As Sohar, Chellian, and Morgrym approach the monument, the grisly scene is partially blocked by a throng of onlookers. The sheriff's deputies are keeping everyone back a ways while the sheriff himself and one one more deputy stare rather blankly at the mess.
A decapitated rooster lies at the base of the monument and blood has been splashed around. The letter "V", which was scrubbed off yesterday, has returned and is now followed by an "E". Many of the onlookers look suspicious and accusatory at your approach.
Coiger, Kitch, and Kendra enter the temple with the gift bottle and find old Grimburrow sitting in quiet council with a worshiper on a pew near the front of the chapel. A severe-looking priestess standing nearby approaches and greets you, though she makes a face as if she'd smelled something unpleasant when she looks Kitch over.
"Sister." He addresses the woman with a bow. "We have come to see Father. Is he free?"
Morgrym tips his hat at the townspeople, and steps forward to the deputies. "Mornin', friend. Wonder if'n we might 'ave a bit o' chat w' th' sheriff this mornin'. We be wantin' t' help, as we offered th' other day, and make sure ye know we mean no ill to you 'r yer town."
The woman draws a spiral over her heart as she inclines her head to her Brother. "Mmm." she confirms, still eyeing Kitch suspiciously. As you can see, Brother, Father Grimburrow is unavailable. You may wait for him, if you like. Has your...companion been taught the proper behavior in a sacred temple of the Grey Lady?
The young deputy looks a little uncomfortable at Morgrym's offer and assurance. Right, um, well the sheriff isn't letting anyone near the shrine just now. Especially y-, I mean...well, let me tell him you're here. He turns and jogs over to the sheriff and speaks to him out of hearing as he gestures over to the small group. The sheriff shoots an impatient glance your way and says something to the deputy who promptly returns to you. Sheriff says he'd like a word. He needs you to wait over by that tree, he motions, until he's ready. You're not to leave until he's had a word. He then lowers his voice a bit and adds, I don't think he really suspects you, see. But he's gotta keep up appearances, you understand?
The woman draws a spiral over her heart as she inclines her head to her Brother. "Mmm." she confirms, still eyeing Kitch suspiciously. As you can see, Brother, Father Grimburrow is unavailable. You may wait for him, if you like. Has your...companion been taught the proper behavior in a sacred temple of the Grey Lady?
"Of course."
Morgrym nods, "Aye, elf, ye got that right." He stumps over and stand by the tree, then looks up to its boughs. "Tell me, elf - I be so used t' stone 'n tunnels. How old ye reckon this tree be? Think it saw th' fire itself? Or is it jus' a few o' yer kin what talk t' trees 'n not you yerself?"
The woman draws a spiral over her heart as she inclines her head to her Brother. "Mmm." she confirms, still eyeing Kitch suspiciously. As you can see, Brother, Father Grimburrow is unavailable. You may wait for him, if you like. Has your...companion been taught the proper behavior in a sacred temple of the Grey Lady?
Kitch just opens up his mouth is a big open grin, eyes wide and slightly vacant. He glances quickly at Coiger so the man knows he saw the winks, and maintains his vacant silence.
Morgrym grunts and rubs his hands together. "Nah, not yet - that be me mother's father. Knowledge is suppos' t' go t' the son, but he don't have one. So it's either t' go t' her an' break all sense o' tradition, or it's t' die wi' him."
The stern priestess raises an eyebrow at Kitch's simpleton act. Hmm. Charming. I will notify the Father that you're waiting.
After about 10 minutes, the worshiper stands along with Grimburrow and moves past you to the door. Grimburrow gingerly makes his way alongside the middle-aged woman to see her out, then turns and greets Kendra with a warm smile and open arms. Ah, child. I'm so pleased that you're out and about. That's a good sign for one in mourning. It's the ones that shut themselves in their homes and forget there's a Sun out there that go mad. I trust your father's friends have been seeing to your needs. He raises an eyebrow at Coiger as if to convey the answer he expects to hear.
Oh, yes, Father. she replies. My father kept good company...mostly. These friends have been priceless to me. Now, what's this I hear that you're being stingy with your town histories. Come now, Father. My father always used to say, Before you can fight the darkness, you must fill your mind with light. You wouldn't keep these friends, who have proven themselves loyal and honorable more than once, from the light you tend, would you?
Grimburrow grins approvingly at the chastisement. Well said, girl. Well said. It was only for your sake that I barred them yesterday. My priority was your well-being and they've tended to that well. He turns to Coiger and Kitch and nods deeply. I appreciate your patience and your care of young Miss Lorrimor here. You may enter the archives with my blessing. Brother, I trust you will exercise care and discretion. Knowledge may be light, but light can also blind those unprepared for it. Now, Kendra, I see you've got a bottle of Zokar's bourbon. I have a matter I'd like to ask you about, if you and your bottle would accompany me to my office?
