To the sharky lady, "Sure, thanks!"
Along their travel down the road, Aliseya asks the skipper, "So. Is Naught, like, short for something? Are you really Naughty?"
Aliseya turns red, realizing her unintentional choice of words too late. Then, she smiles.
"May~be." Naught will simply reply in a sing-song voice, a smirk growing across her face as she does.
Through specific inquiries about Harrowstone at her leave from the inn, Aliseya is able to confirm a few of the facts revealed by Zelda, but Ms. Lamplighter seemed to have a deeper knowledge about the prison than the locals themselves.
These same locals did not over the time seem to care much about Aliseya. Her beauty would draw the attention of some men as anywhere, but people were visibly less nice to her in Ravengro than elsewhere.
As for the overnight stay, Aliseya did hear many dogs bark, as one would expect considering the town's significant number of stray canines, but other than that nothing was outstanding. The creek was very nice, turquoise-colored, though.
"Her name is Obabalo," it is said to Aliseya after Naught sings her may~be. Aliseya's reflext is to move her head to where the terse, deep, distorted voice came from, but there is no no one to be seen.
It is Aklo.
"Call her Obabalo."
Cellawyn will carefully search over Petros' room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. After debating with her self about respecting the Professor's privacy, she will open the chest with the hope that there may be a clue or some insight into the Professor's final days.
Cellawyn searches through the room, but she realizes that the Professor's personal assets have been removed from the room to make space for her. That is, the chest is empty and ready to receive her clothes.
A few moments after Naught replies, the beshawled young woman suddenly stops. She quickly looks around... then, she sighs.
Ugh. Well. That didn't take long...
She then asks a rather peculiar question of her hatted companion, "Say. Do you, like, believe we go on after we die? And that the dead can sometimes linger here, in the world, and even speak to us?"
"Tell Yewanda that she knows all to well that we are very... alive!" it is said to Naught in words that are articulated with much difficulty.
Naught's perception is sharp enough to know that she did not hear the voice... and that she has been spoken to in Aklo.
Naught skips for a few more seconds before slowing to a stop, her head tilting to the side. She keeps this perplexed posture before resuming her stride next to Aliseya, although no longer skipping. "Ya know, I've never really thought about that. Will we go someplace? Will we start all over? Or will we just stop? Now tha Hey why don't you tell her that yourself? Wait..."
While she doesn't stop a confused expression begins to show on her face. Is... Is that you? Yay! It is! Are you gonna start singing again? Oh how I've missed that music. Wait, but that isn't her name, it's Aliseya. You should really learn people's names before you go sneaking into their head. Oh! Wait! Wait! Can you go into her head too? What does she think of me? Does she have any flowers or food she likes? What's her favorite things to do? Pretty please? Oh, and don't tell her I asked.
Aliseya looks around to see whom Naught might have suddenly begun talking to mid-sentence. She then observes her now confused companion again, with a confused expression of her own.
Her gaze then shifts elsewhere. A smile comes over her face, her lips begin to pout in a cutesy manner.
Who is she talking to? Does she hear the dead as wel... Oh! Look! Dogs! So annoying when you want to sleep buuut look at the puppeee!
"Aw look at the puppeee!" Her finger points to some of the loyal companions of Ravengro's streets. She kneels to pet one of them.
"So cute you are! So cute!" She begins rubbing a dog's head and making cutesy kissing sounds... and all hope for serious conversation now vanishes like the wind.
As Aliseya points them out Naught will slightly bend and crouch while giving off a number of unintelligible cooing sounds in an attempt to draw one of the dogs to herself, learning from past experience when dealing with animals due to her ''condition '' it was best to let them approach her, lest they become frightened and act as animals often do when frightened.
'From the afterlife to puppies within a minute. Great!'
"Look at this face!" Aliseya goes on a bit longer in a cutesy voice, rubbing the back of another dog's head.
Then, she looks back to Naught. "What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. Speaking with the dead."
She makes some more kissing noises at another dog. Then, "I asked you because, like, I sometimes can hear them. The dead, I mean. And one of them was just talking to me."
With a pensive look, the gypsy asks her cooing companion, "Does the name Obabalo mean anything to you?"
