As the party approaches, it becomes apparent that the ivy on the prison walls is quite thick. It might be possible to use the ivy to climb the 20-foot high walls.
The party steps through the gates of Harrowstone prison with Khardan in the lead.
A two-story stone building looms in the centre of the prison grounds. Ivy and moss cling tenaciously to the walls, while above the wooden shingles of the roof are often missing entirely, exposing the wooden rafters of the upper structure to the sky. Here and there, leering stone gargoyles perch on the eaves, once functioning as drainspouts and decorations but now seeming almost to serve a more ominous role of sentinels. Many of these stone decorations have crumbled away and lie in ruined piles on the soggy ground below. Windows in the building’s facade are narrow and blocked by grills of rusty iron bars. Stone columns support a slumping wooden balcony over the building’s wooden front doors, both of which hang askew and reveal dark glimpses of chambers within.
Sitting before the prison's main building is a small brick manor house that's overgrown with thick sheets of grey-green ivy. The roof sags ominously, and the front door hangs askew.
...
Bramwell stands outside the door as Khardan steps into the runied structure, his eyes fixed on the gargoyles above. "I wonder where exactly did the professor die...", he says before taking a look around.
[dice=Survival to detect tracks of the "accident"]1d20+9[/dice]
"Should we examine the interior of the house before we enter the prison building? I doubt they would still be there after all this time, but there might be keys or records inside." Imperia studies the area around the house and the gate with interest.
Imperia steps back from the house,"The house is very unstable. The place has burned, and it may collapse in on itself. Do you think it's worth going in?"
"Hmph," Bramwell growls, "A building falling on my head, that seems worse than a gargoyle, I think." He walks up to the tracks and points at them "Look, someone's been here recently. Maybw there's another entrance." The dhampir starts fallowing the tracks.
Khardan, not much of a tracker, follows Lord Bramwell.
Imperia follows Lord Bramwell. "Someone? Were they human?"
At Lord Bramwell's disclosure of the recent presence at the prison, Jayla mindfully followed behind, with the others. With Imperia's question, Jayla awaited the answer for she too wanted to know what kind of footprints were discovered.
The decaying lord leads the party north along the western wall of the prison compound, following the tracks to what appears to be an abandoned campsite near a pile of rubble. The remains of a fire pit sit near the rubble, and the presence of a few discarded potion vials indicate that someone (or rather, several someones) camped here at some point. The air around the fire pit is cold and still.
"Yes, humans. Probably. I first thought the footprints were left by the professor, but it's a group of people," he explains while walking with his eyes fixed on the ground. When they reach the abandoned camp, he smiles and looks at his colleagues. "See? Like I said."
The dhampir approaches the fire pit, but his ears catch the sound of chittering. He turns around and faces the pile of rubble, pointing at it. "Careful. Rats." Bramwell hunches over and, from a distance, starts squeaking and chittering bizarrely.
The rat seems to recoil from Lord Bramwell's intimidating presence.
"Squeak-squeak! Chitter-chatter, squeak!"
Another rat starts squeaking. "Squeak-squeak-squeak!"
"Squeak!" The rats chirp in unison.
[spoiler=Rat Speak]"A ghost!"
Bramwell leans forward a little further, squinting his eyes. "Squeak-squeak-chitter? Chitter-chatter-squeak-squeak, squeak, squeeeeeak? Chitter-chitter-chatter-squeak-squeak-chitter?"
The rats start nervously chittering.
"Squeak-squeak-chitter... chitter chitter chatter squeak."
"Squeak squeak!"
Imperia has her hand on her mace just in case. Her head is turning back and forth as if watching a debate while Lord Bramwell has his conversation.
Bramwell nods, pleased with the information. "Squeeeeak-squeak-chitter. Chitter-chatter: squeak-squeak-squeeeeak? Squeak-squeak, chitter-squeak-chatter? Chitter, chitter, chitter-chatter."
The rats pause briefly.
"Squeaky-squeak. Chitter."
One of them looks over at the prison wall. "Squeak."
Another rat pipes up. "Chitter-chatter-chitter squeaky squeak!"
"Squeaky-squeak, squeak-chitter," Bramwell squeals and winks.
He stands up and addresses his colleagues. "Men dressed in black were here looking for ghosts. The Whispering Way, yes? I'd say. They released one against Professor Lorrimor... who died immediately, they say", Lord Bramwell explains, poining at the rats. He scratches his neck with his sharp fingernails, thinking. "Hmm. So a ghost killed the Professor. Dropped a gargoyle on his head, did he?" With a quick movement, Bramwell is within inches of Imperia's face. "But it's worse, librarian: ghosts were everywhere, running around." The dhampir suddenly turns his gaze to Khardan. "Finally escaping the prison, perhaps," he asks, moving again and circling Jayla. "Or trying to." His eyes finally lock with Lirin's, causing him to shudder and back down. "It's what they said."
