Taanyth wields his chakram and takes 30 feet back.
"What is DOING this?!?" Iesha snarls in frustration."Stay dead!"
Round 2 summary
Peredur and Alzano decimate the skeleton they have flanked,it collapses into a pile of dust, rags and bones. Iesha swings wide at the remaining skeleton as Taanyth retreats out of range.
Aleksandr stabs again at the skeleton he had damaged, but misses.
attack
damage
The remaining skeleton switches to Iesha, and jabs at her with it's rusty blade, but she again moves away from the swing.
attack:
damage:
Frustrated, Iesha swings at the skeleton again.
+1 holy water.
Alzano maneuvers around to the last remaining skeleton, putting it between himself and Iesha. He slashes at it with his dagger, hoping to bring it down with a well-placed blow.
Taanyth takes his chakram and throws it to the skeleton and wields another one.
Aleksandr continues to harry the skeleton with his longspear.
Attack:
Damage:
Round 3:
Peredur pivots to attack the other skeleton, attempting again to set up a flank for Alzano. He's unable to connect himself, though.
Round 3 summary
A flurry of attacks follows, with Peredur, Iesha,and Aleksandr all being parried by a suddenly very proficient (or mostly lucky) skeleton. Alzano's dagger finds purchase, but is unable to do any actual damage on the skeleton.
The luck is for naught however, as Taanyth's Chakram whistles through the air and splits the skull of the undead creature in two. It falls to the ground in a dry crumble.
The unnatural silence returns to the Restlands.
Peredur shakes the dust from his mace and puts it away. "Naught else is disturbing th' peace, now. Best we keep searching 'til Pharasma's priests arrive."
Alzano puts his weapons away once again, feeling not quite as incompetent as before. "What in the Abyss is going on? Walking corpses... skeletons... I came here to pay my respects at a funeral, not have one for myself!"
"I wish I knew. I'm *almost* sympathetic to Mr. Gibs' reaction to the situation. Something's wrong here and I, for one, don't believe the Professor was responsible. It *must* be linked to Harrowstone. We need to resolve this...to put an end to these events, if only to clear the Professor's good name!"
"'Tis sure that Kendra will not have an easy time here, should these events continue. Nor will we, for that matter--'twould be hard to fulfill th' Professor's last wish, were we driven from town, or worse, by a mob."
"Should these events continue as such, the Professor's good name and health of his daughter may be the least of our worries." Grimburrow announces his presence with his surprisingly commanding voice.
Flanked by a half-dozen acolytes, he trudges up the path toward you.
"You have been busy. And your efforts are appreciated beyond my words can make clear." He beckons, and the acolytes move to clean up the bones of the recently not-quite-so-dead.
"We have a long night ahead of us. The acolytes and I must re-consecrate the Restlands and inter the remains to ensure no more of the dead grow... unsettled." With that, he grips his holy symbol, draws an aspergillum and walks down the path into the darkness, chanting a prayer to Pharasma.
"He has a point. I was thinking too narrowly, thinking only of how this affected those I know. But this is affecting the whole town and everyone in it. We have to go to Harrowstone. We have to find the cause and put an end to it for the entire town, not just the parts we know and like. Professor Lorrimor would have...was doing...just that. We need to finish his work."
Alzano jumps at Grimburrow's voice, stopping himself before drawing a weapon on the cleric. An undead attack is the last time to show up with no warning!
Responding to Iesha, "Yeah, we do have to go to Harrowstone, but one thing I've learned is never to rush a job. We know nothing about it! All we have is a list of some vicious criminals and a creepy-arse children's rhyme that makes a vague connection to them. Walking into there unprepared could get us all killed."
"Let's head back to Kendra's. We can review waht we've learned and perhaps with some of the new information, we can make sense of some of the Professor's notes."
Whispering Way:
A sinister organization of Necromancers, the Whispering Way has been active in the Inner Sea region for years. Members seek alliances with the undead--and it's most notorious member is certainly Tar Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant. Though the cult existed long before the Tyrant came along.