"Obaboo? No I don't think so, is it somebody you know?" Naught wil half awaredly say as she still attempts to get one of the dogs rounding around Aliseya to come to her.
You notice a tiny, unconscious twitch from Naught as she hears the word Obabalo.
Upon hearing the name "Obabalo", Naught suddenly feels hostile, as if her most legitimate rage is surfacing, but all this lasts a fraction of a second and she controls her impulses.
"Give flowers to Yewanda, she will befriend you, and if you call her Yewanda she will enjoy it more than being called Aliseya," says another, deeper, voice.
"If I sing you a song, will you do a tiny little favor for me?" says the first, distorted voice, as it becomes softer and softer, ending in a gentle soprano voice.
~"Maybe I can even tell you what Yewanda thinks of you..."~ the soft voice sings.
Naught's pupils dilate as her thoughts begin to race. Oh, okay! Flowers, check. Yewanda, check. Oh yes please please please pretty please, you have such a beautiful voice. I hope she likes me...
Aliseya, Naught and Mirelinza arrive back at the Lorrimor's place, and bring their luggage in.
A (very) few minutes later, when you all have your personal assets in your bedrooms and you are ready to depart, you see that Kendra is not anymore wearing her dress, but homely labor clothes. She is panting a little from the hard work outside.
"I have saddled the steeds, Thunderbolt and Jod, so that you can use them in your visit to Harrowstone. The way is not long, but you will do well to use them if you get yourself into any accident or other injury-related emergency," she informs, with a frown.
Thunderbolt is a black mare with a long mane, a white stripe along his face, and white cannons. Jod is a slender sorrel stallion with a long neck.
"Jod is a sweetheart, he is very docile," says Kendra, caressing the horse. "Thunderbolt is a bit wild, but she is trusty."
Thus, the group of outsiders departs to Harrowstone, the ruined prison.
The landscape to Harrowstone is different from the one to the Restlands. A mile away from Ravengro, the wide road descends slightly into a gorge where the creek bends and coasts the hill upon which the prison was built. The path zigzags towards the bank, and the creek must be crossed on a shallow part where it is barraged to ease the passage. You notice that the floor is a collapsed brigdge, bur it is is flat enough for the horses to cross easily. In spite of the warm weather, the water is nearly unbearably cold, and all of you but Cellawyn cross with rush and significant discomfort.
The wide road across the creek takes its way uphill; the ascent is steep. You wind around the hill as you gain altitude, until you finally the reach a somewhat flat area, at which point you can see the ruins some hundreds of feet away.
The grass that coated the hill along the road dies out as you approach the vicinity of Harrowstone, where the land is barren and the strong gusts of wind aggressively move the dust into your eyes and mouths. The prison is a stone construction with poorly-standing watch towers; on the east side, the surrounding wall collapsed into a huge sinkhole, and through the gap you can see the stark, sagging roof of Harrowstone's central structure.
As important as the ruins themselves is the amazing view of the Ustalavic landscape. The surrounding geography as well as the small town of Ravengro would hardly go unnoticed to you during your hike uphill.
Out in the horizon, as you look behind, away from the prison, past Ravengro, to the northwest, you see, darkened to a dull shade of gray by the long distance, an outcropping of Belkzen peaks, called the Tursk Mountains. There, The Cenotaph is erected, where fiends and evil minions vibrate in anxious anticipation of the day their lord will finally awake. He is in another tower, one to the southwest, at the center of the Vyrlich.
The chain of mountains where lie the ruins of Adorak can be seen some sixty miles southwest, behind Harrowstone. To think that there, in those desolate ruins you can see from the neighborhood of Harrowstone, in the bosom of Gallowspire, a tower so close, dwells Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, in his restless sleep, silenced by the most powerful Azlanti dweomers, collectively known as the Great Seal.
The fact that no mortal magic can penetrate the Great Seal brings you little comfort. To think that there, in the ruins of Adorak, a city so close, dwells one that can, with a single word and the flick of a wrist, as easily as you can lift your hand, effortlessly lift all life from you.
