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Mihaela wards herself against the haunt.
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Delixia squeezes her eyes shut after staring at the bloody letter on the wall. She presses her fingers to her temple and mutters, "No, no. The blood!"
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Thistle continues his story as he looks on at the appearing letters.
Kisasi twists the cap off of the Haunt Siphon hoping for the best but unfortunately the haunt has already taken a firm hold and appears unaffected by the Haunt Siphon.
Mihaela reaches out and touches the wall where she see the letters appearing. The wall is cool to her touch. She tries smearing one of the bloody letters on the wall by dragging her hand across it only to have the letter reform when her hand moves away.
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Thistle clutched his head in agony as he could literally feel his mind being ravaged by whatever kind of haunt this was. In desperation, he reached out to Desna once more and channeled her healing energy into the room, trying to destroy the haunt, then wracked his brain trying to see if there was anything he could recall that might point to the thing's weakness.
Agreeing with Kisasi, Del shouts "AGREED!"
Groaning audibly at the anguish she feels inside, Delixia reaches out and grabs Thistle and Mihaela her hands and drags them out from the room.
Snapping out of her blood-tasting reverie, Smaranda follows Delixia in Kisasi in their strategic retreat. This room was clearly haunted, and this haunt wasn't even one that she could punch.
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Thistle treats to bring to mind what he might know about haunts in general in an attempt to defeat this powerful haunt but apparently his mind has been shocked by its brutality. Thistle, in a moment of desperation, bathes a portion of the room in positive energy as he attempts to destroy this malicious haunt.
Following Kisasi's advice everyone beats a hasty retreat back into the cave they had come through. Thistle drags the door closed behind them.
Mihaela looks at everyone. "What do we do now? I have no idea how to defeat an evil with that kind of power." Mihalea hangs her head in seeming defeat but a moment later her head snaps back up and it appears that she may have an idea. "We found a set of keys with the remains in the torture chamber. If those keys did indeed belong to the warden perhaps they could be used to open the secret door we found in the guard room or possible even the safe in the office upstairs. Perhaps one or both of those locations might have something that could help us."
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As the others start retracing their steps, Smaranda falls slightly behind, examining the finger she had used to touch the bloody wall. Was that her name being spelled? In whose blood? What would have happened if the full word had been formed, the whole name written on that wall? She looks back at the now-closed door and pauses for a moment before turning again and trotting to catch up with the others.
Delixia claps her hands when Mihaela mentions the keys. "That is an excellent idea indeed, well done. Anything takes us further from that horrific room we were just in is fine with me."
Delixia leads the way while Smaranda protects the rear. She asks for the keys from whoever was holding them and makes her way back to the office first to try them out.
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Everyone takes their time and carefully climbs back up the rope to the first floor. After making sure that everyone is safely out of the bas underground portion of the prison Delixia leads the way back to the office the safe is located in.
Delixia takes the keys when they are presented by Smaranda. She asks everyone to stand back just to be safe, tries several keys in the lock before eventually finding the one that opens the lock, and unlocking the safe. Within the safe are kept numerous (now out-of-date) legal documents, along with 500 gp (the prison’s payroll and petty cash fund) and a wooden rack on which sit emergency supplies (four potions of cure moderate wounds, three potions of lesser restoration, and two potions of remove disease). Everything is labeled making them very easy to identify.
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Thanks for the reminder. I have been saving up my channels to use against the haunts, instead of healing myself and the party. But it's good to remember such things as the drawn out nature of PBP makes it easy to forget what you can do!
"I don't feel so good. To be honest I thought you were all just being deliberately antagonistic by wavering around like that, but now I think I may just be injured. My poor, beautiful brain..."
Thistle clutched his head for a moment, then his eyes focused back again. "I can restore some of our mental damages, but it would take most of my remaining reserves of power. I wouldn't want to do that unless we truly were stopping for the night. How long have we been in here, anyways?"
It takes all of Delixia's remaining willpower to not comment on Thistle's supposed brain damage. She nods and contributes to the conversation when it begins to lead towards resting. "I think we should take the evening to rest and recover, it has been a taxing day."
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You all quickly realize that today has been far more harsh on you than you thought and decide to leave for the Lorrimor home. You trudge your way back home while being soaked due to a steady rainfall.
Kendra welcomes you back and quickly ushers you off to your rooms to get dry clothes on. "Once you are changed meet me in the living room. I will have a fire going so that you can warm yourselves while you tell me what you have found thus far."
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Looking over the collected papers you are able to find a list of the five most notorious prisoners in Harrowstone at the time of the great fire. They were Father Charlatan, the Lopper, the Mosswater Marauder, the Piper of Illlmarsh, and the Splatter Man. Each entry provides descriptions of each of their crimes.
Father Charlatan (Sefick Corvin): Of the five notorious prisoners, only Father Charlatan was not technically a murderer, yet his crimes were so blasphemous that several churches demanded he be
punished to the full extent of Ustalavic law. Although he claimed to be an ordained priest of any number of faiths, Father Corvin was in fact a traveling con artist who used faith as a mask and a means to bilk the faithful out of money in payment for false miracles or cures. He became known as Father Charlatan after his scheme was exposed and his Sczarni accomplices murdered a half-dozen city guards in an attempt to make good the group’s escape.