After several dull minutes pass, the sheriff approaches Chellian, Morgrym, and Sohar at the tree. He addresses you with a weary, but not unfriendly voice. Well, I'll be damned if it ain't y'all again. Now, every time I go and convince myself that this has got to be the work of y'all outsiders, y'all show up and confuse things. How am I supposed to make a case when y'all keep acting so innocent? He then leans in and lowers his voice. Did y'all find anything when you came back yesterday? 'Cause we're fairly stumped. Ain't no one in town with a motive to do this and there ain't no one in town stupid enough to do it twice if they're just raising a ruckus. Folks are startin' to think about other possibilities as to who's done it. And there's some silly gossip goin' 'round about haunted dreams. Psh! What's an angry spirit want with anyone's dreams?! Anyway, tell me good news.
Coiger waits until the father and Kendra are out of the room and then heads to the archives.
Chellian looked flummoxed. She wanted to tell the sheriff good news, she really did. But she didnt have any...yet.
Are we the only outsiders who have been here since the accident with the professor Sheriff? AS for the statue, maybe it is spirits though it seemed strange they would show up now. Perhaps... professor Lorimar unfortunately stirred something up in the old prison?
An official town inquiry into it couldnt hurt, It would make it seem you are being proactive and not reactive.
Coiger and Kitch find the archives easily in a sublevel of the temple. It's a fairly large room - maybe 20 feet by 40 feet - filled with bookcases, mostly filled but with some space for more. As you enter the room, you notice that the air is much drier and cooler than the room you came from.
Sheriff Caeller turns his head and spits behind him at Chellian's consideration of something having been stirred up by Lorrimor. Damn. If that crazy old man started this... Still, my money's on a troublemaker. I can't rightly go around blaming invisible goblins for everything goes wrong 'round here. Listen, I need favor. Give you a chance to earn my trust. I'm having one o' my boys keep watch over the monument tonight, see if he can figure who's behind this. He's gonna fall asleep though, an' if it's a local he likes been doin' this, he might try to protect them. I just need an objective pair o' eyes here. Can y'all help?
[dice=Perception (with sift)]1d20+11-5[/dice]
First Coiger's looking for anything relating to the nightmares. and the famous prisoners of Harrowstone. and the Whispering Way. If the stacks are organized could I just use Profession (clerk) to some effect?
The sheriff smiles broadly. Terrific. Now, as we're all trustin' each other, I'll give you fair warning. My boy will be instructed to watch y'all as carefully as he's watching the monument. <For all that's worth.> he grumbles to himself. Anything happens to him an' I'll know it IS y'all been stirrin' the pot 'round here. We understand each other? Great. Gotta get back over. And please keep this accord between us. I'll sing your innocence on the rooftops once you've proved it, but for now I gotta play it safe. Y'understand? At that he strides back over to the monument, careful not to step in any blood splatters.
"Kurkorikt if you would be so kind as to find the prison logs? They should be over there."
"Or not.... They must have put it under 'T' for 'The Prison.'"
"Aye, keep yer young'n safe 'n catch 'im what's been doin' this. Ye'll not find better eyes 'n ours fer a job like this, Sheriff. We'll be here."
Morgrym turns to Chellian. "Ye wantin t' join me 'n the elf t'night fer this, lass? Yer human eyes'll not have a chance 'less the moon be high 'n bright, so ye'll need a good hooded lantern what we can throw open in a moment t' catch th' culprit."
Morgrym will make sure he is armored and that his sap is in good order for setting watch that evening.
Morgrym fills a pipe with tobacco, and strikes flint and steel until it takes. "So, elf," he whispers, "Ye be'n th' only one o' longer livin' than meself. What stories ye hear o' the far flung world? Had me head in th' mines fer as long as I can r'member."
Oh i do love stories, especially funny ones.these dark times could stand to use a bit of amusement.
She said tilting her head ever so slightly at the elf. Guarding the guard of a monument at night sounded a bit boring... but at the same time, something had to be painting those letters in blood, and she didnt think it was a friendly sort of creature either.
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"Funny story, huh? Well, I have met a few characters here and there. I've worked for a couple of traveling carnivals as a fortune-teller. Good folk, generally, but odd. Might not be sayin' much for myself there. Anyways... One of the ladies I knew some time back, her name was Aeloe, as I recall. She could make plants grow on herself at a whim." Sohar chuckles at the memory. "Her problem was she couldn't stop them from growing. She looked like a shambling mound if she weren't trimmed from time to time. We called her husband the Gardener! And get this, the ol' boy was a vegetarian!" Sohar laughs uproariously at his own story.
Morgrym chortles as well. "Damn mess that'd be. Can ye imagine it happenin' inna dwarven mine?" He continues chuckling to himself.
No reference gave much explanation for the nightmare plague.
Of the most infamous prisoners, first there was Sefick Corvin, nicknamed the "Father Charlatan." While Corvin was actually not a violent criminal at all, his cons while impersonating a priest of many different religions set back their work significantly and was blasphemous enough that the government of Ustalav was pressured into condemning him to death. He was awaiting that end when the prison burned.
