"I'm okay. Did anyone else notice an odd feeling as they entered? I felt -closed in- then as if I was on fire, briefly, but the feeling faded as soon as it came. Perhaps I'm just more sensitive to the emanations of the place."
"Odd," Talia says. "I felt nothing upon entering. I hope it did not discommode you." Talia looks around as she continues walking toward the manor, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in anticipation...
Perception:
"I felt naught, as well." Now that he's at ground level, Peredur looks and listens intently, scanning the scene in front of him and watching where he steps.
While walking to the house, you notice eyes watching you. Dozens, hundreds maybe. From the second of the guard towers, farther along the western wall, a swarm of rats crawl over the ruined masonry.
The manor itself is a perilous looking ruin.
The ruins of the manor house are overgrown with ivy. The woodwork is decaying and rotting and looks highly unstable
You notice something out of sorts along the foundation of the prison itself. The ivy and grass, rampant all over the grounds, have been trimmed and cleared away from the foundation.
"I don't think that manor house is safe to explore. It looks dangerously unstable. I wonder what it's purpose was?"
"'Tis worth looking in th' windows, at least. Best we 'ware yon rats, but I'm thinking th' more interesting thing is th' foundation walls. Look you, no plants grow there. Someone has cleared them off, or they grow everywhere but there, and I'm after wondering why in either case."
Iesha looks toward the prison building where Peredur is indicating.
"Hm. Odd. Do we want to check that or the manor as best we can first?"
Closer inspection of the foundation of the prison reveals runes etched into the masonry over and over with a sinuous style. The etchings are decorated with dried blood, smeared over each repeating rune.
the runes all read the name:
LYVAR HAWKRAN
It is evident from the repeated etchings and the name that this was done as a part of a large summoning ritual.
The blood hints that some combination of necromancy was also involved.
These runes were almost certainly used to summon and subsequently capture the spirit of Lyvar Hawkran, the last warden of Harrowstone prison.
"Have any of you a notion as to when th' carving was done?"
Iesha studies the runes, hoping to divine their meaning, but that meaning remains unclear.
"I'm not sure what these runes were intended for, but they do refer to the warden. His name is repeated over and over."
"Yeah... Lyvar Hawkran. But they're in Varisian. Weird. Anyone know if they're magic? Blood-smeared runes etched in stone scream 'magic' to me."
Talia, too, looks at the runes, trailing her fingers over them, but careful not to touch the carvings or blood.
Knowledge (Arcana):
"Bah," she says. "I cannot make them out myself. However..."
Talia pulls lifts a leather-bound book, strapped at each end and slung crosswise around her shoulder. Opening it, she pulls out a quill and ink, and copies down a couple of the runes for research and study later. "Perhaps there are some books I can consult later which might give a clue as to what these are and what they might mean."
Turning to her companions, she asks, "I don't suppose we could find the spot where the Professor was found? Perhaps we could discover something there, as well." Placing her quill and ink back in her pouch, she closes her traveling book, slings it back over her shoulder, and stands.
Turning to Alzano, Talia says, "An excellent idea. Unfortunately, I'm unable to detect magic at the moment, though I can come back another time and do so. However, now I wonder if these runes are a form of magical writing."
Talia gestures with her hands, speaking an arcane tongue.
"Well," Talia says, "That did nothing. The runes themselves are not magical writing, just written in a foreign tongue. They must mean something, however. More to add to the research pile, I'd say. Shall we search for where the Professor was found, or take a closer inspection of the manor?"
Alzano blinks. "Yeah. They say 'Lyvar Hawkran,' the warden, as Iesha said. I didn't mean to imply that anything written in Varisian possessed magical power, despite what Harrow-readers might say. Just not everyday you see etchings smeared with blood."
He looks around and shrugs, "Might take awhile to find where Lorrimor died. The manor's small... probably wouldn't take much time to poke around there. Doesn't matter to me, though. I'll follow you folks."
"Now that we're so close, let us seek th' place of th' Professor's death first, then to th' manor house on our way back."
"Someone was trying to summon the ghost of the warden," Aleksandr states after looking at the runes, "For what purpose, I don't know but that appears to be the purpose of the runes."
"From what the sheriff said they found the Professor's body near the wall of the prison. Beneath one of the gargoyles. The head broke off and fell on him."
"This may be the spot"
Peredur seems distracted, thinking to himself. "Hm? Aye, I believe 'tis what th' Sheriff said. We can see if aught else is written on th' walls as we search.
"'Tis thinking I am that we may have erred in who th' Whispering Way is pursuing. One or more of th' criminals seemed a good choice, but seeing this, p'raps they came for th' man whose strength of will led him to fire th' prison 'fore he'd see th' inmates escape. When we're done, 'twould be a fine idea to look further into th' warden's history."
"Perhaps, Peredur. But why? If he was that strong a pesonality, they would have great difficulty bending him to their will. If it was the warden they were after it just makes things even stranger. Why did they want him?"
Iesha pauses. "The whole story bothers me, though. Perhaps, for me, it's just Shelyn's doctrine that anyone can be redeemed. Still, the situation here doesn't quite match the surviving guard's reports we found. The building seems mostly intact, at least from the outside. Why did no one ever come back to retrieve the bodies or to look for survivors?"
She looks up at the bars on the second floor windows. "Where did the fire start? Were all of the prisoners involved? If not, I have slightly less admiration for those who would leave survivors, no matter what their crimes, to die of thirst or starvation locked in their cells. Perhaps that is what I felt when I entered the grounds."