The Lopper (Vance Saetressle): When the Lopper stalked prey, he would hide in the most unlikely of places, sometimes for days upon end with only a few supplies to keep him going while he waited for the exact right moment to strike. Once his target was alone, the Lopper would emerge to savagely behead his victim with a handaxe.
The Mosswater Marauder (Ispin Onyxcudgel): Only 5 years before his hometown of Mosswater was destined to be overrun and ruined by monsters from the nearby river, Ispin Onyxcudgel was a well-liked artisan and a doting husband. When he discovered his wife’s infidelity, he flew into a jealous rage and struck her dead
with his hammer, shattering her skull and his sanity with one murderous blow. Wracked with shame and guilt, Ispin became convinced that if he could rebuild his wife’s skull she would come back to life—but unfortunately, he could not find the last blade-shaped fragment from the murder site. So instead, Ispin became the Mosswater Marauder. Over the course of several weeks, the cunning dwarf stalked and murdered nearly 20 people while searching for just the right skull fragment. He was captured just before murdering the daughter of a visiting nobleman from Varno, and was carted off to Harrowstone that same night.
The Piper of Illmarsh (real name unknown): Before he snatched his victims, the Piper taunted his targets with a mournful dirge on his f lute. 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.
The Splatter Man (Hean Feramin): Professor Feramin was a celebrated scholar of Anthroponomastics (the study of personal names and their origins) at the Quartrefaux Archives in Caliphas. Yet an accidental association with a succubus twisted and warped his
study, turning it into an obsession. Feramin became obsessed with the power of a name and how he could use it to terrify and control. Soon enough, his reputation was ruined, he’d lost his tenure, and he’d developed an uncontrollable obsession with an imaginary link between a person’s name and what happens to that name when the person dies. Every few days, he would secretly arrange for his victim to find a letter from her name written in blood, perhaps smeared on a wall or spelled out with carefully arranged entrails. Once he had spelled his victim’s name, he would at last come for her, killing her in a gory mess using a complex trap or series of rigged events meant to look like an accident.
Spending time on this research takes the rest of the night that you choose to stay up and the entirety of the next morning after eight hours of rest.
"Oh that is much better. I can think again. DAY-LIX-EE-AH, you poor dear. If I had only known what you go through on a daily basis I would not have been so hard on you. Here, have some lightly fried fish fillets."
"It seems that the corpse buried under all the locks with holy symbols on it was probably this Father Charlatan. I guess they felt the punishment fit the crime. And that last bit, with the bloody letters on the walls, I thought that might have just been some haunt playing with play titles, I only saw a T and an H, and thought it might have been the start of the word THE, but it could have been the start of Thistle, which would fit in with what this says about the Splatter Man. I suggest we go back in there in the morning armed with as much holy water as we can carry and purge this nonsense once and for all."
Smaranda rouses herself with difficulty after a rather restless night spent tossing and turning in her bed, her sleep plagued by nightmares and apparitions. To her horror and despair, the wounds on her body show no sign of closing, and she wraps herself in her clothing in an attempt to hide the marks of her curse. Her only hope now is that purging Harrwostone of its ancient evil will lift the curse, so she is eager to return to the haunted prison.
As Thistle prattles on, she nods and mumbles. "Yeh, I saw the letters of m'name as well.
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Kisasi will do what he can to attend to everyone.
"Thistle, I agree with your assessment. I too saw the first few letters of my name, and couldn't stand to wait til the end. So we nwo know who some of these haunts were created by, but I think our goal is clear - we must cleanse the place of this undead presence."
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You sit and dine on lunch while discussing how best to approach whatever might yet remain with Harrowstone's walls. Finished with lunch and having helped clear the table, you pack your things and prepare to journey once more into the prison to both cleanse it and seek out answers to your questions.
You trek back over the now familiar ground thankful that it is not raining today. Reentering the prison proper you come to the foyer and its slamming doors. While waiting for them to release you take a moment to think.
You proceed through the first floor of the prison back to the rope and carefully climb down into the dungeon level of Harrowstone. You follow the corridor leading West until you reach the guard room with the hidden door.
Taking time to locate the door again you try every key on the Warden's keyring but have no success in using them to open the locked door.
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Smaranda is apprehensive about returning to Harrowstone for a third time, her fear and her desire to end this once and for all fighting within her mind. In this state, she notices little.
"You know it is entirely possible that if we take tht door over ther we might discover some interesting and useful rooms that we were previously unable to enter. Yes, that one over there. I realize it might be difficult for some of you taller people to see, but it's as plain as the hair on my face. Well, not my face, obviously, because there is nothing plain about a bright orange and purple beard. Plain as the hair on Mihaela's face then."
Thistle nodded at this last bit, completely ignoring the fact that Miahela doesn't have ANY hair on her face.
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Using one of the keys on the Wardens keyring you unlock the door into the room. A bizarre collection of antique goods rests upon wooden shelves that line the room. Several of the items contain tiny tags with labels written in a careful script.