Next was Vance Saetressle, called the "Lopper." Saetressle was a particularly sick serial killer. He would choose a target and stalk them for days. After learning their habits, he would conceal himself in the most bizarre and extreme of hiding spots, sometimes for days, before leaping out and beheading his victims with a handaxe.
Ispin Onyxcudgel was the only non-human of the most notable prisoners.
The dwarf was a popular blacksmith in the now-desolate town of Mosswater and a doting husband. One day he discovered his wife in an affair and his mind was shattered by grief and rage. He took a hammer to his wife and smashed in her skull. His broken mind, now consumed with guilt, convinced itself that if he could rebuild her skull, then all would be as it was before the unfortunate incident. He began a rampage of murder with his hammer. From each victim, he would collect pieces of their broken skull and take them home to his wife's decaying corpse. "The Mosswater Marauder" they called him, and eventually he was caught and condemned.
"The Piper of Illmarsh" is the most mysterious of the lot. Witnesses recount that the bard rolled into the town of Illmarsh and quickly became very popular. He was charismatic and charming. After a few days of gathering a following, he announced a special show at the tavern, but only for those who paid an exorbitant cover charge. To prevent peeping, he had the windows and doors covered and barred before the show began. Just minutes after the show began, the screaming rattled the town. It is said that the screams were heard from the outlying farms, some a couple of miles away. By the time anyone hacked their way into the tavern, a scene of ghoulish carnage was all that remained. The bodies of the attending townsfolk were mutilated and the burst corpses of gorged rats littered the scene. The Piper was caught fleeing the scene with a wagon full of gold and barrels of alcohol.
The final, and most feared, was Professor Hean Feramin, "The Splatter Man." In his day, he was a noteworthy professor of anthropology, specializing in naming conventions of the peoples and races of the Inner Sea. Those close to him tell that a beautiful, and rather inappropriately dressed, dark woman visited him for an appointment. After that appointment, his friends and family barely recognized him. He was crazed. He stopped caring for himself or his responsibilities, only babbling about names and their power. He began stalking old associates and acquaintances, arranging for them to find a letter of their name written in blood each day. Once the victim had seen their whole name spelled, he would hack them up with a large razor. His reign of terror in Caliphas is legendary.
** spoiler omitted **...
Coiger readily share the intelligence gained.
"Does any of this make any sense to any of you?"
Morgrym spends the rest of the watch silently, puffing on his pipe.
Night falls cool and cloudy. The air near the river is noticeably cooler than in town. As the group arrives at the monument, you hear a call come from a cluster of bushes about 30 feet from the monument. Heading over, you find the young deputy who greeted you at the sight earlier today hunkered down behind the bushes.
He's well-provisioned with a stool, a pack full of food and a small cask. The mug next to the cask is half full with a liquid that is glowing faintly green. When the deputy sees you looking at it, he grins sheepishly. Zokar's "liquid ghosts." Have you tried it? Terrific ale. He brews it himself. He offers the mug to any who are interested.
I'm Matthew. I'm a deputy to Sheriff Caeller. He puffs up a bit to show off the badge pinned to his overcoat. Make yourselves comfortable. Goodness! Have all of you come? He looks about as if just noticing that there are five of you. I thought it would just be one or two of you. Not that I mind! I guess that's good. We can get some sleep now. In shifts?
Coiger readily shares the intelligence gained.
"Does any of this make any sense to any of you?"
"So the 'Splatter man.'" Coiger says as if it was something he had found on the bottom of his shoe. "Given the circumstances, of the killings commited here one could assume that we are dealing with some dopplecat of Professor Feramin and that whatever it is that is doing this will follow a similar pattern."
"Aye, that be a mountin o' a tale, Coiger, and I agree that he be a likely one t' emulate wi' this particular tactic." Morgrym sips at the mug that Matthew has provided, and ponders for a moment. "Though yeself had t' go diggin' fer that bit o' learnin'. Who else'd have th' time t' dig it up and learn t' copy him?
Coiger could only imagine--then, when he got a clear enough image, methodically profile--the sort of twisted psyche that would plum such topics and irremovable stain it would leave on their blackened soul. If he had had the capacity, he might have shivered.
[ooc] to Coiger and the others. Thats.. thats just so I dont even have the words. At least it isnt the ghosts of those awful monsters haunting the city or something.
She began looking very cross at the sheriff deputy who wanted to drink on the job. That was just... She crossed her arms and gave him a good glare
How about this deputy we arm wrestle for the cask.
She asked not bothering to flex her arm or anything. She really didnt like the idea that the sheriff asked them loosely to watch after the foolish deputy and he wanted to drink the night away.
The deputy looks at Chellian quizzically. I brought plenty for all of us, miss. Could you settle for sharing with us gentlemen? He clearly doesn't want to lose his share.