Park moves up to the rack. "A guard? Then we should remove the body and transport it out of here for a proper burial." He examines the body and the rack to figure out how to release it. Is there any identification on the body?
Zhandar also looks over the room, to determine what its purpose was before it was turned into a torture chamber. She also gives the bodies a brief examination to see if she can deduce anything else about their fates or identities.
Zhandar's quick examination reveals the grisly truth of the skeleton's demise, which includes broken bones, severed hands, dislocated hips and shoulders, a shattered jaw, and numerous long, thin needles that have been driven into his ears, eye sockets, elbows, hips, and knees. Stuck inside its pelvis, oddly enough, is a set of keys, and shoved between his teeth is a metal disk, far enough to crack the jaw.
Once Rajuna gets close enough to the bloodied basket on the floor, he sees a pair of skeletal hands have been deposited inside. Judging by the lack of hands on the skeleton, its obvious where they came from. Whoever this was did not have a good ending to their story.
As the group pokes around the scene, all of you notice the lid of the iron maiden slowly creaking open, and the two hands Rajuna is looking at animate and launch themselves out of the basket.
Init:
25- Horm
19- Park
17- Rajuna
15- Zhandar
14- Hands
10- Haunt
Considering the damage done to the corpse. Rajuna’s resolve wavers. Those keys… I bet those were shoved up that fella’s arse or down his throat. Not… good. And what’s with that disk?
It’s almost a relief when the hands attack so the thief can’t dwell on what happened to the guardsman. Raj fires off a rapid set of kicks, trying to break the hands before falling into a wavering, shifting combat stance.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Zhandar throws a magic stone at one of the hands by placing it in the basket of her staff, after nervously steeling herself for what feels like another haunt.
Fingers draws out one of the magic stones from Zhandar's pack as well, and also throws it at the hands .
Seeing the hands attack, and then whatever would come from the Iron Maiden, Park calls out a battle chant to empower the group.
Rajuna and Zhandar work together to dispatch the hands quite easily, and they both crumble to dust without much struggle.
Rajuna sees the mourning maiden slowly creak open and reveal a horrific sight: Kendra Lorrimor has been bound and impaled inside the maiden. Her eyes wide with terror, and cries out to him for help.
Init:
25- Horm
19- Park
17- Rajuna
15- Zhandar
14- Hands
10- Haunt
"We have to get her out of that!"
Raj looks around for anything - a poker, a length of pipe, or even the long leg bone of the corpse - that he can use to prevent the maiden from shutting so he can rescue Kendra. Worse comes to worse, I can try to body block the door from closing.
Zhandar raises an eyebrow and looks at the iron maiden. "Her who?" she asks. She doesn't see anyone inside.
Park moves over by the Iron Maiden, looking for a way to disable the thing or lock it open. "Haunt! It's probably using some sort of illusion. Mental since we can't see it."
Horm hears Park say haunt and sees Rajuna acting strange, but doesn't see a haunt. Knowing that positive energy might harm the haunt if there is one he steps up and channels energy to harm any undead or haunts in the area.
The haunt is centered on the maiden, and Park does strike it. Horm's channel elicits a loud scream of pain from the metal torture machine that everyone but Rajuna can hear clearly.
Rajuna is enchanted by the haunt, and walks over to the maiden and attempts to rescue Kendra. Only once he's too late does he realize that Kendra obviously wasn't in the torture device, it wouldn't make sense for her to be. By then, however, it is too late. The maiden shuts suddenly, sweeping him inside.
The spikes inside the maiden pierce his skin causing incredible pain. He feels the malevolent spirit inside the maiden press against his mind but is strong enough to resist it, understanding its nature as a haunt.
The maiden opens again, the spirit inside fading back to dormancy.
Zhandar watches Rajuna step into the iron maiden sagely, and then gasps and involuntarily reaches out to help him as she realizes what has happened. "The torture device is haunted!" she cries out, and peers around wildly as she racks her brain to think of how to neutralize it.
Rajuna stumbles from the maiden, bleeding from numerous wounds.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Zhandar clucks uncomfortably at Rajuna's many injuries, and quickly mixes a concoction designed to cure him. She passes it to him with a quiet "Drink this."
Then she continues looking at the corpse as if none of the intervening activity had happened. "Those keys... Who is it that carries keys in a prison? Could this be the warden? That might explain why he was so horribly abused-- if it was the prisoners who did this to him."
He slugs down the drink without a complaint. The majority of his wounds heal. He nods his thanks.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Park examines the iron maiden. "No surprise there. Who knows how many prisoners were hurt by this device? Disgusting!"
He moves back to the rack to examine the man on it. He pulls the disc out of the mouth to examine. "Warden? Could be."
Rajuna, as the one that just suffered at the hand of one of the torture devices, identifies them as the likely source of the haunting. Destroying them would dispel this haunt from ever activating again.
Zhandar, looking at the keys inside the skeleton, notices the metal disk shoved between its jaws once more.
Zhandar proceeds to methodically examine the metal disk.
While the team examines the disk, Raj tries to figure out a way to dismantle the Maiden.
"If this body was the Warden I think we should remove it and bury it proper. Maybe along with his wife's body? But we've got one more spirit to get rid of, and probably the most dangerous if he's got access to any of his magic."
