False Crypt

[Eanwulf]

Treasure Found in the False Crypt

Although Professor Lorrimor has most likely already raided the cache, he didn't appear to have taken all of the tools kept here—a fair amount of useful material remains, including:

a dozen silver arrows
four sun rods
six flasks of holy water
10 +1 arrows
five +1 ghost touch arrows
two +1 undead bane arrows
five potions of cure light wounds
two potions of lesser restoration
a scroll of detect undead
two scrolls of hide from undead
a scroll of protection from evil
and
a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back—the same design that appears on the cover of the Manual of the Order of the Palatine Eye among the books in the professor's collection.

~The darkwood case is worth 50 gp, and contains three objects of interest—a spirit board with a brass spirit planchette, and four iron and glass vials containing tiny, churning clouds of vapor. The vials sit in velvet-lined indentations to the left of the spirit board and planchette, along with six equally sized empty indentions. The vials are all valuable magic items called haunt siphons.

[Eanwulf]

Haunt Siphon

Aura faint necromancy; CL 3rd
Slot none; Price 400 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description
These glass vials are held within stylized cold-iron casings etched with strange runes, necromantic designs, or other eldritch markings. Within the vial roils a small wisp of white vapor, churning as if caught in a miniature vortex of air.

To capture a haunt's energies within a haunt siphon, you need only twist the metal casing to open the vial in the same round that the haunt manifests (a standard action)—this can be before or after the haunt has acted. You must be within the haunt's area of influence to use a haunt siphon. When you activate a haunt siphon, it deals 3d6 points of positive energy damage to a single haunt. If it deals enough damage to the haunt to reduce the haunt's hit points to 0, the mist inside the haunt siphon glows green—if it does not reduce the haunt to 0 hit points, the haunt siphon is still expended and becomes nonmagical. It may take multiple haunt siphons to destroy powerful haunts. A haunt that is neutralized by a haunt siphon takes a –5 penalty on its caster level check to manifest again after its reset time passes.

A haunt siphon that neutralizes a haunt can no longer be used to harm haunts, but it can be used as a grenade like splash weapon that deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage with a direct hit. Every creature within 5 feet of the point where the haunt siphon hits takes 1 point of negative energy damage from the splash.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, cure moderate wounds, gentle repose; Cost 200 gp

Spirit Planchette

Aura moderate divination; CL 9th
Slot none; Price 4,000 gp (brass planchette), 10,000 gp (cold iron planchette), 18,000 gp (silver planchette); Weight 5 lbs.

Description
A spirit planchette is typically found in a wooden case along with a thin wooden board printed with numerous letters and numbers. Nonmagical versions of these divination tools can be purchased in curiosity shops (typically costing 25 gp); while these items can be used as alternative components for augury spells, only magical spirit planchettes allow users to communicate with the other side. Three types of spirit planchettes exist—brass, cold iron, and silver. Each in turn allows an increasingly potent form of divination effect to be utilized. A spirit planchette requires a board to move upon, but this “board” can be made up of letters scribed upon any smooth surface—it need not be a prepared board for a spirit planchette to work.

To use a spirit planchette, you must rest your fingers lightly upon the planchette's surface and then concentrate on the planchette (as if maintaining a spell with a duration of concentration) for 2d6 rounds while the planchette attunes itself to the ambient spirits of the area. After this time, the planchette begins to slowly slide in random patterns across the board—at this point, questions may be asked of the spirits by any of the individuals involved in the séance. The consequences of each question asked of the spirits depends upon what type of planchette is used for the divination, as summarized on the table below. The spirits reply in a language understood by the character who asked the question, but resent such contact and give only brief answers to the questions. All questions are answered with “yes,” “no,” or “maybe,” or by spelling out a single word from the letters arranged on the board. The spirits answer each question either in the same round the question is asked (in the case of a yes, no, or maybe answer) or at a rate of one letter per round (in the case of a single word being spelled out). A spirit planchette may be used once per day—the maximum number of questions you can ask with it depends on the type of planchette being used (as detailed on the table below).

Communication with spirits can be a dangerous task, for many spirits are jealous or hateful of the living. Every time a spirit planchette is used, the user must succeed on a Will save to avoid being temporarily possessed and harmed by the angry spirits. In some areas where the spirits are particularly violent or hateful (such as in Harrowstone), this Will save takes a –2 penalty. The DC of this save depends on the type of spirit planchette being used. Anyone who fails the Will save becomes confused for a number of rounds (depending on the type of planchette being used), and no answer is received. The spirits in the area are not omniscient—the GM should decide whether or not the spirits would actually know the answer to the question asked, and if they do not, the answer granted is automatically “maybe.” If the GM determines that the spirits are knowledgeable about the answer, roll d% to determine whether the spirits speak truthfully or whether they lie.

[mackaber]

Wow nice little treasure there. Too bad no one is using a bow... I'll take any of the scrolls but realize we should distribute them. As ELena is also a fairly able melee combatatnt they should go to a pure caster first.

[ardh05]

Takeo doesn't have any feats to improve it, but he does carry a Longbow, so he can possibly make use of the arrows.

[Vardaen]

I laid claim to a few items on the sheet, we should split the haunt siphons up so we can make the best use of them

[EvilMonkey]

Stealthy rogue that I am, I could possibly make use of a Scroll of Hide from Undead, especially with my lovely use magic device skill

A potion of cure light wounds would be nice as I seem to be getting injured in every fight. For a rogue, I'm not much good at evading apparently

I wouldn't say no to a flask (or more) of holy water as I'm pretty awesome with ranged combat, and they make handy Anti-undead grenades.

And the fact that I'm a sneaky sneaky rogue thats all about the attack out of nowhere, I could possibly make use of one of the Haunt Siphons... Spook a spook, works for me!

[Trogdor]

Ric can use a bow. And I plan to get one as soon as I can afford one. But I don't see him using the bow much.

[mackaber]

Elena needs the haunt syphons least as she can channel negative energy for fun.

[Vardaen]

Are we using the loot sheet or the loot thread?

I previously laid claim to items on the loot sheet.

I'm all for splitting items up evenly so we all have an item or two and can cover one another's backs, and take the best advantage of the siphons. If for example Anric uses one, but it doesn't do enough damage, then the next person in init can use theirs to finish the job.

[EvilMonkey]

I say we use the loot thread to split up the items, in a democratic and conflict avoiding way, then use the loot sheet to mark it down, but thats just me.