
Kenzo's first arrow just misses, the second is a direct hit and the physical form of the creature heading towards Cole loses is structural integrity (such that ectoplasm has) and disperses into the water below!
The other approaches and attempts to strike Teo, and its slimy form strikes her, leaving a film of ooze upon her and creating a sudden feeling of dread!
Damage - + Horrifying Ooze.
Bastion steps forward and swings his massive blade at the last of the remaining... things.
Igaz Halál slices through the goo like a hot knife through butter. He looks on with interest to see whether the thing seems hurt by his sharp blade.
Harrowstone Prison
Bastion's strike, which would likely chop a man in twain is slowed down considerably by the goo which sustains the frame of this vile undead. However, the strike is indeed powerful enough to finish it off!
The creature melts away into the pool leaving the sound of sloshing water echoing in this "dungeon" area. You hear no further sounds from within. At least, not yet.
Cole looks more closely at the pool of water, trying to determine if the remains of there lost beings are still there.
Kenzo moves forward to reclaim his arrows.
Harrowstone Prison
A search of the pool and the rubble along the edges reveals a large number of shattered bones mixed in with the debris—dozens of guards and prisoners perished here, either from the fire, smoke inhalation, or as a result of being crushed by the dungeon’s collapse. Nothing of value remains. Nothing else rises to challenge you either.
Cole gives the 'all clear' signal and moves to check the west tunnel. His sword tip, smoking lightly, and lighting the way yet again for those who cannot see in the dark.
Teofila is unbothered by the attack she suffered aside from a bit of bruising. She moves on down the tunnel with the others.
Bastion wipes the goo off his massive blade before joining the others.
"Let's hope there be no more of that type of nonsense. I hope yer made sure the rope is fast up there, I'd not want to be stuck down in this pit for th' rest of mah life."