"All I know is this place gives me the creeps," Ysabot sighs, letting Persimmon perch on her shoulder. She takes a few steps forward nervously, eyes scanning the interior. "Where to now, oh fearless leader?" she inquires of Ereviss, raising one eyebrow.
"We will show you the cells where Domminia and Theodric ended the evil of the piper and find some steps down. I would most like to find the warden's office, as he and his wife seem the key to this!"
Ereviss directs the group to the scene of the last battle.
He explains, "I bravely became the punching bag for some skeletons while Theodric and Domminia took out the evil piper. Theodric and Domminia make a fearsome and fearless team."
He turns to Kendra and speaks in earnest:
"I trust in you magic. If you sense any evil or magic auras, let us know."
Carefully skirting the edge of the execution platform, you push the portal open and enter the short corridor once used by the prisoners condemned to be executed. The soft pat-pat of raindrops pursues you as you enter, the grey mist dissolving into a grey drizzling rainfall.
Inside you are safe from the rainfall, but it still seems just as chill.
Opening the interior door, you step out into the cellblock with a crunch.
The shattered remains of the animated skeletons that attacked you lay where they fell. You are kind of amazed at how many there were.
The rest of the cellblocks, guards stations and break room is as you left it. The broken wall of the break room looks out over the eastern yard. In the grey drizzle, you can see the eastern end of the prison below you, partially collapsed due to the fire long ago.
Beyond in the yard you see a large pond of dark, muddy water that 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.
The only exit from this floor is the gated stairway leading down.
When you open the bars, you can descend down the stairway to an armored door below. When you open it, you find yourselves in the middle of a wide central hallway extending north and south. You see double doors at the far north and south ends, and a another pair right beside the ones you came out of. There are in addition smaller single doors one northwest, one northeast and one southwest.
Ereviss points to the nearby double doors.
Jevault flinches as he stands on one of the skeletons remains, the crunch magnified seemingly a thousandfold in the confines of the prison.
Swapping his crossbow for his mace and shield, he follows the bard across, down and through the heavily-plated doors into the hallway one level below.
"Heavy undead presence, all around." he utters, his voice low.
The knuckles on his right hand whiten momentarily as he squeezes the haft of his weapon.
"Well. Nothing we shouldn't be able to handle, right?" Ysabot stands by the nearby doors, staff at the ready. "Brother, would you like to go first?" she inquires of Agrimar, gesturing for him to lead the way.
Agrimar almost allows himself a grin at Ysabot's bravado, but the oppressive wickedness of the place prevents it.
"If no one objects...?" he says, hefting his falchion to a guarded stance.
A layer of mold obscures a sign on the double doors next to yours.
MAXIMUM SECURITY
The doors are armored, heavy and stuck; it takes a considerable effort to open them wide enough to enter.
When you do, you see that this flight of stairs once led down toward what must be a lower level, but it’s now filled with a mess of large stone blocks and shattered timbers.
You realize that the rubble filling this stairwell did not result from a ceiling collapse—rather, it’s the result of a manually triggered deadfall that swiftly filled the stairs and blocked them off.
On study, you realize that clearing the rubble would require several days of work with the proper tools or magic spells.
"That stairwell is blocked for all intents and purposes. How about we choose another door?"
Ereviss opens the closest door after a quick look.
Ysabot shrugs. "Well, it won't be much use to us then. Lead the way."
The hallway is thick with undisturbed dust. Normally you would expect spiderwebs or even rodent tracks, but there is nothing like that here in the unnatural silence of Harrowstone. There are no works of art or other furnishings in this hallway, the walls are the institutional grey of undressed stone.
Heading south to one end of the great hallway, there are double doors directly south and a small side door to the west.
Persimmon growls warningly, her eyes glowing emerald in the dark.
When you concentrate, you sense the nebulous presence of Evil all around you with a greater weight of it below you... And an overwhelming source right behind you!
But when you open your eyes and look, it's just Ereviss and Kendra. And when you doublecheck, there is no overwhelming source now. You wonder if you're losing your mind...
You feel the presence of Undeath the same as before, nebulous and swirling all around you in this place. Is it stronger? Yes, it is stronger here to the south.
You pause to sense it further and you're positive now. A Haunt of some kind, and directly past the double doors to the south.
Ereviss' teeth chatter and he hugs himself for warmth.
"Sooo cold"
Ysabot strides up to the west door. She attempts to push it open quietly, but finds it to be a bit sticky. She cracks her knuckles, braces herself on the door, and begins pushing.
Agrimar puts his shoulder to the west door.
Theodoric grabs the door west door
"Domminia my great grandchild, the door is open!"
