The torches flicker to life and light the entire prison. After a few moments, the figures seen moments earlier are now walking slowly towards the group. They stare at the ground as they continue to walk with jerky movements towards them.
Each member of the group is captivated by the figure that they had seen in their personal vision earlier.
Slowly the creatures raise their heads, their empty eyes meeting the gaze of each member. Suddenly, their moths open with a wretched scream. As their screams continue, their mouths continue to open wider and wider – beyond natural limits. As the scream continues, it becomes more distorted and hair-raising. As their mouths open wider than their heads are tall, a dark cloud flies out of each mouth directly at each gazeholder, the bodies of the creatures falling to the floor like an unburdened cloak. The unnatural scream then transitions to a more natural one – one theat is recognizable – it is the sound of swarms of bats and the the deafening source closing quickly.
The members quickly draw weapons and land solid blows, however, it was for naught as the bats dissappear and the crew realizes they had been attacking each other. The lanterns then suddenly extinguish.
Lesson learned: eyes are not always to be trusted (each member gains 115XP).
Moments later, maybe roused by commotion, maybe the ones causing the hallucinations as a distraction, a bluish hazy foggy form can be seen coming from the staircase across the prison that leads from the cavern below.
After their eyes adjust, it appears to be some form of a ghost-like figure. Minds reeling after the last few moments, the group knows this can’t be real, but something about this does not seem as illusory on reflection of the previous encounter.
The specter moves towards the group then stops – it is then joined on each side by 2 others. The 2 specters on each side split of, the center one remains still.
After a great battle, and learning that these figures have the ability to drain life, the group rests and prepares themselves for the cavern below. (each member gains 200XP).
Title earned: Busters of Ghosts
Descending the stairs reveals a dank muffled cavern with 20 ft ceilings – the very faint sound of water can be heard in the distance.
To the left, the cavern extends deeper, towards the sound of water; to the right, a silent alcove.
They take the path to the right and are presented with a strange sight:
Upon closer inspection of the hole in the center of the wall in front of them, they see that a small room is behind the wall and that there must be a way to get through. Through the opening, they cannot make out anything except a hanging weight from the ceiling.
As they look at each piece of their view, they begin to understand that water from the well can be poured into the funnel opening on the far right. And if the opening at the bottom is covered, a sound is played from the air passing through the woodwind instrument on the left.
The question is, what should they play?
Upon closer inspection of the apparatus on the left, they realized that this resembled an instrument that children use for learning woodwinds, called the Recording Flute. However, because of the horrific sounds heard in the learning halls where they are almost exclusively found, it is known widely as the Shit Stick.
After some experimentation and teamwork with the others (Burton taking care of covering the hole at the bottom, Shadowsilver fetching the water, and Qhortho watching the weight through the window), they were able to discern that playing notes caused the weight to vibrate. Having spent considerable time with the Shit Stick in the past, Qarzdaq and Tholannan were able to discern, after some trial and error, that playing an F caused the weight to vibrate at just the right resonance to cause a stone slab to slide from the ceiling by about 1 foot.
After playing a G, the stone slid back into the ceiling with haste.
Over the next few minutes, Qarzdaq and Tholannan worked together to understand that the circle of roman numerals on the floor. Though resembling some sort of displaced clock face, they knew from prior experience in religious ceremonies that this was actually a guide used in music theory known as the Infinite Ring of Sound Relations. They then marked the Ring with an F on the numeral I location and realized that this was the same location where this note would exist using standard placement. They then wrote out the notes that would be played at each position.
After playing each note in sequence, the wall began to rumble and slid into the floor (each member gains 500XP).
Inside the room is a mess:
- a body lying face down with an unstrung bow just out of reach
- a skeleton in a good-looking chain shirt, leaning against the back wall with an empty clay bottle nearby
- a small couldron sits on a small forge in the corner near a pile of silver coins
- Near the coins are also 20 silvered arrows, 1 silvered long sword
- the floor is heavily scorched in places, as is the skeleton, but the face-down body is not burned at all and neither is the bow, inches from its hand
- there is no fire-burning or fire-starting material anywhere in the room
The group is startled by a sound behind them – two Specters close in quickly and a battle ensues. The Assembly confirms their recently acquired title and each member gains 80XP.
