Wanting to save his spiritual power for the more powerful opponent Garland relies on his mace and luck. It's not been with him the entire battle and as he swings it continues to deny him any meaningful impact on their foe.

10:23, Today: Garland Van Burke rolled 10 using 1d20.  attack roll.

The Lopper cackled wordlessly as it sinuously sidestepped Darcon's conjured cloud...directly into Constantine's strike. There was a great reverberation of holy power as the paladin's weapon battered through the spirit's ethereal form.

The translucent form of the Lopper lingered for a long moment and peals of cruel laughter echoed through the dungeon. It raised its axe one final time, grin wide, eyes wild, and then dissipated into an ectoplasmic mist that quickly faded away into the pitch blackness of the dungeon.

In the eerie silence that followed our heroes moved cautiously forward to examine the now undefended cells.

The cells flanking the chamber held what they had come to expect. Bones and rags, and little of value or interest. The deep oubliette in the center told a grim tale. The body at the bottom of the pit, almost certainly the Lopper, was twisted and crumpled over broken legs. This madman had been the main strongarm of the riot and had fled back to his cell when the fire broke out. In his haste and in the dark he tumbled back into the prison that had once confined him and shattered both of his legs. Unable to climb out, he died like the rest in smoke and flame.

His ill gotten gains were also scattered about, wrested from the overpowered prison guards during the riot. Of particular interest was a heavy ring of keys, worn but still serviceable. The number of iron keys on the heavy ring would surely be enough to match every door in the prison, assuming that many of the identical cell doors would open for the same key.

---

The Lopper saves against Darcon's thunder cloud and takes no damage.

Constantine hits and does exactly enough damage to reduce the Lopper to 0 hitpoints.

Congratulations on defeating the Lopper!

At the bottom of the pit you find several sets of rusted and useless guard's armor, several skulls from heads that the Lopper must have claimed during the riot, plus:
234 gp
broken Masterwork Heavy Crossbow (35 gp to repair)
Masterwork Longsword
+1 Heavy Mace
Stone of Alarm
Heavy ring of keys

---

---

3 - The Nevermore - unexplored
B1 - Hell's Basement
B2 - Central Chamber
B3 - Guard Post
B4 - Guard Office
B5 - Reaper's Hold
B6 - Torture Chamber - Opened but unexplored
B7 - The Oubliette
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:32, Fri 13 Sept 2019.

"Twas a hard won battle, my friends.....We may want to take a breather here, and maybe utilize some healing.  How much magical spells do you lot have left?"

SCG checks over himself and is leaning against the wall, the wounds he took were more than the lay on hands could close up but his orc constitution would help him heal faster.

Dismissing his howling cloud with a wave of a hand, Darcon leaned wearily on his staff. His summoned elemental too returned back to its native realm of existence, disappearing like mist in the rising sun.

The mage was breathing hard, the fight had taken a lot out of him. Almost more than he had to give, which was an alarming thought. What would have happened had the remaining Shade somehow entered the battle while they still fought the Lopper?

"I am indeed weary, and nearly spent. I believe we should rest and regain our strength before facing the last of the wretched abominations that haunt this place," Darcon replied to Constantine.

Garland nodded in agreement as he looked through the gathered items, picking up the heavy mace as he set his morningstar down. "I still have one spirit fighting spell left, a healing spell, and several chances to channel energy as they'll be almost useless against such powerful undead. I suggest we check out the torture chamber again and then rest. I can use all my reserves to quiet the haunt"

SCG hefts the finely crafted longsword and tests the balance and heft....
“If this is free of spirits and neither of you mind I would wield this for the remainder of this excursion.”

Garland nods as takes a closer look at the mace. "Swordsmanship was not something the clergy taught me so I consent, though this mace would make a fine upgrade from my old weapon. If there are no objections."

Darcon merely nodded and waved a hand, indicating he was fine with whatever his companions chose for themselves. "Be sure to take the keys and the gold too," he said, gesturing at the items in the pit.

“Aye we will bring all the items from the pit.”

SCG accepts healing from the wand and nods he is ready to continue

Garland pulls the thin wand from his belt, touching his hand with it filling his body with white light that quickly closes the last of his wounds. He then offers the same healing to the others if its needed.

"I still have a number of charges left if either of you require further healing."

OOC: 23:08, Today: Garland Van Burke rolled 4 using 1d8+1.  Cure light wounds.

“We will need to buy another wand before this one is drained.   Onwards to the torture chamber then, although all the chambers appear to be dedicated to torture.”

Battered but unbroken, our heroes made their way through the dungeon back to the torture chamber at the terminus of the Reaper's Hold. Forewarned of the haunt's nefarious presence, they filed cautiously into the room.