Perhaps you will die today, or tomorrow, when one of the countless nightmares conceived in the Whispering Tyrant's slumber suddenly takes shape and murders you, during your sleep, or during your promenade.
As you approach the front of the prison, you see that a sagging wood and metal gate set between a pair of stone guard towers negligently bars entrance into Harrowstone. The gates are frail, but are held together by a thick metal bar that runs them across from behind.
The stone wall that surrounds most of the prison grounds is covered with creeping ivy, and the blocks beneath that growth are eroded. The wall circles the whole prison, except for the collapsed area whence a large pond of dark, muddy water spreads into 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.
Naught does find some daisies growing along the way to Harrowstone, which she may stop to pick up without prejudice to the group's pace.
Nothing except the wind can be heard around there, the way to Harrowstone and the ruins themselves are desolate. Moreover, nothing but the landscape and the ruins stands out to the eyes.
Thinking to herself as she picks up the flowers Plain old daisies aren't good enough though... I know! I'll turn them into a wreath crown. As she begins to weave the flowers she plucked together she nonchalantly ask to no one in particular, "So what's the plan?"
Nothing except the wind can be heard around here.
You may think that Naught is talking to you when she is asking about the plan, and Cellawyn, being the proponent of the excursion to Harrowstone, would be most compelled to believe the question was casually addressed to her.
If you do try to move the bar, you will see that it does not budge.
The surface of the 20-ft wall is full of irregular stones, and it's roughness has been aggravated by erosion, so that you can see quite a few holes and crevices you can fit your hands and feet in. You know that this is an easy climb.
Cellawyn looks at Naught, "The plan is to find out what killed the Professor."
Cellawyn will look around to ensure that no one is watching and then will clim the wall (taking 10).
To Naught, "No, I don't. The spirit just told me to say that... I don't know why, it seems to have left now. Nevermind."
...
As the party approaches the ruins, Aliseya grows wary. As they come towards the front gate, she looks around with concern in her eyes. "This... place. I... I have a bad feeling about it."
After Cellawyn clarifies the plan, Aliseya's brows furrow, and she asks, "Why do you think someone killed him, Cellawyn?"
Aliseya kicks off her sandals. Placing them in her satchel, she follows after Zelda, carefully climbing up the wall to the top without loose-fitting sandals to worry about. She looks around the inner courtyard of the ruined place from on high before descending down the other side with the others.
The three of you notice that two hundred feet away to the west there is a kid playing, fencing an invisible opponent with a stick.
You quickly climb the wall and let yourself drop from the ledge into the prison grounds as the others follow.
By the time you land, it is already too late: you notice a big fire in the central building and also to the east, whence rises a thick, black smoke; you land in a place surrounded by flaming blocks of hay, and you are on fire!
Cellawyn is the first to climb the wall and jump over to the other side, safely dropping from the ledge, and landing on the prison grounds.
Zelda helps Aliseya up, and the two of them stand on top of the wall.
When you look at the prison grounds from above the wall, you will notice that the desolation outside of Harrowstone is also the rule in there.
A two-story stone building looms in the center 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 and the intemperances of the weather. Here and there, glaring 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.
A smaller brick manor house stands in even more precarious condition than the main building, overgrown with thick sheets of gray-green ivy, bearing an ominously sagged roof and a front door hanging askew.
To the west and southwest you see the ill-standing watch towers, and to the east you see the murky pond which formed through the collapsed wall.
Cellawyn screams, "I'm on fire!"
Turning, she attempts to climb back up the wall.
|
"Cellawyn! Calm down, there is no fire! What is wrong with you!"
Zelda says as she attempts to stop Cellawyn from hurting himself.
Zelda looks over at the little child dancing
"Wait a second, we had to climb over the gate to get in here. How did that kid get in here?
Is she doing something to Cellawn?
I have learned not to always trust something that looks inocent Zelda says as she eyes the child suspiciously.
Indeed, Cellawyn, there is no fire. You feel that a sense of unease creeps upon you and makes you try to crawl your way up the wall. You fail to find your grip, but in your flustered climbing effort you manage to keep it together and realize that there is no fire at all.