As Lord Bramwell proceeded with his conversation with the rats, Jayla looked on for a moment, curious at the strange interaction and then looked about her for any approaching threat/s.
When he divulged the news of how the Professor was murdered, Jayla sighed inwardly - having felt all along that the gargoyle had been pushed atop him, but a ghost perpetrating the act on behalf of the Whispering Way... Well, it left her with a bad feeling.
"Are you certain the ghosts are gone now and not still here, waiting somewhere within the old prison?", she asked in low voice, casting her eyes about.
Imperia backs up a bit when Lord Bramwell gets up in her face, "At least we know someone other than the Professor was here. Releasing ghosts? If ghosts were released from the confines of the prison, I would think they would head into Ravengro. Of course their spirits could have been released to Boneyard. I don't think the Whispering Way is particularly interested in helping them find peace. We would have heard by now if anyone had seen ghosts recently. I think I will assume they are still here in the prison."
Bramwell listens to Imperia and tilts his head. "They remain trapped, they do? A sad death, then, one that cannot break chains placed in life," he ponders. "Let us beware of the damned." Spotting stairway on the left of the main building, at the back of the yard, the dhampir takes a few steps in that direction. "Look, another entrance. Should we try that one?"
"Yeah," says Khardan, ever happier with actions than words. "Lets go see what's happening in there,"
Khardan leads the way to the stairs.
"Yes let's go." Imperia brings up the rear on the way to the stairs.
Jayla remained in the middle of the the group and followed the others toward the stairs. "Aye, Khardan, but please be careful."
The wind picks up a bit as the party crosses the prison grounds to the stairs up to the western balcony.
A large, rectangular block of stone rests on this weather-beaten stone balcony, while ruined wooden benches line the eastern wall under a row of tiny, barred windows above. A stout wooden door sits in the wall near the northern end of the balcony, and an oddly-clean scythe sits on the block of stone.
...
...
...is that... blood? Flowing down the stone block? It sure looks like it... blood has started dripping down the block, but the scythe remains untouched...
"That's odd. The scythe looks clean. I wonder why it's here?" She walks toward the block to take a closer look at the scythe.
Nestling against Jayla's neck, the bird's dark eyes look before her and she cranes her head forward.
Lirin's melodic voice in simple Common follows Imperia's declaration regarding the scythe, "Blood flows on block," the thrush then issues a shrill note of warning. Jayla's eyes dart to the stone block upon Lirin's words and then she addresses Imperia, 'Imperia, please stop. There appears to be blood now on the stone block. Do not draw any closer."
Jayla then casts Detect Magic toward the area of the scythe and block.
As Jayla reaches out with her magic-attuned senses, the scythe on the bloody block twitches. Then it shakes.
Then it flies from the block and straight at Imperia's neck!
The scythe chops at Imperia!
The scythe's blade buries itself in Imperia's shield and yanks itself back!
"Necromantic magic! I believe the scythe is possessed. Lirin get back inside my hood.", she calls out. The thrush hops back, deeper into the hood.
Jayla casts Mage Armor on herself.
The scythe's blade starts dripping with fresh red blood.
"Fascinating a possessed scythe. What a story it must have. I'd love to learn it. Does anyone one happen to have any magic to depossess it?" Imperia pulls out her cold iron rapier, and swings at the scythe. Her swing goes wild.
Reasoning that he can't kill ghosts without some form of blessed weapon and that it will be hard to shatter a scythe with a spear, Khardan drops his spear and leaps forward, trying to seize the weapon's lengthy haft.
The scythe lashes out at Khardan as he tries to grab it!
It misses his neck by a very narrow margin, raking across his collarbone. The shock of the weapon's impact is enough to throw off Khardan's attempt at grabbing the scythe off.
Lord Bramwell hears the noise of battle and rushes up the stairs. Upon seeing the scythe striking at Khardan's neck, he unlimbers his own scythe. "Hmm."
Round 1
Jayla reaches across and touches Khardan's arm, placing a protective ward over him.
Imperia recalls her swordswoman training and moves slightly to her left in hopes of getting a flank on the weapon. She swings her rapier at the head of the scythe. "How do you fight a floating weapon?"
"Thanks, Jayla," rumbles Khardan, ignoring his wound as he changes tactics and prepares a prayer to Arqueros.
The warpriest casts divine favor.
The scythe turns its attentions to Imperia as her rapier misses its head, and swings...
...only to find nothing but air as she ducks the blow.
Bramwell grimaces and moves to lock his scythe with the possessed one...
...but it bobs under his swing.
Round 2
Jayla carefully moves around (15 ft) (not getting too close to the scythe) to stand beside Imperia. She reaches out and her hand touches the handle of the scythe and infuses positive healing magic into it, hoping to harm the corrupted spirits possessing/animating the scythe.
Jayla's magic strikes the scythe's haft, and immediately the animated weapon spasms and starts to splinter! It's not quite enough to destroy it outright, but it's wobbling in the air as if it's been wounded!