"Hmm...," Talia muses, "I would suspect, unless there were prison guard survivors, that such information would only be gleaned from a thorough examination of the prison itself; if any such investigation would reveal results of any sort. Though I'd not give up hope for finding some clue as to precisely what happened, the task may be beyond us."
Talia frowns for a moment, before remarking in an undertone, "Unless there be some lingering spirits still willing to speak on the subject..."
Stones and chunks of the facade litter the grounds in the front of the prison, but none look to have been capable of crushing a man's head. Similarly, pieces of the outer wall also lie here and there but again, they are smaller pieces. Most of the stones look to have fallen in the more distant past as the ivy has started to grow over them.
Iesha walks between the ruined manor and the prison toward the west side of the prison as she looks for the spot of the professor's death. As she does so, she comes closer to the rat-infested tower. Chittering and hissing sounds from the crumbled masonry as she approaches.
Iesha begins to cautiously back away from the rat tower, trying to avoid antagonizing them.
Peredur prepares to fight the rodent swarm if it approaches the group.
The chittering dies away as Iesha moves back.
Silence returns to the Prison yard, interrupted only by a strong wind. The prison creaks, and a wailing sound fills the party's ears. Is it just the wind giving a life to the jail's painful legacy? Or maybe it wasn't the wind, but the cries of the dead and damned?
The wind and the sound die away, leaving silence and questions.
The front door of the prison creaks, the empty windows of the building stare down at the party. The pond to the east is a black sheet of motionless glass.
Talia looks at her companions, a nervous giggle dying before it showed much chance of life.
"Is it just me," she asks, "or is this place kinda creepy?"
Iesha smiles crookedly. "I'll go with creepy"
Peredur nods. "'Tis not just you."
Talia looks around at the prison grounds before asking the group, "Well, what's our next move? Shall we cover more of the grounds, or head back to town for that meeting Kendra mentioned?"
"If we've got the time, I'd say explore a little more. We can at least check that manor, if it's safe. And, after the meeting, perhaps we can ask Sheriff Caelar just where Professor Lorrimor was found. That might also give us some clues."
Peredur looks askance at the tower's chittering inhabitants. "Let us search in th' other direction for th' nonce; we can cover th' building 'til we reach yon pond, then take a moment or two to look at it as well."
"Yes, let's double check the surroundings and see what we can dig up. Then we can research the warden and see if we can't find out why someone would seek to bind his spirit."
"Are we gonna stand around until those rats get hungry? Someone lead the way." Alzano looks around impatiently.
"Yes, lets get busy."
Iesha will move along the wall of the prison building, studying the runes as she goes, heading toward the pond.
Chuckling at Alzano's quip, Talia follows Iesha, keeping her eyes moving, worried something will jump out at her...
Talia follows the foundation east toward the pond.
Lyvar Hawkran's name is scrawled in the stone every foot or so, blood decorating each etching. Rounding the corner to the balcony, she cotinues to where the foundation sinks into the pond. There is no path to the back of the prison this way.
The 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.
The northern portion of this balcony has crumbled away into a pile of rubble amid the gently rippling waters of the dark pool of water. Ivy hangs down from the walls in thick, matted lengths, while dense tangles of vines decorated with deep red and violet flowers adorn the balcony’s edges above.
"I wonder how deep that is. And what caused it. It doesn't seem like something orginal to the place, especially since it seems to have subsumed the outer wall."
"I mislike th' look of yon water; 'twould be easier to face th' rats, I'm thinking."
"I agree. If nothing else, it doesn't look particularly healthy. I daresay we'll not find out more without entering the prison itself but I'd be happier knowing the reason for the warden's name being scrawled around the place. Agreed?"
"Agreed. Still, let's make sure there's nothing here laying wait for us. And I wonder, do these runes - whatever they are - go all the way around? We may just have to face those rats after all."
She walks along the edge of the pond, trying to get an angle to see the wall on that side of the prison.
reflex
The rest of the party backs away from the water, returning to the front of the prison.
Iesha moves farther along the shore, trying to get a look at the back of the prison. Unfortunately there is no good angle for her, and as she stretches to look, her left foot slips in to the pond with a splash. Ripples spread out from the impact across the still surface.
The wind picks up again, and the wailing sound pours out of the windows of the ruined prison. Thunder rolls ominously somewhere out in the northwest, a storm can be seen rolling down from mountains that form the border of the Hold of Belzken on the horizon.
"Ok. ok, I'll stay out of your pond!"
Iesha turns away from the pond in frustration and moves to catch up with the rest of the group.
"To th' rats, then? Let us be ready to flee at need, though."
"Yes, to the rats; or at least past them if we can. I agree that the pond looks oddly placed. Perhaps the ground sunk for some reason?
"'Twould be better, had we alchemic fire to use on th' pests, but I misdoubt we have any such." Mace out, Peredur advances slowly in the direction of the infested tower.
"I can skewer the filthy things one by one, but don't think that'll be too effective," Alzano grimaces as he looks at his pointy weapons. "Did we wanna check the manor first?"
"It's thinking I am that fighting th' rats is better done whilst we're all fresh. If, look you, we go on to th' manor afterwards and have to retreat, 'twill be far easier to walk away from a house than from a swarm of angry rodents. I hope."
The party walks west toward the other side of the Prison. As they reach the corner, the rats again take notice, hissing defensively. But they do not act. A long moment passes, before the party finally decided to round the corner. As they pass, the hissing subsides. It seems the rats are simply looking to be left alone.
On the western wall, a staircase leads up to the balcony, ten feet above. The wall looms close here, but the party can easily ignore the stairs and find their way to the back of the prison.