Yazhu had climbed up and finished tying the rope down for the others by the time Baihu gave up her fruitless attempt at picking the lock. "Your way is much better!" the foxgirl said, climbing up after Yazhu. On the second floor few walls remained standing and fewer still above waist height. Most of the rooms had collapsed onto the first floor below leaving mounds of useless debris blocking off both levels. To the south, a narrow strip of intact floor led to a miraculously preserved - perhaps literally so - room.<br/><br/>Dozens of paintings of a towering humanoid figure with four wings, a bird’s head, and a scorpion’s tail decorated the walls of this room, seemingly painted in blood. Old pews sat in a line facing the eastern wall, where a hideously defaced statue of a winged woman stood. The statue had been particularly despoiled, her wings hacked down the middle to give the impression of having four wings instead of two, her head removed and replaced with a crude carving of a leering bird’s head, and a long, barbed tail made of braided dried nettles hanging from her posterior. Unlike the sorry condition of the rest of the castle, the paintings had not faded nor had the dried nettles been swept away.<br/><br/>Even Yazhu could recognize that this room was once a shrine to Desna, but had since been despoiled and rededicated to another deity. "Ugh, this room reeks of evil..." Sandra commented from behind, having joined Yazhu on the second floor. "I've heard of this phenomenon before, but this is the first time I've seen it - shrines and statues sacred to the gods preserved by divine power while the rest of the ruins crumbles away. I'm pretty sure this isn't Desna's doing though!"<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 15 Knowledge (religion)</div><div class="spoiler_body">"The shrine has been rededicated to Pazuzu... his unholy power must have sustained this place. We shouldn't linger... this's little we can do about it now."</div></div><br/><br/>To the north, the floor led to the donjon - the inner tower of the castle, and other remaining intact structure this high up. Again another iron door would have barred entry had not it already been laying open. Judging from the faded dried blood and gouges marring the walls, a terrific battle once took place in this guard room. There were two side rooms, once armories, but the weapon and armor racks within now stood empty. The spiraling stairs on the northern end led downstairs...<br/><br/>...to the room behind the iron door that Baihu had failed to pick. Old tapestries depicting a seaside castle hung askew on the walls of this circular room and a thick layer of dust caked the floor. Old bloodstains splattered the walls, along with numerous brutal gashes and slashes to the stone itself. The collapsed, impassible passageway to the south would have led to more rooms in the donjon, while the spiraling stairs continued leading down into darkness...<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 15 Perception</div><div class="spoiler_body">The footprints were old, almost completely covered by newer dust, and only a pair of keen eyes would have noticed them. Once found though, there was no mistaking something even more disturbing - they were perfectly the shape and size of Yazhu's shoes, as if she had made them herself long ago, impossible as it was.</div></div><br/><br/>...to an iron portcullis barring passage into the room beyond. The bars themselves were sunken deep into the floor and ceiling, with no obvious method of passing into the chamber beyond. On the floor in front of the portcullis lay the skeleton of a winged, bird-headed humanoid. In its bony hand it still clutched a broken darkwood-and-silver disc, the intricate etching of Brinewall under the noonday sun still discernible among the pieces. On its fingerbone was an artfully carved jade ring.<br/><br/>"This type of ring... it should have been worn by the lord of the castle as symbol of his station," Ameiko commented.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 20 Perception</div><div class="spoiler_body">There were two 5-inch-diameter circular depressions in the walls to the left and right of the portcullis, faintly inscribed with an image of the sun (to the left) and the moon (to the right).</div></div><br/><br/>Baihu, Sandra, Ameiko... Shalelu was nowhere to be found! How long had she been gone?