There was the briefest swirling of necrotic energy and a slight rattling from the iron maiden standing in the center of the chamber. Easy to miss, the party was expecting the telltale signs of a haunt and stood fast as it made itself manifest.

With a bang like a crack of thunder and the shrieking screech of rusty hinges wrenched wide the iron maiden flew open. Inside, chained piteously, her wan form bleeding from dozens of deep punctures...was Kendra Lorrimor.

"H-help meeee...." She moaned, swooning against her bonds.

Not only the sight of their erstwhile charge galvanized our heroes to action, but under the current of fear and adrenaline a deep and insidious compulsion drove them forward, towards the great spiked casket. How could this be? How could Kendra come to this dark and cursed place? Three titanic wills struggled with that dissonance. For a heartbeat the overwhelming urge to rush in to the iron maiden, to go to Kendra's aid was overpowering. But the moment passed, and with it the image of Kendra herself. She seemed to shimmer, there in the iron maiden, and then dissipated into a ghostly mist just as the other haunts had.

As the illusion faded the iron maiden snapped shut with a booming, hollow crash.

In the echoing silence that followed the group was free to move about the grotesque chamber and investigate. The torture implements were grizzly reminders of the barbaric fates that the prisoners faced in Ustalav's most notorious prison. The iron maiden was inert, even when pried open by hand, but had the black stains of ancient blood on its cruel spikes. The braziers and strapped chairs stood in grim testament.

On the far wall Darcon lifted a curtain of hooks to reveal a loose stone doorway. It swung open to reveal a hidden passage that led off in the darkness, directly towards the Nevermore.

The most interesting find was the rack in the center of the chamber. A body lay there, an ancient skeleton tied to the table. Garland cast his expert eye over the corpse and even considering its age he could read the horrifying damage done to it.

It was clad in a tattered guard's uniform. The bones of its hands, elbows, and knees had been shattered with heavy blows. A rusty assortment of loose keys, a matched set to those that our heroes had found in the Oubliette, had been pushed into its body cavity. Its jaw had been shattered and the instrument that had inflicted the damage was still lodged between the skull's teeth: A heavy silver badge, finely worked and tarnished with age.

---

The haunt manifests but luckily all three of you save and nobody gets trapped.

I've taken that MW longsword and that +1 mace off of the group loot sheet, be sure you add them to your character sheets.

You find a secret door in one wall that looks like it leads into the next cell block.

You also find a significant looking ancient silver badge...

---

---

3 - The Nevermore - unexplored
4 - Secret Passage
B1 - Hell's Basement
B2 - Central Chamber
B3 - Guard Post
B4 - Guard Office
B5 - Reaper's Hold
B6 - Torture Chamber
B7 - The Oubliette
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:36, Mon 16 Sept 2019.

Despite himself, Darcon was caught off guard when the Hunt manifested in the form of Kendra. He found himself galvanizing into action before his will, forged and honed by years of training in the arts arcane crushed the illusion and set him free from it.

After catching his breath and investigating the chamber, Darcon gestured at the badge and said, "Well that is no doubt the warden's badge of office, which his wife tasked us to find. If we return it to her after destroying the remaining specter she should be able to banish them permanently, assuming she was not overstating her capability."

Garland kneels down next to the corpse looking over the injuries and evidence. "Yes, and I believe this is also the warden. Once we have dealt with Professor Feramin we will lay his bones to rest with his wife. I suspect this passage in fact leads to our final prisoner. We will most likely face deadly traps and his arcane magic. We must decide, do we retreat for now or face him as we are?"

The haunt had set off a war within SCG his heart wished to rush in to save but his h ad clearly told him he had protected her that it was not possible she was here being tormented....he shook off the effects and moved forward.

“Does it seem this one was hated by the one who tortured him....The badge, is it possibly a talisman of evil rather than just a symbol of authority?”

SCG picks up the badge to see what symbols or script is upon it.

The badge was a heavy thing, once burnished silver but now tarnished nearly black except the faintest gleaming on the edges and embossing. The badge depicted a kite shield about the size of Constantine's palm set with the Tower and Bramble of Ustalavian heraldry. Two captain's bars stood in the foreground and below, in relief, the motto 'Abjuria Ferrus'. On the back with engravers stamps were pressed the small letters 'DA. P. V. Ordranti'.

Darcon noted that the motto was in the ancient tongue of Ustalav and meant 'Protection like Iron'. The letters on the back named the bearer of the badge Duly Appointed by Prince Valislav Ordranti, the ruler of Ustalav when Warden Hawkran had been assigned to Harrowstone.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:58, Tue 17 Sept 2019.

After translating the motto on the badge for his companions, Darcon looked to Garland and answered the priest, "I would say let us not risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The last of the specters is supposed to be the strongest, who knows what strange sorcery's it may bring to bear. Returning after renewing our resources might be for the best."