The Whispering Way itself is a series of philosophies, transmitted only via whisper, and never written. Their exact goals and nature are impsosible to pin down for this reason.
The only obvious goal of the Whispering Way is to engineer the release of The Whispering Tyrant. To this end they apparently investgate many haunted locales to research the nature of undeath and to sometimes capture unique monsters.
Their symbol is a gagged skull, and those who learn too much of the Way's secrets meet their end in hideous ways: mouths and faces mutilated to prevent communication via speak with dead spells.
Harrowstone:
After the prison was established, its success lead to dangerous prisoners being transferred from locations all around Ustalav.
We located transfer paperwork for five prisoners labeled as 'highly dangerous', 'the worst we've had in centuries' and giving their names as: Father Charlatan, The Piper of Illmarsh, The Lopper, The Mosswater Marauder and the Splatter Man.
When the prison burned down, the prisoners had taken control of the basement in a riot and had been in command for several hours. Warden Hawkran had triggered a deafall, hopeing to trap the prisoners below. The deadfall trapped him and a dozen guards as well.
The remaining guards panicked when the prisoners found another way out, and started the fire in a desperate and successful attempt to stop the escape.
The skipping song:
"Put her body on the bed,
Take a knife and lop her head.
Watch the blood come out the pipe,
Feeds the stirge, so nice and ripe.
Drops of red so sparkly bright,
Splatters spell her name just right.
With a hammer killed his wife,
Now he wants to claim your life.
Tricksy father tells a lie,
Listen close or you will die."
"Alzano has th' right of it. Going to Harrowstone 'fore we learn more of th' criminals there be foolhardy. Best we hurry, though. Th' odd happenstances are growing more dangerous with each passing night."
On the way back to Lorrimor's, Peredur will keep a watch for angry groups of villagers giving the party the evil eye.
Iesha is silent and thoughtful on the way back to the Lorrimor place. Hopefully, we will have more luck in our researches tomorrow. I'm worried that the longer we take, the worse things will get. Still, Alzano is right, blindly charging in could make things even worse.
Once back at Kendra's, Iesha will work with anyone else who wants to check the Professor's library, then get some rest. She will comment, though "I'm not sure just how much more we will find here. Profesor Lorrimor didn't have much informtion about any of the prisoners, according to his own diary. I think we'll have to check the other options in town, such as the Town Hall, the temple and the Unfurling Scroll. Personally, I think the temple is our best bet, but it can't hurt to keep searching the rest. What information, aside from inofrmation about the prisoners, might be helpful? I wonder...could we find floorplans of Harrowstone?"
Kendra ponders that for a moment...
"Perhaps the town hall would have some documents? The prison is very old, however, so I would not hope for it. I would certainly check the town hall and the temple for any records of the actual prisoners. I Imagine the town kept a tally of who was interred there, and the Temple would have been remiss not to record the local deaths... But leave it for tomorrow... such horrors you have faced today. I think you should rest."
Kendra is positively motherly as she fusses about getting the party to bed. Sleep comes only a few short hours before the sun breaks over the horizon.
Day 4
The party is greeted with the familiar smells and tastes of breakfast. the day, well past dawn now, is bright but cold. Winter apparently not too keen on relinquishing it's grip just yet.
"Mistress Kendra, my thanks for a fine meal. Iesha, 'twould seem not unreasonable for you and Aleksandr to ask for access to th' town hall, for you are persuasive and he's from this area. Alzano, Taanyth, and I shall return to th' temple. Which of th' five were you thinking to start with? Take them in order; you begin with Father Charlatan, whilst we seek word of th' Piper of Ilmarsh?"
"That sounds reasonable. Though, perhaps, given the name, the temple might know more of someone called 'Father Charlatan'"
Alzano gives Peredur a blank look, "Yeah. Sure. I'll go to the temple again." Typical. Maybe the pointy ears affect their hearing.
