OOC: Ignatia does the same.

Renny lets out a breath....

"We can't trust doors now?!"

You all take a breather and discuss what the hell just happened with the 'door'. You also get some quiet moments to yourself (minus the ghostly chanting which has never stopped).

Flynt, you recover the 9 hp, and feel a lot better after that door incident. The thing had you real good.

Shae listens to Ignatia's direction and she leads the party back around the other way, through the passageway you came from and then heading east into what seems to be a demented shrine of some sort. The room is littered with moldy skeletons that hang from rusty shackles against the walls. A wide alcove in the east wall contains a painted wooden statue carved in the likeness of a gaunt, pale-faced man wearing a voluminous black cloak, his pale left hand resting on the head of a wolf that stands next to him. In his right hand, he holds a smoky-grey crystal orb.

What would you like to do? 

Just to catch everyone up on the story (including myself),

You all assume that the wooden statue is the vampire Strahd von Zarovich because of the letter you found back in that library in the secret room in the skeleton's hand. The letter is below for reference.

So what's going on here is that this house was filled with nut-jobs who worshiped the vampire Strahd von Zarovich. They did not impress Strahd though, and its clear the failed cult was doomed from the beginning. They were a joke to Strahd.

The cult has since possessed the house, and now here we are...

The letter:

My most pathetic servant,

I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of the land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms withering in my earth.

I am embarrassed that you call me your master, and your pitiful excuse for a cult pales in comparison to the power I wield. Your miserable cult is a joke. This is not how Count Strahd operates, and I will not allow this farce of a cult you have going to continue bearing my name.

Prepare to die.

Signed,

Strahd von Zarovich

(still the loud chanting of course coming from the stairs to the west)

Ignatia pointed at the wooden statue, " No one touches that."

" Sacrifices I assume.", she said pointing at the skeletons.

" Ok, downstairs it is."

Flynt nods while staring at the statue. "Yes. Let us be done with this."

Shae agrees with Ignatia and Flynt, and unless Renny has any objections, the party leaves the statue alone. They retrace back to the long stairwell down... deeper into the dunegon... you all make your way down the stairs, and come to a room which seems to have a bunch of relics, likely used in the cult rituals. They are all stored in separate niches along the walls.

Any specific information about the items you'd have to investigate further.

More importantly, the ghostly chanting now is very loud, and it fills this room. You can actually make out words now... there's about a dozen different voices saying, over and over, not in harmony, "He is the Ancient. He is the Land. He is the Ancient. He is the Land. He is the Ancient. He is the Land. He is the Ancient. He is the Land......."

The voices are repeating this over and over and it's not exactly quiet. 

This room has 2 passageways... once leading southwest to somewhere, and the other leading down south and you can see that the tunnel is blocked by a rusty portcullis. The floor around the portcullis is submerged under 2 feet of murky water, and it seems that way leads into a bigger pool of water.

What would you like to do?

Map:

(Hey sorry for being absent, my internet was down for a few days because my provider was doing work in my neighborhood. Thanks for botting me. :) )

(no worries at all, glad you're back!)

" I'm a little shy after that whole pit incident...", Ignatia shudders.  " Maybe someone check around that bend?"

Flynt is going to walk up to the entrance and sneak a peek into the door.

Perception - 12

Stealth - 16

Flynt - do you mean the entrance with the water, or the hallway around the bend?

The hallway around the bend.

Flynt, surprisingly you're very quiet as you creep around the bend and look down the hallway. Let's say Renny lights up a rock and tosses it down the hallway as well so you can see.

And what you see is a prison. You can tell it's a prison from the moment you see the room's contents. There are rusty shackles everywhere. This was where the cultists kept their prisoners for their rituals. Where did the rituals take place?

Anyone else following Flynt into the prison should also make a Perception check. 

And the ghostly chanting is repeating over and over and over and over still.... "He is the Ancient. He is the Land. He is the Ancient. He is the Land."

"Do these guys ever shut up?"

Perception:9

Ignatia followed Flynt in, and looked to Renny, " If they're as dead as the rest of the cultists we found they're very noisy for dead people."

Ignatia, you follow Flynt into the prison and see the shackles in each cell just like Flynt did. No bones or bodies, just empty cells. And very old rusty shackles.

You don't notice anything else in the prison.

Shae also follows everyone into the prison and checks things out 24

...it must've been Shae's keen eyes, but she notices that part of the east wall looks different than the rest of the wall. It's a secret door! Seems to lead directly into the room where the chanting is originating from.

So if you look on the map above, the secret door is directly to the right of where Flynt is currently positioned. 

What would you like to do?

Flynt is going to open the door.