Looking around the chamber he added, "Though we do not have to retreat all the way to the estate, we can camp atop the lip of the chasm where Kendra awaits. We may get a few nightmares spending the night but I believe we should be fine."

Garland nods slowly as he considers the situation though he was thinking the same thing. "As much as I want to end this now, I agree that some restraint is necessary. I will ask Pharasma for some spell to handle any potential fatigue. Before we rest I would like to speak with Miss Hawkren again. We should prepare their remains and see them buried in a place of her choosing with the proper Pharasman funerary rituals. It may help them rest."

“It is the wisest course of action.  Yes the bones below should be laid to rest with last rites.”

SCG breaks the long silence after he listens and looks into the darkness of the tunnel...

“I hear naught but drips of water.”

The party made its way back out through the dungeon, studiously avoiding the entrance to the final cell block. The yawning black corridor seemed to radiate a menace even more intense compared to the now cleared areas of the rest of the prison.

Kendra was anxiously awaiting them atop the collapsed lift shaft. One of the cursed items in her care had undergone a surprising transformation. The Lopper's handaxe had shed its dark aura and the spattered blood on the blade began to flake off and fall away. In the end it retained some of its killing power, but the dark curse that haunted it was banished.

The group moved next to the final resting place of Vesorianna Hawkran. They entered slowly, hesitantly, both from trepidation and respect for the unquiet dead. The wretched sounds of a woman sobbing echoed faintly through the prison as they approached, and once again the tattered and ghostly form of the warden's wife rose from the piteous bundle of rags in the corner. She shimmered there, great blue tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Who...who are you? You've returned! Are you the new guards? You must help me!" She said in a ghostly wail. Again she entreated our heroes to aid her in cleansing the spirits from the prison. She seemed just as torn and disoriented as before, sometimes forgetting that they were there entirely, sometimes acting as if she were only seeing them for the first time, and sometimes begging to know how they were faring in assisting her. All through out great sobs of grief wracked her ghostly form.

---

The curse on the Lopper's handaxe has been lifted, resolving itself into a +1 Handaxe

Garland took a deep breath in as he thought about what to say and wondered if this was really the best path to take. "My Lady, it is I Garland Van Burke. The Pharasman cleric who came here to free you. I come with some excellent news, all but one of the spirits assaulting you have been temporarily delt with. If you can do as you said, stop their revival it will be a great step forward for cleansing Harrowstone."

He pauses for a moment before presenting the warden's badge of office. "We also found your husband's remains and his symbol of office. I present it to you in good faith though I have a question for you. I would like to see both you and your husbands remains buried in a place that has special meaning to the two of you. As he is not here to discuss the topic, I differ to you, where would you like us to place your remains and grave marker?"

Darcon greeted Kendra with a smile and told them of their thrilling victory against the Lopper. He confided in her how close the battle had been, and that they had only one more shade left to fight before the curse upon the prison could be contained and the village made safe from their evil.

When they approached the resting place of the Warden's wife and her spirit appeared, Darcon merely looked sadly at her, letting Garland speak. He nodded in approval of the cleric's request to bury her and her husband's remains together, someplace peaceful and far from the influence of the accursed prison hopefully, as long as it would still allow the spirit to contain the evil therein as she had earlier alluded to doing.

There was the itch in the back of SCG’s mind a little thought here and there, eventually he chalked it up to the last remaining dark corridor below.

He stands in the doorway in case the thing below crawls up through the gaping hole in the floor:

Finally he simply says
“The burial should happen and all spirits know peace.  As a precaution Let us camp beyond the walls rather than within the prison itself.”
This message was last edited by the player at 13:48, Tue 01 Oct 2019.

"You've...you've brought it..." Vesorianna said, drifting towards Garland. She reached out a slender arm towards the proffered badge, delicate fingers brushing the surface and then passing through it. He felt a sudden chill as her ghostly hand passed through his.

"Set it...here..." She said in her dreamy, ghostly way, gesturing towards the slender bones of her own hand sprawled piteously where she had died.

"The burial? The burial? It's just bones and rags now. Nothing but dust." She floated over her own corpse and brushed her bluish, transparent fingers across a cheek now mummified.

"It's only dust. My heart...my heart! They took my heart away from here!" She broke into fresh sobs, her shoulders wracking as great ghostly drops rolled down her cheeks.

"With their magics and their malice...oh my love! My heart! They have taken my love away from this place!"

Vesorianna rose to circle the room, her hair and gown roiling as if tossed by an invisible wind. Fury battled with grief on her features.

"My husband protected this place for so long...for so long. Now only I can...with this!" She gestured to the badge triumphantly.

"I can feel him...down below. He is the only...one...left. You must defeat him, then I can be free of this hell!"