Jimmy eerily responds "...we cling to it ALL, as we fervently swore we would....while shoving a hot poker up the <he spits> Dark Lord's arse!" and then trails off giggling as he goes to inspect the statue/platform contraption (Investigation: 10), trying to determine how it works.

Jeremiah nods towards Ingrid. ‘My thoughts exactly. We need to cut out the dark heart, and then determine how much more needs to be excised.’

Shiara inclines her head. "As long as Strahd lives, we cannot truly determine what is the true creed and what is his false teachings. Kill him, and then we can determine what can be salvaged."

The badly wounded angels are actually, in some way, holding the chains that operate the lift. Each one has a small placard that says: "Sacarra, Pious Lady".

Religion: ??????

Jimmy: “Sacarra?  Where have I heard that before?”

Religion: 13

Oh hey I'm good at this: 18

Sacarra. Holy Lady of Perpetual Agony. You've heard about this woman in your early teachings. You're not quite sure, but this place is holy, or once was. The bleeding angelic statues represent something - something that made her famous, something that she did to herself. You have the urge to press on. Something terrible happened to this woman. And for some reason, you feel like the Brotherhood was involved.

By standing on the lift, you feel it would activate, allowing you to rise to the horrors that await you above.

Shiara narrows her eyes. "Sacarra...the Holy Lady of Perpetual Agony. This place used to be holy, but now...it's not friendly to us." She shakes her head. "We should hurry. We don't want to be here any longer than we must."

The lift is still undamaged enough that it would function. Tales you remember, Shiara, tell of how Sacarra used to wound herself. Looking at the statues, you think that, perhaps, imitating this behavior might generate some sort of spiritual effect - activating the lift.

Shiara narrows her eyes even further. "We need to bleed a bit to get this thing moving."

In a fit of laughter, Jimmy hoots out "Hahahahahaha!  She sounds like my kinda gal!"  He'll then step on the lift, pull out one of his rapiers, and slice the palm of his hand open slightly, letting the blood drip down all over the lift.

Oddly, as you cut yourself, you do not bleed. However, one of the statues eyes begin to. You know, spiritually, that you have activated one of the statues.

Ingrid steps forward with a small knife cutting her hand and letting her blood drip down as well.

Hera runs her hand across her sword and lets the blood run down.

Shiara sighs and pulls out a small ritual knife, then murmurs a quiet prayer before slicing her finger in a practiced motion.

As you cut yourselves, the eyes of the statues bleed, and as they do, the lift activates, allowing you to access the second floor of the tower. You may ascend when you deem fit.

Hera steps onto the lift. "Well, let's see what's on the next floor."

Jimmy broods for a second over the fact that his 'sacrifice' didn't cause him to bleed out, but quickly gets over it and steps on the lift to ascend to the second floor.

Ingrid walks on to the lift, mind still stuck on the imagery of deformed angels, a little spaced out for a moment before shaking herself to the present. “I agree with Hera, let us obtain our goal from this tower.”

Shiara sheathes her knife and steps onto the lift calmly.