"It is important that we gather as much information on these five prisoners, in case we face their spirits," Aleksandr agrees, "We will find out what we can from the town hall."
Iesha will head to the town hall with Aleksandr.
"Good day to you. We are investigating the recent incidents and their possible connection to Harrowstone. Could we have permission to examine any records you might have concerning the place? We are interested in specific prisoners who perished there."
The town hall is a single level, the largest building on the town circle. The double doors are closed, and a clerk comes when you knock loudly. He looks hassled at first, then surprised at the appearence of Aleksandr and Iesha
The clerk listens to Iesha, then looks expectantly at Aleksandr, openly suspicious of this bizarre looking half-elf.
A tired looking acolyte, one you recognize from the Restlands, but not the usual keeper of the records, answers and brings you to the basement records. While you pour over the tomes, you hear him snoring loudly, leaning against the stairwell wall.
Alzano shuffles through the archives half-heartedly, barely paying any attention to the words on the pages.
Peredur doesn't do much better.
Diplomacy:
"Did my colleague not express our interests clearly enough, young man? We believe that recent events in the town may be linked to those who were incarcerated within Harrowstone's walls. Do you wish to obstruct an investigation by an ordained member of the Church of Pharasma?"
Iesha steps back slightly to allow Aleksandr to appear to the clerk as the leader of the group.
The clerk blinks, seems to waver a moment and disappears behind the closed door.
A moment later, an older woman, formally dressed appears.
"We are currently having a meeting regarding last night's... events. Kindly return this afternoon." With that, the door closes again and you hear the sound of a heavy lock clicking over.
You find a record of the death of one Sefick Corvin, noted to be a prisoner of Harrowstone, killed in the fire that destroyed the prison. His crimes are listed as blasphemy, impersonating clergy members, dozens of counts of extortion, and accessory to the murder of several members of the Lepidstadt watch.
A note from the count of Lepidstadt, one Devan Caromarc, requesting a transfer for the prisoner known as 'Father Charlatan' to Harrowstone for eventual execution is also included.
"Sigh. Well, hopefully we can impress them a little more this afternoon. Where should we go now? Back to the Unfurling Scroll?"
"On the other hand, I don't know if the Scroll will have any more information than we already have. Hm. let's head to the temple and let the others know of this meeting. If they're done, we can all meet with the town council afterwards."
"Interestin', to be sure. Let's rejoin th' others and see what ill fate awaits us this eve."
The researchers in the Church basement are joined by Iesha and Aleksandr and the group spends the day in research, finding the notes mentioned above.
it is mid afternoon by the time the notes on Father Charlatan are found.
"What now? I'm thinking 'twould be wise to collect Mistress Kendra and return to th' Town Hall, lest th' good folk there think we were hiding from them. Might also be good for me to leave armor an' sword at Lorrimor's as well, so's to seem less threatening. I expect Kendra can find a staff for me to carry, though."
"Why would we get Kendra? And there's no way I'm leaving my weapons behind. Not sure how someone can forget what's happened the past couple of days..."
"So she can introduce us to those she knows and we don't, or tell us more about them, and so we're not so much a band of heavily armed strangers coming to th' Town Hall at a time when th' dead are walking and any number of other unseemly things are happening."
"I agree that we should look less threatening to them, still, it can't hurt to appear at least competent. I ave no intention of carring my glaive, but I will wear Shelyn's armor and my aspergillum. No, Alzano, you don't need to be completely unarmed, just...non-threatening."
Iesha walks back to Kendra's place with the others.
Aleksandr agrees with the others, and also heads back to Kendra's in order to prepare himself to look less threatening.
"We do not wish to unduly worry the council," Aleksandr said as they walked, "The last thing we need is for them to be looking into what we're doing. It's a fine line between them thinking we're harmless to them trying to stop us because they think what we're doing will harm the town."
"That thought had not crossed my mind, Aleksandr. There's far too much they could do to stop us, did they think they had cause, and th' work we've taken up from Petros be far too important for that."