"Desna amari." Instinctively, the barefoot girl mutters a quick prayer. She reaches to touch Cellawyn on her shoulder with a calming gesture, "Are you, like, okay?"
As soon as the locksmith speaks of the child, Aliseya scans the fields to see this for herself.
After a minute or so, Aliseya does spot the kid playing. It is a young lad two hundred feet away to the southwest, he seems to be fencing an invisible opponent with a long stick, but all in playfulness, as he alternates between short breaks (presumably to catch his breath) and naive but intense fencing sequences.
"Why is that boy by himself in this place? And, wait..." A look of concern grows on the gypsy's visage, "Who is he fencing?"
Glancing back at the prison, she sighs with realization. Let me guess... the dead.
Naught goes about singing to herself as she creates the simple flower crown,
♫Pretty flowers for pretty Yewanda,
Yes, yes
Pretty flowers for the pretty girl♫
Only stopping momentarily to half-reply to Cellawyn's plan "And then stab the tossers" not realising that the elf has since climbed over to the other side of wall. Without waiting for a response she goes back to her singing until she hears Cell's scream at which point she drops the crown she was working on as her head snaps up towards the source of scream. What! No, she can't burn! She's too pretty!" She then makes a break for rope to get over and help Cellawyn.
Mirelinza watches on in disbelief. What for a fraction of a second appeared comical now seems to be deadly serious. Fires when there are no fires. Children playing with imaginary foes? Don't all children have imaginary friends? Is this life making me paranoid?'
Whilst the others talk, Mirelinza slowly moves towards the child - so as to appear non-threatening. Once she's within 60 feet she Detects Evil. 'Let's either eliminate this child from our concerns or have something to focus our efforts on.'
As Mirelinza comes within sixty feet from the child she notices that the boy acknowledged her presence, and kept playing. During one of his breaks, he pants and yells "Are ye outsiders too? Where ya from?" with a very strong local accent, on a par with Mr. Hephenus's.
He does not seem wary of Mirelinza; perhaps he is confident that he can outrun the armored woman.
The other women, if looking at Mirelinza, do notice that the kid established a conversation with her.
Mirelinza smiles at the child and attempts to speak in a non-threatening way. "I'm not from around here - is that what you mean?"
"And I'm Varisian but I've travelled a lot, so I can't say exactly where I'm from. Do you live near here?"
Mirelinza has dozens of questions flashing through her brain but she doesn't want to scare the boy off, so she stops when she asks the second one.
"No." The kid says directly."North of here." He stops the conversation and resumes his fencing drills.
After another set of moves he stops again and asks "Why are you wearing armor and carrying a blade?" his tone is still blunt and direct. He knows better than to trust someone carrying weapons.
It felt so real ... but it was just an illusion.
Cellawyn shutters at the lingering memories of the fire. Slowly she regains her composure and sets her sights back on the prison. "This prison is tainted with evil. There must be some sort of residue that is creating these effects. Let's press on to the prison."
Cellawyn draws her rapier.
Looking to the field where Mirelinza is speaking with the boy, "Maybe we should wait for Mirelinza to return."
Aliseya then realizes that nobody is now with the two horses. "Uhm. Maybe we should also see that our buddies are secured to something first? I'm no animal handler, but won't they, like, walk away or something?"
"In the meantime," she continues while approaching the gate, "maybe we can pry this open from the inside?"
Cellawyn rightfully concludes that the prison is tainted with evil, at least from a subjective point of view for most people, considering its role as an execution facility. Nonetheless, the sensation of her being on fire is... inexplicable. Apparently, there has been no arcana involved, although Cellawyn can try to rationalize the event this way.
The thick metal bar is not light, but it has been designed with the intent of not being hard to move from the inside. Aliseya notices she has to push the bar along the gate until it crosses all the six metal structures that keep it in place to block the gate. Thus, through her effort, she successfully removes the bar from the gate, at which point the large wooden masses cannot hold any longer, and drop outwards with a loud thud. Luckily, no one was on the line of the falling gates.
Mirelinza continues, her voice slow and calm. "I like to fight - just like you. What sort of a sword do you have there, and who are you fighting?"
'I'm beginning to think I'm just being paranoid here.'