Although much of the remaining property is junk, a few items remain that may be of interest, including a set of masterwork thieves’ tools, a bronze war medallion from the Shining Crusade, an unframed Taldan painting of Stavian I, a set of a noblewoman’s silver hair clips, a masterwork punching dagger, a pouch containing a dozen masterwork shurikens, a masterwork silver war razor, and a wand of lesser restoration.
While searching the property vault several of you keenly spot a hidden door in the east wall. Opening this door you find the following items bearing well documented and detailed labels as to who used to own each of the items.
Bloodstained Handaxe: This +1 handaxe was the Lopper’s favorite murder weapon. No amount of cleaning can remove the bloodstains on the blade or handle.
Collection of Holy Symbols: These holy symbols were used by Father Charlatan, who would select one from the collection that would match the faith of his victims as proof of his good intentions. There are a dozen holy symbols on fine silver chains. You are able to recognize holy symbols from each of your respective faiths as well as more than half a dozen others. The silver chains that attach the holy symbols are not tangled. The holy symbols do not radiate any magic and can be used as normal.
Moldy Spellbook: The covers and pages of this thick, leather-bound spellbook have become caked with mold over the years, but some of the contents remain legible. This book once belonged to Professor Hean Feramin, the man who would eventually achieve fame not through
academia but through murder. Known in his final days as the Splatter Man, he was dealt a hideous blow to his morale and sanity by the loss of his spellbook.
Smith’s Hammer: This masterwork smith’s hammer grants a +2 competence bonus on all Craft (armorsmith, blacksmith, and weaponsmith) checks. If used in battle, the hammer functions as a masterwork light hammer.
Tarnished Silver Flute: This 300 gp masterwork flute was once owned by the man known only as the Piper of Illmarsh.
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Thistle moved in as soon as the wand was identified and scooped it up. He tapped himself on the chest, and his smile brightened as he felt the effects restoring his vitality.
"Oh that feels better. It was as if a great weight was pushing against my chest, and has now been released. Does anyone else need restoration? This little doodad would have been most convenient to have yesterday. Perhaps we would have been able to continue and not have had to leave and come back."
"These are all useful items for sure. I wonder if destroying these article belonging to the Splatter Man and such would help rid this place of its hauntings?"
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"At the very least, we don't need anyone having access to these items. Let's collect them up and take them with us."
Kisasi keeps the masterwork punching dagger close (something he is actually proficient in), and packages the rest carefully (unless someone else takes something in particular). He will look in the spellbook, but assumes they are arcane spells and not much use to him.
"So, back to the haunting? This time, let's start with the haunt siphon and some channeling, shall we?"
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Smaranda does not show much interest in the items, although she gives Thistle a mournful look when he uses the wand on himself. She still feels the weight of the curse on her, but also that this wand would not help with that. She needs to purge this prison of all its hauntings and the shadows of past misdeeds and restless dead.
She does pick at the silver hair clips, although her own hair is not long enough to require such, but they are so pretty. If nobody objects, she clips them into her hair.
"If you need help carrying it, I can help with the load." Mihaela offers helpfully.
Mihaela focuses on the items and casts Detect Magic.
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The only item that radiates magic is the Lopper's bloodstained handaxe.
You do have a way to communicate with the spirits via the Spirit Planchette and board.
After taking time to gather all of the items of value and use you proceed through the first floor of the prison back to the rope and carefully climb down into the dungeon level of Harrowstone. You follow the corridor leading West until you reach the guard room with the hidden door.
Taking time to locate the door again you try every key on the Warden's key ring but have no success in using them to open the locked door.
Finding herself still unable to open this blasted door Delixia fumes and hurls the key ring to the floor. "Ahhhh! Blasted door! I command you to open!" In a fit of unbridled anger she flings herself shoulder first against the door aiming to smash the door open.
Delixia bounces back off of the still intact door and slumps to the floor, her anger spent.
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"You know, it is possible that the spirits of this place might be able to tell us more about these items. We do have that planchette board, after all. I've never used one myself, but in the acolytes' dorms they were always up late trying to get some spirit or another to give them answers to the next day's tests. Personally, I think a lot of them just pushed the planchette to the answers they wanted to see. "
When they continued on, Thistle was amazed at the feat of strength DAY-LIX-EE-AH put on against that door. He thought about offering her the crowbar in his pack, but decided that she would likely take offense at that. He contented himself with watching her bruise her shoulder on the door, and offering small comments about the relative densities of several common woods.
Mihaela swings her back around to the front. "Hold on, I may have something..." she starts rummaging around in her bag, pulling out items and setting them aside as she digs. Eventually she pulls out a hammer and sets it aside, and in a few more moments, she pulls a crowbar. "I don't know why I couldn't find these before..."
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Delixia perks up at the clang of the crowbar hitting the stone. "Now why in the bleeding hells did you not think to pull that out sooner?" She stands up. "Is anyone else carrying a crowbar around that they want to tell the rest of us about?" Delixia gives a hard stare to everyone upon finishing her question.
Delixia positions the crowbar in along the edge of the door and directs Kisasi to pull on the cowbar while she pushes.
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