We started back to the club house in need of a long rest for the casters.  The GM had asked for our intentions via email so he would prepare but he got very little response. Once again, Paul asked about finding a buyer (trading partner) that would be willing to exchange one of the flaming runes we found, for a shock rune he wanted.  (Fire seemed less ideal given all these devils.)  The GM had him make a tough Society roll which he missed.  However, that was for finding someone that had a shock rune.  The answer to the “exchange” question was a solid no.  The price between selling the fire rune for half and splitting it 5 ways and then buying a shock rune and just using the fire rune was too great.  We decided to go back to the room with the monsters in statis.  According to the “friendly” imp, they were being stored so that they could be unleashed on the town of Otari as some future date.  So, we felt we had to destroy them.  Ideally one at a time.  The Imp also said there was a haunt or something in that room to deal with. 

One of the statis chambers was not like the others.  The stone glass was covered in soot and there didn’t seem to be anything in there.  We could see some bracers and a pouch.  (We’ve been enticed into danger before.)  And then a flaming creature appeared.  It’s a familiar problem.  Is it a haunt to be negotiated with or a monster to be fought or a monster to be fled from? It was pretty aggressive and we didn’t really have a chance to negotiate with it.  The first two players sort of delayed, waiting to see what it would do.  Xeelie thought it was once a hag? When it went, it unleashed a 5^th level Cry of Despair spell with a very high Will save.  Most failed and were slowed 1 for 10 rounds.  Briscoe saved and got a save each round to see if he was slowed that round. 5^th level spells? So, are we supposed to run?

Oakwood left the room, hoping more distance or no line of sight would stop the despair.  He had little chance against that Will save.  That did not help.  Again, no one could decide to fight or flee so people fled slowly.  We hoped it could not leave the room and that might give us an advantage? After a couple rounds, we all got out and the door shut.  However, it summoned a Will O Wisp which opened the door and attacked.  We committed to attack mode at that point.  Unfortunately, Wisps are immune to most magic so Oakwood and Clarisa were pretty much out of luck against it.  He cast some Protector Trees and she shot around it at the original ghost.  Between the opening and closing of doors, the slowed and their massive ACs, it was slow going.  When the Wisp was taken out, everyone moved in against the haunt.  When it hit with a strike, that character had a permanent (curse) weakness to fire.  It also got a reaction strike when hit.  Its chances of critting was higher than our chances to hit it.  A crit and a hit took TerStegan out in pretty much one round.  Once it again, it was a foe that was way beyond us that we won out against thanks to numbers and healing.

Xeelie made some more rolls and determined that it was a hag that was killed and turned into an undead to fulfill some purpose.  And until its reason for being there was gone, it would return in a day or two.  So, it was all for naught.  Paul correlated its name of “Warden” with the cells and correctly concluded that until all the prisoners were gone, the warden would stay.  As for the curse, the Druid had access to a 4^th level spell to fix that but he’d have to get a long rest to memorize it.  I think 2-3 of us were cursed.  We certainly didn’t want to start fighting these monsters with them so afflicted.  So, we decided to head back home after one fight.  Resources like battle medicine and magic missile were also expended.  But first, TerStegan bashed into the empty cell.  It had an 18 hardness and he was the only one that could best it with any regularity.  Once in, the items were examined.  The bracers were of Force.  Basically, explorer’s clothes that you needed an +5 Dex to equal the armor base we all had.  It also had a shove effect but not worth losing AC.  It would have worked for a 10^th level Monk great.  We’ll sell those.  The other was a type II pouch of holding.  Briscoe took that and handed down his type I to Oakwood so that he could haul more treasure when needed.

We went back home, took a couple of days rest to clear the curses and went back again.  They talked to the Imp some more and got a better idea what each of these monsters were.  The plan was to free them one at a time and kill as many as we can in a day.  And refight the haunt as needed.  Hopefully we can fight it smarter next time now that we knew what it could do.  And maybe we can negotiate with it? Assuming it wants to leave, if we show we’re killing her charges, maybe she’d stop hassling us? Not sure how many game sessions that’ll take or if we’ll earn anything for it.  Maybe we’ll get practice fighting things we’ll see further down.  If they’re all 2-3 levels above us, it’s going to take a while.