Let's hope those ropes hold long enough for this to work.
Grergof lets the transformation happen
Then steps up trying to avoid the claws and teeth as he lays his hand on Darius.
May you always walk in the light brother, and fear the light of the moon no more! as his hand flashes a golden light for a moment before fading out.
As he removes his hand and steps back Grergof says softly.
I think that will do it unless he fights the cure. There is a dark curse there but the light of the Dawnbringer was enough to overcome it.
Stam stays clear but with the words of a spell ready and his silver arrows ready
As Grergof touches Darius, the wolf part leaves Darius in a similar painful manner, but thanks to the paladin's ability he feels refreshed instead of exhausted.
The night passes uneventful as there is no one left here to cause any trouble. Not that the adventurers would know of this.
The sun rises to greet another grey and foggy day.
"Well Darius how do you feel today?" Stam asks while starting a fire to cook breakfast. "Do we have any idea of where to go to follow the Whispering Way?'
After morning prayers and giving thanks to the Dawnbringer for healing his companion, Grergof addresses the rest of the crew.
We should explore the rest of the town and make sure we have gotten them all. After that it might make sense to go someplace we can sell all this stuff and resupply.
I personally wouldn't mind enchanting my flail.
There quite the number of buildings in Feldgrau you haven't checked out yet.
"I guess we just check out the buildings then head where? Maybe there is something there to tell us." Stam says looking up from studying his books.
Darius wakes. Groggy and a little tired. "Did it work? I feel different. Thank you Brother Grergof. I am most in your debt." Darius says as they untie him.
Dressing and cleaning up as best he can he excuses himself to go outside and feel the sun. He kneels and holds his sword before him so that the rays of the sun catch the hilt of his sword. He gives thanks to Iomedae and swears his obedience.
"Iomedae, your righteous servant thanks you for the gifts you bestow upon him to carry out your compassion and justice to this forsaken land that they may all be saved from the evils of the world."
He thanks and swings his sword in an arc, smiles and goes inside to get ready to travel with his teammates.
Just before loading up he restores himself to optimal health by removing the effects of the Fog Cloud and then gives himself the carrying strength of an ant to carry the heavy loads of loot that still have.
Spugnoir sets up a small pot and begins cutting and boiling substances for his mutagen while he also prepares his extracts.Good to see you healthy again, we will have to get some scrolls or wands to help us with curses in the future.
I wouldn't worry about curses. I Can help with those. But cures for Diseases, Poisons or tuning to stone might be a good idea.
You go back to Feldgrau to do a thorough search of the town to make sure you didn't miss any clues about the goals of the Whispering Way and if you not crossed that plans or not.
As one building is as good as any to start with you go for the chandlery that is one of the first houses as you approach. The door is broken so you can walk in. Hundreds of candles fill this shop’s shelves, lying in pale lumps of tallow and wax beneath years of dust. Several small copper kettles hang suspended from an iron rack over a brick hearth. Above the kettles, dozens of half-completed candles hang from iron rods. On a nearby table sits a spool of twisted cotton thread, waiting to be measured and cut into wicks, as well as a variety of wooden molds.
Spugnoir hears the sound of marching feet approaching but before he could do more than tell his companions, everyone finds himself thrown back in time as the chandlery appears like before the battle that was the death of this town.
You find yourself to be a chandler at work, hiding from the approaching troops. The troops break into your shop. The soldiers drag you by your throat from your hiding place under the counter, across the room, and
then slam your head into a pot of boiling tallow.
Just then you all snap out of it and are back in the shop as it is now.
Grergof starts scanning for evil to see if there is an edge to this.
Out! Out! The building is haunted like what we saw at the Harrowstone!
When everyone gets out of the building and away from the haunt, grergof looks back.
Mr. Regrave, the two of us could probably suppress the haunt if we want to, but you know it will fight back. But to make this area safe, we would need to figure out how to put this to rest forever, much like we did back at the prison.
Spugnoir is tossed around some as the haunt attacks him and his friends pull him out. Whoaa, I am having bad memories of haunts. Hmm..I wonder if my new holy bombs would harm it?
"Haunted like the Harrow stone?" Stam asks as he is shoed out of the building by the larger man in armor. "Could we just burn it down? It is an old chandlery after all."
"I coulc consecrate the area but don't know if that would help at all while we are inside, at least temporarily."
"Do you think there is something in there we need?" Stam says while flipping through his own spell book.
Well, We seem to need more information on the Whispering Way and there are many restless spirits that should be laid to rest. So dealing with the haunt is a good idea.
Most likely we need to put the bones of the people who died here to rest. The way was digging up the bones of something at the center of town.
Maybe it was a mass grave of all the people from the solders attack. If we were to give the dug up bones a proper burial on concentrated ground, maybe that would put the spirits to rest.
Well lets get the shovels then Spugnoir tries to locate some shovels
There are no shovels found outside. There might be in some of the other buildings though. Like the mill for example.
"Lets look in the other buildings and come back here once we are done?" Stam says moving further from the haunted building. "The Inn might offer some clues"
Following Stam's idea the group enters the 'Inn & Provisions'. Just off the town square, this building consists of a large, open storage area separated from a smaller storefront by a long wooden sales counter.