Ysa glances up at the knight, then nods curtly. "Many thanks, sir knight," she mutters, glancing through the door. Seeing only darkness, she takes down her ioun torch and slowly steps through the doors, shifting to the side to allow the others through.
Agrimar steps through, placing himself before Ysabot, trusting his darkvision to reveal any peril.
Ereviss' breath steams in the air for a few seconds, and it feels like someone walked through your bodies, someone you couldn't see. After the party finally manages to force the western door open with a loud screech, the western corridor lies open before you.
The corridor itself is also thick with dust, but you can see various vermin tracks here, as well as the drapes of cobwebs hanging here and there.
You can see that the corridor opens out onto the right from twenty to forty feet away, probably another corridor heading north while your corridor continues west into darkness.
Ereviss' breath steams in the air for a few seconds, and it feels like someone walked through your bodies, someone you couldn't see. After the party finally manages to force the western door open with a loud screech, the western corridor lies open before you.
The corridor itself is also thick with dust, but you can see various vermin tracks here, as well as the drapes of cobwebs hanging here and there.
You can see that the corridor opens out onto the right from twenty to forty feet away, probably another corridor heading north while your corridor continues west into darkness.
Ereviss bows, "After you, tough ones."
It is hard to understand who he means, as there are not many that Ereviss is hardier than. The pocket, monogrammed handkerchiefs with EC stenciled in them in a flowing script do not help his tough guy image.
Ysabot shrugs and places herself behind her brother, in front of Ereviss. "After you," she murmurs to Agrimar. "I can't see a damned thing."
Agrimar cautiously begins to walk westward, falchion at the ready.
Jevault allows the others to file into the corridor then. leaving a small gap, follows in behind them.
If the dhampir is feeling any fear, it doesn't show, although he remains alert, and turns often to watch for things approaching from behind.
"I felt an icy hand on my shoulder and chills racked my body. Now the feeling is gone. Just Harrowstone evil I guess. "
Domminia smiles and says Kendra, I won't be so stingy and I can buy you some gloves... with that she winks at her.
Some forty feet down the corridor you encounter more and more cobwebs. They must be preying on the small vermin who's tracks you see in the thick dust.
Abruptly, the right wall ends and you see a larger hallway, some ten feet wide extend North out of sight. The corridor you're following continues West into darkness. Looking north, you see a couple of doors ten feet up the corridor, one on the West wall and one on the East side.
Lets go east,,, says Domminia...
Ereviss nods, glad to be in the second row.
"East it is." Ysabot waits for one of the more able-bodied party members to take the lead, feeling a chill run down her spine. She strokes Persimmon absent-mindedly for reassurance.
Agrimmar stands at the fore, falchion ready.
You turn north and move up the wide corridor ten feet.
To the left, on the West wall, is a shut double door. There is a large sign over it lettered "INDUCTION".
To the right, on the East wall, is a portal from which the door has fallen from the hinges.
Ahead of you, the dusty corridor continues on North into the deeper darkness.
Again when you concentrate, you sense the nebulous presence of Evil all around you with a greater weight of it below you... And an overwhelming source right behind you!
You start, but when you open your eyes whirl around to look, it's just Ereviss and Kendra. And when you double check, there is no overwhelming source now. You wonder if you're losing your mind...
You feel the presence of Undeath the same as before, nebulous and swirling all around you in this place. Then an intense flash right behind you! But when you whirl to look, there's no one there. And now you can't feel it anymore.
"Could be little spiders...could be bigger. Torching the webs might burn the room."
"A few spiders? You're not scared, are you?" Ysabot teases, but she grips her quarterstaff a little tighter, and seems to turn a little paler. "Try to open that door. I don't particularly want to be covered in sticky webs." She points at the door with the sign, on the west wall.
"Should we check out the chapel. We might find some clues there?"
He adds: "We should look thoroughly through this place, so order may not be so important."
Anybody trying the West door (the one marked 'INDUCTION') finds the door stuck, but not locked. You will need a combined strength score of 25 to force it open (or break it with other methods).
Looking in from the doorway, you see that this chamber is roughly thirty feet by thirty feet. It is in a shambles—old wooden benches lie in ruins along the walls, while rusty chains and bits of rotten rope lie scattered on the floor.
Theodoric takes 20
"CHild, look what I have found." says Theodoric with a smile.
Agrimar, wincing at Theodoric's racket, keeps an eye on the cobwebbed portal to see if anything inside is roused.
Agrimar moves to get a better look at the room Theodoric just revealed.
As you shuffle warily into the Induction room, you all examine the dust covered detritus left by the hasty exodus long ago. The benches, the tables, rusty chains, rotted ropes, prison garb...