After some more poking around, the crew was able to discern:
- the clay bottle contained Wildfire
- the cauldron had been used for melting silver
- the silvered sword and arrows looked unused, other than some scorching
Using their detective skills, they were able to determine that the thief responsible for stealing Dawn must have been a guard and that he had at least 2 other helpers – probably looking to sell the blade for a considerable sum of platinum.
Their reasoning went something like this:
- Assuming there was only one thief, he would have had to be close to Vorian in order to take the sword.
- This could be an advisor, a friend or family member, or a guard.
- Knowing that there are two bodies here and that no one except the Solutionists have ventured down here, it is likely that these two were working together, for at least some part of the plan.
- Given that both men are wearing real armor, and not some fancy nobleman plate armor, these two men were probably guards.
- This also explains how they were able to get through the prison level to get down here and also have the door locked behind them.
- They must have known the prison was haunted – if they were guards, then they probably had spent some time manning the prisons above – and they believed the silvered weapons would protect them.
- They would have been unlikely to have access to a forge, so they must have planned to silver the weapons in this locked alcove.
- They would have needed some method of heating a cauldron hot enough without all of the requirements of a typical forge, so they must have acquired wildfire by some means.
- The next few seconds are a bit unclear, but end with the same result. Somehow, the first guard, now the skeleton, must have been locked inside and spilled the wildfire.
- It is most likely that the first guard spilled the wildfire and, in the commotion, knocked into the ceiling slab, triggering the door to close.
- If this had been sabotage, then the container of wildfire would probably not be near the skeleton – or the body would not have been burned.
- The door must have been opened by the second guard after the fire had gone out.
- Maybe the second guard saw this as an opportunity; maybe he didn’t want to risk being burned if he opened it too early; perhaps he just couldn’t open the door quickly enough.
- After opening the door, he had been smashed on the head. This leads to the conclusion that there was a third person in on the plan.
- This third person would have needed to get through the prison level and follow them down here to make his move, but there are a lot of issues with making a plan like this work if the third person were not along with the first two the entire time.
- Chances are that this third person was another guard.
- So the third guard must have taken this opportunity to steal the sword for himself, thinking he was close to the cavern exit.
- Obviously, this man was a skeptic, a disbeliever of the haunting rumors, because he left all of the silvering gear behind.
- He may have started to scout up ahead, then came back when the commotion began.
Having the feeling that they’ve solved this case, and have some information for Vorian, they decide to rest, and realize that they’ve learned quite a bit – 300XP each, to be precise!
Thinking some more about this, they realize that they’ve killed a total of 7 specters, but there were 3 guards and 5 Solutionists; there must be another specter down here – PLUS whatever created them in the first place!
The crew gathers up their gear and courage to venture deeper into the cavern, towards the sound of rushing water.
They reach an alcove about 30 feet across and 30 feet high with a lot of stalaCtites on the Ceiling and stalaGmites on the Ground.
As they walk into the area, the stalactites begin to fall. Once they hit the ground, it is clear that these are Piercers as they begin to slither towards the walls to presumably climb up to the ceiling and fall once again. They make no move to attack once on the ground… probably because they don’t have any means to do so.
Well, we can’t have that… no siree… much slashing ensues at these helpless little creatures. And with a few more instances of damage from these falling stalac-shits, the group decides it’s high time to get out of this spikey arena. Qarzdaq lets loose a great ball of fire into the rocky slugfest and a bunch of helpless stone-like turds fall to the floor.
For this strange show of force, the group gains another 200XP each – and level! w00t (and such things)!
Once things settle down, they notice that the sound of water is not far off, so they continue forth.
A glint of light catches Shadowsilver’s eye as they enter another open area – an opening to the rushing waters of the Torrentine at the back of the cave, a soft shadowy figure silhouetted against the light entering the mouth of the cave. It makes no immediate move.
Her eyes back to the glint, it appears to be a metallic object. A split second later, the group is attacked by another specter.
The battle ensues and just as things are going to wrap up, the figure from the mouth of the cave rushes forward – this shadowy terror looks more dangerous than the specters you had been fighting, and with its first attack, it is clear that it is much more powerful.
The silvered weapons, including Tholannan’s Quicksilvered Mace, appear to have some special effect against this foe, with each successful attack causing shimmering tears in the wispy shadow.
After a trading a few more attacks, and no one falling on this day, each member gains an additional 400XP.
The colors of the cave walls and the rushing river seem to become a little less saturated as the mood lifts a bit.
Looking for the glint seen earlier, they find Dawn, the fabled sword of House Dayne.