The wavering, ghostly form of a sad, balding old man with stringy hair and tremendous bags beneath his eyes hovers behind the inn’s front desk. The man ties length of ghostly rope into a noose. He pays little heed to group entering.
"This entire town is haunted." Stam says while not entering the building.
The ghost continues with what he is doing. He throws the end of the rope over a rafter to prepare to hang himself.
"Sir, might I ask you why you are doing that?" Stam inquires from outside.
"It is all my fault." the ghost tells, as he pauses to address Stam. "I brought death over Feldgrau. I don't deserve to live on."
"I think if you look down you have already been punished, your dead already sir."
"Not dead enough. I wanted to sell to both parties of this damned war. I was greedy and and brought all this death over the town. And not enough with that, now even the dead can't rest because of this evil force that arrived in town."
Well sir, we have already disposed of a necromancer that was raising the dead and several others that wanted to exploit the place. We saw that the chandlery was haunted and seek to lay the spirits there to rest. So certainly this is a chance for peace and redemption for everyone.
"Bring me the head of that evil guy to prove it!" the ghost demands. "I want to know why he did it!"
"he destroyed his own jaw, as we had the same though. We can retrieve his head for you though." Stam looks at Darius and Grergof.
Grergof heads back to the tower, uses his dagger to behead the necromancer and then brings it back to the ghost.
Head in hand he says:
Here is the Fiend, now what must we do to put you all to rest?
"You will have to give all the people of Feldgrau a proper burial." the ghost tells.
Then the ghost performs a dark seance during which he pulls forth Vrood’s memories from his severed head. You experience these memories as a series of visions, each separated by flashes of bright light. Eerily, all perceive these visions as though looking through the eyes of Auren Vrood himself.
The visions open with a furiously darting ink quill that dashes out of a stream of words reading, “My Master, I shall stay in Feldgrau and build an army of corpses for our risen lord...” The sentence fades, and after a brief flash, hands place the letter in an envelope and strike it with a wax seal.
Another flash comes and the scene changes. You see cultists scurrying around in the town square, exhuming bodies and raising an army from the corpses of Feldgrau’s dead. After another flash, Vrood’s hands place three strange items into a chest — an iron-and-glass vial containing a swirling gray mist, a bloody heart inside a glass bottle, and a fragile skull composed of hundreds of bone fragments. Into a second chest he places a strange statuette of murky green stone depicting a grotesque, tentacled creature.
Another flash. The chests are given to two riders in dark cloaks on pale horses. “Ride to Thrushmoor,” you hear Vrood’s voice speak. “Our agent will exchange the Effigy for the relic we need.” After a final flash, the visions fade.
Spugnoir blinks as the vision passes. My goodness, I wonder what all those artifacts are for. It does look like Thrushmoor will be somewhere we should go after we finish our work here.
"Seem's that way." Darius adds.
Grergof shakes his head and stands up:
We need to lay these folks to rest first.
Sir Innkeep, do you know where shovels would be so we can get them to their proper rest?
"If we gather all the bodies I can drop them into a pit of acid, burning them up and solving the issue rather quickly." Stam says. "Do you think this Thrusmoor place we will be able to sell some of the items we have collected here?"
The ghost is disgusted at Stam's suggestion. "Check in the room behind me."
The room behind the ghost contains some tools as well as the remaining bones and the real rope that belong to the ghost.
Stam takes a shovel, summoning up his friendly rock elemental to help with making graves.
You gather the bones, I'll focus on giving them a suitible place to rest.
Grerof grabs a shovel and starts shoveling a hole in a approprate place. He tries hard not to but does keep sneaking awe filled glaces as the elemental as it does so much more work then he could ever hope to do in the few moments it's around.
Now now Stam, please be more sensitive to the needs of the spirits. Spugnoir puts his humpback into it as he moves dirt for the grave. Good thing we have a cleric and a paladin to say last rites.
"I wasn't being in sensitive, I was being practical." Stam says as he digs. "I give you full permission go melt my body in acid if I die." Stam looks at Spugs with a smile on his face.
You get the feeling that you're watched. But every time you turn around to check there is nothing to be seen.
After ten hours of work, you managed to bury the bones that are found in the town square, as well as the bones you found in the houses so far in an area adjacent to the original cemetery of the town. It's shallow graves, but as the land is dead too, you hope no dog will come along to dig them up.
Spugnoir mumbles some vague prayers he heard in school. For some reason, he has images of a large wolf licking it's chops as it looks at the bones.
"We who are gathered here today to lay these poor souls to rest, as that whatever gods they follow, welcome them with open arms and show them mercy and comfort as they left their mortal vessels all too soon. With these rites and the blessing of Iomedae, we wish you eternal peace."
Darius bows his head.
"A moment of silence for the departed."
"..."
Stam bows his head, not saying a word as Religion is not his area of expertise.
"So now good inn keep are you allowed to move on?" Stam asks after it is all over
The ghost nods and as it slowly fades away it tells "There is a loose board here. Take what you find."