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Rushing outside, Blackheath sees that a group of musicians had gathered to play. The musicians have been attacked by a pair of stirges! The two creatures seem strangely manic and eager to attack.
The bard fails to notice that the creature's wings and motions seem weirdly choreographed to the music, as if they were moving to the rhythm. Of course, now that they're under attack, the musicians stop playing.
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Gravleon follows the group out side, once he sees them getting assaulted be the birds "fear not we will stop them"
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Sharien follows the group outside, and will toss a ray of frost at one stirge, but will not expend her resources on them.
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Blackheath nods thoughtfully.
"This reminds me of something Gravleon and I missed but that the rest of you found in the church records..."
The Piper of Illmarsh (real name unknown).
Before he snatched his victims, the Piper taunted his targets with a mournful dirge on his flute. He preferred to paralyze lone victims by dosing their meals with lich dust and then allowed his pet stirges to drink the victims dry of blood.
"Stirges and music -- an unusual combination."
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Gravleon shows concern on his face "but of that's who was causing this he should be long dead or what of not all or the prisoners light was extinguished that night of the fire. ..if this was the piper we need to keep an eye on these men for after the music soon follows death...if what you Faria in the church records is trure"
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"It all seems tied together, my friends. These haunts in the prison. These goings-on in the town. There are evil forces at work...evil things that keep the dead's spirits from dying with them. Good work here, though. We make a formidable team." She smiles at her companions, wincing a bit from the loss of blood.
"Shall we see if we can help build up more rapport around town, or proceed to Harrowstone?"
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"Perhaps we can do both. If the vandal is a local and we announce publicly that we are heading to Harrowstone and staying the night, perhaps he or she will be lulled into a false sense of security. At dusk we double-back from our work at the prison and take up a hidden position by the monument. Those among us less easily hidden can stay far back and we can communicate using a message spell. Anyone who is a little stealthy might keep watch closer to the scene."
"I will defer to the rest of you, my friends, as I have no experience with such things. I agree that ridding the evil from this place should be our priority, however."
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Gravleon ponders for a moment "Well that is how things have been going since we got here. Blast there must be way to shine the light on the true vandal...I have no talent for hiding in the shadows thats not the way of the Dawnflower, it might be best for us to just cleanse the prison and with luck we will finds the vandal as we work..."
Gravleon walks up two Blackheath "well one thing we could do...now stay with me here, what if you play and we make you a target for this piper his history suggest he manly goes after musicians and mostly when they are alone so...no it might be to dangerous hmm" he walks and looks to the sky thinking then
Gravleon snaps his fingers "Faria what if we spread the word around that there will be a new statue to be dedicated to a hero or something tomorrow but instead of a statue one of us are under the tarp and when the vandal come to do what he will, he will be caught in the act...how dose that sound"
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Blackheath listens to his friends thoughts.
"Well, it seems we are all on board for going to the prison right now. Whether we come back early can be decided. I think ignoring the vandal may be dangerous -- he or she seems to know something about Vesiana, who died under mysterious circumstances in the prison fire. Maybe they are trying to contact us. As the stirges today proved, it is dangerous to think of the prison as being separate from the village. Both are connected. But let me buy two things and then I am ready to tackle the prison again."
Blackheath looks to quickly buy a pair of manacles and a whip.
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Faria travels with the others back to Harrowstone prison. She prays to the Lady of Graves on the way there to give her and her companions strength. They have delved into the structure once already, so know what kinds of horrors await them. However, Faria suspects that they have not encountered the worst the terrible place has to offer.
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Avoiding the Scythe, the only thing left is the murky pond. This large pond of dark, muddy water spreads out along the eastern section of the prison grounds. Here and there, bits of ruined wall protrude from the water, and thick tangles of reeds and cattails grow along the muddy shores.
Once the location of the prison's graveyard, this area gave way into an immense sinkhole when the fire of 4661 caused the ground below to collapse. Over the decades, this sinkhole has filled with water from the region's regular rainstorms.
The pond's muddy waters are only 20 feet deep at the deepest point, but they are murky enough that vision is reduced to 10 feet. Over the years, dozens of prisoners were buried here, all in unmarked graves. (Before it was flooded.)
Today, surely their bones must lie along the bottom of the pond.
Surely...
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Before Gravleon casts detect, he prays on it for a moment. The wisdom of Sarenrae descends upon him and he can hear one of her favored servants, Mystmorning, whisper to him:
"Young cleric, Detect Undead won't work if you cannot see the bodies through the muck."
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When Blackheath hears the story of the haunted furnace and that it might be put to rest by removing the bones from it, he suggests that next time they head to town they might see if Alendru Ghoroven at the Unfurling Scroll has a scroll of Unseen Servant to clean out the remains.
He follows Faria to the next challenge.