Zhandar examines the metal disk more closely and determines that it is some form of badge, most likely the wardens'. It's been dented and has rusted slightly in the damp prison basement, but it is certainly the symbol of office you've been looking for.
In your thorough destruction of the torture room, the group discovers a secret door in the eastern wall. It has been cleverly hidden in the construction of the wall and doesn't appear to have been used in many years. Not that there's anyone left to use it, but that's besides the point.
Zhandar absently nods agreement with the plan to take the warden's remains out and bury them.
When the secret door is discovered, she pulls herself away from her horrified fascination with the tortured man's mangled body and frowns. "That door looks like it heads into the last area of the prison, where 'The Splatter Man' is supposed to be held. Maybe we should deal with him first, and then we can destroy the things in this room and deal with laying the warden to rest?"
"We must prepare for a difficult battle. Rajuna, here is another potion, hopefully to bring you to full strength. I am also going to cast a spell that will allow three of us to see through smoke and mist. I do not know if ghosts can see through things on the material plane, but I suspect they cannot. Thus, I will conjure a cloud of fog once the villain reveals himself that may give us an advantage. Horm, I believe your channeled energy will work even if you can't see the enemy? Rajuna and Park, I will also give both of you a concoction that will boost your physical agility-- let us imagine that you will be able to get the jump on our opponent."
He takes the healing potion with a nod of appreciation. "Thanks. I'm not hurt that bad... I'll save yours for when things go really wrong." He pockets her potion in his bandolier then pulls out and quaffs a lower strength potion which heals his wounds almost completely.
He debates drinking the other two potions and decides to wait, until they follow where the secret passage leads... just in case it doesn't get them in sight of their quarry. He places the potions carefully in his bandolier as well, within easy reach. With that he falls into his thieving rhythm... looks for traps, open the secret door, and skulk past it.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Park accepts the concoction but holds it while Rajuna checks out the hidden door. "Slow and careful. Might be trapped, or could have a trap past the door."
He stops himself from saying more realizing that he's saying the obvious that Rajuna knows at least as well as he might....
The rough stone walls of this natural cavern drip with moisture, leaving stagnant pools of water on the uneven floor.
Rajuna sees immediately that they're not alone in this unfinished cavern passage through the rock below the prison, as a puddle of liquid sitting in the hallway is obviously not as benign as it appears to be. Something is moving inside the puddle...or wait, is the puddle itself moving?
Init:
22- Horm
22- Zhandar
14- Rajuna
13- Park
13- Puddle
Zhandar catches Raj's head motion toward the puddle and looks carefully at it herself, albeit it from a careful distance.
Rajuna lends his considerable expertise to a hushed discussion about the ooze, ”Yeah, I got no idea what that is.”
Seeing the narrow passage and hearing that something dangerous in there Horm calls out. "Back up. Make it come to us so we can all fight it!"
He casts Bless on the party.
Hearing Horm's suggestion Park agrees. He steps back enough to let Rajuna back up, then starts his bardic performance.
Rajuna hurls a shuriken at the goop before backing out quickly.
|
It’s quite hard to miss the ooze, seeing as how it can’t really defend itself very well. Rajuna’s shuriken hits it squarely in the center mass and stays there. The ooze moves out into the hallway and attacks Horm.
It latches onto him and Horm feels his skin burning from the touch of the ooze.
Init:
22- Horm
22- Zhandar
14- Rajuna
13- Park
13- Gray Ooze (7 damage dealt)
Watching the creature latch on to Horm and try to melt him is alarming. Raj wasn’t sure how to attack it, save to hope that if he punches quick enough the ooze won’t have much chance to melt him as well. He steps in and tries to hack it off the priest with knife-edged hand strikes.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Zhandar quickly summarizes the creature's weaknesses. "It cannot be harmed with precision attacks or flanked, and it burns all it touches with acid." She quickly casts a spell, sending her own little ball of acid at it.
She backs up and fires again.
Horm struggles against the creature. Not believing that he can break free he struggles to pull his dagger and stab at the slime.
Park sees the creature wrapping around Horm, and Horm's skin burning. The man can't last.... He attacks the creature with his blade, hoping it can hurt it.
The group gather around to attempt to beat the ooze into letting go of Horm, but it manages to remain attached and very much alive.
The ooze squeezes onto Horm again, the force of its body and its acid causing severe damage to him.
Init:
22- Horm (at -9 hp)
22- Zhandar
14- Rajuna
13- Park
13- Gray Ooze (34 total damage dealt)
Watching the creature’s fighting style, Raj guesses he is probably best able to break the creature’s grip. He kicks at the creature relentlessly hoping (reluctantly) to draws its attention. "Come'on, pond scum! I'm tasty! He also begins swaying trying to make himself a harder target to hit.
Stunning Fist (3):
Ki Pool (3):
Shuriken (20): xxxx
AoOs (6/rnd):
Effects:
Zhandar moves behind Horm and quickly draws another curing concoction with her tail, which she tosses at his feet. The earthen pot bursts in a cloud of fine spray, which even unconscious Horm cannot avoid seeping into his system.
Horm.... does nothing as he passes out from the pain.
Park chops at the ooze again, hoping the creature can be killed before it has a chance to take out another of them.
Luckily, the group manages to finish off the disgusting slime before it finishes eating Horm or attempts to attack another target.
Park moves up to the ooze and helps Horm to his feet with a short tune.